BONUS Ask Marc Anything #14
Hey, folks, it's me, Mark, and here we go.
This is the 14th installment.
of Ask Mark Anything, all these questions came from you guys.
Full Marin subscribers only this time.
Here we go.
I've been listening to WTF since almost the beginning, but I'm still confused by some of the stand-up lingo.
What is a bringer show?
What is the difference between a feature spot and a headliner?
What is a middle?
When you say closer, does that only refer to jokes or are headliners also called closers?
Okay, well, let's go down the list.
A bringer show is basically a show where in order to get on stage, you have to bring people.
Usually there's a number of people, friends, family, whatever.
But that is what gets you your spot is if you bring audience paying audience members.
What is the difference between a feature spot and a headliner?
The feature spot is either the middle spot, which is the one between the opener and the headliner, or the first act on a two-person show, say at a theater.
Someone's featuring for you.
That's usually how it's used.
Like the opener is usually in a club.
The person who does like five, ten minutes up front brings and hosts the show generally.
And then the feature is the next act or the middle.
The middle act is essentially...
the act between the opener and the headliner.
Closer.
A closer is somebody who closes the show.
Now, obviously, if you're at a club, the closer would be the headliner or on a long show or, like, maybe there's five acts on who's closing.
So, yeah, it's the same as the headliner, but not always because it could be just on a show where everybody's doing the same amount of time and somebody's got to close.
So, like, when am I going on?
You're closing, right?
So...
And yes, a closing bit is a closing bit.
What's your closer?
Closing bit.
I know you didn't use the early show taping of from bleak to dark because the audience was too excited and wasn't making you earn the laughs.
Do you always end up not using the first show when taping a special?
Not usually.
The reason you do two tapings is not because one's better than the other is if you need to cut back and forth.
Like if one thing was better on an, on the early show or the late show, you want to have something to fill in the gaps if you need to for whatever.
So usually you're going to use the bulk of one of the shows as framework and
And then occasionally you might need to put a bid in there or put a transition in there.
It's used for backup generally.
And it wasn't just because the audience was so excited.
That was part of it.
But I think my vibe and I was grounded.
I wasn't excited or nervous.
I was in the zone.
And that's sort of why we use most of the second show.
And I would say I've usually used the second show, but I don't think it's necessarily common.
I think it's different for everybody.
What's my experience doing stand-up outside of the U.S.?
How is it different?
Harder?
No, just different.
I mean, I had one very bad experience many years ago, probably in...
God, what year would that have been?
Maybe 93 or 94, where I went to Australia for a five-week stint, and I didn't like being out of the country.
I didn't have the time I needed to do the show, and I bombed so bad I got sent home from Australia.
So that was bad.
England's a little different.
I mean, there are certain...
Back when I was starting out, there are certain cultural things that they don't have.
But generally, over time, everybody gets the same entertainment one way or the other.
So there isn't that much of a difference in how you present.
But the audiences are different.
In Australia, I did some work.
I always feel weird and out of place.
But I don't think there's that big a difference with audiences' behavior.
There might they might not be quick to references or language that isn't common language where they are.
But aside from that, it seems pretty much on the left.
Like I did Scandinavian shows.
I was in Norway.
I was in Sweden.
And you just do what you can do.
But again, they're all hip to American stand-up.
Everyone's seeing the same stuff because of global streaming and what's available.
But yeah, if there's a language barrier, there's a language barrier.
But again, most of the places I've been understand English, and it's not a big chasm to cross.
Canada is not different.
I've done England, Canada.
I've done comedy in Beijing and Hong Kong for expatriates.
That was a little tense.
I did all the Scandinavian countries.
I go to Ireland a lot.
There's really no difference there.
But there's just cultural differences.
But, you know, audiences are audiences.
And if they get what you're talking about, you know, the laughs are the same.
When I'm on the road, do you look to try new restaurants or do you have some old standbys?
I used to have a lot of old standbys at places where I would get food that was only from that area.
But now that I'm vegan, you know, I have to find the places that can sort of get me what I need.
And if they're really good, I'm not adverse to eating two or three or four meals there.
I was just in D.C.
and I ate three meals at Zatenya, Jose Andres' place, the Middle Eastern place, because they had good vegan food.
It was rich, though.
What do I eat in airports?
I try to eat before I go to the airport.
I've you know, I can go into the lounges.
I can go into Delta Lounge because of my Amex and I can go into the American Lounge because I use my points to get membership.
And they usually have a pretty good selection of snacks and food.
So, yeah, I mean, it's whatever they have at the buffet and they usually have vegetarian options and coffee and sometimes nuts.
I try to keep it as healthy as possible.
Now that things seem cool with Adam Sandler, is there any chance of him coming on the show?
I don't know.
I mean, I don't know.
I think we're always out to him.
I wouldn't see why not.
I mean, it's good from my side, and certainly the couple times I've seen him lately, he's been very nice.
Maybe there's a chance.
I'd like to have him.
Do you think character actors are more interesting and better conversationalists than leading men and women?
Or are the leading actors just more guarded because they're more famous?
Actors, it's a crapshoot.
You don't really know what's in there, and you're usually invested in them for roles they've played.
And what you consider a character actor, I would say, in general, the conversations I've had with real character actors are always pretty good.
You know, John C. Reilly, Michael Shannon...
Paul Giamatti recently, Stephen Dorff.
I would say, yeah, because they live a different life than movie stars.
I think movie stars are guarded, but Josh Brolin was pretty amazing.
But I would say...
On a percentage basis, I would say probably character actors are not better guests, but they are better conversationalists or they live kind of interesting lives.
Is Bob Dylan the only person left on your wish list?
Have any other people been added to the list recently?
Yeah, I mean, they come and go.
Bob Dylan, you know, I've kind of lost hope on and I'm not even sure it would be a great interview.
I'd like to have Larry David on.
There are some that always reveal themselves for different reasons.
I got Billy Strings coming up and I'm just curious about that kid because I think he's a real wizard.
So not in my, you know, right at the front of my mind, do I have people like, like, I got to get that guy.
But
But there's probably some, and new ones sort of happen.
So that's good.
Last year, you mentioned that John Mulaney was going to be on the show again.
What happened with that?
I don't know.
We just didn't follow through.
Yeah, I mean, thanks for reminding me.
Would you like to interview Taylor Swift?
Sure, I would like to interview Taylor Swift.
It'd be interesting.
I don't know what she's like in a long-form interview.
I don't know that she'd ever do it, but she certainly...
One of the biggest performers on the planet.
It would be interesting to talk to her.
It's kind of amazing how any performer at that level, you know, does what they do.
I mean, you know, I it takes a lot out of me just to do a show for a thousand people in, you know, Chicago.
I don't know how you perform for 20,000, 30,000 people.
I think music's different.
But, yeah, I'd like to talk to her.
Why not?
How many staff members are involved in producing your podcast?
Is it just you and Brendan?
That includes all the scheduling, research, recording, post-production equipment maintenance, financial management, and publicity.
It's mostly me and Brendan.
we do work with a booking agency.
So they pitch us guests.
But it's really me and Brendan.
And Brendan handles everything but the talking.
Publicity, here and there, I've worked with publicists.
But it's really equipment maintenance.
I don't know.
It's just a computer.
I guess I got mics here, cords.
So I'm on top of that.
It's just me here in the studio alone, riding my own levels.
And...
And it's Brendan in Brooklyn doing everything else and central booking, pitching us guests and getting them.
And I got a guy, Walter, who he manages the weekly update distribution and some other small tasks here and there.
You've said you never listened to the podcast yourself.
Was this always the case?
And why don't you listen to it?
I don't know.
I don't listen to any podcasts.
And I'll listen to mine if Brendan, you know, was sort of like, man, that took a lot of work.
And some of them I've listened to primarily when I know Brendan was proud of it or took a lot of work or he worked a miracle in sort of –
kind of shaping the conversation post-conversation.
Yeah, it's an interesting thing because, you know, my memory of these interactions that I have on the show are only relative to my memory.
And I know they exist recorded-wise, and I could go back if I wanted to remember something, but generally I just lean on Brendan to sort of be my, what do you call it, external memory.
Yeah.
Do I have a timer running during your chat?
Sometimes they end abruptly as if time is up.
Other times they slowly wind down.
Are you hard and fast with your time or is it more organic?
It's totally organic.
There is a timer on, you know, I use some kind of a...
very basic uh recording interface and there is a timer on that and i do notice it because i do i i would like to get around an hour um but no there's some of them go on longer some of them go on a lot longer and i don't know when they end abruptly but it's usually just sort of like it feels like we covered it um the ones that wind down you know i don't know the difference really but there's no there's no um times up or
But I do like to get at least an hour if possible.
And if not, it's just a short one.
I know you've been on many other people's podcasts.
I'm interested if you've ever had a Gallagher style or Kingsley style bad experience on someone else's show.
I don't know that I've been a dick on other people's shows before.
I mean, I imagine somebody could go find something, but I don't think so.
I think if anything, I get a little disappointed if people want me to tell the same stories over and over again, which is what, you know, celebrities do and public personalities do.
I like to get around those things personally.
You know, when I'm talking to somebody, I don't mind them doing it.
Like the other night when I was talking to Larry, he told the story about being fired from SNL and he's told that story a lot, but it kills.
So tell the story.
Yeah.
But you do get tired of your personal narrative.
Like, you know, when people ask me, what was it like interviewing the president?
I've told that story 100 times.
But I don't think I've ever had, you know, moments where, you know, I wanted to get up or I've left or acted rashly.
I've certainly felt that before, depending on the interviewer.
I don't know that I necessarily...
need to mention the one or two in my mind because I don't want to give them any juice.
Some people will have you on just as, you know, the kind of sandbag you somehow and put you in a position that you don't want to be in around information so they can get clicks or they can, you know, promote it.
And even if I mentioned, you know, one of these guys who was a complete asshole to me, you know, it would only draw him attention and give him grist for his mill, you know, for a day or a week.
Or maybe not at all.
I don't know.
Some people grow the fuck up.
But yeah.
So, no.
Never anything as dramatic as, you know, fuck this.
Maybe one time with Bubba the Love Sponge...
who walked out on me on his show on radio, left and just left me on the mic.
And at that time, I was not a radio guy.
So I really didn't know what to do.
And I wasted the opportunity.
But what a dick that guy is.
And he's just exactly the kind of dick that will have nothing but comments.
If he ever listened to this or if one of you ever got it to him, who cares?
But I don't see you people as that way.
Yeah.
What kind of notes or outline do you use to prepare for an interview?
How do you make sure you ask the questions you really want to ask?
What do you do if you forget to talk about something important?
Well, important is pretty relative.
I try to cover the stuff that's most important, but I don't.
I generally just get an idea of the person in my head through their work, through some research, maybe from people that know them occasionally.
I don't seek that out, but it happens sometimes.
I usually write it in a very scribbled way all over one page of paper.
That's all very it looks like a mess.
But it's really just the way my brain is, just what I've loaded up in my brain with no order all over a piece of paper that I have with me.
But it's almost just a template of what's in my head already.
And I'll just glance over at it and look around it real quick to see if I've covered everything.
So there's an active engagement with this mess on a paper that keeps me very present.
If I forget to talk about something important, either you're just sort of like, well, what are you going to do?
Or sometimes people have come back or sometimes we turn the mics back on.
That happens infrequently, but it happens.
In terms of asking the questions I really want, I try to explore all the different areas.
So I don't think in terms of questions, but I think in terms of covering things.
And usually I get them covered.
I don't, I've really, unless it's a big guest with a long history, I don't do the crazy sheet that I usually do.
I usually just trust my instincts.
Recently, you've been talking about directing a feature.
Are there directors who inspire you and why?
Of course there are.
I've paid much more attention lately to directors, certainly like Kelly Reichardt, like the late Lynn Shelton, like David O. Russell.
I watched Oppenheimer again, but I don't see that I'm in the league of any of that.
And my resources aren't going to enable me to do anything like that.
But I try to see how other people do it and what makes something stylized.
The Safdies, the Coens.
I do try to see what smaller movies, how they cover things and what makes a point of view as a director.
So I've been highly attentive.
of it and watching movies differently now that I'm in the process of trying to get a movie off the ground.
Have I watched Dr. Strangelove lately?
I just watched it for the first time and my main takeaway was we're fucked.
Well, good.
We've been fucked a long time and God knows things have advanced since then.
And obviously that's one of the greatest film satires ever made.
It's a real marvel, that movie.
But yeah, I mean, I think that's the idea.
I think we're fucked
is exactly, that could be the subtitle of that film.
Do I like Pink Floyd?
Which stuff of theirs do you like most?
I tend to be really into Pink Floyd's animals.
I listen to animals, you know, I would say not...
Well, infrequently, but I listen to it when I'm exercising, sometimes when I'm hiking.
It's a relationship I've had with that album since I was in high school.
I love the album Animals.
I like their old album Metal a lot, M-E-D-D-L-E.
I'll listen to Wish You Were Here.
I'll listen to...
You know, the other one.
You know, the one with money on it.
Dark Side of the Moon.
I'll listen to that.
I don't listen to The Wall hardly at all.
I'll listen to some of the Sid Barrett stuff, but not much.
But I do like metal for the old ones, and I listen to Animals the most.
Wish You Were Here second, and Dark Side of the Moon third.
The Wall infrequently, hardly ever.
And stuff after that, not much.
On a recent episode, you mentioned going to a guitar store and being relieved they didn't have the guitar you were looking for because you would have purchased it.
What was the guitar?
An actual vintage gold top.
Les Paul Deluxe with P90s.
Your house is burning down and you can only save three records.
What do you pick?
Well, I'm not going to go in and risk my life for any records.
And most records are replaceable one way or the other if you have a few bucks or you're willing to live with a reissue.
It's a very hard question because I have like 3,000 records.
And...
Yeah, I hate to disappoint you, but I would probably think to just replace whatever records I need or get out of the vinyl racket altogether and see it as a blessing in disguise.
But I did just get an OG copy of Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, which is hard to find.
And what a great record.
There's some Mingus records.
There's a few Miles records that are the old, what do they call it, Six Eye Columbia ones.
There's... What else have I got that I'm very partial to and are rare?
I don't know.
I'd really have to go in and look.
But...
Yeah, there's a few OG jazz records I'd want.
Right now, that My Bloody Valentine record is on my mind because I just got it and it wasn't cheap.
There's a lot more, but I would probably just try to replace them.
I've been listening to Memory Motel a lot lately and wondered what are your favorite Rolling Stones songs that feature Keith on lead or co-lead vocals?
Um...
Before They Make Me Run is a good one.
Happy, I like the Keith Solo records.
But Memory Hotel, that's not a Keith Leeds song.
And he's on Harmony on a lot of songs.
On Talk Is Cheap, on the Keith Solo records, You Don't Move Me Anymore.
I like listening to Keith.
There's an album called The Bradley Barn Sessions with George Jones.
And Keith does Say It's Not You with George, and that's pretty spectacular.
But I like most of all the Keith songs on the Stones records.
I haven't heard you talk about your weight recently.
Is it a conscious choice or do you feel hot these days so it's not coming up?
I don't know if I feel hot, but I've really taken a lot of effort to not remain in obsession with weight.
I don't get on the scale anymore.
I kind of generally judge by...
how I feel and how I look, which isn't always a good barometer.
But I think some of that obsession is tempered a little bit in terms of weight, but I know when I'm chunky.
How many people are there that you have unresolved issues with and that you wish you could get those issues resolved?
Well, there's only a few.
And I believe at this point in my life, they're just not going to be resolved.
And you just got to suck that up and live with it.
You describing your fans blew my mind.
You were describing me.
How have you formed such a specific snapshot of your fans?
Have your fans changed throughout the years?
And a related question, you often say that your audience is mostly older women.
That's me and I'm addicted to your podcast.
Why do you think women my age enjoy listening so much?
Well, look, I didn't have a very big fan base for most of my career.
And what happened over the pandemic and because of the podcast, you know, I know that it used to be like, you know, I sell more single tickets than most acts.
That was always my joke because people would try to get their friends to go.
And they're like, I don't know who that guy is.
that sort of shifted.
I think with the pandemic and with the Instagram lives, more middle-aged women came around.
I guess that with women, I don't know why, maybe it's because I talk a certain way as a man that is not particularly common in terms of how I engage with people, how much I share about myself, just my nature in general might seem unique for a male voice.
I don't know.
It's hard for me to know what the attraction is or why.
But I'm grateful that I have the fans.
And I like that it's you guys.
What are your rituals?
Of all of them, what have you practiced longest?
Other than very strong coffee in the morning?
I don't know.
I stretch in the morning.
What other rituals do I have?
I have fairly specific...
cleaning rituals.
Like, you know, I think patchouli oil, which is always kind of a out-of-left-field ritual, is I do put patchouli on, and I do it a specific way.
But I've been doing it every day for decades.
You know, that and face lotion.
And stretching when I get up, which I haven't been doing as much since I broke my foot, but foot's doing okay.
Yeah, but oddly, I think it's probably...
patchouli oil and it's important to me and it's specific i only get one kind of patchouli oil and i've been getting it for for decades from a place called life on lower hate in in san francisco but i've been wearing patchouli since i dated a woman when i was in college who introduced me to it i just love it you seem to be less interested in acting roles lately and leaning back into stand-up is that accurate is that for the reasons you've spoken about the slow process on set the time commitment or is there something more to it
Well, I don't know.
That has something to do with it because I don't live that life.
I do this podcast.
It is my main job, that and stand-up.
And to go away for months on end, it becomes very difficult to do the other jobs that I do.
So time commitment is part of it.
The slow process on set is definitely annoying to me.
But I also don't think I have much...
Control as an actor, I don't really know how to lean into it as much as I'd like to, to do something transformative.
So a lot of times I feel like I'm doing some version of me, which I think most actors are, but also the sort of fleeting satisfaction of shooting on a show or a movie, you know, just to focus on these bits and pieces, minutes at a time over and over again.
It's hard to know if you're really doing the job well or what.
It's a very different job and it's a hard job, but usually when it all comes together, it's satisfying.
But I guess I'm less interested only in the sense that I want to do something really cool and really sort of challenging and something interesting.
And that doesn't happen a lot.
Can I still do a flip turn in a pool?
Probably some version of it.
I was never that great at it when I was a kid on swim teams, but I could probably pull it off.
What are your favorite sources of protein with your vegan diet?
Seitan, soy, fake meat, beans.
I like seitan, but it's harder to come by.
I love tempeh.
I do a lot of cubed air fried tempeh.
I really like tempeh a lot.
Tofu is OK.
I don't do it that much unless I'm out.
I do a lot of chickpeas, a lot of beans and rice.
I do soy milk like old fashioned Eden soy soy milk.
But I do like seitan and occasionally I cook with it.
But I would say beans and tempeh are my go to's.
On your second CD, tickets still available, there's a great hidden track where you name the feral cats Meany, Monkey, Hissy, and Fuck.
Aside from Monkey, did any of the other three cats stick around in your life for any reasonable amount of time?
Did you guys ever really bond at all, or did those three remain feral?
Well, let's see.
I remember Hissy.
I remember Meany.
I don't know if fuck became Fonda because La Fonda was one of that original litter.
Monkey and La Fonda were with me for 16 years.
Meany split very quickly.
You know, a bodega across the street wanted a cat and I brought him over there and he was just too feral and he disappeared into the...
into the world.
Hissy, I actually found an owner.
I don't know how that cat is doing because they were all pretty feral, but a woman did take Hissy.
It was a black and white long hair and kind of a cool cat.
But yeah, so I definitely bonded with Monkey and La Fonda.
They were with me for their whole lives.
How is my mom reacting to all of the updates about your dad's dementia?
Can you ever see her meeting you in Albuquerque to visit him?
Absolutely not.
I don't know that my mother listens to the show anymore, really.
And I don't think, you know, she checks.
She asked me about him, but not with, you know, I don't get the sense there's any desire for a reunion.
What have you learned about your father and as a result yourself that you didn't know before he had dementia?
Well, that's an interesting question because there is no filter to dementia.
And there are moments that he says things that are surprising.
But I think the most that I learned about him was that you grow up with your father on a pedestal.
And certainly, he's been up and down, on and off that pedestal for a lot of my life.
But you really start to see them as who they were.
And I don't know if that's disappointing or not.
But there are some things that my father...
Just doesn't know about, isn't interested in.
There are some things that he does that are sort of self-defeating and frustrating.
And his anger is a little weird and his obsession with sort of petty justice is weird.
But that was always there.
I think it's just a matter of accepting them for who they are and then, you know, moving on from that, you know, once they become, you know, addled with this horrible disease.
But I think it's difficult to say that, you know, he just, he's not, I think that, I didn't really realize just how,
You know, specific and shallow he is around a lot of things.
You know, he's not an evolved intellectual guy and certainly not with dementia.
But but, you know, I love him.
And and it's always been difficult.
And it's it's difficult now, but it's easier in other ways.
What was your relationship with your brother like growing up?
Was there sibling rivalry?
Were you super close because of the emotional limitations of your parents that you speak about?
Well, we both went different paths.
I think early on there was sibling rivalry.
I think I beat the shit out of them a lot.
because he's a couple of years younger.
But very early on, I would say when he was in junior high school, he started pursuing tennis very seriously.
And he went away to a tennis school to do that.
And then he went to a different high school than me.
So we were always at different schools and he was always pretty obsessed with tennis.
And then after college and through, you know, when that started to go away a bit, we found that we were very, very similar.
We're very similar in a lot of ways emotionally.
And we're very close because of that.
So the rivalry was never that specific because I handled that rivalry very specifically.
When he started taking tennis seriously, I quit tennis and got more involved with cigarettes, guitar, drugs, the arts.
And he went along his way all the way through college.
He had a tennis business after college.
But now, you know, it turns out we're at the core.
We're very alike.
And because of that, we're very close.
In the future, after you've passed, somebody will discover WTF and become a devoted fan like the rest of us.
What's your message to that person?
Well, there's a...
There's very little...
that you won't know about me from all the work I've done.
I've done all I can.
I've done the best I could, and there's a lot of it.
And if it sticks, welcome.
And also, I'm saying this from the grave, which is exciting because it's being recorded.
And that's just...
exactly who I am.
I'm now talking to you from the grave.
Just talking.
All right.
That's it.
Thanks for your questions.