BONUS The Friday Show - And Now the News...
Marc:The worm that lives inside my brain really enjoys it though.
Guest:Now that's a good story.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:I almost spit my water all over the desk.
Guest:Hello, Chris.
Guest:Top of the morning to you, Brendan.
Guest:It is.
Guest:It is the morning.
Guest:We usually don't record these in the morning.
Guest:It's usually in the afternoon.
Guest:So yeah, it's happy morning.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Thanks, pal.
Marc:How's your week going?
Marc:I've seen you since the last time we've talked.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, it's it's it's been going fine.
Guest:It's I'm actually like, you know, back from vacation mode.
Guest:So I'm like fully integrated into the news and that, but yet not back on any social media.
Guest:So I feel like I'm positive.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:You know, in fact, you have sent me tweets.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And I click on them and it has now become a tremendous pain in the ass because I'm logged out of any kind of Twitter, whatever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I have to like look at it, but then with nothing underneath, because now the way it's set up, if you're not signed into an account, you can't see all the interactions and whatnot.
Guest:Right.
Guest:which is fine by me.
Guest:But if there's something that like you send me like a baseball thing and I want to see like, whoa, what was the reaction to that?
Guest:Then I have to go to, I have to copy and paste it and take it to the one browser, which is not my default browser, but is where I have the WTF account open.
Guest:And then I paste it in there and I can look at the rest.
Guest:But all of those steps help keep it a preventable thing on a daily basis.
Marc:Yeah, like a black hole.
Marc:Yeah, I gotcha.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So I'll send you YouTube clips instead of... No, no, tweets are fine.
Guest:If you send them to me, I want to see the clips.
Guest:You don't have to censor yourself.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Well, you have like a Rube Goldberg mechanism that you have to go through.
Guest:It's like Pee Wee Herman's breakfast machine to watch the tweets.
Yes.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:Well, I, you know, so last week I brought you news from social media that you may have missed out on, including the Taylor Swift diss track about Kim Kardashian.
Marc:Thank you, Amy.
Marc:And I just want to correct myself from last week.
Marc:The name Amy in this track is spelled A-I-M-E-E.
Marc:So the only capital letters.
Guest:Yeah, I couldn't figure that out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was like, where's the why?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So, you know.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:So the only capital letters on the track spell Kim.
Marc:So my question to you is, did you listen to that diss track?
Guest:I did.
Guest:If you hadn't told me it was a diss track, I never would have known.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Even listening to the song?
Guest:I mean, listening to the song, I figured, but it didn't have the vigor of a diss track.
Guest:So it just seemed like every other Taylor Swift thing, which clearly came from a journal entry, and you're like, oh, this was some, like, if I just removed the Kim Kardashian-ness from it, I'd be like, oh, this was some friend of hers.
Guest:It could have been this year.
Guest:It could have been when she was a teenager that, you know, bummed her out or whatever.
Guest:But knowing the backstory and knowing that it was, you know, whatever that happened with that video that Kim and Kanye released about Taylor, whatever that is, I'm listening to this and I'm like, well, if that's what this is in response to, this is a pretty...
Guest:Delicate diss track.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Well, you know, she's a very, very, you know, she builds houses out of very ordinary things.
Guest:I really enjoy that.
Guest:She's not going to cut a person's throat.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, you know, to that effect, I just want to point out that this week I bring you news that there's another diss track battle going on.
Guest:Yeah, tell me about this because is this Drake and Kendrick Lamar?
Guest:It is.
Guest:Okay, so TLDR this for me because this is one of those things.
Guest:Now, in my life, I'm happy to say there are plenty of things where I'm willing to declare complete informational bankruptcy on.
Guest:Like I saw this happening.
Guest:I saw people referencing it in the, and then it's like, when you're not on social media, you, all you see is like, you know, some kind of entertainment website analysis of this, you know, basically like what's the deal between Kendrick and Drake.
Guest:And I'm like, don't know, don't care.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So I just like move on.
Guest:But then like you hear other, like I was watching wrestling last night and they talked about it.
Guest:So I'm like, Oh man.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, what the fuck?
Guest:I got to know about this.
Guest:I do not want to know about it, but you're going to tell me.
Marc:Yes, yes.
Marc:So I will give you the scoop.
Marc:And to fully understand, this feud would take like a Rashomon level of storytelling.
Marc:So thank you to Vox for explaining to me.
Marc:And I'll spare you most of the details.
Marc:But I will explain this feud to you in wrestling terminology.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So that you can understand it because this B feels like a proper wrestling angle.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:So it all stems from a breakup of a trios partnership.
Marc:These rappers, Future and Metro Boomin to Drake, who had nearly 30 matches, AKA collaborations together.
Marc:Now this album or promo is packed with subliminal messages throughout the album, seemingly directed at Drake.
Marc:Especially a song by Kendrick Lamar titled like that.
Marc:Now, Drake and Kendrick Lamar have gone nuclear against each other.
Marc:Uma Thurman herself even got involved saying that Drake, yeah, she posted nuclear.
Marc:on Instagram that Drake could borrow her outfit she wore from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill after Drake posted an image on Instagram of Uma Thurman's character from Kill Bill surrounded by multiple assailants, referring to all the people coming at him at the moment.
Marc:The rappers just this week exchanged six promos slash diss tracks just this week that included some direct promos
Marc:Criminal allegations, including pedophilia, domestic violence and a secret family.
Guest:Wait a minute.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That goes beyond a district.
Guest:Like, wait, if they're making criminal accusations against each other.
Guest:then why aren't the authorities involved?
Guest:How is this just still just like, I remember when like Biggie and Tupac were beefing and there'd be like a track where Tupac would say like, I fucked your wife, but that wasn't, that didn't involve the police.
Guest:That didn't involve the law.
Guest:So like, why, where does this stand in that you're there?
Guest:There,
Guest:throwing out these accusations at each other i'm assuming to drake because he's always with young women yeah like is that what like and if that's the case what's happening with that well this whole thing feels like a bit like it feels like an actual wrestling angle like they're you don't say
Marc:Yeah, where they're not really like mad at each other.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But it's just it's a fun thing for, you know, people who like hip hop and people who like rap.
Marc:And it's just like it's always usually ends pretty funny.
Guest:But I remember Biggie and Tupac and it's very fun.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Well, this story took a sad turn of events recently when Drake's bodyguard was actually shot in a drive-by shooting on Monday and an intruder was arrested for breaking into Drake's house on Tuesday.
Marc:So it's a bit of a bummer.
Marc:And yes, that is usually how these things sort of end, right?
Marc:With some bad, bad experiences.
Guest:So I'm going to go back to wrestling terms.
Guest:This is, if this was a thing that they were doing because they thought it would be good publicity, right?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:But in wrestling history, this then becomes known as working yourself into a shoot.
Guest:That's right.
Guest:So this sounds like you have a bunch of goofballs who think this is the good way to do self-promotion and it's going to wind up with people killed.
Right.
Marc:Yes, sadly.
Marc:And that's the thing, right?
Marc:Because in today's social media, there is no more blurring of the lines.
Marc:Everything is, I mean, but I mean, I guess you could say that about any time period, right?
Marc:Like, that's why John Lennon was killed, you know, like, like, there's always going to be fanatics out there who will just take it too far.
Marc:And yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It seems to be definitely worse now.
Guest:Like you have way more options to connect directly with famous people.
Marc:Yeah, that's true.
Marc:That's true.
Marc:But it's it's diss track summer, Brendan.
Marc:So my question for you is, if you could put out a diss track of anyone, who would it be?
Marc:Oh, geez.
Guest:I mean, oh, I could tell you one.
Guest:Yeah?
Guest:Because I was just thinking, I was like, I don't have any feuds.
Guest:I don't have anybody I hate.
Guest:I genuinely don't try to have that in my life.
Guest:But I'll tell this here on the show.
Guest:There is one person who is not allowed on WTF by my order.
Guest:By your order.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And I have... There have been multiple times where, like, Mark forgets that.
Guest:And it's like, oh, what about so-and-so?
Guest:I'm like, no, he's not allowed on the show.
Guest:And he's like, oh, that's right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then he goes back and tells him, no, you're not allowed on.
Guest:My producer says, no.
Guest:Who isn't?
Guest:And I'll tell you why.
Guest:Because it, like, made me...
Guest:personally upset and I was like well why am I ever going to reward this guy for that like it's not like I don't like to reward bad behavior and there's nothing about this that there's nothing about this person that makes me feel like I should acquiesce and the story is
Guest:that in the early days of doing this show, when we were, like, I was busting my ass, and Mark was, and we were not, I'm not expecting to be, like, praised for that.
Guest:Like, it just was the way it was.
Guest:We worked very hard to get this thing off the ground because we believed in it, we loved it, we were doing it out of, like, the...
Guest:The genuine expression of who we were, both of us, like I've talked about it many times.
Guest:This was the thing we wanted to do with our lives.
Guest:I was at the time, as I've spoken about here, holding down other jobs.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And this was had to be somewhere around 2011, 2012.
Guest:I was working at MSNBC, also a very involved job, a very difficult job.
Right.
Guest:And but at the same time, trying to make the show on my off hours, you know, and one of the things that I was, you know, a big fan of, as I've spoken about a lot of times, is I was an early adopter of podcasts.
Guest:I was listening to a lot of podcasts all the time, and a lot of them were comedy podcasts.
Guest:One of my favorites was.
Guest:was Doug Loves Movies with Doug Benson.
Guest:And I actually got a lot out of that in terms of WTF stuff.
Guest:I'd hear people on that for the first time who were funny and make a suggestion to Mark, hey, maybe you should have this person or that person.
Guest:And I was listening to it one day.
Guest:And if you never heard Doug Loves Movies, it's a live show.
Guest:It was done mostly during those years at the UCB Theater in LA.
Guest:And so it was a kind of regular audience about whatever fit in that small theater, 50 people to 100 people.
Guest:And they were very hardcore comedy fans.
Guest:They were the type of people that I was like, this is our prime audience for WTF back then.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It really was like we were the kind of a kind of comedy insider show.
Guest:And so I'm listening to Doug Loves Movies and there was a panel of guests.
Guest:I honestly could not tell you who was on the rest of the panel, but I do remember Wayne Fetterman being on the panel.
Guest:Wayne Fetterman is a comic and a writer and, um, you know, he's, he's been around for a long time.
Guest:He's an older guy.
Guest:I think he's close to Mark's age.
Guest:Uh, if you Google Wayne Fetterman and, or IMDBM, you probably recognize him from like small parts in things, right?
Guest:Like he shows up in people's movies or in shows, maybe you've read his books.
Guest:He's been a writer on things.
Guest:Honest to God, I had no negative feelings toward Wayne Fetterman.
Um,
Guest:And I'm listening to the show.
Guest:I'm in the middle of my workday.
Guest:I'm in the NBC commissary.
Guest:And I have my headphones in, getting my food, enjoying Doug Loves Movies.
Guest:And...
Guest:there was someone made some comment about like whatever movie they were talking about or whatever it like really it i don't remember how it got set up but it wound up landing in this spot where they're like the oh it's you know they got famous off of glomming on to this other person's fame like whoever they were talking about in this movie and wayne fetterman goes oh like that's what like mark maron's doing right now with his podcast
Guest:Whoa.
Guest:And and the audience laughed like uproariously.
Guest:And I was it was like, you know, a bullying moment.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I felt I was being bullied in my ears.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And and I remember like feeling like that ruined my fucking day.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I had such a, it was such, it was like, just think about that.
Guest:You're doing a thing that is meant for leisure.
Guest:It's meant for a relax, to relax so that you can like, I'm trying to unwind for an hour from my very stressful day.
Guest:And I'm listening to this show I like.
Guest:Imagine doing that with yourself in your life and on the thing you're doing that for, they make fun of you.
Guest:Because that's how I read it, right?
Guest:That we're doing some show that's like parasitic and it's trying to capitalize on other people's notoriety or whatever.
Guest:And I just decided right then and there, Wayne Fetterman can fuck off and he will never come on this show.
Guest:I don't care.
Guest:Not that I thought in that moment that he ever would, but he has requested to come on many times since that.
Guest:And I have never backed down.
Guest:I'm like, nope, I won't do it.
Guest:And it sounds petty, but it's like, here's exactly why I won't.
Guest:I can't sit there and edit him.
Guest:Something I've always mentioned about how I edit the show.
Guest:My job of putting the show together is to make everyone sound good.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And it's like, why am I going to help him do that?
Marc:Right.
Guest:And like, let alone whatever he's trying to come on to promote, like he's put books out and he's pitched us like, can I come on to talk about my book or whatever?
Guest:And like, so that I don't want to help with, but I just don't, I don't want to put, use my labor to,
Guest:to make him sound good when he made me feel so shitty and I never got any form of apology or whatever.
Guest:In fact, he apologized to Mark and I put apology in quotes because Mark sent me the email that he sent.
Guest:And it was very like, I just thought I was, you know, I was making a joke and everyone laughed and it was in good fun and wasn't.
Guest:And I was like,
Guest:this doesn't account for the fact that he made me feel like shit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In the middle of my day on, like I was not expecting it.
Guest:And like, I guess also when you're in the public eye, you have to develop a bit of a thick skin.
Guest:And, and as much as I want to, you know, think that I'm just totally behind the scenes, it's like, no, it's a public product.
Guest:People are allowed to criticize it.
Guest:And I absolutely have full, like,
Guest:inoculation from generally from public criticism of the show like i've heard it all at this point i heard i've heard every reason people don't like it don't want to listen don't like the monologues don't like the interviews don't like mark don't like i
Guest:There's nothing I haven't heard.
Guest:And it does not affect me.
Guest:But like Wayne Fetterman just had the misfortune of being the first out of the gate, right?
Guest:Like he was like the patient zero of like penetrating my defenses.
Guest:And, you know, he launched the first missile and it got through and hit me in the solar plexus.
Guest:And so like I have a very negative feeling toward that guy and I just won't let him on the show.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I mean, I don't blame you and your reasoning for it about like you want to make people feel good.
Marc:That is, you know, I understand that.
Marc:And which is why it's so surprising to me that you would have if Trump accepted the invitation and agreed to the parameters, you would have allowed Trump to sit there and you would have had to have made Trump sound good.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So like.
Guest:No, but here's the thing.
Guest:I think there's a difference between, like, making someone sound good and making someone sound who they are.
Guest:That's what I would say.
Guest:It's like, I want the person to be who they are.
Guest:And what would be unavoidable with Trump is him being who he is, right?
Guest:So, like, Mark has always talked about it from the level of, like...
Guest:I hate the guy and I hate everything he stands for, but I would basically like to try to see if I could get somewhere with him the way I do with my dad.
Guest:Try to penetrate the narcissism.
Guest:And if you're going to be able to do that with Donald Trump and everybody sees what you did, that's great.
Guest:I don't think there's ever any chance for that happening because they just wouldn't agree to the terms we lay out.
Guest:That guy wants to control everything.
Guest:But that being said, I could understand doing that.
Guest:What would bother me with someone like Wayne is like...
Guest:it being false, right?
Guest:Like that he's going to come on and say, Oh, I've always loved your show and whatever happened.
Guest:And like, even if they addressed it, he'd be like, Oh, that was just a thing.
Guest:It didn't mean anything.
Guest:And it's like, no, it meant something to me.
Guest:Like, I really honestly think the only way that it would ever get like around my, uh, hackles over it is, is if, uh,
Guest:I spoke with the guy, which I don't have any reason to, or I don't think that he didn't know me or whatever.
Guest:He stepped on the third rail.
Guest:He just hit a wire, and that did it.
Guest:That short-circuited him on the show.
Guest:Would it have happened if it was somebody else?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:It could be because it felt like a sneak attack.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like I wasn't expecting it.
Guest:I didn't know Wayne that beyond just some basic credits of his.
Guest:And so it felt like totally like below the belt, like unfair.
Marc:Also, you it's so were you were your defenses were down like you were in a safe space.
Marc:You were listening to a funny podcast and you just get my funny podcast.
Guest:like one of my favorites right like i just i really want you to put yourself in that position it's like what do you turn on the tv like after a day's work to like enjoy like jeopardy right yeah or or like imagine ken jennings was like doing this thing where he's like talking to the contestants and the contestant says something and he's he's like that reminds me of this loser chris lopresto in new jersey like you'd be like what the fuck right
Marc:Why did that just happen to me?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Like, yeah, yeah.
Marc:It would ruin my whole week, not just my day, my whole week, my month.
Marc:I would never be able to watch that show ever again.
Marc:So, yeah, I'm right there with you.
Guest:Well, yeah, I mean, I don't know how I would make a diss track any worse than banning him from the show.
Right.
Marc:Now, Brendan, I actually had a chance at releasing a diss track of sorts and I regret it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I once used the phone in Studio B at Air America to call the ousted chairman of Air America, Evan Cohen.
Guest:Oh, you regret not actually recording it.
Marc:That is my regret that I did not record it because I told him to go fuck himself.
Marc:And my regret, again, isn't that I called him or I asked if his cancer was real.
Marc:And I'm like 90% sure it isn't real.
Guest:It was not.
Guest:No.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Or if he knew that he was a piece of shit.
Marc:It's that I fucking didn't record the conversation.
Guest:I don't know why.
Guest:You called from a soundboard.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Like I was very easily, I was, I guess I was like nervous and scared.
Marc:And I also was kind of ashamed.
Marc:I didn't want like Rachel Maddow to know that I was, you know, calling this guy to tell him to go fuck himself.
Guest:And for the backstory for people who don't know, who didn't listen to our earlier Morning Sedition episodes.
Guest:This was the guy who essentially, you know, got Air America radio on its feet because he promised all this money.
Guest:And then checks started bouncing and it turned out this guy was a total con man who was later arrested and put in jail in Guam because he was running so many cons.
Guest:But yes, Chris called him, had his cell number from the Air America directory, called him and yeah, basically told him off over the phone for screwing with everyone's lives.
Marc:yeah yeah i do not regret that that was a great great moment just wish i recorded the damn thing that would have had some nice beats underneath it you could have kept repeating like the parts of him being like who is this who is this totally totally
Marc:All right.
Marc:My next story that you probably missed if you didn't have social media is that there was a roast of Tom Brady from the L.A.
Marc:Forum that aired a live story.
Guest:Look, hey, dude, you're not going to get much past me in terms of stuff that gets in the news.
Guest:But if it winds up being like these two randos on social media started a
Guest:you know, a Twitter war, I won't know it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I found out about the Tom Brady roast and how Jeff Ross said a joke about Robert Kraft.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That Tom Brady got very pissed off about.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:So several of the roasters, by the way, have been on your show previously.
Marc:including Nikki Glaser, Will Ferrell, who reprised his role of Ron Burgundy for some reason, Kevin Hart, Sam Jay, Bert Kreischer, Tom Segura, and, of course, the Roastmaster himself, Jeffrey Ross.
Marc:But yes, one joke apparently...
Marc:Went too far for Mr. Brady as he was sitting on the dais and Jeff Ross made a joke about Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, receiving a massage, a reference to the 2019 arrest of Robert Kraft for soliciting prostitution in a Florida massage parlor.
Marc:The charges were dropped.
Guest:You don't say.
Marc:I know, right?
Marc:That's that's what the money is for, Brendan.
Marc:But Brady got up from his seat to whisper into Ross's ear and also into the microphone.
Marc:Don't say that shit again.
Marc:It felt a bit staged, honestly, as everything was scripted out for this event.
Marc:This was weird.
Marc:Every joke.
Marc:Was visible to the crowd in attendance at the L.A.
Marc:Forum from the teleprompter.
Marc:Like, they could all see all of these jokes before they were being said, which was, I've never been to a roast.
Marc:Is that normal?
Marc:Like, I know Mark has had a roast.
Guest:They saw them before they were being said?
Marc:Yeah, because they're on the teleprompter and the...
Marc:comedian or actor or, uh, sports, you know, personality has to read them.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So they could all see everyone in attendance could see the jokes beforehand.
Marc:Uh, so was it like basically for accessibility for people who, no, no, it was, no, it was just, it was for like the, the presenter, you know, like there was like Robert Kraft got up there to, to.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, but a teleprompter is not seen by the audience.
Yeah.
Marc:This one was because of the arena.
Marc:It was, like, it was at the LA Forum.
Marc:So, like, this was apparently in the line of sight for everyone.
Marc:Maybe not everyone in the theater.
Marc:But it was weird because there were, like, Robert Kraft came up and told a rebuttal to one of the jokes that was said before him.
Marc:But, like...
Marc:It was all staged before.
Marc:It was a big play, you know, like, is that normal?
Marc:Do people have all of these jokes prepared and then rebuttals to jokes?
Marc:Is that normal at a roast or is that just like?
Guest:I think I think with these roasts, yes, all of them are always like, yeah, there's no there's no one going up there and just like free freestyling it and like doing like a, you know, a rap battle.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's just, it's, it's every, yeah, everything gets loaded into a prompter or everything in the days when they didn't use prompter was, was on paper and they were looking at it off their own notes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, you know, look, these things are not supposed to be malicious.
Guest:They, they're, they're, they're jokes that are supposed to be in like good fun.
Guest:I think at some point along the line that things have gotten confused and, and that the idea is supposed to be the roasts or you're supposed to actually like hurt the people.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I think that might be part of like getting mixed up with like diss tracks and rap battles.
Guest:And it's not that like, I mean, go back and watch any of those Dean Martin roasts.
Guest:They want a single joke on those things that, that the person being roasted didn't know was coming.
Guest:They absolutely knew it was coming so they could have other jokes.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, I don't think Jeff Ross, for instance, is like concerned with the thing being like he wants it to be mean and cutting.
Guest:And so I don't know where that idea came from.
Guest:I also here's a here's the thing about me.
Guest:I don't find them funny.
Guest:No.
Guest:No, it's all contrived and it doesn't hit.
Guest:I could totally understand a good one-liner.
Guest:I always remember one of the roasts, I forget, maybe it was of Joan Rivers or maybe Joan Rivers was just on the dais, but Whitney Cummings, who I had never seen before, that was like the first time I was ever seeing her, was at this roast.
Guest:And she just was like, Joan Rivers, oh, it's so good to see you here.
Guest:I loved you in The Wrestler.
Yeah.
Guest:That got me good.
Marc:Yeah, see, that's nice.
Marc:I, too, find them too mean.
Marc:I would never want to roast.
Marc:I don't have any interest in them.
Marc:But, yeah, they are entirely too mean.
Marc:So, first question, did you tune into the self-described and groan-inducing titled Groat?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:get it, the greatest roast of all time?
Marc:No, I did not watch it.
Guest:You did not, no.
Marc:Neither did I. I saw clips online, but that's about it.
Marc:And do you think Mark would ever want a roast for himself?
Marc:You know, people to roast him?
Marc:No.
Marc:No?
Marc:Oh, Lord, no.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Mark would neither be a roasty or a roaster.
Guest:It's so hilarious because I found out about the Robert Kraft thing just from looking at news sites, but I knew about the roast itself from Mark being like...
Guest:I always see these things.
Guest:And then I'm like, how come I'm not a part of it?
Guest:And I'm like, the roast?
Guest:He's like, yeah, yeah, I know.
Guest:I wouldn't do good on that.
Guest:I'm like, yeah, that's why you're not a part of it.
Guest:Like, you're not asked because you and everyone else knows you would not do this well.
Guest:Like, you have proof.
Guest:You had a roast that went terribly wrong, the Chevy Chase one.
Guest:But also, there's a story in Mark's life, this roast of...
Guest:I don't even know if it was intended as a roast.
Guest:It was like a company retreat.
Guest:And Doug Herzog was one of the executives and one of the other executives that was there.
Guest:They came from MTV.
Guest:And Mark said, like, I'm so glad Doug and Amy are here from MTV.
Guest:And they're going to continue their goal of turning all television into a 24-7 pie-eating contest.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Seems like an innocuous joke, right?
Guest:But apparently it cut just at the right fleshy part, right?
Guest:And he had to go in and apologize for it.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Yeah, it was bad.
Marc:And like, I think it's just like your story with Wayne, right?
Marc:Like it was, it was a sneak attack.
Marc:It was a defense, you know, your, your defense, their defenses were down and Mark just got one right to the solar plexus.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He just, just sailed under the fence.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So yeah, no, I don't think Mark would ever be part of a race either on either side.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because yeah, like the, the,
Guest:I can't even imagine what would happen if there was a situation where it was allowed for people to... I can't imagine what would happen.
Guest:I don't know why I'm saying I can't imagine.
Guest:I can absolutely imagine what would happen if people were all making jokes at Mark's expense.
Guest:I have been listening to and watched shows with him on them
Guest:where the nature of the show is for like people to kind of rib each other doug loves movies was a perfect example i remember him being on one with kumail nanjiani and i was listening to it i was like they're gonna fucking fight each other like i like because i just know mark and i know he doesn't let
Guest:If a joke hits, he can't do the thing where it's like, I'll let that one hit me and let everybody have their fun off of that having hit me.
Guest:Once it hits, he needs, pathologically needs to hit back.
Guest:Yeah, it's a thing.
Guest:I know it very well.
Guest:And like, he can't let it go.
Guest:So like, if it does damage, even if it's like a little bit of glancing damage, he needs to send one in the other direction.
Guest:And then that just becomes mutually assured destruction.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He's, he's pressing the big red button and wants all out destruction of the, of his opponent.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Eventually.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Because then it keeps getting lobbed back and forth and like no one knows when to stop.
Guest:So they just keep sending bigger and bigger missiles.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:Oh, bad.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, okay.
Marc:No roast of Marc Maron in the near or distant future.
Marc:Got it.
Marc:All right.
Marc:My last story for you is a story that happens every year, and I regret having social media each time it shows up in my feed.
Marc:And that...
Marc:is the Met Gala.
Marc:It happened again this week.
Marc:This year had a dress code that was the Garden of Time based on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute's exhibit, Sleeping Beauties, Reawakening Fashion.
Marc:So Brendan, how did you spend your Monday if it wasn't scrolling past video after video of celebrities walking and sometimes being carried up the stairs to the Met?
Guest:doing anything but that.
Marc:I am so envious of you.
Marc:I hate this mid-gala thing.
Marc:Why are you envious?
Marc:You can do the same thing.
Guest:I know.
Marc:You're not a prisoner.
Marc:I know.
Marc:It feels like I am.
Marc:It's the vortex.
Marc:It's just what to do.
Marc:What am I going to do at 1030 when I'm about to drift off to sleep?
Marc:I'm going to...
Marc:press a button on my phone, and I'm going to see what's in the news, see if any transactions happen in baseball, and I just find all these videos.
Guest:So here's what I would suggest to you.
Guest:Find places where you could do exactly those things that don't involve an endless feed of nonsense.
Guest:Because I'm informed on the exact same things you are, but I go to Mets.com,
Guest:To look at the, what's the latest news for my team, the New York Metropolitans or MLB.com.
Guest:And they have a little side scroll thing that says transactions.
Guest:And you can just click on that and find who went where.
Guest:You don't have to rely on the brain fucker that is just going to constantly pummel your cortex with stuff that you don't need.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The, the, the worm that lives inside my brain really enjoys it though.
Guest:Now that's a good story.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:I almost spit my water all over the desk.
Cause.
Marc:That is the best story I've ever heard this year.
Marc:Like, I mean, I think there was a headline that was the best from his campaign.
Marc:Let me see if I can get it.
Guest:The headline in the New York Times was, I got to read it directly.
Guest:Because it was just like the perfect thing.
Guest:Like, I was like, oh, you don't come back from that.
Guest:Here it was.
Guest:The New York Times.
Guest:RFK Jr.
Guest:says doctors found a dead worm in his brain.
Guest:Sorry, goodbye.
Guest:Fatality.
Guest:Totally.
Guest:So the hilarious thing about this story...
Guest:is if you just hear about that, oh my God, a dead worm in his brain.
Guest:And then the quote from him that this all came from a deposition in 2012 was the quote in the deposition was that the doctor believed that the abnormality seen on his brain scans, quote, was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Seems bad.
Guest:Please vote for me.
Guest:It's the next one.
Guest:He's totally bad.
Guest:Right.
Guest:In that level.
Guest:But you keep reading the story and it turns out that this was the deposition they're talking about was because of a divorce.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so he was being deposed and giving all the reasons why I can't give this ex-wife any money because, you know, I'm I'm disabled.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I'm having trouble making income.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So there were all of these reasons, the brain worm being one of them, which when you're being told by divorce lawyers, like, hey, you stand to lose X divided by two, right?
Guest:Your fortune divided by two.
Guest:And you need to do whatever you can to keep some of that money.
Guest:You will say shit like that is ostensibly true.
Guest:Like I had a brain parasite, but you will be like, yeah, this thing ate my fucking brain.
Yeah.
Guest:I don't remember shit anymore and I can't go out of the house.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So please let me keep my money.
Guest:Well, now you're running for president and you have this out there as a fact that makes the New York fuck times say RFK Jr.
Guest:says doctors found a dead worm in his brain.
Marc:Can I just say, did he then say that his ex can't have half his money because the living worms family has to get the other half?
Guest:Is that what it was?
Guest:It's owed something.
Yeah.
Marc:Hazard Day for seeing his skull.
Marc:Vanity Fair had a headline that is my personal favorite that I think trumps your New York Times headline.
Marc:And it's RFK Jr.
Marc:'s campaign says, the worm that ate part of his brain will not affect his ability to serve as president.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I...
Guest:I had people trying to convince... I work with a news organization on a daily basis.
Guest:We talk about what works in the news, what doesn't.
Guest:And one of the things that came up was this RFK Jr.
Guest:story.
Guest:And there's this feeling, and I agree with it generally, that...
Guest:chaos candidates, right?
Guest:Like RFK Jr.
Guest:'s purpose is not to become the president, but he is going to cause chaos in the voting, especially if he gets on ballots.
Guest:And it's a largely attention-driven campaign based on nothing other than cult of personality stuff.
Guest:And then when you, so when that happens, you know, you have to be very on guard for what are you doing giving this person a platform?
Guest:Because generally all you're doing is like, there's no end game to what they're doing other than attention.
Guest:So you're just giving them the attention they crave and you're putting it under the guise of newsworthiness.
Guest:And often it's not newsworthy because anybody can want attention, right?
Guest:And so with this type of story,
Guest:Like I was talking to another news producer and he's like, you know, I don't know.
Guest:It's not going to affect one.
Guest:The guy's goal is not to get elected.
Guest:So what does it matter one way or another?
Guest:And I was like, yeah, but the whole idea of he's going to go out there and cause chaos.
Guest:On either side, you can't even argue necessarily who he's going to take votes from.
Guest:It could be MAGA people.
Guest:It could be Democrats.
Guest:Who knows at this point?
Guest:But it is a chaos campaign.
Guest:And my thing is like the only thing that is deadly to a campaign like this is when it becomes unpalatable to the chaos agents who want to perpetuate it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so when you're a person who you your general thought, you just go back to like Ross Perot.
Guest:Right.
Guest:People were like, fuck all these people.
Guest:I'm going to go in and pull the lever for Ross Perot just because like I think he's kind of fun going on TV with his charts and graphs and talking about how, you know, the giant sucking sound you hear is the U.S.
Guest:economy.
Guest:Like that guy, he amuses me.
Guest:I'm going to pull the lever for him.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But that's the same thing that winds up happening with RFK.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's like people are like, I don't like that.
Guest:the old guy.
Guest:And I don't like the crazy guy.
Guest:So I'm going to like, just go in and pull the lever for this guy who, you know, is in the Kennedy family.
Guest:When now the number one thing you're thinking about with that guy is the worm in his head is,
Guest:all bets are off.
Guest:Like, it's like that, that's it.
Guest:It's over.
Guest:He's not, that, that is a killed my dog worthy headline.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like that's another thing that happened in some ways is very quaint that you could still have candidates be totally upended by these like headlines and,
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Christy Noem shot and killed her puppy.
Guest:She's done for the foreseeable future now because of that.
Marc:And also lied about meeting Kim Jong-un.
Marc:But it's hilarious.
Marc:It didn't even need to get to that.
Marc:She's done with the dog.
Marc:The dog was it.
Marc:It's over.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Good day, sir.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You would say the worm has turned on both of those candidates.
Marc:Oh, yes.
Guest:I have gotten into this habit of, particularly back and forth with a friend of mine who does the same thing, of when things come up, I go and use existing AI software to create a pop song about it.
Guest:And I just I couldn't resist, but I had to make this song.
Guest:OK.
Guest:The sky is the limit.
Guest:It's all come to pass.
Guest:I've got the big edge.
Guest:I'm the head of the class.
Guest:Gonna grab the big ring.
Guest:Nothing's stopping my climb.
Guest:Except for this story in today's New York Times I'm R.F.K.
Guest:Junior, I got worms in my brain I'm not medicated or clinically insane The most things can't eat, the rest are all dead But I can't overcome the tiny bugs in my head
Guest:Other than the brain say I'm fine on my feet.
Guest:For there is that one thing that makes my heart skip a beat.
Guest:Plus the mercury poison and the flight vocal cords.
Guest:And I did all that heroin because I was born.
Guest:I'm our red heroin because I was born.
Guest:R.F.K.
Guest:Junior, I found worms in my brain.
Guest:I'm not vaccinated, but I'm in lots of pain.
Guest:I'd like to talk about what you can't understand because the worm ate that part of my memory.
Guest:One more time.
Guest:Everybody.
Marc:Banger.
Marc:What a banger.
Marc:That's a song of the summer.
Guest:Yeah, I'd like to thank the robot at suno.ai for assisting me with that.
Marc:I can picture myself top down in my car, driving to that song, going 60 miles on the highway.
Guest:For the last 24 hours, me walking around my house.
Guest:I'm RFK Jr.
Guest:I got worms in my brain.
Marc:Like it has worked.
Marc:Amazing.
Marc:Ah, well, that was a delight.
Marc:I hope I hope we can make that work.
Guest:Speaking of things, eating things, we have eaten up a lot of our time.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Oh, my God.
Guest:Which I know.
Guest:Hey, listen, here's so here's the deal.
Guest:This.
Guest:This was going to generally be a mailbag episode of the show.
Guest:Like I was going to do, I actually stayed up entirely too late last night collecting all the stuff from your comments and questions as listeners and feedback that you've been giving us.
Guest:We will hold that over till next week and it will actually be very helpful to me.
Guest:Here's why.
Guest:I'll tell you why.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Next week, I have to go on another show.
Guest:There's a show called The Cinephiles.
Guest:Oh, cool.
Guest:It's like C-I-N-E dash files.
Guest:Cinephiles.
Guest:And the two hosts of that do like deep dives into movies.
Guest:And they have been listening to this show.
Guest:I think they heard me talking about Killers of the Flower Moon with Mark.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So these two guys, Steve and John, they do really long, deep dives into movies.
Guest:And they said, listen to that.
Guest:When we were doing our Scorsese series, we were like, oh, you would fit into what we're doing here.
Guest:But I got back to them too late.
Guest:It was after their Scorsese series was done.
Guest:And so they said, would you like to do any other movies?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:uh, like just send us a list of like your favorite movies.
Guest:And, uh, you know, we could talk about it.
Guest:And so I said, I went and looked through their whole catalog.
Guest:Cause you know, they don't do repeats.
Guest:And I was like, oh man, it's like, you know, 90% of these are the things that I would have sent in.
Guest:So I had to send them a list of things that they had not covered.
Guest:So we're talking about certain things that are like off the beaten path.
Guest:And they chose of my list, uh,
Guest:Total Recall.
Guest:Oh, awesome.
Guest:So here's the thing, though.
Guest:I was like, oh, can I parlay this into two shows?
Guest:We'll talk about this.
Guest:But we basically did already.
Guest:We did an Arnold episode, you and I. That's right.
Guest:And Total Recall was my ranked number one Arnold movie.
Guest:So I was like, I don't want to rehash this, but like I was planning next week to do a lot of extracurricular time on like watching Total Recall.
Guest:I want to rewatch the Arnold commentary of Total Recall.
Guest:I want to reread the Philip K. Dick story that it's based on.
Guest:We'll remember it for you wholesale, which is pretty short.
Guest:It's not going to take me that long, but like,
Guest:I had planned to do a lot of work next week in addition to this show and my normal job duties.
Guest:So it will be very helpful, actually, to float over what we were going to do next week, which involves all of your comments and questions about the Quentin Tarantino.
Guest:Tino episodes that we've been doing.
Guest:I have a great stuff about Madam web in here.
Guest:Uh, great stuff about the pop culture, love languages that you and I talked about after we saw the, I think you should leave live, uh, with the WTF origin stuff that got a lot of comments.
Guest:Also your origins, Chris, uh, got some questions and comments about that.
Guest:So there's a lot of stuff and, you know, uh,
Guest:I would like us to hang tight with that, and we will air it next week.
Guest:And, you know, I just think it's better to give it the space it deserves.
Guest:And because of that, if you have stuff you want to get in under the wire, because I didn't warn you about this as listeners, that we're going to do a mailbag episode, send it in this week.
Guest:Go to the comments section, go to the list there, and, you know,
Guest:Send us what you're thinking about or wondering about or new topics for us to cover, and we'll try to get that in next week when we do a mailbag.
Guest:But, you know, let's right now do what we normally do at the beginning of the show and wrap up with WTF from this week, which...
Guest:I would assume you've got some reactions since there's the week started off with a guest that we we both very much enjoy for particularly different reasons.
Marc:But yes, I'm actually curious why you like Mark mentioned that, you know, you know of Chris Pine because of something specifically for, you know, Boston or something.
Guest:So my paths crossed with Chris Pine.
Guest:He would not remember who I am, but he and a very good friend of mine, a lifelong friend of mine, went to Williamstown Theater Festival together back in 2005.
Guest:And they became pretty close.
Guest:And and so when I would visit my buddy out in L.A., you know, he'd be hanging out with Pine and Pine was at the time, you know, we knew I was more like stoked that he was Robert Pine's son.
Guest:Like I was like, Robert Pine from Chips.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:That's awesome.
Guest:But, you know, because like in 2005, I think, you know, Chris's probably biggest credit at that point was like The Princess Diaries 2.
Guest:So it was like, okay, I know plenty of like jobbing actors who could get that job.
Guest:It wasn't impressive to me or anything.
Guest:But...
Guest:hanging around pine was like immediately obvious this was a movie star like he just everything you want to say about a you know famous movie star he had it charisma or uh you know presence uh the way he was with mark is exact i've said this to mark when the when i was done listening to it i was like that's exactly how i remember him
Guest:He's just this very affable, friendly guy, but you don't ever feel like he's not the coolest dude in the room.
Guest:It's like he can hold both things, be very accommodating and open and friendly, but also you're like, well, I know you're the alpha here.
Guest:You're the top dog because you're exuding the most energy and charisma in the room, right?
Guest:Wow.
Guest:When you're around a person like that, your focus is on them all the time.
Guest:And he would tell great stories.
Guest:And one of them that I have repeated to you multiple times in life was I got Mark to tease it out of him because I was like, oh, he has this story about David Caruso.
Guest:And I did notice that he, in telling it to Mark,
Guest:eliminated a portion of the story, which made me wonder if when he was telling that back when we were kids, was it embellished or is he trying to kind of protect David Caruso in the story now?
Marc:I mean, knowing the story, I feel like it's probably a ladder, right?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I could go either way.
Guest:Because the way he told it, it just makes it such a better story.
Guest:And it's an easy embellishment.
Guest:So if you're not sure of what I'm talking about, there was a moment where Mark...
Guest:prodded around to get Chris to talk about how he was like a day player on CSI Miami.
Guest:And he was like, oh, David Caruso.
Guest:He worked with him.
Guest:What was that like?
Guest:And he was prodding him there because I told him, this guy has a funny David Caruso story.
Guest:And the story was that they were shooting this scene where Caruso's character is interrogating Pine's character, who was the murderer.
Guest:And
Guest:And he he apparently the murder weapon was like a plastic bag or saran wrap or something, how he told it.
Guest:And and they had it.
Guest:They had the piece of evidence.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And and as it's written, you know, he's supposed to be interrogating and wave this thing in front of the perp.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, we know you killed her with this.
Guest:And as they're doing it, like they're doing the scene, I guess they're shooting a take of it.
Guest:And David Caruso, you know, cause he's like just fully engaged with the scene is like, we know you did this and you use this.
Guest:And he wrapped it around Pine's face.
Guest:So the way and like Pine just told that story to Mark, it's very funny, just on its own.
Guest:But the way I remember him telling this back in the day was that part happened.
Guest:And then the director was like, okay, cut, cut, cut.
Guest:And like, you know, they know now they've got like a safety violation happening.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So they're like, all right, that was great.
Guest:And let's do it one more time.
Guest:And David, like this time, we're just going to show him the bag.
Guest:Like you don't have to like touch him with it.
Guest:And he's like, oh, OK, gotcha, gotcha.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:And they're like, and action.
Guest:Boom, back right over his face.
Guest:You killed her with this.
Guest:So I don't know if that's true or not, but a way better story when you add that part into it.
Marc:Yeah, absolutely.
Marc:This wasn't an interview.
Marc:This was like a conversation.
Marc:This guy is great.
Marc:Is so cool.
Marc:Like, I truly enjoyed this.
Marc:I love that...
Marc:Pine wanted to know about Mark just as much as Mark wanted to know about Chris Pine.
Marc:I also, I kind of like that he didn't know too much about Mark.
Marc:Like I could tell his publicist probably, you know, gave him a couple of episodes to listen to, but he didn't really know about Mark.
Marc:He wanted to know about like how he goes up on stage.
Marc:Like he found that really, you know, interesting.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I really loved Captain Kirk here interrogating Mark and his insecurities and what he really wants.
Marc:I just found that to be such a delight.
Guest:But you know what?
Guest:He was smart enough, whether it's calculating or not, maybe it's just...
Guest:you know, the way he is, he was smart enough to know, like, if Mark's going to like, if he's going to do that, he's going to press him on something.
Guest:And Mark's going to like, be honest about it and reveal himself.
Guest:Then he will meet him there.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So like, there's that point where he's like, you know, what is it that you actually want?
Guest:And like, you know, Mark's like, I don't know.
Guest:You'd want to be a leading man or something.
Guest:You have this childhood fantasy about it.
Guest:And he's like, well, why do you want that?
Guest:And it's like, well,
Guest:i don't know and he's like to be more loved yeah and he's like yeah yeah yeah yeah you know then so i can push them away again afterwards yes and pine's like boy don't i know it don't i know it i know that exactly like he didn't have to do that right but he realized we're in a give and take here yes and that makes it all the better it's exactly what we want out of our bookings and you know what's a funny thing about this one
Guest:is that it could have gone another way.
Guest:Because I vouched for him as a guest just from my memories of him 20 years ago.
Guest:But that doesn't have to necessarily be true.
Guest:That doesn't have to be how he presents himself publicly.
Guest:And Mark, frankly, was just like, I don't know.
Guest:I kind of just see the guy in things and I like him.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:It doesn't sometimes have to be more than that.
Guest:And it just wound up being that that impulse proved true in how he wound up being as a guest, which is that's like, you know, hey, you do all types of things in life that are games of chance.
Guest:For us, that's a game of chance.
Guest:And it worked out.
Guest:It also worked out, I can say, as a preview of
Guest:With one Jude Law.
Guest:That was another guy who, you know, just like we were like, but, you know, Mark worked on that movie that he made.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they never met each other.
Guest:They share no scenes.
Guest:But Jude Law was a producer on that movie.
Guest:So he knew Mark from the film.
Guest:He's watched the whole film and in the editing process and whatnot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So he knows Mark, but there's no guarantee they're going to get along, you know, and and man, it it was just it's exactly like that same thing with Pine.
Guest:This is just these these people know how to meet Mark where he is.
Guest:And that makes for a good talk.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I like to think of it as you got to the gooey center of that person, for sure.
Marc:You know who Chris Pine reminds me of?
Marc:Who?
Marc:He reminds me of Rick Dalton from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Guest:Well, I hope he's not an alcoholic, but yes.
Marc:No, but like...
Marc:That type of vibe, you know, like he just seems like an everyman.
Marc:And I just I just love Chris Pine.
Marc:Like I really, you know, I enjoy him and, you know, everything he does.
Marc:He's great.
Marc:So wait.
Marc:So going back to Jude Law.
Marc:So you're in Jude Law's office, right?
Guest:Well, it's a it's a production office.
Guest:He's got an office there, you know, because of what they're shooting.
Marc:OK, so it's not his.
Marc:Okay, so it's not his home office.
Guest:No, no, no, no, no.
Guest:This was at, I mean, we were allowed to mention, as we mentioned on the bonus material, we were at Steiner Studios, which is a big, big complex.
Guest:They film lots and lots of stuff there.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:So they're like, because what I'm thinking of Jude Law's office is like, he has like, you know...
Marc:Warhol, like, you know, paintings of him, like four of them in a row and different colors and stuff.
Marc:So, okay.
Marc:So there's nothing like that.
Marc:It just like, no, a very like nondescript sort of off.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In fact, the interview is conducted in a conference room.
Guest:It's very bouncy.
Guest:I'm going to have to do quite a bit of work on it to try to reduce the echo.
Guest:And we will probably even have a little disclaimer on it.
Guest:Like, yeah, it doesn't sound exactly like we like, but it's a good interview.
Marc:OK, yeah.
Marc:So I was wondering, like, what do you do while Mark's talking to Jude Law?
Marc:Like, are you just like not on your phone scrolling?
Guest:Like, are you playing with my phone doing work?
Guest:That was a good hour uninterrupted of work, which is great for me.
Guest:And I can just go sit on a couch in a nice, you know, production office and and do that and, you know, enjoy their Evian water or whatever they have.
Guest:yeah okay wow so yeah i can't wait to hear that wow it's a conference room like that's uh that's a bummer uh but they were they were very it was very comfortable it was a very good setting we were like everything about it worked out and it worked out well for mark who was like as you heard from that bonus material and you saw during his montclair show was like you know in a bit of a mental tizzy so it all worked out well for him there
Marc:By the way, I love hearing you and Mark together.
Marc:Like, you guys have such great chemistry.
Marc:Like, you guys in the car.
Marc:I love knowing that Mark, you know, puts his blinker on when he turns.
Guest:Oh, yeah, you can hear it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I got to say, I mean, I appreciate you saying that about us.
Guest:Obviously, you know, we're 20 year work partners and friends.
Guest:We can, you know, just like you and I can talk with each other and it could be generally entertaining.
Guest:Mark and I have that same thing.
Guest:But I have to say, and I told Mark this and I recommended that he remember it when he's on the road with his openers.
Guest:Being in a car and recording always yields good stuff.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, it just generally does.
Guest:Like, there's just something, I think, because your brain is staying very alert to your surroundings, there's minimal opportunity for your mind to wander.
Guest:And so, like, people who are on the microphones in a car stay very present.
Guest:And, like, I could tell you that firsthand just from doing it with him just now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, I...
Guest:I advocate him doing that with his openers where he sees fit.
Marc:I loved Mark's opener in Montclair.
Marc:Oh yeah, Maddie Wiener.
Marc:She was great.
Marc:Really great.
Marc:Like fantastic.
Marc:I mean, and also able to have a direct hit on me with her uncle bit.
Marc:If you haven't seen her, please seek her out.
Marc:She is fantastic.
Guest:Oh yeah, you are the uncle.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Oh, boy.
Marc:Oh, boy.
Marc:Yeah, that was great.
Marc:He had a great set.
Marc:But, you know, I do want to go back to Tiffany Haddish that you had on.
Marc:We weren't able to talk about it.
Guest:Oh, right, right.
Guest:Because it was, yeah, it was the time.
Guest:It was that day we recorded before that interview aired.
Marc:Mark and Tiffany were giving love to social workers.
Marc:As someone who works with social workers, it's great that they have an appreciation for those people because they do do hard work.
Marc:And it's brutal at times.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:And I never knew that Tiffany was homeless.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:And now look at her.
Marc:She has, like, houses.
Marc:She has an apartment that's just her closet.
Marc:It's pretty cool.
Guest:Yeah, I was reading the book.
Guest:I didn't read the first book, but I read this new one that she put out.
Guest:You come to kind of expect a certain type of book, especially if you think it's being ghostwritten, when a person becomes famous and they get a book deal.
Guest:It's almost like it comes in a kit.
Guest:And I was reading this book, and it was not like a kit.
Guest:It almost felt like...
Guest:I don't want to say was unedited because it clearly was, but it felt very like loose and stream of consciousness.
Guest:And that to me was made it better than a lot of celebrity books.
Guest:So I was, uh, yeah, I was, I was more interested in it on that level than I was, you know, just to everybody, anybody comes on and it's like, oh yeah, I got famous.
Guest:And now here's my autobiography that was written by somebody else.
Marc:Right.
Yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, I'm going to seek it out.
Marc:If she does the audio book, I might just purchase the audio book.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Because those are always fun for me.
Marc:And also, Joe Mandy came on the show.
Marc:Joe Mandy's great.
Marc:I love him all the time.
Marc:Just so, so funny.
Marc:What a great guy.
Marc:His story about being in the Midwest, I guess St.
Marc:Louis, was...
Guest:No, it was Phoenix.
Guest:It was Phoenix, Arizona.
Guest:Oh my God.
Guest:Which you know well.
Marc:Your dad is there.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:A really harrowing story.
Marc:I love that he couldn't get through the setup of jokes because they were heckling him.
Marc:It was just crazy.
Guest:Joe has great stories all the time, so much so that I put three of them, long-form stories, in our book, Waiting for the Punch.
Guest:And they're still three of my very favorite stories.
Guest:I'll read them when I'm just feeling down because they're funny.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:And in fact, people who are regular noticers of these types of things might have seen that the episode was a little short on the shorter side.
Guest:I think it was just over an hour, and usually the show goes past an hour 15, sometimes up to an hour 30 or so.
Guest:And this was intended as...
Guest:like Joe could come on and do a shorty, like a short, you know, 20 minute one, which we do sometimes, or maybe like do, we'd put some of it on the, the, the show and then have bonus material for full Marin people.
Guest:But we were just like, look, I, I know we intended it for it to be short, but,
Guest:but they went like 50 plus minutes and it was good.
Guest:And I'm like, why not just put this out there as a whole thing?
Guest:It's like, let's not cut it up.
Guest:Let's not truncate it.
Guest:This can just be its thing.
Guest:And, you know, so it's a slightly shorter than normal episode, but it's still, you know, I think full of Joe Mandy goodness.
Guest:And I feel like that's enough.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, for sure.
Marc:I mean, you got the Michael Clayton stuff, which was great.
Marc:Courtside seats.
Marc:By the way, have you ever sat courtside at a basketball game?
Guest:Pretty close.
Guest:When I was a kid, the Knicks did a preseason game up in Albany where I was in high school in the Albany area.
Guest:And it was one of those miraculous things.
Guest:I just went to...
Guest:ticket master called the number like the day it happened that was going on sale and got second row courtside seats like so it's not like the very front row but we were like second row and could be basically imagine we were in the first row me and three other friends and it was great and it was just a pre-season game because they you know they were just doing like
Marc:preseason in albany or something like that but it was fantastic i know exactly what he's talking about how you're like oh my god you're right there which is the same thing with wrestling when you sit like ringside yeah yeah yeah i i i think we've actually had this conversation probably off air and like through text but um yeah basketball and wrestling it's important if you can be in the first couple of rows that's great or first row perfect and
Marc:Everything else is just like, you might as well just be on television watching it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But for me, if I'm watching a baseball game, I'd rather be in the upper deck right above home plate.
Marc:That, for me, is where I want to sit.
Guest:Also, football is another one where you don't want to be that close to the field.
Marc:No, no.
Marc:It's like you're just staring at a television the entire time.
Marc:So, yeah.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, interesting.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I guess I should – I want to be – do you think that's hold true for like hockey?
Marc:Like if we went to like a Rangers game, like where would you sit?
Guest:Well –
Guest:Okay, so I have sat throughout the arena for hockey games, and I think kind of center ice and up high is a great spot to be.
Guest:That's probably the ideal spot.
Guest:But if you are by the glass, you're going to have an interesting experience, right?
Guest:It's not...
Guest:You're not going to see the game the way you expect to see and take in the whole game, like the way you can at a courtside basketball seat.
Guest:But at the glass at a hockey game, it's like, okay, here's what I would liken it to because you go to a lot of baseball games.
Guest:It's like sitting in the outfield or foul...
Guest:territory that's not super close to the field but that you know lots of balls get hit that way so it makes every at bat exciting on another level that you're like i'm not exactly seeing this from the ideal position but something very exciting might happen right where i am at any given moment right yeah so that's the same thing sitting very close sitting by the glass in a hockey game
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So your adrenaline is going like the whole time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you're like, hey, anything's game.
Guest:You know, like this could this could turn into a totally different night than I expect.
Guest:The guy could come through the glass.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I can see a fight.
Marc:I could have a hockey puck, you know, bounce on me.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So anything could happen.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:Also, Mark's latest monologue.
Marc:Honestly, as a Taylor Swift fan, he's talking like Taylor Swift.
Marc:You're on your own, kid.
Marc:You've always have been.
Marc:I'm just saying he should listen to more Taylor Swift because I feel like he can be seen or at least be heard in her music.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I don't know how much he's been listening.
Guest:But obviously, as you saw at the show the other night, it's a big part of his act right now.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I approve.
Marc:I am.
Marc:I'm right there for it.
Marc:And I thought that was a beautiful set that he did.
Marc:And we got to I got to hear the Chris, the tag that Chris Rock gave him.
Marc:And I must say, as soon as I heard it, I actually, you know, you turned around because we were somehow sitting next to each other.
Marc:But yeah.
Marc:And you gave me a little nod.
Marc:And I and I knew even before you did that, that that was that must have been the tag that the curse rock gave him.
Marc:So it was very cool.
Marc:I'm glad.
Marc:And on this latest episode, we heard Mark talk to his guest about it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Joe Mandy about the exact setup.
Marc:So now you all have the clues.
Guest:Mr. Police.
Guest:Everyone knows where it's going to be.
Guest:But he did not burn it.
Guest:So you do have to still go see Mark's show to know the Chris Rock tag.
Marc:I was wondering, have you ever edited it out?
Marc:I did in that spot.
Guest:Did you?
Guest:That's great.
Guest:He said it and then he said, I don't think I want to burn that.
Guest:And I was like, oh yeah, no, we're not burning that.
Marc:That's great.
Marc:Thank you, Mr. Producer.
Marc:You withheld a clue or the whole thing.
Marc:So that's great.
Marc:Awesome.
Marc:Awesome stuff.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, listen, we will next week do a full on mailbag episode from you, our listeners.
Guest:So anything you want to get in under the wire there, please send it to us with the comment link that is in the episode description.
Guest:I do want to say hello to Joe from Ebert Fest.
Guest:Joe was attending Ebert Fest and met our past guest, Matt Singer, told Matt Singer he heard about him from this show.
Guest:So we wanted to just say hello to Joe, say thanks for listening.
Guest:Matt said you were a very cool guy, which is actually quite great that we, you know, we'd never met Matt Singer before when we had him on the show.
Guest:And we are now we're now karaoke buddies.
Guest:Apparently we're going to go do karaoke with Matt in a couple of weeks.
Guest:Heck of a guy.
Guest:So yes, thank you to Matt Singer and thank you to Joe from Ebertfest for listening.
Guest:To the rest of you, thanks for being here and don't forget to send us your feedback in the comment section.
Guest:Just go to the link that's in the episode description right now.
Guest:Send that to us for our mailbag episode next week.
Guest:And until then, I'm Brendan and that's Chris.
Peace!