BONUS The Friday Show - Honky Tonk Man
Marc:I was literally right next to the musicians.
Marc:Like, I could reach out and touch them.
Marc:Like, it was surreal.
Guest:Sir, please don't touch the musicians.
Marc:Yes, exactly.
Marc:Hey, Chris.
Marc:Brendan.
Marc:Good to see you.
Marc:How's it going?
Marc:It's going well.
Marc:I just got back from Tennessee, so I'm doing well.
Marc:I'm a little bleary-eyed, but I'm here.
Marc:You did.
Marc:I mean, you're on a whole trip.
Guest:We'll have to find out everything you did, because we've done little travel guide tips from you before, but I feel like this was a very Chris kind of trip.
Guest:You made it on the spur of the moment, mostly because you just heard something on WTF.
Guest:But then, you know, it kind of took you all throughout various terrains and locales.
Guest:And you did like the the woodsy, rustic type things, the nature things.
Guest:You did the city things.
Guest:So we'll get a whole blow by blow of your trip to the Smoky Mountains.
Marc:Awesome.
Marc:And before that, though, I want to ask you about just this week's episodes because a lot of stuff happened this week.
Marc:First of all, Paul Scheer, who is honestly one of my favorite people.
Marc:I wouldn't even say comedian, podcast host, just people.
Guest:Well, a surefire podcast guest, I should say.
Marc:You're always going to have a good time with Paul.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, that actually leads me to my first question.
Marc:Do you ever have to do research for Paul?
Marc:Like, did you like have to read his book?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, mostly out of enjoyment.
Guest:Like, you know, they sent the book and I was like, oh, cool.
Guest:I want to read Paul's book.
Guest:But, you know, it was interesting because, you know, part of it was like, yeah, like exactly what I'm saying.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Paul Scheer.
Guest:He's great.
Guest:Let's have him back.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:looking at the book and then you know i came across the fact that he thanked mark in it to say that like you know the conversation he and mark had was really kind of set him down this path and i you know i realized in doing that like oh this conversation can basically be like part two of a part one that was you know 14 15 years ago so you know like
Guest:And let's connect these things.
Guest:And when I was listening to it, I was like, man, I got to just play this clip from the first time he was on back in 2010.
Guest:It wasn't enough to just direct people to it.
Guest:It felt integral to having him back was to make sure everybody was on the same page with where he started, you know, and I don't know that a lot of people were.
Guest:So it just felt, it felt important to me having read the book.
Guest:And, and so, yeah, that was in terms of research, that was as far as it went, you know, in terms of when that happens, when we have people back, do we do research on them?
Guest:I think it just depends.
Guest:I think sometimes it's somebody like Mark's like,
Guest:this is my friend or someone I'm more closely attuned to, and he could just have him back and talk.
Guest:But then there's some people where it's just like, we haven't had him on in a while.
Guest:Let's find out.
Guest:Let me do a little digging into what's been going on with this person's life.
Marc:So...
Marc:In the episode, you bleeped out the stepdad's name.
Marc:But then... Yes.
Marc:Wasn't Paul saying his name in the interview?
Guest:He was saying the name he's making up for him in the book.
Guest:Gotcha.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So that's a made-up name.
Guest:You know, you're not the only one with that confusion.
Guest:And I thought that was very clear, but I think I'm wrong.
Guest:I think that it was not clear.
Guest:Because, you know, when Mark said, he's deciding not to use his real name in the book.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:So we're taking out the real name from the old episode.
Guest:But then when he's talking about it in current time, he's using the name he made up so that he can, you know, not identify this guy.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:I thought there was a missed bleep, you know.
Guest:Oh, you're not the only one.
Guest:And like I said, it's an error on my part because I thought that was clear.
Guest:But in hearing how everybody assumed we made a mistake, that's the thing.
Guest:I'm aware of my competence.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right?
Guest:So I know I didn't make a mistake.
Guest:But if you're just listening, the first thing you think is, oh, they made a mistake.
Guest:Like, you know, you're not in my head to know, oh, I've fully got this covered, you know?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Are you like me when you make mistakes?
Marc:Do you like...
Guest:think about them like years after or you just like well not something like that no well i mean that's not a mistake you know you you you did the appropriate thing but well that's an appropriate thing but an error in you know a kind of editorial judgment and i'll i'll like fess up to that kind of like ah yeah that's on me i did it but does it lose sleep over it no i did not
Guest:A thing where I will... Yes, certain mistakes can haunt me.
Guest:And one that's very interesting, it goes along with a redacted thing, was I was cutting out a thing in... It was Andy Dick's episode.
Guest:And...
Guest:I missed a thing that he had said that essentially, uh, was like slanderous to somebody that he was mentioning.
Guest:I don't, I don't even get into further details about it because it was, it was very problematic, but somebody like, you know, there was, he had admitted to a felony in that.
Guest:And I, so like, it was a kind of like a messy episode and I had done a lot of cleanup on it.
Guest:And, uh,
Guest:this thing just slipped past me that he very quickly mentioned a person's full name, which again, it's like part of it is through experience, right?
Guest:That episode, it wasn't that early, but it was early enough that like my instincts weren't totally honed on that stuff yet.
Guest:But like for instance, Jewel, like the Jewel episode made me very nervous
Guest:Because every time she brought something up about a family member, this or that, I had to go make sure that was absolutely fully remarked upon somewhere else.
Guest:And in public, she has said way more detail about her mom stealing money from her.
Guest:but like that's the kind of thing that when i hear a person's like oh yeah my mom stole money from me like i i can't just keep going i have to check that i have to verify it i like because that puts us on the hook if we air that and a person decides i didn't fucking steal money from my daughter jewel and now i'm suing jewel and i'm suing this fucking show she was on i see i guess
Guest:And I got news for you.
Guest:There is a way to protect against this.
Guest:It's not the greatest way to protect against it, but it's called errors and omissions insurance.
Guest:And it is so onerously expensive that we don't have it.
Guest:Oh, I was going to ask.
Guest:Yeah, like that, you know, a major corporation has that, right?
Guest:NBC has that so that when they get sued by George Zimmerman, which they did and lost, you know, the insurance covers that, right?
Guest:But we don't have it because, frankly, you know, you'd be paying a lot more than $5 for the full Marin if we had it, frankly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And and so, you know, what I the reason why we don't have it is because I'm like, no, look, we're not journalists.
Guest:Right.
Guest:This is not a this is not 60 minutes.
Guest:If somebody says something and I feel I can't keep it in the show because of legal issues.
Guest:problem.
Guest:I'm going to take it out.
Guest:And I'm, I'm sensitive to that now, especially after that Andy Dick situation where I didn't even finish the story.
Guest:Someone emailed saying, I don't think he should have said that person's name.
Guest:Like it was nuanced, right?
Guest:It was like, it was the reason why it went by me was because it didn't really occur to me that the thing he was saying about this person could have been bad.
Guest:And the person wrote in emailing saying, I think that's, you know, a problem, right?
Guest:Like, I think that that's,
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was like, I think this person emailing is right.
Guest:And I scrambled to go take care of it.
Guest:And just because it was it had been up for a few hours and people had heard it.
Guest:I was like just racked with nerves over that for days and days thinking like I fucked this up.
Guest:And so, yeah, like that's the kind of thing that will stick with me and make me, you know, concerned.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Once an episode is published, can you ever go and re-edit it so it's, yeah?
Marc:Okay, so is that what you did for those episodes?
Marc:Okay, gotcha.
Guest:But you know, it's like if anybody like downloads it, that's too late, right?
Guest:They've got the one that, you know, has the thing that I didn't want in.
Marc:So another thing that, you know, maybe did you think about cutting out was part of Mark's act.
Marc:This recent set he used in the monologue.
Guest:That was fully intentional.
Guest:He told me to leave all that in.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:OK, because I was I was shocked to hear that, honestly.
Guest:Yeah, basically the entire you know, there's an entire five to seven minute section of Thursday's monologue.
Guest:That's that's a straight up chunk from his act without the audience.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He's just from start to finish.
Guest:It's the full like set piece of his act, current act.
Guest:In fact, includes something that he's been teasing for many months, which was like a line that Chris Rock gave him.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:And yeah, we've not been including that, but I think it was, I think what happened, something specific happened to him.
Guest:I'll try to tread lightly on this and explain it as best I can.
Guest:He was aware of another comic that,
Guest:doing a bit that he felt was very similar to what he does in that, in that set piece.
Guest:And he says, he knows that comic was in the room when he did it once at the comedy store.
Guest:And then now all of a sudden he was hearing that this comic was doing it on the road, a similar bit, like with a similar punchline specifically around the casinos.
Guest:And,
Guest:And he spoke to this comic, said, I don't know if you are doing this on purpose, but that was totally something I've been working out.
Guest:And, you know, I know that you heard me do it.
Guest:Like, we talked the night that I did this.
Guest:So, you know...
Guest:I just want to know, like, are you going to go use this or something?
Guest:And the comic wrote back to him and said, you know, I have no idea that it was something that you were doing.
Guest:I was literally just riffing.
Guest:I don't have a set right now.
Guest:I don't have any plans to do a set, blah, blah, blah.
Okay.
Guest:So they kind of like, as a, as a issue between them, it was nothing.
Guest:It was, it's not like a beef, but Mark was like, I need to plant that in the world.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So that it doesn't get taken.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So he, cause it's going to be like a big part of his, when he eventually tapes this as a special.
Guest:And his big concern is that right now he's had to like, he basically, you know, doesn't have any more dates until September because of the TV show he's doing.
Guest:So he had to be like,
Guest:You know, I'm not out there on the road doing this stuff.
Guest:If someone else starts doing a similar joke and getting like momentum with it, I'm out of the picture while they're doing that.
Guest:And then I lose the bit.
Guest:And it's a big, important bit for his act.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:So he needed to sort of put it on the record, basically.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:Yeah, that's right.
Guest:I got you.
Guest:Which I frankly, had he just done it, right?
Guest:Had he like been like, I'm bored today.
Guest:I'm going to like do my bit.
Guest:I would have cut it out and I would have told him like, don't do that in here.
Guest:Because here's frankly why I don't care about the joke he got from Chris Rock.
Guest:to me listening to the bit and you've seen the bit, right?
Guest:You, you, you've seen everything he did.
Guest:I feel like that bit needs an audience though.
Guest:The particularly the stuff about how it builds to the punchline about the casinos, right?
Guest:Part of what is enjoyable about seeing that with an audience is feeling their tension about like, where is he going with this about Israel and Palestine?
Guest:Is it going to be, am I going to boo?
Guest:Like,
Guest:Like, is this going to make me uncomfortable or whatever?
Guest:And then that he does this like jujitsu move where he essentially shows his hand, right?
Guest:About like where he stands on things.
Guest:But it's through this joke about we're all fucking imperialists and we all take over territories and give the scraps to the people we've colonized, right?
Guest:And...
Guest:The catharsis in the room is real when he does that bit.
Guest:People really enjoy that it got to that spot.
Guest:And I find it very enjoyable.
Guest:And if he was just doing it because he was like, I'd be like, you can talk for 10 minutes without burning one of your bits.
Guest:But this was not a situation where he just decided to burn a bit.
Guest:It was strategic.
Marc:I gotcha.
Marc:And I must say, I think about that all the time when, you know, with Mark's conversation, that other comic about like, hey, you were in that room when you heard me do this bit.
Marc:I think about that all the time for just everything.
Marc:I feel like I am a sponge and I'm just using bits of what people are saying in everything.
Marc:in most of my conversation with people is basically a ripoff of Ace Ventura or like, you know, all kinds of, you know, stuff that I, that I, that's, that's, that's basically what, what Robin Williams said would happen, right?
Guest:That he would just be, he had to stop going to comedy clubs because he would just start absorbing people's material.
Guest:And Mark,
Guest:I remember him telling me this once, that he was at the Throckmorton outside of San Francisco, which was the club that Robin would go to a lot.
Guest:And Mark was performing there, and he did his thing, and Robin was in the audience, and they were talking afterwards.
Guest:And...
Guest:you know robin was doing the thing like that chris rock was doing like you know you do a little talk and you give the comic a little tag maybe they use it maybe they don't but as mark said he was talking to robin and robin was like oh you know and when you do like this and he started doing the bit in front of mark but it was like with like 90 of mark's words yeah but then with like robin peppered in and mark in his head was like that's how it happens
Guest:right that's why this guy gets this rep like that he steals everyone's jokes because he just absorbed this thing and made it his yeah which in probably in robin's mind then and there it totally was his thing like he had just done the alchemy on it to turn it into something else yeah
Marc:Yeah, it's a yeah, it's a it's a must be a dangerous time to, you know, for a comic to see other comics to to and not have that seep in because I'm sure all comics have that sort of mentality.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So no, I mean, Mark has said he even did it himself that time.
Guest:He did it once with a with a Bill Hicks thing and he went on Conan and and said the Bill Hicks line.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, that's right.
Guest:And it's just like, yeah, I, I know that feeling and I'm not a professional comedian, but you know, it's like, even with something that's not a joke, but it's like somebody says something particularly smart or insightful and that, and then you say it to somebody else, like it's your own thought.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And like, like I do that in conversation and to a point that I sometimes like have to like reference it.
Marc:It's like, I'm a, I'm my own book and I, I need to add a note to it.
Guest:I think that's totally valid.
Guest:I do the same thing.
Guest:I always now have a mental footnote thing on something.
Guest:That's what it is.
Guest:That's what it is.
Guest:That was from an internet video I saw about two guys making pies.
Yes!
Marc:It is so, so weird.
Marc:I'm always like, yeah, make a good making note for everyone who's listening to me talk.
Marc:Also, Mark is so very much like Tony Soprano.
Marc:Like it is hilarious.
Marc:Like even talking about the animals.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The Hitler, the Hitler doc.
Marc:And yeah, he's like, you killed the dog.
Yes.
Marc:He was like, all kind of like, all right, Hitler, I get it.
Marc:He killed the dog.
Guest:I do remind Mark every now and then that when he's talking about this stuff, I've had this exact conversation with him about Tony Soprano and he laughs and I'm like, yes, but you should remember this is what in the very end of the series.
Guest:finally tips dr melfi over the edge to realize that he's an irredeemable sociopath because she reads a book like one of her psychologist friends yeah gives it tells her to read something about like the criminal mind and she finds a passage in there that says like oh yeah they sublimate all their uh feelings into uh animals and babies oh it's amazing and like
Guest:but but truthfully they're very cunning and they you know like don't believe that stuff and that's when she decides like i gotta stop doing this i can't can't be there anymore that's incredible yeah
Marc:I really enjoyed Paul Scheer saying that he spent money on a Quentin Tarantino autograph, which is something I have not done.
Marc:I do not understand the autograph game.
Marc:Have you ever – do you have an autograph from Quentin Tarantino?
Marc:You met him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Actually, other than when I was a little kid and you'd do the stand outside the stage door of a Broadway show and people sign your playbill, which I definitely did that.
Guest:I never got any autographs from a celebrity ever other than wrestlers.
Guest:I always got autographs from wrestlers because I would always have a wrestling magazine with me or something.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, and also I think it goes back to a time, I think it's all like imprinting stuff, right?
Guest:Like my grandfather worked with someone who like, I forget what her connection was to the WWF.
Guest:But one day he told me, I have a surprise for you.
Guest:And he brought me a manila envelope that was full of like eight by tens of the wrestlers, like maybe like eight or nine wrestlers.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:And they had autographed them to me.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Like to Brendan, best wishes, Rowdy Rowdy Piper, like things like that.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:And it was because this woman he worked with, you know, went around to the wrestlers and was like, oh, can you autograph this for my boss's grandson or whatever?
Guest:Incredible.
Guest:And I think because I got that when I was like eight years old or something, I always then was like, well, I get wrestler autographs.
Guest:So anytime I would see a wrestler at an event or something, if I had a magazine with me or something with their picture, I would get them to sign it.
Guest:I got them to sign shirts, all sorts of things like that, which I think some people are like with baseball players, right?
Guest:I used to have friends in high school who sent the cards to the players to get them to sign them.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:And I didn't know you could do that.
Guest:And I thought it was like, I remember...
Guest:My friend had this whole binder with the sleeves that had autographed cards in them.
Guest:And I was like, how much did this cost you to get this?
Guest:And he was like, the cost of two stamps.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's like, you just send them the card, send them a nice letter that says, I'm your biggest fan.
Guest:And they sign it.
Guest:And as long as there's a self-addressed stamped envelope in there, they send it back.
Marc:Oh, interesting.
Marc:I didn't know you could do that.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, I didn't either.
Guest:I mean, I bet you can't do it now.
Guest:But I think it was just like something that was more accessible back then.
Guest:Also, because of now, Mark was talking about this with Paul Scheer about how there's these like people who like...
Marc:because of ebay and things like that online auctions like they're always standing at the airports or outside events and it's like weird creeps who are just all like yeah like trying to get your autograph yeah like yeah when you're a kid i get it it's like cute and fun like the only time i ever did it i had a blue book an autograph book and uh i went and got mickey mouse donald duck and yes looking back i'm like what was i doing like what
Guest:No, but you know, I do like that.
Guest:My son does that when we go to Disney World.
Guest:He gets the autographs of the characters.
Guest:What I really like about that is studying what happened from one year to the next.
Guest:And it's really fascinating that the signatures are always the same.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:They train them to have the exact signature for that character.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Wow.
Marc:So it's like a Michael Jordan impersonator.
Marc:You have to write like Michael Jordan does.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like, and it's, it's, it's pretty indistinguishable.
Guest:Like, like it's only, you can only tell differences that you could easily chalk up to, Oh, their hand was a little shaky right there.
Guest:Like, cause they're holding a thing in a big suit.
Guest:So like they definitely sign exactly the same.
Marc:I find that pretty fascinating.
Marc:Oh, me too.
Marc:Cause like now I'm thinking like, do they take classes?
Marc:It's like, Oh man, I think so.
Marc:I have my handwriting.
Guest:I think you have to do Pluto's signature class.
Yeah.
Marc:Like a whole school.
Marc:Well, my goodness.
Marc:That's pretty fascinating, honestly.
Marc:That's a hell of a joke.
Guest:I think what you said, though, is a good rule.
Guest:It's like when you're not a kid, no more autographs.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:My friend, our friend, Mike Batistic, he was in a production meeting and LeBron James was there.
Guest:Cool.
Guest:Yeah, because his production company was involved with something, having to do it.
Guest:And, you know, my buddy, you know, Mike, he like has zero boundaries.
Guest:It's like, you know, it's like a giant puppy dog.
Guest:And he went out to LeBron and he was like, LeBron, can I have your autograph?
Guest:And LeBron goes, no man, kids only.
Marc:Thank you.
Marc:What did Mike respond to?
Marc:He was like, oh, I get it.
Marc:That makes sense.
Yep.
Marc:LeBron gets it.
Marc:Now Mike also gets it.
Guest:Also, I think LeBron is low-key one of the funniest dudes ever to live.
Guest:Why do you say that?
Guest:Just a great response.
Guest:No, man.
Guest:Kids only.
Guest:Did you ever see that clip of LeBron is courtside?
Guest:This was like...
Guest:two maybe it was during this season he's courtside and there's these two women hanging on him like they're sitting there they're like in they're listening to every word he says they're looking at gazing at him he's he's lebron he's a and you you know he's being shot from like the court right like like and it was being done
Guest:on tv right like oh and there's lebron james and these two women are like you know fawning over him and you can read his lips he holds his hands up to one of the women as she's talking and he says first of all happy international women's day and then
Guest:They're like hugging him then.
Guest:I was like, oh my God, this dude, not only does he have the most riz alive, he's hilarious in doing it.
Guest:He's got timing.
Marc:He's got good timing.
Guest:First of all, happy International Women's Day.
Marc:That's fantastic.
Marc:Can I say, if you or Mark, if Mark needs, like, a ball guy, I'll totally be Mark's ball guy.
Marc:Like, what do you need?
Guest:When you said that, I had no idea what he meant.
Guest:Like, what?
Guest:He washes Mark Wahlberg's balls?
Guest:Like, what?
Guest:Like, what are those...
Marc:Those washers?
Guest:Like golf.
Guest:But yeah, no, this guy just shows up and throws balls around to Mark Wahlberg.
Marc:Also, I totally get it.
Marc:If I was an actor and I wanted to stay loose, like, hey, get the nerf.
Marc:No, no, no, the blue one.
Marc:Oh, yeah, that's the good one.
Marc:Like, you know, like, oh, you know what?
Marc:You know, this is a nice wall here.
Marc:Give me the handball.
Marc:Like, oh, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Good handball wall.
Marc:This is great.
Guest:Well, this is why Mark has so much time struggling on movie sets.
Marc:He doesn't have a ball guy.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And also because Mark Wahlberg can just be entertained with the ball.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like, it's like...
Guest:Like, I was thinking about that.
Guest:Like, do you remember there were these videos that he put up?
Guest:Like, he does these, you know, get prayered up videos and that.
Guest:Like, he's way religious, Mark Wahlberg.
Guest:And I remember one of them, like, he was showing his schedule.
Guest:And it was like, he gets up at like 5 a.m.
Guest:every single day, no matter what day it is.
Guest:That's like workout routine, prayer, eat, more workout, more prayer, go to work.
Guest:All like just all the details.
Guest:Like and I think that most of the like people who are like fanatically good at being an actor, being a celebrity, like that's why they have everything so regimented.
Guest:And yeah, I just think he is one of those guys.
Guest:Tom Cruise is like that too, apparently.
Guest:I just saw a story about Doug Liman, the director who made Edge of Tomorrow.
Guest:And he also made that one that not a lot of people saw, but it was called like American Made, I think, with Tom Cruise.
Marc:Yeah, I saw American Made.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he was saying that, you know, they were just going nonstop, no breaks, like just working every day.
Guest:And Tom Cruise, just an animal working all the time.
Guest:And Tom Cruise's birthday is July 3rd.
Guest:This is why I just read this story because somebody posted it on his birthday.
Guest:And he, uh,
Guest:Doug Liman was like, oh, good.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:So we got the third coming up.
Guest:And then the fourth is like a mandated day off because it's a holiday.
Guest:So we're going to have finally have like two days off back to back.
Guest:We have a day off guaranteed.
Guest:Maybe I can parlay that into two days off back to back because Tom's birthday is on the third.
Guest:So we could say like, and, uh,
Guest:He says to Tom Cruise, like, hey, we could do a long weekend here with two days off.
Guest:We just give everybody your birthday off.
Guest:We do something for your birthday.
Guest:And Tom Cruise is like, that's a great idea.
Guest:Let's give everybody the day off on the third and the fourth.
Guest:And then what we can do...
Guest:I've been intending to watch.
Guest:There's that eight hour aviation course that we've been putting off about like, you know, to teach us stuff about the planes and some, some technical thing having to do with the, the, the making of the movie.
Guest:And it was going to be eight hours long.
Guest:And he's like, so let's, why don't we do that while every, everybody else can go have the day off, but we can finally fit this thing in.
Guest:And Doug Lyman, who was just like exhausted and he thought he was going to like turn this into two days off.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He was like, oh, okay, but it's your birthday.
Guest:Is that what you want to do on your birthday?
Guest:And Cruz stared him square in the eyes.
Guest:He goes, yes, this is what I want for my birthday.
Guest:I want to make a movie.
Marc:Fantastic.
Guest:And so I hear those things and I'm like, oh yeah, this is why Mark has no shot on sets.
Guest:Because he is not that guy.
Guest:He is not the guy who's just laser-focused devotion to this project that they're working on.
Marc:Well, you know, I think Mark needs a cat guy.
Marc:It's like, hey.
Marc:Just bring a cat around.
Marc:You want a tabby?
Marc:Oh, no, no, no.
Marc:You want the black one?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Just pulling him out of bags?
Marc:It would just be like 30 Rock had that recurring joke of the animal wrangler or whatever.
Marc:That's what I could be for Mark.
Guest:Honestly, I should talk to his manager about that.
Guest:It's like there are seriously things they should work into whatever his next contract is.
Guest:You have to factor in the Mark boredom allowance and get something to deal with this so that you don't have all these problems stemming from it.
Marc:bring shelter animals, you know, like the little day trip to, uh, to, to, uh, help Mark on set, like without question, have that in his writer.
Guest:Uh, now I know we're jumping back and forth here, but the, the Paul Scheer episode did have some great stories about, uh, his like celebrity encounters, like the Christopher Walken one, man.
Marc:And where was that going?
Marc:I was a, that would say you were leading, he was leading me down a very dark hallway and
Marc:And I was not sure where the hallway went.
Marc:And I was scared.
Guest:I think that was the intention.
Guest:But I will, I take this opportunity to plug his book because he has so many more in there to the point where I was like, I think Paul Scheer might be cursed.
Guest:Like he's got the worst celebrity encounters.
Guest:And like any given one of them would be bad.
Guest:And he has like 20.
Guest:Not to blow up his spot, but the one about Sam Jackson, which just killed me, that he said was when they were making the movie Shaft and they were filming it in his neighborhood.
Guest:And again, the autograph situation comes back to haunt him.
Guest:So he's basically a collector of autographs.
Guest:And he loves Sam Jackson.
Guest:He loves the movie Shaft, the original.
Guest:So he's like, I absolutely want to get Sam Jackson's autograph as he's playing Shaft.
Guest:So he knew where the trailers were.
Guest:He would walk by them every day in hopes that he would see Sam Jackson.
Guest:And he was never seeing him.
Guest:But he just kind of held out hope.
Guest:If he ever saw him, he would ask him for his autograph.
Guest:And then one day he's coming home from running errands, and he wasn't even looking for it, but just by happenstance, he turns the corner by where the trailers are, and there's Sam Jackson walking toward him.
Guest:They're going to meet near where the trailers are.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This big smile came across Paul Sears' face that he's so excited that he's going to see Sam Jackson and go up to him and ask him for his autograph.
Guest:And he says, as they got close and Sam Jackson locked eyes with him and clocked his face, he looked him up and down and went, fuck no, and got in the trailer.
Guest:and and paul was like i hadn't even asked for an autograph yet so he's like i didn't know if he was saying fuck no to signing an autograph or to my entire existence
Marc:That's incredible.
Marc:I am literally, as we're talking, I am hitting purchase on the Audible version of his book.
Marc:Oh, that's great.
Marc:That story itself sold me on it.
Marc:Holy shit.
Guest:Oh, well, then I won't tell you anymore, especially not the one about the guy from the Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
Guest:You can go hear that one yourself.
Guest:That was the other one I absolutely loved.
Marc:Awesome.
Guest:Good.
Guest:Well, yeah, maybe I've sold some more of Paul's books here just from that.
Marc:Oh, man, that's great.
Marc:I mean, look, there's a lot of stuff that we could talk about.
Marc:I love actors not doing social media.
Marc:And, like, Mark just, like, not understanding that, hey, you just don't have to do social media.
Marc:I know that's a thing that you personally hate.
Marc:But, like...
Marc:There are plenty of people.
Marc:Jason Manzoukas, another guy from How Did This Get Made, famously not on any social media.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:But I do think that Mark can't – he can never stop because it's just this – we've talked about it for 15 years.
Guest:There's a certain thing missing from him because of a kind of improper –
Guest:validation structure when he was younger like he did not have parents who built self-esteem in him yeah in fact he had the opposite they like you know damaged his self-esteem and so he needs this validation i can't tell you how many times like like it didn't get me to the point of like you know giving him an ultimatum or something but i absolutely like he trusts me very much on
Guest:Lots of things, particularly stuff that has to do with the business.
Guest:And if I say something like this is good for business or this is bad for business, he'll trust me on it.
Guest:And I don't think it's that he didn't believe me when I said this to him, but he just couldn't stop.
Guest:And that I was like, these Instagram things you're doing are bad for business.
Guest:Like there, there, there's a way to do it.
Guest:Like that was always my thing.
Guest:It's like, if you want to do it, there's a way that it's good, right?
Guest:There's a way to, that this is beneficial.
Guest:It helps your audience or whatever, but the way he was doing it and still does it to this day is I would call it reckless.
Guest:Like, I think it's, it's, it's like the equivalent of like,
Guest:for a celebrity, it's the equivalent of driving without a seatbelt or the equivalent of like, you know, uh, not wearing a helmet while you're on a motorcycle.
Guest:Like you might be great at what you're doing.
Guest:You might be totally fine.
Guest:It might be like a benign ride down the street or you hit a rock and you fall off and you crack your head open.
Guest:Cause you're not wearing a helmet.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I, I, I think like, that's always been my feeling like when,
Guest:Do things that you can control, not things that are totally out of your control.
Guest:And when you're in your house and you fucking turn a camera and microphone on live.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like anything can happen.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, so I've just told him these things over and over and over again.
Guest:And he's like, yeah, I get it.
Guest:I get it.
Guest:And he can't.
Guest:stop and it's the same with the social media like he no matter how bad fucking twitter gets it's terrible now it's like it's virtually useless yeah for like promotional reasons because it's been so uh screwed up by those blue checks right and so i
Guest:We use it for... Basically, it's like a bulletin board for the people who are already following us, right?
Guest:So if you're following us this way, now you know what's going to be on the show today or what's going to be on the show tomorrow.
Guest:We're not looking at it in terms of growth or whatever.
Guest:Frankly, the thing that's best for growth still for us is Facebook, oddly enough.
Guest:Weird.
Guest:Yeah, there's still some somewhat of a community around that.
Guest:And I think what Mark is finding is that the person who manages his TikTok page can help him get some, like the person managing the TikTok is doing a good job of like managing Mark's TikTok.
Guest:Whether that does anything for him in sales or in visibility, who knows?
Guest:But like the stuff that that guy is able to cut that has to do with Mark's comedy or the show, that has many more plays than cat videos or whatever, you know, like that Mark shoots around his house.
Guest:So like, yes, if you have someone, like you can get someone who has skill at using social media to help you with your social media.
Guest:But what he wants is the speedball effect of...
Guest:Oh, I see.
Guest:He wants people to connect with him.
Guest:He wants people to, like, give him positive feedback, but he also wants to see the negative feedback so that he can then respond to that and get in a fight.
Guest:This dude used to get in so many fights with, you know, Twitter eggs.
Guest:And, like, you know, I guarantee you could go back and find them because I don't think they're deleted.
Guest:But it was like, there'd be days where I would, like...
Guest:You know, just see his Twitter just completely blowing up.
Guest:And it was just like a hours long fight with a stranger.
Guest:And he he can't stop.
Guest:He it's a it's a compulsion.
Guest:What a waste of energy.
Guest:Jesus, I guess.
Guest:But so is doing cocaine and did that for a long time.
Guest:So, right.
Guest:I think it's the same thing.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Man.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:So, yeah, I really enjoy just being a fly on the wall.
Marc:That's what that bonus episode this week felt like.
Marc:It just felt like I was a fly on the wall where they were just talking about all this miscellaneous stuff.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:You know, talking about only murders in the building.
Marc:Fucking love that show.
Marc:So, yeah, just really enjoyed that.
Marc:And thank you for putting that as the bonus episode.
Guest:Mm-hmm.
Guest:Now I also fully realize that you know your job way better than I do.
Guest:And perhaps I'm some weird mutant outlier, but I never even look at the length of a show.
Guest:I have a queue of podcasts that just play whenever I'm in the car or want to listen anywhere else.
Guest:And I've listened to episodes that were three, four, and even five hours long and loved every minute of it.
Guest:I've never listened to any of the bonus content and thought to myself, I'm glad he edited that out.
Guest:I always find myself wishing it had been left in so I could have heard it in the context and in the flow of the conversation.
Guest:Again, I understand this may be just me who feels like this, but I would always rather have every drop of content in an episode left in regardless of how long it is.
Guest:Whether an episode is 30 minutes or five hours makes no difference to me.
Guest:I'm still going to be listening to it whenever I'm driving in the car or just feel like listening."
Guest:And believe me, I appreciate that.
Guest:And I would love it to be the case that anything goes, right?
Guest:Sure.
Guest:Here's the issue.
Guest:And I think I was much more inclined to think that way when we started.
Guest:I would err on the side of, is this one going to go to two hours?
Guest:Fine, let it go to two hours or whatever.
Yeah.
Guest:We are now no longer in a realm, though, where we deal just in the absolute audience of, you know, the, you know, 100,000 fans who caught on to WTF in the first two years or so.
Guest:It's a show that needs to kind of sustain itself and has for 15 years.
Guest:And one of the ways you do that is that you keep a regular listening audience that knows what they can rely on and come back to week after week.
Guest:And there are two episodes a week for most people, almost everyone, frankly, you know, the size of the number of people subscribe to the full Marin is nowhere near the size of the total audience.
Guest:So what you what I'm always conscious of is.
Guest:We have to avoid a situation in which this becomes burdensome to your regular listener.
Guest:And what burdensome can mean is just literally looking at your phone and being like, oh, fuck, I got three...
Guest:three hour episodes in a row that I haven't listened to yet.
Guest:And you know what happens when that starts to happen to people, they stop listening overall.
Guest:And that is a psychological pattern.
Guest:People will stop doing a thing they like just because they feel like they got behind on it.
Guest:And they're like, now if I, if I want to catch up, I need to go back to the ones I missed and I don't have the time for that.
Guest:And so I'm just going to cut it cold Turkey.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So you need to keep a manageable process.
Guest:presentation for your general audience.
Guest:That does not mean, and you could go through our episodes and see that there are times where we're like, this has to be longer.
Guest:Like we were not like the, the thing you're pointing out Heath about the, like hearing something in the context and flow of the conversation is,
Guest:There are things I will not cut out because I feel like they're important to the conversation, even if it's going to make the episode much longer than a typical episode.
Guest:And so the way we kind of split the difference on that is know that the Heaths of the world...
Guest:We'll want to hear everything and we can put everything or as close to everything as we can.
Guest:There's some stuff that you don't hear because it's an error or a mistake and that gets cut out.
Guest:But we can put close to everything here on the bonus feed for the people who are like you.
Guest:And I wouldn't say you're a weird mutant outlier.
Guest:In your words, I would say you're just a very devoted fan.
Guest:And the bottom line is that for all shows, not just ours, most of the audience is not a very devoted fan.
Guest:Most of the audience are casual listeners who enjoy the show.
Guest:And the best thing you could do is get a casual listener coming back habitually.
Guest:Like that, that doesn't mean that they're going to be like, I'm the most devoted to the show.
Guest:I'm going to buy everything that they do.
Guest:I'm going to do all the bonus stuff, but they'll be like, I listen twice a week and it's a very nice, easy fit.
Guest:If Terry gross, all of a sudden was doing four hour episodes of fresh air, there'd be lots of people who are like, I can't fucking listen to that.
Guest:Like there's five a week.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so I got to skip some of these and this is what helps prevent that.
Guest:And it's, I, you know, I,
Guest:the proof is in the pudding.
Guest:We've got a show that has sustained itself for this long.
Guest:So, uh, I, I, you know, I fully get what you're saying because I'm in the same boat.
Guest:Like I'm like, you know, just, yeah, give me the most, but it's, it's, uh, in terms of keeping your audience and, and, and growing the product and making it accessible to people, you do have to keep other people in mind.
Guest:And the other people are like, give me a show that is manageable.
Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And also, there is a quality control aspect of it, right?
Marc:Like, I sometimes listen to the podcast, like, in the car with my wife.
Marc:And, like, I'm sure other people do that with, like, their – whoever they're, you know, going to work or commuting with or with their kids.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It's one of those things where like – I know you've said this about wrestling where it's like just I want it to be so that when someone is also watching it, they're not – I'm not embarrassed by what is on the television.
Marc:And like that's how I feel about, you know, podcasts.
Marc:It's like, oh, gosh.
Marc:Like, yeah, this is a meandering –
Marc:thought that they just keep on going, you know, with, and it's like, Oh, I wish this was edited out.
Marc:Like, no, there's, is nothing with that, with your podcast.
Marc:It is a very controlled experience.
Marc:You know, it is a, it is a, you know, a tight ship.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And well, and if you have a fan like Heath who's, who listens and never thinks, Oh, I'm glad they edited that out when they hear it.
Guest:What I think is I, I, you're right.
Guest:I don't think to myself personally,
Guest:Oh, that had to be edited out because it's no good.
Guest:What I think when I hear those things that are cut out is like, I always know why they were cut out.
Guest:That's why I do these producer cuts.
Guest:And I explain this had to go for this reason, right?
Guest:Like it made sense to move the episode from point A to point B without this in between it.
Guest:But that doesn't mean it's bad.
Guest:It just means it's...
Guest:It's there for... Like, look, you could say this about anything.
Guest:Like, there are... Some of the greatest movies ever made had a director's work print that was four or five hours long.
Guest:And I'm sure there's lots and lots of stuff in that four or five hours that's awesome.
Guest:And the super devoted fans of that director or those movies would love to watch all four or five hours.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:I am dying to...
Guest:for Quentin Tarantino to release an extended version of once upon a time in Hollywood.
Marc:Zack Snyder fans loved the, uh, the Zack Snyder, the justice league.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And I remember when, uh, Peter Jackson did the Lord of the Rings and added like a half hour to 45 minutes to each of those already three hour movies.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I,
Guest:I remember watching them at home because that's how you could watch them.
Guest:You know, you got the DVDs and being like, yeah, this is great.
Guest:Like I saw the movie already and now I'm getting to see extra stuff.
Guest:But like, do you think that would have flown for four hours in a movie theater?
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, you know, no way.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So, yeah, it's just a case like I this is not a isolated issue.
Guest:This is like basically a conversation that goes on for artists throughout time.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, what do I actually have to cut from this to make it a palatable presentation?
Guest:And what is like indulgent?
Guest:And I don't mean indulgent in a bad way.
Guest:I mean, like, am I can I indulge more in the pleasures of what we do?
Guest:And sometimes that's just best left for a select group of people.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:And like, you see it with Taylor Swift where she'll re-release an album and she'll have like vault, you know, songs that are on there.
Marc:So it's like, like Led Zeppelin, you know, did it.
Marc:Like, oh yeah, here are outtakes from like Led Zeppelin 2, you know?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And for me, I have like time or patience in my life for like five Led Zeppelin songs, right?
Guest:And then it's like, not a fan of Led Zeppelin, but like, that's like my knowledge base of Led Zeppelin is shallow.
Guest:So yes, I'm not going, I'm, I,
Guest:If they come on my streaming, I'm not turning it off.
Guest:But I'm also not going to go sit there and listen to a 28-track Led Zeppelin album, right?
Guest:But there's plenty of people who are.
Marc:Yeah, sure.
Marc:Beatles, you know, they had all those double album re-releases.
Marc:Yeah, for sure.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:But thank you, Heath.
Marc:And also, thank you, Brendan, for what you do and the quality control that you perform on a weekly basis.
Guest:Oh, well, I appreciate that.
Guest:I hope all of you are getting something out of these extra shows that we do here.
Guest:As I said, sometimes we get like some travel tips out of these shows.
Guest:And one of the things that Chris has been clear about is, you know, he likes to go travel and do, you know,
Guest:Everything in a given area, not just the things that are prescribed to that area.
Guest:So when you heard Billy Strings on WTF, you decided to take a trip to Nashville, but you did not just go to Nashville.
Guest:Why don't you outline the itinerary of your trip?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:My wife and I, we decided since we wanted to go to Nashville, we saw that there was a Smoky Mountains National Park that was about three and a half hours away.
Marc:So we were like, you know what?
Marc:Let's go to the Smoky Mountains, which is something that we love to do.
Marc:We love national parks, like national parks rule.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So we decided to fly into Knoxville, Tennessee, and we, uh,
Marc:We went to the Smoky Mountains, and so we broke up our trip between the Smokies and Nashville, and it was a fantastic time, I must say.
Marc:In the Smokies, we went whitewater rafting, which is something that I highly recommend if you're able to do it.
Guest:Was it an intense...
Guest:Raph, like I've seen people do it and it looks, some people doing it looks really intense.
Marc:Well, it was the extreme one.
Marc:However, it's a river that is dammed.
Marc:So it's like, it's always a controlled situation.
Marc:It's not like- Dammed like that.
Marc:It's not like the river sticks.
Marc:It's not like cursed.
Marc:Right, right, right.
Marc:No, it's like every couple of days they like put, you know, more water in it and the rapids are more heavy.
Marc:But it's a controlled experience.
Marc:And I must say, I love whitewater rafting.
Marc:I realized as we were talking to our guide, because it was just my wife and I in the raft.
Marc:And she was like, oh, well, have you ever done this before?
Marc:And we were like, oh, yeah, we have.
Marc:And we rattled off some places.
Marc:And we're like, oh, wow, we really like going whitewater rafting when we're on vacation.
Marc:We did it in Washington State.
Marc:We also did it in Thailand, which was pretty great.
Marc:We went to an elephant sanctuary.
Marc:And they also had whitewater rafting.
Marc:So we tacked that on.
Marc:And that was an amazing experience where –
Marc:We're whitewater rafting in Thailand.
Marc:And on the land, there are just elephants walking around doing their thing.
Marc:So it was a surreal experience.
Marc:And this one was great.
Marc:And our guide was great.
Marc:We did like this surfing thing where –
Marc:We ducked down and flooded the top of the boat and the guide was basically steering.
Marc:So it was fantastic.
Marc:So we did that.
Marc:We rode bikes in the national park.
Marc:We saw bears.
Marc:We hiked to some waterfalls.
Marc:It was like a really fun time in the Smokies.
Marc:And since we were there and we were in Tennessee or more specifically Pigeon Forge, we really dug in.
Marc:And like, that's something I like to do.
Marc:It's like, okay, okay.
Marc:We're somewhere.
Marc:I don't care if it's Paris.
Marc:I don't care if it's Rome.
Marc:We are in Pigeon Forge.
Marc:We're going to do what the people do.
Marc:And so we went on a bunch of mountain coasters.
Marc:Have you ever been on a mountain coaster?
Marc:What?
Marc:No.
Marc:It is a roller coaster where you basically sit in a toboggan and you control the speed with a lever for the brake.
Marc:And it was a blast.
Guest:Wait, that's a real thing?
Marc:Yes, that is a real thing.
Guest:No way.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because when I was a kid, I worked at a water park.
Guest:And for some reason, one of the rides at this water park was called the Mountain Coaster.
Guest:And it was a little toboggan like that, that you controlled yourself and went around, not a mountain, but the side structure of the big water slides.
Guest:And I always thought it was just their way of trying to use some space that was there.
Guest:But no, you're telling me it's like an actual thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:has existed.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:There's like seven or eight of them out there.
Marc:Like it is a cottage industry.
Marc:So yeah, like doing mountain coasters is a thing in, uh, in Tennessee.
Marc:So that's.
Guest:So is dying from being on a mountain coaster.
Marc:Well, luckily we did not do that.
Marc:Honestly, we went a couple of times and I just let go of the break.
Marc:And it made a weird noise, but it was fine.
Marc:I'm buckled in, so it's okay.
Marc:But yeah, we did that.
Marc:That was great.
Marc:We toured the Salt and Pepper Shaker Museum that was featured in How To with John...
Marc:Oh, John Wilson.
Marc:Yeah, with John Wilson that last season.
Marc:So that was that was a treat for me because I love that show.
Marc:And B, I just love kitschy, weird, like oddities on the side of the road.
Guest:So it was really spotting all your pop culture landmarks.
Guest:You took a picture and you sent it to me of Lebanon, Tennessee.
Marc:That's right.
Guest:Location of the second half of Death Proof.
Marc:That's right.
Marc:So yeah, I passed by Lebanon, Tennessee.
Marc:So that was really fun.
Marc:Also, you know, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg is the other town.
Marc:They have a lot of like Ripley's Believe It or Not stuff.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:Like roadside stuff.
Marc:It's like, it's almost like they're big, like facilities of like, oh, mini golf, movie theaters, aquariums, mirror masas.
Guest:It's like their spot.
Guest:They're like, they're branded as Ripley's believer or not.
Marc:Yeah, I don't know what... I guess tourists love Ripley's because it's just out there.
Guest:Or maybe they're just like, believe it or not, there's a movie theater here in Pigeon Forge.
Guest:I couldn't believe it.
Marc:Well, Pigeon Forge is...
Marc:It's basically like Niagara Falls, like the Canada side of Niagara Falls.
Marc:It's like a tourist trap, like all the stuff there, like every food, every want that a child or a family could want is there, you know, there's like so much stuff going on.
Marc:We dipped in and dipped out and we had a really, you know, fantastic time there.
Marc:And then we headed over to Nashville as like our city portion of our trip.
Marc:And boy, oh boy, did I have a great time there.
Marc:The crown jewel though was, you know, I of course, you know, heard Billy Strings and was like, this is amazing.
Marc:Where can I get this experience?
Marc:So I realized that there is this Bluebird Cafe.
Marc:Now, have you ever heard of the Bluebird Cafe?
Guest:I didn't, but you did mention to me that it's basically like a famous place where people perform.
Marc:Yeah, so it's iconic.
Marc:Now, I guess I knew of this place because I used to watch the show Nashville.
Marc:I know you never watched it.
Marc:Connie Britton.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Connie Britton.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:And that's actually why I watched that show because I have a- Oh, Mrs. Coach.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I have a crush on Connie Britton and that show featured the Bluebird.
Marc:And there's also a documentary on Tubi of all places called Bluebird where they go through the history of it.
Marc:So you should all check it out.
Marc:But this cafe, and it's a small cafe, it's where songwriters perform the songs that they've written.
Marc:And a lot of people that you know of have gotten their start there.
Guest:Is this a Taylor Swift place?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:She's one of the people.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So this cafe, it's legendary because so many huge acts got their start there.
Marc:There's Vince Gill, Keith Urban, Garth Brooks got his start there.
Marc:He was famously rejected from the music industry.
Marc:And he played there at the Bluebird and then got a contract that next day because of his performance there.
Marc:But yeah, Taylor Swift got her start there.
Marc:She was 14 years old and she was in a show like the one that I saw this week.
Marc:And she got her big break.
Marc:The person sitting in the front row was a record label executive, signed her right then and there.
Marc:So it is like a place to be.
Marc:It's like holy ground.
Guest:How big is it?
Marc:Is it just like a tiny club?
Marc:It is tiny.
Marc:There are 90 seats in total in this place.
Marc:It's like the size of a bagel shop in Brooklyn.
Marc:That's funny.
Marc:They pack people in there.
Guest:But that's why people would get signed.
Guest:Because it's so intimate, right?
Guest:So you, so like, you're like, well, you can't hide from me in here.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:You either got the talent or you don't.
Guest:Exactly.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:So yeah, this is, this is like, like the Mecca of place, like people in line, we were talking to them, like this is like a bucket list place.
Marc:And like,
Marc:There aren't too many places on my bucket list anymore.
Marc:I should actually redo my bucket list.
Marc:But yeah, the Bluebird would have, if I redid my bucket list, been on my bucket list because it is like a great place.
Marc:So we were able to score tickets.
Marc:And scoring tickets to this place are very – it's very hard to do.
Marc:No.
Marc:We had to go as soon as it went on sale and it was sold out in like a minute.
Marc:But we got a table and I'm sure they reconfigured the tables on a nightly basis.
Marc:But we sat in table nine.
Marc:So if anyone's listening and you want to go to the Bluebird.
Marc:I recommend Table 9.
Marc:That's where I was.
Marc:And Brendan, it's the best because I was literally right next to the musicians.
Marc:Like I could reach out and touch them.
Marc:Like it was surreal.
Guest:Sir, please don't touch the musicians.
Marc:Yes, exactly.
Marc:The show I saw.
Guest:You're like, oh, did I say could?
Marc:I mean, did.
Marc:No, I did not.
Marc:I did not.
Marc:Although one of them, you know, she was chatting with me a whole bunch, you know, like Lauren Hungate is her name.
Marc:And she was like, oh, you have the worst seat in the entire place.
Marc:I'm like, why?
Marc:Like, I'm right here next to you.
Marc:He's like, oh, because, you know, you're next to me and not next to like, you know, one of these other people.
Marc:I'm like, I'm pretty sure I'll be okay.
Marc:It was great.
Marc:So the show I saw, Topher Brown, Lauren Hungate, and Lacey K. Booth were the performers.
Marc:And these are just songwriters who work separately and also together.
Marc:And they're writing like – I think Topher said they write like –
Marc:200 songs a year like they are song writers they are just writing and writing and writing like basically you know kind kind of like your podcast so you have like all these you know it you know every week there are two podcasts that you do and like that's what they do they just churn out all of this stuff and uh so they all take a turn singing and performing their songs in a circle
Marc:So it was really just phenomenal.
Marc:And also I think one of them, Lacey K. Booth, she's also a performer.
Marc:So she's actually like an actual like musician, not just a songwriter.
Marc:It's kind of like Taylor Swift writes and performs her own songs.
Marc:So she is a musician in her own right.
Marc:But the other two, they just are just writing songs for other acts to perform, like Lady A, Lauren Watkins, and Little Big Town.
Marc:So these are artists who are out there on tour singing and performing songs that are being written by these people in this room today, okay?
Marc:So it was really special to be in attendance because you just don't know if you're going to be hearing a song in this tiny cafe that will be like number one in the charts in a couple
Marc:months right right you know so it's really cool and that's the thing topher brown was saying he told a story about a song he was about to perform uh and it was bought by keith urban and keith urban hasn't put on put it on any of his albums yet so he's just waiting and it's in limbo it's like yeah i'm gonna have
Marc:I'm happy you bought it.
Marc:Can you release the damn song?
Marc:Because I really enjoy the royalties from it.
Marc:So yeah, just like a thing.
Marc:And also at the Bluebird, recently Post Malone was there.
Marc:He did like a surprise set there.
Marc:So that made headlines because obviously big star, right?
Marc:But he also asked for a special drink and they now sell that drink on the menu.
Marc:I had it.
Marc:It's quite good.
Marc:It has schnapps in it, which is not something that's in my repertoire.
Guest:No.
Marc:Oh, not if you want to get out of your day alive.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Yeah, I only had one.
Marc:So it was fine.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So I knew I was going to be seeing these three musicians later on in the week.
Marc:So I boned up on a lot of their published work.
Marc:And these songs are great.
Marc:Like, they're just great songs in there, like great country songs.
Marc:But there was one song that I really liked called Wine, Beer, and Whiskey.
Marc:I would be playing that song like basically on a loop the week before my trip, right?
Marc:And it was the last song in Topher Brown's set and he asked if anyone knew the song and I raised my hand and he said, well, you know, there's a trumpet part of this song.
Marc:So since you know it,
Marc:How about you sing it with me?
Marc:And I was like, oh, no, no, no.
Marc:Like, that's not a thing you or anyone wants.
Marc:I mean, you've heard me in karaoke.
Marc:That's not a fun time, right?
Guest:Well, it is if like your idea of singing is to just scream the lyrics in a loud voice as fast as you can in no particular meter.
Marc:That's karaoke, Brendan, right?
Marc:No?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But he said, hey, this is a two-way street here.
Marc:And right now, it's me and you, the guy with the glasses.
Guest:But wait, he was making you sing the trumpet?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:So yeah, there's a trumpet portion of the song.
Marc:So it's...
Marc:And so I had to sing.
Marc:I sang back up to Topher Brown's Wine, Beer, and Whiskey.
Marc:And it was incredible.
Marc:Oh, that's nice.
Marc:I can say that I got to sing at the Bluebird Cafe.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:That's just a fact.
Guest:you know, you and Taylor Swift.
Guest:Look at you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It was, it was pretty special.
Marc:And also like the, uh, they brought up a special guest.
Marc:They brought up, um, the woman, uh, Jesse Alexander.
Marc:Uh, this is a country artist, a country music artist.
Marc:And, uh,
Marc:Her claim to fame is she, you know, she was telling the story about, like, oh, you know, I wrote this song way back when.
Marc:And, you know, I just gave birth to my baby.
Marc:And I turned on the TV.
Marc:And it was the Obama inauguration.
Marc:And I wooed for that.
Marc:I was the only one at the Bluebird that wooed for that, which made me kind of sad.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But apparently that song was sung during Obama's inauguration.
Marc:Oh, no way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And so she played it.
Marc:And that song was The Climb.
Marc:And so, yeah.
Marc:So I got to hear her sing that song.
Marc:So it was really, really special.
Marc:I actually put a Bluebird set list on my Spotify.
Guest:I'll send it to the link.
Guest:Yeah, we'll link to that in here.
Marc:Yeah, and like the artists there are just phenomenal.
Marc:And I think you would really enjoy wine, beer, and whiskey.
Marc:It's a really fun song.
Marc:So yeah, it was great.
Marc:Nashville itself is great.
Marc:I had some hot chicken, of course.
Marc:And I must say, I have had Nashville hot chicken and the original or, you know,
Marc:From the source is where it's at.
Marc:Everything else is just- What's that?
Marc:Did you go to Prince's?
Marc:No, I went to Bolton's and it is phenomenal.
Marc:And all these other places, like they are just cheap imposters to the real deal in Nashville.
Marc:You know, it is like-
Marc:It is, it is just delicious.
Guest:Well, it's like, it's like, uh, I see it now.
Guest:I was, we were at the Mets game the other day and there's a boots with chopped cheese and it's like, no, no, like I get it.
Guest:Anybody can make this, but the only thing that it's like a Nathan's hot dog, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:the only time it's good is on the actual griddle at Nathan's.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, and a chopped cheese is only good if you're at a bodega with a stanky grill in the back, you know?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, uh, you know, same with the Nashville hot chicken.
Guest:It's like,
Guest:are you you know can i can go over to seventh avenue right here and get a you know place dave's nashville hot chicken or whatever and it's a chicken tender dipped in hot sauce right but like if if you go to where you went like that stuff's been sitting in like a spicy brine for weeks and uh and now you're getting the getting the goods
Marc:Yeah, absolutely.
Marc:So yeah, so Nashville was great.
Marc:I went to Broadway.
Marc:I did all the honky tonks.
Marc:Gotta say, it's fine.
Marc:It's nice to, you know what it was nice to do?
Marc:I was able to dip in and out and not have to get a drink to go in or a cover.
Marc:So that was nice.
Marc:So I appreciated that.
Marc:Of course, tip the musicians because they're asking for tips and they're just playing their
Marc:you know, all night basically.
Marc:But honestly, they're just like cover bands, honestly.
Marc:So it's not exactly my scene, but I got to experience it.
Marc:So yeah, it was fun.
Marc:I also went to Painter's Alley, which was great.
Marc:So our trip was really well-rounded.
Marc:There was a bit of a city aspect of it.
Marc:And we also had the nature aspect of it.
Marc:So
Marc:I think it was a well-balanced trip and one of my best.
Guest:Well, you were there during a big Zach Bryan concert too.
Guest:So somehow you managed to avoid all the nonsense around that.
Guest:Like, I mean, I think it was at the football stadium.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Marc:Oh yeah.
Marc:I must've just missed that or just, yeah, I do remember.
Marc:I mean, I saw that the, um, the, uh, the Tennessee Titan stadium, it was like, like a couple of blocks from my, um, from my hotel, by the way, I stayed at this amazing hotel.
Marc:Uh, I, I, I don't want to give free ads on here, but you can mention it as a travel plug.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Uh, it's called the Russell and it is a fantastic,
Marc:fantastic hotel it is it's a hotel where proceeds of your uh your room goes to help the homeless in the area and it is it is fantastic it's a converted church uh so there's stained glass window huge stained glass windows in the uh the check-in area there is actually isn't any check-in area there's no staff there it's just all automated where they just send you like a code
Marc:And that you can access your room.
Marc:But fantastic stay at the Russell.
Marc:If you're ever in Nashville, stay there.
Marc:And also free parking.
Marc:So, you know, that's not something you can say about most hotels.
Guest:Not a paid plug, but I'm going to allow it because I do appreciate that that is a good travel tip.
Guest:And it sounds like for a good cause as well.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Well done.
Guest:Well, good.
Guest:I'm glad you enjoyed your trip.
Guest:We will put your playlist in the episode description.
Guest:So anybody wants to hear Chris's Nashville playlist, there it is.
Guest:And if you have any Nashville opinions or thoughts, please let us know.
Guest:If you've got other recommendations from that area, either in the mountains or in the city, give us some comments.
Guest:Just click on the link in the episode description there right next to Chris's playlist.
Guest:But before we go, I did want to bring up a couple of people wrote in about dad movies.
Guest:And I did want to give them a shout out because these were things we left off of our list when we made the dad movie machine.
Guest:And one of the things somebody wrote in about was saying survival films.
Guest:So basically like something like Cast Away or The Revenant.
Guest:The Grey.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:This person wrote, there's nothing a dad likes more than watching a movie and thinking about what he would do in that situation.
Marc:Yes, absolutely.
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:Am I going to eat that guy?
Marc:Oh, man.
Guest:This person said World War II movies also fit the same bill for virtually the same reason.
Guest:And then Jacqueline wrote in to say, my husband's only criteria for a dad movie is one guy faced with some kind of problem that only he can fix.
Guest:And he fixes that problem without any help.
Yeah.
Guest:That one guy's motivation is that his family and the world at large recognize that he has fixed said problem.
Guest:His ultimate dad movie example is Taken starring Liam Neeson.
Guest:The added level to that movie is no one recognizes the dad's singular efforts and thus the dad is left sad and a bit resentful.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:I do think that those are all great.
Guest:And I also want to address the people who wrote in to say, I don't understand what you're talking about.
Guest:My dad and I'm a dad and we don't like any of these types of movies.
Guest:And we like, you know, I want to make it very clear.
Guest:The thing we are talking about here is not like dads must like these movies.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it is kind of like saying like, you know, uh,
Guest:Americans enjoy Coca-Cola, right?
Guest:Or like things like, yes, there are going to be Americans who don't like Coca-Cola, but is the number one selling soft drink in America.
Guest:And so in general, you can target a certain swath of
Guest:of the demographic dad with these types of entertainment.
Guest:So yes, I'm absolutely not casting aspersions on dads around the world who don't like the type of movies that we were identifying here.
Guest:This was just a very general, broad palette of dad movies and a thing we were doing for fun.
Guest:We didn't really take it that seriously.
Guest:No, not at all.
Guest:One other thing I wanted to address is that people asked if we were going to the wrestling here in New York over the weekend, the AW Forbidden Door show.
Guest:And Chris, as he mentioned, was in Nashville.
Guest:But I did go and I did enjoy it very much.
Guest:You know, I was thinking like, well, how do I really talk about this?
Guest:I'm not going to like recap the show or whatever.
Guest:But somebody asked me, you know, to give my impressions of it when I went.
Guest:And I had this message here that came into the comments page from Brian from Parts Unknown.
Guest:I do like being from Parts Unknown.
Guest:And Brian says, when the Friday show started, I had very little interest in wrestling, but the Friday show energized my childhood fascination with it.
Guest:From your shows about the Montreal Screwjob and Hulk Hogan's Postamania or the Hell in the Cell match, at 40 years old, I am now all in on wrestling.
Guest:Which is great.
Guest:The thing that baffles me about the industry now is that when the shit hit the fan in WWE, I assume he's talking about like Vince McMahon getting fired and sexual impropriety allegations and a lawsuit and lots of unsavory things.
Guest:He says, I thought this was going to be AEW's chance to really soar, but this didn't happen.
Guest:And WWE is the best it's been in years.
Guest:Hmm.
Guest:I know that you may have run out of ideas or interest in talking about wrestling, but I'd love to hear both of you talk at least once a month.
Guest:And then he asked, was all the AEW love paid for?
Guest:Am I just a mark for listening to the Friday show?
Guest:No, okay.
Guest:There's a bunch of things there.
Guest:The number one thing I would say is that like...
Guest:In terms of your question of like WWE, it's gone, exploded in popularity.
Guest:It's probably at its like third golden age right now.
Guest:And I think a big reason for that is its existence on Peacock, right?
Guest:It really all started to take off.
Guest:I think so.
Guest:When, yeah, if you look at the trajectory of their growth, they've been able to get in front of a lot more eyeballs with prime things like WrestleMania, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, WrestleMania, you know, is now something you can watch just with a Peacock subscription.
Guest:You don't need to pay for it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so it just gets in front of a lot more eyeballs, especially a lot more young eyeballs.
Guest:And so along with that, doesn't work just on its own.
Guest:Along with that, The Rock came back.
Guest:And so there's a lot more attention on that.
Guest:They have some very popular characters and people, Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns.
Guest:And so the attention that they got, I think because of the negative stories you're talking about, some of that was good for them because people who had long ago written off WWE,
Guest:said, oh, well, now the bad guy is gone in Vince McMahon.
Guest:I'll go back.
Guest:And they went back and they went back and the product was actually pretty good for them.
Guest:So I think that has a lot to do with it.
Guest:And something I've learned from following the reporting in the Wrestling Observer, which is primarily focused on the business, the wrestling business, is that unlike other industries, a rising tide does not lift all boats.
Guest:In fact, in wrestling, the absolute opposite happens.
Guest:When one company goes up, all the companies beneath it go down.
Guest:And that is because it is a niche industry that cannot support a much larger marketplace.
Guest:And so, you know, there's a finite amount of people out there watching wrestling.
Guest:If WWE is suddenly very popular again, that is fewer eyeballs for the other people.
Guest:You're just not going to pull in
Guest:a ton more wrestling fans, which brings me to why the Friday show is what it is now.
Guest:And yes, I could just briefly go over this for people who don't know.
Guest:When we started this, it was because we had brought in a bunch of wrestling fans with the wrestling series we did on the full Marin, and we wanted to give them something to help them stick around.
Guest:What happened is...
Guest:the majority of WTF plus subscribers listened to the Friday show that we were doing.
Guest:And most of them were not wrestling fans.
Guest:So you have to weigh this balance.
Guest:And it's just like the balance of bringing in outside people to wrestling.
Guest:There's not a ton of space for it.
Guest:And so, you know, we were very appreciative that the people who subscribe to the full Marin still listen to the Friday show were,
Guest:We were talking about wrestling and they still hung around with us, but we also now know, well, the audience of this Friday show is larger than just a wrestling show.
Guest:We should talk, we should broaden it out.
Guest:And what we've tried to do for, and I think it's been fairly successful because we haven't seen any erosion in the audience, is that we've tried to talk about things that we know if you are a wrestling fan that,
Guest:these might be concentric circles for you, right?
Guest:We talk about types of movies and pop culture and general lifestyle stuff that, you know, might overlap with your interests as well.
Guest:So that's what it was all about.
Guest:It was absolutely not paid for by...
Guest:a wrestling company.
Guest:We just, we're doing it the same way we talk about the Tarantino films.
Guest:It's something that Chris and I like to do.
Guest:So that was it.
Guest:No, Brian from parts unknown.
Guest:You are not a Mark for listening.
Guest:You are in fact, you know, exactly who we were targeting in terms of a person who was not interested in wrestling.
Guest:And we thought, well, maybe we'll make this interesting enough that people who don't care about it will get engaged.
Guest:And evidently you did.
Guest:We like that.
Guest:And,
Guest:And this all brings me back around to being at that Forbidden Door show on Long Island, which was like, I sat there in the audience.
Guest:It was like 11,000 people there.
Guest:It's a hockey arena, so it's full.
Guest:It felt great.
Guest:And I'm just like, it's like what Brian here is saying.
Guest:It's like, oh, I thought this was the chance for AEW to really soar and to be hugely popular.
Guest:In that building, it was hugely popular.
Guest:Like you couldn't sit there and be like, Oh, this is something people maybe they were like kind of curious about.
Guest:And they came and checked it out.
Guest:Like, no, no, no.
Guest:This was like 11,000 hugely devoted fans.
Guest:And I, I couldn't, you could, you couldn't buy that kind of environment for something.
Guest:Like it has to be that the people really love what they're there for.
Guest:And man, they did.
Guest:And I, like Chris and I have talked about this, about live wrestling from time to time.
Guest:Like,
Guest:If you're at a good show, it's a great experience.
Guest:The people are into it.
Guest:The performers are feeding off the energy of the crowd.
Guest:You really can't find anything else like it because sports doesn't have a predetermined outcome.
Guest:So you could be feeding off the energy of the crowd and then the opponents take the lead and the crowd gets deflated.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:And if you're a circus performer, everybody's supposed to watch quietly.
Guest:They're not standing there cheering for you to get across the tightrope.
Guest:But these performers, these wrestlers, they want you to cheer for them.
Guest:And so they will keep amping up what they're doing and feeding off of your crowd response.
Guest:And this main event that they had was the perfect example of that.
Guest:These two guys who, whatever they could imagine,
Guest:doing in the match they did they're so skilled will osprey and swerve strickland as athletes that they could do whatever they dreamed up and the crowd went bananas over that like from the moment the thing started uh and you know i just i i recommend it for people look you're not gonna if you're not gonna like wrestling you're not gonna like wrestling like i said it's a hard thing to bring people into but if you've ever been curious about it go to a show
Guest:Go to a show, specifically one where you know, like, oh, this is a devoted fan base and they're going to enjoy it.
Guest:It was great.
Guest:It was a great experience.
Guest:I highly recommend it for wrestling fans and wrestling curious fans.
Guest:If you're in the New York area, the next one that's going to be here is in September 2021.
Guest:at the arthur ash stadium which is where they do the u.s open in queens and it's a big place but it's good seats everywhere in the place because it's a tennis stadium good sight lines uh seriously i've been there uh three years now and uh it's a great time it's a good environment everybody has a good time and i i think you will too
Marc:Awesome.
Marc:I just bought Forbidden Door, so I can't wait to sit on the couch and watch it.
Marc:I, too, also just, if the crowd's into it, I feel like it's going to be a good show.
Marc:It's so crowd-dependent at times because, like you were saying, everyone feeds off of each other.
Guest:Yes, absolutely.
Guest:Just like we feed off of you listening here.
Guest:We appreciate all your comments and anything you send in as suggestions or things to talk about.
Guest:Just click on the link in the episode description.
Guest:You can send that to us here on the Friday show.
Guest:We are now in the month of July.
Guest:That means in a couple of weeks we will watch Inglourious Bastards, the sixth Quentin Tarantino film.
Guest:So if you want to get up on that before we watch it, got a little bit of time, we'll probably do that in the next two or three weeks.
Guest:And until then, I am Brendan and that is Chris.
Guest:Peace.