Episode 214 - Will Franken

Episode 214 • Released September 28, 2011 • Speakers detected

00:00:00Guest: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 Marc Maron.

00:00:24Marc:Okay, let's do this.

00:00:25Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?

00:00:26Marc:What the fuck buddies?

00:00:27Marc:What the fuckadelics?

00:00:29Marc:What the fuckstables?

00:00:30Marc:What the fucknicks?

00:00:31Marc:What the fuckanucks?

00:00:33Marc:What the fuckamallens?

00:00:34Marc:All right, that's it for today.

00:00:36Marc:That's not the end of the show.

00:00:37Marc:That's it for the list.

00:00:38Marc:They keep coming in.

00:00:39Marc:I thought I'd gotten past this, but they keep coming in.

00:00:42Marc:Don't have time to keep up with it.

00:00:43Marc:This is WTF.

00:00:45Marc:I am Marc Maron.

00:00:46Marc:Welcome to the show.

00:00:48Marc:Before I get started, let's do this because I just got this going.

00:00:53Marc:Pow!

00:00:53Marc:Wow, I just shit my pants, for sure.

00:00:56Marc:That is true.

00:00:57Marc:Oh, my God.

00:00:59Marc:JustCoffee.coop.

00:01:00Marc:Get that WTF blend.

00:01:02Marc:They kicked me back a few shekels on the back end of that thing.

00:01:05Marc:It's good, man.

00:01:06Marc:They just sent me a few bags, and...

00:01:09Marc:You can get that at WTF pod.com.

00:01:11Marc:I just sometimes forget to drink the coffee because I'm not always drinking coffee.

00:01:15Marc:There's a few minutes a day where I'm not drinking coffee, but I just made a pot.

00:01:18Marc:So it's on my mind.

00:01:20Marc:Do you think the fact that I do like I eat about 12 nicotine lozenges a day and drink about a pot and a half of coffee that could be making me a little anxious?

00:01:29Marc:Fuck, man.

00:01:30Marc:I just got home.

00:01:32Marc:I'm thrilled to be home.

00:01:33Marc:I've been away for months, it feels like.

00:01:35Marc:I come into town.

00:01:36Marc:I do some interviews.

00:01:37Marc:I do the show.

00:01:38Marc:And then I'm back out on the road again.

00:01:40Marc:And I'm home.

00:01:41Marc:And I'm thrilled to be here.

00:01:42Marc:I would like to open with that.

00:01:44Marc:And I'm thrilled that I was home for my birthday.

00:01:47Marc:Thank you all.

00:01:48Marc:for the lovely birthday greetings, the messages, the cards, the presents.

00:01:54Marc:So generous, and I feel really good.

00:01:57Marc:I don't even know what else to say.

00:01:59Marc:I got more birthday greetings from you.

00:02:01Marc:My father got in under the wire, sent me an email claiming that he didn't have a phone, and then saying something about, wow, this PC works.

00:02:09Marc:I don't know what that means, but he got in under the wire to wish me a happy birthday.

00:02:13Marc:And also, Bill Nash...

00:02:15Marc:over at Nash Guitars up in Olympia, Washington.

00:02:19Marc:Man, he decided to give me a guitar, not even for my birthday, and not even for what I'm saying right now, but he sent me one.

00:02:28Marc:It's a beautiful, they call it the T69 TL.

00:02:32Marc:It's a thin hollow body Telecaster copy.

00:02:35Marc:They do distressed guitars, so it looks all beat up and shit.

00:02:39Marc:And it plays fucking nice.

00:02:41Marc:So I want to thank Bill just for sending me that out of nowhere.

00:02:44Marc:Up at Nash Guitars.

00:02:45Marc:That's NashGuitars.com.

00:02:46Marc:You can see what they do up there.

00:02:48Marc:He's making guitars.

00:02:50Marc:And he's sending me one.

00:02:51Marc:If it was for the plug, so be it.

00:02:53Marc:God damn it, it's great to get a guitar in the mail.

00:02:55Marc:I mean, I just bought one a couple weeks ago.

00:02:57Marc:Brendan Small hooked me up with his guy over at the place.

00:03:00Marc:Got my J45 finally.

00:03:02Marc:And now I'm going to be home to play these fuckers.

00:03:05Marc:I couldn't be more excited.

00:03:06Marc:But don't get worried.

00:03:07Marc:I'm not too happy.

00:03:09Marc:Just a little bit happy.

00:03:11Marc:On the show today, before I forget, Will Franken, Bay Area comic, master of characters, to the point where I'm like, who's in there?

00:03:20Marc:Who is this Will Franken guy?

00:03:23Marc:So we'll find that out today.

00:03:24Marc:Fuck, man.

00:03:26Marc:Louisville.

00:03:27Marc:What a mind blower that was.

00:03:29Marc:I did have some pretty moving experiences.

00:03:31Marc:I went to the Muhammad Ali Center.

00:03:33Marc:And this is one of those things that, you know, I don't know if you're a museum guy.

00:03:36Marc:I'd like to think I'm a museum guy, but I've become so busy and so debilitated by being overwhelmed all the time that I may kind of stay in the room guy.

00:03:44Marc:You know, maybe look at some shit online guy.

00:03:48Marc:But I got out, had a couple, you know, my buddy Chad,

00:03:52Marc:And, you know, Ryan was up there and we were up there doing, you know, driving around, doing the thing.

00:03:57Marc:And we got invited to the Muhammad Ali Center.

00:04:01Marc:And I'd never really put this guy into perspective.

00:04:03Marc:I'd never really, you know, you know, he's the greatest.

00:04:06Marc:You know, he's one of the greatest boxers that ever lived, if not the best boxer that ever lived.

00:04:10Marc:But you forget about his life.

00:04:11Marc:I don't know how much I knew.

00:04:12Marc:And you walk into this place and it becomes clear that his resonance culturally is so much bigger than just being a fighter.

00:04:19Marc:And they broke this museum up in a very interesting way.

00:04:22Marc:They've got a beautiful film there.

00:04:24Marc:They've got a ring there.

00:04:25Marc:They've rebuilt his training camp from Pennsylvania.

00:04:28Marc:But it's broken into these different areas around sort of the ethics of his life.

00:04:34Marc:Them being respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, and spirituality.

00:04:39Marc:These six principles.

00:04:41Marc:And, you know, I walk in.

00:04:42Marc:I'm like, I'm checking it out.

00:04:44Marc:I'm checking them off.

00:04:45Marc:Respect.

00:04:46Marc:Yeah, sometimes I have that for myself and others.

00:04:49Marc:Rarely for others.

00:04:50Marc:Confidence.

00:04:51Marc:It's fleeting.

00:04:52Marc:Conviction.

00:04:54Marc:Yeah.

00:04:54Marc:Maybe.

00:04:55Marc:Well, I guess my reaction to that right now would indicate not much.

00:04:59Marc:Dedication, I do have.

00:05:00Marc:So I can circle that one.

00:05:01Marc:Giving.

00:05:02Marc:Yeah, I'm pretty giving.

00:05:04Marc:I'm not consistently giving, but I do believe I'm giving.

00:05:06Marc:Spirituality, definitely not.

00:05:09Marc:Not in any consistent way.

00:05:10Marc:So all I've got is dedication, but that's a start.

00:05:13Marc:And you just walk through this guy's life.

00:05:15Marc:You walk through his life and what he represented.

00:05:18Marc:And the fact that this dude, for his beliefs, he was a great fighter coming out of the gate.

00:05:24Marc:Then he becomes a Muslim and then refuses to go to Vietnam in the middle of this sort of his career is taking off as a boxer and as an athlete.

00:05:34Marc:You know, he won the gold medal.

00:05:35Marc:And then he decides, you know, on principle not to go to Vietnam because he's got no beef with the Viet Cong.

00:05:40Marc:He's got no he's not going to kill somebody or kill a people, another brown people for white slave masters.

00:05:47Marc:In the name of what?

00:05:49Marc:And he basically goes through legal hassles for five years, loses his license, camp box, sits back and does that.

00:05:56Marc:Stands for what he believes in for five fucking years, puts a blossoming career on hold to make.

00:06:03Marc:an impact and to follow his beliefs and what he did for, you know, race politics and just anti-war sentiment and just, you know, athletics.

00:06:15Marc:And then, you know, later in life, you know, he fought a lot.

00:06:18Marc:He fought too much in some people's eyes and he gets Parkinson's.

00:06:21Marc:And then he becomes sort of a barometer of strength for people that have these debilitating diseases because he keeps fighting on.

00:06:27Marc:He becomes a global ambassador.

00:06:30Marc:you know, for peace and spreading love to all people, Muhammad Ali.

00:06:36Marc:And I'm sitting there just, they got all these exhibits.

00:06:38Marc:They have the lunch counter.

00:06:39Marc:They have a lunch counter set up where he was, you know, kicked out.

00:06:43Marc:And you hear this voice.

00:06:44Marc:You sit at a lunch counter and the guys are like, get out.

00:06:46Marc:You're kind of not allowed in here.

00:06:48Marc:Get out.

00:06:49Marc:I sat there four times just to stand up to that guy.

00:06:53Marc:And on the fourth time, I stood up and I said, I'm fucking leaving, not because you told me to four times, but because I got to see the rest of this exhibit.

00:07:02Marc:All right, so fuck you.

00:07:04Marc:So I stood up for that at that moment in that exhibit.

00:07:09Marc:But it makes you think about yourself.

00:07:12Marc:You know, what the hell have I done?

00:07:13Marc:You know, I do this podcast and then I start thinking about my beliefs and, you know, everything is so fluctuating.

00:07:21Marc:Would I stand up for anything for five years?

00:07:22Marc:Would I give everything up on principle?

00:07:26Marc:And then I realized some of these things like dedication or I don't have any choices in the way of who I am.

00:07:33Marc:I couldn't have done it any differently.

00:07:35Marc:So I can't compare myself to that guy at all.

00:07:37Marc:I'm not an athlete, but he does represent something culturally that's profound.

00:07:43Marc:And you leave feeling uplifted, but small.

00:07:45Marc:You think like, God damn it, man, I got to change my name.

00:07:49Marc:You know, maybe add a name, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe like have some hope.

00:07:54Marc:Like that's the thing filled with hope.

00:07:56Marc:I need a little hope.

00:07:58Marc:So I'm thinking maybe I changed my middle name to Hope, Mark Hope Marin.

00:08:02Marc:That would be my fighting name, my metaphorical fighting name.

00:08:06Marc:But you never know.

00:08:07Marc:I mean, I left and I went and ate and had biscuits and gravy and shoved shit in my face and talked about being at the Muhammad Ali Museum feeling small.

00:08:17Marc:But I think I'm helping people in weird ways.

00:08:18Marc:You never know how you're going to help people.

00:08:20Marc:You never know how it's going to come out.

00:08:22Marc:I get a lot of great feedback for the show.

00:08:24Marc:I'm proud of that.

00:08:25Marc:But it was weird.

00:08:26Marc:The night after we went to the Muhammad Ali Museum, I went out with a couple local dudes, two in the morning to this place called Burger Boy.

00:08:33Marc:It's just this lunch counter.

00:08:35Marc:They didn't kick me out.

00:08:36Marc:As a matter of fact, they weren't going to kick me out.

00:08:39Marc:I mean, it's a different time and I'm not black.

00:08:44Marc:So if I had time traveled and I was black and it was an all white establishment, you know, there's no reason to even speculate along those lines.

00:08:50Marc:But I'm sitting there with a few dudes.

00:08:52Marc:They got a jukebox with a limited selection on it.

00:08:56Marc:There was a couple of guys sitting in there.

00:08:58Marc:Both of them were wasted.

00:08:59Marc:It was 2.30 in the morning.

00:09:00Marc:They'd ordered and they both passed out face down.

00:09:04Marc:I believe it was right across the street from a gay bar.

00:09:06Marc:So there's a couple of gay dudes and they're passed out face down the table like they're napping in school.

00:09:13Marc:And I pick a few songs on the jukebox.

00:09:16Marc:And...

00:09:18Marc:I picked Love Hurts by Nazareth because I was in that kind of mood to be nostalgic.

00:09:24Marc:Here's some songs from the past.

00:09:26Marc:And Love Hurts comes on.

00:09:29Marc:And these guys slowly wake up.

00:09:32Marc:And one guy starts laughing right in the other guy's face.

00:09:35Marc:Oh, perfect song.

00:09:37Marc:Perfect song.

00:09:39Marc:And the other guy's like, I can't believe this.

00:09:42Marc:I can't believe this.

00:09:44Marc:And the dude who's saying, I can't believe this, turns around and looks right at me.

00:09:48Marc:He goes, who picked this song?

00:09:50Marc:Did you pick it?

00:09:51Marc:I go, I picked it.

00:09:52Marc:And he said, fuck you.

00:09:53Marc:Fuck you.

00:09:54Marc:And one of the other comics is like, did that dude just say fuck you?

00:09:58Marc:Like he was going to start some shit, which is not really my style.

00:10:01Marc:And I go, no, it's all right.

00:10:02Marc:It's all right.

00:10:03Marc:I'm a catalyst for a moment here.

00:10:05Marc:This is helping him process whatever bitter bullshit he has going on in him.

00:10:10Marc:So, like, I was a vessel.

00:10:12Marc:If there's a spirit, if there's a God...

00:10:14Marc:of synchronicity.

00:10:16Marc:I provided a moment for that guy to get angry and process some feelings through the genius of the Nazareth version of love, hope, love, hope.

00:10:26Marc:See, now I'm hung up on hope.

00:10:27Marc:Love hurts.

00:10:29Marc:God damn it.

00:10:30Marc:But anyways, great time in Louisville.

00:10:32Marc:Louisville.

00:10:34Marc:I like the South, man.

00:10:35Marc:I always think I'm not going to like it.

00:10:37Marc:It's very interesting being down there because I get paranoid because all of a sudden I become like Captain Jew when I go to the South.

00:10:45Marc:You know, like all of a sudden I somehow put myself into the body and mind of the victim.

00:10:52Marc:You know, and I and I get off the plane and I'm just anticipating.

00:10:56Marc:Yeah, because shit went down down there.

00:10:58Marc:I'm just anticipating a wave or a wall of of redneck ostracization of me.

00:11:05Marc:Of prejudice.

00:11:08Marc:Because I'm selfish and I think it's all about me.

00:11:11Marc:So all of a sudden I amp up the Jew.

00:11:13Marc:And I land in the South with all these prejudgments in my head.

00:11:17Marc:And every time I go down there, I meet nothing but great people.

00:11:19Marc:But it's very ironic because I land in the South and the car is taking me to the hotel.

00:11:25Marc:And the first big building I see in downtown Louisville is the Jewish hospital.

00:11:31Marc:My first thought is like, well, I'll probably end up there.

00:11:34Marc:They actually built a hospital for what they do to Jews down here.

00:11:37Marc:That was my first thought.

00:11:39Marc:My second thought was, that's ridiculous.

00:11:41Marc:Obviously, the Jews of the South built a hospital.

00:11:44Marc:And then my third thought was like, wow, there's a lot of Jews here, I guess.

00:11:48Marc:I'm not even that special.

00:11:50Marc:God, they've gotten over this shit down here, haven't they?

00:11:59Marc:So in the garage...

00:12:01Marc:Man of a million voices.

00:12:04Guest:In town tonight.

00:12:07Marc:Yeah.

00:12:07Guest:How do you bill yourself?

00:12:09Guest:You know, what I've been saying for the last couple years is I'm a one-man Monty Python's Flying Circus episode.

00:12:15Marc:Are you really?

00:12:15Marc:Yeah.

00:12:15Guest:Is that what you call it?

00:12:16Guest:That's what I call it, yeah.

00:12:17Marc:Will Franken, for those of you who didn't recognize him from his description of himself.

00:12:23Marc:Hi, guys.

00:12:24Marc:Yeah.

00:12:25Marc:Oh, and gals.

00:12:26Guest:I don't discriminate.

00:12:27Marc:Yeah, there's no discriminating on this show.

00:12:29Marc:Guys, gals, and those who choose to be in between.

00:12:33Marc:Yeah.

00:12:35Marc:Where'd you grow up?

00:12:36Marc:I grew up in Missouri.

00:12:37Marc:Oh, that's right.

00:12:37Marc:I know I talked to you briefly once before.

00:12:40Marc:Yeah, not St.

00:12:41Marc:Louis.

00:12:41Marc:No, Sedalia.

00:12:42Guest:It's about 70 miles from Kansas City.

00:12:45Guest:So is that the south?

00:12:47Guest:It's... Or is that kind of the Midwest?

00:12:50Guest:It's the middle.

00:12:50Guest:It's the weedy part.

00:12:51Guest:Yeah.

00:12:52Guest:You know, a lot of blown wheat.

00:12:53Guest:So is it the Midwest?

00:12:55Guest:It's the Midwest, yeah.

00:12:56Marc:And you grew up in a large family on a farm?

00:12:59Guest:I grew up with... No, I grew up...

00:13:03Guest:you know modest uh two three sisters a mother and a father and a big wheat field with an electrical tower in the back you guys were in the wheat business no he was in the construction business he my dad was the kind of man who would break stuff just to fix it right so including his children including his children how did that work out did you get fixed or is that on you now you know i never was i never was i blamed him up until i was 14 and then like when the tough love after school specials came through town it was like i'm not gonna go there

00:13:32Guest:Really?

00:13:33Guest:You were able to let that go at 14?

00:13:35Guest:Yeah, I let it go.

00:13:36Guest:Then who did you blame?

00:13:38Guest:My mother.

00:13:39Guest:Dad's all right.

00:13:43Marc:Mom seemed to fuck me somehow.

00:13:45Guest:Yeah, she was the next in line because she didn't leave him.

00:13:48Guest:Oh, really?

00:13:49Guest:Yeah.

00:13:49Guest:It was that kind of situation?

00:13:50Guest:So it all did go back to him.

00:13:51Guest:He was the vortex.

00:13:52Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:13:53Guest:Everything went through daddy.

00:13:55Guest:I thought about it.

00:13:56Guest:I was in Disneyland last night, and I was waiting in line for the- How was that as a grown-up?

00:14:00Guest:You know what?

00:14:00Guest:I'd never been as a kid, so it might as well.

00:14:02Guest:It was all the same.

00:14:03Guest:I really loved it.

00:14:04Guest:I went with a male friend my age, and so there was a lot of, like, we're not gay.

00:14:08Guest:Sure.

00:14:09Marc:You actually said that?

00:14:10Guest:We felt it.

00:14:11Guest:I mean, there was this unspoken thing, especially when we first got on the Pirates of the Caribbean, that this was different, and that it was all mothers and families or young teenage girls, and-

00:14:22Guest:Oh, speaking of dad, so the last ride was the Peter Pan ride, and it was about 11.30, and I hadn't been sleeping all week for some reason with the insomnia.

00:14:30Guest:And I said to my friend, I said, you know, I should call my dad now, who I haven't talked to in probably about 10 years.

00:14:35Guest:Really?

00:14:35Guest:Yeah, just ring him up and say, you know, Daddy, it's your boy.

00:14:40Guest:Mm-hmm.

00:14:41Guest:Guess where I am, Daddy?

00:14:43Guest:I'm on the line for the Peter Pan ride.

00:14:46Guest:You thought I was a loser, Daddy, but I got a friend who's got a car down here, and we went to Disneyland, Daddy, and just make a big deal of that.

00:14:53Guest:I could barely stand up.

00:14:55Guest:I was so tired.

00:14:55Guest:My feet were hurting, and I was just... Did you call him?

00:14:58Marc:No, of course not.

00:14:59Marc:No, no.

00:15:01Marc:Now, 10 years.

00:15:02Marc:I got another friend.

00:15:03Marc:My buddy Devin hasn't spoken with his father in God knows how long.

00:15:09Mm-hmm.

00:15:09Marc:Why is that?

00:15:10Marc:I mean, doesn't that mean that he still has power over that part of you that is feeling that way?

00:15:16Marc:Well, before I talk about it, you can curse on this.

00:15:18Guest:Yeah, of course.

00:15:19Marc:Because it's a podcast.

00:15:22Marc:But I mean, I just don't like, I mean, I've gone through a couple of years where I didn't talk to him, but I was very aware of it that I was going to have to only because you owe them that at some point.

00:15:32Guest:My dad has a speech impediment where everything that comes out of his mouth sounds like he's going to kill you.

00:15:37Guest:And I'll tell you what else.

00:15:38Guest:It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

00:15:39Guest:Yeah.

00:15:40Guest:And God damn it.

00:15:41Guest:If you think it ain't.

00:15:42Guest:Oh, really?

00:15:42Guest:You check the goddamn weather report.

00:15:44Guest:You know, just sitting there like chain menacing.

00:15:46Guest:Yeah.

00:15:46Guest:Very, very scary.

00:15:47Guest:Yeah.

00:15:47Guest:Always.

00:15:48Guest:I don't blame him for that.

00:15:48Guest:I mean, whatever his circumstances.

00:15:50Guest:Yeah.

00:15:50Guest:I can't really communicate with that kind of.

00:15:53Guest:you know so i inherited my mother's you know jittery fear all the time i think i think people interpret that as i'm an asshole but i'm usually if you see me at a show outside pacing and smoking yeah that's years and years of fear that i'm still trying to shake off that you're gonna be yelled at for something gonna be yelled at for something i was just telling uh what was i coming up with uh i was talking about the uh the change in the oil in the car i was just talking with my friend out there about changing the oil in the car and then

00:16:16Guest:my dad used to you know he said if you're not gonna learn to change the oil in your car now who the fuck's gonna do it when you get older and i would say something smart like i'll take it to one of those places that was just man that was verboten oh yeah oh yeah you know a man changes his oil and yeah you know or the apartment line you know like sure who's gonna who's gonna mow the grass when you i'm gonna get an apartment like they do in the movies you were just a smart ass yeah

00:16:38Marc:I was a smart ass, yeah.

00:16:40Marc:So you had to learn all those things.

00:16:41Marc:And I imagine one of the other things that men learn in Missouri is how to resent their fathers for the rest of their life for all that tough love shit.

00:16:48Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:16:49Guest:But you don't talk about it, though.

00:16:50Guest:No.

00:16:51Guest:You don't kvetch.

00:16:52Marc:You just suck it up and pass it on.

00:16:53Marc:No kvetching.

00:16:56Guest:No kvetching.

00:16:56Guest:Yeah.

00:16:57Guest:We don't say kvetching out there either.

00:16:59Marc:No, of course not.

00:17:00Marc:The Jewish thing.

00:17:01Marc:That didn't happen out there.

00:17:02Guest:The Jews just flew straight over Missouri.

00:17:05Marc:No, they made it up a little further north.

00:17:06Marc:Yeah.

00:17:07Marc:I think there are Jews in Wisconsin.

00:17:09Guest:Yeah.

00:17:10Marc:I know there's Jews in Wisconsin.

00:17:12Guest:There is a Jew in Missouri, too, I have to say, because I was making jokes outside of a meeting one time years and years ago.

00:17:19Guest:I think in the cities like St.

00:17:20Guest:Louis and stuff, wherever there was trade.

00:17:22Guest:Well, this was in Springfield, which was like 100,000 people.

00:17:25Guest:You found the one Jew?

00:17:27Guest:I made a Jew joke because I figured nobody was Jewish, so nobody would get bothered.

00:17:30Guest:Where was this?

00:17:31Guest:This was outside of a meeting for people who have problems.

00:17:35Guest:And there was this old guy.

00:17:37Guest:He always had food stamps jutting out of his pocket.

00:17:39Guest:So the idea of him being a Jew...

00:17:41Guest:He didn't fit the bill because there's not a lot of Jews with food stamps.

00:17:44Marc:No, I think that's a little narrow-minded.

00:17:47Guest:There's plenty of... There's plenty of Jews on welfare.

00:17:50Marc:You just got to believe.

00:17:51Marc:When people get older, they may not have prepared.

00:17:53Marc:And Jew or no Jew, sometimes you need a little help.

00:17:58Marc:Even the Jews.

00:18:00Marc:Yeah, I don't know why you keep pressing this.

00:18:01Guest:By the way, though.

00:18:02Marc:There's no way that stereotype holds in the big picture.

00:18:05Marc:I mean, when I was a young man, I worked at a deli, a Jewish deli in Boston, and my mind was opened by the fact that all these old men would come in, these old Jewish guys.

00:18:18Marc:Some of them were cops.

00:18:20Marc:Some of them were plumbers.

00:18:21Marc:One of them used to be a boxer.

00:18:23Marc:So I'm thinking, like, there were Jewish boxers.

00:18:25Marc:Not only was there one, but in the 20s.

00:18:28Marc:Yeah.

00:18:28Marc:And the teens, back in the old days, early 1900s, there were dozens of Jewish boxers.

00:18:34Marc:So fuck you and your anti-Semitism.

00:18:38Guest:No, I'm really, I'm an FOJ.

00:18:40Guest:I'm a friend of the Jews.

00:18:41Marc:Okay, fine.

00:18:43Marc:So you know a Jewish boxer?

00:18:45Guest:I know a Jewish boxer, yeah.

00:18:46Marc:An old guy?

00:18:47Guest:This guy, he saw a show.

00:18:49Guest:Yeah, I would call him old for me.

00:18:51Marc:He's like...

00:18:52Marc:50s no no i'm talking about guys in the 20s like when they were the first generation immigrants that were trying to sort of uh integrate or pass or or get an angle get a uh that's why comedy was so jewish you you owe us i don't know i may be jewish for all i know okay like i there was a time when my um i was at my grandma's house and my grandma i tell the story to that i thought i was going to convert to judaism until they rejected me

00:19:17Guest:Yeah.

00:19:18Marc:How did that happen?

00:19:19Guest:Are you being serious?

00:19:20Guest:So the Jewish boxer, going back to the Jewish boxer, a guy comes to my show, sends me one of these.

00:19:25Guest:Now he's a poet, right, that's been praised by William Burroughs and all that.

00:19:28Guest:But he sends me this fan email, and it's so long.

00:19:30Guest:So he's got beatnik validation.

00:19:32Guest:Beatnik validation.

00:19:33Guest:And, you know, I love praise, just like the next comic.

00:19:35Guest:But this was long.

00:19:36Marc:Well, you're doing a great job right now.

00:19:37Guest:It was like, man, fire, fire, man.

00:19:39Guest:It's like the snaps of the dragons and the dragon snaps in the morning glory.

00:19:42Marc:He wrote that to you?

00:19:43Guest:I was scrolling through this thing.

00:19:44Marc:Yeah.

00:19:44Guest:And I was just like, we should get together for coffee sometime and talk about art, right?

00:19:47Guest:Everyone's talking about art.

00:19:48Guest:So I emailed back.

00:19:49Guest:I said, yeah, that sounds cool.

00:19:50Guest:And of course, out of sight, out of mind.

00:19:53Guest:And then he sent me a real creepy email that said, well, the first one he sent was, what are you going to do about the anti-Semitism?

00:19:59Guest:Are you going to do a bit about the anti-Semitism in San Francisco?

00:20:03Yeah.

00:20:03Guest:And I'm not going to get into politics.

00:20:05Marc:So this guy came to a show in San Francisco.

00:20:07Marc:Yeah.

00:20:07Marc:Middle-aged Jewish boxer, poet.

00:20:09Marc:Yeah.

00:20:09Marc:So he's probably like at that age, you know, he was probably, you know, he was in the hippie thing, probably loved the beatniks.

00:20:16Marc:He never was, actually.

00:20:17Guest:He claims he never was.

00:20:18Guest:But he's that age.

00:20:19Marc:He's that age.

00:20:19Marc:He came to the beatnik thing later.

00:20:21Guest:yeah or he was probably a beatnik and uh didn't go into the hippie but retained the beatnik okay so that age all right so he sends you the uh the the the popping poetry and then you yeah you're gonna go have coffee with him well he's got this you know i i do a lot of it you know make fun of the multicultural diversity thing i do like to do black voices latino the whole the whole nine yards you know anytime i get a rise out of somebody it's it's kind of the turn on right comedy you know and you know and uh

00:20:47Guest:So then I don't get back to him right away, and he sends me this email that says two empty seats is the subject.

00:20:53Guest:And I guess he was talking about him and his girlfriend.

00:20:55Guest:He was like, unless we have coffee, you will see two empty seats in your shows forever.

00:21:00Guest:And I thought, okay, he's going off the deep end.

00:21:01Guest:So what do I do?

00:21:02Guest:You have coffee with him.

00:21:03Guest:I agree to have coffee with him because I'm so desperate.

00:21:05Guest:I don't want to lose a single fan.

00:21:07Marc:Right.

00:21:07Marc:You don't want the two empty seats curse from the mystical Jewish boxer beatnik.

00:21:12Guest:Right.

00:21:12Guest:So anyway, he says, if you're not doing anything Friday night, up in the Richmond district, there's these seeds and they get together.

00:21:19Guest:God, there must be just 10 of them.

00:21:21Marc:I didn't realize there were any chasids in San Francisco.

00:21:23Marc:About 20.

00:21:23Marc:There's about 20.

00:21:25Marc:Seriously, that probably is that small community.

00:21:27Guest:It was pretty small.

00:21:28Marc:Yeah.

00:21:28Guest:And I didn't know what the hell they were doing.

00:21:31Guest:And the only Jewish thing that I have is that one time in Missouri, my grandma...

00:21:37Guest:yelled at my grandpa and my grandpa turned around says shut up you old Jew broad and I remember and I said are we Jewish because I was kind of excited because I wanted some kind of identity your father's parents it was it wouldn't count anyway right whatever yeah but I was excited because I was like finally I'm something besides this kind of quasi white trash nerd kid intellectual yeah by a wheat field yeah a little Jew thrown in would be good yeah some Jewish give me something and then I remember my mom going like shh shh

00:22:05Guest:And that was it.

00:22:06Guest:Never really brought up again.

00:22:08Guest:So then I thought it was a Chabad house, which I guess is Return to the Faith.

00:22:12Marc:Oh, the Chabad Hasids.

00:22:13Guest:Sure.

00:22:14Marc:Yes.

00:22:14Guest:So I was going out there.

00:22:16Guest:They're on a mission.

00:22:17Guest:I liked the Rebbe when he talked because he would tell stories about the nefesh connects to the heart and the soul.

00:22:22Guest:And it was like Woody Allen was there.

00:22:25Guest:He really talked like that?

00:22:25Guest:He talked like that.

00:22:26Guest:And it was nice and compassionate.

00:22:28Guest:And I really enjoyed this.

00:22:29Guest:It was nice for me.

00:22:30Guest:Uh-huh.

00:22:30Guest:And then I love gefilte fish, so we'd have some of that.

00:22:34Guest:After the service.

00:22:36Guest:After the service.

00:22:37Guest:When they did the prayers, I was confused.

00:22:38Guest:The Shabbat.

00:22:39Guest:And then he'd bang on the table and go, and I'd try to do that a little bit.

00:22:45Guest:And then one day he said, after about three weeks, he goes, you and I should talk.

00:22:49Guest:And so I said, okay.

00:22:50Marc:So this is where the boxer took you and you went back?

00:22:53Guest:Yeah, the boxer didn't know what the hell was going on either.

00:22:55Guest:But you went how many times?

00:22:56Guest:I went about four or five times.

00:22:58Guest:To these services?

00:22:58Guest:To these services, yeah.

00:23:00Guest:I've been looking for an identity my whole life.

00:23:02Guest:That's why I do all these characters.

00:23:04Guest:I get it.

00:23:06Guest:I got a real stupid story about Catholicism later on.

00:23:08Marc:All right.

00:23:09Marc:So you go back to Chabad, and they're in the business of making Jews.

00:23:13Marc:They want to return to the faith.

00:23:14Guest:Right.

00:23:15Guest:So then he comes back.

00:23:16Guest:So now's my big day.

00:23:17Guest:The Rebbe wants to talk to me by myself.

00:23:19Guest:So we go down, and he goes, so you want to return to the Jewish faith?

00:23:23Guest:And I go...

00:23:24Guest:Well, I'm not 100% sure I'm Jewish.

00:23:26Guest:And then I told him the whole story about my grandpa saying, shut up, you're a Jew.

00:23:29Guest:Right.

00:23:29Guest:So the reaction I get is, why would you want to be a Jew if you're not a Jew?

00:23:35Guest:And it was the real, like, you got to be kidding me, man.

00:23:39Guest:Right.

00:23:40Right.

00:23:40Guest:I mean, I thought you'd be welcoming with open arms or something, you know, and like, boy, did I leave there with an attitude.

00:23:46Marc:Oh, so he basically said, we got enough.

00:23:49Marc:Yeah.

00:23:49Marc:If you're not born into it, I can't understand why you would.

00:23:52Marc:Oh, really?

00:23:52Marc:So that was it?

00:23:54Guest:My heart was broken.

00:23:55Guest:We Jews are a very exclusive club, you see.

00:23:57Guest:We thought Woody Allen was a mock man.

00:24:00Guest:We don't really like to take on too many.

00:24:03Marc:But that's how you felt?

00:24:04Marc:Maybe he was asking you a genuine philosophical question.

00:24:09Marc:Maybe he wanted something more than the idea that you were just looking for an identity.

00:24:16Marc:Maybe he wanted to hear you conceptualize or explain to him why that form of worship meant something to you, and you wouldn't have been able to answer it.

00:24:27Marc:So you chose to take it personally.

00:24:29Guest:But you know, in the end, it was a moot point, because up to that point, I was thinking, there's no way I could not eat shellfish.

00:24:35Marc:That was the deal breaker?

00:24:37Marc:How about singing those songs?

00:24:38Marc:I mean, Jesus Christ, could you do that every week, singing those songs?

00:24:41Guest:If I knew the lyrics, yeah.

00:24:42Marc:Did you watch them do tefillin?

00:24:44Marc:Did you watch them tie the boxes on their head and on their arms?

00:24:46Marc:I didn't do that.

00:24:47Marc:So you didn't get in too deep, huh?

00:24:49Guest:I got in deep enough.

00:24:50Guest:All right.

00:24:51Guest:So it wasn't for you.

00:24:52Guest:Then I got scared.

00:24:53Guest:Then he gave me a knife and told me to go with Tex and Sadie up to the mountains.

00:24:56Marc:Oh, so it was Charlie Manson, which?

00:25:00Marc:No, no, no.

00:25:02Marc:No, but okay.

00:25:04Marc:So that left a bad taste in your brain about Jews.

00:25:07Marc:So now you're all of a sudden... No, no, no.

00:25:09Guest:I love the Jews.

00:25:10Guest:I love Jews.

00:25:11Guest:I want to be very clear.

00:25:12Guest:Sure.

00:25:13Guest:It's just I want it to belong...

00:25:15Marc:What happened outside of this meeting where people with problems go with the old man with food stamps?

00:25:20Guest:This was early 20s.

00:25:22Guest:I'm still in college.

00:25:24Guest:Before the Chabad experience.

00:25:26Guest:Before the Chabad.

00:25:27Guest:And I said, you know, there's a joke about why are synagogues round?

00:25:31Guest:Maybe you heard this one.

00:25:31Guest:You know what?

00:25:32Marc:They're not all around, but okay.

00:25:34Marc:No, why?

00:25:34Guest:I know they're not because the joke doesn't work a lot.

00:25:37Guest:The synagogue's around so the Jews can't hide in the corner when the collection plate comes around.

00:25:41Marc:Oh, that's like ridiculously dumb.

00:25:43Guest:I didn't know what else to say because I didn't want to do any black jokes because there was a black guy there.

00:25:47Marc:So you just figured all I got is ethnic jokes.

00:25:49Marc:What are the odds?

00:25:50Guest:And then the guy turns around and goes, I'm a Jew.

00:25:53Guest:And he was a Jew.

00:25:54Guest:And I go, you're a Jew, but you got the food stamps.

00:25:56Guest:You said that to him.

00:25:57Guest:You're always so ragged.

00:25:58Guest:You said that to him.

00:25:59Guest:I didn't say that, but that's what I thought.

00:26:00Guest:I was like stunned.

00:26:01Guest:What did you say?

00:26:02Guest:I said, wow, I had no idea you're a Jew.

00:26:04Guest:And look, I like Jews.

00:26:06Guest:I mean, even at that point, I liked Jews my whole life because I always wanted to be a comedian.

00:26:10Guest:And you can't not want to be a comedian without realizing how many Jews are comedians.

00:26:15Guest:Right.

00:26:15Guest:So what did he say?

00:26:16Guest:What happened?

00:26:17Guest:He ended up telling me his whole story and how he got to the point where he did have food stamps jutting out of his pockets.

00:26:23Guest:And I was like, how come you don't tell anybody this story?

00:26:26Guest:It's astounding.

00:26:26Guest:And he said, nobody would believe me.

00:26:28Guest:And I said, you know what?

00:26:29Guest:You're absolutely right.

00:26:30Guest:But this guy had studied at the, what was it, the L'Estaing, in Switzerland.

00:26:37Guest:He worked with the guy who invented LSD, that Dr. Albert Hoffman.

00:26:40Guest:Oh, really?

00:26:41Guest:I was listening to the whole story, and he had documents to prove it, you know, in this little hobble he was living in.

00:26:47Guest:You went to his hobble?

00:26:48Guest:Yeah, I went to his hobble.

00:26:49Guest:It was nice.

00:26:50Marc:How'd you end up at his house?

00:26:51Guest:I drove him home.

00:26:53Guest:No shit.

00:26:54Guest:So did he have a lot of like 60s stuff?

00:26:56Guest:There was some cool stuff.

00:26:56Guest:I don't want to give too much away in cases.

00:26:59Guest:I haven't seen him for decades.

00:27:01Marc:So you became friends with this guy?

00:27:03Guest:Yeah, I always liked the guy.

00:27:04Guest:I said, there's something about this guy I really enjoy.

00:27:07Marc:Seemed like a wise old man.

00:27:09Marc:A wise old man.

00:27:10Marc:And anybody who's connected with the original acid experience must have been sort of like, wow, this guy's a real deal.

00:27:16Marc:at that age i was pretty impressed sure man yeah acid was a big influence on me it was yeah did you do acid not much i never cut out for it too panicky really you panicked on that i'm just i panic in general i mean i'm a panicky person anyways i didn't you know that's like yeah but i mean so the the acid didn't help anything i mean to be you know stuck in that brain and i don't know how did you handle it as somebody who is unclear of your own sense of self for me it just amplified that

00:27:43Guest:you were able to sort of disassociate and realize this is just a good high this is just a good time yeah like i've realized now because i'm off everything right now you know and i like the more i stay off things the more i realize it was really about putting me in the now and you can really be happy if you're in the now sure if you get rid of the past and you get rid of the future and you just stay in the now and you go okay i have feet i have shoes oh yeah yeah what's going on right now right now now now now

00:28:06Marc:But eventually you have to do things.

00:28:09Marc:You do.

00:28:10Marc:You have to plan.

00:28:10Marc:Sure.

00:28:11Marc:But it's best if you're not sitting there doing things going, oh, I fucked this up.

00:28:14Marc:If I had done this a week ago, why don't I do this next week?

00:28:17Marc:How come I can't do this better?

00:28:18Marc:Yeah.

00:28:19Marc:Yeah, so you've got to kind of use the now as a base, a nice solid base, the now.

00:28:25Marc:And that when you're engaging in whatever you're engaging with, not take that baggage or assume the worst.

00:28:31Marc:I always assume the worst.

00:28:32Marc:Actually, you know what?

00:28:33Guest:I'm getting much better at it.

00:28:35Marc:So what were you saying, though?

00:28:37Marc:It's my belief that, from being sober myself, that all that struggle for identity, you realize if you give yourself a little time to breathe and think that you have a self and it's probably a lot more defined than you think it is, whether you like it or not, that's a whole other issue entirely.

00:28:54Guest:That's what it is.

00:28:55Guest:This whole idea of being equal with people,

00:28:59Guest:In what way?

00:29:01Guest:Always?

00:29:01Guest:It's a frightening concept.

00:29:03Guest:Because the way you introduced me at Cobbs a couple months ago.

00:29:06Guest:Oh, God.

00:29:07Guest:What did I do?

00:29:07Guest:I was cool with it, man.

00:29:09Guest:Because you and I have had this kind of like... Tension?

00:29:11Guest:I don't even call it tension.

00:29:13Guest:When I first did Air America with you...

00:29:16Guest:My ego was just really starting to kick in.

00:29:19Guest:Like, I think, what was it, 03, 04?

00:29:21Guest:Yeah, you were in New York.

00:29:23Guest:No, I was in San Francisco still, but I was starting to get a lot of acclaim and all this thing.

00:29:27Marc:What did we do?

00:29:27Marc:I had you on?

00:29:28Guest:Yeah, I was on, and I was so nervous, and I was so freaked out.

00:29:33Guest:And the only way to get over that fear is to buffer it with ego.

00:29:36Guest:Exactly.

00:29:36Guest:and then i think i forget what you said when you introduced me but it was like yeah this guy here i had a real resentment against and uh yeah i thought he was a dickhead when i met him i don't know i'm paraphrasing but i came i was totally cool with that but i was freaked out like i got out there going okay man like uh let's uh i gotta keep up with mark here yeah i don't want to fuck up because like like being myself is not my thing i usually go out there and i'll be i'll be british or i'll be australian i'll mess it up a little bit i don't want anybody to know who i am yeah

00:30:01Guest:But my curtain calls, I do.

00:30:03Guest:Once I get through 45 minutes of I'm somebody else, now it's like, okay, who the fuck are you guys?

00:30:08Guest:Talk to me.

00:30:09Guest:So that was new.

00:30:11Guest:I come out there at Cobbs, and I'm just me with you, and I'm the first.

00:30:15Guest:And you just introduced me.

00:30:17Guest:I thought this guy was a real asshole.

00:30:18Guest:He's smoking, he's long-haired, and he's skulking.

00:30:21Guest:And this one guy sent me an email.

00:30:23Guest:He goes, man, that Marc Maron was a real asshole to you, man.

00:30:26Guest:What was his trip?

00:30:26Guest:And I go, no, no, it was totally cool, man.

00:30:28Guest:I probably deserved it.

00:30:29Marc:Well, I don't know if you deserved it.

00:30:30Marc:It was one of those things where I had seen you, and despite myself, I thought that a lot of your stuff was good.

00:30:39Marc:It was well thought out.

00:30:40Marc:And I just always had, I thought there was an affectation to it.

00:30:43Marc:In my mind, and I don't know if I discussed that at the Cobb's one, I can't remember, that if I can't see somebody,

00:30:50Marc:someone's self yeah you know that you know what risks they're taking i feel like it's affectation like even though your bits were good yeah i thought like you know well the this guy's just you know uh he's doing the genius number isn't that is so wild man you know like it's like you know like i do all these voices and like i'm uh you know i don't really do stand up

00:31:10Guest:you know what i mean i know i tried to write you know this and this is weird because like now i'm 37 and sometimes i thought all these years that if you were just a genius you could just do that and then your life would be easy like my and i was talking about my wife leaving me early my wife left me in oh seven

00:31:29Guest:she said something one time she goes i didn't marry you for posterity and because when she took off i was telling everybody because we can get painful on here right yeah because i'm over this now this is totally good it sounds like it yeah what month in 07 did she leave you it was uh april mine too tax day my wife left me i think on april 22nd 2007 i was april 13th yeah fuck you're not over it

00:31:55Guest:No, man.

00:31:56Guest:It was funny, because my friend Chad, back in... He lives in Arizona now.

00:32:00Guest:He used to... He runs SF Stand-Up, his website.

00:32:03Guest:He said, man, you should get together with Marc Maron.

00:32:05Guest:You should talk to him, because his wife just left him.

00:32:07Guest:Right back then?

00:32:08Guest:Back then, and it was like... Because I put out a podcast episode, which is all characters and stuff.

00:32:14Guest:I don't know if you heard that one where I'm...

00:32:17Guest:I'm calling Gillette Customer Service about the razor blades, and I said, well, I'm using them on my wrist, but I'm bleeding and I'm not dying.

00:32:23Guest:Because I was out on my ass.

00:32:24Guest:I didn't have any place to live.

00:32:25Marc:How long were you with her?

00:32:27Marc:Three and a half years, roughly.

00:32:28Marc:That's how long I was with mine.

00:32:29Marc:That's how long I was married to her.

00:32:30Marc:Were you with her before?

00:32:31Guest:I was with her about eight months, I think.

00:32:34Marc:No, I was with mine a few years before, and then I married her for three and a half years.

00:32:37Marc:I think it came about eight years and changed altogether.

00:32:41Marc:Yeah, being left is...

00:32:43Marc:That's a bad scene.

00:32:44Marc:Okay, so she said, what, I wasn't with you for posterity?

00:32:47Guest:Yeah, I was doing a gig at Harbin Hot Springs up north, and I would go on this thing.

00:32:53Guest:I didn't expect to be a comedian.

00:32:55Guest:I wanted to all my life.

00:32:57Guest:I moved to New York, and it's like, okay, here's how you break five people.

00:33:01Guest:They pay $5.

00:33:02Guest:I said, fuck this.

00:33:03Guest:I'll just fucking be a New Yorker.

00:33:05Guest:When I ended up in San Francisco, I really kind of feel like I fell into it.

00:33:09Marc:San Francisco has a certain amount of... They like freaks.

00:33:17Marc:They sort of will indulge a more esoteric and more lyrical comedy.

00:33:25Marc:They have a tradition of that.

00:33:26Marc:The whole San Francisco art scene from... I think Lord Buckley was there.

00:33:33Marc:Lord Buckley, exactly.

00:33:34Marc:I came into my own a bit more in San Francisco because of that as well.

00:33:40Marc:You got to hone a lot of stuff.

00:33:41Marc:What I was able to do was be myself.

00:33:44Marc:When you go to New York, it's about punching.

00:33:47Marc:Just sort of like tag, tag, tag.

00:33:49Marc:And it was never really my bag.

00:33:51Marc:I didn't like the pressure of it.

00:33:52Marc:But San Francisco, I was able to indulge something.

00:33:54Marc:I don't know, but I felt that I just decided it was part of the heritage of that town was to...

00:34:02Marc:Support and indulge people that were unique.

00:34:05Guest:I totally agree.

00:34:07Guest:And things were going really well.

00:34:10Guest:I mean, I was getting like... I got to be on the BBC.

00:34:13Guest:Right.

00:34:13Guest:I got written up by the New York Times.

00:34:15Guest:Comedy Central was inviting me in their offices and stuff.

00:34:17Guest:Yeah.

00:34:18Guest:And...

00:34:20Guest:But I couldn't be there as a person.

00:34:23Guest:If you ask me now, does it make sense that your wife left?

00:34:28Guest:Yes, absolutely.

00:34:30Guest:She stayed with me much longer than she needed to.

00:34:33Marc:Well, why?

00:34:33Marc:What was the emotional dynamic that was so taxing?

00:34:36Guest:I would do a show.

00:34:38Guest:I was doing the theatrical shows there for a while.

00:34:40Marc:The one-man show.

00:34:41Guest:show this had to be the biggest most brilliant thing with the light cues and the sound cues coming in and then i'm going to end up with a plane crash and uh and then that was never then i do that and then it was on to i couldn't be intimate or because i was on to the next big thing oh so you could never really uh lock in with her

00:34:57Guest:Yeah, and I was always trying to sell her on the idea that all day, you know, this will make sense one day, baby.

00:35:03Guest:I would say sick shit.

00:35:05Guest:Like, you know, about the genius thing?

00:35:06Guest:I would say sick shit.

00:35:07Guest:Like, you know, when they interview you for the A&E biography, you could understand what this was all about.

00:35:12Marc:So you actually had fooled yourself.

00:35:15Guest:You talking about grandiose?

00:35:16Marc:Yeah, you had that, huh?

00:35:18Marc:Yeah, I wish I had more of that.

00:35:19Marc:My grandiosity was always inverted.

00:35:21Marc:So, like, I was grandiosely angry and bitter.

00:35:24Marc:Really?

00:35:24Marc:i thought i was a uh you know a bitter genius a genius of bitterness i envy that why i'd much rather be think that i was the fucking i was the shit were you able to socialize well in the comedy circle yeah no i can talk to people yeah well now you can but could you no no yeah i always was but yeah i went through a fairly cynical period where i would you know put people off and i was angry yeah but i've always been a pretty social guy i mean deep down i just you know i like you know when people want to hang out

00:35:52Marc:I don't always know what to do.

00:35:54Marc:And then if they hang out with me for a little while, I'm like, well, what are we doing tomorrow?

00:35:58Marc:And they're like, what's wrong with you?

00:35:59Marc:I'm like, well, we just hung.

00:36:00Marc:You know what I mean?

00:36:01Marc:I become a very needy friend.

00:36:03Marc:I have one friend.

00:36:04Marc:I'm like, you're in, buddy.

00:36:05Marc:You're the guy.

00:36:06Marc:Where are we going now?

00:36:07Marc:What do you mean you got to spend time with your kids?

00:36:09Marc:I have needs too.

00:36:10Marc:Yeah.

00:36:11Marc:i totally understand that man totally man so okay so you so she left you because you but you didn't rage you weren't a shithead to her you were just all about yourself no there was a couple times i threw dishes i threw i threw a thing of laundry detergent not at her right i just kind of slammed on the ground and when you when you do that with laundry detergent it just bounces up and explodes so it's oh so it's undramatic it was a it was a comedy

00:36:34Guest:however what i was doing because i was smoking so much weed at the time yeah i was smoking weed because i didn't want to drink because i knew what happened when i drank so i thought well if i just stay high all the time and uh i uh you know i was i was telling everybody like i never hit her i never cheated on her as if those are the only two things you could be a bad husband i just emotionally was not there

00:36:55Marc:I did a bit about that.

00:36:56Marc:After she's leaving and I'm yelling outside, I didn't hit you.

00:37:02Marc:If that's all you got.

00:37:06Marc:If that's all you got to sell yourself, it's going to be a hard sell.

00:37:12Guest:He was a great guy.

00:37:13Guest:He never hit me.

00:37:14Guest:I wasn't really there emotionally as the person.

00:37:16Guest:I never knew who he was.

00:37:18Guest:He was always locked away in a cabin under the ground.

00:37:22Guest:He never once struck me.

00:37:25Marc:And for three years, I thought he was a genius.

00:37:27Guest:It was the genius shit.

00:37:30Guest:And to realize, I feel like I've come through this vortex.

00:37:32Guest:And it's a very, there's this term getting right-sized.

00:37:36Guest:Because if I'm not grandiose, I do have the low self-esteem.

00:37:40Marc:I guess that's usually what it's hiding.

00:37:41Guest:I was afraid to call you about coming over here at 2 today.

00:37:45Guest:It was like, okay, I got to call Mark because I'm afraid.

00:37:47Guest:Mark said, well, yeah, you know what?

00:37:49Guest:Let's not do it today.

00:37:50Guest:And then I'm going to go, you know, I'm going to move back to Missouri and be a greeter at Walmart.

00:37:53Guest:I have the script.

00:37:54Marc:That's the plan B?

00:37:56Marc:That's my script.

00:37:56Marc:That's the first plan B?

00:37:58Guest:Yeah, you really do hate yourself.

00:37:59Guest:I have the list of other possibilities.

00:38:01Marc:That's it.

00:38:02Guest:Yeah, you're going to be a greeter at Walmart.

00:38:03Guest:My friend says something really profound to me.

00:38:06Guest:This guy back in San Francisco, he says, there's part of you, because I have a hard time with the fear of success thing, but I think I'm finally understanding it.

00:38:13Guest:There's part of me, he says, that wants to go someplace like to Idaho and work as a greeter at Walmart and be really funny, and then people will tell you, hey, you should have been on Letterman, rather than the guy who actually tries to get on Letterman and fails.

00:38:25Guest:Right.

00:38:26Guest:And I said, bingo, you have it to a T, man.

00:38:29Guest:Yeah.

00:38:29Guest:You know?

00:38:30Guest:Yeah.

00:38:30Guest:It's frightening.

00:38:31Guest:Yeah.

00:38:32Guest:and i think i came across to a lot of people i think i don't know to you but like when you when you said when you introduced me i think i didn't have any problems with it because you know if he's being honest that's honest man i probably do put a little a lot of people off and they just for me it was a context thing as you guys as open-minded as i am and as much as i can appreciate you know just about you know all forms of creativity you know even if whatever they are yeah and

00:38:56Marc:Because I've been doing comedy as long as I have, I've seen about every manifestation of comedy personality.

00:39:03Marc:Types of comics repeat themselves.

00:39:06Marc:It's not a stealing thing.

00:39:08Marc:There's the angry guy, there's the oddball, there's like, I'm weird...

00:39:12Marc:you know and then they're the dudes that are like you know you know clearly this is very difficult for me to do on a stand-up stage because you know i work in uh you know like one character you know that's 10 minutes man so if i've only got a 12 minute spot i mean i you know i it's i i can barely do it but i'll try so like there's you got it man keep going

00:39:33Guest:This is better than any shrink I've ever had.

00:39:36Guest:Honestly, when you said that with he's doing the genius bit.

00:39:39Guest:Yeah.

00:39:39Guest:Because there's this guy back, another guy I work with, he goes, he booked me for a gig, right?

00:39:45Guest:And it was one of those, and the closer it got to the gig date, it was like, hey, looking forward to that gig.

00:39:49Guest:And then nothing was being said about it.

00:39:51Guest:I go, I have a feeling I'm going to get fucked out of this gig.

00:39:53Guest:And we got closer and closer to the gig.

00:39:54Guest:He goes, well, you know, I thought about it.

00:39:56Guest:I mean, these are kind of some normal people, and you do that crazy genius thing.

00:40:00Guest:And I go, oh.

00:40:02Guest:And now I realize, man, I mean, it's not that I want to, I don't want to stop doing what I do.

00:40:06Marc:No, but what I was saying is that there's a point where when you do that, when you decide to do that, that, you know, it's built in that if it doesn't go well, well, it's their fucking fault.

00:40:18Marc:I mean, this is what I do.

00:40:20Marc:Yeah.

00:40:21Marc:So in my mind, it was like, if you're not going to honor the context on some level, then go be in a black box theater for four people and call yourself a genius.

00:40:34Marc:Okay, man.

00:40:35Guest:You know what I'm saying?

00:40:36Guest:I love it.

00:40:36Guest:You're just totally whittling me down.

00:40:38Guest:This is beautiful.

00:40:38Marc:No, no, but I mean, that was my feeling.

00:40:41Marc:But I knew, you know, when I saw you later, that there was a bit you did on pornography that I liked and that, you know, the character pieces I have no problem with.

00:40:50Marc:I am a big fan of guys who are able to, what they call, or what they used to call people a stage, whether it's a single character or a dialogue between characters, that if you can create that space, I mean, that is... Jonathan Swift, right?

00:41:04Guest:Or not Swift, a...

00:41:05Guest:Look at my ego.

00:41:06Guest:I meant Winters.

00:41:07Marc:Yeah, well, either way, I mean, they're both pretty high up there.

00:41:10Marc:But I mean, yeah, well, Winters could do it, but Lenny could do it.

00:41:13Marc:I mean, Shelley Berman could do it.

00:41:14Marc:I mean, guys did it.

00:41:16Marc:I mean, there was a time where there were these guys who would do long, structured bits, and some of them involved a phone, and some of them involved two or three characters.

00:41:24Marc:Bill Cosby is another example.

00:41:26Marc:It wasn't that.

00:41:26Marc:I mean, comedy used to be that.

00:41:28Marc:I mean, the original stand-up comics, a lot of them did that stuff.

00:41:31Marc:But because it doesn't fit into the culture we live in now in that way, it's a little tricky.

00:41:38Marc:And there's not a lot of cats that do it.

00:41:40Guest:When you say honor the context, so getting back to that.

00:41:43Marc:Oh, I mean, you can't get up in front of a stand-up crowd and then say, don't give them a way in.

00:41:52Marc:by propping up the fourth wall well no it's not even propping up the fourth wall it's just sort of like you know i you know i'm not gonna let you see me yeah so so like you know profound but you know what i'm saying no absolutely i mean the weird thing about winter is having just interviewed him and then even listening to his records because he was a pretty mainstream cat yeah i mean he was no sort of subversive yeah uh and and he's he comes from an incredibly dark place with an incredibly shattered sense of self and

00:42:16Marc:But you always felt that heart of his, and you always felt how heavy it was, and he always sort of landed there.

00:42:23Marc:Through all his characters, this humanity comes through.

00:42:29Guest:I always thought that was Richard Pryor, too.

00:42:31Guest:He'd do the junkie or the whiner.

00:42:32Guest:No, he did a few characters, and they all did it.

00:42:34Guest:And you listen to him, and you go, that guy is torn up, but he's revealing himself.

00:42:38Guest:Oh, absolutely.

00:42:39Guest:He couldn't hide himself.

00:42:40Guest:I started to do that about, like I said, about two years ago.

00:42:44Guest:How'd you solve that problem?

00:42:45Guest:I mean, what was the angle?

00:42:46Guest:I got to where I was like...

00:42:49Guest:I'm doing, you know, if I do a headline and set, you do 45 to 50 minutes.

00:42:52Guest:You get through the whole thing in one piece.

00:42:54Guest:And that's what it feels like.

00:42:56Guest:I got through it in one piece.

00:42:57Guest:Because sometimes I do the voices and it's just like, I'm not connected to the voice.

00:43:00Guest:It's just I know there's a voice that comes up now.

00:43:02Guest:But I get through it in one piece and now I do this kind of Q&A thing.

00:43:04Guest:I go, you guys have any questions?

00:43:06Guest:Yeah.

00:43:06Guest:And those are the, I cherish it.

00:43:08Guest:I will go on for 25 minutes on top of the 45 minutes just...

00:43:12Guest:really loving the fact that i can say okay i'm going bald up here yeah you know which something i never would have first off i'm vain and i always we always have this thought that we go do a gig yeah and every girl's gonna love us instead of somebody that knows christ i wish i had the type of grandiosity you had isn't it sick and then no it's not taking a healthy amount of that can be very uh very good

00:43:34Marc:a certain amount of like if you can get it not to go to astronomical proportions i always assume they're gonna hate me that's that's what that's my self-centeredness you do all right i bet don't you don't you do all right with girls yeah yeah but i mean that's because you have that attitude i think no i mean then you get these girls like oh he's troubled you do

00:43:53Marc:Do you ever get the girls that want to use you as a fixer upper project?

00:43:57Marc:All of them.

00:43:58Marc:Yeah, me too.

00:43:59Marc:I mean, I don't know if they admit that.

00:44:00Marc:Yeah.

00:44:00Marc:But then I started to realize, like, you know, most of them are, I'm fixing them up too.

00:44:05Marc:Yeah.

00:44:06Marc:They can, after three years, they're like, I don't hate my dad anymore.

00:44:08Marc:I can move on.

00:44:09Marc:Yeah.

00:44:10Yeah.

00:44:10Marc:You know, I've helped them out.

00:44:12Marc:Because you're, what, the replicant dad or what?

00:44:14Marc:Sure, I do a lot of that.

00:44:15Marc:Do a lot of replicant daddy work.

00:44:16Marc:Dad replication.

00:44:17Marc:Yeah, yeah.

00:44:19Marc:I'm a stand-in.

00:44:20Marc:I become some sort of burning effigy for their father eventually.

00:44:23Guest:You know, the Q&A thing, though, is so refreshing.

00:44:25Guest:It's like one of the things I'll talk about, baldness.

00:44:28Guest:I go bald.

00:44:29Guest:Right.

00:44:30Guest:I'm going bald.

00:44:30Guest:Yeah.

00:44:31Guest:It seems like a very ordinary thing to do.

00:44:33Guest:Yeah.

00:44:33Guest:Because when I first would hear somebody, like a fat guy goes up,

00:44:37Guest:and i used to blow my mind when i first hung around other comedians right it used to freak me out and i would go through who do you who's the hardest to deal with comedians poets musicians you know of all the open mics that you could go to like back in new york and like i always thought comedians were the hardest because they're always working in stuff yeah reminds me of lorena bobbitt and i was like what the pancakes do how do the pancakes remind you of lorena bobbitt you're looking for an in man yeah a reference yeah something to tether this to people's collective consciousness

00:45:03Guest:right so i see you know that you see the ball yeah the bald big guy goes up and he goes so uh so uh i'm uh i'm not married okay so he's gonna do that that's his stick man so here i am i'm talking about baldness and i'm talking about i wished i had the jack nicholson baldness which is the kind of like it goes up yeah the forehead you go wendy darling light of my life you know yeah but i've got the yarmulke baldness

00:45:25Guest:and i'm not even jewish but i don't have the nebbishy thing to fall back on right and i'll tell you one thing i learned too at six foot four or five or whatever the hell it is i can't be nebbishy and i've always tried to be nebbishy and get chicks that way because it looks like the path of least resistance you just i'm filled with angst and they love you and he's cute you can't do that at six foot five you're expected to be a man yeah and and hue an axe yeah yeah whatever you do with that yeah

00:45:52Guest:Or he was stoned with an axe.

00:45:55Guest:But I'm starting to be honest about stuff like that.

00:45:56Guest:It really is nice.

00:45:59Marc:No, I can feel that.

00:46:00Marc:I sense that from you.

00:46:02Marc:I spent a lot of time avoiding myself, but I did it to anger.

00:46:09Marc:But I'm a very vulnerable, hypersensitive person, and only in the last few years am I able to

00:46:15Marc:to do that.

00:46:16Marc:So I did it in a different way.

00:46:18Marc:I wish I could create characters.

00:46:19Marc:Like, you know, the idea that you actually thought, why don't I become this to do this?

00:46:24Marc:If I become this, I can get that.

00:46:27Marc:I sort of understood that.

00:46:29Marc:But I could never figure out a way to do that with any sort of integrity or be genuine about it.

00:46:34Guest:I think the first... I tried to write a stand-up set in the conventional sense when I was 9 or 10.

00:46:41Guest:because i was i watched comedy central when it first came out and before that was saturday night live yeah uh reruns that they were the local television affiliate show and i was just obsessed with it yeah and i said well i'll try this and i got down a piece of paper and in nine or ten it was like about the school bus yeah so one thing that sucks about the school bus and i tried doing it in my room when my dad is out mowing the lawn and doing some manly thing and i was always hung up about this like i'm not you know i'm not hunting and fishing i'm in a room with a piece of paper going you know what's weird about having parents and yeah

00:47:09Guest:I think I was so embarrassed by that.

00:47:11Guest:And then by that time, a couple years later, I got into Monty Python and I said, that's what I want to do.

00:47:15Marc:It doesn't have to be connected to anything.

00:47:18Marc:It can be absurd.

00:47:19Guest:It can be absurd.

00:47:20Guest:I don't want to say that's the stuff that makes me laugh, but when I first saw Monty Python, I thought...

00:47:30Guest:This is the kind of stuff that I would be embarrassed to do for other people.

00:47:35Guest:Right.

00:47:35Guest:Because they would think I was crazy.

00:47:37Guest:Right.

00:47:37Guest:Like, I have this bit now.

00:47:40Guest:It's a singing guidance counselor.

00:47:41Guest:Yeah.

00:47:41Guest:And it's just a simple, you know, and I was embarrassed to do this.

00:47:45Guest:And now everybody does it that sees my show.

00:47:47Guest:They go, you know, hey, I love that.

00:47:48Guest:But it's like, Mrs. Johnson, I have your daughter's aptitude test.

00:47:52Guest:They show that she's mentally retarded, mentally retarded, mentally retarded.

00:47:55Guest:Yeah.

00:47:55Guest:Every time he says mentally retarded, he sings it like that.

00:47:58Guest:And I was afraid to do it because it makes me laugh.

00:48:00Guest:And it's this weird thing that I would do in my room.

00:48:03Guest:And now people are going, hey, hey, Will, mentally retarded, mentally retarded.

00:48:07Guest:And I go, wow.

00:48:09Guest:And that makes me feel good.

00:48:10Guest:I'm not the only lunatic.

00:48:11Guest:It's like when I first heard Frank Zappa's uncle meet.

00:48:13Guest:I'm not the only weirdo out there.

00:48:15Guest:Samuel Beckett.

00:48:16Guest:I'm not the only weirdo out there.

00:48:18Marc:Yeah.

00:48:19Marc:You put yourself in pretty big company.

00:48:20Guest:Yeah, there's a lot of, yeah, look at that.

00:48:22Guest:You think that's grandiosity?

00:48:24Guest:I'm just saying that there were weirdos before me.

00:48:27Guest:There'll be weirdos after me.

00:48:29Marc:I don't know, man.

00:48:30Marc:No, but I mean, if you gravitate towards that, I mean, I agree with you.

00:48:33Marc:I agree with you.

00:48:34Marc:And I think that that's why I don't necessarily have any judgment now from when I first saw you.

00:48:40Marc:Right.

00:48:41Marc:But I could not, with me, if I can't see where someone's coming from,

00:48:47Marc:Then I'm like, I don't know what the fuck to do with that guy.

00:48:49Marc:Where do I put that guy?

00:48:51Marc:Because I couldn't.

00:48:51Marc:You were dodgy.

00:48:53Marc:You were dodgy on an interpersonal level.

00:48:56Marc:And on stage, I'm like, where is that guy?

00:48:58Marc:What's he doing?

00:48:59Marc:I don't get a sense of who he is, and it's making me nervous, and he seems to be doing this thing.

00:49:03Marc:So my judgment, I mean, I like what you do.

00:49:07Marc:That's why I had you on the show.

00:49:08Marc:But I wasn't sure how I was going to engage with you or what the parameters of what you do are.

00:49:12Guest:was you know it's like I want to go back to because I I probably burnt a lot of bridges over the years and because I it is fear like the voices almost like a Dahmer thing it's like you know we said like I ate people so you know I could keep them close to me or whatever his line was I mean I don't want to steal from Dahmer he did his thing but yeah

00:49:37Guest:You know, back in Missouri, I think at 12 years old, I would meet girls and I would do my version of a British accent back then.

00:49:43Guest:Sure.

00:49:44Guest:Oh, I come from Wickenham Shire.

00:49:46Guest:Yeah.

00:49:46Guest:You know, because I didn't want to be the kid.

00:49:49Guest:Yeah.

00:49:50Guest:Whatever the hell that was living by the wheat field.

00:49:52Guest:Yeah.

00:49:52Guest:You know, and it was a safety thing.

00:49:54Guest:And even today, like if I hang around somebody, and if I can do their voice, I feel like that's nice.

00:49:59Guest:I can do their voice.

00:50:00Guest:Sure.

00:50:00Guest:But at the same time, like fear kept a lot of it.

00:50:04Guest:intact to where I was deathly afraid of revealing who I am and then now that I'm 37 and I'm going like okay I guess this is middle age I'm not sure what the midpoint is but that I want to I want to go back to all these people and say hey I wish I would have done it this way this is me I want you to meet me this is me and I do these voices but I'm not I'm not a freak I'm not going to kill you or your children I'm just a guy that does this weird thing do you really think that they felt threatened

00:50:32Marc:man i said this to somebody one time i said you know i think that they're afraid of me what i meant by there was the industry because i was having a bad time in the industry you know i didn't know the words to say i didn't know but also they don't like you're one of those guys that you know if it's not happy go lucky shit i mean i think that the fact is is that you have this uh and i'm no psychoanalysis person and i and i'm not a therapist but

00:50:55Marc:I mean, if you have the same thing I do, it's like not only you're not being yourself, but the characters you have, many of them seek to offend.

00:51:04Marc:So not only do they not know you, but they see your talent.

00:51:08Marc:But even the people you're making up are assholes.

00:51:13Guest:Yeah, some of them.

00:51:15Guest:Or they're stupid.

00:51:16Guest:What is satire, though?

00:51:20Guest:You have to presume a higher moral ground.

00:51:22Guest:I guess.

00:51:23Marc:I don't know if satire was a way of life.

00:51:28Guest:I know, and I lived it as a way of life, unfortunately.

00:51:32Guest:And then I got to go back and like...

00:51:34Guest:Like the boy in the plastic bubble, except I'm the boy in the satirical bubble.

00:51:39Marc:It's like, wait a second, I really want to... So, I mean, but in retrospect, as you sober up and you're trying to be kind, I think you also are able to, after a certain point, separate yourself from your craft.

00:51:52Marc:It's like, yeah, I'm Will, and...

00:51:53Marc:And this is this guy.

00:51:55Marc:You know, I mean, there was definitely a feeling I had when I was talking to Winters where it's like, oh, this is me.

00:51:59Marc:And now I've got this thing going.

00:52:01Marc:You know, that he was very able to sort of say, like, these are my bits.

00:52:05Marc:I mean, even someone like William Burroughs.

00:52:07Marc:I mean, one of the things that blew my mind.

00:52:08Marc:when reading him was that when he wrote naked lunch yeah i mean he saw that stuff as shtick you know he said this is a benway shtick you know these were it was a vaudeville to him yeah that that he had that separate that distance from like this is the shtick you know this and this is me yeah so i i never had that right you were you were just scrambling i was scrambling and i was and

00:52:31Guest:I'm learning a lot.

00:52:32Guest:I would give this shit away for free.

00:52:35Guest:For example, girls.

00:52:37Guest:There's shit with girls, and I always blamed it on the fact that I grew up with sisters.

00:52:40Guest:If you're afraid of your father, and all you have is women to raise you, you're not going to really get like, dude, when a chick says no, she means yeah.

00:52:48Guest:You're not going to get that.

00:52:50Guest:let's play with you know you need to get fucked up somehow sure sure sure you know i had that but now like you should have a more profound or deeper understanding of women it's actually worse when it comes to being a man with women yeah and so if you do accents and voices and there was this girl recently came to the show now should have been in the bag yeah

00:53:08Guest:I did the show, where's my reward?

00:53:11Guest:Sure.

00:53:12Guest:And instead it was, so she came back with something that's really, you want to get me on the chain?

00:53:16Guest:You go, hey, Will, will you do your Russian accent again for me?

00:53:19Guest:Well, of course I will do my Russian.

00:53:21Guest:I'm right there.

00:53:22Guest:Now she did it with a friend.

00:53:24Guest:It was one of those two guys and a dame kind of like, you know, singing in the rain kind of things.

00:53:29Guest:I'm walking, I got to get the dame.

00:53:30Guest:I'm Will.

00:53:31Guest:Who's the other guy?

00:53:32Guest:Yeah, it's my friend out there.

00:53:34Guest:Right.

00:53:35Guest:Now this is what you're supposed to do.

00:53:36Guest:and that's all you're thinking she asked me to do an accent yeah and then i give this chick about nine or ten accents one after can you do this can you do a texas guy can you go i did every single one yeah and i got laughs yeah but the other guys can you do an access nah you chicks it's always more yeah i mean the idea of saying that to a chick was just profound did he fuck her no okay he didn't because he attacked but

00:54:00Guest:You know, I give it away for free because that's all I am.

00:54:06Guest:I am nothing but my talent.

00:54:07Guest:And I even told my wife that, too.

00:54:10Guest:And I thought I was going to get something like, no, baby, you're so much more.

00:54:15Guest:I don't know what.

00:54:16Guest:Let's propel the drama, the boy who nobody loved, whatever this shit was at the time.

00:54:21Guest:But, yeah, it was so intertwined that I would say to her, if you get rid of all the voices and the faces and the New York Times, and I was on the BBC one time, there's nothing there.

00:54:30Guest:Yeah.

00:54:30Marc:There's nothing underneath.

00:54:32Marc:No, but I mean, there is.

00:54:33Marc:You just have to dig him up.

00:54:36Marc:You have to find it.

00:54:37Marc:So what do you think it was?

00:54:39Marc:I mean, what was this dynamic that made you so afraid to be you?

00:54:46Guest:I just have always, I don't know, man.

00:54:48Guest:I like to say I have a fear about things being really boring, you know?

00:54:51Guest:Yeah, but that's like, yeah, I get that.

00:54:53Guest:I get that.

00:54:53Marc:You get that too?

00:54:54Marc:No, no, man.

00:54:55Marc:I mean, I understand it, that you got to keep it lively.

00:54:58Marc:You got to keep the juice going.

00:54:59Marc:I don't know.

00:55:00Marc:You know what?

00:55:00Guest:It's just like, I always feel like I never, fuck, I am so confused, man.

00:55:05Guest:I mean, this is one of the biggest breakthroughs I've ever had, just sitting here right now and you saying that if you take it out of context.

00:55:10Guest:Because like, do you know Charles Crumb?

00:55:12Guest:Remember the movie Crumb?

00:55:13Guest:Sure.

00:55:14Guest:I do a Charles Crumb character, and I do it very rarely, but I get a bathrobe, and I buy a pair of underwear the night before, and I pour coffee over it and burn cigarettes in it, and then I wear those, and the whole bit is I open up the show, I have depressed AM because I'm living with mother.

00:55:27Guest:I don't know what I expect.

00:55:30Guest:It works in a theater, in a comedy club, not always, right?

00:55:34Guest:Because nobody knows what the hell to make of it.

00:55:36Guest:I actually get dressed on stage with his underwears and I'm so depressed.

00:55:39Guest:You want to see a comedy show?

00:55:41Guest:Yeah, mother's charging everybody $20 for the comedy show.

00:55:44Marc:Well, he's one of the most heartbreaking characters.

00:55:46Guest:It's painful.

00:55:47Marc:But see, I don't have any issue with that.

00:55:50Marc:And I know it's a hard sell.

00:55:51Marc:A lot of times I do comedy clubs.

00:55:53Marc:What am I doing here?

00:55:54Marc:I was just at a casino gig at Foxwoods in Connecticut.

00:55:57Marc:I'm like, my people aren't going to come out here.

00:56:00Marc:And some of them did.

00:56:01Marc:But I mean, this is not the type of, I'm not an entertainer in the way that, like I can usually get any audience.

00:56:08Marc:But I'm going to have to get them by, now what I do is I'm like, well, you don't know me.

00:56:13Marc:So let me try to show you who I am.

00:56:16Marc:And I'll spend about 10 minutes explaining who I am and then move into the material.

00:56:20Marc:Yeah.

00:56:21Marc:You know, because I'm not I'm not, you know, you're sort of like just walking off the street kind of funny.

00:56:28Marc:But I am.

00:56:29Marc:If I'm honest, I can do that.

00:56:31Marc:But I do have that moment where I'm like, I should really be in a place that's specially suited to me.

00:56:35Guest:you know i was i brought up that character because i'm standing there in a bathroom and the guy that's going on before me is doing whatever you know stand-up comedy yes you know and he's doing that yeah and he's getting laughs yeah and in my here's the thought that goes through my mind sometimes sometimes not all the time but sometimes the thought goes to my mind says why do you have to do the type of shit that you do right because if you didn't do the type of shit that you did right now yeah you wouldn't be so freaked out yeah you know

00:57:00Marc:uh like right right because you're sitting there not only about to go on stage but you're like oh fuck that guy's killing he's just doing these one-liners and now they're not even going to know why i'm wearing a bathrobe yeah 80 of them are not going to know the character i'm playing exactly and so they're going to spend my entire set trying to figure out what the fuck i'm doing and whether i'm really this guy exactly

00:57:20Guest:yeah yeah so i didn't i mean you do the guy for three four minutes then you go to another character that's the whole monty python principle right and i do have some bits that i do that i know will work in a casino or no but then i have some that like this wasn't a casino this was like okay but yeah but what about like the thing like i think the thing that separates you then uh is that

00:57:43Marc:when you're dealing with people that do what you do in the context of stand-up comedy, usually they do, probably most of them, I would say, even Jonathan Winters, Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby, that they at least have 10 to 15 minutes of their act doing their family.

00:58:05Marc:Yeah.

00:58:06Marc:Doing their dad, doing their mom, doing the guy in the corner.

00:58:09Marc:This is my experience.

00:58:11Guest:Yeah.

00:58:11Marc:Not just like a one after the other of these characters that may seem like they're not connected as just a sort of showcase of several characters.

00:58:19Marc:But, you know, like you get this sort of like, there was this guy in the corner.

00:58:23Marc:Maybe, you know, this guy.

00:58:24Guest:Yeah.

00:58:25Guest:That guy.

00:58:27Guest:My dad used to like, I'd be sleeping and like,

00:58:32Guest:It's getting away from getting back to the Jewish boxer guy.

00:58:37Guest:It was getting political, too.

00:58:39Guest:I realized I could do a satirical point about politics.

00:58:43Guest:And the more of those you do, the less personal you get.

00:58:45Guest:Well, that's why I got away from it.

00:58:47Guest:That's why I want to get away from it.

00:58:49Guest:I mean, I don't know if I want to get away from it, but that's why.

00:58:51Marc:I'll make broad political points, but I'm just an angry guy.

00:58:55Marc:You know, you give me some sort of, you know, how do you want me to push my dough through?

00:59:00Marc:Yeah.

00:59:01Marc:You know, what shape do you want that angry dough to be?

00:59:05Marc:Like a Play-Doh factory.

00:59:08Marc:I'm going to squeeze out some hate cookies here.

00:59:11Marc:Do you want me to mix it up a little bit?

00:59:12Marc:You want sprinkles on your hate cookie?

00:59:14Marc:That's nice.

00:59:15Marc:That's true.

00:59:17Marc:But I mean, what was your old man like that he shattered this ability for you to sort of pull together a full sense of self?

00:59:24Marc:You know, there's a storytelling show.

00:59:26Guest:Have you done many storytelling shows?

00:59:27Guest:Some, yeah, sure.

00:59:28Guest:Yeah, there's a storytelling show.

00:59:29Guest:The first story I did, Killed, it was about this Mexican chick that I worshipped like the Aztec sun goddess.

00:59:37Guest:That was going to be my life.

00:59:38Guest:When I was hitting bottom drinking...

00:59:40Guest:I said, well, you know what?

00:59:41Guest:I'm having a hard time with this career thing.

00:59:43Guest:I think I'm just going to learn how to watch Big Brother on her couch.

00:59:46Guest:That was going to be my life.

00:59:47Guest:For eight months, it was my life.

00:59:48Marc:You just pictured yourself in a sort of urban, lower class Latino existence.

00:59:54Marc:It was like heaven, man.

00:59:55Guest:You were just sort of like, I'm going to be that guy.

00:59:56Guest:I'm going to be this guy.

00:59:57Guest:I'm going to live with her and her family.

00:59:58Guest:Did she know about that?

01:00:01Guest:I became a Catholic, man.

01:00:03Guest:You know, in the two weeks after I quit alcohol, I was like, what?

01:00:05Guest:Because you met a girl?

01:00:06Guest:Not because I met a girl.

01:00:06Guest:It's because I was really like, you know, kind of starting to crack out there in Jersey, you know, where I was living.

01:00:12Guest:I go, you know what?

01:00:12Guest:I think I'll, I don't want to go to AA, but I think I'll start going to mass.

01:00:15Guest:Yeah.

01:00:16Guest:You know, I did that whole fucking thing.

01:00:17Guest:And then two weeks after I sobered up, I was like, what in the fuck did you do?

01:00:19Guest:I kept a necklace.

01:00:21Guest:But most of the other, it's St.

01:00:22Guest:Genesius, patron of comedians.

01:00:24Guest:Well, how far did you go into the Catholic thing?

01:00:27Guest:I got the whole holy oil.

01:00:29Guest:Wait a minute.

01:00:30Guest:So you went in?

01:00:31Guest:I became a Catholic, yeah.

01:00:32Guest:I went in for like a, it's like a whole year-long process if you convert.

01:00:36Guest:The Jews wouldn't take me.

01:00:37Guest:The Catholics would, but you got to go through the whole course.

01:00:40Marc:So how did you walk into that situation?

01:00:42Guest:Because I was going to AA, and there's this third step.

01:00:45Guest:My sponsor, who I was arguing with all the time.

01:00:48Guest:Yeah.

01:00:48Guest:Because I like to piss people off.

01:00:49Guest:I like conflict.

01:00:52Guest:The political incorrectness thing for me, it's a rush.

01:00:56Guest:And so I got into this thing.

01:00:57Guest:The guy says, why don't you pick a spiritual path?

01:00:59Guest:And I knew he was a Buddhist.

01:01:00Guest:I go, OK, fuck you.

01:01:01Guest:I'm going to be a Catholic.

01:01:02Guest:And I expected a fight.

01:01:04Guest:But since he's a Buddhist, he said, good.

01:01:05Guest:Talk to a priest.

01:01:06Guest:All right, I will.

01:01:07Guest:And then I started going to mass.

01:01:08Guest:And I'll tell you, when you start smoking dope and doing the rosary, it is kind of... And then you watch The Exorcist.

01:01:14Guest:There's a lot of creepy... You wouldn't have horror movies.

01:01:16Guest:I guess hundreds of years.

01:01:17Guest:Centuries of creepy shit.

01:01:18Guest:Creepy shit.

01:01:19Guest:Then I got through it, and then I fucking moved back out here, fell in love with this.

01:01:23Guest:Wait, what do you mean you got through it?

01:01:24Guest:You saw a priest.

01:01:25Guest:Yeah.

01:01:26Guest:But don't let me forget that last train I thought I was on.

01:01:27Marc:No, I won't.

01:01:28Guest:That was good.

01:01:29Marc:Had a caboose and everything, man.

01:01:30Marc:Okay, so you...

01:01:32Guest:you see a priest and you go through uh catechism confirmation the whole yeah you did all that yeah because i wasn't raised anything my mom window shop denominations she could be a lutheran one week next week she'd her version of christianity was one day your mom's going to be dead and buried and you'll have to think about all the things you did that was her version yeah but it wasn't any formal it was just so you went to confession and all that shit

01:01:55Guest:I did, yeah, and I kept confessing drunkenness, and he kept reminding me there were AA meetings in the church every Thursday night, and I said, I'm trying to get to those fathers.

01:02:02Guest:I live right across the street.

01:02:03Guest:No Hail Marys?

01:02:04Guest:I did the Hail Marys, yeah, the whole thing, yeah.

01:02:06Guest:So you're still a Catholic then?

01:02:09Guest:On paper, yeah.

01:02:10Guest:If you were to ask me what God is, I would say he's the guy that gives me enough money to pay rent.

01:02:13Guest:Right.

01:02:14Guest:So what about this Mexican girl?

01:02:16Guest:so uh you know i met her i moved back out here and you know this shows you how little i was interested in comedy at the time i was like you moved back to san francisco back to san francisco because new york was like i you know i moved there to show my ex-wife you know well you know what i'm gonna be on tv and suck my dick and you know i don't need anybody i'm gonna fuck everything in the world yeah and then uh that didn't work out too well and i

01:02:38Guest:How close did you get to everything in the world?

01:02:42Guest:Just a couple?

01:02:44Guest:No, I don't even want to go into that.

01:02:45Guest:I went about two and a half years with nothing, man.

01:02:48Guest:You cannot meet women if you're only smoking weed.

01:02:51Guest:You will do shows, and then you will go out with them afterwards because you're the genius.

01:02:56Guest:Yeah.

01:02:57Guest:you'll get to know the genius yeah so i go to these parties and i'd end up talking to a girl about wow you spilled that on your dress in the eighth grade and your hands don't do anything and so i started drinking again it was like wow i can go to hooters and put my arm around a waist you know i can live this jim morrison kind of thing you know jim morrison at hooters yeah i read yeah yeah yeah okay so you meet this mexican girl and you're catholic and

01:03:20Guest:She had made her a Bible study.

01:03:22Marc:You did?

01:03:23Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah.

01:03:24Guest:This is how this, Will Franken went to Bible study.

01:03:26Guest:Yeah.

01:03:26Guest:And I was, the church was right across the street, and I was like, Bible study, Tuesday nights.

01:03:31Guest:And I went there, and it was me and a bunch of.

01:03:32Marc:This is back in San Francisco now?

01:03:33Guest:Back in San Francisco.

01:03:34Guest:I moved back here with my tail between my legs.

01:03:36Marc:But you're still going to mass.

01:03:37Guest:Still going to mass, still doing shows.

01:03:40Guest:What year is this?

01:03:42Guest:09.

01:03:43Guest:Holy shit, that's like two years ago.

01:03:45Guest:Yeah, fall of 09, yeah.

01:03:46Guest:Oh, you were a mess.

01:03:47Guest:I was a total mess, man.

01:03:48Guest:I still am a mess, but much better.

01:03:50Guest:Yeah.

01:03:50Guest:You know, really getting there.

01:03:52Guest:Go to the Bible study, there's a, you know, there's a bunch of old people and then her.

01:03:56Guest:Yeah.

01:03:57Guest:And I argue that,

01:04:00Guest:everything like they got the kind of like san francisco catholicism which is like you know yeah but should we start a war with people i mean isn't it you know and it's not because i believe in this is i want to like let's get some conflict i'm the long-haired guy in town that's gonna like shake shit up and get some juice yeah yeah i was gonna be a comedian i was doing a bunch of voices i was in the new york times but i remember i'm gonna break some action to this bible study make some old people uncomfortable make some old people uncomfortable yeah right so i did that the first bible study next bible study come back i didn't even notice this chick yeah

01:04:29Guest:I'm getting ready to start an argument again, and all of a sudden I go, holy shit, this chick is hot.

01:04:35Guest:Totally missed that.

01:04:36Guest:I think I'm going to agree with everything that everybody said.

01:04:38Guest:And it was like an eight-month rollercoaster.

01:04:40Marc:So you went the other way?

01:04:41Marc:You're like, I'm going to impress her with how deep my Catholicism is.

01:04:43Guest:I did all that.

01:04:44Guest:And then you know what?

01:04:45Guest:She doesn't care.

01:04:47Guest:And then we went out on the first date, and she said something about, you know, you should be a priest.

01:04:54Guest:And I go, oh, no.

01:04:56Guest:i'm gonna have she thinks i'm holy i gotta get i gotta tone down on this show okay uh no i don't want to do that because i want to get married again one day now i'm trying i'm trying to do my old mo which is like you know i'm mr jimmy stewart yeah yeah we're gonna be romantic what you want the moon mary you know all that shit well that's not working either and man it was when things were going good with her it was just fucking i remember the first kits what fuck me well you know i started drinking again why

01:05:23Guest:I asked her out for a date.

01:05:25Guest:She said yes.

01:05:26Guest:We had coffee.

01:05:27Guest:We talked.

01:05:27Guest:I didn't do anything.

01:05:28Guest:I asked her out for a second date.

01:05:30Guest:We went out to eat at a Salvadorian place.

01:05:33Guest:Then we hung out at a bar afterwards, and I had soda pop.

01:05:35Guest:I bought her a vodka.

01:05:37Guest:And then there was a live blues band, so I got up and sang Roadhouse Blues.

01:05:41Guest:Okay.

01:05:42Guest:I got a hug.

01:05:42Marc:Hooters version?

01:05:43Guest:No.

01:05:44Marc:No, it was good.

01:05:45Marc:It was good.

01:05:45Guest:It was good.

01:05:46Guest:Some white guys playing guitar.

01:05:47Guest:Then the third day, I was living on an air mattress with cigarette burns in it.

01:05:52Marc:How did you do that?

01:05:53Marc:Which deflated the purpose.

01:05:54Marc:Yeah, I would say.

01:05:55Marc:So you're living on a deflated air mattress.

01:05:57Guest:Across from the church with roommates.

01:06:00Guest:There's tar on my blinds because I smoke indoors.

01:06:05Guest:There's a pink bed sheet.

01:06:06Guest:So I sent her a text because I'm assuming she's going to say no at some point.

01:06:11Guest:Like, no, I don't like it.

01:06:11Guest:Let's get it done with.

01:06:12Guest:I don't like it.

01:06:13Guest:And I sent her a text going, hey, because my roommates are going to be out of town, which I don't have roommates anymore.

01:06:19Guest:I want to be very clear that life has gotten better for me.

01:06:20Guest:Congratulations.

01:06:21Guest:Thank you very much.

01:06:22Guest:because I don't want any of your listeners going, gee, he's a loser.

01:06:25Marc:You're not going to send him an air mattress.

01:06:27Guest:Don't send him an air mattress.

01:06:28Guest:I have a bed now.

01:06:29Guest:Okay.

01:06:29Guest:But I send her a text.

01:06:31Guest:I go, how about dinner at my place on Thursday?

01:06:33Guest:Now, the problem is I don't know how to cook.

01:06:35Guest:Right.

01:06:36Guest:So she said yes, and then I spent the next four days panicking.

01:06:39Guest:I went on Facebook.

01:06:40Guest:Every girl that had ever seen a show of mine before, like, hey, not doing any shows right now, but how do you know if chicken's done?

01:06:46Guest:Yeah.

01:06:46Guest:What should I do?

01:06:47Guest:And the girl came over there, man.

01:06:49Guest:And you know how people diagnose you?

01:06:51Guest:Like if you're too lazy to go to a therapist?

01:06:53Marc:Sure.

01:06:53Marc:You're at a fan of what you need.

01:06:55Marc:Sure.

01:06:55Marc:Yeah, you seem to be what you need.

01:06:57Marc:What you need.

01:06:58Guest:What you should do with your career.

01:07:00Guest:I got diagnosed with avoidant social personality disorder.

01:07:05Guest:And I went to the DSM and I read it.

01:07:06Guest:I go...

01:07:07Guest:Wow.

01:07:08Marc:By this girl?

01:07:08Guest:No, by somebody else.

01:07:10Marc:A professional?

01:07:10Marc:Facebook fan, no.

01:07:13Marc:You nailed it, man.

01:07:14Marc:I think I recently got some sort of anxiety disorder, which seemed to fit.

01:07:18Marc:Did you diagnose yourself or somebody else?

01:07:20Marc:Not a fan.

01:07:20Guest:What was it?

01:07:21Marc:I think what your problem was.

01:07:22Marc:It was some sort of nervous anxiety, something, or some sort of anxiety disorder.

01:07:27Guest:Aren't we crazy fucks, man?

01:07:28Marc:Well, I just like all the names, you know?

01:07:30Marc:Yeah, I think so, actually.

01:07:32Marc:Whatever gives us a window in to the next phase of work we need to do on ourselves is fine.

01:07:37Guest:Yeah, or that we want to avoid.

01:07:39Marc:Yeah, key.

01:07:40Marc:You know, I'm trying not to avoid too much, though I do avoid a bit, you know, because if you get to the bottom of it, I don't know, there might not be anything there but a crying five-year-old.

01:07:50Guest:Yeah, you're talking about you finally find yourself and it's not really bad and it's not really good.

01:07:57Guest:It's just, eh.

01:08:00Guest:That's what I'm scared of.

01:08:01Guest:Give me the crying five-year-old.

01:08:02Guest:I like that.

01:08:04Guest:You already got it.

01:08:06Guest:Really?

01:08:08Guest:Ouch, man.

01:08:09Marc:Ouch, man.

01:08:10Marc:That's going to be the whole thing.

01:08:12Marc:no no no i mean i but see that even that's ridiculous this idea well if i strip it all down i'm not going to be anybody really you really think you're going to be able to unload that much fucking wiring and baggage the thing is you're wired a certain way that's it i mean you can either you can either uh you know pull a a lever up and make a circuit not connect anymore yeah or or you can sort of temper it you know but it's not you're not all of a sudden going to be like oh god i can't talk anymore because i'm just i got rid of everything

01:08:41Guest:Yeah.

01:08:41Marc:You know, because even that's a fucking sham.

01:08:44Marc:Yeah.

01:08:44Marc:The fact is, is that there's some parts, elements of your personality.

01:08:47Marc:They're there, dude.

01:08:48Marc:I mean, you know, you can take different actions and maybe train yourself not to do certain things.

01:08:53Guest:Yeah.

01:08:53Marc:But you're not all of a sudden going to do some sort of therapeutic work and just be, yeah, that shit just gets washed away.

01:09:00Marc:Yeah.

01:09:02Marc:You know, you're right, man.

01:09:03Marc:You're right.

01:09:03Marc:I mean, that's that sort of like the hole in the donut thing.

01:09:06Marc:Is that the fucking thing you're talking about?

01:09:10Guest:Yeah, because I tell you, man, after sobering up, I keep saying that the writing slowed down.

01:09:17Guest:And it probably did.

01:09:19Guest:But what I realized is that I'm actually lazy because everything to me was a party.

01:09:23Guest:It had to be a party.

01:09:24Guest:You get off on it.

01:09:25Guest:You get off on it, yeah.

01:09:26Guest:And I think that's part about being a professional comedian is that it is work.

01:09:31Guest:I had a friend who was a musician.

01:09:33Guest:He says he never went to make it with his music because if he did, it'd be a job.

01:09:35Guest:And I'm like, oh, shut up.

01:09:36Guest:It'll be a big party all the time.

01:09:38Guest:And it's not.

01:09:39Guest:When you start to do things professionally and this does become your major source of income, it...

01:09:44Guest:It is kind of like, I got to go to work.

01:09:47Guest:Yeah, I guess.

01:09:48Marc:It only gets frustrating when you haven't got a new bit, and then you just kind of wait it out, and one will come.

01:09:54Marc:But I mean, let's get back to the dinner.

01:09:56Guest:Okay.

01:09:57Guest:So she said, yeah.

01:09:58Marc:Yeah.

01:09:58Guest:Which freaked me out.

01:09:59Marc:Fear of success, I guess, right?

01:10:00Marc:So you got enough information to put a dinner together.

01:10:03Guest:I actually went to an AA meeting that morning, and I hadn't been for like two, three months maybe.

01:10:07Marc:Yeah.

01:10:07Guest:And I went that morning, and I go...

01:10:09Guest:not that i want to help with drinking but i went there because i wanted to see if any of them had any ideas about what i should cook yeah and uh blah blah blah you know and i knew something was going to happen about three o'clock that afternoon i go i remember going i have to get married again soon so i don't have to do this anymore right so uh three in the afternoon i'm making this thing she's like 30 minutes late she comes over and i don't have anything to say and

01:10:35Guest:and if the sauce is pink, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing.

01:10:37Guest:I bought some cake from Safeway.

01:10:39Guest:Yeah.

01:10:40Guest:And, you know, we're talking, and I go, hey, there's something cool.

01:10:48Guest:I got a fan, a fan of mine, because I have fans.

01:10:52Guest:Remember the comedy thing?

01:10:53Guest:I'm a big, important person.

01:10:55Guest:I don't say that, but this is what I'm thinking.

01:10:56Guest:I'm a very important person who has fans, right?

01:11:00Guest:I have avoidance social personality disorder.

01:11:03Guest:Yeah.

01:11:04Guest:And what her line in the script was, you know, because we all have the script.

01:11:10Guest:Oh, baby, you don't need to be like that.

01:11:11Guest:You know, you're sweet.

01:11:12Guest:You know, Will, I like you, you know, and I want us to be together, you know.

01:11:15Guest:I mean, I know it's crazy for me.

01:11:17Guest:She goes, damn, Will, you got a personality disorder?

01:11:21Guest:And I go, oh, that was the wrong thing to say, wasn't it?

01:11:26Guest:So we go fucking like, and she says something.

01:11:29Guest:I mean, just crass.

01:11:31Guest:The woman has no tax.

01:11:32Guest:She's like, do you even work out, Will?

01:11:33Guest:I mean, all this stuff.

01:11:35Guest:I go, oh, my God.

01:11:36Guest:Oh, and then I get a hug, right?

01:11:38Guest:And I can feel there's a liquor store about 30 feet away.

01:11:41Guest:I know my feet are walking there.

01:11:43Guest:I make two half-ass calls to AAP, not wanting anybody to answer.

01:11:46Guest:Two pints of Jim Beam, and that's it, man.

01:11:48Guest:And I thought I was done with her.

01:11:51Guest:Did you eat the cake?

01:11:52Guest:That wasn't enough to get rid of her.

01:11:54Guest:Did you eat the cake?

01:11:55Guest:I don't know what I did.

01:11:56Guest:I remember I ate that pink stuff with the ragu sauce.

01:11:59Marc:Oh, yeah.

01:12:00Marc:So it went on?

01:12:02Guest:Yeah.

01:12:02Guest:She resurfaced and she's like, what are you doing Thursday?

01:12:05Guest:And I'm like...

01:12:06Guest:But I told you that I have, and I'm weird, and you know I don't work out.

01:12:09Guest:And I realized what it was.

01:12:12Guest:You can't see the visual here on the podcast, but I told her mother, I said, you know what the deal with, I can't say her name, let's call her R. But I would take a cigarette lighter.

01:12:20Guest:I'd say, here's the deal.

01:12:22Guest:This lighter is me.

01:12:24Guest:and the rest of me is your daughter.

01:12:26Guest:And then I would just kind of flip the lighter up, and I'd go, hmm, what am I going to do with Will today?

01:12:30Guest:I was totally at her mercy, man.

01:12:33Guest:I had never made a woman my God like that before.

01:12:37Guest:But I think every man... I don't have ever done it with a woman before, and I think every man needs once in his life to have that kind of experience.

01:12:44Marc:Just to feel the pain of when God leaves?

01:12:46Guest:Yeah, because when I came in to AA game, I said, I really had to say, I don't care...

01:12:54Guest:if i ever get a girl i mean i don't know what i've just been through but i mean it was all inextricably tied i had i had two girls going at once one that was you know what they call the second stringer so the first time i've seen two chicks at once yeah which made a lot of sense actually sure backup plan backup plan i haven't done it before because i've always been this 18th century romantic you know mr genius yeah who like you know lives like jonathan swift and isn't he brilliant

01:13:20Guest:And nobody gives a fuck.

01:13:22Guest:Sorry.

01:13:22Guest:And you know the phrase, how's that working out for you?

01:13:26Guest:Yeah.

01:13:27Guest:I hate that.

01:13:28Guest:I like it.

01:13:28Guest:And the guy who's my sponsor now, he looks at me and he goes, so you're doing like the 18th century, I'm a romantic individualist approach to women and art and all that.

01:13:39Guest:And he goes, how's that working out for you?

01:13:41Guest:And for the first time in my life, I didn't brush away that question.

01:13:44Guest:I go, actually, it never has.

01:13:47Guest:And I think I'm done with that shit.

01:13:50Guest:I have sex with women and I enjoy it.

01:13:52Guest:I go to Disneyland.

01:13:54Guest:I just live life.

01:13:56Guest:And the comedy's okay?

01:13:59Guest:Comedy's getting there, man.

01:14:00Guest:Sitting here with you now, first off, it's a big deal.

01:14:04Guest:It really is.

01:14:05Guest:I appreciate that.

01:14:08Guest:I was nervous coming over here.

01:14:09Guest:Like I said, I was going to call Mark.

01:14:13Guest:Mark thinks I'm an asshole.

01:14:14Marc:No, I was looking forward to it.

01:14:17Guest:I was looking forward to it too, man.

01:14:18Guest:Did we cover it?

01:14:19Guest:Jesus, man, we really did.

01:14:21Guest:Yeah.

01:14:22Guest:It was effortless, man.

01:14:23Guest:I was a little afraid in the beginning because I thought, oh, this is banter.

01:14:26Guest:How's my banter with Mark?

01:14:28Guest:I've got to keep my banter up.

01:14:29Guest:It was good talking to you, Will.

01:14:30Guest:It was great talking to you, Mark.

01:14:31Guest:All right.

01:14:32Guest:Right on.

01:14:38Marc:All right, that's our show, folks.

01:14:39Marc:I hope you enjoyed that.

01:14:40Marc:Interesting guy, Will Franken.

01:14:42Marc:Please go to WTFPod.com.

01:14:44Marc:Got new shirts, posters.

01:14:46Marc:Get on the mailing list.

01:14:47Marc:I'll send you an email every week with some stuff and some shit and stuff.

01:14:51Marc:Kick in a few shekels if you'd like.

01:14:53Marc:We're trying to build a new premium package.

01:14:55Marc:Got some new merch coming up.

01:14:57Marc:Got some new stuff coming out.

01:14:58Marc:We're busy loading up the first 100 episodes on the DVDs.

01:15:03Marc:Get yourself some Just Coffee.

01:15:05Marc:Do whatever you got to do.

01:15:06Marc:But please go to the site.

01:15:08Marc:We got some fun stuff coming up.

01:15:09Marc:We're creating a YouTube channel for some of the footage we've been shooting at the live shows.

01:15:14Marc:Next week is a big week.

01:15:16Marc:Jon Hamm is on the show on Monday.

01:15:18Marc:And Bryan Cranston is on the show on Thursday.

01:15:20Marc:Look forward to that.

01:15:21Marc:I did want to throw a plug...

01:15:23Marc:the way of the gotchamediablog.com.

01:15:27Marc:If you go to gotchamediablog.com, he's been doing some stuff on us.

01:15:32Marc:He's been covering me.

01:15:34Marc:So I want to throw a little love his way.

01:15:36Marc:Hope everything's all right.

01:15:38Marc:I'm going to play my new guitar and just realize that I'm 48 years old.

01:15:41Marc:48 years old.

01:15:43Marc:48 years old.

01:15:46Guest:48 years old.

01:15:48Guest:48.

01:15:51Guest:Years.

01:15:54Guest:Old.