BONUS Checking in on Marc
Marc:It's ridiculous.
Marc:It's ridiculous.
Marc:It's a cruise ship.
Marc:It's like, it's exactly what you said.
Marc:It was like half glove boat, half medical drama.
Marc:And I'm like, you know, and this is supposed to be this amazing cruise, but like right out of the gate, the people are dropping like flies.
Marc:For one reason or another, like a shrimp allergy, STD, some woman, you know, is taking some medication that makes her go down.
Marc:And it's all this swinging dick kind of doctor thing.
Marc:Like, you know, he's a single doctor.
Marc:I'm like, what year is it where this is happening?
Marc:Jesus, fuck.
Marc:He's the doctor or he's the captain, Don Johnson?
Marc:He's just a captain.
Marc:The doctor is this other guy who's supposed to be some hot, middle, 40-something-year-old sexy doctor, which he isn't really.
Guest:He's a known actor, though.
Guest:Wait, who is he?
Guest:Hang on.
Marc:I don't know who he is, but the B stories are like, you know, they...
Marc:They pick up, you know, some Venezuelan woman who was on a life raft, and one guy goes overboard, and then someone's got, you know, some allergy.
Marc:Another guy breaks his dick while he's fucking, and they've got to do—
Marc:Immediate emergency surgery on his dick.
Marc:That's the first episode, dude.
Marc:ABC, the Disney Channel.
Marc:The guy broke his dick on the Disney Channel.
Marc:Broke his fucking dick.
Marc:They had to do surgery to take the blood out because you can't really break your dick, but something else happens.
Guest:Oh, it's, yeah, it's Joshua Jackson from Dawson's Creek, but also known as one of the mighty ducks.
Guest:So very, very possibly one of the ones you scared.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:The main guy?
Marc:Dr. Odyssey, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Hey, whatever.
Marc:I just, I didn't know what I was watching, but I watched, you know, two episodes of it.
Marc:You know, once you get the context, it's so funny because I'm talking to Donnie.
Marc:He's like, are we supposed to talk about that thing for a little while?
Marc:And we talked for a few minutes about it.
Marc:And then at the end, he's like, I guess I was supposed to talk about it.
Marc:I'm like, well, we talked about it for like five minutes.
Marc:He's like, oh, yeah, that's right.
Marc:I mean, how long are we really going to talk about it?
Marc:He goes, I guess you're right.
Guest:So what was the what was the brunt of it?
Guest:Just like his life and shit?
Marc:Well, it got kind of interesting because, you know, he's like a Buddhist guy.
Marc:Not a num-ya-ho guy, but like, you know, a long time sober and, you know, kind of really is into the teachings of Buddha.
Marc:So he's kind of moving through that.
Marc:And it was sort of a life lesson-y kind of thing.
Marc:You know, it didn't get too dark.
Marc:You know, he's got everything pretty well kind of processed.
Marc:And, you know, but it wasn't without depth.
Marc:And, you know, yeah, there was definitely some life stuff in it.
Marc:A little of this and that.
Marc:But it turned out to be a pretty, you know, spiritual or, you know, self-aware conversation.
Marc:He's fucking Don Johnson.
Marc:Talked about Hunter Thompson.
Marc:Talked about LQ Jones.
Marc:Talked about Nicholson.
Marc:Talked about San Francisco in the late 60s.
Marc:You know.
Guest:It was good.
Guest:He was a real farm boy.
Guest:Like, I didn't realize he was like, he came from nothing.
Marc:Yeah, we didn't go into that a ton in terms of like really kind of laying it out.
Marc:But, you know, he talked about the separated parents, his dad.
Marc:He didn't have anything really bad to say.
Marc:But later when he was talking towards the very end,
Marc:about, you know, learning how to love or accept love and how he framed it was a lot like how I talk about it, you know, about, you know, you rely on these people you're supposed to be able to and you can't and you make adjustments that, you know, fuck you.
Marc:And then he kind of did a Buddha thing on it.
Guest:But it was okay.
Guest:It's kind of insane to have to rely on people as parents and they themselves are children.
Guest:Well, that's sort of what he said.
Marc:And also they are the product of what they came from.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:How did he manage to stay sober being Hunter S. Thompson's neighbor and best friend?
Marc:Well, he was sober for a long time, and then he said he went out for a little while.
Marc:So there was definitely, and he's been sober, I guess, like 30 years.
Marc:Oh.
Marc:You know, that's not that long this time around.
Marc:So there was definitely a period there.
Marc:He had some sobriety, and then he was, you know, he went out for a couple years.
Marc:I didn't get a full timeline, but there was definitely the sense that him and Hunter kind of went at it.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:But, I mean, that would have been, the 90s would have been fine, you know.
Marc:I mean, prime Hunter.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he had met Hunter in the 70s with Jan Wenner in San Francisco.
Marc:But it does speak to that whole thing about how small the community was.
Marc:You know, he talked about living in San Francisco in 68 and, you know, walking by, you know, the hate house of the Grateful Dead and everybody was kind of around, but it was before anybody was anybody.
Marc:But it was, you know, it was that...
Marc:you know, small community in a way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That all that stuff was around, you know.
Marc:He talked about living in Laurel Canyon, at the mouth of Laurel Canyon in the early 70s, and how, like, Nicholson and Cass Elliott and all these people would come by his house to wait out rush hour, and, you know, that would go on for a day or two.
Marc:But, yeah, he seems to have a desire to do some sort of
Marc:oral history of himself and involved the people that were there that are still alive.
Guest:And, you know, I don't know what he's really got in mind, but... Well, the interesting thing is that he is, you know, he had that burst of fame with Miami Vice that was really, you know, that's like a version of that being as white hot as it could possibly be.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm sure it fucked with him and did all the things that those things do.
Guest:But...
Guest:It wasn't like his first thing out of the gate.
Guest:Basically, it sounds like based on what you're telling me, he had enough experience under his belt with the insane world of being famous and the type of famous people he was around that it couldn't have been that surprising.
Marc:Well, I mean, he we spoke about that, about managing it.
Marc:And, you know, he put a couple of things in place based on some stories.
Marc:One story about Marilyn Monroe and one story, you know, just in terms of that you can go out in the world and not act famous that, you know, he sort of like I just had to separate the character from me.
Marc:And if you get into the hang of just being a person out there and dressing down and not being surrounded by, you know, sycophants or whatever, you can kind of move through life.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he said it did fuck with his head a bit.
Marc:But, you know, he was able to see it more in other people.
Marc:I didn't because I asked him about drugs at that time and he was sober through all that.
Marc:So he was able to to kind of compartmentalize it.
Marc:I mean, I don't know how much of that is.
Marc:you know, in retrospect or was happening at the time, but it didn't seem to fuck him too bad.
Marc:He's very funny about his daughter, Dakota, because I said, she's great, great actress.
Marc:He's like, yeah, you know, I mean, when she first got big, I was so proud of her, but now it's gotten to the point where it's like, I don't know, I would have made a different choice on that.
Marc:It was pretty funny.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he gets along with Melanie and I asked him, he's very clear about, you know, him and women in the sense that like, you know, he, he speaks of them with reverence and that, you know, they guided him through life.
Marc:Uh, you know, whatever the facts are about, you know, how old anybody was at any given point in time, but, uh,
Guest:I mean, it seems like it was all over the place.
Guest:It seems like there were times when he was like a teenager.
Guest:He's with older women.
Guest:It seems like it's gotten the other way.
Guest:I'm guessing he's one of those guys that needed the replacement somewhere, you know, wherever he could get it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He had a good story about the first movie he did, which he wouldn't even say the name of, in New York, where he, you know, that bit in the Wikipedia about...
Marc:meeting Patty Darbinville and being at the factory and meeting Hendrix and Lou Reed and everybody.
Marc:But on that movie, the script supervisor was the script supervisor for On the Waterfront, and he just picked her brain.
Marc:He was like, oh, my God, tell me everything.
Marc:And this one bit of information that he gleaned from her was that Marlon Brando on set went out of his way to walk around the set and learn what everybody was doing.
Marc:And Johnson's like, that's a good idea.
Marc:And so he did that too.
Marc:And it was like, it changed the entire experience for me, for my whole life, you know, kind of thing.
Guest:You know, it's funny.
Guest:I think he's one of those guys who doesn't give himself enough credit for what he's kind of aged into.
Guest:Because...
Guest:you know he i think you know i saw quotes from him where he just kind of talks about like taking jobs and that's like he's he's grateful for the work and he's just kind of okay with the fact that now like he's somewhat anonymous people don't really know him or whatever yeah i find that he's like a pleasure when he pops up in things now like he's one of those guys hit that status of like guy who's been around for a long enough time that when you see him
Marc:Especially in movies.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And he always does the job.
Marc:I mean, he's not, you know, he, you know, he, he, he trained.
Marc:I mean, he's not like he didn't come, you know, it's not all charm.
Marc:I mean, he's got a thing.
Marc:He can do it.
Marc:You know, he just got, you know, you're just too good looking for his own good.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And, and he looks good, man.
Marc:Oh, yeah?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, with 75 or 76.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, he looks great.
Marc:But he's very Buddha-minded.
Marc:You know, it's really, that's his thing, man.
Marc:You know, he meditates.
Marc:He clears the clutter away.
Marc:He's self-aware, you know.
Marc:He's, you know, he's definitely a liberal guy and has somehow framed what's happening as something that will pass eventually.
Marc:And in a Buddha way, that, you know, that could be centuries.
Marc:So whatever.
Marc:Everything's going to pass.
Guest:Hey, there's a lot of contentment, 100 years, 1,000 years, whatever.
Marc:It don't matter.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's not me.
Marc:It's not me.
Marc:I don't have to buy into it.
Marc:I can rise above.
Guest:Well, speaking of that, how are you feeling?
Guest:This is a week after the inauguration.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I thought it would be a good idea to kind of check back in because for...
Guest:just in a quite honest, like transparent way.
Guest:When we did this a few weeks ago, now granted you're in the middle of the fire situation.
Guest:You know, I'm sure people want to know what was going on, but you know, I just kind of put this up as a bonus episode that said, you know, an update from Mark.
Guest:And more people listen to that than they had listened to any bonus content in in months.
Guest:Like, you know, yeah.
Guest:Like anyone who is like a straggler, like all of a sudden everyone listened to that episode.
Guest:So I was like, I think people just want to know about what's going on with Mark.
Marc:Like, I think that's I guess I don't talk enough about it at the beginning of every show.
Guest:Well, or I think it might be that at the beginning of the show, it's a monologue.
Guest:You're kind of isolated, just you going off stream of consciousness.
Guest:And it's very kind of frenzied and amped up because obviously that's the world.
Guest:And I do think people then kind of want to check in with you and be like, are you OK?
Guest:Like probably like how they would do on your Instagram or whatever.
Guest:But so that's right.
Guest:I did think it was a good idea to maybe jump back on here and give people a little update on how are you managing?
Guest:How is the fire situation playing out there, especially as a few weeks have gone by and it doesn't seem like the winds are so bad?
Marc:Well, on the fire front, you know, and I probably spoke to this the last time we're there that, you know, I was always pretty terrified of it happening.
Marc:And, you know, now that we're sort of, I guess, on the other side of it this time in terms of what's gone on here.
Marc:I'm checking the Fire app less, but it has traumatized me to the point where it's never going to go away, the fear of the possibility.
Marc:And then that speaks to a bigger thing about, you know, everything's so fucking fragile now.
Marc:And, you know, and then it becomes a big existential trip, you know, life in and of itself.
Marc:And then I'm watching that show with Noah Wiley, who we're going to have on the show in a couple days, about mortality.
Marc:And, like, every day, Brendan, I texted you that this morning.
Marc:It's just, you know, I go through about...
Marc:Three hours, four hours on and off throughout a day, sometimes in long periods of time of real sort of basic, you know, deep existential terror, you know, just about, you know, my age, about the political climate, about the environmental climate, about my own happiness.
Marc:And but in terms of fire, you know, once that rain came, it was like, well, thank God, at least things will be damp.
Yeah.
Marc:You know, can you can you just wet things down a bit?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So and the weather is beautiful here.
Marc:It's crisp and it's clear and it's cool.
Marc:And, you know, things have settled down.
Marc:The air smells better.
Marc:But then you're walking around and my lungs are hurting and you realize, like, you know, what do you do about that?
Marc:You know, what do you like?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:OK, so I'm not my house isn't under a fire threat.
Marc:And then you get all these people everywhere, you know, throwing blame around, throwing this around.
Marc:And the facts are the facts.
Marc:I mean, this is the world we live in now.
Marc:But but you can't avoid the air.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And so all this triggers me because, you know, I'm not great at compartmentalizing anyways, you know, into a very kind of foundational kind of real existential panic that I have to manage.
Marc:Every day, like the every day, because it's not even so much because I have time.
Marc:It's just because of the way my brain works.
Marc:You know, I you know, I what is the word I want?
Marc:I something through I process through, you know, I'm looking for a word.
Marc:But but, you know, I go through this now because of fire.
Marc:Because of political news and, you know, because of, you know, whatever the quality of life, you know, I believe I should be having if I can find some gratitude and acceptance that I can, you know, kind of let go a little bit and try to find what would mean something to me at this point in my life.
Marc:I kind of move through that stuff every day and all of it's pretty daunting.
Guest:What do you think you're doing right now, if anything, that is productive?
Guest:Like what are you doing where when you do it, you feel a sense of either relief or accomplishment or like you've at least pushed the ball forward a little bit?
Marc:Well, I mean, you know, in relation to what we talked about, this sort of the – it seems crazy to live here on some level.
Marc:You know, and I think that as people and certainly as the people here, you know, if something's still happening over there and not in my direct world, you kind of – your brain just fights to kind of –
Marc:to make everything okay.
Marc:But in terms of productivity, I feel good that I've been able to grow my known facial hair back.
Marc:I feel good that I'm focusing on stand-up and trying to rise to the occasion of...
Marc:what I expect out of myself and what my audiences expect out of me.
Marc:So I'm very engaged in the process of putting together another hour of material that I think will resonate and that I can be, you know, proud of.
Marc:But that's going to be a process.
Marc:And performing has become a little more frightening.
Marc:But in terms of productivity, I'm definitely focusing on, you know, specifically, you know,
Marc:You know, the thing that brought me here, which is stand up.
Marc:And I'm also going through my shit.
Marc:You know, I've got a sort of list of things I want to do to, you know, to to to get rid of things I don't need to make moving practical.
Marc:You know, we have an I have an arc of time here that, you know, I'm just I'm thinking about like the next thing.
Marc:phase of my life and I'm trying to organize to to kind of move towards that.
Marc:So like I've been going I've been getting rid of a lot of books and a lot of going through a lot of papers and I got a lot of stuff out here in the attic that you know that I haven't looked at or cared about in over a decade.
Marc:I've still got you know file boxes of
Marc:You know, tax papers from like the mid 2000s that I think I could probably let go of.
Marc:So there's a sort of decluttering going on and trying to figure out what is all this shit that I've accumulated mean and do I want to continue carrying it with me?
Marc:And if I do, for what reason?
Guest:You know, I think people who listen to the monologues, they hear you talk about your standup process and building out your material and your hour.
Guest:And I think you probably think that it's, you know, fairly thorough in terms of how you present it and you kind of present your process in that.
Guest:And as someone who knows it more closely and sees you do it and then talks to you, you know, when you're, you know, in the middle of working things out and that
Guest:I don't think people realize quite so explicitly how hard you are on yourself doing the material and getting the material on its feet.
Guest:And really, you know, it's like, I think a lot of people have this idea of a standup comedy set that you're building it like, oh, I got a joke here.
Guest:And now I added a joke here, like much the same way you'd write a script or something like you're writing from A to B.
Guest:And your whole thing is like, you're not going to feel satisfied if there, regardless of how many jokes are in there, regardless of how many laughs, you're not going to feel satisfied until you feel you've gotten to some truth or something to say that,
Guest:That has not been said.
Guest:And like you are agonizing over just the fact that in your last two specials, you feel like you've gotten you've gone over the stuff that's in the current social, cultural and political environment.
Guest:And you're like you're alert to that.
Guest:You want this to be better.
Marc:Well, you know, like, it seems that thematically what I've done over the last few specials is I do about a third of the show that's commentary on the political culture, the culture we're living in.
Marc:I do personal stuff, and then I just do some, you know, funny stories.
Marc:You know, there seems to be a form evolving in terms of how I approach these specials, you know, and maybe there's a callback or two.
Marc:But, you know, when I think back at, like, End Times Fun, I wanted that...
Marc:that last callback to land stronger after the operatic Mike Pence blowing Jesus bit.
Marc:And, you know, that, that didn't land as solid as I want.
Marc:And then, you know, from bleak to dark, you know, that I think that worked out pretty well on all accounts.
Marc:And then I'm also up against, you know, what I believe I should be recognized for and what I believe that perhaps I'm not, but you know, that's, that's just a petty thing.
Marc:But the process now is, is sort of,
Marc:You know, I've got a lot of stuff and I've got, you know, a couple of, you know, fairly big bits.
Marc:And but, you know, between now and May, the social commentary part is going to be shifting a lot.
Marc:And, you know, if I if I watch, you know, like I watched Bill Maher the other night and he watched these guys who generate one liners.
Marc:And, you know, the problem for me with doing topical material is always like, well, you know,
Marc:You got a room full of joke writers.
Marc:They're going to figure out their angle on sort of what you're talking about.
Marc:So how do I personalize it?
Marc:But, yeah, it all becomes sort of, you know, this life or death thing for me.
Marc:Not quite, but like you said, there seems to be, whether I'm aware of it or not,
Marc:an attempt to get at some personal truths that I haven't gotten to, and also some, you know, my feelings about living in this environment and owning my own, you know, cowardice or complicity and, you know, letting go of what we were supposedly fighting for.
Marc:You know, these, and I was on the phone with Sam Lipsight the other day, and it's so funny because
Marc:You know, I watch other comics, man, you know, and not guys that do what I do, but, you know, guys who are, you know, they're good and I like them, but it doesn't seem as hard for them to, you know, like I know my voice for the most part, but my voice is always going to tend towards making an audience sort of like, oh, my God.
Marc:you know, why is he talking about this?
Marc:And then, then getting the laugh.
Marc:So there's a lot in the balance there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And, and I don't know why I talk about this.
Marc:Sometimes I think like there's a part of me that, you know, those people that one up you by being buzzkill, like, you know, like I can, I can, you know, I can take the wind out of this conversation with one sentence.
Marc:And I think sometimes that's how I enter a joke.
Yeah.
Marc:And I know I have that part of me, but I have to ride this edge of making myself open and available to the moment, which I'm more aware of.
Marc:And like the other night, I alluded to it on the monologue and in the update, but I didn't tell the story.
Marc:And it was like, well, here's what happens to me.
Marc:Getting back to the conversation with Sam, I said, you know, I'm doing all this stuff.
Marc:And I just I said to him, I said, I just want to I just want to fucking take it easy, Sam.
Marc:And he goes, I think that should be what the special is called.
Marc:Taking it easy.
Marc:Mark.
But.
Marc:But there's some part of me that thinks that's exactly what it needs to be.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Not to title that, but to enter that zone.
Marc:Because whatever I arrive at at the end of any given day, to get through whatever we're going through mentally and emotionally...
Marc:is I end up on stage saying like, you know, look, it's fucking a nightmare, but we're living in it.
Marc:And so this is what's up, you know?
Marc:So there is an element of that that I aspire to.
Marc:And I think I can hit sometimes with my audience.
Marc:But I think some of my fears are real.
Marc:And what I texted you this morning,
Marc:is that some of them are not.
Marc:Because I'm very self-centered, so I imagine that, like, you know, I'm at the top of some mythical list of people that are, you know, going to be, you know, shut down or oppressed.
Marc:And then I watch Saturday Night Live, and I watch Mar, and I watch other people.
Marc:It's like, well, dude, you know, everybody's doing some version of mild pushback or at least trying to contextualize the situation.
Marc:And you're not...
Marc:you know, some visible shit starter.
Marc:So, you know, you know, give yourself a break.
Marc:I mean, after the first Trump administration, I was touring to certain states and I would register with a fake name because my, in my mind, it's like, I'm not protected.
Marc:Once I get off stage and I'm out in the world, I got no security, got no nothing, you know, and I'm this, you know, liberal Jew.
Marc:So I got to, you know, you know, I have to have a fake name, which I landed on like, you know, Jack Benjamin.
Marc:I might as well just have registered under Jew.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:but like, here's what my brain does.
Marc:It's like, all right, I check into this hotel and then, you know, the, the hotel court gets a call from, or they call some friend is like, yeah, the guy's here, you know, the Jew, you know, and then, you know, this, this mass bunch of people is going to come at my, you know, like even with the double lock and the thing that goes over the little knob on the door, they're going to kick my door in and, you know, and, and kill me like Alan Berg because, you know, I was in a Tallahassee.
Marc:Uh,
Marc:I don't know that that's a rational thought, you know, but that's what my brain does.
Marc:I got to wrestle with that in my brain when it happens.
Marc:But, but to speak to what I spoke to in, in the update, like I was at the comedy store the other night and it was just one of those nights where, you know, I was feeling okay and I was going to do my, my, my jokes.
Marc:It was the original room, you know, general audience and,
Marc:And I get up there and, you know, I'm doing my shit.
Marc:And then there's this group of, you know, gay dudes and some girls, you know, stage right.
Marc:And they're just talking loudly.
Marc:And I was like, could you shut the fuck up?
Marc:And I got to say three times because the guy who was talking didn't even hear me.
Marc:And he was, you know, disrupting.
Marc:And then and then I got that tone.
Marc:It's like, you know, just shut the fuck.
Marc:And then so once that tone comes out, I'm already, you know, I'm trying to, you know, I got to I got I always say, like, oh, you saw the real me.
Marc:Now I got to get back.
Marc:Whatever I was doing.
Marc:So that becomes a thing.
Marc:And then I start doing, you know, the Trump material, which is funny.
Marc:It's just ironic stuff about how great everything's going to be and why it's going to be great.
Marc:And there's a tone to it.
Marc:And so I've already, you know, I've already fucking lashed out and, you know, and I'm already kind of trying to work my way back to being open.
Marc:And, you know, I'm doing the Trump stuff and some woman in the back is like, you know, why don't you be funny?
Marc:And, you know, so I'm already it's just right under the surface what I've went through with the chatterboxes.
Marc:And I go, well, yeah, that's all I'm trying to do is get your approval.
Marc:I can tell by your voice and your tone that that's really what I'm working for.
Marc:And she goes, were you talking about freedom of speech before?
Marc:And I'm like, yeah, but you don't have that here.
Marc:You know, this is, you know, that's not an option here.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And, you know, and I'm angry and, you know, I got a room full of people that are like, oh, fuck, what's happening?
Marc:And they have to take her out and she's yelling about, you know, I didn't know, why is it politics?
Marc:And then she does the same thing that every fucking troll does.
Marc:You know, as she's going out, she's like, I was a big fan.
Marc:And I'm like, you weren't, you fucking troll.
Marc:And they take her out.
Marc:And apparently, I hate that one.
Marc:Like, you know, I always liked you.
Marc:And now what happened?
Marc:It's like, you don't know anything about me.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I don't know where they learn these things.
Marc:Where do they learn that?
Marc:That that's what you say to fucking, you know, stick the knife in, you know, at the end of them being just fucking trolling people.
Guest:It's just like a bully school.
Guest:Like, I mean, why does every bully have the same exact playbook?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I don't get it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But this idea that...
Marc:That like and apparently they took her out and she was still screaming out on the patio about this or that, about what comedy is and what it isn't.
Marc:And I've been up against this before and I was nervous in the last time.
Marc:I've always been nervous.
Marc:I mean, we used to do a political talk show.
Marc:I mean, anytime you talk about this, you're going to you know that there's going to be people in the audience that don't think like you.
Marc:And that's just that's just the way it is.
Marc:But now it seems to be heightened.
Marc:And my feeling is, is that, you know, we voted against you being able to talk like this.
Guest:Well, I like how you you put it on the show yesterday where it's like they don't like that you're buzz killing their win.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And there are sore winners.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And and also there, you know, it's this idea of.
Marc:you know, that they have the freedom to disrupt like that, you know, instinctively.
Marc:Like, you know, this is done, whatever you're doing.
Marc:And that may be true, but, you know, I have to go out and do this.
Marc:And once you start making decisions where you're like, ah, fuck, it's only a 15-minute set.
Marc:I'm just going to stay away from that.
Marc:Then I have to deal with, like, driving home going, like, why'd you fucking puss out?
Marc:You know, like, just do your shit.
Marc:You know, don't, like, because there's this idea that comics, you're just up there to get a laugh, and I understand that, and I can do that, but I can't do it in good conscience.
Marc:And it's not necessarily that, you know, I'm brave or anything else.
Marc:But I have to speak to this because I know that there's a good part of the collective that thinks like me and they don't have an outlet and they are going through life afraid to talk to their neighbors, their family, their workplace people.
Marc:So to release that steam is a service.
Marc:It's important and it's funny.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it might not be funny to everybody and that not everybody are going to be real fucking pains in the ass now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, you got to do it.
Guest:I have now been in two public spaces, two events in the last couple of months where I'm around a person who is saying racist or homophobic things out loud and nobody's saying anything.
Guest:And I'm like, I guess it's me.
Guest:Like if nobody's going to fucking say anything and it's like, I don't know, this guy could punch me or whatever, but I can't not say something.
Guest:I think it's like, Hey, everybody, is anybody going to say something?
Guest:Cause like, this isn't cool.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I mean, well, I think there's this this weird kind of repressed, you know, thing that happens in the guise of politeness of just not wanting to shift the conversation like that.
Marc:Or we got to spend another half hour with this guy or whatever, you know, like it's not my problem or whatever.
Marc:But they feel like almost entitled to go overboard.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:They recaptured it.
Guest:That's their thing.
Guest:It's like we it's like, hey, all this stuff we haven't been able to do, we're going to do it now.
Marc:Yeah, even if they didn't do it before, there's an incentive to feel it out, you know, to sort of like, you know, drop a retard in or a faggot or whatever.
Marc:And it's just, I don't...
Marc:Well, this is that the trickle down effect of having a belligerent sociopath as the leader of the free world that, you know, they they've all sort of, you know, fought for this ability to to sort of confidently, you know, dehumanize and stereotype.
Marc:And, you know, and again, it's.
Marc:I don't know how you re-educate decency.
Marc:I don't know how you do it.
Marc:And, you know, that seems to have been the thing that's been unplugged or the bottle that's been opened.
Marc:that you can't put back in is that this, this general lack of empathy and, and more and more as, you know, we talk about this and as I think about it and I read things is that, you know, empathy is like anything else that you have to be vigilant about.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That you have to connect that part of you that, you know, basically what you're saying in any of those situations is that, Hey, you're talking about people, right?
Yeah.
Marc:I don't know the generalization or this sort of putting someone in a stereotyping box or a kind of hateful box with a word.
Marc:There's a buzz to that.
Marc:But ultimately, generally, you're talking about people that are already struggling.
Marc:And you can't connect to a basic empathy or state of tolerance.
Marc:And I talk about this all the time, that once you can't be tolerant –
Marc:or respectful i don't know what the fuck you do with those people i don't know what what has to happen to to re-educate them uh the how to be a fucking person right or get educate them in the first place that's another thing some of them just never had it and the fact that the blocks are off now it's it's like uh you know it's a free-for-all for them
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And it's just what I tried to talk about the other day that like I know what it's like to be in a heightened state of ideological furor.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You know, because it's a radio thing and now everybody's a radio personality.
Marc:So you get into this zone.
Yeah.
Marc:that is sort of like you've got blinders on because you're locked into this tone.
Marc:And, you know, I don't know what... And I think one of the things that happens in a situation like when I was on stage...
Marc:is that when somebody goes, you know, this isn't funny, I don't want to hear about politics, and you're, you know, liberal this, whatever it is, is that, you know, you want to believe that if you go, you know, shut the fuck up for a second and listen to yourself, you know, where's your fucking heart in what you're saying?
Marc:You are even connected to the part of your heart that understands that you live among other people who are vulnerable and have lives and struggles and all this other stuff that there is something about that tone that is it doesn't it doesn't recognize that.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Because it's it's it's a thrust.
Yeah.
Marc:And I believe on some level that if you can stop that thrust for a second, that it's just basic humanity, that maybe they'll have a moment of like, oh, yeah.
Marc:But it seems like there's plenty of people that are just shut down.
Marc:And again, you said there's people also that never really had that.
Mm hmm.
Marc:So I don't know what you do with that.
Marc:But it's on my mind when I talk about this stuff.
Marc:And I think it's a tough place because when we were texting this morning, this idea that we can engage people
Marc:what is now the other side, because we are viciously divided in, in reasonable talk.
Marc:I think that's, you know, you're just setting yourself up to be, you know, the, the bottom, you're just setting yourself up to be, you're just allowing yourself to be cucked, you know, by, by these people who are not without charm, but are certainly not going to listen to you in the way that you think you're being listened to.
Marc:Right.
Yeah.
Marc:They're just indulging you as as the victors.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I think people should just embrace the idea that when when there is one side that has won across the spectrum, right in winning.
Guest:All chambers of government and basically having a kind of cultural upswing, whether or not you want to talk about it being a large majority.
Guest:It's not.
Guest:But it's still the majority win.
Guest:When that happens, my mentality is you have to be the opposition.
Guest:Like there is a point to opposition.
Guest:It's not opposition.
Guest:Okay, can we all work together now?
Guest:No, oppose.
Marc:Oppose that which you don't agree with.
Marc:Right, because it's like this idea of unification is conditional.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And, you know, we can unify if you suck it up, shut the fuck up, play by our rules.
Guest:Well, you see it in like the Democrats and how quickly they just rolled over on anything having to do with immigration because they looked at their numbers and they went, wow, we got our ass kicked on this particular topic, so surrender.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Up on, you know, to that level, to the politics of it, but to the cultural reality of it is that, and we talk about all this, this all the time is that there's no collective, uh,
Marc:experience in terms of media, right?
Marc:And what was once show business is now this sort of insulated community of relatively frightened people generating stuff for, I don't know, half the country, less, who knows?
Marc:But the sort of constant loud blathering of independent media is really where most people are getting their entertainment one way or the other.
Marc:And, you know, I don't really know.
Marc:I don't know what I don't know what to do with all that.
Marc:But but yeah, the the conditions of unity are unacceptable.
Guest:Well, in terms of the culture and the things that are being produced and entertainment and anything of that nature, you already told us what you're doing to be productive and how you're putting your mind toward your work.
Guest:What are you doing to, which I think is important in this day and age, to distract yourself?
Guest:Like, have you encountered good distractions in the past week?
Marc:Well, you know, like I find that...
Marc:In some ways, the ways of being productive, like, you know, going through my stuff, going through my life, you know, making decisions about what to hold on to and what to let go of is is a pretty good distraction.
Marc:You know, watching, you know, good movies or trying to, you know, engage with real art.
Marc:is a good distraction.
Marc:You know, playing guitar is a good distraction.
Marc:You know, cooking, I do a bit of that.
Marc:That seems to work for me.
Marc:You know, basic chores, you know, I still engage with, and every time I do, I think, like, you know, some people would go, like, why are you doing that?
Marc:Can't you have somebody do that?
Marc:It's like, well, I want to do it, you know, because it keeps me sane, you know.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:three litter boxes this morning.
Marc:And, uh, and also really talking to people here, like having Don Johnson over, it's a very odd thing that, you know, the, the pro the profound difference between what's going on in my head and then what happens when I talk to somebody else.
Marc:About their life and where we meet and whatever is, is I guess a distraction, but it's also what life should be in a way.
Marc:A grounding, right?
Marc:Yeah, totally.
Marc:You know, you get out of that, you're like, all right, okay, so I'm good for an hour.
Marc:You know, you got that Don Johnson juice.
Marc:Yeah, for an hour.
Marc:Still thinking about what me and Don were talking about.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But there's also the problem when I talk to people and how they're framing what we're going through, and there's still the part of my brain that's sort of like, well, good for you that you can believe that.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Because you want somebody – that's the other thing about what we've talked about before, that no one's coming to help us, is that you want somebody to tell you something that you can believe in a proactive, helpful way, hopeful way.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And then people say these things, and you're like, no, you really don't know.
What the fuck is it?
Marc:You're like, no, sorry.
Marc:I was saying distraction, not denial.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're not helping me at all here.
Marc:I just, I just know that you're just trying to frame it so you can fucking get through the day.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I appreciate that you have one that works, but it's not helping mine.
Marc:I can't, uh, no help there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But, you know, and I, you know, I spend time with Kit and I'm sleeping pretty well, you know.
Marc:But but I don't know, dude, you know, I don't know, because like we talked about on texting this morning is that, you know, my fears are not irrational.
Marc:Right.
Marc:In the bigger picture, but some of the smaller fears are.
Marc:But then, you know, I think like, well, they could become bigger fears.
Marc:But I try to figure out, you know, what is directly affecting me in my day to day life.
Marc:versus how it's affecting people who are really compromised and terrified and in trouble because of what we're going through.
Marc:And is there any way I can have a little more empathy for them in either action or at least thought and put myself, you know, down the list to understand, you know, how I'm fortunate and, you know, and sort of what I can do.
Marc:But, you know, thinking is always a pretty good distraction for me and coming up with angles on things.
Marc:You know, I've got my notebook again and, you know, I'm actively, you know, jotting things down and constantly, you know, trying to get a handle on what I'm going through, through things I'm engaging with and how maybe they can be the kernel of something that I can explore on stage.
Marc:So, you know, I'm doing what I usually do.
Marc:You're going to Largo tonight?
Marc:Yeah, I'm going to Largo tonight, and that is sort of its own audience, and I feel like a lot of them have seen a lot of the stuff I'm working on, but whatever.
Marc:But more importantly, I'm going up to Santa Barbara and then San Luis Obispo and then whatever the next one is, Monterey, to these smaller communities.
Marc:And I imagine my audience will come out, and because I'm in a certain amount of
Marc:anxiety and fear, you know, that usually gets me into the present and it forces me to take risks on stage and explore things.
Marc:So that's good.
Marc:I think really what's kind of keeping me going outside of the fear of performing in the climate we're in is the actual, that I'm in it, you know, and I've got a thing to do and I'm moving towards a thing and, you know, and I want to figure it out.
Marc:You know what I'm going to say on this thing, because every special I do, I believe is going to be the last one.
Marc:And, you know, I'm also, you know, kind of thinking about moving and, you know, thinking about, you know, running and thinking about, you know, all these things, but they do kind of feed the the material.
Marc:And I've also made a—I'm trying to make an appointment with a psychiatrist to sort of, you know, figure out what's reasonable anxiety and what isn't.
Marc:And some of the patterns of my thought, you know, being sort of called out as somebody who may or may not have ADHD, you know, I'd like to get a professional opinion on that.
Marc:I don't know how I would respond or if I would take medication, but I would like to see what an outside—
Marc:clinician would say about that, that isn't just a talk therapist.
Guest:Well, you know, a lot of times, if you are not going to have a medical treatment for it, the standard treatment is, you know, cognitive behavioral therapy.
Guest:So, you know, you are someone who already engages in that kind of thing.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And, you know, I think about it every day.
Marc:You know, every day is active cognitive behavioral therapy, primarily for, you know, finding the will to do things that are good for me.
Marc:You know, like, there's always, there's a couple of things that, you know, I just, you know, even like this morning, I changed two litter boxes, which is a big deal for me.
Marc:I got three cats.
Marc:These are big litter boxes.
Marc:I got to take them outside, hose them out, put them back.
Marc:And I'd done two.
Marc:And there's always this voice in my head where I'm like, I got one more, but it's not that dirty.
Marc:And then I'm like, dude, you just did two.
Marc:Just finish it.
Marc:And I'm like, all right.
Marc:So there's a lot of...
Marc:So there's a lot of me doing a lot of that, like, okay, okay.
Marc:Yeah, I'll go.
Marc:Yeah, I'll do it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You're your own parent in that moment.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:The good one.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:The actual structure.
Marc:The other one's just sort of like, you know, fuck it, you know, good luck with everything.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:if I could give anybody a little bit of advice that has helped me in my, you know, organization of things for, for many years, uh, you know, came, I think probably sometime in the past 10, 15 years while we've been doing this podcast, uh, if I had felt overwhelmed or that I had too much on my plate, I came around to the idea that every day you have one thing to accomplish.
Guest:And if it's going to be more than one thing, like you and I had to record this today.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So that's the thing I had to accomplish.
Guest:Right.
Guest:is this and edit it and put it up.
Guest:Anything more than that is surplus.
Guest:And that goes off to somewhere else.
Guest:And so what that means is I'm focused on doing this thing and then other things happen.
Guest:You get other things done, but you remove this pressure of them being necessary.
Guest:And, and if you find yourself in a situation where it's like, well, I can't just limit myself to the one thing.
Guest:There's three things I have to do.
Guest:Then that's a point where you've got to go into your life somewhere and go like, okay, I need to,
Guest:rearrange things because that's too much.
Guest:I can't have three work obligations on the same day.
Marc:Yeah, I'm the same way, but also, like, I don't, like, the surplus never ends, right?
Marc:So, on any given day, just because, you know, we both live in our own homes and you have a family, which makes it even more difficult, like, there's something that I'm locked into that, you know, I'll end up doing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That, you know, it's not...
Marc:an emergency but but like i i make it that right and then like i never get any real rest like right now the i know that the rain gutter on this structure is just packed with fucking leaves and you know i don't know how it did in the rain but i had to stop myself the other night when it was thundershowering i'm like i better get out there with the ladder
Marc:And then the other guy is sort of like, dude, nothing's going to be damaged if you don't.
Marc:It's just going to run over the gutter.
Marc:I'm like, all right, okay, I'll wait on it.
Marc:That's big, though, that you have that other voice.
Marc:That other voice didn't always used to be there.
Marc:No, I know, and that is the cognitive therapy voice.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And like, you know, and I know that like the guy came for the rat thing.
Marc:You know, they steal my house, but they're apparently there's at least one rat still down there shitting and he might still be in the wall or something.
Marc:And we're going to I guess we're just wait it out.
Marc:But he put a bunch of fucking sticky traps all over the place.
Marc:And from my time in New York, I don't want to fucking deal with that.
Marc:I don't want to deal with a fucking living thing stuck on a thing.
Marc:And then like, either you got to kill it or, or, you know, you throw it away alive, which is not good.
Marc:So like, I know that's might be happening in my basement and that's kind of not great for me.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, we'll find out about your rats and we'll find out about your gutters and we'll make sure to keep checking in because I think it's something the listeners enjoy.
Guest:But I also think it probably helps you out.
Guest:It kind of keeps your feet on the ground and doesn't make you feel like everything is just untethered and floating away.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that's a nice image.
Marc:I wish more things just flowed away.
Marc:All right, buddy.
All right.