BONUS Ask Marc About the End
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So I figure now's as good a time as any to do a kind of ask Mark, but these weren't, this wasn't an ask Mark that we, that we solicited.
Guest:These are just questions that are coming in since you announced the end of the show.
Guest:And, and I noticed a lot of overlap in a lot of them.
Guest:I notice some of them, you know, are things you haven't directly addressed and,
Guest:And this is something that comes up a lot.
Guest:This first thing here, I have it written down as a specific question that one listener wrote in, but I've seen it dozens of times.
Guest:And this is the question of, are you worried that without the podcast, you won't have the same ability to promote your standup dates, tours, specials, etc.
Guest:?
Marc:Well, I do think about that, but I've also noticed that even with the podcast, that people's listening habits are unique.
Marc:Some people are always catching up.
Marc:There have been people that have missed shows of mine that I've promoted for months.
Marc:Then they're like, why?
Marc:I didn't know you were coming and I don't know what else to do.
Marc:And also, you know, I'll keep Instagram alive.
Marc:Um,
Marc:And, you know, I'll just have to see.
Marc:I mean, there's plenty of guys who do comedy that aren't on any of these things.
Marc:And usually Live Nation has a pretty good publicity muscle.
Marc:But I find that I would say maybe half of the people that show up to my shows, it's not because they hear me promoted on the podcast.
Marc:But I guess I'll see.
Marc:But there are other avenues.
Marc:But I don't know that...
Marc:even given the history of the show, that this has been the one that gets asses in the seats necessarily.
Marc:I'm sure it helps, but I don't know.
Marc:I mean, I'll have Instagram, I'll have whatever AEG or Live Nation does for each show, and I'll put it out there with repetition on Instagram.
Marc:I believe that
Marc:Many people are on my Instagram and there's other avenues.
Marc:And look, I don't know what will happen, but we'll see.
Guest:Well, also, I tend to think there's a little bit of, you know, scarcity promotion in there as well, that you will be less available to people, which makes the times where you are available more desirable.
Guest:So, like, I don't know, like...
Guest:you know, you go to somewhere that's like, uh, you know, the Ridgefield playhouse out here in Connecticut, you know, that gets out to people who live in the area that they go, Oh, this is what's coming to the Ridgefield this month or next month.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I, I just, I, I don't, I agree with you.
Guest:I don't think it's as viable a thing as, um, as it seems.
Guest:I think that I think maybe people confuse it with that because when podcasts in general started, um,
Guest:That was the intention of them.
Guest:Oh, this is going to be like a billboard for my stuff.
Marc:But it's not really that now.
Marc:Well, I mean, it is for some people.
Marc:That's all it is.
Marc:To the point where it's just a continuation of the conversation that they have on the podcast.
Marc:I think they're guys who have built these small empires that are completely...
Marc:Live shows and the podcast drive each other totally.
Marc:And I think.
Guest:Oh, well, that's true.
Guest:But I'm just talking about specifically standups like guys who just, you know, do what you do.
Guest:And and that's that's your trade.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But I do still think that, you know, guys who like, you know, like Kreischer or Segura.
Marc:Or guys that have a presence that's a highly watched video situation.
Marc:And I think also their fans are different.
Marc:I think that they have a sort of... I may have diehard fans, but I don't necessarily have...
Marc:All the fans that are just willing or can afford to come see me or whatever.
Marc:I think that, you know, sadly, sometimes that my podcast is enough for a lot of them.
Guest:I will say it's been noticeable to me since the start that...
Guest:The ancillary projects that we have done have not come anywhere close to the benchmarks that the people selling that kind of stuff tell you that they're going to get near.
Guest:They're like, oh, all you'll, your audience, all we need is 8% of that and it's going to be great.
Guest:And it never gets there.
Marc:No, and I think it's the same with the performing.
Marc:I think that there's a passive, though emotionally engaged audience, but I don't know.
Marc:I mean, look, it's not a comedy audience, my audience here on the podcast.
Guest:Well, I think a big thing is that it's a you audience, right?
Guest:So they come for you, and you give a lot of yourself twice a week for free.
Guest:Right, that's right.
Guest:So I'm not too worried about it.
Guest:Well, speaking about that twice a week thing, this question has come in just so many times from from people since we made the announcement.
Guest:And it's why not just do fewer episodes?
Guest:You know, there's this idea of if you're burned out, just scale back.
Guest:Everybody will understand.
Guest:They'll be they'll be there for you, but you won't.
Guest:fully end.
Guest:And I think we both have our own answers to that, but I, you know, I'll, I'll, you know, this is, this is time for you to answer some of these questions.
Guest:So what's your feeling on that?
Guest:I know you've said it to me.
Marc:Well, I mean, it's, it's, this is what it is.
Marc:And if we start doing that, it isn't what it is anymore.
Marc:And it's not that I think that the work, uh, that we put into it or the quality of the show will diminish, but the arc of, of getting people, uh,
Marc:of the storytelling element of it, which is me-centered, what would that achieve to do one a month, two a month, even once a week?
Marc:There is a dynamic here with the audience that just sort of like, just check in with us.
Marc:And, you know, I appreciate that, but it's not the show we were doing.
Marc:And then we would have to produce it differently.
Marc:And, you know, what am I going to say to people once a month?
Marc:You know, like, so, yeah, I've had a good month.
Marc:And, you know, it just, you know, this thing is of itself.
Marc:It was twice a week.
Marc:It was a new show.
Marc:you know, twice a week for the time we did it, the level of engagement and the level of quality in terms of conversations with the guests.
Marc:I mean, then who, how would we choose guests if it's not, you know, in an unfolding thing?
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:What are we going to do once a month and have, you know, some, you know, actor who's in a new series?
Marc:I mean, it's just, it just would not, all it would serve is, you know, to kind of, you know, keep people in the loop because they miss me.
Marc:And also, it's like,
Marc:What are we going to you know, it would be we'd be doing it for almost charity in the sense that, you know, we're not going to put a deal together.
Marc:And if we wanted to make any money off it, we'd have to put our own structure in place and then, you know, kind of manage that if we cared enough about it.
Guest:Yeah, it would probably be a break-even proposition.
Guest:You know, at this point, I don't think either of us would, you know, look to make too much cash on doing it.
Guest:But I think at the same time, you know, you had said to me that you thought, like, once you start doing less, then the show is less.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:It's not of what it was.
Guest:Maybe I could put this to people from my own perspective for like something that you have said and done that I think really is the kind of is the best example of it.
Guest:It's illustrative of how you're feeling.
Guest:Because I bet you that even after your answer, there's some people that are like,
Guest:What is he talking about?
Guest:Just do it.
Guest:It's fine.
Guest:We don't care.
Guest:We just want to hear you.
Guest:Well, here's what I would say to that as something that you've said to me in the past and done in the past.
Guest:There are certain times where you're ready to record or it's the day of recording a monologue and you'll write to me and you're like, I don't know what the fuck to do.
Guest:I have nothing to say.
Guest:I'm done.
Guest:I can't tap my brain anymore.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I will always say to you, don't worry.
Guest:It doesn't matter.
Guest:Like you just got to, you know, introduce the guest.
Guest:You can talk briefly about what the guest was like when they were there.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you'll read the ad after you introduce the guest.
Guest:Then you can, you know, go through your tour dates or whatever and then read another ad and then you're into the guest.
Guest:You don't have to stress about this.
Guest:It's okay.
Guest:Give yourself a break.
Guest:Anytime I have ever said that,
Guest:you will then give me a monologue that's usually 30% to 50% more than a normal day.
Guest:Like you'll give me more on that day because I know that that is not...
Guest:okay with you to just be like, all right, I'm Mark.
Guest:And the guest today is this person.
Guest:I don't really have anything to say.
Guest:So let's just get to that guest.
Guest:You can't, you can't do that.
Guest:And I, what I came to learn about doing the show with you is that that's because you,
Guest:in a weird way, it almost felt like an erasure of self that if you did that, you were kind of like being like, wait, I'm not here.
Guest:I don't matter in this.
Guest:And you couldn't do it.
Guest:So I fully, fully, fully get you being like, like when I raised it as a possibility, do you want to scale this back?
Guest:Or, you know, this was like a year ago, maybe more.
Guest:We talked about that and you were like, nah, can't do that.
Guest:Can't scale it back.
Guest:And, and I didn't,
Guest:Press you further because I get that.
Guest:I understand that part of you and your need to make this thing the whole thing is what it is.
Marc:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:You know, the relationship is disrupted, you know, and if it'd be like, you know, you know, daddy's coming to visit, you know.
Marc:Yeah, that's the other thing.
Guest:I don't think you wanted to feel sad for yourself.
Guest:Like, oh, yeah, I'm doing this thing that I just keep up because people miss me.
Marc:Well, yeah, that's it.
Marc:I do have pride around that thing.
Marc:We decided to stop it and we're going to stop it.
Marc:Whether I do Instagram lives or at some point end up in a different type of show –
Marc:That, you know, where I'm not doing the heavy lifting or, you know, it's some other idea that would be less of me needing to, you know, kind of rummage through my being and pull up, you know, nuggets of things.
Marc:Maybe that'll happen, you know.
Marc:But there is also recently I've been realizing that it's sort of like that.
Marc:joke i did about you know not doing stand-up during the the uh pandemic where i had that moment where i didn't miss it and i thought like well hey maybe i'm all better you know maybe yeah right and and i think there is an element to that to this that i've grown through a lot of things on this show and i'm feeling more sort of grounded in myself and
Marc:You know, I don't want to keep dredging up stuff or, you know, screaming at the clouds or at a political and cultural climate that, you know, I can't even, you know, make better no matter what I do.
Marc:I know my position for some people is just to make them feel less alone and to entertain them through it.
Marc:But.
Marc:Maybe I can just, you know, fuck off.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:Not to them in an aggressive way, but fuck it all.
Marc:You know, like, what is my responsibility to this world at this point?
Marc:And how is that more important than myself?
Guest:Well, that's a good transition because...
Guest:I got this comment that came in, and it's very connected to a bunch of other similar comments.
Guest:This one, though, is specifically from over the weekend after this person saw you on Fallon.
Guest:I'll just read the whole thing.
Guest:It says,
Guest:I know in the subterranean crevices of your psyche, there's plenty going on, worry, guilt, et cetera.
Guest:And that's just in your and my Jewish DNA.
Guest:But as the interview finished with Fallon, I got up to take a leak and I'm thinking, he's going to be okay.
Guest:And I have seen several comments come in over the past few weeks of people saying that about your monologues.
Guest:And I don't think they're wrong.
Guest:Like you could say like, oh, people are just hearing what they want to hear because they're coming to it with this knowledge that the show is ending.
Guest:But I have seen people say you sound like a weight is off your chest.
Guest:You sound lighter.
Guest:You sound more relaxed.
Guest:And I wonder if that's true for you, for your brain, if you have loosened something up.
Marc:Well, I noticed that when I was shooting the special that I was definitely calmer and more set and more.
Marc:I'm always pretty prepared, but like really there was nothing, you know, coming at me from within to to sort of, you know, do that thing I do, which is to get me just a little bit off.
Marc:Yeah, I noticed it too.
Guest:I said it to you at the Bam Harvey.
Guest:I said, you did not seem like that this time.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I think that habit or that inner, that pattern has maybe diminished a bit.
Marc:And I think that comes with age and it comes with...
Marc:accomplishment and like and also there was another time where you know being in stick on some level between you and me and whoever listened to this I would have been like what the fuck am I doing in that show it's not really who I am or whatever I don't give a fuck you know it's like you know I kind of wanted to do it it seemed like something you know I should do it would be fun with Owen and also you know just to do that job and whatever and try to make it funny and you know it's fine and
Marc:Look, I fantasize about not doing anything.
Marc:But like today, I just told you, you know, I spent I just spent like two hours or more just cleaning out my trunk and my porch and putting together all the stuff I got to take to goodwill and taking those books to that that that used bookstore that needs help.
Marc:And I'm good, dude.
Marc:And in terms of the relaxing, I do think that's happening.
Marc:You know, I don't know if it's a benefit of the medicine I'm on a bit or really it's just there is a weight off me, dude.
Marc:And I mean, you know that, too, with this thing, like there is sort of a passive but engaged.
Marc:Parasocial relationship where where, you know, people were going through the shit in their lives, you know, and there have been people who started listening to us at age 20 and are now 35 or 36 years old, have gotten sober, have had children, have gotten divorced, have, you know, pulled themselves back from it.
Marc:Just like I'm a companion that has a certain amount of consistency in their life.
Marc:But these these sort of craving people that are like, you know, we need you.
Marc:We need you.
Marc:You know, what are we going to you know, how are we going to you know, like you were, you know, a voice of reason or a voice of like you understood my brain and all that.
Marc:You know, I'm sure I did.
Marc:And, you know, and I still got all my problems to some degree.
Marc:But but like that's that weighs on me, dude.
Guest:Well, also, OK, but it's also just from that perspective, I fully get that, you know, in terms of the relationship.
Guest:But they are they they play no role in whether that continues or not.
Guest:And frankly, this is a rare case where we're in that having that relationship with an entertainer or with somebody who provides a media service.
Guest:They're getting the heads up that it's ending.
Guest:Most of the time you don't get the heads up.
Guest:It gets canceled.
Guest:The person dies, whatever.
Guest:Like you just lose the thing.
Guest:It just goes away.
Guest:Like, I tried to put myself in their shoes.
Guest:And like, I know that it's now 20 years as of this year, the same broadcast team has called the New York Mets games on television.
Guest:And I love them.
Guest:Like I, like they are, they, I, I legit love those three guys.
Guest:Like they are, they are like a special part of my life to put that on and just have it on in the background and they're talking their shit and they're so good.
Guest:And then it helps the fact that it's the best broadcast team.
Guest:Like they're consistently rated as like the best team in baseball to do the broadcast.
Guest:But that's, that's still like, I have a wonderful, like,
Guest:a feeling about them whenever i hear their voices and they're in their 60s and 70s they're gonna be hanging it up sometime and i have to know that otherwise it will be very painful when they do like i mean it will it will still be painful i'll be very sad the day that they stopped doing those games but if i don't already get that into my head i i imagine it would be terribly devastating to all of a sudden they them not be there
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I understand that, you know, but like, and I've had that with people, but, you know, like, you know, even Letterman or some people like, I don't know, but usually by the time these guys hang it up.
Marc:They've already jumped the shark.
Marc:They've been hanging it up for a long time.
Marc:Or they just check out.
Marc:I've never done that and you've never done that.
Marc:But I feel like that's a good example you used earlier before about I got nothing.
Marc:What am I going to talk about?
Marc:And then I deliver a half hour.
Marc:It's just that I feel a responsibility to my conception of who our listeners are.
Marc:And that is something that has been with me.
Marc:And it was a curse.
Marc:It was a curse at Air America.
Marc:It was a curse because, you know, you begin to become redundant.
Marc:You know, you speak to certain events and incidents, you know, in the culture and in politics.
Marc:You start honoring, unconsciously honoring either your own talking points or the talking points that define the ideology of what you're presenting.
Marc:And it used to drive me nuts.
Marc:And out of that, you know...
Marc:burden of responsibility on that show you know on on the air america show i i was able to sort of somehow you know angrily and with intensity you know find my own voice because i just couldn't stomach you know the the the redundancy and
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And a job that, you know, you feel like you have to do or that you may have to do.
Marc:But I don't want to do that if we don't have to.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I agree.
Guest:Well, you know, speaking of that responsibility.
Guest:There's a question about whether or not guests have anything to do with that.
Guest:I see it come in a few times.
Guest:This one came in very specifically.
Guest:And I know the answer to this.
Guest:I'll still ask it the way the person posed it.
Guest:They said, do you blame Ben Kingsley for ending the show?
Guest:I blame Ben Kingsley for ending the show.
Guest:That fucker.
Guest:I want to tell this person they can rest easy.
Guest:Ben Kingsley did not end the show, but I do wonder for you, did you worry about that about guests?
Marc:I've always been worried about it.
Marc:I've been worried about it since the beginning of the show.
Marc:Since like, you know, we've been through fallow times for one reason or another.
Guest:Yeah, see, for me, whenever those would happen, I wouldn't worry about it because I always knew that all it took was one.
Marc:I know you wouldn't worry about it, but there were periods where we made, not concessions, but we compromised.
Marc:I had to learn in some of those times.
Marc:There have been plenty of guests where I've been like, I don't know about that person because I just don't care.
Marc:Or like I'm not that interested or I don't know if they're going to be interesting or if I can find it with them.
Marc:And then all of a sudden, you know, we're up against the wall.
Marc:I'm like, all right, throw one of those in there.
Marc:And, you know, and it's always good.
Marc:I usually I can show up.
Marc:But, you know, what I think are duds or not, you know, Ben Kingsley in terms of, you know, I understood what was going on there.
Marc:And, you know, I knew that he was going to represent himself how he was going to represent himself in relation to me.
Marc:So, you know, some people who are not nuanced listeners were like, I thought he was fine.
Marc:It's like, well, you don't get it then.
Marc:Because there's no way if you know me and you know my show and you know what we do here that that was fine on any level.
Marc:But, you know, I've had that before, you know, not for a whole hour.
Marc:The only regret I have about Ben Kingsley was not saying, look, dude, you can go.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I don't give a fuck.
Marc:I barely wanted to have you on.
Marc:So, I mean, then that was me being gracious and me doing my fucking job.
Marc:But the guest thing, it's like there's like I can handle almost anything in here.
Marc:And I've definitely stretched out people that, you know, that could have easily been 20 minute interviews.
Marc:And a lot of times I would say most of the time, you know, after 40 minutes, it's like, oh, well, now we got somewhere.
Marc:And that's also part of the nature of it.
Marc:But there were times, I mean, I remember where I was wary of even having act
Marc:Yeah, in general.
Marc:Because it's been 10, 15 years since we talked to them.
Marc:And that's always good.
Marc:And especially if I like them.
Marc:But, you know, as this game goes on and show business kind of plugs away and what we got to wait in two or three years now to see the next generation of people that have any substance.
Marc:I mean, I'm sure we could.
Marc:Throw a bigger net with different types of people.
Marc:But but even then, you know, we've done some very strange and specific interviews with people that have never seen the light of day in terms of success or fame.
Marc:And, you know, they are creative people and they're sort of like outliers.
Marc:But those are always pretty interesting.
Marc:But I think that I don't think guests were a prime person.
Marc:Motivator of us, you know, the thinking we have had that.
Marc:But we've always had the thinking we've had.
Marc:I mean, we've always known that we were going to stop at some point because we were both aware that we're not greedy.
Marc:You know, I'm certainly more ego driven than you are, but and concerned about relevance.
Marc:But but there was a stopping point because there was no reason for us to not like our job anymore when we had complete control over it.
Marc:And we've already, you know, made the money we want to make.
Marc:That's right.
Guest:Yeah, that's that's absolutely the thing.
Guest:It's like, why why turn your why turn this thing into every other job?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And also, like, you know, why honor this, you know, this gutting and content driven media economy?
Marc:And, and because we never really compete with it.
Marc:We were always what we were and we held our own only because of the quality of the show.
Marc:And, you know, once everything became video and everything else and everything became clips and algorithms and this idea that people can't pay attention and all that other shit, all the new rules of the new media, it's like, who the fuck wants to feed that monster?
Marc:Who wants to think about that?
Marc:And we've come this far without not really, without thinking about that because we didn't have to, we didn't want to, and we did fine.
Marc:You know,
Guest:Yeah, I mean, we made our own decisions around things similar to that.
Guest:I mean, I would say, just to be perfectly honest with people, when you would see someone on this show who you might not have thought was like, that seems like a person I didn't think Mark would want to talk to, like Mila Kunis.
Guest:Where did that come from as an idea?
Guest:Well, frankly, you know...
Guest:We knew that to mitigate churn in the audience and keep the show, you know, at the top of, you know, a certain amount of visibility for people, you have to bring in people that other people know.
Guest:Like we can't just rely on, oh, we'll get the Dr. Bronner's guy in here.
Guest:how about that guy who presses vinyl records you know like if that were it then we'd have our floor audience which we love which we have but it wouldn't get beyond that so so we did play the game in our own way of being like okay yeah so we're gonna you know have on this very famous movie star or whatever but that's what that's the juice that's the fuel that helps propel us for the next two months yeah
Marc:No, I totally.
Marc:And they were always pretty exciting.
Marc:I mean, I don't I didn't mind that at all.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And and also there's the other thing is that, like, really a lot of people and I'm saying this with no bitterness and gratitude have taken our format.
Marc:And there have been a lot of people that have have have.
Marc:Copped my point of view and my style in order to generate emotional interviews.
Marc:I'm glad I gave a gift to the world and that they I know they are not me, but but it is a style that we established in this medium that people have, you know, have copped.
Marc:And that's just the way it works.
Marc:And some of those people are bigger names than me.
Marc:And they have relationships with different types of people than I do.
Marc:You know, that's why also that, you know, keeping it interesting and talking to the vinyl record guy, you know, is something that, you know, I love doing.
Marc:But the truth of the matter is, is that, you know, we have we have created something here and it is it has been used as a a a template.
Marc:For other entertainers that possess a similar potential emotional range that I have.
Marc:And it's not that I don't mind the competition so much.
Marc:And on some level, I don't mind the inevitability of them copying it.
Marc:But, you know, why not just say you're welcome and stop?
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, well, I should let people know, too, we keep bringing up this vinyl record guy that actually hasn't even aired yet.
Guest:It's just in both of our heads kind of fresh.
Guest:The guy's name is Chad Kasem, who is a restorer, right?
Guest:I mean, that's what you would call him.
Guest:He's a he's an archivist and audio restorer.
Marc:No, I guess so.
Marc:I mean, he just he just a guy that loves records.
Marc:And, you know, he became obsessed with, you know, mastering, you know, records that he feels could have been mastered better.
Marc:But now, you know, he's got a you know, he's got a performance space.
Marc:He's got several different pressing plants.
Marc:He got he he's got a publishing shop in his his little world out there where he does the covers.
Marc:He does the art.
Marc:Like so he's an all in one shop.
Marc:I wouldn't call him an archivist.
Marc:I call him a perfectionist and a guy that loves records.
Marc:And sometimes he hears records and like, you know, if we can get the analog tapes on this thing, I think we can do a better job mastering this now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I would call him basically a, a number one can't fail WTF guest.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That was what I thought when I saw that guy.
Guest:The article in the times.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This guy better be on the show.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Well, speaking of guests, this is coming in a lot.
Guest:People wanting to know about our final guests.
Guest:I will read this one to you just because I think it's amusing.
Guest:It might amuse you, but it also probably opens up a few doors here.
Guest:This person said, I want to propose an unannounced final show.
Guest:Simply release a talk on a Monday or a Thursday in which Mark does his typical monologue, sits down in the garage with Dave Matthews, and as the conversation picks up, it fades to black.
Guest:Not a cut, must be a fade.
Guest:And I promise it will elicit at least one slow clap from Chicago.
Guest:That's a very clever way to do things.
Guest:I don't know that we will end with Dave Matthews, but...
Guest:It could be a fun show, but I like the idea of people still talking and it just keeps getting lower.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:Well, I'm also taking this to mean this is a very Dave Matthews kind of thing, too.
Guest:It's like the unannounced release of a thing that does not actually end.
Guest:But are there any people that you feel like we we used we we've done this many times.
Guest:In fact, it used to kind of almost be an annual thing.
Guest:And we gave up on it because we're like, I think we're done.
Guest:It was like basically after like Albert Brooks and Carol Burnett.
Guest:And when it was pretty clear that Bob Dylan was never going to do the show, like we didn't really have any like these we need to get done before these people are gone from this earth.
Guest:And I don't know that there are any left like that.
Guest:Do you have any?
Marc:Well, there's a lot of people who've been on that are dead, that's for sure.
Guest:But I mean, just people that you haven't gotten to talk to that you're like, oh, if we're going to end this show, I need to have.
Marc:Well, you know, what's really happened, though, if there are any of those like, you know, you know, Scorsese or somebody like, you know, they've all been done to death.
Marc:There's that.
Guest:And to me, my mentality is they've had the chance.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they've said no for whatever reason.
Guest:And so, like, I don't feel like going to them hat in hand and being like, will you please?
Guest:Can you do it?
Marc:Yeah, and just some people are just so overexposed over the years.
Marc:There's a few people that are not like white whales or people that would be mythic on the show.
Marc:It's just people that haven't come on that I was sort of always interested in having on.
Marc:And also the other thing about 16 years of this is that –
Marc:All these people become painfully human and also just sort of like, well, you know, what am I going to get out of them?
Marc:I know that it will.
Marc:And we've sort of over, you know, we've been in this situation before.
Marc:What I'm going to get is what I get.
Marc:And that is usually different than what other people get.
Marc:But for me to be interested in it, if they've peeled themselves apart over and over again everywhere, it's sort of like, I don't know, it doesn't sound that interesting to me anymore.
Guest:Yeah, I kind of feel like these last shows, and this has kind of been the guiding principle I've had with our bookers, is like, I want people who are interested in doing the final shows.
Guest:Like, I want people who, it's not on us, it's on them to be like, yeah, put me on, I want to do it.
Marc:Well, I hope that, you know, I hope that there are those people out there, and just because, you know, the medium is so cluttered and so, you know, over...
Marc:oversaturated that, you know, that the very nature of doing one of these shows is, and I know as a guy who does, you know, is asked to guest on things.
Marc:It's just sort of like, I don't know, is that one really anything anymore?
Marc:Do we have to do that one?
Marc:You know, it doesn't, there's no, nothing is special anymore, dude.
Marc:And it's only special to people of a certain ilk if it can move the needle for whatever they're promoting or it will move the needle for their brand.
Guest:Well, that's true in general of guesting on this show.
Guest:But I do think there are people who are fans of the show that that are like, oh, it's ending.
Guest:Well, I want to be a part of that.
Marc:Well, you know, to that end, I don't know if I told you, I got an email from, I don't know how she got my email, from Winona Ryder, who was a big fan of the show.
Marc:And she was like, you know, I'm sorry I didn't get to do it.
Marc:I'm like, well, I don't know how that happened.
Marc:I mean, you can do it.
Marc:I'd like to talk to you.
Guest:Well, I think we can answer this semi.
Guest:We're not going to give a full answer, but I think it's worth letting people know that there is an answer to this because a bunch of people have written in either with suggestions or just a question saying, do you know who you will have as the final guest?
Guest:I have already made my case for what the final show should be.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I think you are on board with that.
Guest:Do you say that's true?
Guest:yeah yeah i mean i think that's that's probably the right way to do it yeah you know i mean we get yeah let's just uh end it like the sopranos exactly just shut the thing off mid-sentence but i i have also thought in my head that if one of these like magical can't believe it's happening sure thing guests comes through there are a certain
Guest:handful, and I don't mean four or five, probably like two or three people who could serve in this role and supplant the idea that we currently have.
Guest:Yeah, I agree with that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So that's, I think, here's what I would say to the listeners.
Guest:I don't want to spoil your, the feeling of what the final show could be, but I will, I think Mark and I will both let you know
Guest:when the time comes whether this thing we're telling you right now is the thing that comes to pass or if it was something a curveball that got thrown to us and we thought okay let's go with that it's kind of one guy right yeah one or two i would think it's so funny people are like you got to interview and they send me these emails and i'm telling you dude nine out of ten times i'm like i don't know who the fuck that is you know people people
Guest:Or they send the people that we're like, yeah, yeah, I get it.
Guest:Like, Jonathan Richman, I love him.
Guest:But, like, we tried, you know, and he's not into this type of thing or whatever.
Guest:We've asked people to ask him.
Marc:Yes, right.
Marc:But it's just so funny that, like, you know, if it weren't for the bookers, you know, my life is not that huge.
Marc:You know, I may be a relatively smart guy.
Marc:And, you know, I have a lot of interests.
Marc:But I don't know most of the people who...
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It was, it was four years in we were, we were, we had exhausted our ability to book the show ourselves.
Guest:That's why we, that's why we started with central talent booking, which, you know, is, was a crazy thing that, you know, just wound up happening.
Guest:Joanna Jordan who runs that company was mainly booking late night TV, Jimmy Kimmel primarily.
Guest:And she didn't know what a podcast was.
Guest:She was like those people that we'd say like go podcast.
Guest:What's that?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was only by virtue of what our guest list had already been that she looked at who we had booked and said, oh, well, you guys are putting these people on this show.
Guest:It's a viable thing.
Guest:And we can do this for you.
Guest:Like we can deliver the same type of guests.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And according to her, we completely changed her business because she's now mostly booking podcasts.
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that makes sense.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because now that's the new show business.
Marc:That is.
Marc:That is.
Marc:From your garage to everyone else's garage.
Marc:From my garage to God's ears.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, hopefully that's answered a lot of the questions that are out there from people, even if we couldn't give you too direct an answer on some things.
Guest:But, you know, I feel like that's kind of like been the frequently asked question so far in the last few weeks.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And of course, if you have other ones, please send them in and we will try to get to them in the coming weeks.
Guest:But I also just want people to do what we're doing and just kind of enjoy this.
Guest:Like, you know, as one of the listeners writing in said, you can hear it in Mark's voice that he feels somewhat lighter in spirit.
Guest:And I think that's true for both of us.
Guest:I think we're just, we're both in a position to just enjoy this last stretch.
Guest:Agreed.
Guest:All right, buddy, we'll talk again soon.
Guest:Okay, Matt, good.
Guest:Bye.
Bye.