Episode 449 - Ken Marino
Guest:Lock the gates!
Guest:Are we doing this?
Guest:Really?
Guest:Wait for it.
Guest:Are we doing this?
Guest:Wait for it.
Guest:Pow!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?
Guest:What's wrong with me?
Guest:It's time for WTF!
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:With Marc Maron.
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fuckineers?
Marc:What the fuckadelics?
Marc:What the fuck sticks?
Marc:Alright, you know who we are.
Marc:Let's just get on with it.
Marc:Look, folks, I am Marc Maron.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:Thank you very much.
Marc:I'd like to thank the Onion AV Club for giving us number two for 2013.
Marc:I'm okay with number two.
Marc:Penultimate.
Marc:I can live with that.
Marc:A lot of pressure to number one, I guess, if you consider...
Marc:holding the crown of the onion av clubs podcast of the year pressure not not so thrilled with paste magazine but i want to get into that you know why because it's out of my control and i'm okay with who i am today oh yeah just tell yourself that man just tell yourself that i will say this today on the show ken marino is on the show many of you know that uh i'm on sort of a life a lifelong journey
Marc:I believe it is.
Marc:It's turning into a journey, a theme or a subtext or a sub story.
Marc:Can we say a B story to my life is getting all of the members of the state on my show.
Marc:But today is Ken Marino had a lovely chat with them.
Marc:Now, I do want to tell you this.
Marc:If any of those episodes interest you, okay, any of the several Michael Ian Black live episodes or his one-on-one or the Ben Grant live episode or perhaps the Kerry Kenney podcast, one-on-one, Thomas Lennon, one-on-one, Latruglio was on a live one, Showalter, David Wayne, all available.
Marc:If you get the app, you get the free app, upgrade to the premium, and you can stream it all.
Marc:You can have it all, all of them.
Marc:A lot of people are getting, it's interesting to have as many shows that I've done, 400 and some odd many shows, is that people who come into it new, they're new to it.
Marc:So they start at the beginning.
Marc:So it's interesting when I see tweets or I get emails about episodes that I did three years ago.
Marc:But I've gone out of my way to...
Marc:To treat this stuff as something that will be timeless.
Marc:I'm not tooting my own horn.
Marc:I'm not saying it's going to last for eternity.
Marc:I just don't hinge the interviews to to what's being promoted in terms of what we talk about.
Marc:And I also don't hinge my my my monologues to any timeline other than what I'm going through emotionally or what the world is doing to me.
Marc:Or what I'm doing to the world.
Marc:I don't want to sound like a victim.
Marc:So they're all pretty fresh.
Marc:I mean, obviously, some people who I've talked to have gone on to do other things.
Marc:Their lives have changed.
Marc:Some have passed away.
Marc:And I'm glad that I talked to those people.
Marc:I'm glad I talked to everybody I talked to when I talked to them.
Marc:I'm just looking for some authentic engagement and I'm looking for for some human interaction.
Marc:And secretly between me and you, sometimes I have some emotional needs that I would like met by my.
Marc:by my guest they might not know that but they don't have to know everything now do they can't we keep some things between us can't we look i'll be honest with you today for me is the middle of the day this is the middle of the day i'm recording this i have an hour lunch break that's right i have a job you know what my job is it's the best job in the world i'm shooting a tv show with my name on it it's a lot of work not going to complain but i had to run home at lunch to record this for you people because i care about you people you want an update on the show i'll give you an update
Marc:I can't be that specific again, but it's exhausting.
Marc:I will tell you that.
Marc:But the scripts, I can tell you sincerely and honestly and objectively, I think, because I'm fairly self-critical that the scripts are funnier than last year.
Marc:A lot of the guest stars are great.
Marc:And the stories are fun.
Marc:I'm having a better time.
Marc:I'm more relaxed.
Marc:We got all 13 scripts written before we started shooting.
Marc:We just had to make a few adjustments, but it's very nice to, you know, as a writer of the show, as one of the writers on the show, as the de facto head writer of the show.
Marc:To be done with that once I start shooting is a relief because at the budget I'm operating at, we can't have an ensemble cast, which means we bring in guests and we rotate people through and we pace the shows out in a way where there if there are recurring guests that they they happen sporadically throughout.
Marc:So.
Marc:I am in every scene.
Marc:And that is not a self-centered decision.
Marc:That is not narcissism.
Marc:It is the way it is.
Marc:So I got to memorize eight to 12 pages a night and get in it and start acting.
Marc:And right now we're in the middle of the episode.
Marc:We're in the middle of shooting the episode where where my relationship sort of falls apart.
Marc:So, of course, no bearing on reality.
Guest:You know, it's weird.
Marc:I can't really divulge too many of the guest stars and I can't.
Marc:I will closer to the thing.
Marc:I do know that they are going to release season one on Netflix soon.
Marc:So if you haven't seen them, you can get caught up.
Marc:It is weird doing some of the stories that, yeah, obviously I'm a little further away from real life, but it is still very much real to me and doing the scene where I have trouble in my relationship.
Marc:It's difficult because, you know, it's been two months since my breakup.
Marc:And I don't know if I'm ever I don't know if it's I don't know what's going to happen.
Marc:I don't feel like I can really date in a genuine way.
Marc:And the saddest part about being old and being on to myself.
Marc:I don't know if I don't think that this has to do with age, but it certainly has to do with my past is I can't seem to fuck my way out of this one.
Marc:Do you hear me?
Marc:I can't seem to just go out and do some good old timey act out sort of casual sport fucking.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I never liked the word sport fucking.
Marc:I just can't.
Marc:I hope there's no kids in the car and I apologize.
Marc:I don't know how you're going to explain that, but I I can't seem to to motivate to just go out and have the meaningless sex to feel better and avoid the feelings underneath.
Marc:And I'll tell you, man, that requires some grieving because
Marc:That is a sad day when you can't even say like, hey, you know, OK, obviously, you know, I can't I can't just snap my fingers and get laid.
Marc:But I could you know, I could scream and charm and dance around a bit.
Marc:And probably if I go outdoors and engage with people, I might I could probably find somebody.
Marc:But I can't do it.
Marc:I just can't I can't engage in that way anymore where it's just sort of like I know that this doesn't mean anything.
Marc:And I know that, you know, it's probably not right that I'm doing this.
Marc:I know that I'm probably still a little fucked up about the breakup.
Marc:Why do I got to drag this other person in this?
Marc:I don't know how they feel about it.
Marc:And believe me, I do know there are no free rides.
Marc:There's no such thing as really.
Marc:I mean, maybe for some of you, I don't know, but there's really no such thing as like, yeah, we can just have sex wrong.
Marc:I think that's how all three of my marriages happened.
Marc:Oh, two.
Marc:Damn it.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:Slipparoo.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So it's a little sad.
Marc:I can't seem to look.
Marc:I'm not saying I'm laying off myself, you know, but I'm not going too hard on that.
Marc:trying to stay on the level, deal with the feelings, and also I'm busy as fuck.
Marc:And I'm not the kind of guy, I've heard stories about people, but I'm not the kind of guy that jerks off in his trailer on set.
Marc:All right?
Marc:That's not me.
Marc:I'm going to put that on my resume for my next acting gig.
Marc:Don't jerk off in trailer on set.
Marc:I don't do it.
Marc:I haven't done it.
Marc:Quite honestly, my trailer is a little shitty, a little stinky.
Marc:Again, not complaining, but there's a fine line between a mobile home and sleeping in a bathroom.
Marc:right will ferrell on monday lovely conversation with a truly lovely man let's talk to ken marino from the state and from party down and from eastbound and down and he's got a new movie out too so let's talk to him here we go
Guest:The Cheech and Chong one blew my mind.
Guest:Wasn't that fucking great?
Guest:I literally, I finished listening to it and I was like, oh my God, that was fucking amazing.
Guest:I know.
Guest:I couldn't believe it.
Guest:Like the stories, like what they were telling you.
Guest:Right, yeah, I know.
Guest:was so exciting to hear because i was like i didn't know any of that and that's crazy i know no one knows no that their story was amazing that was my i think that's my favorite i think that's my favorite my it's one of mine too because i'm sitting there and i'm like what it was mind-blowing it was kind of mind-blowing because we it's like with anybody we make these assumptions about who you know we they are and who we think they are and then when they listen to them and you realize like chong's been wearing the pants
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Guest:You know?
Guest:And so, like, they'll talk about anything.
Guest:They don't give a fuck anymore.
Guest:Yeah, like, what do you want to know?
Guest:Yeah, I had a girlfriend, and I was married, and, like, yeah, there was this strip club, and we did, like, and you're like, what did you do wet?
Guest:And you dodged draft.
Guest:Vancouver, yeah.
Guest:You met where?
Guest:And you were sculpting, and it was crazy.
Marc:It was crazy.
Guest:I loved it.
Marc:Were you a Cheech and Chong kid?
Marc:Yes.
Guest:I mean, I had Big Bamboo and I listened to Big Bamboo over and over and over and over and over.
Guest:And so when people say, hey, what are your influences?
Guest:I don't think about Cheech and Chong, but Cheech and Chong and George Carlin's Class Clown, I can say word for word, right?
Guest:Right, yeah.
Guest:But I think of George Carlin.
Guest:Right, right, yeah.
Guest:Not that I'm a stand-up, but I never think about Cheech and Chong, and then I listen to it, and I'm like, my God, that was the biggest influence.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Because it was sketch, and those guys were just playing characters, and it was funny, and it was raw, and it was loose, and...
Marc:gooey and yeah I don't think they get their their I don't think they get their the respect that they deserve because they were like they were it and I think that's one of the things about listening to that that when I was talking to them it's like they were the they were the first huge modern comedy record everyone fucking knew Cheech and Chong yeah but you know when everybody talks about Cheech and Chong everybody puts them up in the pantheon of important comics but they were except for JJ Jimmy Walker who you had and I was like that was crazy to get for that like that's the guy who like put him into context and I was like that's crazy yeah
Guest:But I guess it made sense.
Guest:I mean, obviously, I don't listen to many other podcasts.
Guest:I listen to some.
Guest:I listen to yours a lot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I applauded at the end of it.
Guest:i like that was the only time i was like it was like you know when you watch a really good movie you're invited to a really good movie yeah before the movie comes out and it's really good and so you're like oh my god that was great yeah that's what that that particular uh interview was well thank you man oh please i i was great i was pretty fucking uh ecstatic right yeah when i got done with that i'm like oh my god
Marc:I hit you because it was so surprising.
Guest:I feel like you did it at the end.
Guest:You do a recap at the end and you're like, was that fucking amazing or what?
Guest:And I was like, I think I was in a parking lot in Santa Monica.
Guest:And I was like, yeah.
Guest:Where do you live?
Marc:Do you live down there?
Guest:No, I went there to do a DVD commentary for this movie I did, Bad Milo, about this ass demon thing.
Marc:You say it like it's like, yeah, the ass thing.
Guest:no no it's it's actually uh really good for it like for an ass demon movie it's it's no it looks good it looks like it's like old school kind of 80s horror thing it's a throwback to like you know it's a practical puppet which is really cool and that's the first i've heard that phrase a practical puppet it's a practical as opposed to an unreasonable puppet it's an unreasonable yeah yeah
Guest:No, it's not, I mean, it's not CGI.
Guest:So they use like a puppet on set.
Guest:And who was the guy that directed it?
Guest:Jacob Vaughn.
Marc:Was it his big idea?
Guest:Yeah, it was his idea, but I got into it because of Mark Duplass.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Duplass brothers were producing it.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:So he called me up and he's like, hey, you want to, you interested in doing this movie?
Guest:And I'm like, fucking, Duplass is calling him.
Guest:Fuck yeah.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:I want to do this movie.
Guest:But you thought maybe like a. Yeah, like a thing exploring.
Guest:A cute couple-y, you know.
Guest:Something exploring like, you know, like.
Guest:your age yeah and and then he's like it's about well he's like you want to you should read it first i'm like why and he's like well it's about a and like this monster that comes out of your ass and i was like in my head i'm like well no if you knew my work i mean he he might know my work but if you've seen anything i do then you would know that that's right up my alley because anything i've done involves some sort of toilet or me sitting on a toilet or some if i write it somebody else sitting on a toilet or commenting about a shit or something so is that true it is true yeah
Guest:You fixated?
Guest:Well, yeah, yeah.
Guest:When I was growing up, my dad was a cesspool cleaner.
Guest:Stop it.
Guest:Yeah, and a plumber.
Guest:He was a clam digger, and then that business died out.
Guest:I wrote a movie about it called Diggers.
Guest:Did it get made?
Guest:Yeah, it got made.
Guest:Paul Rudd's in it and Ron Eldard.
Guest:When was that?
Guest:About maybe, God, eight years ago, seven years ago, five years ago, six years ago.
Guest:So let's go back then.
Guest:So what, did you grow up on the island?
Guest:I grew up on Long Island, yeah.
Guest:Which part?
Guest:Suffolk County, South Shore.
Guest:I grew up in West Islip and then also Marichas, which is a little further out east.
Guest:My parents moved once...
Guest:The clams dried up?
Guest:Once the clams dried up, basically.
Guest:Well, I mean, the clams dried up, and then we moved to Pennsylvania for like six months, and then they moved without a job and realized, oh, we can't live here without work and can't get work, so let's move back.
Guest:And then we lived upstairs from my grandmother.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:For a little while, and then we got a house in West Isla.
Marc:I just talked to, who was it, Jim Brewer, who's a Long Island guy, like an island guy.
Marc:I don't know him.
Marc:Yeah, I don't remember what part he came from, but it's a very specific part of the island, like where the working people live.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, now, clam digging?
Guest:My dad was a... I mean, everybody was, like, back in the 70s... What'd you get?
Marc:Quahogs?
Marc:What kind of clams were you pulling out of there?
Guest:Little necks and cherries and anything, you know... Cherry stones?
Guest:Yeah, you would get... I mean, I was...
Guest:It was in 1975, 76.
Guest:Back when clam digging was hot.
Guest:Well, they say back then there were so many clam diggers that you can walk across the bay across boats.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And that depleted the bay bottom as well as pollution and these corporations that came in and kind of...
Guest:took up sections.
Guest:And that's why for a while, everybody was a clam digger.
Guest:You were either like a recreational clam digger or you, you did it as a profession and you actually made some money.
Guest:And then at a certain point it all dried up.
Guest:And so now I think there's like maybe a hundred clam digger licenses.
Marc:They dug up all the clams.
Guest:Yeah, everything's... With those big, long clam-digging shovels?
Guest:Yeah, with the big rake and the big pipe with the T at the top, and you'd go and have the teeth at the bottom, and you'd kind of dig it, and you'd pull it up, and then you'd kind of empty it out.
Guest:Or they would have tongs.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:And you'd have to see where the bubbles were or something?
Guest:No, I mean, I think they just dropped the shit in there.
Guest:I mean, the bubbles are like if you're on the beach and you're walking and you're digging with your feet.
Guest:But these guys were going 20 feet down.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:10, 15, 20 feet down.
Marc:So they would just drop it off the boat and hope for the best and pull shit up?
Guest:Yeah, and you'd feel it in the pole that you had.
Guest:Did you go out on the boat with them then?
Guest:Again, I was young.
Guest:I did.
Guest:I don't remember much about- When were you born?
Guest:I was born 68.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I'll be 45 in December.
Guest:So you remember it anyway.
Guest:I do remember it.
Guest:Yeah, well, I wrote a movie about it.
Guest:Why not?
Guest:But you had to do some research, I would think.
Guest:I did.
Guest:I mean, I remembered it, and then I researched it a little bit, but it was about these guys kind of-
Guest:Doing it because everybody else, you know, their parents did it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But it's about a dying community and, like, what people do.
Guest:How was it received?
Guest:It was received really well for a small movie.
Guest:I'm sorry I didn't see it.
Guest:You should see it.
Guest:I think you'd like it.
Guest:You know, I mean, it's kind of a slice of life.
Guest:It's sort of like a diner type movie.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Diner was a big influence for...
Guest:when i was growing up and so um i didn't you know i didn't write i didn't know i wanted to write a movie but then when i saw like the other state guys like making movies the competitive nature of me was like well i can write a fucking movie i'm gonna write a movie
Guest:And I set out to write a big, broad comedy, but what it wound up being was this kind of small slice of life.
Guest:I can get it.
Guest:I can find it.
Guest:No, I'd like to see it.
Guest:But Paul Rudd's in it, and Ron Eldard and me, and Josh Hamilton are the clam diggers, and then Maura Tierney and Sarah Paulson and Lauren Ambrose are the women in it.
Marc:Are they wives or girlfriends?
Guest:One's a girl from the city, one's my wife, and one is the sister of Paul Rudd.
Guest:Is your old man still alive?
Guest:He dies within the... Oh, in real life?
Guest:Oh, in real life, my old man's still alive.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you were able to sit there and talk to him about clam digging.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Bring him back.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's not like he's old and nostalgic about it.
Guest:He's like, oh, yeah, we used to dig the clams, and that's what we did.
Guest:And I say, you know...
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:How did you call them?
Guest:Oh, you know, we went like this and we did it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then they actually bought, or, you know, I had to buy like an old shitty, because it was a period piece, it was set in 1976, so we had to buy an old shitty clam boat for Paul's character, and actually everybody's character, but like the main boat was Paul's-
Guest:Yeah, it doesn't have high sides.
Guest:They're little ratty boats, basically.
Guest:So then my dad and my mom kept it in their backyard.
Guest:We live on this little creek, and they kept it in their backyard for the last eight years.
Guest:They finally gave it away.
Guest:But, I mean, it was a piece of shit, but they couldn't let it go.
Guest:Because the...
Guest:The movie is sort of a love letter to growing up on Long Island and a love letter to my dad and what he did and the struggles that he went through when I was a kid.
Marc:The struggles were what?
Marc:He was in and out of work?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We weren't a wealthy family.
Guest:We were struggling when we were younger.
Guest:How many kids were there?
Guest:Just me and my sister.
Guest:I mean, we weren't struggling like... No, no, I know what you mean.
Marc:It was a working class sort of existence in Long Island, which is a pretty tight community usually.
Marc:I mean, probably there was always like... Did you live in an Italian neighborhood or what?
Marc:Or was it not neighborhood specific?
Guest:No, it wasn't neighborhood specific.
Guest:I mean, you know, we...
Marc:You are Italian, aren't you?
Guest:I am part Italian, yeah.
Guest:My dad's Italian and my mom's Ukrainian and Italian.
Guest:Ukrainian and Italian?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:How'd that happen?
Guest:A lot of Ukrainians, well, I guess, well, Ukrainian and an Italian fucked and then made my mom.
Marc:No, I know that, but how do you get from the Ukraine to Italy?
Marc:I mean, were they, or did she?
Marc:Well, no, they all met in like Brooklyn or like Long Island.
Marc:Okay, all right, all right, all right.
Marc:So that makes more sense.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was a melting pot romance.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Everybody's from Brooklyn originally, right?
Marc:Right.
Marc:It's where it all started in Brooklyn.
Marc:So wait, no.
Marc:Getting back to the cesspool thing and your obsession with poop.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:When did he start doing that?
Guest:Well, what happened was, you know, he needed to supplement, you know, he needed to make some money because he wasn't making money as a clam digger.
Guest:So he bought a cesspool truck.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he would do that as kind of a side job.
Guest:I think he was working with somebody.
Guest:And then, you know, he's a plumber and a plumber.
Guest:I have great respect for plumbers.
Guest:Oh, they're awesome.
Guest:They're great.
Marc:Is he a licensed plumber?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:No, but like a plumber comes in and I sat and watched him do this thing on the base of my toilet.
Marc:It took him like three hours.
Marc:But I was so fascinated that he knew how to do it.
Marc:And I felt that just by me watching him do it when he was done, part of me felt like I did it a little bit.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like I was part of it.
Guest:You could probably do it in like six hours.
Guest:Sure, sure.
Guest:The funny thing is he probably could have done it in an hour, but he did it in three hours so he could charge him more.
Marc:Dude, when I was on stage in North Carolina and I was talking about it because it just happened, I had this plumbing problem and I told the North Carolina crowd how much I paid for it in LA.
Marc:And they're like, what?
Marc:Are you fucking kidding me?
Marc:That's a $300 job.
Marc:I paid the guy like 800 bucks to do this thing.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:What was it?
Guest:What was it?
Guest:Because I went on...
Guest:Once my dad started doing that, I would go on jobs with him more often.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:I would clean cesspools and we would put sulfuric acid in.
Guest:I think back of the crazy shit that I was doing with my dad as a 12-year-old.
Guest:I was carrying two five-gallon things of sulfuric acid or 10-gallon things of sulfuric acid to dump into cesspools and stuff.
Guest:Is that what you clean cesspools with?
Guest:Well, you do that to kind of break up the bottom because cesspools basically kind of seep into the ground.
Guest:And so like if it gets hard on the bottom, then that's why they fill up so quickly.
Guest:So you want to break that hard stuff up at the bottom.
Marc:The hard sedimented.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:The hard poop.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Well, no, what happened was, you know, the base of the toilet, there's a bracket and there's a wax seal.
Marc:Like it sits over a hole.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Well, apparently, like, I'd always known the toilet was a little shaky since I got it, so the wax seal had completely gone.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And the bolt-on bracket thing was rusty out.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So every time you sat down, it would go... Right.
Marc:It was just perched over a hole.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And eventually, like, it started leaking from the tank.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So he had to come in, pull out that old rusted-out bracket, put a new one down, put a new wax seal in, and bolt it on.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Not a small job.
Marc:He had to dig some shit out, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:All he had to do is turn off the water, disconnect the... Right, move the toilet.
Guest:Undo the bolts, put that shit up.
Guest:But it was rusted out.
Guest:Yeah, well, did he replace the ground?
Marc:Yeah, yeah, he put some cement in there and he replaced it.
Marc:He put the whole new bracket on top, took out the rusted one, put the wax seal.
Marc:So you had some damage.
Marc:It was old.
Marc:Yeah, see, well, I don't think it was ever done properly.
Marc:What happens when you buy houses in L.A.
Marc:is that you get a lot of handyman work.
Marc:You never know how you're wired...
Guest:what's gonna catch on fire we just bought we just bought a house and uh they just i had to had to within two weeks of buying it in november the roof was just like leaking in like seven different places so we just had somebody redo the roof and then and the guy i was looking at he's like oh man he's like i'm like what he's like well they put like two inch strips of wood in here i'm like he's like that's why it's bending because yeah
Guest:This is not an interesting story.
Marc:Sure it is.
Marc:It's amazing because I think unlike other places, there's a complete handyman culture out here.
Marc:People who own houses just get their guy.
Marc:Someone recommends a guy.
Marc:Oh, I got a guy that'll do that.
Marc:And none of these guys necessarily know exactly what they're doing or do anything right.
Marc:So you end up like my house at one point, the lights just started going on and off.
Marc:like you know like like flaring up and then going off and i had these uh bulgarian electricians come over and they're like oh dude you're in trouble like the whole thing had been wired with tape and solder this is wire from 1936 and 46 and 77 no just like layers of shit they could just go up and flame where'd you buy a house the fabric the fabric oh yeah some of that where'd you buy a house uh over by lake hollywood you know where lake hollywood is
Marc:I do know where Lake Hollywood is.
Guest:You know where that flat dog park is where everybody brings a dog and then when a guy comes, you're not supposed to walk your dog.
Guest:So then everybody puts their dog in.
Marc:I don't know that part of it.
Guest:It's right by the Hollywood sign.
Marc:Carolla lives up there.
Guest:Perhaps.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You don't know your neighbors?
Marc:Go over to Adam's house.
Guest:I don't know all these celebrities.
Marc:Go buzz his gate.
Marc:Go buzz the gate at Corolla's Mansion.
Guest:We don't have a gate, so he's in a very different area.
Marc:Oh, yeah, he's like up on a hill.
Marc:He's got an office with a car in it.
Marc:Isn't that nice?
Marc:Yeah, he's got his garage.
Marc:Like Ferris Bueller.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:It's exactly what it's like.
Marc:It's built over the garage so he can change the car and elevate it into the office space.
Marc:Dude.
Marc:Huh?
Marc:Isn't that what you need?
Marc:When you're thinking like, what do I need in my house?
Marc:A car.
Marc:I got to get a car in my house.
Marc:So, all right.
Marc:So you're running around cleaning the stress pools in Long Island.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Working with your dad, being a plumber.
Marc:And how did you, what was the dream?
Marc:Kind of jockey, right?
Marc:Can I put that on you?
Marc:I think you played football.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I did not play football.
Guest:Okay, thank God.
Guest:I played football when I was little and everybody- But you weren't in high school.
Guest:No, I played sports and I played basketball and- I didn't mean to project.
Guest:A little track.
Guest:No, I get it.
Guest:I knew that was coming.
Guest:What did you prepare for this?
Guest:Yes, of course, for the 200 episodes or 200 plus episodes that I've listened to.
Guest:You prepared for it.
Guest:Maren's going to come at me with the jock thing.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:But I did.
Guest:But I did plays as well.
Guest:And so it's actually.
Marc:You were a jock drama guy hybrid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Jock drama club hybrid.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Well, that's an important role, and thank you for doing that.
Guest:Yeah, well, I just wanted to cross over and just make everybody hate me.
Guest:No, it must have been kind of tricky.
Guest:It was tricky.
Guest:It was tricky, and then I was put on a spot by a coach at a certain point who cornered me in high school and said, Hey, Marino, are you going to play basketball this year, or are you going to do that fag acting?
Ha ha!
Guest:Did he say it?
Guest:He did.
Guest:I still remember.
Guest:I mean, it's such a specific moment in my life that pushed me into exactly what I've wanted to do.
Marc:That is like the two worlds right there.
Marc:He got it.
Marc:It's like, you know, because those kind of guys, they protect the world that they're in.
Marc:And that's the only way they're going to see it.
Marc:Those kind of people are never going to see theater as anything.
Marc:He's dancing around singing that kid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because he had to let me go because the deal was I would play because I was tall or taller for the school.
Guest:So I played basketball and I would either come late.
Guest:The junior varsity coach would let me come late to practice or leave early for the plays.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's what I asked him.
Guest:In order to play, I said, can I do this?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he would let me do it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then the varsity coach came up to me, and I remember he cornered me in the locker.
Guest:It was so weird.
Guest:It was very weird.
Marc:What did he say?
Guest:He said, Marino, are you going to play basketball this year or are you going to do that fag acting?
Guest:And I was like, and I remember, and I could be making this up, like it's a fucking teen movie, but I was like, I'm going to do the acting.
Guest:Thanks.
Guest:And that was it.
Guest:I'm going to do the fag acting.
Guest:I'm going to do the fag acting.
Guest:So then I didn't play basketball that year.
Marc:And were you doing, did you sing and dance?
Marc:I did.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I sang and danced.
Guest:Well, that's what you do in high school.
Guest:Yeah, you do musicals.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And then, like, maybe you'll do The Odd Couple, or maybe you'll do, like, you know, whatever.
Guest:But you liked it.
Marc:I loved it.
Marc:Are you kidding?
Marc:I love hearing those stories.
Marc:I like when guys who are, like, because I had a roommate, my roommate in college, Lance, was, you know, he's a pretty jockey kid, but he loved to sing and dance.
Guest:I don't know if I was jockey.
Marc:Well, no, you're just a big guy, and I think it's what people would put on you.
Guest:When you grow up, you're like, that kid seems like... If you go out to Long Island, and if you look at the guys who were jockey on Long Island when I was there, you might say, oh, no, he's not jockey.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:They were big dudes.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And I was, again, I was like kind of, I was big enough to play, but I wasn't really that super, I like sports, but I wasn't interested in like, who's playing on what team?
Guest:No, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And we were talking about this, like you were talking about Iggy Pop.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:i like iggy pop but i don't i can't i'm not one of those people who like know every song or every album and stuff i'm just like oh no i like that i don't like that yeah i'm the same way i mean like if i if i well sometimes i'll lock in on one thing where i'm like i gotta know all about that yeah you know i got if i want to be that guy's fan i better and i'll buy all the records and i'll still won't i still won't listen to them but i'll have them i got
Guest:I'll have them all set.
Guest:I just got into, oddly, being from Long Island, I should have been into this my whole life, but Bruce Springsteen.
Guest:Yeah, it takes time sometimes.
Guest:And just started binge listening to Bruce Springsteen.
Guest:I was like, oh, I get it.
Guest:But now, if you ask me the songs that I was listening to literally for three months straight, just listening to over and over and over again, I can maybe name two of them.
Marc:Yeah, no, I'm the same way.
Marc:And then someone hums it and you're like, oh yeah, that one, yeah.
Marc:But I think that's what's great about music is that you can come back around to it.
Marc:There's a lot of shit that I missed.
Marc:And then eventually you're just sort of like, why didn't I?
Marc:And it doesn't matter.
Guest:It's great, but it's great to get into something later.
Guest:I'm so glad I got to experience Bruce Springsteen now.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Because it's a little gift.
Guest:It was a gift.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Hearing something for the first time, no matter when it happens, is the greatest fucking thing in the world.
Marc:The best.
Guest:And some of his songs, like what was the one?
Guest:The River?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I literally would weep in my car.
Guest:I'm like, what the fuck?
Guest:I'd pull over and be like, let's go listen to this again.
Guest:I'd call a friend.
Guest:I'm like, you got to hear this song.
Guest:He's like, yeah, the river.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's been around a while.
Guest:Yeah, the river.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's fucking great.
Guest:But just speaking of things that you get into later, I'm binge watching Breaking Bad right now.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Which I know that you watch.
Guest:And right now I'm in the middle of the last season.
Guest:And I can't stop watching it.
Guest:But again, it's sort of like a treat.
Marc:It's the best way to watch is when it's all done and you can just plow through.
Marc:it's great and you know it doesn't disappoint which is really cool no never that's fucking it's it's bizarre to me that i don't know how the genius of that works i'm doing you know 13 episodes of my show and i'm like what the fuck are we gonna do you know and it's like we've done 10 of these now we're doing 13 more i'm about done i'm out of shit well you got to start cooking meth yeah well that was uh that was one of the ideas yeah
Marc:But when you guys... All right, so you start out in Long Island.
Guest:Wait, I'm going to just hold you for one second.
Guest:I'm going to make a gross noise because of sort of like post-nasal drips.
Guest:Here we go.
Guest:Do you need a... No, I just want to know if you have like a... No, we'll take it out later.
Guest:A mute button.
Guest:Ready?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, so much better.
Marc:I remember that noise from cocaine.
Marc:Is that?
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Marc:It kind of builds up.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:And that was a treat when you were on coke, because that post-nasal drip was filled with coke.
Guest:And you could just like... But isn't that stuff kind of... It's a little bitter.
Guest:Sometimes.
Marc:It depends what they cut it with.
Guest:I didn't like coke.
Marc:You didn't like it?
Marc:Was it not your thing?
Marc:No.
Marc:Good.
Marc:You lucked out.
Marc:I didn't like it.
Marc:Was it just a booze guy?
Marc:One time.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:yeah old school whiskey yeah i'm not uh my friends uh my friend my old friend says that i'm um uh a mean drunk when i drink whiskey but when i drink everything else i'm fine yeah yeah i know whiskey make you mean vodka makes you mean yeah yeah because it goes right to the point goes right to that part of your brain where it's the fuck you part but not anymore now i'm at peace i don't i'm not mean no not at all
Guest:You don't seem mean, but you were mean?
Guest:I think when I was like in my 20s.
Guest:So right around when you were in the state?
Guest:When I was in the state, when I drank too much whiskey, I would like get a little ornery.
Guest:So how'd you end up at, you ended up at NYU?
Guest:I did end up in NYU.
Marc:But that was a good program.
Marc:It was a good school.
Marc:So you must have done okay in high school?
Guest:Honestly, I think I got a nice letter of recommendation.
Guest:I was never a great student.
Guest:I wasn't terrible.
Guest:I just kind of got by how I got by.
Guest:And then I got in there for the acting program.
Marc:But when you were in high school and you were doing the things, outside of just the general experience of being on stage, was there a moment where you realized, like, this is fucking great?
Marc:Where you got your first laugh?
Marc:Or was there a specific play?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I wanted to act since I was in, like, fourth grade.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I went, my sister and myself won this, like, two-week thing to, like, a church camp.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:On Shelter Island.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When we lived on Long Island.
Guest:And we went to it and we did a play.
Guest:My age group did a play at the end of the year and I had never acted before and I never wanted to, but I was like kind of a clown, a little less clowny kind of guy.
Yeah.
Guest:and uh we did the prodigal son and i was the prodigal son so i got to like around and then like leave and then come back and i'm like hey and um the day we had to do it for all the other age groups i got cold feet and i locked myself in a bathroom and then my sister came and talked me out of the bathroom yeah she's two years older than me talked me out of the bathroom and
Guest:And then I came out and I went on stage, and this was the first time that I remember being on stage, the first time I was affected by kind of like, ooh, I want to do this.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And people laughed at me doing the artificial fart under the arm, whatever the fuck I was doing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was like, ooh, oh, I like that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I dig that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The juice.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that was it.
Guest:The seed was planted.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and then at that point, then I just wanted to be an actor.
Marc:Okay, so you do it, and then you're going to commit your life to it.
Guest:You're going to go to... Fourth grade, I was like, I'm going to be an actor.
Guest:I don't need school.
Guest:I'm ready to go.
Guest:Tell my parents I need headshots.
Guest:Honestly, that's basically what happened.
Marc:But you didn't do any professional acting until later.
Marc:No, no, no, no.
Marc:Were your parents like, what are you doing?
Guest:No, they were very supportive.
Guest:They were great.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:All the way through?
Marc:All the way through.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So you graduate high school, and then you move into New York.
Marc:Were you one of those guys in high school who used to go into the city and fuck off and then come back?
No.
Guest:No.
Guest:I mean, my mother would take us into the city to see plays on Wednesdays because it was half-price tickets.
Guest:Wasn't it exciting, one of your kids driving to the city?
Marc:Because you could really feel it.
Marc:You're like, oh, my God.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I was in Jersey.
Marc:My grandmother would take us in.
Marc:We'd take a bus in.
Marc:And it was like, holy shit.
Guest:I still feel that way now, living in, because I lived there for 12 years from college, and then I lived for 12 years until I was around 30.
Guest:But I still feel that way when I fly in now, and you get out of JFK, and then you drive in, you come out of the tunnel, and all of a sudden, I feel like, oh my God, I'm in New York City again.
Guest:I still feel that same way that I felt when I was a kid.
Guest:You get jacked.
Marc:yeah when you learn how it's really amazing thing because i've noticed it like i don't mind living out here it's pretty there's space and you know and i've got my own you know territory but uh when you spend like a decade or more in new york and you you innately instinctively know how to function there it's great like there's none of that sort of like oh where do i go what do i do let's just get on the train you know yeah you know there's an asshole should we take a cab no
Marc:You never take a cab.
Guest:And you know you can like just kind of like, you know what?
Guest:I have like half a day.
Guest:Let me just walk around.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Go downtown and like, you know, Chinatown.
Guest:I'm just going to walk around Chinatown and look at like weird fucking food.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Look at that.
Marc:What is that?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Is that a mushroom?
Marc:What is that?
Marc:They dig that up?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I want to eat that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:How do they use that?
Marc:That's always a big question.
Marc:Have I eaten that?
Yeah.
Marc:No, I fucking love it because you can really get a buzz from it.
Marc:Do you ever get nostalgic for it?
Marc:I don't want to live there again, but every time I go for a few days, it's great.
Guest:Yeah, I feel like the only way I would live there again is if I was like super wealthy and I can buy a place and then I can go there and hang out.
Marc:Right, have that place.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:You want to go to the New York place?
Guest:Yeah, let's go to the New York place for a couple of weeks or a month.
Guest:Wouldn't that fucking be great?
Marc:Yeah, it would be awesome.
Marc:You got a plan for that?
Marc:It's never going to happen, but... Don't stop.
Marc:Maybe it'll happen.
Marc:Come on.
Marc:So when you get to NYU for that program, how quickly did you meet the state guys?
Marc:How many of you guys have I interviewed?
Guest:You interviewed everybody except...
Guest:Michael Jan.
Guest:Yeah, Michael Jan, I have not.
Guest:You didn't do Michael Jan.
Guest:You did David.
Guest:You did Mike Black.
Guest:You've had a running thing with Mike Black.
Guest:You've done Showalter.
Guest:David Wayne.
Guest:You did Kerry.
Guest:Did you do Kerry?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You learned about Cake Like.
Guest:You did Latruglio in a live show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You didn't do Kevin Allison.
Marc:I did, but I lost it.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:So sad.
Guest:No, you did, but you've called him.
Guest:He talked about like kink camp and shit like that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You did like a pre thing.
Marc:Yeah, because I wanted to help him out, but he was, but we did a live one, I think, but he came in here and there was a problem with the file.
Marc:Really?
Marc:And it was fucked up.
Marc:And it's only happened a few times, but you know, and there was, I kept thinking like, oh my God, I'm never going to get that back.
Marc:He's never going to talk about, you know, having sex with Asian men.
Marc:And I'm like,
Marc:Yeah, he will.
Guest:No, he will.
Guest:He'll talk about it the next time you see him.
Marc:I thought, like, this is amazing.
Marc:Oh, he'll do it again.
Marc:This is not going to be a problem.
Marc:That's his bread and butter.
Marc:Yeah, Tom Lennon.
Marc:Did you do Ben?
Marc:Yeah, Ben on a live one.
Marc:Tom and Ben on a live one, then Tom in here.
Guest:Yeah, I know you did Tom.
Marc:Is that all of them?
Marc:And then there was the other guy, the, well, what's his name?
Marc:The one who started it, but he's not really.
Marc:Todd Holabek.
Marc:Holabek.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I reached out to Holabek.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:At one point, and it was not, it didn't, yeah.
Guest:No?
Marc:No, it didn't happen.
Guest:Well, he's in like Korea right now teaching English or something.
Marc:Right, he's sort of out of the game.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:He's an artist.
Guest:He does these sculptures, and he's kind of fascinating.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, it'd be interesting, but I think at the time, I was like, I think what I wanted him to do was to actually play a part as the bitter guy.
Marc:The disgruntled.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But you did something like that.
Marc:Right, but it was a fake.
Marc:On David Wayne's run.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:I had a guy do that.
Marc:I don't know where that guy is, the guy who did that.
Marc:Dave Waterman.
Marc:He's a funny guy.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:That was weird.
Guest:It was.
Guest:I remember listening to that and being like, what?
Guest:What?
Guest:What's going on?
Guest:Why is he doing this?
Guest:This is not the language of the show.
Marc:Well, that was when I was still doing third acts, and sometimes I would do characters.
Marc:Right, right, right.
Marc:But how did you get involved with it?
Marc:What was your experience?
Guest:I went to NYU for acting and then I was a year older than mostly everybody else in the group.
Guest:David Wayne was my year and Todd was my year.
Guest:And then everybody else was a year after.
Guest:So I was there for a year just taking acting classes at Lee Strasberg Institute.
Marc:Did you have any famous teachers?
Guest:There's a guy named David Gideon and Jeffrey Horn.
Guest:And, you know, the people that they, and then Lee Strasberg's wife at the time, or was his wife.
Guest:He died.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Anna Strasberg, I think.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:She was around.
Guest:But she didn't teach.
Guest:She just kind of walked around.
Marc:Yeah, as a representative of the old-timey.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:But aren't good teachers.
Marc:On Lafayette, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's right off the park right over there on 14th.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:What is that?
Guest:What park is that?
Guest:Union Square.
Guest:Union Square.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Right off there.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So how did the state come together for you?
Guest:Well, I was friends with Todd Holabek and David Wayne.
Guest:I was friends with David.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And David was in this other sketch group called The Sterile Yak.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:Which Mo Willems, you know Mo Willems?
Guest:I don't.
Guest:I know that name.
Guest:Mo Willems, he writes kids books.
Guest:He writes children's books right now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's a really funny guy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But back then, he was in a sketch comedy group that he kind of was kind of the guy, the head of it.
Guest:And David Wayne was part of that group.
Guest:And then Todd was in that group.
Guest:Maybe he didn't feel like his voice was being heard or whatever, but he wanted a more democratic kind of environment to do sketch.
Guest:And so he broke away and started his own group.
Guest:And so he had auditions and I happened to be friends with him.
Guest:He's like, I'm auditioning people for the sketch group.
Guest:And I'm like, well, that sounds like fun.
Guest:And he's like, you should come audition.
Guest:I'm like, I don't want to wait in line.
Guest:He's like, just come in and just come to the front and come in and do something.
Guest:I was like, oh yeah, I'll do that.
Marc:And what'd you do?
Marc:What'd you have to do?
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:You don't remember?
Guest:I have no idea.
Guest:I have no idea.
Guest:I mean, I think they had written something and you read it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, I didn't come in like an SNL sketch or, I mean, an SNL audition where I would do characters and stuff.
Marc:Did you audition for SNL?
Marc:You must have.
Marc:No.
Guest:Never did?
Guest:No, I had no desire to do it because I've-
Guest:Sketch was not something that I was like, oh my God, I want to do sketch in my life.
Guest:But then when I fell in with the steak guys who were amazing, I feel like I did it.
Guest:I did what I wanted to do and I worked with these really incredible people.
Guest:And so what would...
Guest:I wasn't like, oh my... And then now I got to... This is just a stepping stone to do SNL.
Guest:For me, the state was my SNL.
Guest:The state was what I wanted to do.
Guest:You just wanted to act.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I wanted to act, but then when I was with those guys, that was my college.
Guest:That was my comedy college, so then I got... Then I wanted to write, and I realized I wanted to direct, and I wanted to do comedy and create characters and...
Guest:but I never lost the acting bug that I had, you know.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, it sort of, it all comes together, but you were, in terms of like, you know, wanting to be, well, yeah, I guess that makes sense.
Marc:I mean, because none of those guys, when I think about it, no one really went on to SNL from the state, did they?
Marc:No.
Guest:I think Carrie had an audition.
Guest:But I don't recall anybody.
Guest:We were kind of... Big.
Guest:Well, just we thought our shit was the shit at the time.
Guest:We were in our 20s and we're like, we're fucking funny.
Guest:We're doing our own thing.
Guest:So I don't think we wanted to... I don't think any of us were like...
Guest:Let's do this so we can get on SNL.
Guest:We were like, let's do our own thing and become the next SNL or whatever.
Guest:Maybe to a fault.
Marc:That seems to be somewhat of the narrative that I've heard.
Marc:Is that how you remember it?
Marc:When I talk to you guys, I think that once when MTV kind of... When you got the opportunity and it became so huge, you were pretty huge for a while.
Marc:There was no way you couldn't think that.
Guest:Huge for MTV, but we weren't huge for MTV.
Guest:We were...
Guest:There was a niche little audience that liked us because we were kind of cool.
Guest:And they still like you.
Marc:That's the amazing thing about the state, that you planted the seed in these kids.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And they all still follow you.
Guest:Well, I mean, I think because we had like a unique voice at the time, and I think because we weren't trying to be like...
Guest:some other sketch comedy, although, you know, there were, you know, we definitely kind of aped some of the people that inspired us, like Monty Python or SNL, but we tried to do our own thing, and I think we stumbled upon something kind of special.
Guest:No, no, definitely, and it's had a lasting impact.
Guest:Yes, and I'm surprised, I'm surprised.
Guest:I think one of the reasons it's had that lasting impact is because it was so hard to get for a while, so people who were into it
Guest:who watched it on MTV, couldn't get it for like 10, 11 years on DVD, because we used the music from MTV, and then it was a big licensing thing.
Guest:And so then it became like a bootleg thing.
Guest:And so that kind of made it a cool underground thing to get.
Guest:Like, oh, I have all the seasons on VHS.
Marc:You know, here it is.
Marc:That's wild.
Marc:He couldn't pull the music, so all the music was... No, so you know Craig Wedren from Shutter to Think?
Guest:Craig Wedron did all the music, or a lot of the music, Teddy Shapiro did something too, for our show, and so he had to go back and rescore anything, like if we used Led Zeppelin.
Guest:Back then, we were able to pull like...
Guest:Led Zeppelin, The Stones, Michael Jackson.
Guest:And then, of course, now if you look at what we shot, it would be millions and millions and millions of dollars to put it out just for music.
Marc:That's like a bummer, but it's kind of funny.
Guest:Yeah, so there's a lot of sound-alikes now.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:You can just use those.
Marc:I got to use those.
Marc:Because we're shooting now.
Marc:When you want to do it, it would be fun.
Marc:In the record store, you should put something.
Marc:Yeah, I can't.
Marc:No.
Marc:I guess it was always like that.
Marc:But they're real meticulous about that shit.
Guest:It's changed.
Guest:Completely changed.
Marc:Yeah, they'll try to get money out of anything.
Marc:a record cover one note i suppose it's i mean it's great for the musicians sure yeah but i don't want to begrudge jimmy page a few dollars yeah i know that guy's struggling he needs something yeah he needs to put a car in his garage i mean in his house but i like the idea that at some point you were like uh like oh these other guys are doing it like when you did uh when everyone was in what hot american summer that was a game changer right
Marc:In what sense?
Marc:What do you mean?
Guest:What was a movie?
Guest:It was a movie for those guys.
Guest:It was exciting that David and Sho wrote a movie and that they were getting a chance to do it.
Guest:That was exciting.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was exciting that they asked me to be in it.
Guest:That was great.
Guest:It was a game changer for me because...
Guest:Prior to that, when the state ended, or we stopped kind of making money, and so we all had to kind of go off and do our own thing, I came out to L.A.
Guest:and I started doing... Episodic?
Guest:Yeah, and I flew out because I had booked a few good men.
Guest:I replaced a guy, Ron Eldard, actually, who left the show for Men Behaving Badly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so then all of a sudden I was out here and I was doing a series...
Guest:and then that got canceled and then I was out here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I was like, and then I'll do another thing and it, does it go or a pilot or, you know, and so that's, I was in that game.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And when I wasn't doing pilots and things like that, I was doing guest spots.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was, and all of a sudden I was not doing like big, broad, ridiculous characters or silly sketches.
Guest:I was the nice guy boyfriend who doesn't wind up with the girl because I was just a guest on the show.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:That's a character.
Guest:You're a guest on the show.
Guest:You're a guest on the show.
Guest:Say your lines.
Guest:You're not going to get the girl.
Guest:Set up the joke.
Guest:Let her say the joke and leave.
Guest:And so I was like, okay, that's, you know, and I was getting paid.
Marc:Were you discontent with that or were you all right with it?
Guest:I started to kind of just get...
Guest:It's just hard when you have, we had a lot of control, even though the state was not like this big, big thing.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It was special and it was our voice and we controlled it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so then all of a sudden I got, and we were successful enough to pay like our bills.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Right out of college.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So that was a victory, right?
Guest:So then when that stopped, I came out here and I was getting work and I was paying my bills doing this stuff, but it was not as satisfying because I was just a hired gun or a hired slingshot to...
Marc:say some stuff you know or if i was lucky i would get like i did a couple of series and they all immediately got canceled you know um i can't i don't know i you know i never got into that game because like i would go on on an audition and it would just be so the rejection would be too much for me to deal with like there were because there's never any way to know why you didn't get something usually uh you know it's got to go through three people the casting agent tells you're the agent then the agent tells the manager and then the manager lies to you
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then they kind of like soften it up or they're like, ah, they're just, you know, but, but so, yeah, so I, so I didn't, uh, I didn't enjoy, it wasn't fulfilling.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then those guys said, Hey, do you want to do this movie?
Guest:We're doing this little movie, Wet Hot.
Guest:So I went and did it and that's where I met Paul and, you know, got to know Amy Poehler a little bit more.
Guest:I met 80 miles.
Guest:That was 80 miles.
Guest:And I were the first guys who got to set, you know, we, we all stayed at a camp.
Guest:yeah and um i had just worked with chris maloney and then he came worked on that and all these people like and plus all my buddies from the state and it was a really special experience because we all were at this camp for 29 days it was raining most of the time we were sleeping at the camp we'd wake up and we do you know do our scene camp it would be like being a camp but with all these like really cool people bradley cooper michael
Guest:black it's amazing how many it's like almost everybody went on to do to have pretty big careers yeah yeah yeah i mean well i mean yeah people people there were some really talented people on that but what for me it was a great experience because um i realized oh that's
Guest:That's what I want to do and that's how I need to focus the rest of my career, which is work with people you love and respect and who are very creative and funny and create things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And surround yourself and don't like...
Guest:I could do the other thing.
Guest:I can go and audition for stuff, but if I want to feel fulfilled with the thing that bug that I got when I was in fourth grade, I need to be around people that I have fun with and I need to be able to kind of help create it in some way.
Guest:And so...
Guest:So from that point on, I started to kind of get back more involved.
Guest:I started writing my movie and trying to produce things or write things and direct things.
Marc:That's interesting.
Marc:You said that there was a competitive nature that kind of kicked in.
Marc:It's like, oh, David can do it.
Guest:Well, I think I was very lucky to be with a group of people who were really talented and really funny
Guest:And there was always a competitive nature, but it wasn't like, it didn't have a negative vibe to it.
Marc:Right, it wasn't like, I'm gonna kick your ass.
Guest:No, it was like, if they're doing it, I think we motivated each other, consciously or unconsciously.
Marc:And when you guys were in the state, were there any, like, who was in charge?
Guest:Who was in charge of the state?
Guest:I mean, Todd created this environment where everybody had a say.
Marc:Right, there weren't power struggles?
Guest:Not really not really power struggles.
Guest:I mean, there were people who were good at different things, you know, and there were personalities that, you know, kind of came to the forefront of the writing or the performing or kind of how we're going to attack it in directing it or, you know, like, did everyone get to direct their own stuff?
Guest:No.
Guest:No?
Guest:I mean, we all sort of threw in directing-wise, but, like, Mike Jan was the director, the official director of, like, the big, you know, location shoots.
Guest:And David Wayne was the kind of running gun gorilla.
Guest:We're just going to, like, three of us run out with, you know, a mic and some fucking pencils and we'll do something, you know?
Guest:And...
Guest:But everybody kind of helped direct any stuff we did in front of a live audience, the studio stuff.
Guest:So we all kind of pitched in and we all helped each other.
Guest:That schooling or that type of education that I got there was great, but when I came out here, it was a very different vibe.
Guest:And I guess maybe that's those however many years before we did Wet Hot, I was like, oh shit.
Guest:That was special.
Guest:It's not like that.
Guest:I have to just kind of be by myself and look out for myself and nobody's.
Guest:And you're just one of fucking thousands of guys.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was just weird.
Guest:It was just weird to kind of adapt to that and figure out how to kind of maneuver through this town.
Marc:Well, that first wave of coming out here, it's really isolating and weird.
Marc:And we all think we're special somehow because that's what we do.
Marc:We're, look at me.
Marc:I'm a thing.
Marc:And then you get out here.
Marc:It's like, yeah, you're just another thing.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:You kind of go through the heartbreak of just plowing through that shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The business part of it is not easy or fun or anything I look forward to.
Guest:It's kind of gross and hard.
Guest:What I've realized is it's affected my personal life.
Guest:in some way, I don't get excited or bummed out about anything anymore.
Guest:I just kind of... As soon as I'm done with something, I walk away from it and I immediately forget it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:To try to survive as a professional in this town...
Guest:For me not to break down and lose my mind, I'll do something and then immediately let it go and not think about it.
Guest:It took a while to do that, but it's helpful because it's basically having thick skin and not think.
Guest:But now it's kind of in my life, I just forget everything.
Guest:And also it's hard for me to get excited or sad about things.
Marc:I think I have a little of that.
Marc:It's not a callousness, but it's almost self-protective because you don't want to get your heart broken every fucking five minutes because something didn't work out or it didn't go.
Marc:Because once you do the work, so much of it is out of your control.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you're just sort of like, all right, I thought that was good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:See what happens with it.
Guest:But there is a freedom to it.
Guest:There are pluses to it.
Guest:You walk into a room and you're like, I'm going to do my thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't give a shit about what you think my thing is.
Guest:I'm just going to do it.
Guest:It took me a while to get there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm just going to do it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I will take, you never know what somebody's going to say.
Guest:Sometimes they'll be like, great, thank you.
Guest:Sometimes they'll be like, why did you change that line?
Guest:And then you just have to be willing to kind of have that conversation.
Guest:But ultimately, there's a freedom to just go in and honestly not care what anybody thinks.
Guest:And usually you get the job.
Guest:Usually there's a better chance of you getting the job if you don't give a fuck at all.
Marc:Yeah, it takes a while to get there.
Guest:But you can't walk in with a fucking chip on your shoulder either.
Guest:So there's like this fine line.
Marc:Did you do that?
Marc:Huh?
Marc:How did you used to do that?
Guest:Sometimes, like sometimes in auditions, I would be like at a certain point, like I'd read and I'd see that they weren't interested and there were like three scenes and like the courtesy sometimes is they'll be like, let them read the other two scenes.
Guest:And sometimes I'd be like, I don't have to read the next two scenes, right?
Guest:We're done here, right?
Guest:Like I would, and I would test the one, like I would push it.
Guest:Like I would be like, I'd be like, nobody, right?
Guest:We both know that that's, we're done, right?
Yeah.
Guest:And to put the shit on them to see how they would react.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that was fun for a while.
Guest:For a while?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then you weren't getting many parts and you're like, oh, maybe- Well, I'm like, what am I doing?
Guest:Like, clearly that's confrontational.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Marc:Like, I could just walk out.
Marc:Well, how'd you learn those things?
Marc:Did you just learn them on your own to not do that anymore?
Marc:Did you make a decision?
Marc:Did your wife tell you?
Guest:No, you just- I think I learned it on my own.
Guest:You just don't- You don't have to be confrontational.
Guest:I'm a-
Guest:I don't know if I'm a confrontational person or a person who will put something out.
Guest:There's like weirdness.
Guest:I don't hold it in.
Guest:I'll be like, hey, this is weird and here's why.
Guest:Let's talk about it.
Marc:but but that's uh but that's good i think it's healthy yeah yeah sometimes it comes out you know because i'm i guess a long island guy yeah might come out sometimes a little aggressive yeah so all right so then you go it looks like you i mean you did a lot of shit and and i guess the great thing about being a funny guy and being a very specifically funny guy and also having you know the relationships you have with all the people you have you're definitely in that group of
Marc:of cool, funny people of your generation.
Marc:I mean, with the state guys, Corddry, and now you're working with Duplass and those guys.
Marc:I mean, you're in it.
Marc:I'm working.
Guest:Party Down was huge, right, for you?
Guest:Party Down became this kind of culty, cool show that people really got into in a real way.
Guest:It was one of those shows where it's sort of like, oh, they're not doing anymore.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's nice to hear how much people like Party Down.
Guest:And for me, it was a, I don't know if you've ever seen it.
Guest:I have.
Guest:It's a different type of part for me.
Guest:So it was fun to play that.
Guest:How is that?
Marc:How is it different for you?
Guest:Well, you know, I was playing like Nice Guy Boyfriend for a while.
Guest:And then when I read, you know, and then lately I've been playing like kind of loud, obnoxious, dickhead guys.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But that particular part I was shooting on a show, Veronica Mars.
Marc:That was a popular show too, right?
Marc:Veronica Mars?
Guest:It was a popular show, yeah.
Guest:It's a well-written show and it was a good show.
Marc:With kids, right?
Marc:I mean, with teenagers.
Guest:It was with kids, yeah, but it was like noir.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So I was playing kind of a slightly outrageous character on that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And the guys working on that, Dan Etheridge and Rob Thomas, they had this script that they were trying to do with, I think, Rudd and Steve Carell before both of those guys blew up and became gigantic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And originally they were shopping around with those guys, Party Down.
Guest:And then they couldn't get it going.
Guest:and I had said, oh, let me read the script, and I read the script, and I read this Ron character, and I was like, listen, if you ever do get it up and going, please let me read for Ron, because I had a take on him, the way I would like to play him, and so they said sure, and then pretty soon after Veronica Mars got canceled, and Rob Thomas, the creator of the show,
Guest:decided to take his own money and shoot the pilot of Party Down at his house and shop it around.
Guest:So he put up his own money and then used that as a calling card to try to sell the show.
Guest:And so he asked me and Adam Scott and Jane Lynch to shoot it at his house for like a week.
Guest:We only got paid like 100 bucks.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he went around and sold it.
Guest:A year later.
Guest:How many did you do?
Guest:20.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:10 a season.
Marc:When you say you have a take on the guy, what was it that made you go like, oh, this is the angle on this dude?
Guest:I just, you know, sometimes you'll read something and you're like, I don't know how to attack that character.
Guest:And I read Ron and I was like, oh, he's a guy who's got like a big dark cloud over his head always.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But he's trying his best to...
Guest:act like that cloud is not there, even though he can feel it and see it and probably has moisture on him from the rain.
Guest:And so I was like, I have a take on this guy.
Guest:I don't know if it's the right take on him.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But you felt it.
Guest:I felt it.
Guest:And so the nice thing about sometimes when you are offered something and you don't have to audition for it,
Guest:you come in, you have a little bit more kind of creative freedom.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because you're like, well, you gave it to me, so here's my take on it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:As opposed to I'm auditioning and they can go, well, can you tweak it?
Guest:Can you do this?
Guest:Can you do that?
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So I walked in and I was like, I had a very specific character that I was like, I'm going to do it this way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I came in with a crew cut or high and tight.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And they were like, oh, we didn't, you know,
Marc:didn't see it that way i i asked about it i didn't i didn't just come in and surprise them but they're like okay yeah do that and so i did it and and to me that informed the character and helped inform the character and and that's how you put it together you see i never like i don't know how to do that really because i'm not really an actor but is that something you kind of learned from like when you make choices like that that i mean like i still don't quite understand how somebody builds a character
Marc:But it's that simple, huh?
Marc:I think everybody does it.
Guest:No, I think it's simple.
Marc:But like he's got a cloud over his head and he's trying his best, but he can't seem to get out from under it.
Marc:And that was enough to go on poetically.
Guest:Yeah, I mean that.
Guest:And then I, you know...
Guest:For me, I like creating a look.
Guest:Some actors don't need that, some do.
Guest:I like changing my hair.
Guest:What I'm wearing will inform the character a little bit.
Guest:That's all I need.
Marc:When that didn't go, because obviously a lot of people wanted it to keep going forward, was that like, fuck.
Guest:It was a bummer, but there's something beautiful about it being 20 episodes.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:It has a nice ending to it.
Guest:I would have loved to have done more.
Guest:There's always this constant talk of doing a movie or doing some other party down thing.
Guest:I know that everybody involved in it had a great time.
Guest:I loved it.
Guest:Everybody wants to do it.
Guest:It's just a question of, can it be done?
Marc:And Burning Love got good attention.
Marc:That's a funny show.
Guest:Yeah, my wife wrote it.
Marc:Has she always been in entertainment?
Marc:I mean, was she a performer?
Marc:Where'd you meet her?
Guest:I met her at Jimmy Kimmel's show, actually.
Guest:Jimmy Kimmel's first show.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So was she a writer?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:We were just both there, and we met, and we just kind of started talking, and then I asked her out on a date, and then we started dating.
Guest:And then she's kind of an awesome writer, and she's now starting to get a lot of attention.
Marc:Is that what she was, though, when you met her, the writer?
Guest:No, no, she didn't write on Jimmy.
Guest:No, she was just there.
Guest:I went because I was with some friends who were like, hey, let's go see Kimmel's first show.
Guest:I can get us in.
Guest:And I think she was the same.
Guest:She was with some friends.
Guest:What's her name?
Guest:Erica Oyama.
Marc:Burning Love was her idea?
Guest:Burning Love was her idea.
Guest:Yeah, she watched a lot of the Bachelor and Bachelorettes.
Guest:Do you watch them?
Marc:I've seen them.
Guest:I get it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think you would like Burning Love.
Guest:No, I've watched some of them.
Guest:They're funny.
Guest:And so she was like, hey, let's do... She wrote this short for me and Adam Scott to do, like a Funny or Die thing.
Guest:And then I read it and I was like, this would be a good web series.
Guest:Let's see if we could sell it.
Marc:And so we did.
Marc:And you sold it to who, Amazon?
Amazon.
Guest:We went through Red Hour, which is Stiller's company.
Guest:And then they went to Paramount and then Paramount sold it.
Guest:Then we shot like a sizzle reel of it, which was like one day.
Guest:And then we used that as a calling card.
Guest:And as soon as we shot it and people saw...
Guest:Yeah, so there it was.
Guest:There it is.
Guest:Where's that guy?
Guest:Long Island.
Guest:Where's that guy?
Guest:As soon as people saw it, then it became like people were very interested in it because they understood kind of what we were going for.
Guest:And then Yahoo bought it.
Guest:How many did you do?
Guest:We did three seasons.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We did three seasons.
Guest:Each season is like 14 episodes.
Guest:Each season is about three hours long.
Guest:So it's sort of my Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Marc:And you got Michael to do his thing.
Guest:Michael Ian Black.
Guest:We got Michael to do his thing.
Guest:Michael is brilliant in it.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Michael is especially... He's pretty brilliant at being Michael and doing that thing.
Marc:He's very specific.
Guest:He's one of the funniest guys ever.
Guest:He's super, super funny.
Guest:It's amazing how fast he can create a joke or a kind of uncomfortable situation and make it funny.
Marc:I've been in many of them.
Guest:I know.
Marc:I know.
Marc:i read twitter yeah but we do like each other i mean him and i are you know i don't you know we're not okay i'm serious he doesn't seem to i mean i think we like when i see him in in real life yes we're just guys talking about business and no you guys are just playing yeah something playing for the people yeah we play for keep so man shit well he that's his but that's his angle i know he goes deep he goes hard and i'll go i'll go i've got it's not fun though sometimes it's like it's like oh shit he's going deep yeah it's hurting me
Guest:That's why I always like, you know, I'm like, I'm not getting that shit.
Guest:I'm not getting involved in that shit.
Guest:He would eat me up.
Marc:Yeah, he gets, he's hard to beat.
Guest:He's hard to beat.
Guest:He's tough, man.
Guest:He's really, he's quick and he's funny.
Guest:And he also is like, I don't, I'm,
Guest:i'm not there's no boundary like i'm just gonna go yeah yeah i'll say this i'll be a dick i'll just go yeah i'm gonna be i'm gonna get a funny dick yeah i think if he does another cd it should be called that funny dick yeah but are you uh are you still he's a he's one of the nicest men in the world i know i know i know yeah okay
Marc:why does that pain you it doesn't pain me it's just because we are a lot when you know we don't hang out and you know we know each other and every time the last time i had him in here i you know i tried to sort of get past right whatever his because we have an issue there's an issue yeah about how i treated him and i still have that problem there's still something about us where we i really he really rubs me the wrong way sometimes right
Marc:for real right but i like him and i respect him right and i think he's a funny guy right and i don't know if he feels the same way about me but for some reason we can't when we get together we'll try to just be guys right and then it just starts to happen again you know whatever the fucking thing is like you can't get out of it yeah but if it's just him and i talking it's fine but like on the mics or in public it's gonna start it's there's no way around it
Guest:Sure.
Guest:What?
Guest:You think I started?
Guest:I don't think you started.
Guest:I think it's just your personalities are such that if you're being recorded or people are listening, both of you need to make sure that you get that last little jab in.
Guest:so like you might come at him with a like a little dig that's sort of like a backhanded compliment or something and then he'll call you on it right and then you'll be like oh fuck i was really kind of giving you a compliment it's just my style give it a compliment and then you'll go back and forth and it'll just be this kind of it never stops not that you started all the time no i didn't mean to say i think one of us needs to cry publicly with each other that's what has to happen
Marc:That would be great.
Marc:Yeah, and I could get there.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:Yeah, but then he'd make fun of me.
Marc:See, that's the problem.
Marc:We can't cry with each other.
Guest:But that's the thing.
Guest:Don't worry about him making it.
Guest:Just cry.
Guest:If you just cry sincerely and he makes fun of you, he's going to be the dick.
Marc:Yeah, especially if I can't stop crying.
Marc:That's right.
Yeah.
Marc:So how many of you guys still talk to each other on a regular?
Guest:We all talk to each other.
Guest:I work with David Wayne a lot.
Guest:We wrote some movies together.
Guest:Which ones?
Guest:We did Wanderlust and Role Models.
Marc:Wanderlust was good.
Marc:Role Models was a big movie, wasn't it?
Guest:Yeah, Role Models did really well.
Marc:Yeah, and you wrote that with him?
Marc:Wanderlust, not so much.
Marc:It didn't do well, but I'm proud of it, and I like it.
Marc:Yeah, it's a fun movie.
Marc:But you're in touch with everybody, Kevin even?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:um i you know i keep in touch with i keep in touch with everybody kevin kevin's in new york and he's doing his own thing he's asked me to do risk um and i i you know i finally had to say to him i can't like the show is about talking about like embarrassing kind of moment i can't do it i'd like i don't have the
Guest:I don't have that in me to talk about awful things that I don't want to talk about, like terrible things that- You like to keep things to yourself.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:That's not your angle.
Guest:That's not my thing.
Guest:But you have them.
Guest:We all have them, don't we?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right?
Guest:You couldn't talk about a teenage sexual experience?
Guest:No.
Guest:Why would I want to?
Marc:Because it's sweet.
Guest:No, it's not sweet.
Yeah.
Guest:There's nothing.
Guest:I mean, I will say this.
Guest:I like when other people do that on your show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And on Kevin's show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I'm not, that's not my cup of tea.
Guest:You just want to keep it to yourself.
Guest:Yeah, keep it close and tight.
Marc:Yeah, man.
Marc:That's because you're not, I mean, I think I have to respect that.
Marc:You have a private life.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:You have your own memories and you're going to keep them to yourself.
Guest:I'll talk about certain things.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But not the gnarly things.
Guest:Maybe certain gnarly things.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, it's a case by case basis.
Yeah.
Guest:But yes, I keep in touch with the state guys.
Guest:David Wayne and I have been working a lot together on a lot of different things.
Guest:We work on a show called Children's Hospital together.
Guest:That's a good show.
Guest:Thank you.
Guest:And Joe LaTruglia and I have worked on things from time to time, Mike Black and I. Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, we keep in touch.
Marc:And you have how many kids?
Marc:Tomlin.
Marc:You have how many kids?
Marc:I have two children.
Marc:How old are they?
Marc:Six and four.
Marc:That's exciting.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:Yeah, I think I missed a boat on that.
Marc:You did miss a boat on that.
Marc:What are you talking about?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Anthony Quinn was having kids until he was like 89.
Marc:How'd those kids turn out?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Hey, they haven't robbed a bank.
Guest:We haven't heard anything bad about them.
Marc:I'm sure they're fine.
Marc:Yeah, kids do all right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But you were always gunning for that, though.
Marc:You seem like a guy that you're going to have a family no matter what, right?
Guest:Absolutely.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, to me, it's the answer.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It's the reason for being.
Marc:It is.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And that's just wired into you.
Marc:It never was a doubt.
Guest:No, there's no doubt about it.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:No.
Guest:When you say it's wired into me, you don't mean like it's been fed to me.
Marc:No, no, I mean, I think everybody, I mean, as animals, we're supposed to have kids, but some people are like, ah, maybe I'm going to, yeah.
Guest:I don't, it's not, it wasn't like I need to have kids.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I'm just saying once I had kids, which I always wanted.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I was like, oh, that's the answer for me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That's what I'm looking for.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:There's happiness.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Now, that happiness, what comes with that happiness is a lot of stress and lack of sleep and this constant fear of something happening to your children, which sucks.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But the way I look at it is, you know...
Guest:There's so much, for me, from my perspective, there's so much joy that comes with having a child that my head would explode.
Guest:So there needs to be like a yang to that ying, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that yang is...
Guest:you also have to worry about like something terrible happening to them.
Guest:And you, you know, like it, that's the only thing that brings me down from like ultimate joy is the constant fear of like, Oh God, are they going to be okay?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But,
Guest:I think otherwise I'd be floating off into the heavens with happiness of these children who certainly drive me crazy at times.
Guest:But for me, everything else is...
Guest:And maybe that's why I'm enjoying what I'm doing professionally so much is because that's secondary.
Guest:And the thing that's most important is my family.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I love it.
Marc:That's a sweet way to end, I think.
Marc:Great.
Marc:Thanks for talking to me, Ken.
Marc:Hey, man.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:That's our show.
Marc:I hope you enjoyed that.
Marc:He's a nice guy, level-headed guy, grounded guy.
Marc:I dare to say somewhat a normal fellow for one in our business.
Marc:Can I say that?
Marc:Hope you enjoyed that.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com for all your WTFPod needs.
Marc:Get the app.
Marc:Get all the members of the state in your head.
Marc:Upgrade to that premium for a few bucks, and you can have all that stuff streamed into your brain.
Marc:JustCoffee.coop.
Marc:Don't mind if I do.
Marc:Hold on.
Marc:pow look out i just shit my pants sorry that the hand-thrown mugs went so quickly there is an actual potter behind those mugs so i can only make so many at a time he can't i got nothing to do with brian jones's genius but he sent me 70 and that's what i had and that took it it takes time this is handcrafted stuff man i don't know what to tell you i'm sorry if you didn't get in i'll try to think of a maybe i'll create a lottery so it's easier for you to get that stuff
Marc:Enjoy WTFPod.
Marc:All right?
Marc:Dot com.
Marc:Things are okay.
Marc:They have to be okay.
Marc:What's the choice?
Marc:What are the choices?
Marc:Just know that everything, as awful as it seems, fades.
Marc:Fade.
Marc:All those things you think are horrible right now will fade.
Marc:Maybe they'll get worse.
Marc:Maybe it's just a downward spiral, but believe me, get a little distance on something, it's just a weird memory, a compartment of your heart that you can activate.
Marc:If you open it or just keep it shut and look in the little keyhole of what's in there.
Marc:Oh yeah, that sucked.
Marc:Goddamn, did that suck.
Marc:I'm just going to keep that locked up.
Marc:I'll take it out for a walk when I'm really sad.
Marc:Boomer lives!
Boomer lives!