Episode 140 - Rob Corddry

Episode 140 • Released January 12, 2011 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Marc:Lock the gates!

00:00:07Marc:Are we doing this?

00:00:08Marc:Really?

00:00:08Marc:Wait for it.

00:00:09Marc:Are we doing this?

00:00:10Marc:Wait for it.

00:00:12Marc:Pow!

00:00:12Marc:What the fuck?

00:00:14Marc:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?

00:00:16Marc:What's wrong with me?

00:00:17Marc:It's time for WTF!

00:00:19Guest:What the fuck?

00:00:20Guest:With Mark Maron.

00:00:24Marc:All right.

00:00:24Marc:Are we doing this?

00:00:25Marc:Let's do this.

00:00:26Marc:How are you?

00:00:26Marc:What the fuckers?

00:00:27Marc:What the fuck buddies?

00:00:28Marc:What the fucking ears?

00:00:30Marc:What the fuck nicks and what the fucking nots?

00:00:32Marc:And I might add my very first self-declared what the fuckerican.

00:00:37Marc:Welcome.

00:00:38Marc:He tweeted me that the other day that he is a what the fuckerican.

00:00:41Marc:Didn't get a name.

00:00:42Marc:Don't remember his Twitter handle, but I have a What the Fuckerican now listening to WTF.

00:00:47Marc:I am Marc Maron.

00:00:47Marc:This is the show.

00:00:49Marc:Thank you for coming.

00:00:50Marc:We have a great show today.

00:00:51Marc:I'm going to talk to Rob Corddry from Children's Hospital and from several movies.

00:00:57Marc:I enjoyed him in Hot Tub Time Machine, but he's going to stop by the Cat Ranch here and talk for a little while.

00:01:03Marc:I do hope that the smell of pot is out of the garage here at the Cat Ranch by the time I interview any more guests.

00:01:10Marc:Not that I care.

00:01:11Marc:It just, you know, it's hard to tell people, like, it wasn't me.

00:01:16Marc:It was Kevin Smith was here.

00:01:19Marc:He was here.

00:01:19Marc:And now everything smells like pot.

00:01:21Marc:I went out last night to a club and people were coming up to me going, you smell like pot.

00:01:25Marc:And I'm like, I don't smoke pot.

00:01:26Marc:And I'm like, oh, shit.

00:01:28Marc:Yep.

00:01:28Marc:Kevin Smith.

00:01:30Marc:I interviewed him the other day.

00:01:31Marc:We talked for well over an hour and he wanted to smoke pot.

00:01:35Marc:So I said, sure, I'll just sit across from you and breathe deeply.

00:01:40Marc:And that won't be a transgression.

00:01:42Marc:That would not be a relapse.

00:01:44Marc:I was doing my job.

00:01:46Marc:I had no choice.

00:01:47Marc:That show will be on soon.

00:01:49Marc:Let's talk about... Why not?

00:01:51Marc:Let's talk about... First, before I talk about the New York Times piece, can I plug my app?

00:01:56Marc:I would like to plug my app if I could.

00:01:58Marc:There is a WTF iPhone app.

00:02:00Marc:And a lot of you are asking, where are the early episodes?

00:02:03Marc:Well, the early episodes will be put up on iTunes soon.

00:02:06Marc:You can get premium episodes at WTFPodShop.com.

00:02:11Marc:There's like five live ones up there.

00:02:13Marc:But if you get the new iTunes app, you will be able to stream...

00:02:16Marc:all of the early episodes that are not on iTunes.

00:02:20Marc:And if you upgrade, I believe you get a premium WTF as well.

00:02:25Marc:So if that gets you in that direction, I'd love to have you do that.

00:02:29Marc:Knock yourself out.

00:02:30Marc:Droid app on the way.

00:02:32Marc:Hang tight.

00:02:33Marc:Okay, I'll talk about the New York Times piece.

00:02:36Marc:I like the New York Times piece.

00:02:37Marc:I liked it more after I read it seven times.

00:02:40Marc:First few times were a little difficult.

00:02:42Marc:I hung on to words like verbose.

00:02:46Marc:I hung on to words.

00:02:48Marc:I read it like you would think I would read it, only looking for the negatives.

00:02:52Marc:But I tell you, that guy, Saltzine, did a great job.

00:02:55Marc:I'm very happy he wrote the piece.

00:02:56Marc:It made me very excited.

00:02:58Marc:And by no means am I getting a big head about this.

00:03:01Marc:I'll tell you how I experienced it.

00:03:03Marc:When it was online, I was very excited it was online.

00:03:05Marc:But it didn't really become real to me until Sunday when I was able to buy the paper.

00:03:11Marc:Now, let me just paint the picture where I was on Sunday.

00:03:13Marc:Sunday morning, where was I?

00:03:15Marc:Okay, I remember.

00:03:16Marc:I was at a residence in Marriott.

00:03:19Marc:in Sacramento, California without a car.

00:03:23Marc:And what I did that morning to celebrate me appearing in the New York Times is I went into the lobby five minutes before the breakfast buffet was over.

00:03:33Marc:I made myself a waffle.

00:03:35Marc:That's right.

00:03:36Marc:I put honey on that waffle and I ate it with my hands.

00:03:40Marc:And then I walked across the street to the How About Arden Mall.

00:03:44Marc:I walked across the street.

00:03:46Marc:I walked past the Nordstrom Rack.

00:03:48Marc:I walked past the weird-looking barbecue place.

00:03:51Marc:I walked past the, you know, what's that place?

00:03:55Marc:Oh, shit.

00:03:56Marc:You know, that chain of Mexican restaurant.

00:03:57Marc:Chili's.

00:03:58Marc:Walked past the Chili's.

00:04:00Marc:right into that Starbucks, and picked up a copy of the New York Times there in the parking lot of the How About Arden Mall, Sacramento, California.

00:04:10Marc:There's a cupcake place there.

00:04:11Marc:Did not buy a cupcake to celebrate.

00:04:13Marc:Already had a waffle.

00:04:15Marc:And I sat in that Starbucks, and I looked at my mug, my smiling mug with my well-quaffed hair behind my microphones in the New York Times, and I looked around as if to say, huh?

00:04:26Marc:Huh?

00:04:26Marc:but there was no one there to say it to.

00:04:29Marc:So I said it to myself and it was very thrilling.

00:04:32Marc:I will say that.

00:04:34Marc:Sacramento, on the other hand, that was a little, you know, a lot of good people up there.

00:04:38Marc:A lot of what the fuckers came out.

00:04:39Marc:I want to thank you for that, but it was definitely some hands-on old school road comedy trench work that I had to do those second shows and I was happy to do it.

00:04:47Marc:I'm thrilled to be out there working and I'm thrilled that you guys are coming out.

00:04:51Marc:If you want to come see me tonight, I'm at Helium in Portland.

00:04:54Marc:No, sorry.

00:04:55Marc:Scratch that.

00:04:56Marc:If you want to come see me tonight, I'm at Helium in Philadelphia tonight, which is Thursday.

00:05:01Marc:If you're listening to this on Thursday, the what would that be?

00:05:04Marc:The 13th.

00:05:05Marc:I'm there tomorrow, Friday, the 14th and Saturday, January 15th.

00:05:09Marc:Helium in Philadelphia.

00:05:11Marc:If it's not a snow day.

00:05:13Marc:And then next week I will be at Sketch Fest where we're doing a live WTF.

00:05:17Marc:with, listen to this, Will Franken, Baron Vaughn, Maria Bamford, Bobcat Goldthwait, Outside Chance, Weird Al will be coming.

00:05:25Marc:I'll be at Sketchfest all that weekend.

00:05:27Marc:That's the 21st and 22nd, doing a lot of shows up there.

00:05:30Marc:Go to the schedule to check it out.

00:05:32Marc:But I'm thrilled about the New York Times.

00:05:33Marc:I was thrilled about the Rolling Stone piece.

00:05:37Marc:But I'm keeping my humility.

00:05:39Marc:As I said, I took it in in a parking lot in Sacramento, and I was happy to be there because I don't want to forget where I come from.

00:05:45Marc:I don't want to forget who I am.

00:05:46Marc:And when you're in Sacramento alone in a parking lot, all you have to hold on to is yourself.

00:05:52Marc:If you don't have that, you might get lost.

00:05:54Marc:You might get lost among the strip malls.

00:05:57Marc:There was a guitar center right across the street.

00:05:58Marc:That was good for me.

00:05:59Marc:I courted a guitar for three days because I figured, hey, I'm in the New York Times.

00:06:04Marc:Why not buy a fucking guitar I don't need?

00:06:06Marc:Huh?

00:06:07Marc:Why not do that?

00:06:08Marc:I was on the phone with Brendan Small.

00:06:09Marc:Holy shit, dropping the names this episode.

00:06:12Marc:Dude, I found this J45 Gibson.

00:06:14Marc:I think I like it.

00:06:15Marc:I don't know.

00:06:16Marc:I don't know.

00:06:16Marc:Is this a good deal?

00:06:17Marc:What do you think?

00:06:18Marc:I went in there three days.

00:06:19Marc:I made it through the warfare that is the electric guitar area of Guitar Center on a weekend where I walk in with my 47-year-old tired blues lick ass, sit down to perhaps plug in a newer Telecaster and

00:06:36Marc:And I start cranking out my dumb old blues licks and I hear the call to war from across the store.

00:06:44Marc:Yes, it's a 13 year old shredding some mega death or something similar.

00:06:49Marc:It was just basically, oh yeah, oh man, why don't you eat this motherfucker?

00:06:54Marc:That's how I heard it.

00:06:56Marc:He was pretty good too.

00:06:57Marc:So I clunked out a couple of other chunky blues riffs and then I listened to him shred for a little while longer and I decided I'm going to go to the acoustic room where I can get a little privacy and maybe enjoy my time playing one of these instruments that I can't quite afford to own.

00:07:14Marc:So I retreated to the acoustic room where I slowly fell in.

00:07:19Marc:It might have been dysfunctional initially, but I thought I was really into this GA45.

00:07:23Marc:And after going back for a few days, I found that there was a buzz on the second fret around the A string, and I was not going to do it.

00:07:31Marc:So I said farewell.

00:07:33Marc:I enjoyed my time.

00:07:34Marc:Actually, I went in there one day.

00:07:36Marc:And there was a guy in the studio, not in the studio, but they have a separate room for the more expensive acoustic guitars.

00:07:40Marc:He had shut the door and it was literally like he was doing a recording session.

00:07:44Marc:He was singing loudly.

00:07:45Marc:And I sat outside for a while because I didn't want to interrupt him because I thought maybe this is this guy's time.

00:07:50Marc:Maybe he comes in every weekend to play one of these guitars and sing and have that creative time, that venting for himself.

00:07:59Marc:And I literally sat, you know, I think outside of the room in the other room where the other acoustic guitars are.

00:08:05Marc:for probably a good three or four songs before I'm like, all right, now he's just being fucking selfish, and he's playing the guitar that I want to buy.

00:08:13Marc:So I'm going to go in there and sort of wander around a bit, give him the stink eye with my body, and see if he picks up on it.

00:08:20Marc:And he ended up saying, yeah, don't you love this guitar?

00:08:22Marc:I said, hell yeah, I do.

00:08:24Marc:Let me have it, bro.

00:08:25Marc:And we talked for a little while.

00:08:27Marc:And he split.

00:08:28Marc:And I did not buy the guitar, but I did.

00:08:30Marc:I know some of you are saying, Mark, you should treat yourself a little better.

00:08:32Marc:I mean, you were in the New York Times.

00:08:34Marc:I went to the Nordstrom Rack and I bought a pair of Clark's Desert boots, half price, parentheses, Jew, was very thrilled about that.

00:08:43Marc:I'm yet to wear them, but I have them.

00:08:46Marc:I don't know how you took in the New York Times article.

00:08:49Marc:I don't know whether you read it online or got the hard copy.

00:08:52Marc:But if you read it online, there was a chance that you went to a small video presentation of me about the show that included John Hodgman.

00:09:01Marc:It showed me interviewing John Hodgman and it showed some clips of John Hodgman talking about WTF.

00:09:09Marc:So I've gotten a few emails.

00:09:11Marc:When's the Hodgman episode on?

00:09:13Marc:But before I tell you about what happened to that, let me just say that what Judd Apatow said in the New York Times article, if I could quote the article, I'll read right from it, quote, what helps him, unquote, said Judd Apatow, the director and producer and another recent guest, quote, is the fact that people mistakenly think that no one is going to listen to it when, in fact, a ton of people listen to it and it will last forever, unquote.

00:09:36Marc:The do-it-yourself quality of the podcast is set up includes only a laptop computer or digital recorder, a mixer and two microphones puts guests at ease.

00:09:43Marc:As Mr. Apatow put it, quote, you kind of feel like he might lose the tape on the way home, unquote.

00:09:50Marc:Well.

00:09:52Marc:Guess what?

00:09:53Marc:The Hodgman episode is lost.

00:09:57Marc:It's never happened before.

00:09:58Marc:It will never happen again.

00:10:00Marc:The Hodgman episode is lost.

00:10:03Marc:And believe me, I didn't know John Hodgman.

00:10:05Marc:It took me months to get him to do the show.

00:10:08Marc:So I had to write John Hodgman back after we had a perfectly lovely conversation and say, hey, I lost it.

00:10:16Marc:Can we do it again?

00:10:17Marc:And he was like, absolutely.

00:10:19Marc:But nonetheless, so that means everything in the next interview is going to be like, so tell me that thing you told me on the last one that I lost.

00:10:27Marc:Oh, I'm an idiot.

00:10:29Marc:But that's showbiz or whatever it is that I'm doing.

00:10:36Marc:Now, I thought I might do this today because, you know, you all have a relationship with my father.

00:10:42Marc:If you've been listening to the show for a while, you all know what he's about, sort of where he comes from with his interesting sort of bipolar take on things and his strange, selfish disposition.

00:10:54Marc:But yes, in moments, completely lovable and overly vulnerable.

00:10:59Marc:But he emailed me after I emailed him links to my recent press success.

00:11:06Marc:And I thought maybe just a, hey, great job, proud of you, love you, kid, would be nice.

00:11:12Marc:But that doesn't come from my father.

00:11:14Marc:That comes in a sort of convoluted way with a lot of other advice and assertive demands.

00:11:21Marc:So subject line, just re-New York Times Rolling Stone.

00:11:26Marc:Super achievement.

00:11:28Marc:Good for you.

00:11:29Marc:Keep the momentum rolling now while you have the real health energy.

00:11:33Marc:Okay.

00:11:34Marc:The national comedic spotlight and the rapid developing fame.

00:11:38Marc:The sincere earthly goodwill and love of fellow man.

00:11:42Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:11:43Marc:And then all caps.

00:11:45Marc:Other projects are mentioned.

00:11:46Marc:Go for them now.

00:11:48Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:11:49Marc:Back to regular text.

00:11:50Marc:Line up your support names and priorities.

00:11:53Marc:The rich, the famous, the connected by literary connections.

00:11:56Marc:Does he mean fictional characters?

00:11:58Marc:Theatrical connections, etc., dot, dot, dot.

00:12:01Marc:So you can, all caps, rapidly know and organize, all caps, your camp.

00:12:08Marc:I'm putting together a camp.

00:12:11Marc:And move forward.

00:12:12Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:12:13Marc:The all caps.

00:12:14Marc:Iron is hot.

00:12:16Marc:Strike.

00:12:17Marc:More caps.

00:12:18Marc:You worked hard for these moments.

00:12:20Marc:You deserve every break and a first crack at every opportunity.

00:12:24Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:12:24Marc:Still all caps.

00:12:26Marc:Talk show host on primetime, comma, et cetera.

00:12:30Marc:Back to regular.

00:12:32Marc:Life is good, but for a very short time.

00:12:38Marc:No, no.

00:12:38Marc:And the public is fickle to all professionals.

00:12:42Marc:Comedy, showbiz, medicine, dot, dot, dot.

00:12:47Marc:We grow old and out of touch with the big powerful influences quickly, dot, dot, dot.

00:12:53Marc:Get them committed, all caps, NOW!

00:12:56Marc:Back to normal.

00:12:57Marc:By interview comments on the WWW.

00:13:01Marc:That would be the World Wide Web, I believe.

00:13:03Marc:TV, podcasts, or in the media.

00:13:06Marc:He who hesitates is lost easily.

00:13:09Marc:All caps.

00:13:09Marc:Now go for it!

00:13:11Marc:Back to normal.

00:13:12Marc:You should now have...

00:13:13Marc:All caps.

00:13:14Marc:Inexpensive access to the best theatrical advertising.

00:13:17Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:13:18Marc:All caps.

00:13:19Marc:The best in product endorsement.

00:13:20Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:13:21Marc:Etc.

00:13:22Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:13:23Marc:The moment is yours.

00:13:24Marc:Dot, dot, dot.

00:13:25Marc:Command it.

00:13:27Marc:Back to regular text.

00:13:29Marc:Love, Dad.

00:13:36Guest:I have a fake Emmy.

00:13:41Guest:Yeah.

00:13:42Marc:Was it given to you at a fake Emmy ceremony?

00:13:44Guest:Well, we call it... Yes, it was at the Come Emmy ceremony.

00:13:48Guest:Are you serious?

00:13:49Guest:Yeah, for The Daily Show, only the producers...

00:13:51Guest:When you win the best show, best variety or whatever, only producers actually win an Emmy, but they were nice enough one year to give us all the correspondents got statues.

00:14:01Guest:Yeah.

00:14:02Guest:But on the back, where it would say, you know, Rob Corddry, blah, blah, blah, it says commemorative.

00:14:08Yeah.

00:14:08Guest:So it's really like, it's literally a fake Emmy.

00:14:10Guest:So they had to do that legally?

00:14:12Guest:Yeah.

00:14:12Guest:It's given, I mean, they bought it from the whatever.

00:14:16Marc:From the Emmy place?

00:14:17Guest:Yeah.

00:14:17Guest:From the Emmy store.

00:14:18Guest:Oh, so- The Emmy Mart.

00:14:20Marc:So the Emmys have actually prepared for the fact that they know they're only awarding the people that produce the show and that there'd be a bunch of unhappy talent.

00:14:28Marc:So they make this available.

00:14:29Marc:They-

00:14:30Marc:Probably.

00:14:31Marc:I mean, yeah.

00:14:33Guest:I think, like, it was John, I think, that was nice enough to say, like, yeah.

00:14:38Guest:Can you give, throw me five more of those things?

00:14:40Guest:Throw the talent a bone?

00:14:41Guest:For the kids?

00:14:42Yeah.

00:14:43Marc:they seem to be doing something around the office but i don't know what to do with it because like it's even a real emmy i'd feel a little embarrassed to have it out or whatever but like it's not even a real emmy no especially if it's just one i think when people put three or four out then it's sort of impressive but at that point you'd have a room for them that you'd only bring people you know who are special like yeah exactly well let me show you the emmy room

00:15:05Marc:rob cordry is in the garage here at the cat ranch a late call this is one of the later interviews i've done so i don't know what the you know my tone might be a little different oh what it's in night has fallen yeah you'd come from work yeah usually i get people out when they're uncomfortable it's during the day they're still getting up but you've had a full day comedians in the morning yeah that's the best then they're sort of vulnerable they're not sure what they're doing here

00:15:28Guest:I've had a full day.

00:15:30Guest:I was actually kind of dozing off in my car on the way over here.

00:15:34Marc:So you got a nap in.

00:15:34Guest:My eyes were getting really heavy.

00:15:36Guest:I was literally shaking my head.

00:15:38Guest:How many times have you done that, shaking your head?

00:15:40Marc:It's the worst feeling in the world, the moment when you wake up and you're driving.

00:15:43Marc:That is the worst feeling.

00:15:45Marc:It is terrifying.

00:15:46Marc:It really is.

00:15:47Marc:Terrifying.

00:15:47Marc:Because you know right then, who the fuck knows what could have happened.

00:15:50Guest:Yeah.

00:15:51Guest:And full on hard on.

00:15:52Guest:Every time I fall asleep, I wake up with a full on hard on.

00:15:55Marc:Just like the morning.

00:15:56Marc:Exactly.

00:15:57Marc:Yeah, and you're like, that's probably not usable.

00:15:59Marc:I just got to pee and it'll go away.

00:16:01Marc:Exactly.

00:16:01Marc:Yeah.

00:16:01Marc:So now you're shooting a second season of Children's Hospital.

00:16:07Guest:Technically the third.

00:16:08Guest:The first season was a web series.

00:16:11Guest:Right.

00:16:12Guest:But we're calling it the third season.

00:16:14Marc:But how did that make the jump?

00:16:16Marc:Because everyone talks about it.

00:16:17Marc:It's a big dream.

00:16:18Marc:That's what the idea of providing free content.

00:16:21Marc:for servers or for YouTube, the big idea is that someday someone will go, wow, let's make a television show out of that.

00:16:29Marc:But who was... Where was the web series?

00:16:31Marc:Was it just on YouTube or was it sponsored?

00:16:33Guest:No, it was sponsored.

00:16:34Guest:It was in that sort of sweet spot...

00:16:38Guest:around the strike, writer strike area when studios didn't have a lot to do and they all started these digital arms, right?

00:16:47Guest:That's a loophole.

00:16:47Guest:We've got to keep these guys working.

00:16:49Guest:Exactly.

00:16:49Guest:No, for real.

00:16:49Guest:And now they'll work for free.

00:16:51Guest:It's terrific.

00:16:51Guest:It's also free development for them.

00:16:53Guest:Now, it kind of failed.

00:16:54Guest:There wasn't many web series that actually got to be shows, but we were just lucky in that...

00:17:01Guest:uh it uh we we treated it like a television show you know what i mean we it looks good it was one of the first web series to actually look slick right you know for the internet i mean on tv it looks like shit it's amazing that the kind of crap that people put up who expect opportunity to come from it like it is the internet but just as easy it is to put things on the internet it's not that expensive to

00:17:24Marc:To shoot something that looks good, is it?

00:17:26Marc:Yeah, no, no.

00:17:28Guest:I mean, but you get the right people.

00:17:29Guest:Right.

00:17:29Guest:You know what I mean?

00:17:30Guest:That's it.

00:17:31Guest:Like, who are your people?

00:17:32Guest:Well, we've got just one of those stalwart cameramen, camera operators.

00:17:39Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:17:40Guest:who, this was one of his first DP jobs, and he is just like, he's the best.

00:17:45Marc:Isn't it great when you work with people that know what they're doing?

00:17:47Marc:Oh my God, he's incredible.

00:17:49Marc:My technological expertise is limited to what's happening right between my mouth and this microphone.

00:17:53Guest:There's a lot of wires in this room.

00:17:55Guest:You've got a good setup here.

00:17:57Marc:Someone had to come teach me how to use shit.

00:17:59Marc:It's good.

00:17:59Marc:Yeah, I mean, it looks like I know what I'm doing, but really, if something were to go wrong, I've got to make some calls.

00:18:05Guest:My wife, oh man, half of my life is spent trying to teach my wife.

00:18:10Guest:She's been married, I'm kind of tech savvy.

00:18:13Guest:I've spent the last 10 years literally like telling her how to open a file.

00:18:17Guest:Oh really?

00:18:18Guest:She's just completely retarded when it comes to working.

00:18:22Guest:Just with working though, she can do other things?

00:18:24Guest:No, otherwise, well, actually she has Down syndrome.

00:18:30Marc:Well, good for you.

00:18:31Marc:I mean, it's nice to help out.

00:18:33Guest:It's always been a fetish of mine.

00:18:34Marc:What are the odds of you having a normal kid?

00:18:37Guest:Two completely normal kids.

00:18:39Marc:Really?

00:18:39Guest:Who are midgets.

00:18:41Guest:I don't know how that worked out.

00:18:42Guest:You got a funny family.

00:18:44Marc:Boy, you should do a show with that family.

00:18:47Marc:That's the next show after a children's hospital is a guy with a Down syndrome wife and two normal children who are midgets.

00:18:52Marc:It's called Poor Rob Corddry.

00:18:55Marc:Is this how you develop shows?

00:18:57Marc:Exactly.

00:18:58Marc:You're one of those ridiculous people.

00:19:00Guest:Yeah.

00:19:00Marc:It's just like, I just thought of it on Maren's podcast, and I realized, holy shit, there's got to be some Down syndrome actors, right?

00:19:08Marc:I'm pitching it tomorrow.

00:19:09Marc:All right.

00:19:10Marc:Okay, so it's on the web series.

00:19:13Marc:But where was it?

00:19:14Marc:Was it on YouTube?

00:19:15Marc:No, sorry.

00:19:16Marc:Yeah, that was your question.

00:19:17Marc:My internet was down, so I don't know anything about you other than what I've seen on television the few times we've met.

00:19:22Marc:So we'll just go by that one.

00:19:24Marc:Sure, sure, sure, sure.

00:19:25Marc:I'll tell you all about myself.

00:19:26Marc:Good, good.

00:19:27Marc:So you just threw it up.

00:19:28Marc:But you had some cachet.

00:19:30Marc:People knew who you were.

00:19:31Marc:You were on The Daily Show.

00:19:32Marc:Yeah, I guess.

00:19:34Marc:And the Hot Top Time Machine hadn't come out that time.

00:19:37Guest:No, no, no, no, no.

00:19:38Guest:I was in a lot of crappy movies before that.

00:19:40Guest:But yeah, The Daily Show was pretty much the thing, and it was Warner Brothers themselves who produced it, and only for their website.

00:19:48Guest:But they couldn't pay you?

00:19:49Guest:Oh, they paid us.

00:19:50Guest:Oh, okay.

00:19:50Guest:No, we got a full budget, a very ... I don't remember what it was exactly, but it was pretty good for a web series.

00:19:55Marc:But how was that ...

00:19:55Marc:avoiding the writer's strike in a sense?

00:19:57Marc:They weren't paying writers?

00:19:59Marc:How did that work?

00:20:00Marc:I don't really know.

00:20:01Marc:I don't have a good answer for that.

00:20:03Marc:Was it some sort of loophole?

00:20:04Guest:Internet didn't count?

00:20:05Guest:It's not union.

00:20:06Guest:Right, right, right.

00:20:08Guest:I don't really remember, but I remember that's what I was doing with my time.

00:20:11Marc:And what was the development process of the show?

00:20:13Marc:What sparked the idea?

00:20:16Guest:Well, I have a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old daughter.

00:20:19Guest:My four-year-old was two at the time, and she has this thing, it's called nursemaid's elbow, where a ligament, if you,

00:20:25Guest:if you jerk it hard enough, her ligament will pop out.

00:20:30Guest:And you learned that how?

00:20:32Guest:I was beating the shit out of her one day.

00:20:33Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:20:34Guest:And she popped it out.

00:20:36Guest:And you said, why are you crying?

00:20:37Guest:Exactly.

00:20:38Guest:That didn't hurt me when I was a kid.

00:20:39Guest:And all of a sudden,

00:20:41Guest:Comedy was born.

00:20:42Guest:But it is actually just that tragic.

00:20:44Guest:We went to Children's Hospital, the emergency room, and it's the least funny place on the planet.

00:20:50Guest:Of course.

00:20:53Guest:Scared parents and crying and hurt kids.

00:20:56Guest:The thing that I found was not funny, but I think the idea came when I noticed that everything was small-sized.

00:21:05Guest:Gurneys are smaller and IVs are smaller.

00:21:08Guest:I was like, oh, that's horrible.

00:21:10Guest:horrible and somewhere in there i had the idea for it and and what you are the chief doctor there or what is your no no i have a very actually uh of the leads in the show i have probably one of the smaller parts just so you know i could do the other stuff and you're working with kids and i'm very bad yeah i can't act when i'm doing all this other stuff i find it really hard to like turn it all off and it's getting easier but during the web series which i also directed i didn't direct any other ones

00:21:37Guest:I was junk.

00:21:38Marc:Yeah.

00:21:38Guest:Garbage.

00:21:39Marc:Because you're too distracted?

00:21:40Marc:Complete, yeah.

00:21:41Guest:Complete garbage.

00:21:41Marc:You actually stand behind the counter and go, Rob!

00:21:44Marc:Rob!

00:21:44Marc:You're awful.

00:21:46Marc:Wrong.

00:21:50Marc:I just watched fucking Hot Tub Time Machine, and that's your movie, for fuck's sake.

00:21:55Marc:I had no idea.

00:21:56Marc:I mean, I knew you were coming over, and I had rented it actually before I think I knew you were coming over because I wanted to see it because I like you.

00:22:01Marc:I like Craig Robinson, and I didn't realize Cusack was in it, and I didn't know the other kid.

00:22:07Marc:But that's your movie.

00:22:08Guest:Oh, well, thanks, man.

00:22:09Guest:I mean, me and Craig got very lucky in that movie because...

00:22:13Guest:uh, they needed something fun.

00:22:15Guest:Like that, that whole crazy scene where I almost blow them in the bathroom and I get jizz, fake jizz all over my, that was a reshoot because they just needed something to break up the Cusack story, the love story.

00:22:29Guest:And we were just like, I sort of had that landed in our laps.

00:22:33Guest:You know, that's like, it's the, just the greatest, but you were just so fucking over the top.

00:22:38Guest:Yeah.

00:22:39Marc:Yeah.

00:22:39Marc:And that's sort of what you do.

00:22:41Marc:Yeah.

00:22:42Marc:Right.

00:22:42Marc:Yeah.

00:22:43Marc:When you when you started, you weren't you never did stand up, right?

00:22:46Marc:No.

00:22:47Marc:I did sketch and improv.

00:22:49Marc:Where'd you come from?

00:22:51Guest:Well, I used to do I was the I remember actually seeing you at Gotham Comedy Club way back in the early 90s.

00:23:00Guest:Yeah.

00:23:01Guest:Was I an asshole?

00:23:01Guest:No.

00:23:02Guest:No, no, no.

00:23:02Guest:I just watched you.

00:23:04Guest:We never met, but you were just one of the guys that I would see before.

00:23:06Guest:We were the house sketch group at Gotham Comedy Club, but it was called Third Rail Comedy.

00:23:11Guest:Okay.

00:23:13Guest:Was that like on Monday nights or something?

00:23:14Guest:Like an off night?

00:23:16Guest:Exactly.

00:23:17Guest:Some Monday or Tuesday nights.

00:23:19Guest:Basically, guys like you would come in and just work stuff out.

00:23:21Guest:Right.

00:23:22Guest:Or that's the impression I got.

00:23:23Marc:Right, right.

00:23:23Marc:We'd come in and they'd be like, yeah, the sketch show's on.

00:23:27Marc:And we'd wait around going, oh boy.

00:23:29Marc:You look in the room, there's more than two people on stage.

00:23:31Marc:And nobody wanted to follow a sketch group either.

00:23:33Guest:No matter how bad we were, it's just like it's a different thing.

00:23:36Guest:Stand-ups hated us.

00:23:38Marc:I don't hate sketch, but there's moments where...

00:23:41Marc:where I watch sketch, and I'm not sure that I understand it clearly.

00:23:45Marc:Like, it's hard for me to tell the difference between a fucking genius sketch and one that's just shit.

00:23:51Marc:Is that possible?

00:23:52Marc:I mean, in the sense that, like, I see if there's three or four people up there, and they're all doing this thing, and then there's one payoff at the end that's ridiculous, I'm thinking, like, it took four people to do that?

00:24:04Really?

00:24:05Guest:Why don't you just tell it as a joke?

00:24:07Guest:Because that's really what it is.

00:24:08Guest:It's like, just blow it like a five-minute joke.

00:24:11Marc:Sometimes, but other times, like if things are really kind of synchronized.

00:24:15Marc:I guess I don't want to be an asshole.

00:24:18Marc:Please do.

00:24:19Marc:But it's hard to make sketch that doesn't look like, are we in college?

00:24:24Marc:Well, it's all been done.

00:24:25Guest:It's like really, the only time I ever laugh at a sketch is if I think it's a truly, truly original, fresh idea, and I haven't seen that before.

00:24:32Marc:Well, what drove you in that direction?

00:24:34Marc:I mean, did you watch sketch when you were a kid and decided that was a shit?

00:24:37Guest:I did, but no.

00:24:38Guest:Like, I was a big fan of, you know, old SNL and Monty Python and Kids in the Hall.

00:24:43Guest:Those are probably my biggest sketch influences.

00:24:46Guest:But I was doing like, I fancied myself quite the important actor when I was young and in New York.

00:24:52Guest:I went to theater school and I came to New York and I was in really shitty Shakespeare plays.

00:24:57Guest:But I was always playing the jackass, you know what I mean?

00:25:00Guest:Right.

00:25:00Guest:And my friend asked me to audition for a sketch group and I was like, all right.

00:25:05Guest:And then I just really loved it.

00:25:07Guest:Did you go to college for theater?

00:25:08Guest:Yeah.

00:25:09Marc:Where?

00:25:09Marc:UMass Amherst.

00:25:10Marc:Oh, fuck, I know UMass Amherst.

00:25:12Marc:Yeah, sure you do.

00:25:12Marc:I drove out there.

00:25:13Marc:There's like four schools out there.

00:25:14Marc:There's Mount Holyoke, Amherst.

00:25:16Marc:There's the hippie school.

00:25:17Marc:Yeah.

00:25:17Marc:Isn't Hampshire out there?

00:25:18Marc:Hampshire, yeah.

00:25:19Marc:There's just this weird cluster.

00:25:20Marc:You drive out in the middle of Massachusetts, and then you smell pot, and you drive by Hampshire, and then you enter like a giant quad.

00:25:28Guest:Yeah, all bookstores and coffee shops.

00:25:30Guest:Yeah, it's like a fake world out there.

00:25:32Guest:Yeah, it's amazing.

00:25:34Guest:And you went to school for theater.

00:25:36Guest:Well, I was a double major in theater and English.

00:25:40Guest:I never finished a theater major, but that's what I did.

00:25:43Marc:Were you a star there on campus?

00:25:45Guest:Yeah.

00:25:47Marc:But you were a serious actor.

00:25:48Guest:I was definitely like, it was a little pond.

00:25:50Guest:It was a very little pond.

00:25:51Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:25:52Guest:There was like three of us that were cast and everything, but we thought we were the shit.

00:25:55Marc:What are the other guys doing?

00:25:57Guest:Where are the other guys?

00:25:59Guest:They're doing stuff.

00:26:00Guest:One of them is a Broadway producer right now.

00:26:03Guest:One of them doesn't act anymore, but he's very funny.

00:26:07Guest:Who else?

00:26:08Guest:Oh, Jeff Donovan is the lead in the USA show Burn Notice.

00:26:14Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:26:14Marc:I went to school with him.

00:26:15Marc:I saw commercials about that.

00:26:17Marc:It's amazing how many people follow the wayside, though, isn't it?

00:26:19Guest:Yeah.

00:26:21Guest:Yeah.

00:26:22Guest:Fucking crazy dream, isn't it?

00:26:23Guest:It's fucking stupid.

00:26:25Guest:It's a really, really stupid thing to do.

00:26:27Marc:Did you grow up in Massachusetts?

00:26:28Guest:Yeah.

00:26:29Guest:Where?

00:26:29Guest:Boston, just south of Boston.

00:26:31Guest:Which place?

00:26:31Guest:Weymouth.

00:26:32Guest:I know Weymouth.

00:26:33Marc:Yeah, you were in Boston for a long time, weren't you?

00:26:34Marc:I was in there for years doing one-nighters all over that fucking Weymouth.

00:26:38Marc:That's right.

00:26:38Marc:Is that where you came up?

00:26:39Marc:Kind of.

00:26:40Marc:Cross and me and Janine.

00:26:44Marc:Yeah, Louis was a little after me.

00:26:46Marc:But he was Boston too, right?

00:26:47Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:26:48Marc:I definitely did the Boston circuit.

00:26:50Marc:So you don't seem to have any affectation of being an asshole or slightly retarded or angry.

00:26:57Ha, ha.

00:26:57Guest:Sarcastic.

00:26:59Guest:Yeah, sarcastic.

00:27:00Guest:Hey, Marin.

00:27:02Guest:What, you think you're smart?

00:27:03Guest:I've tried to, yeah.

00:27:06Guest:I don't know.

00:27:06Guest:It's there.

00:27:07Guest:It is?

00:27:08Guest:Well, you know, the character in Hot Tub Time Machine was the Boston guy without the accent, basically.

00:27:13Guest:Yeah.

00:27:13Marc:Just fucking balls to the wall, fucking stupid.

00:27:15Guest:This is big assholes.

00:27:16Marc:Now, when you started doing the New York, I'm just curious to know what kind of ridiculous fucking acting training you took.

00:27:24Marc:Did you do Meisner and stuff?

00:27:27Guest:No, no, no.

00:27:28Guest:My school taught practical aesthetics.

00:27:31Guest:That's the mammoth school.

00:27:33Guest:Oh, the Atlantic school?

00:27:34Guest:The Atlantic, yeah.

00:27:35Marc:You went to the Atlantic school?

00:27:36Guest:I did not, but that's what I learned.

00:27:37Guest:I learned that technique.

00:27:38Marc:I love Mamet's whole thought process on it.

00:27:40Marc:It's like, actors are just idiots.

00:27:42Marc:Any fucking moron can act.

00:27:44Guest:And literally, it's like, here is a formula for acting.

00:27:47Guest:Follow it and shut up.

00:27:48Marc:Right.

00:27:49Marc:But it's weird because there's no emphasis on character or feeling.

00:27:53Marc:It's like, just pretend and shut up.

00:27:55Marc:And his movies, the acting's very wooden.

00:27:57Guest:It is.

00:27:58Guest:Not a lot of people can pull that off.

00:28:00Marc:It doesn't work.

00:28:01Marc:No, it doesn't work.

00:28:01Marc:None of it works.

00:28:02Marc:My ex-wife, my first wife, was involved with that.

00:28:05Marc:And I read writing in restaurants, and I read the stuff that she got from her teachers with the Atlantic School.

00:28:10Marc:And it's sort of like, why is he so condescending to actors?

00:28:15Marc:I mean, I don't fucking understand it.

00:28:17Guest:They're all acting teachers, and all schools of acting are that way, I think.

00:28:22Guest:Because they attract people who are, I think, not confident in what they can do naturally.

00:28:28Guest:Right.

00:28:28Guest:Well, I think so.

00:28:29Marc:Right.

00:28:29Marc:But I think also so much acting schools and even improv classes at this point have just been something that like, you know, people who have regular jobs, like, yeah, I want to come out of my shell.

00:28:37Marc:Almost like, you know, I want to do this for myself.

00:28:40Marc:There's no career aspiration.

00:28:42Guest:I think it'll be helpful in my life.

00:28:44Guest:I want, it's like, I'm going to give Bob an improv class for a gift because he's so funny.

00:28:51Guest:Yeah.

00:28:51Marc:Yeah.

00:28:52Marc:And these poor people, they show up with a bunch of serious 19 year olds who are trying to do something.

00:28:57Marc:yeah the atlantic school that's so fucking weird yeah right because it seems to me that some people have like obviously they're great actors and they put a craft together for themselves from a lot of different play a lot of different disciplines like you know there's no like i went to when i was in new york i went to this guy michael howard who was like i think a second tier old methody guy yeah that sounds familiar

00:29:20Marc:Yeah, it was just like this old sort of like Jewish Buddha that used to sit in the middle.

00:29:23Marc:Was it like Michael Howard Studios or something?

00:29:26Guest:Yeah, yeah.

00:29:26Guest:That sounds familiar.

00:29:27Marc:Yeah, and what I distinctly remember, and the one thing that I can't fault the Atlantic School with, is that with some acting classes, you don't ever feel like there's an end to it.

00:29:36Marc:It's like you're going to spend the rest of your life here.

00:29:38Guest:Well, it's like therapy.

00:29:39Guest:Yeah.

00:29:40Guest:They're always like, well, you know, you can't, there's no end.

00:29:42Marc:Yeah.

00:29:43Guest:You're always learning.

00:29:44Guest:Yeah, and it's like- And giving us money.

00:29:46Marc:Right, and then you go away for six months, and then all of a sudden you're in class, and it's like-

00:29:50Marc:Joe is back.

00:29:51Marc:He spent a year doing summer stock and finding himself, and now he wants to work on some clowning.

00:30:00Marc:Did you ever take a clown class?

00:30:03Guest:Yes.

00:30:03Guest:Hardest thing I've ever done, by the way.

00:30:04Marc:What is that about, though?

00:30:05Guest:awful i took it in college and it was a clown in class and and the final exam you had to the you spend the whole semester creating your clown character and it's this big thing like uh oh god only theater school can totally ruin comedy yeah i mean but they're like it's a ceremony where you get your nose

00:30:23Guest:No.

00:30:24Guest:But the final exam is you get your nose.

00:30:27Guest:The final exam is you have to go into the room, into the middle of the circle.

00:30:30Guest:All the fellow classmates are in a circle.

00:30:33Guest:And you have to make the whole class laugh.

00:30:35Guest:Now belly laugh without saying anything.

00:30:38Guest:And you just by doing the character that you've developed.

00:30:41Guest:And a lot of people literally ran out of the room crying because that's nearly impossible.

00:30:46Guest:But that's hilarious.

00:30:47Guest:It's always fucked up.

00:30:49Guest:What do you mean they ran out of the room?

00:30:50Guest:They ran out there.

00:30:51Guest:They just couldn't do it.

00:30:52Guest:It's terrifying.

00:30:53Marc:So in the middle of, they've got their nose on and they've got their makeup on?

00:30:56Guest:They don't have their nose yet.

00:30:57Marc:They didn't get their nose.

00:30:58Guest:This is to earn your nose.

00:30:59Guest:This is to earn your nose.

00:31:00Guest:Yeah.

00:31:01Guest:Yeah.

00:31:02Marc:And they fucking lost it?

00:31:03Guest:They fucking cried.

00:31:04Guest:Yeah.

00:31:05Marc:What did you do?

00:31:05Marc:Do you remember?

00:31:06Guest:I, no.

00:31:07Guest:Oh, well, yeah.

00:31:08Guest:I don't remember exactly what I did to make them laugh, but I remember doing some shtick or whatever that I've been doing and, you know, I got some giggles.

00:31:15Guest:And then you get a little scared and then you go right to the dick.

00:31:18Guest:Yeah.

00:31:19Guest:Right to the poop and the dick and the ass.

00:31:21Guest:Right there.

00:31:22Guest:And then that gets a couple of chuckles, too.

00:31:24Guest:But the teacher was obviously like.

00:31:27Guest:Yeah.

00:31:28Guest:And then you make this decision to either sort of jump off the cliff and do something real and honest and fun.

00:31:37Guest:Or you run out of the room crying.

00:31:38Guest:Right.

00:31:39Guest:You know, and I don't remember what I did, but I eventually got a laugh.

00:31:41Guest:Do you think do you think it helped you at all?

00:31:44Guest:It definitely made me less scared, I think.

00:31:48Marc:I think that's probably the goal of all acting programs.

00:31:50Guest:I'm still thinking about it now.

00:31:51Guest:Yeah?

00:31:52Guest:I still think about it.

00:31:53Guest:It made a real impression on me.

00:31:55Guest:The clown thing.

00:31:56Guest:That one day.

00:31:56Marc:Because you can't talk.

00:31:59Marc:And, like, because I remember, like, it was something I regret doing.

00:32:02Marc:Like, there was a while there where I thought it would be an interesting show if someone would produce it to send me to clown college because I'm such a heady fucking guy.

00:32:11Marc:You'd have the worst time.

00:32:12Marc:Really?

00:32:13Marc:Don't you think?

00:32:14Marc:But isn't it a lot of hands, like, you know, and then, like, there's a vulnerability to, like, because the clown, isn't the clown by its nature supposed to be sort of sad?

00:32:22Marc:Well, no fucking, no...

00:32:24Guest:genre or whatever of comedy takes itself as seriously as clowns do.

00:32:30Guest:And that is like comedy, that's poison to me.

00:32:32Guest:That's like the worst is when somebody takes it that.

00:32:35Marc:But I guess you knew in that moment where you went for your dick that like, I got instincts here.

00:32:38Marc:I'm going places.

00:32:39Marc:I'm not going to be stuck in this lofty acting world.

00:32:42Marc:Fuck you guys.

00:32:44Marc:Keep your nose.

00:32:45Marc:I'm jerking it.

00:32:46Marc:I'm jerking it.

00:32:47Marc:Give me my nose.

00:32:48Marc:This is my dick.

00:32:49Guest:That's really what it was.

00:32:52Guest:I just started smiling and pointing to my dick.

00:32:57Marc:Because I know like the standard thing is like, you know, I remember when I saw clowns, there's always that sort of sad lumbering thing.

00:33:04Marc:And then like, he's happy.

00:33:05Marc:Something else happens.

00:33:06Marc:And isn't there like, did you have to make your own face?

00:33:09Marc:Did you have to choose a face?

00:33:10Marc:No, I don't think there was makeup, actually.

00:33:13Guest:It was more like a costume.

00:33:14Guest:It was somehow distorting your body to make it look and feel different.

00:33:18Guest:And then there's a whole thing about leading from a different part of your body.

00:33:22Guest:Figure out where you lead from and then choose a different part to lead.

00:33:25Marc:Did any of that set in with you?

00:33:27Guest:In when I was doing theater, definitely I would do all that shit like, pretend your character's an animal.

00:33:37Guest:Oh, you did that?

00:33:38Guest:Oh, yeah, sure.

00:33:39Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.

00:33:39Guest:Dude, I was in.

00:33:40Guest:I drank the Kool-Aid.

00:33:42Guest:Fuck yeah.

00:33:43Marc:So what were the big roles, Rob?

00:33:44Marc:I want to know what the big roles in college were.

00:33:46Marc:The big roles were- Like you knew that you were a good actor at that moment.

00:33:50Guest:I played Brick in Cat on the Hot Tin Roof, and that was a definite turning point for me.

00:33:54Guest:Did you do the Southern accent?

00:33:57Guest:Oh yeah.

00:33:57Guest:Yeah?

00:33:58Guest:Yeah.

00:33:58Guest:You wanna hear it?

00:33:59Guest:Yeah.

00:33:59Guest:Hi, I am from the south.

00:34:03Guest:Fucking spot on, right?

00:34:05Marc:It's great, yeah.

00:34:06Marc:And you went right into it.

00:34:07Marc:Atlanta suburbs, that's exactly what I was doing.

00:34:10Marc:Since memory thing.

00:34:12Marc:But you knew that you could hold the stage?

00:34:14Guest:No, well, I was told, all actors have a guru, sort of, and I had this acting teacher, Ed Golden, who was my guru, and he was awesome.

00:34:23Guest:I really looked up to him, and one day I had a meeting with him, and he was like, so do you, he was a real weirdo, didn't really talk a lot, and he was like, do you want to do this for a living?

00:34:32Guest:And I went,

00:34:32Guest:Uh, yeah, I think so.

00:34:34Guest:And he goes, yeah, you could.

00:34:36Guest:And that was it.

00:34:37Guest:I was like, oh, well, I just got permit.

00:34:39Guest:And then I never kind of never doubted it.

00:34:40Marc:That was the only real conversation you had with the guy you looked up to.

00:34:43Marc:Yes.

00:34:44Marc:So that was probably.

00:34:45Marc:So that was sort of like the equivalent of getting your nose.

00:34:47Marc:So you got my nose.

00:34:48Marc:Yeah.

00:34:49Marc:And he gave me a ton of cocaine.

00:34:51Marc:Oh, no, he didn't.

00:34:52Marc:fill that nose yeah and then you go to New York and then you realize like oh fuck this isn't this is hard yeah yeah yeah what were some of those gigs did you ever do any of the small theater things oh that's all I did with like okay this is where the girl gets naked for no reason was there any of that no but I do get mad when I go to theater and there's no nudity

00:35:12Guest:You know what I mean?

00:35:14Marc:Experimental theater, dude.

00:35:15Marc:There was some girl that was a friend of my cousin's.

00:35:17Marc:She was on stage in New York.

00:35:19Marc:My cousin tells me.

00:35:20Marc:And I go.

00:35:21Marc:And I know this girl.

00:35:22Marc:She's 14.

00:35:22Marc:And I think that the show is called Mud Angel.

00:35:26Marc:And I don't even know.

00:35:27Marc:You know what the fuck it was.

00:35:28Marc:But all I know at some point she was covered with mud and half nude.

00:35:32Marc:And, you know, I thought it was fine.

00:35:33Marc:But there's that.

00:35:34Marc:The weird thing to experimental theater is so much of it is bad.

00:35:37Marc:And no matter how good the actor is, you're sitting there going, oh, my God, they're trapped in this thing.

00:35:44Guest:But most of them, like I said, have drank the Kool-Aid and they think it's the best thing in the world.

00:35:48Marc:Did you ever do any of those really shitty shows?

00:35:49Guest:I did pretty much all the... I did a lot of Shakespeare when I first got to New York and it was all shitty.

00:35:55Guest:All small theater row, black box theaters.

00:35:58Guest:What is the point of Shakespeare after a certain... Well, that's the thing.

00:36:01Guest:I think I like it.

00:36:03Guest:I do like to watch it and listen to it.

00:36:04Guest:I don't know if I'd ever do it again because you know why people always like... They're always recasting Hamlet in like...

00:36:11Guest:yeah fucking roman times or the moon romeo juliet on the moon exactly laura you know two gentlemen of rona underwater fellow underwater yeah exactly and like it's because it's there's not a lot left to mine you know what i mean like everybody's figured it out i'm just an asshole because like i never had the intellectual fortitude or the interest or the perseverance to sort of read the

00:36:33Guest:to get it.

00:36:35Guest:I never would have because I was an English major as well, like I said, and I had to read a lot of these things and I could never get into it until I acted in them and then I kind of got it and I enjoyed it.

00:36:44Guest:I do enjoy it.

00:36:46Guest:Would you ever do it?

00:36:46Guest:You wouldn't do it again?

00:36:47Guest:I don't know, man.

00:36:48Guest:I might like, I don't know.

00:36:51Guest:I really don't know.

00:36:52Guest:Is it hard to memorize?

00:36:56Guest:No, because a lot of it's in iambic pentameter, which makes it very easy, actually.

00:37:02Guest:And you just do it over and over again.

00:37:04Guest:Now, where are you shooting this thing?

00:37:08Guest:We're shooting at an abandoned hospital on Riverside in Valley Village.

00:37:13Guest:Does it smell like a hospital?

00:37:14Guest:It doesn't smell like a hospital.

00:37:16Guest:It's freezing, and it's dirty.

00:37:18Guest:There's no heat?

00:37:20Guest:There's no heat.

00:37:20Guest:Oh, there's no power on?

00:37:22Guest:There's power, but there's no heat.

00:37:23Guest:This hasn't been a hospital since 1992 or three.

00:37:26Guest:It was the Scrubs Hospital, actually, where they shot Scrubs, and it's a shithole.

00:37:30Guest:And they're actually going to demolish it, I think, after this year.

00:37:34Guest:And our plan is to dress the hallways, put cameras in there, and shoot it being demolished so that we can eventually use it.

00:37:45Guest:This won't be for a while, but...

00:37:46Marc:Oh, that's great.

00:37:47Marc:That's our plan.

00:37:47Marc:Yeah, it was super cool.

00:37:48Marc:How many shows have you done?

00:37:50Marc:How do you structure it?

00:37:51Marc:Do you structure it in sketches or segments, or does each one have a narrative?

00:37:54Marc:I'm sorry, I'm not hip to it.

00:37:55Guest:No, no, we do... They're 11-minute shows and 15-minute blocks on Adult Swim, you know?

00:38:02Guest:And there is a... Yeah, there's no commercials, but there is an A, B, and C story, and we...

00:38:08Guest:It's mostly, though, like there's no real continuity.

00:38:11Guest:There's not a lot of character development or heart.

00:38:15Guest:No heart.

00:38:16Guest:It's really just whatever serves the jokes.

00:38:19Guest:It's like joke overload.

00:38:20Marc:And is that like a manifesto?

00:38:22Marc:I mean, do you say that to the rest of the class?

00:38:23Marc:That's kind of like the Bible, yeah.

00:38:25Marc:Like no heart?

00:38:26Guest:Well, no, the exec, the Adult Swim exec, who's a great guy, said to me once, like, I want to see more of the relationships here.

00:38:32Guest:And I was like, that's not the point.

00:38:34Guest:How about jokes?

00:38:35Guest:You want to see jokes?

00:38:35Guest:I could do jokes.

00:38:36Come on.

00:38:36Guest:I don't want to waste time on fucking relationships.

00:38:42Marc:Are you against any heart in your comedy in general?

00:38:45Marc:This, no.

00:38:46Guest:No, no, no.

00:38:46Guest:I actually appreciate heart in comedy, too.

00:38:49Marc:Because I thought, like, you know, my point of reference is hot tub, that you were sort of a sympathetic character.

00:38:53Marc:There was a lot of heart.

00:38:54Guest:For a movie called Hot Tub Time Machine, there was some heart.

00:38:57Marc:The odd thing about it is that the friendships, for some reason in that movie, were more believable than some movies that are based on friendships.

00:39:04Marc:That was really a secondary thing.

00:39:06Marc:But there was something about... Because Craig Robinson is such a generous comedic talent in a weird way.

00:39:13Marc:He's a big presence, but he's very porous and emotionally available somehow.

00:39:18Marc:No, he really is.

00:39:19Marc:You're right.

00:39:19Marc:And Cusack is the same way.

00:39:21Marc:So it actually, for some reason, when you watch forced buddy movies, you're like, oh, my God, there's no fucking way these guys are friends.

00:39:28Marc:But somehow or another, you kind of bought it with that thing after a certain point.

00:39:31Guest:We were also friends, too.

00:39:32Guest:Those are good guys.

00:39:32Guest:Like, if you know Craig, like, he's just the sweetest guy in the world.

00:39:35Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, he's great.

00:39:36Marc:Yeah, he forgets to do my podcast twice.

00:39:38Marc:But, I mean, outside of that, I get those emails like, oh, man, I'm sorry, I forgot to...

00:39:44Guest:and then I just stopped calling him but he's a very funny guy but Kuzak too nice guy nice guy yeah I mean you know he's been a star since he was fucking eight so he's just that kind of guy I mean I'm not saying he's like arrogant or anything like that he's just like he's been a star for a long time and I think that messes with you a little bit but yeah good guy and your brother's an actor yep how did that happen

00:40:07Guest:uh well he's younger than me he was my i was you know riding your coattails no he would never ride my coattails but he would definitely was like did it when he was young did it because i was doing it uh-huh uh and you're the only two in the family no we have a sister what'd she end up um she's a housewife yeah boston yeah raising two kids i can't believe you come from boston man yeah how old are you

00:40:32Marc:i'll be 40 in february so you knew like like when it was great i mean i i mean i was there back when whitey baljo was there yeah sure yeah yeah when they ran the place yeah salty oh yeah yeah oh shit yeah oh yeah no i went to college there from i was there from 81 you know and through you know to 88 where'd you go to college their colleges there in boston a couple a couple yeah they're hard to find but if you look them up like if you google boston colleges

00:40:57Marc:You'll get something.

00:40:59Marc:Google breaks.

00:41:01Marc:No, but there was a period there where I lived in Boston.

00:41:04Marc:And there was like a year where I developed such a deep resentment and fear of the Boston townie that I could barely function.

00:41:11Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:41:11Guest:Well, you were there at 81.

00:41:13Guest:I mean.

00:41:13Marc:81, 82.

00:41:15Marc:I think it was like right around when Belushi died, I decided the Irish were against me.

00:41:19Marc:They are.

00:41:20Marc:Yeah.

00:41:21Marc:Oh, they are.

00:41:21Marc:And I used to have to go do... But years later, I would go out to Falmouth.

00:41:26Marc:I'd go to Yarmouth.

00:41:27Marc:I'd go to Lemonster.

00:41:28Marc:I'd go to Amesbury.

00:41:29Guest:Different state.

00:41:30Guest:All those towns, they're like, if it's outside of Route 495, different state.

00:41:36Guest:There's a type of whiteness in New England that is just baffling.

00:41:39Guest:Right?

00:41:39Guest:I can't... It's so funny to me.

00:41:42Guest:When I...

00:41:43Guest:started to become aware of politics or whatever, then I was told, I discovered that Massachusetts is one of these very staunch blue states.

00:41:55Guest:I had no idea.

00:41:56Guest:It's a blue state, which is good, but it's also a white state.

00:41:59Guest:It's the most racist place in the world.

00:42:02Guest:Socially, even though they've legalized gay marriage,

00:42:06Guest:So backwards, so close-minded.

00:42:08Marc:Well, there's this cluster.

00:42:09Marc:When you're in Boston, you're like, well, Cambridge is... Yeah, but that's it.

00:42:13Marc:That's it.

00:42:14Marc:I mean, it's the only city in the world where you're like, where'd they put the black people?

00:42:18Guest:Well, the black people lived in Dorchester.

00:42:21Guest:Mattapan.

00:42:22Guest:Or Mattapan.

00:42:23Guest:Or way out there.

00:42:24Guest:Roxbury.

00:42:25Marc:Roxbury, right.

00:42:26Marc:Yeah.

00:42:26Marc:But it took me a long time to realize, like, the student population is transient.

00:42:31Marc:The indigenous population is a little frightening.

00:42:34Guest:Well, look, I grew up in Weymouth.

00:42:35Guest:It's basically like a wannabe Southie, which was all Irish Catholic.

00:42:39Guest:What are you?

00:42:40Guest:I'm Protestant, you know, very, you know, Western European.

00:42:46Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:42:47Guest:What kind of name is Cordray?

00:42:48Guest:Cordray is French Huguenot, so really just English and Scottish and Irish.

00:42:54Guest:But I was a minority being Protestant there, and I didn't meet a Jew until college, for real.

00:43:03Marc:Did you feel his head?

00:43:05Marc:You're like, where's the horn?

00:43:07Marc:What are you?

00:43:07Marc:So exotic.

00:43:09Yeah.

00:43:10Marc:That's my friend David Weintraub.

00:43:14Marc:He's from another planet.

00:43:15Marc:Really?

00:43:17Guest:Did not meet a Jew.

00:43:18Guest:We had two black people in my high school, and I graduated with a class of 240, so there's...

00:43:25Guest:Two black people.

00:43:26Marc:But in the movie Hot Tub Time Machine, that type of townie that's like, you fucking asshole.

00:43:32Marc:The stuff that you would see wandering around Kenmore Square, that these people that would come in from the suburbs, it was terrifying.

00:43:39Marc:They are terrifying people.

00:43:40Marc:What is that?

00:43:41Guest:It's just alcohol and Irish?

00:43:44Guest:Very Irish.

00:43:45Guest:It's cold eight months out of the year.

00:43:47Guest:Beyond that, I really don't know.

00:43:52Guest:They're very sarcastic people.

00:43:55Guest:But oftentimes not as funny as they think they are.

00:43:58Guest:And that's a recipe for, you know, just bad times.

00:44:02Marc:But you didn't have any fights or anything?

00:44:03Guest:Oh, yeah.

00:44:04Guest:Fuck yeah.

00:44:04Guest:Were you a fighter?

00:44:05Guest:No.

00:44:06Guest:Oh.

00:44:06Guest:But everybody gets in fights.

00:44:09Guest:I was jumped a lot at parties by some guy that just decided he didn't like me.

00:44:14Yeah.

00:44:14Guest:You know, a lot of that.

00:44:17Guest:College, too.

00:44:18Guest:I mean, Massachusetts is- It's just fucking bizarre.

00:44:21Guest:It's rough.

00:44:21Guest:And I'm not a good fighter.

00:44:23Guest:I would be the guy kind of on the outskirts of the fight, looking at my peripheral, not wanting to throw a punch or get punched.

00:44:30Guest:And then after, I'd be lying about all the punches I threw.

00:44:33Yeah.

00:44:33Marc:You hung around with guys that fought?

00:44:35Guest:Oh, shit, we got into some shit.

00:44:38Guest:Dude, I can't tell you how many times fucking Rudy from South Weymouth would come to Dave's pool and be like, you guys, we need backup over Weymouth Landon.

00:44:50Guest:Guys from fucking Hang'em are down there, dude.

00:44:55Guest:They fucking stole Smitty's sneakers.

00:45:00Guest:They stole his fucking shell toes.

00:45:02Guest:We gotta get them.

00:45:04Marc:Yeah, it's important.

00:45:05Guest:Oh, God, really?

00:45:07Really?

00:45:07Guest:Okay, I'm into this.

00:45:09Marc:Yeah, let's go.

00:45:10Marc:Whose car are we taking?

00:45:12Guest:To this day, I've just... Now, what led to the Daily Show thing?

00:45:17Guest:I was doing comedy.

00:45:19Guest:I was doing improv at the UCB Theater in New York.

00:45:24Guest:It started to become like Second City or the Groundlings.

00:45:27Guest:It started to be a place where Lorne Michaels would come.

00:45:30Marc:Which one, UCB?

00:45:32Guest:UCB.

00:45:32Guest:Yeah.

00:45:33Guest:Yeah, the old theater on 22nd Street.

00:45:34Marc:I remember that with the weird chairs.

00:45:36Marc:Yeah, you performed there a couple times.

00:45:37Marc:Yeah, I did, yeah.

00:45:38Marc:I saw you there a couple times.

00:45:39Marc:They didn't have some, what was it?

00:45:40Marc:They were like airport waiting room chairs or they got a deal.

00:45:43Marc:That's exactly right.

00:45:43Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:45:44Guest:I remember that.

00:45:45Guest:And it used to be a porno theater.

00:45:46Guest:It used to be a strip club, the Harmony.

00:45:48Marc:Right, and Matt Walsh lived upstairs.

00:45:49Marc:Yes, that's right.

00:45:50Marc:Yeah, I remember.

00:45:51Guest:That's right.

00:45:53Guest:And like drunk Asian and Hasidic guys would come in at like midnight thinking it was still a comedy.

00:45:59Marc:Oh, a strip club.

00:46:01Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:46:01Marc:That's hilarious.

00:46:02Guest:Leave after like two minutes.

00:46:04Marc:This is not sexy at all.

00:46:05Marc:It so wasn't sexy.

00:46:06Marc:Yeah, that guy was just yelling at me.

00:46:07Marc:Exactly.

00:46:08Marc:There was three of them up there.

00:46:09Marc:No one took their clothes off.

00:46:11Marc:That girl's funny.

00:46:13Marc:What?

00:46:14Marc:Who wants that?

00:46:15Marc:So did John see or did you just go in and audition for the correspondent thing?

00:46:20Marc:Because I remember I auditioned for one at some point in time.

00:46:22Guest:No, me, how was it?

00:46:24Guest:No, I auditioned.

00:46:25Guest:But yeah, but it was definitely from performing so much.

00:46:27Guest:The casting director, it was Liz Lewis.

00:46:30Guest:I know Liz.

00:46:30Guest:Liz Lewis was, you know, and I was starting to do commercials and stuff at that point.

00:46:34Guest:So I knew her and she knew the UCB and she was destined to make, determined to make all those guys stars.

00:46:38Marc:Liz Lewis has been saying this about me for 20, 20 years.

00:46:41Marc:If you, and this is very common, you mentioned my name around certain people that go, oh, I love Marc Maron.

00:46:47Marc:But that's it.

00:46:49Marc:The love never translated into work or casting of any kind.

00:46:52Guest:Well, you're not like the face of Domino's.

00:46:54Marc:No.

00:46:55Marc:You know what I mean?

00:46:56Guest:Yeah.

00:46:57Guest:Did you do a lot of commercial work?

00:46:58Marc:No, I didn't go out for them very often.

00:47:01Marc:I did one commercial and made a little money.

00:47:03Marc:Did one commercial and I frightened children.

00:47:06Marc:It was a sprint commercial, a small part.

00:47:08Marc:But no, I never found myself represented in a way that I went out very often.

00:47:12Marc:And I don't think I had the right attitude about it.

00:47:15Marc:I bet not.

00:47:16Marc:Yeah, I just, like, I couldn't, I have a hard time going out for sitcoms.

00:47:19Marc:You know, there's part of me that thinks, like, I've spent 25 years working on a voice, crafting jokes, and you want this poop to come out of my mouth?

00:47:27Guest:Exactly, exactly.

00:47:28Marc:You did how many commercials?

00:47:29Marc:Did you do a lot of commercials?

00:47:30Guest:I did a shitload back in, like, yeah, about 96, 97.

00:47:35Guest:Like, which one?

00:47:36Guest:Yeah.

00:47:36Guest:Well, the one that you may have seen, and this is kind of funny.

00:47:40Guest:This was in 2001, actually.

00:47:41Guest:It was one of those 1-800-Call-ATT commercials with Carrot Top.

00:47:45Guest:Right, yeah.

00:47:45Guest:And this was the one where he commandeers a double-decker tour bus in New York.

00:47:50Guest:And I'm the tour guide, and he takes the mic from me and tells people about the benefits of dialing down the center.

00:47:55Guest:And they took it off the air.

00:47:58Guest:It was going to be a huge spot.

00:47:59Guest:And I was like, oh, this is going to pay my rent for a year, right?

00:48:02Guest:Yeah.

00:48:02Guest:And then they took it off.

00:48:04Guest:They pulled it after 9-11 because he hijacked, quote unquote, a bus.

00:48:10Marc:Oh, man.

00:48:11Guest:They were like, nope.

00:48:13Marc:So your first thought after the towers went down was like, great.

00:48:16Marc:Great.

00:48:16Marc:How is this going to affect me?

00:48:19Marc:Yeah.

00:48:19Marc:in my commercial career but this weird with commercials because if you get in and you do the run then you're running with him for a while you're like the guy i never had one oh i did have one for like advanced auto parts or something where i did like six but that was like a regional no memorable funny ones no nothing good no all right so let's talk dirt about the daily show because you were on what the second or third season i mean you were there early right yeah

00:48:41Guest:I was there during the 2004 election, which was a big one for The Daily Show.

00:48:49Guest:Right, oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:48:51Guest:They had already been on for a while, but it was John's fourth or fifth year.

00:48:55Marc:Yeah, and now that situation, what was the working situation there?

00:48:59Guest:Oh, it was awesome.

00:49:00Guest:It was like me and Ed Helms got hired at the same time.

00:49:03Guest:He's huge too now.

00:49:04Marc:Huge.

00:49:06Marc:Crazy.

00:49:07Marc:It's unbelievable to me.

00:49:08Marc:He's a sweet guy.

00:49:09Marc:He's still a nice guy.

00:49:10Marc:Great guy.

00:49:10Marc:Between the two of you guys, I say this to Dave Cross, I always get into trouble.

00:49:16Marc:I've said it to Dave Cross over and over again because I've known him for years and I literally say to him, who would have known you?

00:49:23Marc:And I never at the moment I say it think that it's insulting.

00:49:27Yeah.

00:49:27Marc:You of all people.

00:49:30Marc:And he always looks at me and goes, I knew.

00:49:31Marc:And I'm like, there was no indication when you were shuffled off stage so you wouldn't get hurt.

00:49:38Marc:That's funny.

00:49:39Marc:So that was a strong crew.

00:49:40Marc:But what was the dynamic?

00:49:43Marc:I don't ever really want to get dirt on John, but there was never any tension.

00:49:47Marc:It wasn't dictatorial.

00:49:48Guest:No, no, no.

00:49:49Guest:No, he was a great, great boss.

00:49:51Marc:And you would generate your own material?

00:49:53Marc:Yep.

00:49:54Guest:Is that how it worked?

00:49:54Guest:Well, you know, the stuff in the studio, the chats with John or the fake location stuff, that would be largely written by the writers.

00:50:02Guest:Right.

00:50:04Guest:But the stuff where we went out, the field pieces where we went and interviewed people, that was... Yeah, we and a producer would produce those and write those and do all that.

00:50:13Guest:And that was like...

00:50:14Guest:The fun slash really kind of soul-crushing part of the job.

00:50:18Guest:Because basically it was just like our job was to make fun of people.

00:50:20Guest:Right.

00:50:21Guest:Really earnest people.

00:50:22Marc:Right.

00:50:23Marc:And you would sit there and interview them.

00:50:24Marc:Never heard of one.

00:50:25Marc:Yeah.

00:50:25Marc:Did they not know?

00:50:26Marc:Because sometimes I don't watch the Daily Show a lot, but they know what they're getting into if they obviously do the show.

00:50:31Marc:But some of that stuff happened in the editing, right?

00:50:33Marc:They never... No.

00:50:34Guest:And that's a... The thing is, is that it... I don't know how they do it now, but we used to only have one camera on the shoots.

00:50:41Guest:They could only afford one camera.

00:50:43Guest:Right.

00:50:43Guest:So it was very edited in that once I was done asking all my questions, and these interviews were like three hours long, they would turn the camera back on me and I would just re-ask all the questions.

00:50:54Guest:Okay.

00:50:55Guest:So sometimes I would play with tone.

00:50:57Guest:Right.

00:50:57Guest:And my questions would seem a lot harsher than they did the first time.

00:51:01Guest:Right.

00:51:02Guest:And then you noticed a shift in people because nobody thinks that Jon Stewart is going to disagree with them.

00:51:06Guest:Right.

00:51:07Guest:You know what I mean?

00:51:07Guest:Yeah.

00:51:08Guest:Everybody likes Jon Stewart.

00:51:08Guest:They're like, well, he's obviously on my side.

00:51:10Guest:Yeah.

00:51:10Guest:So I'm going to tell my story and tell it honestly.

00:51:12Guest:But then they kind of have when it's too late is when they start understanding our take on them.

00:51:18Guest:And you can see the blood just drain from their faces.

00:51:20Marc:Like, do you have any moments that you felt like like because I've been in situations like that where, you know, that all of a sudden it's become tense.

00:51:28Guest:It's happened so much, man.

00:51:30Marc:That all of a sudden they realize in the middle of the joke.

00:51:34Marc:Is that what it is?

00:51:35Guest:Yeah.

00:51:35Guest:Well, it's like a doctor.

00:51:36Guest:We had a doctor.

00:51:37Guest:We just had to get basically we were like, all we need from you is you're the voice of reason.

00:51:42Guest:We need to go to a doctor.

00:51:44Guest:Basically, our piece was voting can kill you.

00:51:47Guest:People say vote or die, but voting can actually kill you because there's a lot of germs in the voting booth.

00:51:51Guest:That was our bit, right?

00:51:53Guest:Yeah.

00:51:53Guest:So we actually went to a guy that studies germs and he did a test on a voting booth and told us about how much staff he found in there and how much poo-poo was actually in the voting booth.

00:52:03Guest:Was there a lot?

00:52:04Guest:There's enough to make you kind of creep.

00:52:07Guest:That was in New York back in the old curtain days with the huge handle machines.

00:52:12Guest:And this guy was like, yeah, he kind of hated us after a while.

00:52:16Guest:Yeah.

00:52:17Guest:He literally said to me too, and it's a daily show dream when people actually entertain your ridiculous questions and answer them honestly.

00:52:26Guest:I said, can you inoculate yourself?

00:52:30Guest:So there's a lot of feces material found in this voting booth.

00:52:33Guest:Can you inoculate yourself by eating your own crap?

00:52:39Guest:And he just stared at me for a while, and he kind of looked away and thought about it, and then he goes...

00:52:45Guest:As humans, we are literally bathed in feces.

00:52:50Guest:You could spoon eat.

00:52:54Guest:Human feces with no deleterious effect.

00:52:57Guest:And I said, and how would you prepare that?

00:53:00Guest:And he was like, get out.

00:53:02Guest:Oh, really?

00:53:02Guest:No, he didn't, no.

00:53:03Guest:He was jokey about it, like, but he really wanted it to be over.

00:53:07Marc:You know?

00:53:09Marc:That's fucking hilarious.

00:53:12Marc:Now, all right.

00:53:13Marc:So then you do The Daily Show, and now this, how does adult swim work?

00:53:17Marc:And who should I call?

00:53:19Marc:Ah!

00:53:20Guest:You know what?

00:53:21Marc:I've met those guys.

00:53:22Marc:They're good guys.

00:53:23Guest:They're great.

00:53:24Guest:And we were in a very low stakes bidding war between Adult Swim and Comedy Central.

00:53:28Marc:And Adult Swim, I just realized- We'll get you a food tray.

00:53:32Guest:Yeah.

00:53:34Guest:The money was comparable, but it was like, Adult Swim literally will let us do anything.

00:53:39Guest:And Comedy Central, they're not as cool with that.

00:53:43Marc:And it seems like the Adult Swim is a little more loyal anyways.

00:53:45Marc:I mean, it seems like with Comedy Central, like, thank you for the five episodes.

00:53:50Marc:That's true.

00:53:50Marc:We're going to think about it for a couple of years.

00:53:52Marc:Yeah.

00:53:53Marc:Yeah.

00:53:53Marc:It seems like Adult Swim, they're willing to let people go as far as they want to go and they'll keep it around.

00:53:59Marc:Yeah.

00:54:00Marc:If it's good.

00:54:00Marc:Yep.

00:54:01Marc:And who are the people you're working with?

00:54:02Guest:Well, in the cast?

00:54:04Guest:Yeah.

00:54:04Guest:Well, I'm producing it with David Wayne.

00:54:08Guest:Oh, really?

00:54:08Guest:And a guy named John Stern.

00:54:09Guest:And the cast is Lake Bell, Rob Hubel, Ken Marino, Mullen Ackerman, Henry Winkler, and Megan Mullally.

00:54:19Yeah.

00:54:19Marc:What's it like working with Winkler?

00:54:21Marc:Great, man.

00:54:22Marc:Really?

00:54:22Guest:It's the fucking Fonz.

00:54:23Marc:I know, but does he get sick of that?

00:54:26Guest:Oh, we've written some Fonzie jokes that never really made it in because they've all been done by Arrested Development.

00:54:33Guest:Right.

00:54:34Guest:But he's game for it.

00:54:35Marc:Yeah.

00:54:35Guest:But he's like, if you find a fresh one, I'll do it.

00:54:38Guest:But it just doesn't exist right now.

00:54:39Marc:What kind of guy is he, though?

00:54:42Guest:He's one of those guys that lives up to his Sterling reputation.

00:54:46Guest:You know what I mean?

00:54:47Guest:Just the sweetest...

00:54:49Marc:coolest it's weird that like when someone like that like who was part of my childhood on some level and then like there was that period where he did the serious movies and it was impossible to to really accept him there was a movie he did was it called heroes or something where he played a vietnam vet and i just remember it's just impossible for me to but then like he he hung around long enough and he got older and he's got a sense of humor and a little humility about his past and he knows that he's never going to be able to fully shed that thing and

00:55:17Marc:And he seems like he's okay with it.

00:55:19Marc:He's at peace with it.

00:55:20Guest:Right.

00:55:20Guest:Well, you know, it's like back then, you know, like Leonard Nimoy wrote that book in the 70s, I Am Not Spock.

00:55:26Guest:Yeah.

00:55:26Guest:And then when he got older, he literally wrote another book called, like, Okay, I Am Spock.

00:55:31Marc:Like, you're right.

00:55:32Marc:You know, that was all right.

00:55:33Guest:That was cool.

00:55:33Marc:Yeah.

00:55:34Marc:Yeah.

00:55:34Marc:Now you're married to someone in the business?

00:55:36Guest:No.

00:55:36Guest:Well, actually she is in the business now.

00:55:38Guest:She's a speech pathologist, you know, speech therapist.

00:55:42Guest:She was basically like helping brain injured patients how to swallow again when I met her.

00:55:48Guest:And now she's a dialect coach.

00:55:51Guest:For actors.

00:55:52Guest:Wow.

00:55:53Marc:Yeah.

00:55:53Marc:So she paid her dues in teaching brain injured people.

00:55:57Marc:Exactly.

00:55:57Marc:And now she's.

00:55:58Marc:She got her chops.

00:56:00Marc:Exactly.

00:56:00Marc:And now she's up there.

00:56:01Marc:She's moved up.

00:56:02Guest:She's basically just like stealing money from studios.

00:56:06Marc:I need help.

00:56:07Marc:I have L problems and S problems.

00:56:11Guest:But, you know, wouldn't you consider that part of your thing, though?

00:56:18Marc:Well, it has to now.

00:56:19Marc:I mean, I wouldn't say it's a signature.

00:56:21Guest:No, no, that's not what I mean.

00:56:22Guest:But I mean, like.

00:56:23Marc:Yeah, I can live with it.

00:56:24Marc:Yeah.

00:56:24Marc:But when I do voiceover auditions or something, I become very aware of the fact that I can't say an L properly.

00:56:30Marc:Right.

00:56:31Marc:And then I do it worse because I say L's with my throat and I don't go la.

00:56:36Marc:I go la.

00:56:36Marc:So it's really a wah.

00:56:38Marc:Right, right, right.

00:56:39Guest:Like it's lazy.

00:56:39Guest:It's like Dan Rather.

00:56:41Guest:Almost.

00:56:41Guest:Doesn't he do that?

00:56:42Guest:But yeah, okay.

00:56:43Guest:Or Tom Brokaw?

00:56:44Guest:Which one of those?

00:56:45Marc:Both of those made me feel better.

00:56:46Marc:It doesn't matter.

00:56:47Marc:Peter Jennings, one of those dudes.

00:56:49Marc:One of them had a speech impediment?

00:56:50Marc:Tom Brokaw.

00:56:51Marc:But the real issue is that would I fix it?

00:56:54Marc:Am I going to spend time and sit here by myself with my microphone going, la, la, la, la?

00:57:00Marc:No.

00:57:00Guest:It takes...

00:57:01Guest:third graders a whole year to like get rid of a lisp it would somebody that's been doing a list for 40 or so years like yeah i think so right like i i'd probably be i think we have to uh own our yeah do you have any speech things anything i talk i i

00:57:21Guest:I find myself very nasally.

00:57:23Guest:I don't have an accent, but I'm a little nasally.

00:57:25Marc:Yeah, you seem pretty well-adjusted.

00:57:27Guest:You have children that you're not making a mess of?

00:57:29Guest:No, they seem to be doing all right.

00:57:30Guest:Although, I'm a little neurotic, and I can see it in my older daughter.

00:57:35Guest:She's worried a lot.

00:57:37Guest:Oh, really?

00:57:37Guest:She worries.

00:57:37Guest:Are you worried?

00:57:38Guest:Yeah, I'm a little.

00:57:39Marc:Really?

00:57:40Guest:I'm better now.

00:57:40Guest:Do you freak out?

00:57:41Guest:Not as much as I used to, because now, because since I've had kids, it's something very important that is external to me that I can worry, that I can concentrate on.

00:57:54Guest:I'm not as selfish as I used to be.

00:57:55Marc:Right, well, that happens, but when I picture, I don't have kids, and clearly because it wasn't a priority.

00:58:00Marc:Yeah.

00:58:01Marc:And I think that the way my second wife put it was, you think I'm bringing children into this?

00:58:06Marc:But...

00:58:09Marc:But I am such a panic-ridden person.

00:58:12Marc:I don't know how the hell you don't freak out all the time.

00:58:15Guest:I had a hard time, man.

00:58:17Guest:The first two years were really... It was a big adjustment.

00:58:20Guest:Like, did you drive your wife crazy?

00:58:22Marc:It's like, is that okay?

00:58:23Marc:Should we turn them on her side?

00:58:25Guest:Well, not so much that kind of stuff, because I definitely trusted my wife with all that stuff, that she knew what she was doing.

00:58:30Guest:But it was more like...

00:58:32Guest:just adjusting the fact, like, kids are boring.

00:58:35Guest:Uh-huh.

00:58:35Guest:They're really, really, like, spending a whole day with a child, with a two-year-old, and I don't care how much you love this person.

00:58:42Guest:Yeah.

00:58:43Guest:It's fucking boring.

00:58:44Guest:Yeah.

00:58:45Guest:You know what I mean?

00:58:46Guest:In what way?

00:58:46Guest:Like, yes, we can play with the crayon again.

00:58:48Guest:Yeah, we'll read this really horrible book again.

00:58:51Guest:Yeah.

00:58:52Guest:And, uh,

00:58:53Guest:um, play Zingo.

00:58:55Marc:Yeah.

00:58:56Marc:You know, I mean, so your concern was like, is this going to, am I ever going to have a good time?

00:59:00Guest:Yeah.

00:59:01Guest:Like when does this become fun?

00:59:03Guest:You know, and, and, and it took like two hours to get her down to bed a couple of times.

00:59:07Guest:She went through this period where she was just scared to death.

00:59:09Guest:And I was like, Oh, this is like two hours out of my day is spent like fighting this child into bed.

00:59:15Guest:And,

00:59:16Guest:Oh, horrible.

00:59:18Marc:But your fear was ultimately like you would end up like resenting your child or just like.

00:59:23Marc:Yes.

00:59:24Guest:No, not resenting.

00:59:25Guest:But my fear, my biggest fear was that I was not appreciating this beautiful thing in the moment that I was mostly just like, oh, fuck, work's over.

00:59:35Guest:I got to go home and clean up after these children, you know.

00:59:39Guest:But I relaxed a little bit and now I'm enjoying myself.

00:59:43Guest:Thank God.

00:59:43Guest:Well, also, we've turned a corner.

00:59:45Guest:I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old.

00:59:46Guest:And now that the two-year-old, we're potty training her.

00:59:48Guest:Yeah.

00:59:49Guest:They can drive in cars for long distances.

00:59:53Guest:Right.

00:59:54Guest:So it's a lot easier than it was.

00:59:57Marc:Louis C.K., because a lot of times he gets criticized.

01:00:01Marc:I know you listened to the episode with Louis.

01:00:05Marc:Yeah.

01:00:06Marc:But he gets criticized sometimes for the way he handles his kids.

01:00:09Marc:Yeah.

01:00:09Marc:In the sense that, but not by many people.

01:00:14Marc:But I've talked to some parents who are like, you will hurt on kids.

01:00:17Guest:I can imagine the people that don't get it are really offended by it.

01:00:20Guest:But that's what I really like.

01:00:23Guest:That first special he had on HBO, I've never heard anybody really... Well, by the way, he's the best at...

01:00:32Guest:really, really crystallizing and making light of his really most embarrassing feelings.

01:00:41Marc:Yeah.

01:00:41Marc:You know what I mean?

01:00:42Marc:Well, that's what it's about.

01:00:43Guest:That's what it's... Yeah.

01:00:43Guest:It doesn't mean you act on those things.

01:00:45Marc:No, exactly.

01:00:46Guest:But, like, he really, like, it was the crystallization of everything.

01:00:52Guest:My worst, most embarrassing fears about my kids.

01:00:54Guest:Like...

01:00:55Guest:you know, that they can be assholes.

01:00:58Guest:You know what I mean?

01:00:59Guest:And it's okay to like, it feels so good, so cathartic listening to his bits about children because we've all felt that way.

01:01:06Guest:But it's the biggest taboo to admit it.

01:01:08Marc:Yeah, they can be very mean and they can hurt your feelings.

01:01:12Yeah.

01:01:12Guest:But also, he did that joke about the dog.

01:01:15Guest:Like, Mommy, I saw a doggy today.

01:01:17Guest:And he says, Louie says, oh, really?

01:01:19Guest:Where?

01:01:20Guest:And she goes, I was talking to Mommy.

01:01:21Guest:And I think his bit was like, fuck you.

01:01:24Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:01:24Guest:Like, I'm a comedian.

01:01:26Guest:I got way better stories.

01:01:28Guest:And that's like, it's every second when you're with a kid.

01:01:31Guest:You just want to be like, if I could explain to you why you're being such a jerk right now.

01:01:36Marc:Yeah.

01:01:36Marc:So, now, I forgot that you were in W, which I kind of... I like Oliver Stone movies only because there's always good shit in them because he's so crazy.

01:01:47Marc:Yeah.

01:01:47Marc:How much did you have to work with him?

01:01:49Guest:I mean, like... A lot.

01:01:50Guest:I was there a lot.

01:01:50Guest:Like, I didn't have a big role, but Ari Fleischer is always in the background of those big roundtable scenes.

01:01:57Guest:So, no, he was a very nice guy, but...

01:02:00Guest:A weirdo, complete weirdo.

01:02:03Guest:And I had a sort of lost in translation moment with him where, you know, when you rap on a movie or a show, they'll be like, Mark, that's a rap on Marc Maron, everybody, and everybody will clap.

01:02:15Guest:And it's a very kind of weird, embarrassing moment.

01:02:18Guest:And I...

01:02:20Guest:I rapped on the same day as Scott Glenn, Richard Dreyfuss, Josh Brolin.

01:02:26Guest:All the heavy hitters were rapping too.

01:02:29Guest:So there was raucous applause.

01:02:31Guest:And Oliver was just going through the names.

01:02:34Guest:Oh, it was actually the first AD.

01:02:35Guest:Going through the names.

01:02:36Guest:And everybody was applauding.

01:02:37Guest:And Oliver went from person to person and gave everybody a hug.

01:02:41Guest:And he got to me, and he gave me a hug, and he whispered something in my ear.

01:02:45Guest:Yeah.

01:02:46Guest:And people were applauding so loudly that I didn't hear what he said.

01:02:50Guest:And he moved on.

01:02:52Guest:And I was like, fuck.

01:02:55Guest:Because you can't ask him to repeat himself.

01:02:57Guest:And that's over.

01:02:58Guest:That moment is over.

01:02:59Guest:And I will never, to this day, I will never, ever know what Oliver Stone, the director of Platoon, said to me.

01:03:09Guest:And it could have been like, you're the best actor I've ever seen in my life.

01:03:15Guest:Hopefully.

01:03:17Guest:Or, yeah.

01:03:19Guest:You're fooling yourself.

01:03:21Guest:I'm Oliver Stone.

01:03:23Guest:Maybe that was it.

01:03:23Guest:I hope it's something like that.

01:03:24Guest:I'm Oliver Stone.

01:03:26Guest:Just to remind you.

01:03:28Marc:I'm fucking Oliver Stone.

01:03:30Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:03:31Marc:It's like, you know.

01:03:32Guest:I carried you through this whole movie.

01:03:34Guest:You didn't do anything.

01:03:35Guest:He goes like this.

01:03:36Guest:So I auditioned for it.

01:03:37Guest:I casted you for your appearance.

01:03:38Guest:He's such a weirdo.

01:03:39Guest:I had an audition for him.

01:03:40Guest:Yeah.

01:03:41Guest:And I thought this is the worst casting ever to cast me.

01:03:44Guest:I was only really known from The Daily Show at the time in this.

01:03:47Guest:It's very stunty.

01:03:49Guest:If anybody knows who I am, it's very stunty to cast me in a very left wing movie very much against the Bush administration or so we thought it was going to be.

01:03:59Guest:It really wasn't.

01:04:00Guest:but uh oh to cast you as a conservative very strange it would take people out of it or whatever yeah um and just come ask somebody that's known as a comedian but uh he casted Richard Dreyfuss as Dick Cheney I mean so weird yeah so weird but he goes uh so in the thing I go he goes uh now I'd been on The Daily Show for years I'd you know drank and slept the Bush administration right and he goes uh so the part is uh Ari Fleischer Ari Fleischer was um you know

01:04:28Guest:one of President Bush's secretaries, press secretaries.

01:04:32Guest:And Ari's, and I go, no, no, no, I know who he is.

01:04:34Guest:I know who he is.

01:04:35Guest:He goes, you know him?

01:04:35Guest:You went to college with him?

01:04:37Guest:I'm like, whoa, whoa, what?

01:04:40Guest:How did you get to, how were we all of a sudden frat brothers?

01:04:43Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:04:44Guest:From I know who he is.

01:04:46Guest:And so that's like, he's definitely like having a different conversation than you're having with him.

01:04:50Marc:And you're working with my former intern kind of?

01:04:54Marc:Ashley?

01:04:55Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:04:56Marc:Yes, she's my assistant.

01:04:58Marc:Yeah, that's amazing.

01:04:59Marc:How's that feel for you, to have an assistant?

01:05:03Guest:I'm really cocky about it.

01:05:05Marc:Are you?

01:05:06Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:05:07Marc:Very demanding.

01:05:09Guest:You can get away with anything as long as you say thank you and please.

01:05:12Marc:Really anything.

01:05:13Marc:Would you just walk around the building a couple times?

01:05:16Guest:Exactly.

01:05:17Guest:Go down to my car and then come back.

01:05:19Guest:Do you want me to get you anything?

01:05:21Guest:Nope.

01:05:22Guest:Could you please do that?

01:05:23Guest:Please?

01:05:24Guest:I'll be watching from the window.

01:05:25Guest:Exactly.

01:05:26Guest:And then wave at me.

01:05:26Marc:I'm going to quiz you.

01:05:27Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:05:28Marc:Wave at me.

01:05:29Guest:It is pretty fantastic having an assistant.

01:05:31Guest:I'm not going to lie.

01:05:32Marc:And is it full time?

01:05:33Guest:Because I got t-shirts that need to be.

01:05:35Marc:All right.

01:05:35Marc:Well, I'll do it myself.

01:05:37Guest:Wait, are you asking me to be your assistant?

01:05:39Guest:I don't want to do that.

01:05:41Marc:Not applying for that job.

01:05:45Marc:Did you ever do shitty jobs like that?

01:05:48Guest:Oh, yeah, fuck yeah, but not in the business.

01:05:49Guest:I was more like a tempt a lot.

01:05:52Guest:I did wait.

01:05:52Marc:I love the fucking temp stories.

01:05:54Marc:I like when people temp.

01:05:55Marc:It's just so fucking hilarious.

01:05:59Marc:Awful, man.

01:06:00Marc:I don't know how the fuck people hire temps because they know they're not going to be there for a while.

01:06:04Marc:I mean, it's got to be like...

01:06:05Guest:I faked it really well.

01:06:07Guest:They really thought, I got a lot of jobs.

01:06:09Guest:They would hire me after camping for a couple days because I was really, I was a good, I faked it.

01:06:14Guest:But then I would never stay at a job for over a year because I never wanted to get comfortable.

01:06:20Guest:And literally at the end of a year, if it even got that long, I would get myself fired so I can collect unemployment.

01:06:26Guest:And I remember I worked for Golden Sacks.

01:06:28Guest:I was the assistant to the general counsel.

01:06:30Guest:Was it all your fault that happened?

01:06:32Guest:Yeah.

01:06:33Guest:Oh, man.

01:06:33Guest:Well, some shit went down there.

01:06:35Guest:Those people were shady.

01:06:36Guest:Yeah.

01:06:37Guest:And I remember it came to a year, and one day when my boss was watching, I put my feet up on my desk, fired the next day.

01:06:44Guest:Really?

01:06:44Guest:Yep.

01:06:45Guest:That's all it took.

01:06:46Guest:And that was it?

01:06:46Guest:Oh, he was a douche.

01:06:48Guest:He was a huge douchebag.

01:06:50Guest:And you got your unemployment.

01:06:51Guest:Yeah.

01:06:51Guest:I knew that's what would do it for him.

01:06:53Guest:He was already like, I just don't like this kid, but I got nothing to fire him for.

01:06:56Guest:I gave him an excuse, and he fired me.

01:06:58Marc:Did you time it?

01:07:00Guest:It was literally probably to the day.

01:07:03Marc:Did you wait until he was seeing it?

01:07:05Marc:Yep.

01:07:06Guest:Yep.

01:07:07Guest:No, he had his desk.

01:07:08Guest:His desk was out of my sight, but when he did work on his little conference table, I knew he could see me, and that's when I did it.

01:07:14Guest:That's fucking beautiful.

01:07:15Marc:I knew he'd see me.

01:07:16Marc:Did you ever fuck up an acting job?

01:07:19Guest:I got fired once from a shitty play about Vietnam vets.

01:07:26Guest:It was written by a Vietnam vet and directed by a Vietnam vet, and I was playing the hymn, basically.

01:07:32Guest:Yeah.

01:07:32Guest:And after one day, the first 10 minutes of rehearsal, he started screaming.

01:07:37Guest:Screaming.

01:07:38Guest:And he was looking off.

01:07:40Guest:And he was pointing at whatever, the wall or an empty chair.

01:07:43Guest:And he was yelling.

01:07:44Guest:And I was like, this guy's flipping out.

01:07:46Guest:What is he?

01:07:47Guest:And I was like, oh, my God.

01:07:48Guest:He's yelling at me.

01:07:50Guest:But he's not looking at me.

01:07:52Yeah.

01:07:52Guest:And I was just like, holy shit.

01:07:55Guest:And I kind of panicked a little bit.

01:07:56Guest:And I was like, I got to go.

01:07:58Guest:And I left rehearsal.

01:08:00Guest:And he called me that night and fired me.

01:08:02Guest:And it was such a gift to be fired from that.

01:08:06Marc:Did the play ever go up?

01:08:07Marc:No, I don't think so.

01:08:08Marc:So he was just like, he was losing it.

01:08:11Guest:I forget what he was.

01:08:12Guest:I think he was yelling, feel it.

01:08:13Guest:Feel it!

01:08:15Guest:Feel it!

01:08:15Guest:Or something like that.

01:08:16Guest:I don't remember exactly what it was, but he was just red and spitting, and it was crazy.

01:08:22Guest:Oh, my God.

01:08:23Guest:Not unlike what you would imagine a Vietnam vet who started writing theater.

01:08:26Marc:But there must have been that moment where you're like, oh, this is who he is.

01:08:30Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:08:31Marc:And this would be my next month, so, yeah.

01:08:34Marc:But your instinct was not to just start doing what he was doing in that moment?

01:08:38Guest:I was so trying to figure out what was happening in the room.

01:08:41Guest:There was no...

01:08:42Guest:doing anything except like try to process what was going on being you know emotionally abused by the vet who you're trying but figuring out halfway through that it was me he was abusing like i had no idea couldn't even look in the eye couldn't even look anybody in the eye it was wild well you've transcended my friend you've transcended it that that dude all of it yeah that motherfucker yeah man boy i taught him didn't yeah look at you you want to email him

01:09:07Marc:Let's Google him and see how his career is doing.

01:09:09Marc:Let's get him.

01:09:10Marc:All right, Rob.

01:09:11Marc:Well, I think it went good.

01:09:12Marc:I think we did it.

01:09:13Marc:You feel good?

01:09:14Marc:I do.

01:09:15Marc:We did it today.

01:09:16Marc:Rob Corgi, thanks for coming.

01:09:17Marc:Thanks, man.

01:09:17Guest:It was a pleasure.

01:09:24Marc:That's it.

01:09:24Marc:That's our show.

01:09:25Marc:I like Rob Corddry.

01:09:27Marc:Him and I are friends now.

01:09:28Marc:I've decided that we are friends.

01:09:30Marc:Thank you for listening, and thanks again for all the support, all the good vibes and whatnot.

01:09:35Marc:Love the New York Times piece.

01:09:37Marc:I'm glad you guys saw it and liked it, too.

01:09:39Marc:Thanks for coming out to see me again.

01:09:40Marc:Portland in Philadelphia tonight, Thursday, through the weekend.

01:09:45Marc:That's January 13th, 14th, and 15th.

01:09:48Marc:Next week, again, San Francisco Sketch Fest.

01:09:51Marc:Friday, January 21st, live WTF taping with Will Franken, Baron Vaughn, Maria Bamford, Bobcat Goldthwait, and maybe Weird Al Yankovic.

01:10:00Marc:Not sure yet.

01:10:01Marc:And as always, go to WTFPod.com and get on that mailing list because I do mail that out every Monday morning with some tidbits and things and pictures and the future of stuff.

01:10:11Marc:Also, WTF Pod Shop for the premium episodes.

01:10:14Marc:But I encourage you to get the iPhone app.

01:10:17Marc:The WTF iPhone app is available and you can stream all of the early episodes.

01:10:22Marc:So that's something.

01:10:23Marc:I know a lot of you want it.

01:10:24Marc:And again, again, why do I say that a lot?

01:10:27Marc:I'm not aware of my quirks.

01:10:29Marc:Should I be more aware of my quirks?

01:10:33Marc:Thanks for listening.

01:10:42you