BONUS The Friday Show - Six More Weeks of Winter
Guest:I think the youngest person we ever had on a full episode was at the time was Lord, the singer.
Guest:And Mark was like, again, very hesitant.
Marc:Oh, the singer Lord.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:Gotcha.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not a Lord.
Marc:Or the Lord.
Guest:Exactly.
Yeah.
Marc:Hey, Chris.
Guest:Brendan, everyone's breaking bones around you, my guy.
Guest:Look, I have not been near enough to Mark that I'm going to take any responsibility for his broken foot.
Guest:Oh, my goodness.
Guest:I mean, I have no responsibility for my wife's broken ankle either, but I was not anywhere near that that day.
Guest:But if you're saying like I'm a jinx, fine.
Guest:Guilty as charged.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I was sad to hear that.
Marc:Also kind of amazed that he was working out during this time as he broke the foot.
Guest:You mean you're shocked that he broke it working out or you're shocked that he's back working out?
Guest:Both.
Guest:I can't believe he's back at the gym.
Guest:Well, I think that's his one big thing is that he's afraid that without the working out, he's going to cause problems.
Marc:Lose the routine.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's got an addictive personality.
Guest:I think right now the working out takes the place of other things in life that are much more negative than exercise.
Guest:So he's looking at a way to stay on that track.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That's fair.
Guest:I guess.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, like they're before the grace of God, because I've never had to deal with anything like that.
Guest:And boy, when I have, when I've been gifted some type of moment in my life where there's like a reason to not work out, like, oh gosh, I can't do it for this week.
Guest:Cause I got a, a hangnail.
Guest:Oh geez.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:Like, oh no, what a shame.
Marc:And then I'll sit on the couch and it's great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's like you get an accidental vacation.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Fantastic.
Marc:I would think he would just watch movies and just be with the cats.
Marc:But no, he's regimented.
Marc:He's focused on still working out.
Marc:And he blamed these shoes.
Marc:I've never even heard of these shoes before.
Guest:I looked these things up and they look like Frankenstein's shoes.
Marc:What are they like?
Guest:Like a moon boot.
Guest:It's got like a giant lift in it.
Guest:What is he doing wearing that?
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:He probably was told these are good, you know, orthopedic exercise shoes or something.
Guest:One thing that Mark will never shy away from is the characterization of himself as a Mark.
Guest:mark his name but he knows like i have a real mark in me he he knows that his dad is a mark and uh you know i've been i've been with with him on like a you know street you know city street and like people try to sell stuff that like for me i'd be like get the hell out of here right no thank you chance and mark would be like whoa wait let me see i'm like no you can't do that maybe these beans work brendan you don't know that
Marc:I also I also loved in Monday's episode, the tour dates, which were just great.
Marc:Was him like, all right, I'll be here and I'll be hobbling and I'm going to be at this place and I'll be I'll be I'll be having a limp through this.
Marc:Great, great stuff.
Guest:uh yeah well hey he's gonna be not so far from your place he'll be in montclair you should go see i'm i'm assuming he'll be healed by then yeah no i already bought like six tickets already i'm taking oh my gosh look at you yeah my uh my wife's going and my cousins who are big fans of his uh are coming so uh yeah it's gonna be nice so you hear that everyone when the when the thing is sold out chris is your guy for the hookup it'd be a just very subtle 50 markup on all those yeah subtle 75 maybe
Guest:Yeah, we'll shake a hand or two.
Guest:It'll be great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, good.
Guest:I'm glad you glommed everything there.
Guest:I very much enjoyed that, and I continue to enjoy Mark just hanging out with other comics.
Guest:And him and Bobby Lee was no exception to that.
Guest:In fact, I talked last week about how you could go listen to the David Spade episode to hear Mark laugh in a very genuine, unexpected way.
Guest:That was how I was listening to the Bobby Lee episode when Mark was, well, first of all, Bobby called him out on saying, you know, you used to be, used to do terrible introductions for people.
Guest:Yes, yes.
Guest:Which is hilarious because Mark was like, really?
Guest:I did?
Guest:And I would be like, yeah.
Guest:Like I was there.
Guest:I'd see these things.
Guest:Like I, it's so funny because I just always assumed as a civilian and we go in to, you know, see Mark at the club or whatever, that he would bring somebody up in like the worst way imaginable.
Guest:And I just assumed at the time, this was like part of the fraternal order of comedians and
Guest:banter yeah yes yeah yeah like they know like it's almost like you get in the back and it's like oh i really zinged you with that one or whatever all right because they always seemed bad and just to hear bobby be like oh yeah you used to do this and i was like oh my god this guy hates me
Guest:And I realized, I was like, oh, so wait, you're telling me that, like, it wasn't, like, an agreed upon thing?
Guest:Yeah, that would definitely seem that way to me, too.
Guest:I would think, oh, this guy hates me.
Marc:And I love that he mentioned this Doug Davinoff guy.
Marc:I don't know if I'm pronouncing.
Marc:Doug Davinoff.
Guest:yeah yeah and that that that even bobby was like oh yeah no i i heard about what you said to him i'm like he used to introduce him that every time i remember him doing it and i remember thinking oh that must be something that that dove likes because mark does it all the time and i don't know if it ever just came to i don't know this backstory about it coming to a head but yeah apparently did not like that
Marc:The thing about Mark is, and it's very, very true for many different areas, but the guy has this laser guidance, like, like ability to not only penetrate you, but have a direct hit into your soul.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It's like that John Mulaney joke about a bunch of teenagers.
Guest:Like they'll find the thing inside you that you hate the most.
Guest:Look at that high-waisted man.
Guest:He's got feminine hips.
Guest:No, that's what I'm sensitive about.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes, Mark is very much like a teenager in that regard.
Guest:I think much like teenagers, it's like this thing that comes out of a place of your own insecurity.
Guest:So you figure out how to turn the tractor beams on someone else and pull them into your orbit and zap them.
Guest:And yeah, he's very good at that.
Guest:But man, that moment where he...
Guest:Bobby identified whatever it was that Mark would not cop to that.
Guest:He said something like, and I kind of agree with Mark that like, yeah, it doesn't exactly sound like Mark to say you, you bring energy and you also do a clown thing, but,
Guest:Like, I know what he means, because you could go back.
Guest:I can't tell you possibly what episode it would be, but there is definitely a monologue episode somewhere in the thousand something or other episodes we've done.
Guest:I'm going to guess about 10 years ago or whatever.
Guest:where Mark is angry in his monologue that the night before at the comedy club, Bobby Lee made a complete mess of the stage before Mark got up there.
Guest:When I say mess of the stage, I mean the way comics do.
Guest:He had to get up there and clean up that the audience was now out of control.
Marc:What do they call it?
Marc:Reorganizing?
Marc:Recalibrate?
Marc:Yeah, recalibrate the room, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, uh, like, uh, uh, like when you put the car up on the, on the lift and you have to get all the tires balanced, right?
Guest:Like do that.
Guest:And it was cause like, you know, Bobby fucked a stool or something on stage.
Guest:It was screaming orgasms or whatever.
Guest:And then everybody's just yelling.
Guest:It's just, it's like a food fight all of a sudden.
Guest:So I remember there was, I have no doubt that Mark brought Bobby on stage at least once where he's called him a clown or said, this guy's, you know, got crazy, you know, crazy vibe and he's going to ruin things for the next person.
Guest:And, and so I have no doubt about that, but Bobby describing it as having energy and, and being a clown so that then they're in the middle of talking and
Guest:And Bobby's saying something about his own act and Mark's like, yeah, no, no, you just, you amplify yourself, right?
Guest:You do the energy thing and the clowning.
Guest:It was like, like he, like a clothesline to my throat.
Guest:I was like, like if I had a beverage, it would have been all over my computer.
Guest:Like such a spit take at that.
Yeah.
Guest:Yeah, if you like that sort of thing, you've got a lot to look forward to.
Guest:We've recorded with four comics in the last couple of weeks.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Laurie Kilmartin, Joe Mandy, Eddie Pepitone, and John Oliver.
Guest:And so those will all be, they're all people who've been on before, but they're all people Mark talks to in a great way, in a fun way.
Guest:And yeah, look forward to those.
Guest:I would tell you they were coming up like next week, which I initially had scheduled, but we've got a lot of schedule fluidity coming up because of people who are out there for Oscar nominations.
Guest:Oh, sure.
Guest:And yeah, so there's like...
Guest:There's stuff that we're not exactly 100% on what day it's going to happen or when.
Guest:And so somebody in the schedule might get flipped.
Guest:And so I actually don't have the schedule set for next week's shows.
Guest:I'm pretty sure almost 100% Laurie Kilmartin will be one of them, but I don't have the other person set.
Guest:I did, and now I was told about a scheduling thing that might happen.
Guest:I might have to shift somebody to that day.
Marc:Gotcha.
Guest:What about the rest of the week?
Guest:Anything else to jump out of you?
Marc:John Cryer is, first of all, as a person who loves Superman, this was a very fun episode for me to see or hear two Lex Luthor's talking to one another.
Guest:Somebody else wrote in about that.
Guest:Yeah, a guy by the name of Chuck and I think Madison.
Guest:He says he's from Madtown.
Guest:So I guess that's Madison.
Guest:But yeah, he said, I was bummed that Mark and John Cryer didn't commiserate about both playing Lex Luthor.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Here's what I would say to Chuck about this.
Guest:And then, you know, you could throw in whatever your feelings are about this Superman stuff.
Guest:But I would be very, very, very surprised if Mark knows he played Lex Luthor.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That's exactly what I was thinking.
Guest:Like, no idea.
Guest:Like, I think he... If I said to him, you remember, you were Lex Luthor, just like this guy.
Guest:He'd be like, no, I wasn't.
Guest:And I'd be like, no, you did the League of Super Pets.
Guest:He'd be like...
Guest:Oh, right.
Guest:He has no memory.
Guest:I think he has probably minimal memory of doing that as a movie because it's like, here's the question.
Guest:Would you remember if in the course of your very busy day, you had someone told you, go do this thing in a room with no one else and then go back to your other job?
Guest:Like...
Guest:You just do that thing.
Guest:And unless something tremendously memorable happened while you did it, it was just like a part of your day, one day in the midst of a year at some point, you probably would forget all the details around it.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:That's what happened to him.
Guest:Like he was told, go do this.
Guest:He went over to Burbank.
Guest:He went in a booth.
Guest:He recorded a thing.
Guest:They said, you know, like, well, be more sinister or something.
Guest:And he went, and then he left.
Guest:and that was that it was there was nothing else i remember he said it to me he was like oh yeah it was like uh some cartoon dc something i was like like dc comics he's like yeah yeah something like that like i was the bad guy i was like a bad guy yeah then i looked up like the cast list i was like dude you were lex luthor
Guest:Like you're like Superman's nemesis.
Guest:And I remember he told me all this stuff and I just assumed like, oh, okay.
Guest:So it must be one of those movies.
Guest:Like, uh, you remember in like the Lego movie, there's somebody like playing, I think it's like Channing Tatum plays like Superman.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he's like, but he's got like a line.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And then you find it out in the credits.
Guest:Oh, look, that was clever.
Guest:That was Channing Tatum.
Guest:He was, he did a line as Superman.
Marc:No, this is the actual villain of the movie.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's the bad guy.
Marc:I love that you had a Columbo that out for him.
Guest:Well, I remember then when I watched the movie with my kid, I'm like, God damn, Mark's in this a lot.
Guest:Like he had his own title card at the end and Mark Maron as Lex Luthor.
Guest:Like it was like he was the slammer on the credits, you know?
Marc:It's a slumber, indeed.
Marc:That John Cryer episode was fascinating because, can I ask you a question?
Marc:Did you, like, put this episode up, like, now for a reason?
Marc:Like, is it all because John Cryer was going to be in Reservoir Dogs and that's a movie that we're going to be watching soon?
Guest:Because that was uncanny.
Guest:Yeah, no, I did not put it up for that reason.
Guest:I put it up just because, you know, he's promoting this television show that he's in right now.
Guest:So I think they, you know, wanted it up the sooner the better.
Guest:But yes, I never knew that about Reservoir Dogs.
Guest:And I'm a huge, you know, Tarantino aficionado.
Guest:I have a lot of books.
Guest:I have a lot.
Guest:I never knew that he auditioned for that part, which was crazy.
Guest:Well, he didn't audition, right?
Guest:Yes, he didn't want to go.
Guest:He decided, no thanks.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, so now I'm going to be watching Reservoir Dogs with that in mind, with John Cryer in mind.
Marc:This Charlie Sheen story of Mark going up to the house and meeting with him.
Marc:First of all, is that in an episode?
Marc:Did you know about this story beforehand?
Guest:I knew about it, but it was kept quiet.
Guest:It was definitely...
Guest:But I do think eventually he does bring it up on some of the monologues.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I think at the time it was like, he was, Mark was somewhat concerned.
Guest:Like, I don't want to be associated with this thing.
Guest:Like after, you know, after he went and met him two times and then said like, nah, I'm out.
Guest:Like, you guys, you know, good luck to you.
Guest:But I think he saw like, you know...
Guest:the way that what was going on in the room was mirroring the way it was being depicted in the media, which is this guy's out of control, right?
Guest:This is a train wreck and he might die.
Guest:And I think Mark's thought was like, yeah, I shouldn't be involved with this.
Guest:And, you know, he, he actually, there was a time where he, you know, was afraid that it was going to get out, that he, that he went and talked to him and he would feel shitty about that.
Guest:So, yeah, yeah.
Guest:It was not, it was not anything he wanted to be associated with.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I mean, that's the whole story was great because John's reaction to it being like, oh, my God, you went to the house?
Marc:Like, like, like going to Dracula's castle.
Marc:Like, oh, my God.
Guest:I think it probably was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, remember, like, how Dracula had, like, those brides and stuff?
Guest:Like, that was what's going on at Charlie's house, too, apparently.
Guest:Like, I mean...
Marc:Yeah, I also forgot how insane that was when they were talking about winning and stuff.
Marc:And the blood thing.
Marc:Tiger blood, yeah.
Marc:Oh, yeah, I forgot.
Marc:That was insane.
Guest:And people loved it.
Guest:Well, the weird thing is, if that happened today, it does happen today.
Guest:It's like there was that thing with Kanye having a manic episode a couple months ago or whatever.
Guest:And it happens for a day or two, right?
Guest:And then it moves along because everything's so fast, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:This was about 10 years ago, right?
Guest:That Charlie Sheen thing.
Guest:I think it was 2013, 2014, 10 or 11 years ago.
Guest:That was like a month.
Guest:That's crazy.
Guest:It was a long period of time.
Guest:So much time that they mounted a national tour to go around and do it in public.
Guest:But that was like...
Guest:you know, people talk about how the monoculture has been fractured and we have, there's no shared like cultural experience.
Guest:Like the weird thing is there was this period of time where even though everything kind of shifted to like what we now know is like meme culture, right?
Guest:Like winning and that thing, like, and it wasn't anything that was part of regular entertainment.
Guest:It was like happening off to the side.
Guest:Like it still was like monoculture.
Guest:Everybody knew about it.
Guest:Everybody was talking about it.
Guest:It was like as prevalent as two and a half men, but just this other thing.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That was happening not on broadcast television.
Marc:It was just a thing that was out there and we were all connected to it.
Marc:It was, yeah.
Marc:What a time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not like also a terrible harbinger of things to come.
Guest:Like it was not, it was not an anomaly that we could all just like think back at how crazy that was.
Guest:It was like, Oh, that was the canary in the coal mine.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Also, I can't believe John has a podcast.
Marc:I feel bad.
Marc:I did not know that.
Marc:Apparently a lot of people have.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:I was going to say, go through the list of guests on our show.
Guest:I don't think you'll find one that doesn't have, like Paul Giamatti has a podcast.
Guest:Like they're all, the guy's going to win an Oscar.
Guest:And he's like, yeah, I just do a podcast on my own about cryptids.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So with all these people that have podcasts,
Marc:And have been on your show.
Marc:I am certain that some of them had to have been like, hey, let's get Mark's guy, you know, the WTF producer guy.
Marc:Like, how have you fielded an extensive amount of calls?
Guest:Oh, no, no, no.
Guest:not extensive i think part of it is that i'm so far out of the loop of you know hollywood show business right so if you're i've had people request my assistance with things and i offered what i can but i can never you know offer that much considering my workload um and usually those are people who come to me like through mark right like mark knows somebody and they're like could i talk with your producer or whatnot
Guest:But in terms of being roped in as a go-to person for other people's podcasts and production, I think just based on my experience, what's likely to happen in a situation with, say, a John Cryer or Rob Lowe or any other celebrity who has started up a podcast is
Guest:that they got that gig through their representation, either management or agency, right?
Guest:So say it's CAA, right?
Guest:CAA is like, oh, we got a great idea for you.
Guest:We're going to set you up with a podcast.
Guest:We got this production entity that's going to take care of it for you.
Guest:And we've got a deal from Wondery to buy it or whatever.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So it comes to that person as like a package deal within that agency's purview.
Guest:So they've got the producer lined up.
Guest:They've got, you know, all the T's crossed and the I's dotted on that end.
Guest:And it never gets to a point where they're like, get me, you know, somebody who knows how to do this.
Guest:And then I come up.
Guest:If I lived out there, that might happen more frequently if I was or if this wasn't my only gig.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So but yeah, no, it doesn't.
Guest:I don't get roped in.
Marc:That's interesting because I mean, I mean, I remember when Howard Stern was talking about Mark getting Obama and he was like, oh, my God, I need to get get Mark's producer.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:It was Bruce.
Guest:It was Bruce.
Guest:Oh, Bruce Springsteen.
Guest:He was very jealous.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He was very jealous that Mark had Bruce.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And yeah, he was, he called out Gary about it on the air.
Guest:That's what it is, yeah.
Guest:He was like, maybe I should have Mark Maron's producer, not you.
Guest:I was like, oh, shit.
Yeah.
Guest:That must have been a great day for you.
Guest:It was.
Guest:I mean, I love Gary.
Guest:I didn't want to have me be the cause of his aggravation that day.
Guest:But yeah, that was wild.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But it's surprising to me that people aren't more people who, you know, are legit and have a passion for podcasts aren't like, get me Mark's guy.
Marc:It might happen.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:And I don't, I don't want to like, you know, presume anything.
Guest:It might happen.
Guest:And there's just like the answer then that gets back to them is like, yeah, he's not a guy who does this.
Guest:He's just, he's Mark's business partner.
Guest:And, you know, it's like, I haven't worked to that end of it myself.
Guest:So why would those tendrils be out there?
Guest:Other than, like I said, sometimes when somebody comes to Mark and says, can I speak to your producer, get some advice or get whatever.
Guest:And he does it as a collegial thing.
Guest:Gotcha.
Guest:But yeah, that's really it.
Guest:I know I haven't even listened to John Cryer's podcast, so I don't know.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, listen, we've got plenty of stuff here coming in from our listeners, so much so that I figured for the rest of today's show, we just kind of turn it over to you, to you folks who wrote in, who wanted to give us your opinions, ask some more questions.
Guest:And anyone can do that at any time by going to the link in the episode description.
Guest:We put it right there for you.
Guest:Just click on it.
Guest:There's a little field for you to fill in.
Guest:And you don't even need to give us your name.
Guest:We'll take whatever.
Guest:But if you have your name on here, we can identify you like Lauren.
Guest:Lauren wrote in to say, do you ever hesitate to book younger, super talented guests because the conversation might be more interesting when they're a little older, more seasoned?
Guest:I'm thinking about conversations you've had with younger comedians who've exploded, Mulaney, Kumail, Bo Burnham, to name a few, and how much the conversations would be different now, even actors like Florence Pugh or Zendaya.
Guest:Well, okay, so basically those are two separate categories for us, right?
Guest:And the one that you're identifying first is true.
Guest:Like, there is definitely a too young entertainer that's a real thing for us, a conundrum.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And we...
Guest:generally do avoid it like if someone is pitched to us and they're like maybe in their mid-20s and it's and they're being pitched because they just did one interesting thing like like a new thing that you know blew up
Guest:that's probably not a good enough reason to book them and and the reason is mark is looking to have an hour conversation right and he needs to feel confident that there's an interest level there for him in this person's life beyond like so you're in high school a few years ago okay and then you did things for like two years or so and now this blew up okay great and
Guest:And I don't think anybody really springs to mind that we did that with.
Guest:I just know it's a thing that we take into account when reviewing the guest pitches that we get.
Guest:I can tell you that there were people who fell in that category as a little too young, possibly this is questionable as to whether or not they can...
Guest:work as a as a full episode guest and there was a reason we decided to do it right so like austin butler last year uh the guy who played elvis right he was like a guy you looked at his life and you're like okay he's just been mainly acting since his little kid and not a ton more but you know mark found something interesting and wanted to talk to him about the whole prep for the elvis role and
Guest:you know, he felt like you could carry it over the finish line.
Guest:Uh, I think the youngest person we ever had on a full episode was at the time was Lord, the singer.
Guest:And Mark was like, again, very hesitant.
Marc:Oh, the singer Lord.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:Gotcha.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not a Lord.
Yeah.
Guest:or be lord exactly so uh mark was hesitant to do it and lord is managed uh her management company is owned by mark's friend uh john daniel jonathan daniel who uh is on was on an episode of wtf but they go back a long time and jd kind of gave mark the like heads up like no no no
Guest:this is somebody who I know you can talk to.
Guest:Like she's got a lot of internal life, which she does.
Guest:And she had like that, she has that condition where you, you see music and see colors along with music.
Guest:It's called like synesthesia or something like that.
Guest:So yeah, Lord became a kind of, you know,
Guest:exception that proves the rule right like if she was just a you know in her early 20s and had a hit single probably not good enough but um you know the the life that she leads and the um experience that she had had up to that point it
Guest:Definitely made for a good conversation.
Guest:But the other category that Lauren brings up here is like young comics, right?
Guest:And I think you go back through our shows and you could see a lot of people that were on in early episodes who popped big later.
Guest:And to us, that to Mark is like an ideal.
Guest:He can relate to a comic virtually at any point in their life or career because he did that.
Guest:So he can have a conversation if he sees a young up-and-coming comic and he's taken with that person.
Guest:He's like, great, let's have a comic talk.
Guest:And then if that person blows up later in life, we can have them back on, which we've done as well.
Guest:But yeah, you could go back and listen to plenty of people at a young age before they really had a lot of success.
Guest:And I think that it's an interesting conversation back then, and it would be a different conversation later.
Guest:Some of them we've had back, some of them we haven't.
Guest:Yeah, that's really it.
Guest:That's two two answers to your question.
Guest:And they're definitely separate categories.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I I agree with Lauren because I think there is something kind of special and kind of interesting about having a younger guest.
Marc:And I understand, you know, it's like, you know, the person only has one project under their belt, but it kind of almost, you know, would be like a blind date for Mark where he's just feeling it out.
Marc:He's talking and then like, you know, I don't know.
Marc:I feel like it would be a fun exercise, especially with someone who- Oh, it's not fun.
Guest:It's definitely not fun.
Guest:Not for him.
Guest:No, no, no.
Guest:Not for him.
Guest:Here's what I put.
Guest:These are not, like, people think like, oh, he's so good at interviewing.
Guest:Just turn the mic on.
Guest:He is super stressed before every single one of them.
Guest:Still.
Guest:They are-
Guest:Still, every single one.
Guest:And they are a tightrope while they're happening.
Guest:But sometimes you get in there with Paul Giamatti and it's just automatically firing.
Guest:But that's like a crapshoot.
Guest:You don't know that that's going to happen.
Guest:And then sometimes you're in there for 10 minutes and it's like, oh shit, is this going to ever turn the corner?
Guest:Or is this going to be bad?
Guest:And that's anxiety inducing.
Guest:So, yeah, none of this is fun.
Guest:It's it's fulfilling.
Guest:It's rewarding.
Guest:He enjoys doing it.
Guest:But, you know, when he's ready to do it and I talked to him before almost every interview, I would never say it's fun for him or what he's going through in that moment is fun.
Guest:It's it's work and it's stress.
Guest:And if he's got to go in there with somebody who's got no idea that what they're going to be able to contribute to the conversation, that just adds to that stress.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:So you guys do such good research and he is just always on top of it.
Marc:Like with I'm thinking of like Billy Joe Armstrong, like he's just able to, you know, find something and engage with them on like this, this other level that just smooths out the rest of the episode.
Marc:And it happens time and time again, you know, not for Sir Ben Kingsley, but but for other folks, for sure.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Well, but I'll tell you, Billy Joel Armstrong, Mark, was very nervous going in.
Guest:He had found out that the guy doesn't do a lot of interviews.
Guest:He's not particularly easy in interviews.
Guest:And when it was done, he said to me, like, I hope you got something there.
Guest:I'm not sure.
Guest:Like, he didn't feel like he...
Guest:It wasn't that he felt like they had a bad time.
Guest:He just doesn't always know.
Guest:He doesn't have the perspective from it to know, like, did it go well?
Guest:And because he was working so hard during that, he's working to make sure it stayed on the tracks, make sure that it stays engaged, make sure that the guy doesn't slip into some preset narrative or say something that offends the guest and then turns them off, right?
Guest:So...
Guest:I think it's one of those things.
Guest:I feel this sometimes just even editing the show.
Guest:Sometimes the more you do something, the harder they become because you have so much experience now and precedent of what it could be.
Guest:So there's just times where I sit down with an episode and I start listening to it within 30 or 40 seconds.
Guest:I'm like...
Guest:oh, fuck, this is going to be a lot of work.
Guest:Like, and, you know, it's only because I understand the patterns and I know how things sound going into it.
Guest:And, you know, I guess that's entirely the same thing for Mark.
Guest:He's got enough moments that he can match up in his brain with how something feels in the present that he can go like, ah, shit, this is like, he'll immediately notice it.
Guest:This is going to be hard or this is going to be a challenge.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:And so if he does that for every episode,
Marc:How was he for like Obama?
Guest:Was that a lot of- Yeah, but that was a lot of that was managing that stuff, right?
Guest:Like it would, I would say that at least 50% of the prep for having Obama on was managing the stress and anxiety of him having him on and making sure that we minimized, you know,
Guest:any external reason for stress or problems get rid of all the things that could cause problems have a million redundancies for things and and then i spent a lot of time like just trying to like work with mark psychologically i mean i i showed him a scene from the movie uh hoosiers and
Marc:He's probably never seen it, right?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:Well, I think he might've seen Hoosiers.
Guest:He just probably didn't remember this as a, cause it's like a sports inspirational moment, but it's like the moment where, uh, Gene Hackman makes them measure the basketball court so that they see it's the same as the size of the one back home.
Guest:It's just that they're in a bigger arena.
Guest:Uh, you know, it's just a perspective, uh,
Guest:Lesson, right?
Guest:And yeah, I remember feeling with the Obama one more than, I would say, all but maybe a very small handful of episodes.
Guest:That was like me being a coach more than being a producer.
Guest:I mean, I had to produce the shit out of that episode, the logistics of it.
Guest:But yeah, it was being a coach.
Marc:Yeah, I gotcha.
Marc:Now, what about for like Robin?
Marc:Like Robin Williams was there?
Guest:No, that was like nothing.
Guest:That was like we did some research, right?
Guest:But also you got to remember that was 2010.
Guest:We weren't even 100 episodes in.
Guest:It was all fly by the seat of your pants, right?
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:And that was like, let's talk about, me and Mark talk about like how he can plan this out, what he could wind up doing.
Guest:But it was really just drive up to San Francisco and go talk to Robin.
Guest:You know, that was it.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I'm just kind of blown away because, you know, it just sounds like a fun time.
Marc:Like I know some are more fun than others, like Bobby Lee and him, you know, Bobby Lee coming off with, I just farted.
Marc:That was a great way to start that episode.
Marc:But yeah, I'm amazed that it's not like fun.
Marc:I guess, I guess it makes sense, right?
Marc:Because there's pressure to make sure you get, get somewhere.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And again, like I said, I don't want that to confuse people and make them think that, you know, Mark and or myself, that we don't like doing the show.
Guest:It's not that.
Guest:It's very fulfilling.
Guest:Mark has said it many times.
Guest:It's how he kind of stays alive and connects with people.
Guest:But that doesn't mean that, you know, I think probably like...
Guest:A stage actor feels the same way.
Guest:They're nervous before they go on, you know, a pilot, you know, things where you're taking risks, right?
Guest:You kind of need anxiety and nervous energy to drive you through it.
Guest:Are pilots that nervous still?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:Yeah, I shouldn't say that.
Guest:I actually hope not.
Guest:I also know that a lot of it is already taken care of now.
Guest:Yeah, they press a button.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:All right, well, let's move on so we can get some of these other questions taken care of here.
Guest:Corey in Chicago said, does Mark know what the clip will be when it's played from the other episodes on the outros when he records?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I guess what he means is like when, when we do a little thing at the end saying, you know, this week on the full Marin and we play a little clip, he said, I thought of this because of the clip that was talking about the turtle shark video, which if you haven't heard it, Chris and I kind of, you know,
Guest:aghast that Mark was, uh, taken in again, the Mark and Mark, uh, was taken in by this video of a, uh, purportedly of a shark saving a turtle.
Guest:And Corey said, either way is pretty funny.
Guest:And the answer is I always tell him and he never cares.
Yeah.
Marc:that's on bread.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Like I'm like, Oh, by the way, in here is this thing where Chris and I are talking about you, your thing about the shark.
Guest:We're like laughing about it.
Guest:And he's like, okay, whatever.
Guest:Like it does not care.
Guest:He's not going to listen to it.
Guest:It's fine.
Guest:Speaking of not listening, I would say the most reaction that we've ever gotten to the Friday show had nothing to do with the Friday show.
Guest:It was all reaction to the Matt B. Davis episode, episode 1499.
Guest:People just wanted to kind of spill their guts about how they felt about that episode.
Guest:But one thing that was recurring over and over again is people saying that they hope that the episode does not adversely affect the listenership.
Guest:And I think that's because I mentioned, like, we got some emails of people being like, I hated this.
Guest:I will never listen to your show again.
Guest:And it's like,
Guest:Please don't take that to mean anything more than a self-selected sample.
Guest:I can tell you for certain it did not affect the listenership, and we are never having any concern that anything like that would affect the listenership.
Guest:Absolutely not.
Guest:I mean, I would be surprised if it affected it in any way, positive or negative, just because mostly it's a thing that exists for the people who listen to the show.
Guest:It wasn't anything that was going to draw a ton of people from outside and it was not going to repel people away.
Guest:It's one episode from one week in one year and it ended.
Guest:And that was that.
Marc:But the producer cuts episode that you had is fascinating because it's Matt B. Davis asking Mark about Jerry Seinfeld in a way that there was an earlier episode where a listener was saying like, hey, maybe maybe this Matt guy was trying to provoke a sort of like reaction and a moment.
Marc:And this outtake, this producer cut.
Marc:Feels that way, too.
Marc:Like, it feels like... I go back and forth.
Guest:I go back and forth.
Marc:Because it feels like he's trying to create an aggregate, you know, news.
Marc:It's like, oh, Mark Marins says this about Jerry Seinfeld.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:You think that he...
Guest:that he read into what I, my whole reason for cutting it out.
Guest:Right.
Marc:That his, he was like, ah, this could be some good clickbait.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I think he was designing it and that might be giving this guy way too much credit, but it feels like that sounds like a negative thing, but it feels very orchestrated.
Marc:It feels like he's trying to build,
Marc:pump up the level of attention to his show in a way that is artificial or feels artificial.
Guest:So, yeah, I can, I can understand that.
Guest:I, I definitely, you know, think that that's, um, you know, possible.
Guest:Uh, but I also think I don't disbelieve Matt Davis's assessment that he was, um, you know, just, um,
Guest:acting in earnest when it comes to his fandom of the show.
Guest:Like he knew a lot about WTF.
Guest:He was, he seems like he listens a lot and he, you know, so he could just have had that conversation.
Guest:I, you know, I would think that...
Guest:I think back about podcasts I've listened to a very long time.
Guest:If I was talking to the host of that podcast, there may be lots of questions I have.
Guest:So it could be either thing.
Guest:But one thing that I noticed in these questions, this came from Dave.
Guest:Dave said, listening to this week's producer cuts have made me wonder, do you expect $5 a month to filter out all the tabloid journalists?
Guest:I'm not saying you're wrong.
Guest:I just hate that being the barrier to journalism today.
Guest:Again, not advocating for clickbait, just amazed that's the line.
Guest:And look, Dave, I don't think $5, if someone was committed to it, would keep them from anything.
Guest:And I don't think my job as a producer of the show is to stop journalism.
Guest:But what I'm trying to do is kind of protect the show from becoming part of a content mill, which I absolutely know exists.
Guest:If you want a great representation of this in something, in season one of The White Lotus, if you've seen that, there is the character played by Alexandra Daddario, who is like...
Guest:You know, an aspiring journalist.
Guest:But what you've learned over the course of the show is that she just it works for some, you know, click farm.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And she is.
Guest:But it's not even it's like, you know, it's like Business Insider or what's that one that just collapsed this weekend?
Guest:The Messenger.
Guest:Like, it's just that what they do is they tell you, you have to deliver 600 stories this month or whatever and go get them.
Guest:And you're going to be paid based on how much traffic they get.
Guest:You know, you're not a full time employee.
Guest:You're like working hand to mouth.
Guest:And so we know that's not just us, but that lots of people who are making entertainment content or
Guest:You know, some type of I hate the word content, but that's what they think of it as.
Guest:Oh, there's content out there.
Guest:And so they assign someone or someone has taken it upon themselves to be like, I'm going to listen to a bunch of, you know, interview podcasts and I will make myself some money by creating content.
Guest:Stories around that.
Guest:And then they click it, they clip it out and they put it in a way that's completely devoid of context.
Guest:And you know what?
Guest:There's no stopping that.
Guest:And I don't consider it real journalism.
Guest:It's just more entertainment fodder.
Guest:But what I can do is make sure that I'm not walking us into a trap.
Guest:right yeah you know like there's nothing i'd be happy for someone to go make clips of the actual jerry seinfeld episode when it aired and you know write articles about that fine but three years after the fact and mark's having a casual conversation with someone and they bring up something about that that then i'm going to have that turned into a headline mark says jerry seinfeld doesn't respect him and it's like well that does our show no good
Guest:Right.
Guest:And it's right.
Guest:All it is doing is rewarding bad behavior.
Guest:I'm a dad.
Guest:I don't like to do that.
Guest:I don't like to reward bad behavior.
Guest:And so when I can avoid it, I can.
Guest:And that's a way that I can.
Guest:I can just shift it over here to people like yourself who are listening to this.
Guest:And, you know, if somebody out there at a click farm at HuffPost or AOL Blast wants to listen to this show and they want to pay us to $5, I think they're probably not doing it because it's more trouble than it's worth.
Guest:It's like...
Guest:I remember when I got my first car, I went to the like auto zone and I wanted to buy, uh, the club.
Guest:Remember the club?
Marc:Oh yeah, of course.
Guest:Put it, put it on the steering wheel so that the car thieves wouldn't steal your car.
Guest:Cause you can't.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I go in there and I'm looking for the club.
Guest:and the guy takes me i was like do you have the club so he brings me over to the aisle where the club is and there's like 20 clubs right it's like so many varieties oh varieties of clubs not just the actual club okay oh no no no like i was like i had like you know uh decision fatigue just looking at these clubs so i like pick up two that look a little similar but one says like
Guest:club XL or whatever.
Guest:And I like turned to the guy and I'm like, is it, is it better to get this one?
Guest:Like, even though, even though it's, you know, more expensive, but this one that's less expensive looks like it has a bigger thing for your airbag.
Guest:So the airbag doesn't get cut out.
Guest:He just shakes his head slightly and he's like, it's not going to matter.
Yeah.
Guest:I love that guy for doing that.
Guest:Like it was so, it was such a great moment, but he's like, it's not going to matter.
Guest:And I was like, Oh yeah, I guess you're right.
Guest:And that was the thing.
Guest:It was like, if they're good, if they want to take your car, they're going to take your car.
Guest:They're going to do it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you know, he was like, you know what this does for you?
Guest:Doesn't matter which one you have.
Guest:What it does is that it means your car takes five seconds longer than a car that doesn't have it.
Guest:So if they have to make a decision, they will make the decision to do the one that's five seconds less than yours.
Guest:And you don't even have to lock it.
Guest:You can just lay it over your steering wheel because the lock's not going to matter.
Yeah.
Guest:And that's how I kind of feel about, you know, this.
Guest:It's like, hey, if you're subscribing to this to try to dig through and find something, you're going to find anything.
Guest:And it's not going to matter that I put it back here.
Guest:My whole thing is like, I would like the people paying for this to get exclusive content.
Guest:So if I cut it out of the episode, yeah, you guys get it.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Now, can I ask, there were no producer cuts back in the day.
Marc:Were there things from back then that you would cut out that you would be put in now?
Marc:Like, is there a Robin story that like you had to cut out for editing reasons or, you know, something else like what John Oliver clip?
Guest:Yeah, definitely not Robin Williams, because that's a kind of unique episode.
Guest:But there's definitely stuff from old episodes.
Guest:And I would, you know, unfortunately believe that that stuff is probably lost to time.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Guest:Because I don't think I saved, you know, every raw episode, you know, file and whatnot.
Guest:And then when I was cutting stuff, I was just cutting it and knowing, okay, this is going to not see the light of day, this part, and get rid of it.
Guest:And we didn't have, you know...
Guest:a place like this premium service for people to hear it so yeah it was just not it was not on the list of priorities of things to do or to preserve were these things that we were cutting out of the episodes gotcha i actually kind of in a weird way had a um it was probably wrong-minded now that i think of all the content i could have had going back and getting it
Guest:Uh, but, uh, I had this weird, um, kind of purity thing about it.
Guest:Like the episode, as you hear it is the episode we want it to be right.
Guest:Like, and so we produced this, we cut it to this and now it's saved and it's enshrined forever.
Guest:And I don't need there to be other versions or whatever.
Guest:And, uh, yeah, that was young and silly, but, uh, that's just how we did it at the time.
Marc:Uh, it's like, uh, you, uh, you didn't know you wanted to be like George Lucas later on in your life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't really though.
Guest:Like that's the thing.
Guest:I don't want to change these things.
Guest:I don't have the desire to go in and tinker with them all the time, but I do think like if you're putting a premium on something, it's like the people, people tell us it all the time in terms of like when we've done a request for, you know, what you want on bonus content, they're like,
Guest:stuff we didn't get to hear you know right extra right so it makes sense on that level i'm not looking to like you know do a cgi version of mark in the next episode or splice it back in or something exactly yeah
Guest:OK, a few more of these and then, you know, we'll save a bunch of these for another time because we really have some great, great questions here.
Guest:But somebody said, I love the Luna Lounge episode.
Guest:It would be great to hear about the years post Mark at the Comedy Store as a doorman.
Guest:Through him being back in New York City for Luna.
Guest:And yes, you know, this is the San Francisco time for Mark.
Guest:And so I think that's definitely something we'll do as an episode.
Guest:There's also this this gap between the Mark Maron show and Break Room Live.
Guest:Uh, there's also stuff from the early days of the podcast that I don't think we've ever really covered, like that.
Guest:I briefly talked about, uh, last week about how he filmed a pilot presentation for it.
Guest:There were also all these talks about turning it into a talk show.
Guest:There was that vice talk show that we did, uh, a pilot for, and it never went anywhere.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:So like there's, those are other things that we could do as bonus episodes.
Guest:I will say in, uh, not next week, but the week after we will be doing the, uh, the, the WTF origin story of the Mark Maron show.
Guest:So, uh, that was, uh, that was the thing that we did after morning sedition at air America.
Guest:And, uh, yeah, Mark and I have a lot to say about that one.
Guest:This one says, hey, Brendan and Chris, when you mentioned that Pulp Fiction is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, it reminded me that another movie near and dear to me is approaching the same milestone.
Guest:In fact, it was released just one week after Pulp Fiction.
Guest:That movie, Kevin Smith's Clerks.
Guest:Of all of Kevin's films, I think this is the one that still holds up.
Guest:I used to be a ride-or-die fan, but as I've gotten older and my tastes have changed, a lot of his work has become hard to watch.
Guest:For example, Chasing Amy used to be one of my favorite movies.
Guest:I know, I know.
Guest:But the whole insecure guy in his 20s who doesn't get that bisexuality is a thing vibe makes me cringe now.
Guest:I think the reason that Clerks still plays is that it's the only one of Kevin's films that feels truly authentic because the movie predates the Smith myth
Guest:It was an earnest snapshot of a guy who had nothing going for him who decided to make a movie about the fact that he had nothing going for him.
Guest:Sure, there's the Death Star contractors and Jay and Silent Bob, but when Dante and Randall really have it out of their inability to better their stations in life, it feels like a real expression of hopelessness.
Guest:The honesty of the ending makes everything that comes before just as tragic as it was funny.
Guest:It still works."
Guest:Since both of you are tangentially in Kevin's orbit, I was wondering what your thoughts were of his body of work.
Guest:I know Chris mentioned knowing Brian Quinn from Impractical Jokers, who used to work for Kevin and currently does a podcast with Brian Johnson and Walt Flanagan.
Guest:I'm thinking that Brendan must have had some dealings with Kevin since he was on WTF and he and Mark had to deal with the podcast copyright debacle back in the day.
Guest:I have complicated feelings about Kevin's influence on geekdom and online culture, and I thought the two of you might have some interesting insight.
Guest:And that's from Chuck in Madtown.
Guest:So Chuck, yeah, gosh, I'm right there with you in the sense that I was a huge fan of Kevin Smith's work.
Guest:I don't know that I necessarily pulled back from it the same way you did.
Guest:I think I just kind of outgrew it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I also still think Clerks is a great movie and I would stand by it.
Guest:It definitely holds up.
Guest:What about you, Chris?
Guest:What do you think?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Funny enough, Brian Quinn was the person that gave me the VHS for Clerks.
Guest:No way.
Marc:Back in the day.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:And yeah, we both loved it.
Marc:And yeah, it was a great movie.
Marc:I loved Mallrats.
Marc:I liked Chasing Amy.
Marc:Dogma, I thought was good.
Marc:And yeah, just like you, I just kind of like...
Marc:I don't know, grew up and like not saying anything bad about Kevin Smith.
Marc:It was just like, all right.
Marc:I mean, how much more of this can I take out?
Marc:Jane Silent Bob Strike Back was a thing.
Marc:But but yeah, I I loved Clerks and I thought it was like this amazing book.
Marc:document that it's like, look, it's me and my friends talking about star Wars and like all this other stuff.
Marc:That's like funny and gross.
Marc:And it was just irreverent.
Marc:It was, it was fantastic.
Guest:And there's the meta-ness of it in, in terms of making it for the price that he, you know, basically financing it with his credit cards and just making it at the store that he had worked at on the off hours, like for people our age, that was like a lightning bolt.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like, oh, my God, we can do this, too.
Guest:Like, if we wanted to, we can make clerks.
Guest:And I never tried to, but like it was there.
Guest:It felt good.
Guest:And it felt good to follow his career in those early days.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Like almost like a parallel track to your own growth.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It's like a young man watching film at the time, you know.
Marc:Yeah, he was like an avatar for the everyman, so to speak.
Marc:And yeah, his influence was pretty profound.
Marc:And I can't believe that came out a week after Pulp Fiction, which is shocking to me.
Guest:Yeah, I don't think I saw it in 94.
Guest:I think I saw it when it was on VHS in 95, like the following year.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, when you said Q gave you the VHS, did he know Kevin Smith at that time?
Marc:No, no.
Marc:It's funny.
Marc:Oh, wow.
Marc:I now remember that Q just would go to the, there was a comic book store in Red Bank, New Jersey.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:that was it and q would go there just to like hang out and like talk to uh kevin smith or whoever else was there and those other two guys brian johnson and wall flanagan yeah and he mentioned and and he befriended them and he started working there and so that's how he got in with that crew which is just shows how a testament to how hard that guy works like he is a grinder and yeah
Guest:Well, also a testament to the everyman thing with Kevin Smith, where it was like, this guy just was a fan.
Guest:He went there and became like, was like, and they were like, okay, now you work here, you know?
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You know, it's interesting.
Guest:I think the thing that, you know, sitting here thinking about it, I think the thing that kind of grew me away from Kevin Smith's work was,
Guest:And never really grew me away from Kevin Smith, who I don't have any personal contact with.
Guest:He's a guest on the show, but like most guests on the show, I don't personally interact with them.
Guest:But I never was like, Kevin Smith, I don't like that guy anymore.
Guest:I used to be a fan.
Guest:I'm not a fan anymore.
Guest:I don't like his work.
Guest:That didn't happen to me at all.
Guest:And I think a big reason for that was there were these things he started doing where he was more of a presenter and a kind of comic of sorts.
Guest:There was this DVD set called An Evening with Kevin Smith that was just him at colleges doing a lecture.
Guest:It's like his version of stand-up, essentially.
Guest:I remember him on that IFC show, Dinner for Five,
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:He was great on that show.
Guest:So great.
Guest:And then, of course, the director commentaries, which were like little comedy scenes of their own on his movies.
Guest:It's like he would film them.
Guest:They were like YouTube, early proto YouTube things.
Guest:Like you could play a track on the DVD that would put the video of him and Jay and Ben Affleck sitting there doing the commentary.
Guest:So, you know, I think what wound up happening was as I was really enjoying those things and they started to affect my view of him as a director or an auteur because I was more like...
Guest:I was unimpressed at his level of artistry.
Guest:Once I saw who he was, heard him talking all the time.
Guest:I was just like, this is just a guy like me.
Guest:Like he's just funny guy.
Guest:Then by the time he's turning out like Jersey girl and Zach and Mary made a porno and they were not good.
Guest:I'm like, well, yeah, this guy, I'm not surprised.
Guest:They're not good.
Guest:Like this guy showed me who kind of who he is, which is like a fun guy.
Guest:He's never said anything particularly insightful about directing or putting a movie together.
Guest:He's like a critic, like he's like a cultural critic, like like any one of us who sits around and talks about this stuff.
Guest:And so, like, I was happy to relate to him on that level.
Guest:And I just kind of outgrew him as a person I looked forward to his films because they just weren't delivering that for me.
Marc:The wizard, you found the curtain.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:And the wizard exposed himself.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:But he just had a hoodie on.
Guest:That was the difference.
Marc:Well, you know, it's funny.
Marc:You sent me this question beforehand and it got me thinking.
Marc:And I actually went back and listened to that Kevin Smith episode.
Guest:Oh, no kidding.
Marc:That was a great episode.
Marc:It's really great.
Marc:I love that episode.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like so much is going on in that episode.
Marc:And I truly enjoyed it.
Marc:If you have not listened to that episode, he talks about getting kicked off of a Southwest airline, which I, I, that's another thing that I forgot.
Marc:I remember that big story.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:That was a huge story.
Marc:And he tells it, he's such a good storyteller.
Marc:That's it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:He's just so good at it.
Marc:And I really think that you can see the breadcrumbs from clerks to YouTube.
Marc:It's like, oh, look, look at this guy.
Marc:He just did this thing about some grocery store workers.
Marc:We can do that.
Marc:Anyone can do that.
Marc:And that's YouTube.
Guest:Yeah, well, he also, you know, it's funny.
Guest:Everybody talks about, you know, Chuck who wrote in talked about it.
Guest:You talked about it.
Guest:Everybody talks about how in Clerks there's this Star Wars talk, right?
Guest:And, you know, Kevin Smith is widely associated with like online culture, geek culture for good and bad, like the kind of flame wars that get started and the very strong, rigid opinions people have of their fandom of fantasy things and whatever.
Guest:And, like, you have to really stop and dial back, think about it, really, you know, put yourself in the time and place.
Guest:In 1994, Star Wars was not cool.
Guest:Not only not cool, it was not very popular.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so like the idea of that was the joke that these guys are like they don't like their job.
Guest:They hate their station in life.
Guest:And what they would really prefer to be doing is having very in-depth conversations, life and death conversations about this thing that matters not.
Guest:That has no real prevalence in the culture, right?
Guest:No one was walking around wondering who really died on the Death Star.
Guest:That was the novelty of it in the moment.
Guest:And it just so happened, you know, three years later, Star Wars has a renaissance because they released those special editions.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:I mean, I guess it would be like seeing a movie and someone having banter about like the accountant or something, you know, like some movie that's like, what?
Marc:That movie, you know, it's terrible.
Marc:Why are we talking about this?
Marc:And yeah, yeah, he's brilliant.
Marc:And that episode was episode 141.
Marc:Oh, great.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Please go back and take a listen.
Guest:That's a great fun one for us.
Guest:All right.
Guest:We're going to go through a couple more here.
Guest:Regarding your future Tarantino discussions, will you be watching Grindhouse as a double feature as intended or just death proof?
Guest:I wondered about this as well.
Guest:Well, I have a very staunch opinion on this.
Guest:Are you going to tell us?
Guest:Yes.
Yes.
Guest:we're just gonna watch death proof thank you because i never saw it as just death proof the only time i've seen this which is yes grand total of once was watching the whole thing grindhouse and i did not like it at all at all because i was i was fatigued by that fatigued and angry i hated the first part
Guest:So I don't think it makes sense to watch this.
Guest:This would be like, here's how I justify it.
Guest:If we were deciding we're going to watch the entire work of Colin Farrell, right?
Guest:And we're going to watch anything he's ever done and just regard his body of work, right?
Yeah.
Guest:When you get to true detective, you only have to watch season two.
Guest:He's only in that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You don't have to then take in all of true detective to get the sense of what was Colin Farrell's contribution to that.
Guest:So I get it.
Guest:Death Proof is a production, overall production of those guys.
Guest:But all those commercials were directed by the, you know, the fake trailers.
Guest:They're directed by other people.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The Rodriguez stuff is so clearly Rodriguez, right?
Guest:Like, it's like, get that stuff out of there.
Guest:Let's just regard, it'll be the first time I'm ever doing it.
Guest:Let's just regard Death Proof.
Guest:Is Death Proof good?
Guest:Because it is with a bullet at the bottom of the list, right?
Guest:Like, so let's see, does it move up or down based on just watching it by itself?
Marc:I'm so excited and so relieved, honestly, because if I had to see that first one again, what is it?
Marc:Planet Terror.
Marc:Planet Terror.
Marc:Yeah, I don't think I can do that.
Marc:I can remember being in the theater with Chris Rosen being like, yeah, this is this is not fun.
Marc:And then just like being like, can we get to the firework factory?
Marc:When do we get to the firework factory with with Death Proof?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, it's no good.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, listen, I will wrap up very shortly here, but I do want to mention people have sent in buddy comedies that we forgot.
Guest:In this case, these are buddy movies that I have never seen.
Guest:And so I kind of have to, you know...
Guest:cross some of these off my list, especially this first one that came up with nail and I, which is basically like Britain's planes, trains, and automobiles.
Guest:Like that is like their quintessential buddy comedy.
Guest:I want to call it that.
Guest:Oh yeah.
Guest:This was with Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann.
Guest:I should definitely check out with nail and I, cause I never saw it.
Guest:We've had Richard E. Grant on the show and yes, it does come up as a buddy movie, not American, but a buddy movie.
Guest:Nonetheless, another one that came up,
Guest:was Let's Be Cops.
Guest:Do you remember that movie?
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:I remember that movie, but for terrible reasons.
Guest:Yes, because here's the thing with Let's Be Cops, which I think ultimately wound up not totally hurting it because I think it did fairly well in the theater.
Marc:Oh, good, because I love Jake Johnson, love Damon Wings Jr.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Happy it didn't ruin their entire lives.
Guest:It came out the weekend that the Ferguson riots blew up in Missouri, like, uh, you know, the, the police killing of Michael Brown.
Guest:And then here was this comedy about cops.
Guest:And I, like, I remember, I remember you and I went to a, a trivia night like that week and we named our trivia team.
Guest:Let's maybe not be cops.
Yeah.
Marc:Evergreen, but also great.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So so I never gave that movie a fair shake and I should definitely check it out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was also brought up the films of Terrence Hill and Bud Spencer.
Guest:These were like two spaghetti.
Guest:I don't even know if it's right to call them spaghetti westerns.
Guest:They're like these Italian comedies with these two like bruising guys.
Guest:And Tarantino credits these a lot with like the buddy vibes that he's put into his movies.
Marc:Wow.
Marc:Like Operation Dynamite.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Very cool.
Guest:And then the last one, I'm kind of surprised at the both of us for this.
Guest:Now, I guess, granted.
Guest:A lot of movies.
Marc:exactly but this one feels like it's right in our wheelhouse and we never mentioned it tango and cash well i mean didn't we talk about tango and cash previously or or no that was the last boy scout so yeah you're right we for some reason i lump those two movies together because oh i'll be honest with i think they came in like a dvd set together oh wow that's funny
Marc:Those movies are basically the two sides of the same coin to me.
Marc:Like those go hand in hand.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Not surprised.
Guest:Any other buddy comedies you have to send us, please send them in and send us topics of things you want us to cover because I saw this one here and that my immediate thought was, oh, this is more than just talking about something during a mailbag.
Guest:This is a full topic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, Chris, here's our homework assignment sent in by an unnamed listener that just says topic, your favorite or quintessential New York movies.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:I got a whole book that is staring at me right here by Jason Bailey.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Yeah, definitely.
Marc:Former WTF guest.
Marc:Man, that's a great topic.
Marc:And one, I feel like I just love New York in movies.
Marc:So, yeah, can't wait.
Marc:That's a great, great suggestion.
Guest:Well, we'll do that.
Guest:next week I also have quite a few things still left to read from your comments and emails that you've sent in we will start those out on next week's show and then we'll do our favorite New York movies as a topic suggestion from our listeners if you have anything you want to suggest just go to the episode description click on the link and send it to us and we will keep making this Friday show whatever you want it to be until next time I'm Brendan and that's Chris peace