BONUS The Friday Show - It's Been a Month
Marc:The reason I was waiting to talk to you about this was, do you remember the huge, huge fight that Mark and Dan Pashman had?
Marc:Because I remember sitting there and being like, I thought they were joking at first.
Marc:I thought Mark was joking.
Marc:And then I was like, oh no, he's serious and he's pissed off.
Marc:And then I was like, do we have to like do something about this?
Marc:Because it's going to be like, it doesn't seem like coworkers should be getting in a fight like this.
Guest:What was it about?
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Guest:Brendan.
Guest:You're back.
Guest:I'm back.
Guest:I've left the country for 10 whole days, and I turn on the TV, and are people eating dogs and cats in Springfield?
Marc:I...
Marc:That question has been asked many times over the course of my life watching The Simpsons, and it was never true.
Marc:It wasn't true then, and it's not true now.
Marc:But yes, how'd that feel to go from being a world traveler to then diving right back into the slop of American politics?
Guest:It reminded me of traveling when George W. Bush was the president.
Guest:And I just had to be like, oh, I'm so sorry.
Guest:We're all not like this.
Marc:So you were in India, which they have their own fascist problems right now.
Marc:But did people react to you like, oh, American, Trump?
Marc:Were they doing that to you?
Guest:They didn't react about Trump at all.
Guest:They reacted to me being a white person.
Guest:they oh really fascinated about it like they oh well that's better than being like get the fuck out of here yeah there was actually one interaction in particular i'm i was i was in the pool it was a hot day and uh i'm there with sunglasses my wife's getting like a henna tattoo and uh this guy approaches me he's like hey you know hi my name is you know blah blah blah and uh you know we we chat he's like oh how did you learn about india like why are you here i'm like i don't know i learned about india the school i guess i don't know the
Marc:map um and yeah who doesn't know about india like i think i think that guy is underselling his country with over a billion people he's like how'd you find out about this place oh it's number two on the globe
Guest:So we chatting and he's a lovely guy.
Guest:And like, he's, he's introducing me to his, like his brother-in-law and his sister.
Guest:And, uh, they're explaining what their names mean.
Guest:And, uh, it was great.
Guest:I, I, you know, I was telling him, I introduced myself, of course.
Marc:And I, did you wait, hang on.
Marc:Did you say my name's Chris?
Marc:Our names don't mean shit.
Guest:I so did.
Guest:I told her, I was like, hey, yeah, I'm American.
Guest:Our names don't mean shit.
Guest:And can I tell you, the belly laugh I got from these people, they were telling their other family members what I just said.
Guest:And it was great.
Marc:You can thank Quentin and Bruce Willis for having a very fun moment abroad in India 30 years later after that movie came out.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:But yeah, what a time being away.
Guest:And kind of wild that Mark was mentioning on a recent episode in his monologue about just traveling and not knowing how to travel and stuff.
Guest:I thought that was fascinating because it was something that I was thinking about when I was traveling.
Guest:It's almost as if he did that on purpose.
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, it was.
Marc:I mean, I don't think he knows you were in India, but yeah, like I did.
Marc:I did notice when he said it.
Marc:I was like, oh, this is right in keeping with, you know, Chris's ethos.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'll be honest with you.
Guest:I think the act of traveling is like exercising a muscle.
Guest:Like if you don't do it very often, it's going to stop growing and you'll forget how to do it, you know?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I don't think he's ever done it.
Marc:I mean, I know he's traveled.
Marc:I know he's gone places.
Marc:He's talked about like he's done comedy in China and this and that.
Marc:But I think everything's always been very goal-oriented, right?
Marc:Like he's got a job.
Marc:He goes and does it wherever.
Marc:But like...
Marc:I remember he used to go on vacation to Hawaii, and I think what wound up happening was he liked the one place he would go, and then he'd just go to that over and over again.
Marc:And that's fine.
Marc:I know a lot of people who do that, they have their regular vacation spots.
Marc:But yeah, I think if you're not used to the kind of surrender...
Marc:that you need to, you know, engage in when you go to travel to places you've never been before and you don't know much about.
Marc:Um, I, I, I don't think that comes easily.
Marc:And when you're 60, it's even harder, but I, you know, I, I really think we can get them there.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I think so too.
Guest:I baby steps with everything.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, uh, you know, and you're so right.
Guest:Like I remember going on, going to Cuba with my brother-in-law and, uh, his wife and, uh, my sister-in-law and, uh,
Guest:We had a great dinner at one spot and like the next night the dinner wasn't as great.
Guest:And my brother-in-law was like, well, why didn't we just go back to the other place?
Guest:And I'm just like, well, no, like that's, that's the purpose of this trip is to explore and see other things.
Guest:And like, we don't, I'm not going to the same goddamn restaurant every night, you know?
Marc:I had a very interesting revelation about myself.
Marc:And this reminds me of it is that I was talking to somebody the other day and we were just talking about like people who fear change, right?
Marc:She was saying, you know, I think people, you know, they, they fear change and they, they kind of only remember the one thing, right.
Marc:And they want to go back to that one thing.
Marc:And it's because memory starts to slip, especially why as you get older, right.
Marc:You know, it's why you see a lot of people just wanting things to go back to the way they were.
Marc:And I was like, oh, that's interesting because I'm the exact opposite.
Marc:I remember fucking everything.
Marc:Like, it's almost a curse that I remember everything, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I don't want things to go back to the way they were because I'm tired of them.
Marc:Like I need things to change.
Marc:I need things to be different.
Marc:And I want like to have a new experience.
Marc:So like if I go to someplace and people are like, hey, let's go to the same restaurant we went to.
Marc:I was like, I remember everything about that restaurant.
Marc:Like I'd like to try a new place.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like a video recording.
Guest:And it's like, oh, I have that on tape already.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:I want to have a new tape of some new adventure for sure.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:But I did find it funny that when you came back, the first thing that we're doing is watching this debate.
Marc:Like you're not just like easing yourself back into politics.
Marc:You're like taking the full cold bath plunge.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:And I don't know, like you asked me beforehand, you were like, you know, how are you feeling or whatever?
Marc:And I was like, this is going to suck.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Like the both of us were like, this is terrible.
Marc:We don't want to have anything to do with this.
Marc:This sucks that we even have to watch it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I did not feel that way when it was over.
Guest:Can I tell you, man, I had that dread.
Guest:I had that dread again from the Biden one.
Guest:And I was like, oh my God, this is going to...
Guest:He's going to win again.
Guest:And this dread.
Guest:And then, like, after a half an hour, I was like, oh, oh, oh, I think she's doing it.
Guest:She's doing the thing.
Marc:My feeling was the best case scenario going into it was that we would come out feeling relieved that nothing terrible happened.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And it was better than I ever expected.
Marc:Like it ended and I was feeling satisfied.
Marc:Like I didn't expect to feel satisfied, but it was very satisfying to watch him get pummeled like that.
Marc:And, you know, the other thing was as it was going on and all these ridiculous things were happening and they were like immediately generating like, you know, meme reactions from people.
Marc:And I went back and looked at like all the ones that I was sending around or that people were sending me.
Marc:And I realized if you were just looking at the memes that came through from the debate, it would look like a latticework of the stuff we've been talking about on here for the last year.
Marc:There were memes of Madam Web.
Marc:There was Greg from Succession.
Marc:There was RFK telling his bear story.
Marc:I was like...
Marc:Oh, this is like the homecoming of the Friday show.
Guest:Yes, it was.
Guest:It was a very memeable debate and not in the way that Donald Trump wanted.
Guest:I think my favorite was, I don't think it has anything to do with this, but it was just illegal transgender alien.
Guest:And it's a picture of E.T.
Guest:dressed up.
Guest:Yeah, when he's in the closet and he comes out with all the clothes on and the wig.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That's the other thing.
Guest:Just the United States that that guy is looking at is a fantasy world.
Marc:Yeah, and a horrible one, like one out of like a Cronenberg movie or something.
Marc:David Lynch.
Marc:Back to the Future 2.
Guest:Like, it's so bizarre.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which, by the way, do you know he was the inspiration for Biff?
Guest:Yeah, for Biff.
Guest:Biff in the future.
Guest:Like, that was just Trump.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I can't believe he was president.
Guest:Like, after...
Marc:after all i mean like that look i mean we've said this a million times but it's like you and i we're from here we live with this guy since we were kids and he was nothing but a joke right his whole like our whole lives this guy was a punchline to things so it's not like weird to us that like we still think he's a punchline it's weird that nobody else sees it you know
Marc:That's the crazy thing.
Marc:But it really, I think it 100% has to do with The Apprentice, right?
Marc:Like most people who didn't really know him other than the name Trump, once that show came on and was, you know, just basically as real about like a businessman as survivor is real about being a castaway, right?
Marc:It's just all...
Marc:fabricated bullshit and it made people think like oh god this guy he's he's what being rich is this is a rich businessman as opposed to like a fucking actor con man which is what he is that's right but yeah so that just has seemed weird to me and you but like i think most people they they had to come around to it or still have not still think like oh he's trump he's a rich businessman
Guest:Yeah, by the way, I loved that Mark got to talk about it a little bit.
Guest:I need that juice.
Guest:And even if it's just a little bit, I just need that little shot of just like, okay, everything's going to be okay.
Guest:Maybe, you know, start the vote.
Guest:Everyone has to vote.
Guest:But yes, yeah, I feel feeling good.
Guest:And yeah, it's good to be back in this country, even though, you know, that debate was happening.
Guest:I got to say, India was fascinating and beautiful.
Guest:Yeah, what was the best part?
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:I mean, the Taj Mahal was for sure like a bucket list type of thing.
Guest:It was beautiful.
Guest:It was everything.
Guest:But I think the best thing about India was the food.
Guest:Like we had some delicious Indian food and they just call it food there.
Guest:And...
Guest:Uh, but, but the food, it was just absolutely beautiful.
Guest:Like we went to one restaurant, this place called like Indian accent and, uh, probably one of the best meals I've had in my entire life.
Marc:Uh, Aaron.
Marc:Oh wait.
Marc:So you were saying there's one here in, in New York?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:They have the same place.
Marc:They have, they have their own place in New York.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Same name and everything.
Guest:And my wife was in tears by the end of it.
Guest:Like,
Guest:In tears because it was so good or it was hot?
Guest:No, no, in tears because it was so, so good.
Guest:It was like the best food like we've ever had.
Guest:It was like, it was like something out of, you know, I don't know, like one of these five star Michelin things.
Guest:It was just like, there was like feta baked naan and just like smoked duck sashimi, like really inventive contemporary take on Indian food.
Guest:So that was great.
Marc:I wonder, though, is if you had it here, is it going to be like when people try to have like like if you go to like Phoenix and they're like, there's a New York bagel place.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And you're like, it's not the same.
Guest:You know, we're going to go to find out to see to see if it it holds water.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Well, to be continued.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, uh, yeah, just, just great food.
Guest:And like the people were great.
Guest:Like, you know, I was on a big tour group.
Guest:So that was like, that was lovely.
Guest:Uh, you know, I, I normally don't do tour groups when I travel, but some places in the world kind of require a tour group and especially a tour guide.
Guest:Cause I don't know what I'm looking at.
Guest:I could be like staring at a building and I'm like for like 10 minutes.
Guest:I'm like, I don't know what I'm looking at, but like this guy.
Marc:People, people need to embrace tours.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:But, you know, like, especially when you are literally a tourist, don't hide from it.
Marc:Like, I'll give you one of my favorite tips.
Marc:I might have said this before, but I'll say it again for anybody who hasn't heard.
Marc:When I go to a place, especially like in days when I was doing a lot of like having to travel to different cities for work or something.
Marc:One of the first things I do when I get there is find out where their hop on, hop off place.
Marc:bus tour is and a go do that.
Marc:And like, just get the lay of the land of that place.
Marc:Like, you know, you know, be like, okay, even if this is the touristy tour, right?
Marc:Like, Oh, like people tell you, no, no, no.
Marc:You want to go, go, go do this.
Marc:They'll take you into these neighborhoods or this or that.
Marc:Look, I just want the overview.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So put me on one of those double-decker buses, ride me around, and the guy will come on the speaker and tell me things about the place that I'm in.
Marc:I want to know that as I am going to now explore the place.
Guest:Right, exactly.
Guest:And, like, this guide was great, and, you know, it was fun.
Guest:It was, you know, informative.
Guest:It was just, you know, exactly what I want from a vacation like this, you know?
Guest:Like some vacations just want to be on the beach or at the pool.
Guest:Like this type of vacation, I want to go, go, go, go.
Guest:And like do my, you know, do the thing and like see everything I can, you know?
Guest:And, you know, sometimes being on a tour bus is kind of like a little too safe for me.
Guest:Like, you know, people on my tour, they just wanted to eat every meal at the hotel.
Guest:My wife and I, we want to like see the thing.
Guest:We want to like touch it and talk to people.
Guest:So we're like...
Guest:you know, actually visiting the place instead of just, like, looking at this place like it's a zoo, like, you know, behind, like, a plate of glass, you know?
Guest:So, you know, we're out there.
Guest:We're negotiating rickshaws.
Guest:I got ripped off.
Guest:And, you know, just going on a TikTok and stuff.
Guest:And it was great.
Guest:It was scary.
Guest:Dude, it was, like...
Guest:Being lost in 1.4 billion people, at times can be scary.
Guest:But you know what?
Guest:It's totally fine.
Guest:You get lost in a city, and it's totally fine.
Guest:And you will find your way back eventually.
Guest:But I think the highlight was...
Guest:there's like this religious pilgrimage that was happening on the highway.
Guest:And it was a bunch of people walking with flags to this religious site.
Guest:And our guy was saying that some of these people walked from like 50, 100 miles away to make this pilgrimage.
Guest:And on the side of the road, they set up festivities, like food and drink, kind of like when you're in a marathon.
Guest:And people are on the side of the road and giving you water.
Guest:That's basically what it's like.
Guest:But the other thing they do is they have dance parties.
Guest:And they set up a truck with all these speakers.
Guest:And they're playing nice, fun music to bop around to.
Guest:And they also have a dance floor.
Guest:And my guide was like, hey, would any of the ladies want to get out and go on the dance floor?
Guest:And none of them wanted to do it.
Guest:Only ladies?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, well, you know, I guess at first he just wanted to like, hey, you know, any ladies want to go out?
Guest:And like, no one said anything.
Guest:And I was like, wait, I'll do it.
Guest:And so I'm the first one out of the bus and I get out there and it's just me.
Guest:And...
Guest:I start dancing on the dance floor.
Guest:And at first, no one's dancing.
Guest:And then I look over at someone.
Guest:And then everyone just starts dancing along with me.
Guest:And it was a magnificent moment where I'm making an ass out of myself.
Guest:I'm dancing.
Guest:I'm not a very good dancer.
Guest:But it was great.
Marc:Hey, you're the winner of the Pulp Fiction Twist Contest.
Marc:Don't sell yourself short.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:right that's right yes i have a dance contest winner so yes uh but yeah that was it was great and i also feel like it broke the ice with the rest of the people on the bus so that everyone was all chatting you're very good at that i remember you uh riding a mechanical bull once to do the same thing you're also the guy who will first grab the microphone at karaoke even if it's just to try to scream through a queen song uh
Guest:My karaoke skills need to be improved, I would say.
Guest:I don't know how to do that.
Guest:I mean, you gave me great advice to just, you know, basically it's the advice to get out of a lie detector test.
Guest:It's like, you know, it's not a lie if you believe it.
Marc:Yes, you have to just have conviction and go up there and sell it.
Guest:Yeah, so I need to sell more with my carrier.
Guest:I will work on it.
Guest:Hopefully, you'll see it, you and I together.
Guest:But I don't know if that's going to happen.
Guest:But yeah, it was great to be with the people and hang out and, you know, just see that Taj Mahal was fucking cool, man.
Guest:Like, leave someone speechless.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It is just a beautiful work of art of a building.
Guest:And it was it was a real fun goddamn time.
Guest:And, you know, just I highly recommend people going to India.
Marc:And I remember you got a little nervous the first couple of days you were there that you drank tap water without thinking about it.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Did you did that?
Marc:Totally fine.
Marc:It was OK?
Guest:Totally fine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So, you know, I didn't get the deli belly or anything.
Guest:And you know what's funny?
Guest:I didn't miss, I missed one MET game.
Guest:I was also kind of nervous that I would miss a MET game, but I put on the MLB app and I was able to watch that thing so fast, faster than I could watch the game back home.
Guest:So yeah, I rarely missed a game.
Guest:I was jet lagged.
Guest:So I was up at like four o'clock in the morning when the MET's night games would be on.
Guest:So yeah, it really worked out.
Marc:Well, you had yourself a very fun trip.
Marc:That's good to hear.
Marc:And you are about to have yourself a birthday.
Marc:So happy birthday, buddy.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I just saw a notification pop up on my screen saying, Chris Lopresto's 45th birthday.
Guest:Like, oh, thank you, Apple.
Guest:I don't think I needed a reminder about that.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Your birthday is technically today as this is airing.
Marc:That is correct.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, everyone out there I know is wishing you a very happy birthday today.
Marc:And we passed over while you were out, while you were away, the birthday of WTF, 15 years old as of September 1st.
Guest:I heard that.
Guest:Congratulations.
Guest:That is incredible.
Guest:Thank you, pal.
Guest:We're both too old to die young now.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:This podcast is almost a teenager.
Guest:It can almost start to drive.
Marc:Almost drive.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:We're about to get a learner's permit, I guess.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Get on to see if this show is road ready.
Guest:How does it feel 15 years on?
Guest:Like...
Marc:It definitely feels like it's been around for a long time.
Marc:Like, I cannot say that I felt this way, like after 10 years, like after 10 years, it was like, wow, it's 10 years.
Marc:How'd that, where'd that time go?
Marc:It's like 15 years now.
Marc:You're like, oh yeah, I've been doing this.
Marc:I feel like I've been doing this for most of my adult life.
Marc:Which I have, basically.
Marc:I actually think that if I had to put a circle around what adulthood meant for me, like when would I have like marked off like, yeah, I think I'm an adult now.
Marc:It was like making the decision to start up this podcast.
Marc:Right.
Marc:really that it was like, you know, no, I'm not going to go out there and hunt around for other jobs.
Marc:I'm going to sit and focus and do this.
Marc:And other jobs came to me, but it was the like ability of like, Hey, look, I can do this.
Marc:Like I'm, I'm, I'm an able person to kind of be a self-starter and a creator of something.
Marc:And that felt, you know, in hindsight, especially that feels like a turning point.
Guest:Were you nervous?
Guest:I probably asked you this already, but were you nervous with just being like, hey, I'm just going to focus on this?
Marc:No, because I think I mentioned this when we were talking about the origins of the show and that.
Marc:It's that within a week of not being employed and starting to work on the podcast, I'd gotten tapped down.
Marc:to come in and interview for doing Rosie O'Donnell's radio show over at Sirius.
Marc:And so that was like, just like in the works.
Marc:And, you know, I wound up getting that job within like a month or so after interviews and whatnot.
Marc:And I didn't have, so I didn't have fear of like, Oh, I don't know what I'm going to do with my life.
Marc:I just do remember there was like the point, like maybe the first two days of,
Marc:of putting the podcast together like after our show break room live ended like i do remember having like the thought sitting at my desk being like hey this is this might be it pal like you you might be in a situation like a couple of months from now where you're like i gotta get a job at like you know a law office or something you know because like i'm not i have no other prospects or and this you know project that you're doing it's crapped out so it's like
Marc:I do remember giving myself some focus like, all right, just, just keep your eye on the prize here.
Marc:Do this thing as best as you can and see what comes from it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I gotcha.
Marc:And I think, you know, the big thing was for Mark and myself, there were very little expectations around it, you know?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That's the thing.
Marc:Like this was just a lark, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was, I think for both of us, the idea was it would lead to something else.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And for me, it was, I would always wanted to, you know, do what I was doing with Mark in a setting that we controlled and that, you know, I could help him deliver what I think he does best.
Marc:And I didn't
Marc:plan at the time for it to be like you know an interview show i just thought we're gonna do like our radio work and we'll do but we'll do it in this situation where i can control everything i don't have to be a slave to the formats of a terrestrial radio clock or what a program director is telling me right and so you know it was for me like this is great we're
Marc:We'll do this thing.
Marc:Hopefully this will help Mark out in terms of his draw and he'll be able to get more people to his shows.
Marc:And then who knows, like maybe people from TV will come calling or maybe this will, you know, finally make someone realize, hey, we should put this on the radio or whatever.
Marc:Like I always thought it would...
Marc:you know, work out to something else.
Marc:And even within the first few weeks and months of doing it, I w I got so into doing it that I was like, Oh, now I don't care what happens with this.
Marc:This is now my thing.
Marc:Like I'm, I, I have a thing that I know is in my life that I'm going to enjoy whatever else I'm doing.
Marc:Like, this is my, uh,
Marc:this is this is like a pleasure to do it it was work but it was a pleasure and so once i had that mentality around it then the growth around it was gravy yeah well said and you know when it when it comes up every year that it's like oh hey this is our anniversary or whatever like usually mark and i we like text each other hey happy anniversary that kind of thing whatever this time well it was just like dude
Marc:we've been doing this for a long time.
Marc:Like that was, that was the first reaction that we both had was like 15 years, man.
Marc:That is long.
Guest:Am I crazy?
Guest:Or are you working harder now?
Guest:Like 15 years?
Marc:No, you're not crazy.
Marc:Definitely working harder and doing more because of this, because like, you know, we, we, you know, have a partnership that requires more content and it doesn't come from,
Marc:you know, it's, it's gotta be made, you know, it's not, it doesn't, you know, and, and, uh, while we've worked very hard to, you know, make sure as I've always done, move things around and move things on and off my plate as I can.
Marc:And that can happen.
Marc:There's ways to do it, you know, but, um, you know, there's just the, the work is the work.
Marc:I don't ever, you know, shy away from work.
Marc:I've always been a kind of person that it's, if you tell me this is my job, I will do it.
Guest:Yeah, it's all leading to your upcoming stand-up special, Secret Comedian.
Marc:Yes, that was someone's ask Mark anything question, if I am a secret comic.
Marc:I do like that he was like immediately like, no, he's not.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Also, he was like, he's very funny.
Guest:But yeah, I don't think he's a secret comedian.
Marc:Well, I think he would know if I was... Right.
Marc:He's been around enough people who are secret comedians or secret stand-ups.
Marc:Like who?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:well i don't i'm not saying a person but i'm just saying knowing that he's you know had stories of people coming up to him that are like yeah how do you wind up doing it how do you get into it you know and it's like he knows i have never asked him a single question like that i have never you know i've never shown any inclination to like have material or have like i i just there's there's no part of me that's like
Marc:that's a thing i would like to do it's kind of like saying like oh is brennan a secret wannabe fighter pilot like if there's a fantasy of me doing loop-de-loops in the air like tom cruise like sure great like just the same as like is oh can you have a fantasy of like being on stage and just like killing yeah but i wouldn't even know what i would be saying in that fantasy
Marc:Just like I wouldn't know what I would be doing in the cockpit of a plane.
Marc:It's just like it's like, oh, you have a fantasy of being Superman flying around.
Marc:Great.
Marc:I have that all.
Marc:But it's not a real thing.
Marc:And it's not it's not even something I would know where to start with if I wanted to do it.
Marc:I don't want to do it for that very reason.
Marc:I will say.
Marc:the adam sandler netflix show can we i i it's a very bad pivot my apologies but can we talk about this fucking special yeah because i you know mark was the one who recommended it to me yeah and i was surprised like i you know i i saw the i watched the one the previous one that he did for netflix and it was fine but it was like a standard comedy special
Marc:And it felt like it was almost like just relying on nostalgia, right?
Marc:Like it was, which is fine.
Marc:It was like, it's like a watching a, you know, rock band go out and do a play the hits tour, greatest hits, you know?
Marc:And it was, so it was fine.
Marc:But then I saw yet another one and I was just like, oh, it's going to be the same thing.
Marc:And because Mark was like, no, this was so good.
Marc:I was like, oh, I guess I need to check this thing out.
Marc:And yep, it's awesome.
Marc:Yeah, it's the next great comedy special.
Marc:It's basically like a movie.
Marc:I would put it this way.
Marc:Do you consider Talking Heads Stop Making Sense to be a movie?
Marc:No, I think of it as like a concert.
Marc:Oh, see, I consider it a documentary.
Marc:It's a, it's a filmed version of a concert that actually tells a story, right?
Marc:It's like the building of a show.
Marc:They build the set on the stage as the numbers are progressing and you get a show, right?
Marc:It's,
Marc:It's a it's a it's a there's a there's a story told through the music.
Marc:And I felt the same way watching this was I was like, this is telling a story of Adam Sandler and of comedy through an Adam Sandler special.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, that's a good way of looking at it.
Guest:I was fascinated by the whole thing.
Guest:I was staring at background images, like the coffee cups in particular.
Guest:Like, I just want to know, like, what was staged?
Marc:That was what me and Mark were talking about mostly.
Marc:Mark was like, he had to know about some of this stuff, right?
Marc:Like a dog.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I get to the point where I don't think it matters.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like that's that's irrelevant because if he's just acting, he's doing good, a good job acting.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:But like it all seemed so not rehearsed and so off the cuff.
Guest:And yeah.
Marc:If people haven't seen it, I think we'll tread carefully because I do think some of the enjoyment of it is just the surprise of things.
Marc:It's just feeling kind of surprised by the whole thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And we should mention that it's directed by Josh Safdie, who is one of the Safdie brothers who made Uncut Gems with Sandler.
Marc:Which one is he?
Marc:Is he the one that did?
Marc:he is the one who is not typically an actor so not the guy from oppenheimer oh not the guy from uh the one with uh emma stone and and nathan fielder yeah what is that rehearsal no isn't the rehearsal is the thing with nathan oh the curse the curse the curse yeah yeah okay so that yeah that's benny uh so this is the other safety brother
Marc:You know, they used to call into The Best Show.
Marc:No way.
Marc:Yeah, with Tom Sharpling before they were, you know, filmmakers.
Marc:Like, years and years ago, they used to, like, call and try to, you know, prank him on the air and whatnot.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And they love the show.
Marc:Like the show is, you know, one of their favorites.
Marc:And it's funny, like then they invited him to come watch a rough cut of Uncut Gems.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:And Tom was telling me that he, like they invited him to their office and he watched it.
Marc:And then afterwards they told him, like, he was like, it was great.
Marc:I loved it.
Marc:And they're like, yeah, we know we were watching you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like they had a camera set up and we were watching him do it.
Marc:And so he was at the premiere and he saw Sandler, who is this guy kind of friendly with, he doesn't know him very well, but he was kind of friendly with him.
Marc:And so they were talking and he said, you know, I watched this and I was watching it at their offices and they were recording me while I was watching it to see what my reactions were.
Marc:And I didn't know.
Marc:And Sandler was just looking at him and he's like,
Marc:that's fucked up.
Marc:He's like, I don't know about that.
Marc:That is crazy.
Marc:Also, Tom told me this, that, you know, if you remember in Uncut Gems, when he is going to, I think it's when he's at like a Seder dinner or something, or maybe it's like the kid's concert.
Marc:One of the scenes, he's wearing a blue suit, which is almost identical to the blue suit he has in Punch Drunk Love.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And Tom mentioned that to him.
Marc:He was like, I loved seeing you back in a blue suit.
Marc:And Sandler goes, yep, every 20 years I throw on a blue suit, make movie magic.
Guest:I mean, that guy is so smooth.
Guest:What a smooth response that is.
Guest:That is great.
Guest:So what's the deal?
Guest:Is Adam Sandler not ever going to come on this show?
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:You know, I mean, as soon as I knew there was a special coming out, I put in a request for him to come in.
Marc:And like Mark has said, he's been very nice to Mark, you know, at times.
Marc:I don't know that there look, look, we've talked about it a lot that there's just some people who are like, you know, fuck that guy.
Marc:I'm not going to do him favors.
Marc:And I've had that problem with certain people.
Marc:And Mark has that problem with like Mark said when he was talking about Sandler, he's like, I've been that guy.
Marc:Right.
Marc:We're like somebody does something wrong to me and I hold it even if we like smooth things over.
Guest:Right.
Marc:I can hold a grudge and just like we, I can be okay with the person, but I'm not going to want to go out of the way and do favors.
Marc:And so maybe Sandler feels that way about him.
Marc:And, and the story being that, you know, because Mark back in the day, like was, you know, making cracks about him openly in, as part of his act.
Marc:And you know, it was, that could be it, but I don't know.
Marc:There's tons of people who don't,
Marc:really want to talk about their past, their lives.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Maybe he just doesn't want to be asked about that.
Marc:He doesn't even want to be in a position to be like, yeah, I don't want to talk about that.
Marc:I just saw an interview with Maya Rudolph.
Marc:That she was saying every interview she does, people wind up asking her about her mother.
Marc:Her mother was Minnie Riperton, who sang Loving You and was an R&B singer.
Marc:And she died when Maya Rudolph was very young.
Marc:You know, like very young.
Marc:And...
Marc:Maya Rudolph said, like, I love talking about my mother and her work and her legacy.
Marc:But when I'm asked about my mother, I'm also always asked about her dying when I was young.
Marc:She's like, I don't want to talk about that anymore.
Marc:Right.
Marc:That is childhood trauma.
Marc:And like, I have worked in my life to deal with that trauma, but I don't feel like I got to talk about it with every person who is interviewing me.
Marc:It's like, it's out there already.
Marc:You've read it.
Marc:Like if you're interviewing me, it exists and you can read it and you've probably read it before you're talking to me.
Marc:So what do you need me to talk about it again for?
Marc:And it's like,
Marc:I totally get that.
Marc:And, like, I've said this to Mark many times when he's asked about, like, there'll be a certain person.
Marc:I don't even have a name to come to mind.
Marc:But, like, a person.
Marc:And he's like, how come we can never get that person on the show?
Marc:And I'm like, because if I rep that person, I would tell that person not to do the show.
Marc:Like...
Guest:Because you're just naked, you know.
Marc:Yeah, what do you need to go and talk to this guy for an hour and he's going to ask you about, you know, things in your life?
Marc:Like, unless they're a person who wants to do that, which I always think is the best case scenario.
Marc:Right.
Marc:absolutely was not being told to do the show she was way famous she was you know a top bankable movie star she did not have to do our show for publicity reasons she asked to do the show she wanted to it was a show she listened to and wanted to do it but like so that's like a best case scenario but you know somebody who's like you know
Marc:trying to manage their career like if i was helping them manage their career i wouldn't recommend they do our show absolutely not yeah so yeah with with sandler i think that just that's probably the case it's like he's like i i like to be a fun guy and talk and he goes on conan's podcast and they're old friends and they have a fun time right but he's not old friends with mark in fact mark was shitty to him when they were younger so he's not coming on to have a fun time so therefore it is an interview thing so why does he want to
Guest:do that it is but there are certain types of interviews that mark does like sometimes they're like oh by you know biographical sometimes it's you know comedians just breaking down stuff like you know so like i don't know it doesn't have to always be like oh tell me about your dad or anything i actually don't know anything about uh adam sandler like anything at all like so uh so yeah those two things are not
Marc:irrespective right like you're the fact that you don't know much about him and the fact that he doesn't do our show is intentional right right now does he do like joe rogan like podcasts is that is that a thing i think he might have done rogan yeah i think so okay but like rogan's a hangout show you go on there and you could he's not gonna ask you about your dad yeah yeah yeah you're right
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, I don't know.
Guest:I've listened to all these episodes for like basically a month that I haven't been talking.
Marc:If we look back at the calendar, the last time we talked about episodes, a full month has gone by.
Marc:I think it was since August 12th.
Marc:uh, was, you know, when we had some summer break stuff going on and then we did the Django episode and then you were gone again.
Marc:So it's been a full month since we've talked about stuff.
Marc:So yeah, I mean, hit me with, uh, with, with anything.
Marc:Uh, I mean, I guess you were listening to this stuff while you're on your 12 hour flight or.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:So much, so much.
Guest:So, uh, but, uh, okay.
Guest:First things first.
Guest:Moon Zappa comes in.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:She mentions that, oh, are you still on that mattress that you slept with all those women on?
Guest:Brendan, what the fuck?
Guest:Am I supposed to get a new mattress for every person that I slept with?
Marc:That moment is a true Rorschach test, right?
Guest:Tell me.
Marc:Well, no, I mean, I think that I think there are people out there that are like, how dare Mark not get a new mattress?
Marc:And I think there are people like you and frankly me.
Marc:That's like that's manipulative behavior.
Marc:That's like really not cool.
Marc:Like you can't do that to a person like if I'll flip it this way.
Marc:There are these horrible guys out there that go and make YouTube videos where they go on the street and they ask a woman like, what's her body count, right?
Marc:Like how many, and then they rank them like, oh, this person's not desirable because their body count is 10.
Marc:And it's just like, this is fucking horrible, controlling misogyny and like Andrew Tate bullshit.
Marc:And we need to like purge this from the world.
Yeah.
Marc:I don't find much difference in like telling somebody they're going to get rid of their mattress that they have had.
Marc:If there were other people on it, that is, that is controlling behavior, but there's plenty of people who are like, it's a respectful thing to do.
Marc:It's being asked something that will make your new partner feel comfortable and blah, blah.
Marc:So like, I see that there's another side of this, but I, I see it as you did.
Marc:I'm like, that's crazy.
Guest:And the way she put it, it's like she thinks that Mark is looking at that mattress like J.D.
Guest:Vance looks like couches.
Guest:Like, yeah, look at that.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:I remember.
Guest:It's like, no, no one looks at a mattress like that.
Marc:I can't tell you that I remember any surface I've ever been on fondly.
Marc:Like it's not, there's nothing about the actual surface that I remember or think back to fondly.
Marc:Like you could swap out the mattress while I'm not looking and I wouldn't know or care.
Yes.
Guest:It was such an interesting thing to have an argument about.
Marc:But also to me, it was like, I was like, oh, I'm glad to hear this right at the top to know that this was a doomed relationship and we should not be feeling sad that they didn't last.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:Also, Moon taking Mark, touring around, I guess, her dad's house and like Moby was there, first of all.
Marc:Oh, I remember that story when it happened.
Yeah.
Marc:He was, Mark was so furious that Moby wouldn't stop touching everything.
Marc:And there was like a toy piano in there and Moby was like playing it and like ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Marc:And Mark was so snide.
Marc:Like he was like, oh, you got a, got a new hit there.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:why do i just want that to be an episode of a show like i just want moby and mark to tour around well now you know why it was so funny when hunter biden was on and he was like oh i know a friend of yours do you know moby
Marc:And Mark was like, yeah, I know Moby.
Guest:And in Mark's head, he's just thinking about him as moon zapping.
Guest:Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
Guest:Just amazing.
Guest:That house had two toilets next to each other, which is really something.
Guest:I wish.
Guest:Did Mark take a picture?
Marc:by any chance i mean i don't know i've never seen any zappa pictures of that but i do think it's funny somebody asked him in the ask mark anything questions if his facial hair configuration had anything to do with frank zappa and i agree with mark it's not it didn't he had that going on before but i always did think like what does moon think that he looks just like her dad and
Marc:I remember when Mark did an episode of Louie.
Marc:It was not the first one he did.
Marc:He did a second episode of Louie where basically they ran back the script of Louie's podcast episode with Mark, but Mark was doing the Louie part.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:where he was like, you know, I could have used you as a friend and you, you weren't around and you got jealous of me or whatever.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And Louie was like the Mark, right.
Marc:Of like, you know, uh, yeah, I'm sorry, man.
Marc:I was in my own thing or whatnot.
Marc:So anyway, that was the episode.
Marc:And that was done at the time when Mark was dating moon.
Marc:And, uh, so he brought her to, they filmed that at the comedy cellar.
Marc:So it's just like, yeah, come as you are, you know, it's like comedy cellar, they hang it and Mark hangs out there.
Marc:And he was there.
Marc:Moon came by.
Marc:She knows a lot of those people and that.
Marc:And Nick DiPaolo, who I think is in the scene, you know, because they shot the scene like at that back table at the comedy cellar.
Marc:And Nick DiPaolo is like, oh, so Moon Zappa, is they like your girlfriend?
Marc:And Mark's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:We've been dating.
Marc:And he looks at him and he just like takes his finger and like gestures up around Mark's face.
Marc:And he's like, are you aware of this?
Marc:Is this why?
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:Also, when Moon told the story that her mom does not wish you well forever, like, that's some fucked up shit, man.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, like if you go back to that first episode that they did, you know, back in the day, there's a lot of that extra stuff in there about the, you know, negative zone relationship that she had with her mother.
Marc:Not exactly a fun time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, and you know, not exactly a fun time holding organs.
Guest:I don't think I'll want to do that.
Guest:My wife might want to do that, but I don't think that's something I want to do.
Guest:But let's, let's move on over.
Guest:Paul W. Downs.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Marc:That's from a show that you like very much.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I mean, first of all, it's a New Jersey episode.
Guest:Love a good New Jersey episode where Mark gets to talk about Jersey.
Marc:Although Paul is from basically, you know, a mountain country in New Jersey.
Marc:He might as well be from like Appalachia, that part of Jersey.
Guest:Yes, yeah.
Guest:A two-hour commute into the city does not sound like a fun time for anyone.
Guest:But I enjoyed that episode quite a bit.
Guest:Boston Italians is not exactly a thing I know about.
Guest:Do you know about Boston Italians?
No.
Marc:Just from like, uh, the, the departed.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, is that, isn't that Irish?
Marc:Well, there's all the Italians come up from, from Providence.
Marc:That's where, like, I think in, in the, the, you know, mob hierarchies in that new England area, it's like all the Italians were in Providence and the Irish mob was in Boston, but they intermingle.
Marc:Right.
Marc:There's, there's, uh, there's, there's crossover.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I can't believe his, uh, comedy special was called full blown downs.
Guest:That's, uh,
Marc:Well, there was that and there was also, didn't he say he had a show called the Paul W. Down syndrome?
Guest:See, like double down.
Guest:He was like, oh, you don't like that?
Guest:Here's another one.
Marc:Double Downs.
Guest:That would be another good show he should do.
Guest:He's got a lot in the chamber.
Guest:Uh, I, I also loved that, uh, during the, they were talking about the pandemic.
Guest:It's like, oh yeah, we were washing our vegetables.
Guest:I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Guest:We were washing cans.
Guest:Like we, you should always.
Marc:Yeah, right.
Marc:I wash vegetables now.
Marc:Like you're supposed to wash your vegetables.
Marc:I was, I was, you know, taking a, a, a Kleenex wipe to a, a cereal boxes.
Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It was such a weird time.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Remember you leave them out in the sun.
Marc:Oh, that'll kill everything.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:We were, I mean, look, we were just, we didn't know.
Marc:No, it was a novel disease.
Marc:That means it was brand new.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And like, it wouldn't hurt to leave it outside.
Guest:Maybe a raccoon might get it if you leave it out too long, but I mean, it's fine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But yeah, great episode there.
Guest:Really like that guy and really hope that that you guys can get the the star of hacks.
Marc:Oh, Gene Smart.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, like, that's another one where it's like, who knows?
Marc:Like, I would actually be more inclined to think that's the case of like.
Marc:You know, she's a person who's been in show business for a long time.
Marc:And I'm guessing that doing one hour sit down podcasts in a garage has not been part of her like diet.
Marc:And, you know, just sometimes it's hard to get people to go like, oh, no, no, go do that.
Marc:But like he said, he was like, I'm going to I'm going to talk to her.
Marc:I'm going to I'm going to convince her to do it.
Marc:That used to happen a lot.
Marc:Especially in the early days when we had no outreach for things.
Marc:I remember Amy Poehler did the show because Aziz Ansari pestered her on the set of Parks and Rec to do it over and over again.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:And it wasn't like she wouldn't have done a thing like that.
Marc:It was just that...
Marc:The show, you know, podcasts were still pretty small and there wasn't a ton of visibility, but like people like Aziz and a lot of comedians were listening to the show habitually because they just were hearing other about other comics.
Marc:They loved it for that reason.
Marc:And he just desperately wanted an episode with Amy.
Marc:So he was just like bugging her on the set.
Marc:Can you go do Marc Maron's show?
Marc:You know, it's like the same thing people were doing to Albert Brooks for years.
Marc:Like, just do it.
Marc:Do the show.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Oh, by the way, when talking about Amy Poehler, can I just say last week's bonus episode, the Friday episode was...
Guest:Can I just say that was a little too good to just be a bonus episode.
Guest:That was high production.
Guest:And you got Mark interjecting in there.
Guest:It was like, that was a special episode.
Guest:You know, I know you'd call it that.
Marc:It was done as a special initially.
Marc:It was done as a special for everyone to hear.
Marc:And it was because it was toward the end of 2016.
Marc:Oh, here's some real like inside baseball.
Marc:Mm-hmm.
Marc:Uh, there was a, there was a period in time when, um, uh, we were with the company Howell, which was then, which then became Stitcher and they were owned by, they were bought by Scripps, Scripps Media.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And that happened in 2015.
Marc:And they had escalators in their contract with Scripps where they would make more money on each successive year as part of the deal.
Marc:They would essentially get a bonus if the ad sales were at a certain level.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And we had some equity with them, you know, so it was like kind of in our best interest to like help them get these bonuses.
Marc:And they came to us at the end of 2016.
Marc:And we're like, look, we're almost there, you know, with with these bonuses.
Marc:But we need to.
Marc:we need more sales.
Marc:Like, can we put more ads in your show?
Marc:And we were like, no, absolutely not.
Marc:But we can maybe come up with some more shows.
Marc:And so we made this Lauren thing for them.
Marc:We did a series of, I think I called it WTF uncovered or something.
Marc:There was like five episodes of things that like we had never aired and
Marc:I think there was like pilot episodes of the Marc Maron show, like things that that we did as like, you know, a test shows for that.
Marc:And our the aborted interview with Jerry Lewis that we never aired and and some maybe a live show or something that never aired.
Marc:So we just gave them a bunch of more content that they could sell.
Marc:And they hit that bonus.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So it was like, there was much rejoicing.
Marc:Everyone was very happy, but like, that was totally like mercenary to like, okay, you want more episodes.
Marc:We don't like, we, we've got no more room in our actual lives for new WTF episodes.
Marc:And frankly, we wouldn't do that anyway, like twice a week.
Marc:We, it's plenty, but we can, we can manufacture something.
Marc:And so, yeah, that, that Lauren stories was one of them.
Marc:And it was, so it was produced to be something everyone heard.
Marc:Oh, okay, good.
Guest:Because I was like, this is too good to be on Friday.
Guest:Like, this is fantastic.
Guest:I'm glad that that wasn't you just, oh, yeah, I'm just going to whip this up in the lab and stitch it together and have Mark do, you know, talk about all the previous guests and everything.
Guest:So that's good.
Marc:Yeah, it was actually the like I said, it was the end of 2016 that we did that.
Marc:And it was set to air on a Wednesday.
Marc:Right.
Marc:We put the shows out on Mondays and Thursdays.
Marc:So we were going to put this on a Wednesday and it was scheduled for the morning after the election that Wednesday.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I remember like sitting up, it was like 1am and I was like, you know, I was pretty sure Trump was going to win.
Marc:And I remember just like sending an email to the guys who were responsible for ad sales.
Marc:And then I was like, sorry, you're going to have to tell the people who bought ads for this, that it's not going up tomorrow.
Marc:Like this is just way inappropriate.
Marc:Like the, the, like I,
Marc:Is it totally the blind spot that all of us had about Trump winning that year was like, oh, this is going to change fucking everything if this guy wins.
Marc:Like there's no no one is going to be in the mood for funny the next day.
Marc:No.
Marc:And so, yeah, I think we moved it to that Friday instead.
Marc:And, you know, by that point, people were like clamoring to forget about what had happened a few days ago.
Marc:And I think it was very successful because of that.
Marc:But yeah, this was supposed to go up the morning after the election.
Marc:Wow.
Guest:I, you know, you made me think I should go back and listen to Mark's monologue the Thursday after the election.
Guest:Do you happen to remember, like, that was a very, like, somber time?
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I think I've kind of, like, trauma blocked a lot of it out, but I definitely know it was, you know, like, go ahead, say what you need to say with fucking full heart on this.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I think he talked to like Lin-Manuel Miranda, like days later.
Marc:And the, both of them at the end were like, yeah, we're, we're pretty fucked up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Jesus Christ.
Guest:Well, speaking of fucked up, the blue show, uh, finally got to listen to the blue show and, uh, it did not disappoint.
Guest:Uh,
Marc:It didn't, but I got to say, I, you know, I went back and listened to it throughout and it has this like legendary status among WTF fans, like especially older fans, people who were there sending emails all the time.
Marc:That's like, I was there that night of the blue show and this and that.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:It didn't seem too crazy to me.
Marc:Like it didn't, it was like the raunchy sex talk, but it was like sex talk about guys talking about their wives.
Marc:Like, you know, I'm like, I wasn't like,
Marc:It definitely didn't feel to me like it was something out of bounds from typical, you know, crude, hard R-rated comedy, you know?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:By the way, was that the same comics that Paul W. Downs got his start at?
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When they were talking about that, that's that's the place.
Marc:And, you know, it's interesting that bonus episode that I put up a couple of weeks ago, the return to comics.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That was the first show of two shows.
Marc:And I remember I had said we had started doing two every, you know, anytime we were at comics and we would, you know, package them.
Marc:To people as live shows.
Marc:There was supposed to be a second one that night.
Marc:There was a second one that night that we were supposed to air.
Marc:And we didn't because it got really ugly between Lewis Black and some audience members.
Marc:Really?
Marc:two drunks up front who had been there at the early they were like fans who were not like they were fans of the podcast and clearly like no idea about stand-up comedy uh and they there were these two twin brothers it was really weird and they drove down from connecticut or something they wanted to be there and they they were hammered when they showed up i remember it very clearly really they were hammered when they showed up and they were in the front row because they were like talking out to mark even during that first uh
Marc:the first taping.
Marc:And, uh, it was like, they weren't like too totally disruptive though.
Marc:Like you, Mark was handling it fine, but they stayed for the second show, which meant, you know, they bought two tickets and they, uh, they were there and they were just fucking heckling Lewis black who, who like, you know, he was not going to take it.
Marc:Like he was there out of a favor to Mark.
Marc:And here's these two guys like heckling him.
Marc:I think they were like, uh,
Marc:doing his voice back to him.
Marc:Like, you know, it was like, you know, you know, it's like they were like, you know, cause he has those mannerisms and he shakes his hands and his fingers and that, and they were like sitting there in the front row, like doing that to him.
Marc:And he was like, no, no, no, no, no.
Marc:Shut the fuck up.
Marc:Like that.
Marc:I'm here to do a job and you shut the fuck up.
Marc:And like, wow.
Marc:it just killed the whole place.
Marc:Like everyone would, and you know, Mark was like, Hey guys, guys, guys may, you know, if you want to go out to the bar, I'll come sign something afterwards or whatever.
Marc:But like, you know, leave this up here for the comics.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:And like, you know, it was managed, but it killed the show at that point.
Marc:And I think we excerpted like some of the, we tried to salvage some of the guests who were on Mike DeStefano.
Marc:We took his segment and put it on another episode, but like,
Marc:We just had to scrap the whole thing.
Marc:It never aired in full.
Guest:I hope I'm never that much of a dick.
Guest:Like, I know I can be a dick.
Guest:I'd never want to be that guy.
Marc:Well, yeah, I think that that was because of inebriation.
Guest:Yeah, sure is.
Guest:So moving on to Brendan Walsh.
Guest:Is it Brendan Walsh?
Guest:I think it's Brandon.
Guest:It's like me, but he just spells it differently.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Gotcha.
Guest:That was great.
Guest:I now have The Stench of Hollywood as the next book that I'm going to read.
Guest:So I'm looking forward to that.
Guest:Dude, what is with this tribalism of the Rogan comedians versus basically the world?
Guest:It actually reminds me of WWE people versus AEW.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I think it's real, but it's like it's look, it's nothing new.
Marc:This is always the case with like, you know, anything like I think it's I think the only thing new is that the context is in, you know, modern show business where everything is very fractured.
Marc:So these tribes, they seem to mean more to people than just like you.
Marc:Yeah, I watch Leno versus I watch Letterman.
Marc:Like, that was always a thing.
Marc:Like, you couldn't go on fucking Letterman if you had been on Leno.
Marc:That's fucking true.
Marc:And so it's always existed.
Marc:And it's just, you know, Joe is a powerful dude in the comedy community because he can give a lot of people a break.
Marc:So when that kind of thing happens, you then have a lot of people, you know, who are trying to be respectful and stay...
Marc:in that world.
Marc:And when you have a guy like Mark, who has no reason to be involved in it and has nothing to lose by saying what he really feels about it, it does divide things.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And it's why you get messiness and sloppiness of, you know, of like, you know, people trying to create a fight between Mark and Bert Kreischer, because they're trying to draw sides there between the two.
Marc:So I don't know.
Marc:To me, it's like, first of all, I think comedians are mostly, you know, children.
Marc:Like it's very, you know, I know there's lots of money at stake and this is their business, but their personality wise, it's like middle school.
Marc:And that aside, I just don't really care about it.
Marc:You know, like, fine, you guys have your fans and you have your fights and your whatever, but leave me out of it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I couldn't believe the story that Brendan was saying about his former podcast partner, Richard Bain.
Marc:Oh, yeah, that was crazy.
Marc:I didn't know anything about that.
Guest:Yeah, that was, I mean, I was like floored when I heard that.
Guest:Yeah, just wild.
Guest:But I did love Mark's idea of you only need two friends.
Guest:One for, two, what was it?
Guest:It was one for when the other friend gets drained.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, you got the main guy and then the guy you go to when you drain the main guy.
Guest:I often feel that way about you.
Guest:I'm like, oh, my God, I'm just draining Brendan with all this fucking just me complaining or scared about the election.
Guest:You're just like, oh, my God, this guy or like the Mets.
Marc:One thing that will never be said about me is that I don't properly construct boundaries.
Marc:I'm very good with boundaries.
Marc:If I need to take a break from something, I can take a break.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Also, Greg Fitzsimmons, WNEW alumni somehow.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:That's crazy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, his dad was a big deal.
Marc:I remember that.
Marc:It's so funny.
Marc:I like how, you know, Mark, you know, he was like, oh, your dad was the radio guy.
Marc:And I like went back and listened to the old episode they did, which is like 15 years ago.
Marc:But they talked all about that.
Marc:He didn't remember a thing about that.
Marc:Which is funny.
Marc:Like, that was why he was like, hey, Ali Makovsky, I'm ready to have you on because I needed time to pass so I could forget what we talked about on the road.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:She was great.
Guest:Also, one of these funny comedians who is...
Marc:working with mark and joe rogan so i thought that was look see you can do it you talk about the stuff with brendan walsh and i was like that that's a good episode to listen to to hear like how this is almost like uh you know warlord situation like you can't upset the tribal chief you know and and and this guy found himself doing that and then being on the outs whereas when you listen to it with
Guest:ally talking about it you're like oh this is a person who has figured out how to coast through in both worlds yes you know gleam the cube so to speak yeah yeah yeah and uh i i fascinating that she was a radio kid uh working with the right ryan seacrest team like that is well the whole story is just great like the like i
Marc:I put it in the episode description.
Marc:I'm like, well, we've never had an origin story like this on the show before where a person got their start in show business because as a seven year old made a spontaneous phone call to the live radio show with the famous DJ.
Guest:I'm going to look that up on YouTube.
Guest:Hopefully they're there.
Marc:You know, I did take a look and really what you mostly find is like her now talking to Ryan Seacrest.
Marc:Yeah, like on his show now.
Marc:I don't... You know, you remember this from the Air America days.
Marc:It's like stuff didn't... If it was on...
Marc:terrestrial radio, it's just gone.
Marc:It went into the ether.
Guest:Yep.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's not a solid.
Guest:It's a, yeah, for sure.
Guest:By the way, speaking of Ryan Seacrest, have you seen the Wheel of Fortune changes that they made?
Guest:No.
Guest:Oh, it's god awful.
Guest:I mean.
Guest:Oh no, what happened?
Guest:So the final mystery, you know, the final puzzle, you know, you get your standard letters.
Guest:RST, L, and E. Uh-huh.
Guest:Well, now they have a sponsor for that.
Guest:The sponsor is LG.
Guest:So guess what letters you also get?
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:Yeah, you get LG now.
Guest:Who needs a G?
Guest:Right, but also it unlocks everything.
Guest:Like if it's an ING, you get it.
Guest:Like it ruins it.
Marc:Is everyone getting it?
Guest:Well, there's only been, I think, two episodes and one person has gotten it because of the LNG specifically.
Marc:But they should get rid of another letter then.
Guest:Yes, yeah.
Guest:They should get rid of the, I don't know, N or something.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:And make it harder.
Guest:It's too easy now.
Guest:But yeah, not a fan of the Ryan Seacrest Wheel of Fortune so far.
Marc:What if they get sponsored by like that kitchen brand, OXO?
Marc:Like that would fuck you up.
Guest:Especially because you never pick those.
Guest:Yeah, you'll never get an X and you rarely get an O. Right.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:So you had Chris Robinson on.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:I was waiting for this.
Marc:I was waiting to talk about this.
Guest:And I'm listening to this in India.
Guest:I'm driving down the highway looking at fucking cows.
Guest:And they start talking and they're doing their thing where they just talk about all these artists and songs that influenced, you know, both Chris and Mark and I. Oh, so you could never, you couldn't make your playlists?
Guest:No, I had to pause it and I listened to it when I came home and I made another Sonic playlist for the Chris Robinson episode.
Guest:Oh, excellent.
Guest:I'll send that to you.
Guest:And I got to say, it's fascinating how different all of these, you know, playlists can be.
Marc:But the reason I was waiting to talk to you about this was, do you remember the huge, huge fight that Mark and Dan Pashman had in the office?
Marc:You probably don't remember this because it was in the office at Air America and you were always upstairs in the studio.
Marc:okay so this was early on where early on it was the first time because i remember sitting there and being like i thought they were joking at first i thought mark was joking and then i was like oh no he's serious and he's pissed off and then i was like do we have to like do something about this because it's going to be like like it doesn't seem like co-workers should be getting in a fight like this what was it about
Marc:Dan said the black crows were good.
Marc:And, and Mark was like, they fucking suck.
Marc:And, and Dan was like defending them.
Marc:And every time he defended them, Mark was just getting angrier and angrier.
Marc:And that was like, I thought it was like a joke at first.
Marc:And then finally, like, he was just like, you don't know what you're fucking talking about.
Marc:Like,
Marc:He was so mad about the Black Crows.
Marc:So that episode airs, it comes up, and I see this text on my phone the morning that we posted it, and it says, Pashman, and it's a text to me and Mark.
Marc:And it says, can't wait to hear your conversation with Chris Robinson.
Marc:Did you tell him about how terrible you said his band was back on Morning Sedition and that I defended them?
Marc:and i didn't want to respond i want to like let mark respond to that like i didn't want to like you know you know edge the joke or whatever yeah and we waited like i waited a good like two hours probably i don't know if mark was awake when dan first sent this and the only thing that came back was mark said my feelings haven't changed no
Guest:Incredible.
Guest:Incredible.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But they had a great conversation and, you know, Mark liked talking to him.
Marc:You know, that's a good lesson.
Marc:Like, it can happen.
Marc:He doesn't have to love the thing the guy's doing to, you know, have a good talk with him.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:And that guy was lovely.
Guest:I mean, fuck, man.
Guest:He was able to talk about, like, bring up Albert Brooks' real life.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Talk about, like, food doesn't make things better.
Guest:It does.
Guest:It really does.
Guest:Also, who has a nitrous tank?
Guest:That just seems... I don't know, man.
Guest:When I think I party and hang out, I guess people have...
Marc:different levels of partying because a nitrous tank was never in my life or well because when you party and hang out you do it at a kind of minimal level the ceiling is very low yeah when you're a rock star and you're partying all the time the ceiling goes very high and
Marc:And the things you've used that to you and me might be above our ceiling.
Marc:They're now old hat to you as the partier.
Marc:So you have to go find other things like that's just the that's the that's the user's brain, man.
Guest:Yeah, I mean, he is like the character from Almost Famous, which is wild that Kate Hudson married basically the guy from Almost Famous.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:It's just nuts.
Guest:An episode that was near and dear to my heart as a stutterer, Drew Lynch was on your show.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I was going to ask you about that, although that's a crazy thing.
Marc:I knew he was a stutterer from when he was on Marin, and he still had a very pronounced stutter even in that show.
Marc:But I had no idea that it was a thing he developed from an accident.
Marc:That's crazy.
Guest:An accident, a softball accident, like a voluntary softball accident.
Guest:Yeah, right.
Guest:That's crazy.
Guest:crazy to me like did the comedy club just like stop doing their softball club after that like that is unbelievable and also it just sounds like a freak accident like he fell down and hit his head yeah also that's one of the reasons why i never want to do like a recreational like softball team because i'm just like i don't want to get hurt what am i gonna yeah yeah
Marc:I mean, beyond banging your head, it's like, if you made me sprint down first baseline right now, I guarantee I would tear 30 things.
Guest:Yes, absolutely.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:It's funny that Mark said, like, oh, and the spectrum of tragic books that are worst ones.
Guest:And I'm like, well, I mean, there are, but there aren't.
Guest:Like, this guy was suffered through a whole fucking, like, he couldn't figure out his brain.
Marc:Yeah, and his, like, emergent career just got completely scuttled.
Guest:So scary.
Guest:I'm just so glad he is able to talk, honestly, and be here because that is terrifying.
Guest:I don't know if I would be able to come back from that injury.
Guest:That is wild.
Guest:Also, like, the fucking comment about him walking into that comedy club being like, what are you doing here?
Guest:This isn't flappers.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:That is totally something Marc Maron would say.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, 100%.
Guest:Also, I loved the entire time Marc was just mad at his name being on a cake.
Guest:Like, it was a great runner throughout the entire fucking episode.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Your name isn't on an edible wall.
Guest:But I also like that Drew said what I honestly think is the genius of the show is that when he wakes up, he's like Marc Maron.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I honestly think that is why this show is so successful is because Marc is who he is.
Guest:And Marc is allowed to be Marc.
Guest:And we're all Marc.
Guest:You know, he's just an uncontrollable man.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And if you're not, Mark, you know someone around you who is, and this helps you understand it a little better.
Guest:Yeah, totally.
Guest:And then this last Thursday, you had Allie, Allie Makovsky, I want to say.
Marc:You got it.
Guest:Look at me.
Guest:She was great.
Guest:But I love the monologue of Mark is just now watching The American Office podcast.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Marc:I was actually, he and I are going to record something this weekend for, for next week's bonus.
Marc:And you know, a lot of times he just wants to talk about a movie or something that I, I think I want to try to get him to talk about the office.
Marc:Like I, I want to know, like, I think I have my ideas about it.
Marc:But it's like this idea that he can't get into situation comedy because it makes him too anxious.
Marc:It's like there's like a weird skeleton key thing about that.
Marc:You remember when we were working at Air America and like it was like within the first few months of us working together and someone was taking orders for food or something.
Marc:And they're like.
Marc:you know, we were getting like Mexican food and Dan Pashman was like, yeah, I'll have this, but hold the hot sauce or whatever.
Marc:And Mark was like, well, why don't you want that hot sauce?
Marc:That's the best part.
Marc:And Dan goes, oh, I don't eat spicy foods.
Marc:And it was like a week later.
Marc:mark came into the office it's you know it's three in the morning is when we start the show and uh he's like i couldn't sleep last night i woke up in the middle of sleep like like in a movie i sat up in bed and i said dan doesn't eat spicy foods he's like it made it explained everything about him i figured it all out like right there
Marc:And I feel like that was the same thing.
Marc:Like, like so much of my life I've been like, you know, I think I understand Mark very well, but of course he's got some like enigmatic parts of him.
Marc:The fact that he's made anxious by situation comedies is such a skeleton key to his soul.
Guest:Oh, this is great.
Guest:This is great.
Guest:I can't wait to hear you, you diagnose him and just his, his response to.
Marc:Well, it's like, cause on the one level, part of it is like this show in particular is a show about office work.
Marc:He's never fucking done that in his life.
Marc:It's like an alien looking at it.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:So like all the things that most people found like relatable, even though in its exaggerated way, as it was presented on the office, like they found, you know, a common ground with these characters that, you know, that's why the show was successful.
Marc:And Mark has none of that.
Marc:Right.
Marc:It's I, I always go back to this.
Marc:He said it recently, said it in that same monologue that he doesn't like the big Lebowski.
Guest:Yeah.
Yeah.
Marc:I know why he doesn't like it.
Marc:Why?
Marc:Because it's about friends.
Marc:He doesn't have friends.
Marc:You can't relate.
Marc:Like Walter and the dude.
Marc:Like, he doesn't...