Episode 380 - Uhh Yeah Dude
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucking ears what the fuck next look all right too much going on uh i am mark maron this is my show thank you for listening to wtf as always i greatly appreciate it i'm glad you enjoy it
Marc:I just got back from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Marc:I was at the Steel Stacks.
Marc:I got to tell you about that because it was pretty spectacular.
Marc:It was very deep and amazing in some way.
Marc:I'll explain it to you in a minute.
Marc:If you can hang out, let me do some business.
Marc:Also, today on the show...
Marc:Some of the original podcasters, some of the real pioneers of the medium.
Marc:The Uh Yeah Dude guys are here.
Marc:Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli.
Marc:I need to give them their props.
Marc:They were there before many of us doing their thing.
Marc:A lot of people dig them.
Marc:The Uh Yeah Dude podcast is one of my girlfriend Jessica's favorite podcasts.
Marc:So I hear a lot about them.
Marc:And I don't know how you are, but my girl, if she likes something, she has to go back to the beginning.
Marc:So I've literally been sort of privy to probably the last eight or nine years or however long those two guys have been doing it.
Marc:I know their entire evolution secondhand because that's what my girlfriend tells me about.
Marc:So they're here.
Marc:What else is happening?
Marc:Well, obviously, large things.
Marc:My show on IFC Marin premieres on May 3rd.
Marc:I'm very excited.
Marc:I'm actually I'm letting myself be excited as opposed to terrified.
Marc:If you want to go to IFC dot com slash Marin, there's some stuff there, some clips and things.
Marc:They've started a Twitter name.
Marc:I think Marin IFC or IFC Marin.
Marc:A lot of things happen.
Marc:All of a sudden, there's a lot of me around.
Marc:And I don't know, do I retweet that version of me or do I favorite that version of me?
Marc:I guess these are real sort of luxury problems, modern anxieties.
Marc:But also my book, Attempting Normal, is still available for preorder.
Marc:And yes, I did do an audio book.
Marc:And yes, I just finished the audio book of Jerusalem Syndrome as well.
Marc:So those will be up, I think, April 30th as well.
Marc:But I do believe the poster deal is still on.
Marc:If you pre-order and send your receipt to attemptingnormal at randomhouse.com, you might be in for a free poster.
Marc:So you can do that.
Marc:You can also go to wtfpod.com for the link for the purchasing of the book if you didn't do it to your local booksellers or already made a choice about that.
Marc:So Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Marc:It was heavy, man.
Marc:You know, I don't always know what I'm getting into.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I should do more research about a town.
Marc:I should maybe get a sense of what I don't usually have time to get out and around, especially when I do a one-night gig.
Marc:And I was frankly confused.
Marc:As to, you know, the venue, I mean, there was there was a lot of names involved.
Marc:There was Art Quest was involved.
Marc:Music Fest Cafe was involved.
Marc:Steel Stacks was involved.
Marc:Wang Ling.
Marc:I don't know what that is was involved.
Marc:I mean, there was a lot.
Marc:I had no sense of what I was getting into in terms of this venue.
Marc:Now, obviously, I knew I've been to Philly.
Marc:I've spent a few minutes in Pittsburgh.
Marc:In my youth, I've driven through Pennsylvania.
Marc:And my memories are that it is a massive state to drive east to west through.
Marc:I know there are farms or Amish or Mennonites.
Marc:I know that it's very beautiful in places.
Marc:And but that's all I was bringing to the table.
Marc:So I I get directions.
Marc:to this venue uh and it's it's basically you know you go down to this area you take a left and there's a two you know decaying shitty buildings uh you go through the middle of those two and park in the back of one and you're literally entering the site of the bethlehem steel mill what was once the bethlehem steel plant
Marc:It stands.
Marc:It remains in all its glorious decay, rusting away the entire.
Marc:I don't know if you call it a foundry or a mill or a plant, but it looks exactly like you would think it would look just this giant metal rusting bit of industrial business.
Marc:Now, this is also it's right down the street from, I guess, the Sands Casino, which I did not go into.
Marc:From what I understand, from what I gleaned from what someone told me, the Sands owned the entire property and then sold the chunk with the mill, with the plant on it for a dollar to, I guess, maybe a state developer, a local developer, whoever this wingling guy is.
Marc:But it was to develop an arts complex or to do something with it.
Marc:But I do know this.
Marc:that it is an awe-inspiring bit of creepy business, the remains of a steel plant.
Marc:I mean, I walk into this venue, and I was expecting a small theater.
Marc:I knew that the area, it's sort of a complex, and they have a small movie theater.
Marc:They have another performance space, and then they have this huge performance area that serves food.
Marc:There's a cafe there.
Marc:It's in this one building, and
Marc:And I walked in and there's ramps around the top where you literally walk around the top of this.
Marc:It's a huge space.
Marc:I don't know what that space housed previous or in its heyday, but it had something to do with steel.
Marc:So now you walk in and there's a huge stage set up and it's a large room.
Marc:It seats about four or five hundred seated at tables.
Marc:And there's a balcony area.
Marc:But the entire wall, which probably goes up about 40 or 50 feet, it's just one giant glass wall behind the stage.
Marc:And outside of that glass wall is the steel plant.
Marc:The decaying, rusting steel plant.
Marc:And it is uplit.
Marc:So it sort of has an eerie feeling to it.
Marc:It's a silhouette.
Marc:And I had the choice of, do you want the curtains drawn, but it's going to get dark soon?
Marc:I'm like, no, no, no.
Marc:I guess we can leave it open if it's going to get dark.
Marc:But I didn't realize it would be lit.
Marc:And I would be dealing, you know, as a backdrop with the ghost of American industry.
Marc:You know, that steel plant represents a time in America that's gone.
Marc:It is like a monument to men who had jobs.
Marc:Not men who died.
Marc:Maybe they died.
Marc:Maybe some people died.
Marc:I don't know what happened.
Marc:But it was literally a living monument to people who worked.
Marc:in a steel plant and everything that comes along with that you know sort of on a mystical level it was pouring rain uh the rain started in the middle of the show i mean just a torrential downpour so you had that sound and you had that mist happening out there in front of this you know uplit steel plant that was rotting and metal and rusted and and huge there are these towers and just you know you know uh
Marc:ramps and stairways and pipes and things, you know, these giant towers.
Marc:Maybe they were the smelters.
Marc:I don't know what the smelter is.
Marc:I don't even know if I'm using the word right, but you get the idea.
Marc:It was just a giant decaying industrial monolith.
Marc:It was overwhelming.
Marc:So there's a torrential downpour and I'm on stage and lightning starts happening.
Marc:So there's literally this light show going on.
Marc:I was expecting the audience, we had about 400 beautiful people there.
Marc:Thank you for coming out to kind of, ooh, and ah,
Marc:at each strike of lightning and then on a deeper level i thought it was god yelling at me on stage if you believe in god the message of the lightning was you know i was on stage riffing on the situation and god was saying you call that work
Marc:You call what you're doing work.
Marc:Do you know what went on right behind you, little man?
Guest:People were pouring lava, lava into molds to build America, to build skyscrapers, to build battleships, to build armaments, to build everything that represented American industrial progress.
Guest:And look at you, little man, condescending the remnants of
Marc:of a time when people worked with their hands and worked for a common momentum of strength and industry.
Marc:I will say this, that the audience in Bethlehem was spectacular.
Marc:I had a great time.
Marc:And it was an exciting thing to be in.
Marc:It's always exciting to me when there's almost a mysticism to a space.
Marc:And I could definitely feel that.
Marc:And I want to thank everyone for coming out.
Marc:And now, Jonathan Larroquette and Seth Romatelli, the hosts and creators of one of the original
Marc:podcasts.
Marc:Uh, yeah, dude.
Marc:Seth Romatelli.
Marc:That's correct.
Marc:Jonathan Larroquette.
Guest:That is correct.
Marc:Pioneers.
Guest:Oh, it's on right now.
Marc:Godfathers.
Guest:It all happens.
Guest:Just looking at a picture of you and Sam Kennison and now we're just starting.
Guest:You just kind of go.
Guest:It's supposed to be a smooth transition.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Got the dog going today.
Marc:You guys are here on this.
Guest:Got some housework.
Guest:You got some dog stuff.
Marc:It's a big day.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Apparently, my neighbor's back.
Marc:Teeming.
Marc:He's back.
Marc:I haven't gotten that.
Marc:Well, I got the window open, too, because you got a little allergy.
Guest:Seth is moderately to severely allergic to cats.
Guest:Howie Mandel's second.
Marc:He might shut down.
Marc:Did you take medicine?
Guest:I would ask him questions first in case he goes.
Guest:If he dips out, we can take care.
Guest:The last half hour.
Guest:Full seizure.
Marc:Tailors, wipes.
Marc:Ed Helms almost died in here.
Marc:Oh, yeah, literally.
Marc:I got emails because he was like, by the end, there was nothing I could do.
Marc:And he didn't have any medicine or anything.
Marc:And by the end of the episode, you could hear him audibly.
Marc:His eyes were shut.
Guest:No, like there was wheezing.
Guest:That's why I quit the office.
Marc:So I wanted to have you guys on because I don't think you get enough cred.
Marc:For being the godfathers, the originators?
Marc:I wouldn't say you invented podcasts, but you were there at the beginning?
Guest:No.
Guest:What?
Guest:Close to.
Marc:But when you did it, wasn't you started in 2006?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:No.
Guest:What was it?
Guest:2005?
Guest:Six?
Guest:Six.
Guest:Six.
Marc:So what was the landscape like then?
Marc:I mean, back in the day, you know, with the podcast.
Guest:It was Adam Curry and fucking- And you guys?
Marc:And us?
Guest:I think and like and like you know a bunch of guys in there like aunts I think just talking about like you know I don't know what I mean when I first I will I mean I guess I mean Seth doesn't isn't bashful about the shy about this I came up with the idea of it being a podcast Seth literally had no idea what it was I barely had an idea of what it was yeah
Guest:But truth be told, I mean, there had been very successful podcasts in both the comedy world and other worlds, I think, prior to us being there.
Guest:Like what, though?
Guest:I can't even picture it.
Guest:Well, hadn't, I believe, wasn't Ricky Gervais's?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That fucking guy.
Guest:You want to just shut the window or you want to go yell at him?
Guest:It's probably not going to be too bad.
Marc:No, I mean, I think he'll, you know, I think he doesn't, I know what he's doing.
Marc:He's at the top, and he's blowing the leaves off of the angled... What do you call that?
Marc:On top of your front patio, there's an angled... It's the edge of the roof.
Marc:A credenza.
Guest:Wait, isn't that a... I thought that's a... He hates comedy.
Guest:It's that simple.
Guest:It's a drawer.
Guest:Aviary?
Guest:You're in the... Those are good words.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I know they're wrong, but... What is that?
Guest:You mean just like an... What?
Guest:An open... A covered... An awning?
Guest:An awning.
Marc:Yeah, the stone awning.
Marc:Trellis.
Marc:Yeah, the... I don't know if that's...
Marc:those are all great words but what's great about those words is i'm actually on there's i have to take a beat and be like no no no that's not it i don't think that's it i think a trellis is what the plants grow up right when you have a trellis yeah yeah uh i think ricky gervais had already put out podcasts when we had started and i think even keith and the girl and well keith and the girl yeah they're like yeah i mean they've been around they're like since the allman brothers yeah you see
Marc:yeah yeah those are the old days man i used to i've done their show yeah if you live in new york you'll eventually if you're a comic you'll do their show and you have to take a train to fucking nowhere queens and wait for one of them for her to pick you up and you you think this is the big thing right and that was the first time that i had that moment where i realized like well the media landscape is changing i mean this is an important thing i'm doing and i don't know where i am yeah so it was your idea
Guest:Yeah, I thought we didn't know what exactly it was going to be, but we were like, we got to do a show.
Guest:It's got to be like a show.
Guest:And so I figured there was a format there that was free and that chances are we could, I mean, assuming that it was going to be terrible, which we both assumed it was going to be bad.
Guest:I didn't.
Guest:You didn't?
Guest:I think, well, just that we didn't know what we were going to do.
Guest:It was a place we could do it and kind of hide initially.
Marc:Seth, how did you guys meet each other?
Marc:Let's get to the truth of the matter.
Marc:I need you to talk, okay, because my girlfriend, who's a tremendous fan of your show, you don't know what just happened in there.
Marc:You guys were sitting there at the table.
Marc:He was, holy fuck, what is he doing?
Marc:Killing comedy.
Guest:He's just trying to kill some comedy.
Marc:Well, you guys were in the dining room, and I literally hear what just happened in the dining room every night when she's washing her face.
Marc:I hear you guys coming out of the bathroom every night, the two of you coming out of my bathroom.
Guest:All soaked up and ready to go.
Marc:Oh, no, she's got her earphones on.
Marc:I go, hey, Jessica.
Marc:She's like, what?
Marc:Hold on.
Marc:What?
Marc:And it's you guys.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I brought her a tote bag, but I didn't bring you anything.
Marc:I've got no mug sweat for you.
Guest:We should say thank you to her.
Guest:Well, thank you for having us on.
Guest:It's insane.
Marc:But she's gone to the beginning.
Marc:She's one of these people that can't listen in the middle.
Marc:So she's gone to the beginning.
Marc:So now it's almost Dickensian in its episodic nature that I'm getting reports on different phases of your life secondhand.
Guest:Yeah, that sucks for you.
Marc:No, it's all right.
Marc:It probably sucks.
Guest:No, it's all right.
Guest:I think I would hate it.
Guest:No, it's fine.
Guest:I'd get mad.
Guest:I'd be like, what the fuck's the big deal?
Guest:What the fuck's the big deal?
Marc:Why do you care so much?
Marc:Who the fuck wants to hear this much about these people?
Marc:No, no.
Marc:Well, look at what I do.
Marc:I certainly can't judge on those terms.
Guest:No, for sure.
Marc:But then when I ran into you at that music store and you were like, I'm John LaGuardia.
Marc:I'm like, holy fuck.
Marc:And I got to take a picture of you with me to send her so she can go, oh my God.
Marc:You're going to end up fucking her.
Marc:You're going to end up.
Marc:I'm going to end up without a girl.
Marc:This is what's going to happen.
Marc:This is my prophecy.
Guest:That's why he was telling you the story about his shitty crib because he's eyeballing this place.
Guest:Yeah, I was just moving right in.
Guest:You're going to take over my life.
Guest:I do a lot of outdoor sleeping.
Guest:I'm like kind of faux camper kind of guy.
Guest:I'm down with that.
Guest:Comedian Marc Maron suffered a terrible fall at his home.
Marc:Oddly his girlfriend, comforted by Jonathan Larroquette.
Guest:I think it is a little crazy when you see it in its entirety to think that it's sort of... I mean, if you heard something that was like, oh, there's 358 hours of it, you'd be like, oh, and what is it?
Guest:It must cover like... Important stuff.
Guest:The moon landing.
Guest:Yeah, something.
Guest:But I mean, it seems a little ridiculous that it's just two schmucks talking and also that we don't have...
Guest:guests it's so it's really just i think the people that like it are do like it because it sort of does uh chronicle us as well as it's a current event show and so we talk about current events and and you know you gotta you guys are good on the mic you know people like you so where so where do you come from and why'd you end up with this guy i'm from massachusetts oh hold on a minute he's going down hey buddy
Guest:How long is that going to be happening?
Guest:Yeah, I'm interviewing.
Guest:You will?
Guest:Take a break.
Guest:I'll give you some coffee.
Guest:I've got an hour.
Guest:Thanks, man.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:I'll work that.
Guest:You're like, who are you doing?
Guest:Oh, yeah, dude.
Guest:Who?
Guest:Like, turns back on.
Marc:Fuck those guys.
Marc:Stephen Colbert and Bill Maher.
Marc:Oh, okay.
Marc:No, he's usually pretty good about that.
Marc:He actually suggested I put an on the air light on the outside.
Guest:So he could just peep it.
Guest:So he could know.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:No, he's not going to do it.
Marc:But that's what that guy's doing.
Marc:This is his life now.
Marc:He bought that place at the top of the market for a ridiculous amount of money.
Marc:And then he dumped another, got to be 100K into it.
Marc:So he ain't leaving.
Guest:No.
Guest:I mean, that's the thing.
Guest:If once at that point, you're just like, I'm here.
Guest:I have to die here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, he seems okay.
Marc:He's a good guy.
Marc:It's good to have good neighbors.
Marc:So what part of Massachusetts?
Marc:Haverhill, Massachusetts.
Marc:Haverhill.
Marc:I know Haverhill.
Marc:Give me a couple more surrounding areas so I can play.
Guest:Lawrence.
Marc:Lawrence.
Marc:I've been to Lawrence.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:The Brown Derby.
Marc:Laurel.
Marc:Did it.
Marc:I played one of my first comedy gigs there.
Marc:Yep.
Guest:Moved to Hollywood.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And...
Marc:With a dream?
Marc:With a dream.
Marc:Yeah, and what happened when you got here?
Guest:Look at me now.
Guest:Here we are.
Guest:One of the biggest podcasts in the world.
Guest:Yeah, this is it.
Guest:You've made it.
Guest:You've made it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You did some stuff though, right?
Guest:No, I mean, I came out here so Leonardo and I could just be in a movie and just play brothers and just do the damn thing.
Marc:And how was that movie?
Marc:I don't think I saw it.
Guest:We didn't.
Guest:It's like Lars von Trier.
Guest:We've been working on it for a long time.
Marc:It's a lot of improvisation.
Marc:Does Leonardo know about it?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:He knows about it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's got final approval.
Guest:Of your idea of my life.
Marc:He's going to have to sign off on everything.
Marc:You just have to get it to him or how's that?
Marc:He's telepathically.
Marc:We're just waiting to hear back.
Marc:Just getting into it.
Marc:Cool.
Guest:Where's Toby?
Guest:Is Toby around?
Guest:He's super busy.
Guest:He's supes busy.
Guest:Supes busy.
Guest:You heard about him taking a break from acting.
Guest:You worked, though.
Guest:You did commercials and shit.
Guest:No, I mean, I did whatever.
Guest:You hustled just like everybody else did and fucking busted ass.
Guest:And that's kind of how we met.
Guest:Yeah, Hollywood days turned into Hollywood nights.
Guest:I was working at a video store called Rocket Video, which was like- Wait, do I remember that?
Guest:Where was that?
Guest:It was on La Brea and Melrose, which was kind of like a Hollywood video store.
Guest:In what year are we talking?
Guest:Talking like 96, 97, 98.
Guest:99, 2000.
Marc:So that was after I Came and Gone.
Marc:That was past the heyday of Melrose in a way, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But still, the video store was sort of like Hollywood's video store.
Marc:I don't want to brag, but that was around when the first Johnny Rockets opened there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, I remember when that was an important thing.
Marc:Like Johnny Rockets.
Marc:Like, what the fuck is that?
Marc:The 50s.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Wait, wasn't that on where the Starbucks is now or whatever?
Guest:More Better Burgers?
Guest:Didn't that turn into a Johnny Rockets?
Marc:No, the Johnny Rockets, yeah.
Marc:I think the original one was right on Melrose next to Tommy Tang's.
Marc:You remember Tommy Tang's?
Marc:Come on, I did blow in the bathroom with Tommy Tang's.
Marc:Yeah, but that was it.
Marc:Okay, so you come out, you got a dream, you're doing what you can, you're getting fucked up at night.
Guest:Yeah, getting fucked up.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, living that Hollywood dream.
Guest:Hanging out with stars.
Guest:Hanging out with all the stars.
Guest:Which stars?
Guest:Lots of stars.
Guest:You did.
Guest:Big stars.
Guest:Did a movie?
Guest:No, I was working at a video store.
Guest:His wife, he came in.
Guest:Didn't you do any movies?
Guest:You didn't do any movies?
Guest:No.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Guest:Did I bring up something to you?
Marc:No, no, no.
Marc:All right.
Marc:You tried, though.
Marc:You tried, right?
Guest:I tried.
Marc:I am still here.
Guest:My number's in the book.
Guest:You can hit me on.
Guest:Still in Screen Doctor's Guild.
Guest:Come on.
Guest:I got a tear sheet.
Guest:I'm working at a video store.
Guest:Him and his wife come in, his ex-wife.
Guest:How many ex-wives do you have?
Guest:Two.
Guest:No, one.
Marc:One.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And you have a wife now?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:But he made her late to the airport last night.
Guest:No, I didn't make her late to the airport.
Guest:I made her miss her flight.
Guest:So two.
Guest:Two.
Guest:Probably two.
Marc:Close to two ex-wives.
Guest:Nearly two.
Marc:So you guys are both living over in this horrible situation?
Marc:No.
Marc:So you don't live with your wife?
Guest:Not currently.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:It seems like there's more of a story there.
Guest:His wife cast Britney Spears movie, Crossroads, gave me a little scene in it so I could be in Crossroads with Britney Spears.
Marc:Your ex-wife, your first wife, who was a movie in casting.
Guest:She's a big casting director.
Guest:Who was that?
Guest:Her name's Justine Baddeley.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Will you give me your number later?
Guest:You working?
Guest:I'd like to.
Guest:Everything else?
Guest:I'm going to be on the radar.
Guest:Just the general.
Guest:Yeah, general.
Guest:Can I get a general with your ex-wife?
Guest:How are you?
Guest:On good terms with her?
Guest:Yes, we're on good terms.
Guest:Kids?
Guest:No kids.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So, yeah, I meet her.
Guest:She says, let me introduce you to my boyfriend at the time.
Guest:And then we become friends.
Marc:But when he said, okay, this is Jonathan Larroquette, you're like, are you related to the... I don't know if that came out.
Guest:Initially, the first interaction I remember having that I remember meeting Seth, as it were, was talking about...
Guest:Living Dolls, which was an HBO undercover documentary back in the day about child pageantry that had this sort of lead character in the documentary named Swan, who was this sort of Jean Benet-esque sort of girl.
Guest:And at the time, I guess that whole...
Guest:that was new information to me.
Guest:I think that child pageantry happened on that scale and that the parents were, you know, I mean, of course it's like commonplace reality television fodder nowadays, but this is, you know, 15 years ago or whatever the 96 and I had just seen it and was obsessed with it.
Guest:And Seth, I, it came up in conversation at the video store and he happened to have a, uh, photograph of her cut out and sitting in a drawer.
Guest:Why, why would you have a good gag?
Guest:That's a good gag.
Guest:Oh,
Guest:At the time, it's a gag.
Guest:It's a funny thing to have if that thing comes up in reference, and then all of a sudden you have a picture of her in your drawer, like, what's up?
Guest:You'd only be bad if I pulled it out now.
Guest:That's basically, yeah.
Guest:I still have that picture.
Guest:So in essence, yeah.
Guest:Hold on, wait.
Guest:It's laminated.
Guest:I love gags.
Guest:I love bits.
Guest:So he showed me the picture, and I was like, oh, you're a crazy person.
Guest:And so that was it.
Guest:I mean, we pretty much hung out pretty hard at that point after that.
Guest:But he was getting fucked up at the time, and I wasn't getting fucked up at the time.
Marc:So you were sober.
Marc:You were in trouble.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:How bad?
Marc:Were you sliding?
Marc:He was a mess.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Blow?
Guest:Yeah, everything.
Marc:Yeah, he's a fucking... Garbage head?
Marc:He's just a fucking booze.
Marc:He's an alcoholic.
Marc:Oh, yeah?
Marc:Yeah, he's a drunk.
Marc:So you're sober, and you're like... Okay, so how old do you...
Marc:Currently.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I turned 35 this year.
Marc:So back then you were, what, 22?
Marc:Fuck, you're like kids.
Marc:I'm a baby.
Marc:And you were already sober at 22?
Marc:What the fuck did you do?
Guest:Well, I had been sober.
Guest:Grew up on the lots, Mark.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You don't know how it is.
Guest:Grew up on the lot.
Guest:You don't know what that's like.
Guest:On the set of Night Court?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My dad's an actor, was on a television show for a good 10 years of my childhood.
Marc:Deception, Monday nights, NBC at 10 p.m.
Marc:Jonathan Larroquette.
Marc:So who is your dad?
Guest:My dad's name is John Larroquette.
Guest:Do you guys get along?
Guest:We do.
Guest:yeah yeah it's funny guy right he's a very funny guy he's a good dude yeah uh yeah my folks are still together pretty good pretty good upbringing but i mean nonetheless nonetheless like growing up and you know uh i think in los angeles at the time that i did like a lot of people you know i got a little i got a little wacky in my high school days and i think at the time it was a little bit hip to send your kid to rehab kind of even if they didn't necessarily you know what i mean like it was just that you were terrified that you know your kid was gonna
Guest:had access to hard drugs and that if they were doing drugs, they were going to be... And so, I mean, there was a lot of misinformation at that time, and I got popped.
Guest:I got arrested driving back from a Blues Traveler concert.
Guest:It's sort of a long story.
Guest:Really?
Guest:I was living in Malibu.
Guest:I had seen Blues Traveler the night before, and I was going to see Blues Traveler again.
Guest:I had seen Blues Traveler in Hollywood, and I was going to see them at the Ventura Theater the following night.
Marc:You liked Blues Traveler.
Guest:At the time.
Marc:John Popper sat in the chair you're sitting in and played harmonica.
Guest:I drew a portrait of John Popper, a charcoal portrait of him, and went to go see them play with my father at the Wiltern and got backstage because of my old man and managed to hand deliver the portrait to him and was like, you're like my fucking hero.
Guest:Because at the time I was obsessed with playing harmonica.
Guest:Of all the things you could get from your father being a huge actor, you cast it by getting backstage.
Guest:I got a harmonica lesson from John Popper pretty much.
Guest:He gave me a harmonica.
Guest:You want it?
Guest:I kind of do.
Guest:I sort of do.
Guest:I take it.
Guest:so anyway i got fucked up when i was a kid and so i got popped and so the best and you know my old man is is sober and has been for years and so i wasn't unfamiliar with so he got it though that's a that's a benefit in a way to have the sober dad who's like yep i was hoping he didn't get it he wasn't gonna get it but he's got it yeah and so once that happened i think i was you know i was i was sober for about 15 years
Marc:What'd you get popped with?
Guest:Oh, it was just a bunch of weed and money.
Guest:I mean, just nothing crazy.
Guest:Guns.
Guest:No guns.
Marc:Women.
Guest:No coke, no guns.
Guest:Some illegal immigrants.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No?
Guest:No spring breakers.
Guest:So you're just a weed guy?
Guest:Yeah, I was like a fucking crazy hippie, like eating mushrooms and thinking I was, you know, talking to Ja and shit.
Guest:I was super rosted out.
Guest:Yeah, you still listen to that music?
Guest:I still do listen to quite a bit of it, yeah.
Guest:Seriously?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I did when I wasn't smoking weed anymore for a long time, too.
Guest:That's commitment.
Guest:Well, that's what I proved.
Guest:I had to do that to prove to myself that I really did deserve to smoke weed as a spiritual practice or something like that.
Guest:So you have to endure listening to reggae for like 10 years not being stoned, and then you qualify, I think.
Marc:So did you get him sober?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:He...
Marc:our paths kind of... But you did the whole thing, right?
Marc:You did the rehab, you went to meetings.
Guest:I went to meetings, yeah.
Guest:Commitments, working at rehabs, fucking young people's conventions, did the whole, you know, a lot of that shit that I think, like I said, it was not uncommon in my... I mean, I knew plenty of kids that were my age that were going through the same type of stuff and there was a lot of, you know... But you were probably like the star of the meeting.
Marc:That is not true.
Marc:Don't say that.
Marc:You know that's not true.
Marc:You had like a TAM and you were organizing.
Marc:Come on.
Guest:Who wants to... You know...
Guest:What's all this coffee?
Guest:What about like a tea?
Guest:Like a Rubios, Rubibos or something, you know?
Guest:So, yeah, I did the whole thing and then sort of, you know, for the first few years, obviously, and then, you know, I kind of realized that there was something that I didn't, you know, there was people there that clearly needed a lot of help and a lot of attention and that staying away from that stuff, I didn't struggle with ever.
Guest:And so it kind of felt silly for me to be there after six years because I was like, what the fuck am I doing here?
Marc:In the rooms.
Guest:Yeah, I'm just trying to get blown and, you know, hang out with fucking...
Guest:Dave Navarro or whatever.
Marc:That's part of sobriety.
Marc:I don't know the Navarro part.
Marc:You could probably aim a little higher, I think.
Marc:Ozzy was around for a while.
Guest:But at the time that Seth decided to stop and clean up his life, I was way out of any sort of like, hey, man, I'm going to save you a seat, bro.
Guest:Any of that shit.
Guest:That was done.
Guest:Seth discovered that shit on his own.
Guest:And then once he was cleaned up a bit, I felt safe to go and start making a shit of mine.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Good.
Guest:Thanks.
Marc:rubbing it in this show this show's really gonna pan out like i'm the guy who's just gonna tumble through life and like every day is gonna be like oh my god where am i yeah and you're just the guy who's gonna go really that happened sweet pretty much no you serve it up on your own yeah yeah yeah and you did the whole thing too
Marc:I break anonymity here because I think it's helpful.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, for myself.
Marc:If you want to stay loyal to the secret society.
Guest:No, I mean, I did that at the beginning just because- Yeah, that's not really Seth's get down.
Guest:You did it at the beginning a little bit?
Guest:Yeah, just because I think that's what you did.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But it helps, you know, you get you in the mindset and you sort of lean on it a little bit.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, it's been, I'm not enjoying it and I hate it.
Guest:And everyone tells me if you go through the program, then you find a way to deal with it.
Marc:But that's bullshit.
Marc:Here's what I've decided about that.
Marc:It's like, I don't know that I've been to a meeting and I still go occasionally.
Marc:I probably, if I'm on my, if I'm in the groove, I'll go once a week.
Marc:I don't do commitments really.
Marc:I don't sponsor people because I just don't, I can't prioritize that.
Guest:But people ask you to speak and you speak.
Marc:No, I'll definitely do it.
Marc:I'll definitely show up.
Marc:I definitely talk to... I have a sponsor and stuff.
Marc:But I think that the trick of it is when they go... At the beginning, you're like, fuck this.
Marc:This is stupid.
Marc:You guys are idiots.
Marc:And then that person comes up to you and goes, you sound great.
Marc:You're right where you need to be.
Marc:Yeah, fuck you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I haven't been to a meeting in my life where at some point I've been sitting there and not said, like, oh, God, this guy?
Marc:Holy fuck.
Marc:But I think it teaches you patience and tolerance.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I think there's that in every aspect of the world.
Guest:And I think, you know, if you're in offices and churches and wherever else, you're going to deal with those people that are like, hey, we're all here for the same reason.
Guest:We're down with the same cause, but I can't fucking stand this person.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's just how life is.
Guest:But, I mean, I think...
Marc:Yeah, but in just life, you're like, fuck that guy.
Marc:You know what?
Marc:Fuck all of them.
Marc:Fuck it.
Marc:I'm going to go do some blow and get a gun.
Guest:I don't really know if that's the leap in logic that every normal human takes, actually, Mark.
Guest:I'm not normal.
Guest:I'm not normal.
Guest:But it's...
Guest:I mean, I think it saved your life stopping for that period of time.
Guest:And I think that for me, too, I don't think I would be able to manage even what I've done at this stage of my life had I not had that huge amount of time.
Guest:And also, for me, like I said, I mean, I got exposed to a lot of people who had a lot of great stories and a lot of
Guest:great observations about, you know, the human condition and all that stuff.
Guest:And I learned that those things I do think transcend outside of those rooms and those people that are afflicted with that problem.
Marc:So you just ride it out.
Marc:You just don't do it anymore.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Well, that's good.
Marc:You feel better?
Guest:I mean, like he said, I mean, we're here.
Guest:What?
Guest:I mean, it's a nightmare.
Guest:You know, I mean, yeah.
Guest:Day to day?
Guest:How do you not drink?
Guest:That's like psychotic.
Marc:It is.
Marc:It's pretty dumb.
Marc:You're grounded.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:You're grounded in a horrible, angry cynicism.
Guest:No, I think you have a very, very practical, sort of unforgiving take on it, and I think it's pretty spot on.
Guest:I mean, it's insane to not drink alcohol.
Guest:It's insane.
Guest:Because at this point, it's comic.
Guest:It's a farce.
Guest:I mean, it's insane.
Marc:Is this something you say every day?
Guest:Literally from sleep to wake.
Guest:I fucking hate this!
Guest:Why am I not drinking?
Guest:It's insane.
Guest:But I have the ability to, the show being an example, throw myself into things and focus all of my attention on them enough to...
Guest:fall asleep, wake back up, and do it again.
Marc:To get lost in it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So that's how you're one of those guys where it's just like, everything sucks, but I got this, and I can focus for a while.
Guest:Well, I mean, I can... Yeah, just sort of the podcast of what it is that we do and how we come at it or how I come at it requires time.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I really...
Marc:So you're like the working partner.
Guest:I fall into that.
Marc:Yeah, that's for sure.
Guest:But I'm, you know, I'm pretty OCD and pretty.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it just, it allows me to just.
Marc:Right.
Marc:That's hilarious because my partner is the same way.
Marc:Like, you know, this guy that I work with is, he's in New York and I've worked with him for years, but he's like a wizard.
Marc:He's a genius.
Marc:You know, he's got, he's the most intelligent guy I know.
Marc:And I just like, I do this and I'm like, you do, I'm going to send it to you and you do everything else.
Guest:Do everything else.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But what else do you do?
Guest:Do you got a gig or what?
Guest:No.
Guest:Because I know he works at a guitar store.
Guest:I work at a medical marijuana dispensary.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah, in West Hollywood, California.
Marc:Does he?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So you're a sober guy and you work at a medical marijuana.
Guest:Needless to say, he's their best employee because he's the only one that's not face down in a bag of Doritos or whatever.
Marc:Or spending way too much time with the product.
Marc:No, what I like.
Marc:If you really want a nice buzz...
Guest:Yeah, that's true.
Guest:It's ironic, I guess.
Marc:Out of all the jobs, seriously, how do you end up there?
Marc:I'm a healer.
Guest:I'm a compassionate caregiver.
Guest:I'm a patient in medicine, a shaman.
Marc:And it must be really hard to see all those people with such difficult, hard health problems that come in there every day.
Guest:I will go on record as saying that his particular spot actually has mad cancer and AIDS patients.
Guest:Mad cancer and AIDS patients.
Guest:That's what it says, like, on the window.
Guest:We actually serve mad AIDS patients, I think.
Marc:With an arrow.
Marc:So you don't have those people there?
Marc:No, no.
Marc:I mean, it's insane.
Marc:It's like the most, basically the most insane job you could do.
Marc:But I have no idea about that thing.
Marc:I mean, do you go to them?
Guest:I don't fuck with them that much, no.
Marc:Isn't that weird?
Marc:Do you rather deal with your guy?
Marc:You got a guy?
Guest:I'd rather deal with my guy.
Guest:Because I push weights.
Guest:No, because I move mad weight.
Guest:And so most dispensaries don't really deal in the quantities that I deal with.
Guest:No, I think what it is is this.
Guest:Most of the time, the quality of the weed is, although they have crazy deals and are constantly undercutting each other, they're also constantly undercutting the product in order to make it that cheap because they're in a crazy business.
Guest:The other thing is the majority of them in this city, I think, are terribly shady because there was no rules as to who could open them.
Guest:And so you're walking into these situations and you're giving a phenomenal amount of your own personal information over to these places that although you've maybe gotten a medical marijuana reference legitimately.
Marc:From a good doctor.
Guest:This fucking dude's got, you know, a kilo of Coke in the back and, you know, he'll sell you ecstasy if you want it.
Marc:Is that true?
Guest:Well, I mean, that's an extreme example, but that does happen.
Marc:Right.
Guest:In the Valley.
Marc:Oh, so you can be the guy that's going with your doctor's card and like, I want medical marijuana, and then the guy there is like, yeah, you need anything else?
Guest:Yeah, you need anything else?
Guest:Really?
Guest:Lap dance?
Guest:No, I mean, those places, the medical marijuana concept is just a front for them to be able to just move cash in and out of it.
Guest:So even if the front of the place is semi-legitimate, it's just like, oh, you guys are shady.
Guest:Yeah, because it's drugs.
Guest:It's fucking drugs.
Guest:I mean, and also it's not like all of a sudden drugs went to...
Guest:uh legally medically legal right and then all the sudden right it's not regulated yeah it was like the same guys that have been growing it since the 70s are still fucking growing it now so it's like although there's these other people opening up these mom and pop weed shops it's like well you're still buying them from like fucking cowboys yeah you know guys yeah yeah so i mean that's the issue that i think needs to be addressed and i don't think that that
Guest:And also I'm a little big brother freaked out about like being in 20 years being denied, uh, being denied, you know, some sort of insurance coverage because I applied for a fucking medical marijuana card in 2005 and they were like, you know, no, your dick's going to fall off and it's just going to be that way because you love weed or whatever.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Bad choices, man.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:He should have thought about that then.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:That doesn't fall under the Obama no pre-existing condition judgments.
Marc:Yeah, I'm not sure.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I'm not sure.
Marc:A lot of weed.
Marc:So wait, so you work at a place.
Marc:Is anything you're saying valid or credible?
Marc:I mean, like you said, in the valley.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, that spot is legit.
Guest:It's a legit place.
Guest:It's a legit spot.
Guest:I mean, people come to get high, but people come because they need it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But why did you end up working there?
Marc:Seriously.
Marc:I mean, you know.
Guest:I had worked for a nutritionist, this crazy nutritionist slash colon hydrotherapist.
Marc:Let's talk about that for a minute.
Marc:Because you go to him.
Marc:No, I don't.
Marc:The colonic thing, Paul Krasner once said the most, I thought it was like, I remembered this joke out of everything Paul Krasner said in his 90 years of writing satire.
Marc:He said, a colonic is an enema with an ideology, which I thought was true.
Guest:There you go.
Guest:but like that's what it said above the door of the place no but I mean colonics so you worked at a place where you didn't do them you didn't give them you gotta specify when you say that everyone immediately thinks of you putting a plastic hose up a dude's butt and selling them some bill of goods about you he sold vitamins to like actresses and then they would invite every actress that worked on the TV show and he had this huge practice in the valley and
Guest:Basically making actresses lose weight.
Guest:Just like the B vitamin shot craze.
Guest:Take 30 pills a day and let me give you a clonic and you'll be ready for the Golden Globes.
Marc:Did you get any sense that he was enjoying putting tubes up actresses?
Marc:He wouldn't.
Marc:And get paid for it?
Marc:Fuck me.
Marc:Just watching them in that moment, like, ow, ow.
Marc:No, it's good.
Guest:I quit the night, or soon after I was sitting there, and this 1970s Mercedes, baby blue Mercedes pulled up, and guy gets out, starts walking.
Guest:I'm like, I think that's John Travolta.
Guest:And John Travolta came for a Sunday night, late night session, and I just saw it.
Guest:It was like the godfather.
Guest:The door closed on me, the two of them, and I was like, all right, I quit.
Guest:And Travolta was kissing the nutritionist's head.
Guest:Don't ask us about our business.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So that, I mean, when we started the show, I was there.
Guest:He was in the alternative medicine.
Guest:He's in alternative medicine.
Guest:I left there.
Guest:It's your racket.
Guest:And then somehow, literally, I ended up at this place.
Guest:They had plasma TVs in the lobby.
Guest:And I was like, I don't know what this is.
Guest:And it was on Craigslist.
Guest:It was like six years ago that I got this.
Guest:I've been working there for six years.
Marc:You guys in the Craigslist.
Marc:That's what I hear a lot about the Craigslist.
Guest:Fuck, people still talking about that, huh?
Guest:People still talking.
Guest:Was it a recurring segment?
Guest:It was a recurring segment.
Guest:And probably the only funny, genuinely funny thing we've ever done.
Guest:I can hang my hat on.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Um, but yeah people well, but this was actually him just answering an ad like looking for a job We used to read a lot of a lot of The gay not gay though.
Guest:Hey, I'm straight, but you know I wouldn't get my dick sucked right now homeboy.
Marc:Yeah daddy discipline, you know No gay guys no gay guys but trust I don't I've never been on Craigslist in my life.
Marc:Really is that weird?
Guest:That is weird.
Marc:I'm a little out of the loop there.
Marc:Look around.
Marc:I have things I could sell, and then theoretically I could sell a lot of this stuff.
Guest:Theoretically, it seems like you like to also buy things, considering what shit you get given.
Guest:I just collect shit.
Guest:You can't sell gifts, though.
Guest:That's bad juju.
Marc:No, they're not gifts.
Marc:Some of it's promotional.
Marc:Some of it I've had since college.
Guest:Sling that shit.
Guest:Sling it.
Guest:yeah yeah do people buy shit i mean will they buy it oh my god will they buy it fucking garage sales when you do a garage sale and you put an ad out in craigslist for the garage sale you will get people if you say like you will not answer the door before 9 a.m yeah you will get a motherfucking dude like at six knocking on your doors like hey do you have any uh you have any screener dvds like whoa like i mean and like aggro yeah and that's a certain thing that's the guy from the union
Guest:Yeah, just coming after me.
Marc:You're under arrest.
Guest:Cool, get down on the ground.
Guest:But I mean, those guys are, there's a lot of, I mean, I just did the, I worked the Rose Bowl recently for the first time.
Guest:What do you mean you went to a- I actually had a booth there.
Marc:What do you sell?
Guest:Well, actually, it was my wife, mostly my wife does vintage clothes, but I had a bunch of collectibles of my own and my dad's.
Guest:Like what?
Guest:a lot of our crumb cartoonish like 60s cartoon stuff and and like original crumb prints a lot of a lot of signed lithos my dad was obsessed with with crumb and i got obsessed with him growing up and so it became this thing and we collected baseball cards together and collected a lot of our crumb shit together but it's gotten to a point where he and i both are a little crazy and and we also shift focus a lot so a lot of it's kind of amassed into these you know cardboard boxes and storage and we were like we should unload some of it keep our favorite stuff and just dump the stuff that we were just kind of
Guest:the collector card shit, like that kind of stuff.
Guest:And so I just wanted to test the market, and since she wanted to do the vintage thing.
Guest:And so I started getting into it, and dude, there's guys everywhere.
Guest:I mean, it's just like, so many fucking, they buy records, they buy, still looking for baseball cards, and I'm just like, right, I guess, of course, because there's like a billion people that still spend money on baseball cards.
Marc:But did that moment happen to you where like, I sit in here, I'm 50 almost, I'm 49, I just turned 49, I don't know why I said, well, I'm almost 50, whatever.
Marc:But like, you start to look around.
Guest:You're like 100th.
Marc:Yeah, I'm much older than you.
Guest:No, I'm just saying.
Guest:I mean, you were playing us records earlier.
Marc:I mean, come on.
Marc:Well, that's because you... I mean, I'm 40.
Marc:I mean, I'm 35, but I'm 40.
Guest:You understand some records.
Guest:I think they're five to 10-year blocks because you can't really deal with that kind of murky area.
Marc:Sure, but you have that moment where you look around at your shit and you're like, no, how much of this has any meaning anymore?
Marc:I mean, what am I holding on to it?
Marc:What's going to happen to this shit?
Marc:Who cares?
Guest:Well, either you love it enough that you don't want to lose the opportunity of going back and looking at it every once in a while or whatever, or...
Guest:I mean, if you can make money on something- That's called hoarding.
Marc:It is hoarding.
Guest:But at the same time, I mean, the thing that most people justify their like mini hoarding or pseudo hoarding that they do is that these things are going to eventually be of value.
Guest:That they'll be worth something.
Guest:You got them?
Guest:I got my full garbage.
Guest:But the thing about that-
Guest:It's nothing worth anything.
Marc:Well, it's not really.
Guest:Nothing's worth it.
Marc:Not really.
Marc:There's no million dollar garbage pail cake card.
Guest:You should sell everything you have now.
Guest:And there won't ever be.
Guest:Because a lot of that stuff got created at a time when collectibles became...
Guest:in a business it was a thing yeah the times that the time the the 86 to 89 90 when my dad and i were buying baseball cards they produced more baseball cards during that time than they have over the history because people are like we gotta buy baseball because my generation who had dads my dad's age you know 65 years old that was our get down and like i remember going to baseball card shows and it was all kids my age and their dads
Guest:Fucking kids.
Guest:My brother.
Guest:But the cards are buying.
Marc:I ain't collecting cards now.
Marc:No kids have dads anymore.
Guest:There's no dads anymore.
Marc:No dads.
Marc:There ain't no dads.
Marc:There's no basketball, baseball cards.
Marc:We're busy.
Marc:We're busy.
Marc:But wait.
Marc:So your dad's cards would have been worth something.
Guest:Well, he didn't collect them back then.
Guest:He collected them because his kid was into baseball.
Guest:And so he had money.
Guest:So he was like, I'm going to buy my kid fucking baseball cards.
Guest:We're going to go collect baseball cards because that's what rich kids do.
Marc:My mother...
Marc:My grandmother had a neighbor who used to babysit my mother, this girl, Jody.
Marc:And she gave me a box of baseball cards.
Marc:And these were of a time.
Marc:They weren't like Ty Cobb, but Johnny Bench's rookie card.
Marc:There was like Mickey Mantle.
Marc:Yeah, that's real shit.
Marc:Well, I didn't know anything about baseball, but I had these cards forever in a box.
Marc:And when I was in college, sophomore year, I gave the box to the guy upstairs so I could buy a fucking eight ball blow.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:There was probably a million dollars in that box, right?
Guest:I mean, I'd say at least 10 Gs, but how good was that eight ball?
Marc:Yeah, I don't even remember.
Marc:There's been a lot of eight balls.
Marc:I imagine it ended with me jerking off and being afraid.
Guest:Yeah, jerking off for four hours and being afraid.
Guest:no jerking away the death yeah that's what i was doing i think fucking i mean what do you i mean i i let go of star wars shit like all the stuff that you know i wasn't supposed to i held on to all the shit that wound up not being collectible and i let go of all the things that actually wound up being laugh now bye later is the thing my friend always says because in the music world like there's shit that we sell at that music store secondhand stuff down the street we couldn't have given away five years ago down the street yeah
Guest:And then you get these producers coming in now looking for shit.
Guest:And I was like, literally, we used to have them stacked up in the back and would kick them up.
Guest:Just certain types of effects.
Guest:Isn't that weird, though?
Marc:Because now the digital is crapped out.
Marc:Everyone's going back to shitty shit from the 80s and 90s.
Guest:And it's like, this is the shit that we couldn't give away for years.
Guest:And now it's that cycle.
Guest:And it happens all the time.
Guest:I mean, it really does.
Guest:Shit just turns over.
Marc:I shouldn't have fucking sold my crybaby wah-wah pedal.
Guest:Yeah, that kind of shit.
Guest:They still make those.
Guest:They still make them, but of course, someone's going to come up and say, yes, they do still make them.
Guest:However, the potentiometers that they use, and probably the fool's right, but it's just a matter of whether you give a shit about it.
Marc:I'm just so glad you validated my fear, the tweeter fear I had, because I was like, I'm on that verb.
Guest:Mark has an insane pair of speakers in his living room.
Marc:Right, but I kept going, like, why is it hurting my ears?
Marc:The guy said, you know, what's great about these speakers is not going to hurt your ears like digital does.
Marc:And on some records, those vocals, they're kind of great.
Marc:And you're saying it's like, I just need to run sound through them for 100 hours or so?
Guest:Something like that.
Guest:110.
Guest:No, but I mean, you've got to break those things in a little bit and get them a little less.
Guest:They're a little new sounding right now.
Guest:But that's the whole idea is that in 60 years, those things are going to sound better than they do right now.
Marc:Dude, in 60 years, I'm not going to be doing anything.
Guest:But me and your girl are going to be listening.
Guest:Listen to this Credence.
Guest:This was Mark's favorite Credence record.
Marc:And she's going to say, I don't like him.
Marc:And you're going to say, how can you not like him?
Marc:How can you not like Credence?
Marc:And she's going to go, just play it.
Marc:Can I watch TV?
Marc:How can you not like the revival?
Marc:What the fuck is wrong with you?
Marc:Right.
Marc:And that's going to be the beginning of the end of you and Jessica.
Marc:So wait, do you collect anything?
Guest:No, I archive everything.
Marc:He collects us.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, there's a closet full of this show.
Guest:He hasn't let go of everything.
Guest:I keep all the audio archived.
Guest:He keeps all of the notes, all of the articles in which he pulled from, any sort of fan art that we've ever gotten sent, any correspondence.
Guest:Yeah, tactile sort of stuff.
Marc:No, but it's all, I mean.
Marc:But you're like a control freaky guy, and he's like chaos guy.
Marc:Like chaos guy, we collect things, but everything's a fucking mess.
Marc:Yeah, it's all unfinished collections.
Marc:Everything's like a mess.
Guest:Yeah, like this, I mean like.
Guest:He makes someone want to vomit right now.
Marc:He's like seasick.
Marc:Really?
Guest:It's too much.
Guest:Really?
Marc:Is it creating anxiety?
Guest:It's too much.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, I mean, the closet in my living room is just, we've done, the show will be seven years old.
Guest:Jennifer Aniston in our show on February 11th will celebrate our birthday.
Guest:So that's seven years.
Guest:Jennifer Aniston's going to be on your show?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:She just has a birthday the same day as the show.
Guest:The show shares a birthday with Jennifer Aniston.
Guest:Have you tried to have her get her on the show?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:We've never had anybody on the show.
Guest:Except my mom.
Marc:Your mom's been on.
Marc:My mom is- That was an early thing?
Guest:No, she's on three episodes.
Guest:She dips in and out when I'm- When you're gone?
Guest:Well, when I know I'm going to be gone and we got to bank something or something like that.
Guest:A couple of Christmases when she was out.
Guest:Usually holidays when she's in town.
Guest:Oh, so she comes out.
Guest:Yeah, I gave her some white Z and stuck her on the mic.
Guest:Yeah, she gets a little zimp and just fucking goes for it.
Guest:Just that accent.
Guest:She's no rookie at this point.
Guest:No.
Guest:My mom and Seth's mother both have been listening to the show since we started.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Isn't it nice to give them something that they can pretend to be proud of?
Guest:No.
Guest:It's more humiliating, I think, at this point.
Guest:I think Seth would say something differently, but I think my mom...
Guest:Just most of the time she loves the show and she supports the show, but man, she just, I, she levels me sometimes.
Guest:Because I, I use a lot of, I use a lot of words.
Marc:But you're also telling her shit that she doesn't know.
Marc:My mom was in the show and she's like, I had no idea.
Marc:I didn't know you.
Marc:Yeah, I never knew you jerked off.
Guest:For four hours.
Guest:Baseball cards.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, they think, she thinks of me differently, that's for sure.
Guest:But she still supports me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Just from a distance, I think, a little bit more.
Guest:No, but she corrects me on like verbiage and words and shit like that, like verbiage.
Guest:Like words.
Guest:Words.
Guest:No, they're words.
Marc:And your mom, I guess, is probably like... I'm an only child, so that's... So she says to you, it's like, I don't know how you spend so much time with him, but you seem to enjoy yourself.
Guest:She loves the show.
Guest:She loves the show.
Guest:She thinks it's really funny and listens every week.
Guest:Yeah, I guess it's nice to give them something to be as pseudo-proud of.
Guest:Like, hey, I'm not on TV, but look, I do this thing, and there are some people that like it.
Guest:She doesn't like me being out here, and I've been out here for 17 years, and I'm going to go to Hollywood.
Guest:She always knew I was going to go to Hollywood.
Guest:She came out when I was in high school to visit, or to TCBY, the country's best yogurt, and talked about it for nine months back in Massachusetts.
Guest:Like, I was always going to move, you know.
Marc:She came out here with you to sort of feel it out?
Guest:No, like, my parents, like, let's go on vacation.
Guest:We have friends in Santa Monica.
Guest:And I saw a Lamborghini and was like, oh, my God, like, this place.
Guest:I was wearing, you know, like, T&C Surf Shop clothes and listening to the Beach Boys.
Guest:You know, so, like.
Guest:You're like, this is going to be.
Guest:I had the doors.
Guest:This is a thing.
Guest:It's all I listen to.
Marc:It's like Ralph Macchio in the Karate Kid when he first moves there, basically.
Marc:Like, that kind of.
Marc:It doesn't end the same way.
Guest:This story is.
Guest:so she she's just like i can't believe you live out there and she because she knows this yeah i mean i love hollywood like that's you know yeah always wanted to be here love it champion it i mean do you not gonna leave do you still oh god i mean more really yeah so but for the wrong reasons now yeah well no probably for the right reasons
Marc:And you grew up in it.
Marc:Like, I can't imagine that.
Marc:Like, who were your peers?
Marc:Did you hang out with a bunch of those others, you know, kind of like, you know, celebrity kids?
Marc:How about this?
Guest:My dad doesn't have many famous friends.
Guest:Like, he wasn't friends with, like, other... Like Bruce Willis.
Guest:Yeah, well, I mean, they were kind of homies, but...
Guest:but what about harry did he hang out with i mean everyone on the show when they were hanging out but obviously when you do a show for 10 years with somebody i mean you've had enough yeah you don't like you're gonna come back to my place after this and we'll just talk for a couple more hours no we're gonna wrap it up right when i hosted a radio show with another guy we didn't even speak off the mic yeah i mean seth and i haven't seen each other and you know in a week each other in nine days um is that true no no
Guest:No.
Guest:But I grew up, there was a certain amount of that element that you'd come across, but I wasn't super tight with famous people's kids.
Guest:And my dad, like I said- You and Jacob Dillon?
Guest:No, none of that shit.
Guest:We did go to the same high school, but separate from each other.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:If I'm not mistaken.
Guest:But still weird, because when he was a kid, I mean, his father wasn't just an actor.
Guest:He was super fucking successful.
Guest:He won an Emmy four years in a row.
Guest:So it's like- Yeah, there was a time of- I mean, that was- And back to your question about knowing who his father was, I fucking-
Guest:fucking loved his old man like Night Court like Dan I mean that was like my him and like John Ritter a while like I'm gonna be an actor I can do that yeah so it is trippy you know I'm from I'm like from like straight up Massachusetts but also that period of time and I think our age group I mean that was there was like that was sort of the last heyday of those
Guest:It was like that Thursday night comedy block where everybody, if you were on a sitcom, you were like crazy famous.
Guest:20 million people saw you internationally known.
Guest:Yeah, and that's just not, and no slag on anybody that's doing it now, but the world just doesn't work that way.
Guest:There's too many options, and there's not that kind of hyper-focus.
Guest:I mean, there would be situations where we would get into as a kid where it would just be like, oh, this is like a full stop.
Guest:Like 300 people have just recognized you and that's it.
Guest:Like it's a wrap.
Guest:Like we're not moving.
Guest:Like we're just standing still on the street now and like we can't.
Guest:And he was always incredibly, you know, good about it.
Guest:But I mean, thinking about it then, I mean, it was kind of freaky as a kid, but I trusted my dad.
Guest:But in hindsight, like as an adult, I don't know how he allowed that to happen and not...
Guest:wind up stalking somebody or something with just trying to protect his wife and his children and kind of thing.
Guest:Because people used to mob.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And also call him like Dan Aykroyd.
Guest:I mean, it was that kind of mentality where it's like, I know that person's famous, you know, but not exactly knowing who.
Guest:You're that guy.
Guest:And very, very presumptuous, you know.
Guest:Or I think nowadays, you know, as much as, like, paparazzos and shit do their thing, I think personal, regular people know, like, you can't really get up in somebody's mug and just get up crazy.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It's like, I think that really everyone is a paparazzi now.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like, you cannot, like, with iPhones and shit, I'm not even that famous, but people are like, hey, picture, can I just, and all of a sudden they're leaning into you and you're clicked.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Or else you're sitting there holding somebody you don't know for a really long time why their friend goes.
Marc:How do you... Those days are over.
Guest:Controlling our image, I think, even in the limited capacity that Seth and I are in the public eye.
Guest:I mean, we do a radio show.
Guest:That's the only thing we do, pretty much.
Guest:So there is footage of us doing that show live.
Guest:But like...
Guest:That's about the extent of it.
Guest:And even us, it's like you Google image us and it's just like, oh, there you go.
Guest:Like you're out there.
Guest:You're out there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And a bunch of Facebook pictures.
Marc:Yeah, of course.
Guest:You know, and just like, you know, sweating and from the fucking armpits and just like awesome.
Guest:You know, like this is like ill fitting T-shirts.
Marc:It wasn't like the first time you met his dad.
Guest:His dad's the best.
Guest:Yeah, he's a homie.
Marc:But like as a fan.
Guest:Yeah, we're homies.
Guest:He looks more like my dad.
Guest:He looks more like my father's son than I look like.
Guest:I played his old man in a pilot, in a flashback of a Larry Gelbart pilot caught in the rain.
Guest:A young lady caught in the rain sitting in a car playing his father as a young man.
Marc:Oh, yeah, so he was in the pilot as well?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Marc:That's cute, right?
Marc:Yeah, did you set him up with that?
Marc:Did they thought of you?
Guest:Unless they never told me, maybe that's how I got it.
Guest:I thought I charmed the late, great Larry Gelbart in the room, but maybe you secretly, maybe your dad got it for me and didn't.
Guest:Oh, I don't think he, like, strong-armed it.
Guest:No, I think he got you.
Guest:I would be so bad if I found out that's how I got this here.
Marc:Tell him the truth.
Marc:Let's get a little... I mean, because that's how I got Crossroads.
Guest:Larry owed my dad a favor.
Guest:Huge favor.
Guest:Vegas.
Guest:It was a Vegas thing.
Guest:You were in Crossroads?
Guest:Just, you know, no big boat.
Guest:Just Britney Spears.
Guest:No big deal.
Guest:Briefly, yeah.
Guest:Just three words.
Guest:No big deal.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But they put, I mean, they did that just essentially to be like, you want to be in, you should be in Britney Spears movie because you should be in Britney Spears movie.
Guest:Cause that's like, cause you should be in it.
Guest:Cause it's like, that's Seth, you deserve that.
Guest:So when was that?
Guest:That was in 2000.
Marc:Wait, Crossroads.
Marc:That's not the Ralph Macchio blues movie.
Marc:That's funny.
Guest:That is the Ralph Macchio blues movie, but there was another movie.
Marc:I got cut out of that.
Guest:Britney Spears vehicle called Crossroads.
Guest:If she goes on a road trip with like Taron Manning and, uh,
Guest:What's the other girls?
Guest:Zoe Saldana.
Guest:Natiri.
Guest:I worked with Natiri.
Guest:Yeah, you worked with Natiri.
Guest:Jesse Camp, Natiri, and Britney Spears all in one movie.
Guest:But yeah, he's just... Hollywood's tough.
Guest:It's a tough town.
Marc:It's horrendous.
Guest:But you know, I did it like everyone.
Guest:And that's why when you said the wrong reasons, I don't think it's the wrong reasons.
Guest:I think coming here and thinking that something other than the shittiest shit in the world is going to happen to you coming here.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:I think it takes...
Guest:Like you're saying, it's different for me.
Guest:My experience was totally different.
Guest:However, growing up the way that I did, I would be pretty leery of jumping into that career move and being like, I'm going to move out here and be a commercial actor.
Marc:But the weird thing is, none of this... No, I think that what you guys do is really... There's more people like you than there are the others.
Marc:So the Hollywood experience is really your experience and your experience.
Marc:It's not the celebrity experience.
Marc:But the weird thing is that...
Marc:All that information is available, yet thousands of people every year go like, I'm going to be the guy.
Marc:People still play fucking super lotto.
Marc:Without a fucking agent, without any idea how anything gets made.
Marc:It's like, I got this thing I made.
Marc:I wrote this.
Guest:What do you think is going to happen?
Guest:I got off a plane months ago, and I realized I had no cash on me.
Guest:My phone was dead, and I needed to take a fucking cab back to the west side or whatever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:realized I didn't have enough money for a cabin was like fuck I'm on the bus yeah and I asked somebody at the airport and I was like how do I get from where I am right now to like out in the world and take a bus home and so he directs me to the bus that's what you take within LAX that takes you out of LAX to another parking lot where you catch a bunch of different buses or whatever
Marc:I know it's at the C lot.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So I am standing waiting for the bus at LAX and this like quadriplegic guy like rolls up to me like, you know, like, you know, kind of vibe and comes up and he's got a pretty, he's pretty physically, you know, disabled.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:And he asked me, is this where I catch the 7 bus or whatever?
Guest:And I was like, yeah.
Guest:And I was like, where are you going?
Guest:He's like, I have to catch the 2 bus to Santa Monica.
Guest:And I was like, oh.
Guest:I was like, we're going to the same fucking place.
Guest:So needless to say, I was like, what are you doing here?
Guest:And he's like, I'm here to be an actor.
Guest:And I was just like...
Guest:I look at him and I was just like, you are like, you are so wildly off base because it's like, I was like, obviously I was like, it's a niche.
Guest:It's a niche thing.
Guest:It's very specific.
Guest:But within that specificity, it's there's, I mean, he doesn't.
Marc:You didn't say this to him.
Guest:Not in so many words.
Guest:I don't think I discouraged him, but I did try to make him... I was like, you have a better chance of getting raped under the pier than you do of getting a job.
Guest:You know that.
Marc:What you're stepping into... Well, that was very delicate.
Guest:Have you thought about podcasting?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Have you ever tried podcasting?
Guest:It doesn't taste so good, but...
Guest:But I just was like, dude, this is... He knew... He didn't know anyone to call, any contact, no one to talk to, nowhere... I mean, literally, not even like a, oh, there was an extras casting thing, and I'm at least going to go and get a paper bag lunch and sit on a set and kind of try and get my... No concept.
Guest:And I was like, to do that and be a completely able-bodied human being with a vagina is crazy, much less like...
Guest:homeboy like you're not you know what i mean like there's nothing working here besides your your your mouth like i mean i literally i mean i was with him for four hours he was like we were home he's like we went out and shit but i was just like you don't know what you're doing here like you probably should go home yeah i didn't i don't even i didn't know how else to say it because i was just like i don't think this is a good idea
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Are you still in touch?
Guest:He got a couple weeks ago.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:Justine got him a general.
Guest:Yeah, he's on Britney Spears.
Guest:And DJ Qualls got his part on Legit on FX.
Guest:Thanks.
Guest:Can't even fucking.
Guest:It's unbelievable.
Guest:I think he went back home.
Marc:But I think that is sort of interesting that your story – and, like, I don't know if you know the Walking the Room guys or whether you have that moment.
Guest:We've met – I've spoken to them.
Guest:Seth's actually met them.
Guest:I've spoken to them.
Guest:They let us do – for the podcast festival, they said you should – The one you flipped on.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I'm joking.
Marc:I'm joking.
Marc:No, and they asked me to do it again.
Marc:Maybe I'll do it this time.
Guest:This year.
Guest:Year two.
Guest:I've got to do it.
Guest:I've got to do it.
Guest:You always like the first one to go through just to –
Guest:That's why I went to Woodstock 2.
Marc:They hadn't worked out the kinks on the first one.
Marc:The sound wasn't as good as it could have been.
Marc:What about them?
Marc:It's a similar sort of thing.
Marc:It's the journey of two guys who have failed in their minds.
Guest:I'm like, look at me.
Guest:I'm available here.
Guest:I'm in the book.
Guest:I didn't mean to suggest anything.
Guest:I'm still...
Guest:I came here because I am like... Do you want to push your website or anything?
Marc:Do you have... Is there headshots available there?
Guest:Oh, even your personal... It's like... I'm here because I fucking love Hollywood.
Marc:Paradigm.
Guest:Are you at Paradigm still?
Guest:I'm with Metropolitan.
Guest:Are they still an agency?
Marc:That's a bad moment where you're like, I'm not sure if I have an agent.
Marc:I think they're on Wilshire.
Guest:I have an agent, but I'm not sure if that agent has an agency.
Guest:But I'm like, I fucking love television.
Guest:I love television more.
Guest:I love Hollywood more.
Guest:I'm still...
Guest:We do this show in whatever.
Guest:It's just a fucking comedy podcast and we try to get people to listen to it.
Guest:But I still work as hard on it and care as much on if I was on Parks and Recreation.
Guest:You know, I mean, you know, I think more.
Guest:I think there's a certain point where it's like having met a lot of dudes that are working actors and the joy that they actually the majority of them actually get out of once they're in a situation where like, fuck, I'm actually making money.
Guest:This is what I do now.
Guest:a lot of them are miserable and a lot of them are in a situation that they don't wish they were in.
Guest:Now, granted, you know, Seth and I might have to sell our kidneys soon in order to pay rent, but we're very creatively, you know, spiritually, as far as the show go, like we're dead happy because it's just like, Oh, we rule.
Guest:Like we can do anything we want.
Guest:And, and, and the fact that we go to other cities and like hundreds of people come out and see us do it live.
Guest:I'm like, well, those guys on those shows can't do that.
Guest:Like no one's going to come and see you dog.
Guest:Like nobody cares about you.
Guest:And they really care about your whack show.
Marc:you're yeah and they really know you guys you know that's a great thing about podcasting it's like you you've been doing it like six years and you've got a loyal fan base and they're excited to see you yeah and they want to you know they want to ask you questions about did you ever get that thing fixed yeah that kind of yeah i mean that to me is it's great it's totally unique too i think too well what do you want to do i make music and i do this and that's about it and what what's uh is the music what kind of music
Guest:oh i mean it's like uh it's two it's it's two guys it's amir and i we're in a band called jogger and i would say it's like experimental electronic stuff but we both sing we both play guitar and there's like harmonies and shit so it's it's definitely influenced by electronic music in the la beat scene and stuff like that but we're both come from a background of being like players and so we're trying to incorporate that a bit uh-huh we rule and you got records oh we have a record out came out a couple of years ago and we're working on another one right now
Marc:There you go.
Marc:And you still audition and stuff?
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:I did that for 10 years when we started the show seven years ago.
Guest:Offer only.
Guest:Okay, good.
Guest:Tech avail offer only.
Guest:You've reached that level.
Guest:Except I have no cell phone, no email, no Facebook.
Guest:You just got to come to the crib.
Guest:You got to slide a strip under the door.
Guest:You just slide it under the door and see.
Guest:I did that for 10 years.
Guest:Then when he finally, he said in 2005, we should do this thing.
Guest:The idea was, you know, we just, it's simple.
Guest:You just plug in the microphone.
Guest:I can come over with my laptop.
Guest:It took him a year of telling me to do it for me to be like, fuck it.
Guest:We'll do it.
Guest:And that was February of 06th.
Marc:And how'd you start building out the audience?
Marc:I mean, how'd that work out?
Guest:It's literally been the same way ever since, tell a friend, tell a friend, tell a friend.
Guest:Word of mouth, that's it.
Guest:We've never done any advertising.
Guest:We've done no cross-promotion on other... I mean, this is our only podcast.
Guest:This is the biggest thing we've ever done.
Guest:Yeah, this is by far... I'm not kidding, this is like the biggest... We've never been a guest on anyone else's show except for
Guest:One time.
Guest:One time, a few years ago, actually.
Guest:We did Jordan and Jesse Go.
Guest:They were nice enough.
Guest:Let us come on.
Marc:He's a good guy.
Marc:He's a guy that told me which mics to get.
Marc:Perfect.
Guest:That's the only other time.
Guest:And now, obviously, this is like, we've been fucking seven years.
Guest:It's a little bit harder when you don't, you know what I mean?
Guest:You're saying Conan had to, like, duck his head in your house.
Guest:I was like, fuck, I wish Conan rolled by my crib.
Marc:That wasn't an easy get.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Guest:For us, it's just because it's just the two of us and it's fucking seven years.
Guest:It's like, God damn it.
Marc:So is there some bitterness about these?
Guest:No, not bitterness.
Guest:We seem to have been... We started the show so long ago.
Guest:Now fucking obviously everyone has a show.
Guest:And we kind of got... We're in a weird... We got squeezed a little bit.
Guest:We got squeezed in because we're not really like... We're not stand-ups.
Guest:We're not in the alternative comedy scene.
Marc:And you're not radio guys either, but you guys are actually original podcasters.
Guest:Yeah, but because of that world- But that doesn't mean anything.
Guest:Doesn't mean anything because- You mean something to me, guys.
Marc:That's why.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Marc:That's why I hate you.
Guest:With the Adam Carollas of the world coming in, they brought a phenomenal amount of legitimacy to the podcast realm just because it's like, oh, you just brought a million people over to the iTunes podcast page.
Guest:I mean, yeah, whatever.
Guest:100, give or take 100.
Guest:71,000.
Marc:Everyone's a little cagey about the numbers.
Guest:Well, everybody wants to be caged about the numbers because there's a perceived value in our listenership, just like there's a perceived value in hits on YouTube.
Guest:But people can fucking fudge those numbers all day long.
Marc:No, I think it's actually different.
Marc:Because with podcasting, now what's happening, and I just know this because of what I've been doing in terms of people interviewing or people trying to deal with the success of the medium and what it means.
Marc:For a while there, there was this big... The story was like...
Marc:there's all these podcasts, but how do you make money?
Marc:And no one could answer that question.
Marc:I mean, because you couldn't really.
Marc:And there was an idea that you could, and Adam certainly tried every way possible and everything.
Marc:And the way we started making money was we finally just did a piece
Marc:that's not out yet, where we're just sort of like, well, let's just fucking tell them what we're dealing with.
Marc:Tell them the numbers, tell them everything.
Marc:Fuck it, it'd be good for the medium.
Marc:Because eventually, what's gonna happen is all those terrestrial advertisers and everybody else is gonna start figuring out a way to diversify their ads into as many podcasts as possible and just pay people relative to the numbers they have.
Marc:We have real numbers.
Marc:You have real numbers.
Marc:And that's something they will never have on radio.
Marc:And they've been fudging numbers forever.
Marc:You don't have to fudge numbers with podcasting unless it's a pride thing.
Guest:Yeah, no, for sure.
Guest:But then also that, you know, but those guys currently running a model that's like on a cost per thousand, which is, you know, fairly standard.
Guest:But when you look at it, it's like, you know, however many you could have 200,000 people downloading some, you know, bullshit fucking, you know, movie preview podcast or some bullshit like that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:As opposed to, let's say, 60,000 people downloading a show of yours or downloading a show of ours, if we plug something and we genuinely plug it on that show, the type of listener, the type of potential customer that you're dealing with, it's like if we sign off on something, you're probably going to go and buy it because it's like I'm telling you it's the best and you believe me.
Guest:Yeah, you don't want to mislead them.
Guest:Yeah, and I don't want to mislead you because my integrity is somewhat on the line.
Guest:Although we are still trying to do a show and still trying to be funny and still trying to be informative and entertaining.
Marc:But we'd like to make a living.
Marc:Is that okay?
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:And that's why I use Beats by Dr. Dre.
Guest:That's on us.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:That's why this show is brought to you by Dr. Dre.
Guest:But the issue with that is that we are signed up in a format that doesn't allow you to charge for it.
Guest:We don't even have the option when you upload an RSS feed to iTunes to say, charge 50 cents for this.
Guest:They don't give it to you as an option.
Guest:So it's like, well, we're the fucking dummies.
Guest:We're the ones that put it up for free.
Guest:And so now for us to give something for free and be like, yeah, we're going to give it to you for free, but we have to be able to make money off of it.
Guest:It's just, you know, we're...
Marc:just tricky it's tricky you know and but the truth of the matter is is that you could do what we did which is you keep the most recent 50 free so that means every episode is free for six months if you want the other ones you got to get the app you got to buy the one of those I just that that's the second printing on the right in front of you the stack of CDs oh that's the second archives basically first 100 right and you've got all that stuff and you can you could put your notes in there yeah you could all the stuff you're saving you can include in a package
Guest:No, I mean, that's that's I think ultimately the thing.
Guest:And I think then all of a sudden a show that has amassed an archive over those years, it does become valuable and it does become of some worth because we can go back and mine all those shows for our favorite things or the things that were the most significant and try to keep that, you know.
Marc:And the only guy you got to worry about is like, fuck you.
Marc:The internet should be free.
Marc:I've got all your shit and I'm putting it out on Torrent.
Guest:And they're going to do it anyway.
Marc:Yeah, it doesn't matter.
Marc:You're just trying to.
Marc:If you have loyal fans, they'll be like, you know, fuck you guys.
Guest:All you're trying to do is give your time buffer to allow those loyal fans who say, I love this and I want to pay for it.
Marc:I want to support these guys.
Guest:They can do whatever they want after that.
Marc:How do you guys monetize now?
Guest:I sell coke.
Guest:No, I mean, listen, when we go and play live shows, obviously we make money from that.
Guest:We've had a lot of success doing some merch, although I kind of went through a difficult time where I sort of fucked that up because I was running that on my own and I didn't do such a good job.
Guest:It's not my forte.
Marc:What, you had a garage full of shit?
Guest:Yeah, there was some unfulfilled orders that didn't quite get dealt with, you know?
Guest:How'd you handle that?
Guest:It's me calling people back, apologizing.
Guest:And apologizing on my behalf and writing them postcards and being like, please, he's so stupid, he's doing his best.
Guest:So we basically, we've regrouped and we're about to kind of relaunch with a much more organized and with those types of duties delegated to people who are actually good at that.
Guest:Well, did you ever think about hooking up with one of these new networks?
Guest:Oh, a podcast network?
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, we don't... Sure.
Guest:We have, like... Can you... Can you pay me?
Guest:That's... I don't want to go and do that for free as well.
Guest:And, like, the numbers, when you look at that, it's like, well, so hold on a second.
Guest:Like...
Guest:I could just do this and put it up on iTunes and iTunes could take 30 cents on every dollar.
Marc:But if you went over to Earwolf or to... Well, they don't want us, first of all.
Marc:Why?
Guest:We don't know that.
Guest:We don't know that, but I mean, it's like, it's not really... We're not like that.
Guest:What do you mean?
Guest:They're not like us.
Marc:What are you talking about?
Guest:It's just like a... It's...
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:I've just never felt any sort of... And then you get into a profit share deal where they, you know, Earwolf is... I mean, I don't do a network because we run our own shop, but we're doing okay like that.
Marc:Well, look at us.
Marc:No, I get that, but I'm sitting here talking to you guys, and you're like, we don't do anything.
Guest:Oh, because we're pleading our case saying that we're broke?
Guest:No, I think it's just been...
Guest:Well, hold on a second.
Guest:Fact of the matter is, is that ideally, you know, you were able to, you know, parlay the popularity into it.
Guest:Well, not only that, though, but since then, you've parlayed that into other things that that are profitable that you do get paid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But but but that's like that model.
Marc:We've got to go.
Marc:There's a cologne.
Marc:Like your fragrance.
Marc:Like your manly fragrance.
Marc:But I think we've got to get beyond that because like in order for the medium to be accepted as legit on a business level, you know, people have to stop saying like, yeah, I don't really care about it, but you know, I sell a few more tickets because, you know, we're doing real content.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:I mean, the content is the thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And like I just did an article, like some guy just called me from an NPR show, right?
Marc:And the piece he did was sort of like, how is the podcast helping your other things?
Marc:Your ancillary.
Marc:Your ancillary.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it's like that was two years ago.
Marc:You know, some of us are trying to, you know, to figure out how to maintain the integrity of our content and still make a couple bucks.
Guest:Well, that's at least we have that.
Guest:We probably did the model backwards, but at least we have at the seven year mark, at least we have that.
Guest:we have the integrity of it because we haven't made a fucking any money in seven years and we've put out these shows and we still doing it.
Guest:Maybe we're hoping now that, all right, now maybe is that we did for seven years.
Guest:Like if someone said, if he said to me at the beginning, if we do this every week, I'll come to your house for seven fucking years.
Guest:Then Mark Merrill invite us on and something will happen.
Guest:I'd be like, okay.
Guest:All right, I'm in.
Guest:I mean, I think like you said though, like it is- 888-842-2357.
Guest:That's our toll free.
Guest:If somebody wants to like, give me a guest spot on a network show or help us.
Guest:We spent a good amount of time thinking that where we were wasn't the right place and that we needed to use that platform in order to get somewhere else, i.e.
Guest:television, let's say.
Marc:So you thought you were going to be on TV?
Guest:Well, I thought we... I mean, obviously, Seth had his own pursuits as an individual, but I think once the show started gaining popularity, we were like, well, wait a second.
Guest:We can kind of be this and do this anywhere because you could kind of stick us as that conversational duo or whatever in other environments, whether it be talk show type format or reality show or whatever.
Guest:So we started...
Guest:doing rounds of meetings and and and nothing really went in that direction and all of a sudden i got really discouraged because it was like oh maybe the only reason this shows any remotely popular or remotely successful is because it's fucking free and that that's about what it's worth you know what i mean and so you that it does it does you just made it about your self-esteem then so you just sort of like i'm a piece of shit
Guest:No, but just like we're not funny enough to be paid for.
Guest:We're funny enough to listen to for free, but not to pay for kind of a thing.
Guest:I come in... Mine's a little different in terms that I'm like... I don't think that.
Guest:I'm saying that's what could happen to you.
Marc:Sure, sure.
Marc:It is discouraging at first.
Marc:You're sort of like, how do we get more people?
Marc:What do we got to do?
Guest:That money and fans and listeners and...
Guest:When I look at it, it's 60 minutes.
Guest:We do an original 60 minutes every week.
Guest:I just say, this show is the show that I would want to hear if someone said, check this out.
Guest:Because we don't have a visual element.
Guest:Let's just say, strictly, you're going to listen to this, what we talk about, editorially, the language that's been created.
Guest:The show is...
Guest:I mean, I hope because we put... It's my whole fucking life.
Guest:This is the show that I do to put out in the world.
Guest:Yeah, dude, this is entertainment.
Guest:And so maybe out of that, I thought maybe somebody would come along and say, well, you know what?
Guest:This is sort of a kind of original thing and maybe we could...
Guest:It's not crazy to think.
Guest:I mean, other shows have had, you know, Comedy Bang Bang, Chris Hardwick, Nikki and Sarah on MTV.
Guest:There are people that have come out of this, been taken out of that world and put into like dreamscape of imagining like me being on my couch, going through my DVR and saying, seeing Aya Dude next to like, oh, I got to watch that and Colbert.
Guest:Like, this is fucking crazy.
Guest:But I think the thing about it with us is also, you know, there's a lot of people that are...
Guest:We don't have any recognition as stand-ups per se or comedians outside of the podcast world.
Guest:And so it is a little bit different.
Guest:Some of these comedians that have podcasts that have then also gone on to other things like, well, you also, you know, people have been seeing you.
Guest:doing the rounds for forever we don't have any you know nobody knows who the fuck we are so we're gonna convince them hey let's put us on TV and let us do a show where we don't do anything we just talk shit and you don't know who we are but I think that but what's odd though is as a comic you know I was you know out there for years but I didn't really amass any following and then I ended up in radio
Marc:for like two years and I learned how to talk on these mics and I became very enamored with the freedom of it and then when I did a podcast I think there's a lot to be said that in order to have the the ego and the this sort of comfort level and and just the personality that can create this intimate environment that we work in and build a loyal fan base around this particular medium is a very rare skill set unfortunately because of radio and what radio became over the years and
Marc:It was all very disposable.
Marc:Outside of Stern and people that had regular talk shows, radio was just thought of as like, I'll put it on my car or whatever.
Marc:But I think that the medium itself and what you guys do is elevated.
Marc:And I think a lot of what you're talking about has to do with
Marc:The trivialization of the medium and also the people that you're talking about in terms of launching into successful things.
Marc:I mean, honestly, nobody has ever approached me to do a talk show.
Marc:I mean, fundamentally what I'm doing and what I'm good at is talking to people.
Marc:It's true.
Marc:And that's not what they want.
Guest:What you're saying is we should hunker down, move to New Mexico like my dream, get a huge house and find a way to do the show and grow old together and just be a dude in Abiquiu, New Mexico until we're 80.
Marc:You want to go out there with Georgia O'Keeffe and talk about... Paint some skulls and flower vaginas.
Guest:Orchids and skulls.
Marc:All that stuff, that is all sort of... Like you do with everything.
Marc:Can I give you some advice?
Marc:Here's what I think we should do.
Marc:The three of us?
Marc:Sure.
Marc:All right.
Marc:What is true about you guys is that you're great at it and you're hilarious and very entertaining.
Marc:And the thing is, you sort of got lost in a wave of these other podcasts coming in.
Marc:You were ahead of the curve.
Guest:on the medium, and you're sort of stranded in the world that you built for yourselves, and you feel a little powerless in terms of... Well, I think there was an agent that said, it sounds to me like you guys are complaining about being niche, and that that's not probably something you should complain about, because nobody, like, it's like, well, you picked to be, like, weirdo, like... No, but I think you got niched out in the niche you were in, like, you were niche, and now you're niche of the niche.
Marc:We didn't realize, though.
Guest:You niched my niche, man.
Guest:It happened so slowly and organically, we didn't realize it.
Guest:We didn't realize that not having guests on and not going on other shows and building this island and just like, oh, fuck, it's seven.
Guest:It's been seven years.
Guest:We didn't realize that that was going to.
Guest:Right, right.
Marc:That all of a sudden it was going to burn so much.
Guest:I swear to God, I don't want to sound like I love I love the show.
Guest:I love doing it.
Guest:I would be doing it.
Guest:People love you guys.
Marc:My girlfriend is like, I don't know when it happened.
Marc:Because she's a podcast fiend.
Marc:And she doesn't even listen to me anymore.
Marc:I mean, how much can she take, literally?
Guest:I mean, my lady does not listen to me, no way.
Marc:Yeah, like you guys and walking the room.
Marc:But now it's like all you guys all the time.
Marc:And she's into it.
Marc:And like, we don't have to talk about that necessarily.
Marc:Which one of you guys is a vegetarian?
Guest:Me.
Marc:And you used to be?
Marc:For about 14 years.
Guest:10, no, it was 10, 11 years I was probably.
Marc:Well, what happened?
Marc:So now, like, how much are you drinking?
Guest:Ugh.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Ugh.
Guest:Ugh.
Guest:He brings it.
Guest:How long before you come back to the... Maybe six months?
I don't know.
Guest:That's what I'm guessing.
Marc:So you got it.
Marc:You see it.
Guest:I see it.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's there.
Guest:It's on the horizon.
Guest:The event horizon.
Marc:You give me a call.
Marc:The singularity is going to occur.
Marc:I'll take you down the tropical for an 830.
Marc:And you start eating meat.
Marc:Can I just get, we'll get back to the business in a minute.
Marc:The first drink you had after being sober for 15 years, how was that?
Guest:It was a shot of absinthe.
Marc:And how was it?
Guest:It was, I mean, I didn't get drunk or anything like that.
Marc:But did you feel like, oh, this is gonna, it's over.
Guest:Yeah, like I'm gonna be doing, I'm gonna be blowing a guy downtown in like 20 minutes.
Guest:Remember you told me before you told your father, because I was just like, you can't, you may imagine hearing that.
Guest:It's like.
Guest:Yeah, it was pretty.
Marc:After 15 years.
Guest:Just only knowing him as- It wasn't- It's scary.
Marc:I need to talk to you.
Marc:It's scary.
Guest:It was not sudden.
Guest:I did sort of let people know like, I'm probably going to try this out at some point.
Marc:And it was a couple of years of me kind of rapping out about it and being like- And the thinking was like, I was like 12 when I got sober and like, you know, maybe I'm not- Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I'd like to try it as an adult.
Guest:I think I can handle it.
Guest:But that's also coming at his first marriage, your first marriage ending and sort of... It all transpired at the same time.
Guest:There was definitely like a, you know, a rebirth or a death.
Marc:A spiritual death.
Marc:We call it a rebirth built on rationalization.
Guest:No, I don't think I was wrong.
Guest:Just like I don't think I could be dealing with things the way that I'm dealing with them now had I not banked 14 years of my 20s.
Guest:Most of the time when people do terrible damage to themselves, it's like I got sober at 17.
Guest:I hadn't fucked myself up that bad.
Guest:And he wanted to do that.
Guest:I understand that.
Guest:I needed to.
Guest:And he never tried a Four Loko.
Guest:I never had a Four Loko.
Guest:DMT wasn't a thing, and it's only 10 minutes.
Guest:I think of all these.
Guest:Yeah, look at all these things I'm missing.
Guest:You did the full menu of things that people do to get back out.
Guest:Full drug bucket list.
Guest:Yeah, full bottom envy bucket list.
Guest:All the stuff that those guys talk about, I got to go out and do.
Marc:Molly?
Marc:It's called Molly?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Bottom envy bucket list bucket list.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:Bottom envy bucket list.
Marc:That's good.
Marc:Have you said that before?
Guest:I don't know if I have.
Marc:It's good.
Guest:Put it on a t-shirt.
Marc:There you go.
Marc:Merch.
Marc:We're making merch.
Marc:So, and then when he first ate your first steak, that was... I started with fish.
Guest:I really eased into that.
Guest:Fish fillets at Mickey D's on the road.
Guest:Thanks to actually Seth's prior job as a...
Guest:As a blood cleaner, I found out what my blood type was and all that shit and realized- You were a blood cleaner?
Guest:No, the- This was a full service- Nutritionist?
Guest:Yeah, this was that nutritionist.
Guest:It was like full bore.
Guest:So I started, you know, that eating for your blood type stuff and looked at it and- Ayavetic?
Guest:Is that what it's called?
Guest:Fucking for your blood type.
Guest:Fucking for your blood type.
Guest:But I just, I was one of those sort of, you know-
Guest:You were full-on vegan no I was vegan for a very short period of time I was one of those like kind of lazy cake and cheese You know kind of veggies and a lot of beans yeah a lot of a lot of a lot of seven layer burritos at Taco Bell kind of vibe and so for me it was Introducing fish into my life was the big thing and then becoming like just a little bit another kind of bucket list of being like holy shit like I'm gonna eat a Big Mac just because I can and
Guest:I could do anything.
Guest:But I mean, that stuff has sort of gone back to normal, I think, a little bit.
Marc:You're eating normal.
Guest:I eat fairly normal.
Guest:I mean, I do eat red meat, and I do think that I function better eating it.
Guest:However, I am still ethically, philosophically conflicted about the way in which we get most of our food and most of our meat.
Guest:And at some point, I have to admit that I'm being hypocritical in the sense that I still don't...
Guest:I don't support that stuff.
Guest:And I'm like, oh, I'm being a fucking hypocrite.
Guest:Like I'm being a hypocrite, you know, but at the same time, I don't know.
Marc:You might have one of those personalities that just needs to have a few things to beat the shit out of yourself about or else what's life worth living?
Guest:Yeah, I think I think that's what is that called when you need that?
Guest:It's called you love to you love the work, but the work has to feel like agonizing misery in order to feel justified.
Marc:Well, yeah, if you don't have anything to say, like, I'm a fucking idiot about, then, you know, how do you know who you are?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:And so you met him, he was completely sober and a vegetarian, and you were fucked up and eating, like, probably raw pig.
Marc:Eating raw pig and drinking.
Marc:And now you're sober and a vegetarian.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:What was the vegetarian thing with you?
Guest:Well, that was... So we just switched places.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Switch bodies.
Marc:It's a move.
Marc:It seems to fit better.
Marc:You know, I mean, I could see because I think vegetarianism is about sort of like, you know, having control.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I didn't want to say it.
Guest:Are you going to say that?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I'm definitely.
Guest:I mean, but what if you that's one thing you can actually control is what goes in your fucking body, you know, and so why not?
Guest:If you have that, if you want to come out of, though.
Guest:i i was physically for so long after getting sober so so i felt so awful yeah i mean you know jake legs and just for months and i i thought this is never oh i fucked myself up like i'm never coming back i took i took too much shit and yeah and and and then it was only a few months after starting to like all right you can do this that that i was like well let's just let's see and now that's you know
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And what, you're vegan or vegetarian?
Guest:Vegetarian.
Guest:You feel good?
Guest:You feel better?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I mean, that I can, that I have no problem with.
Guest:I mean, I don't, I don't think I'll, I mean, I'll drink a beer before I go to, you know, Burger King.
Guest:What is it, an ethical thing or just a health thing?
Guest:It was a health thing, but I guess.
Guest:He doesn't give a fuck about animals.
Guest:Huh?
Guest:He doesn't give a fuck about animals.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Not a huge, I mean, I love animals.
Guest:No, I'm kidding.
Guest:Not a huge animal guy.
Guest:It's not, it's, it's, it's not good for us, probably.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But did you learn all that shit at the nutritionist?
Marc:Oh.
Marc:Is that where, yeah?
Guest:No, I mean, that was all sort of, it was in my head because of him and Justine.
Guest:Justine was vegan.
Marc:His first wife?
Guest:So knowing them for so long, I spent so much time with them.
Guest:It was a thing that existed.
Marc:That's interesting.
Marc:So he's actually, like, you know, he was impressed and looked up to you and your life.
Marc:Systematically dismantled the image.
Marc:Yeah, and then it's like, all right, it's on you now.
Marc:I've infected you with my righteousness.
Guest:Let's burn this false idol.
Guest:Let's burn this effigy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:On this quest.
Marc:So that's your show.
Marc:It's like, you know, it's the beginning of this amazing relationship and then his disappointment.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But we're still doing it.
Guest:We're still there.
Guest:All right, man.
Guest:Well, it was good talking to you.
Guest:It was awesome.
Guest:I mean, this is really...
Guest:Is there anything else we need to cover?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:If you want to check out the show, our website is uhyeahdude.com, U-H-H-Y-E-A-H-D-U-D-E, and you can find the show on iTunes and subscribe to it.
Guest:That's the show, and it'll still be there whenever you're hearing this.
Marc:It'll always be there, apparently.
Marc:This is it.
Marc:That's it.
Guest:It just lives out there forever.
Marc:But, you know, the fact is, seven years, original podcast godfathers who do not get their due.
Guest:That's not true.
Guest:We're not owed anything from anyone.
Guest:You don't have to be diplomatic here.
Marc:No, but I'm saying.
Marc:I'm not telling you.
Marc:It's not that you're owed anything.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:You've built and earned your chops.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:Whatever that Malcolm Gladwell book is.
Marc:You put your hours in.
Guest:It was good talking to you both.
Guest:Thank you so much.
Marc:That's it, people.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:Good guys.
Marc:I enjoy talking to them.
Marc:Go listen to their show.
Marc:What else?
Marc:Okay, go to WTFPod.com.
Marc:You can pre-order my book and send that receipt to AttemptingNormal at RandomHouse.com and maybe get yourself a free poster, kick in a few shekels, buy some merch, sign up for the mailing list.
Marc:You can do it all at WTFPod.com.
Marc:Get a little...
Marc:Pow, look out.
Marc:I just shit my pants just coffee.
Marc:If you get the WTF blend, I get a little on the back end of that.
Marc:What else can I tell you?
Marc:Okay, ifc.com slash Marin for some clips of my new show, which premieres May 3rd.
Marc:I will be at Moontower Comedy Festival.
Marc:this Wednesday through Friday.
Marc:And after that, I'm heading to New York.
Marc:I might be doing Howard Stern.
Marc:I've never done Howard Stern before.
Marc:I'm nervous.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:All right.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Boomer lives!
you