BONUS The Friday Show - Brooks Was Here
Guest:it's some of the greatest jokes in the history of the simpsons you ever seen a guy say goodbye to a pair of shoes before like what that's a that's an ad lib like that's crazy he was not holding shoes he was in a sound booth like doing a voice for a cartoon
Guest:Hey, Chris.
Guest:Hello, Brendan.
Guest:How's it going?
Guest:It's going well.
Guest:I know that we had talked about this being primarily about Albert Brooks today.
Guest:We were going to talk about the episode that Mark just did with him and a lot of Albert stuff, but...
Guest:I had something happen today that I think needs to kind of preclude that.
Guest:I'll get this out of the way first.
Guest:Because it was based on a text I received at, let's see, what time was it?
Guest:11.40 a.m.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:And the text just said, uh-oh.
Guest:That was it.
Guest:That was all I got from Marc Maron, who I know at that point in time was on a plane.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:All I wrote back was...
Guest:That's always a good text to get.
Marc:Holy shit.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:So he writes back to me, made some jokes.
Guest:They made some clickbait.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:All right.
Guest:So I go Google.
Marc:What is this?
Guest:Wait, don't you have a Marc Maron Google alert?
Guest:Yeah, nothing had come up.
Guest:And it still didn't come up when I Googled it.
Guest:So I figured it's brand new.
Guest:It just happened.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it must be somebody added him in a tweet, right?
Guest:Okay.
Guest:That it was like, you know, at Mark Maron with whatever this is, clickbait style.
Guest:So that was what I did.
Guest:I went to Twitter.
Guest:Oh, by the way, if you are listening to this and you are trying to communicate with me on Twitter, please don't because I don't go there anymore.
Guest:I'm not on that site.
Guest:I'm not on, I have no, I want no part of it.
Guest:I don't want to support it.
Guest:Why?
Guest:Sorry.
Guest:Yeah, no, you'll see there's nothing on there for me since, like, October.
Guest:And I don't need to make a big deal out of it.
Guest:I just need to leave my account open because of reasons like this.
Guest:I sometimes need to go on it for work.
Guest:We have a WTFPod Twitter account that posts the show.
Guest:That's not me.
Guest:That's our assistant, Walter.
Guest:But, yeah, so I apologize if that's been a way you're trying to communicate with me.
Guest:I just won't... I don't want to even respond.
Guest:I don't want to put...
Guest:posts out there in the X world with Mr. Ketamine at the helm over there.
Marc:Vernon, what is the joke that Mark is uh-ohing about?
Guest:So, okay.
Guest:And of course, that's where I find it.
Guest:On Twitter, somebody added him seconds before he texted me, which is hilarious because it means he didn't even read it.
Guest:And it is a Daily Beast piece.
Guest:Shocker.
Yeah.
Guest:If you listen, now that I'm going to tell you this, you will never unsee it.
Guest:The Daily Beast is so scummy that and they somehow still get interviews from people all the time.
Guest:And any time they do an interview with someone, particularly a comedian, they have a guy over there who interviews all the comics and everyone says yes to him.
Guest:They go on his podcast or they interview for print pieces.
Guest:They've been doing it for decades.
Guest:And he always.
Guest:fucks them just completely in the headline the most incendiary thing he could do to rile people up in the fucking headline of the piece and i was wise to it like yeah nine or ten years ago and i flagged it with mark i was like this guy totally fucked you in this piece like you
Guest:know immediately made it about something that the interview wasn't about just pulling out the most you know provocative thing and uh he don't doesn't do interviews with the daily beast anymore it's you know knows not to do it but other people don't and it's like it's so funny even if somebody does an interview and it's the least offense like the person is way above board on the whole thing there'll be some headline and it's like you know uh will forte has surprising views on feet like
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:Is he some fucking pervert or something?
Guest:And you click on it and it's like he eats pig feet or some shit like that.
Guest:It's like, it is the scummiest.
Guest:The HuffPost, Huffington Post used to be this before Daily Beast.
Guest:And that was flagged too.
Guest:Don't ever do interviews with the HuffPost because like they had this like HuffPost live and that's what they do.
Guest:They just get people on there, talk for an hour and, you know, would turn into some bullshit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which is what then we get the runoff of that when like, you know, Sam Elliott comes on and says, you know, he doesn't like gay cowboys or whatever.
Guest:And we don't push it out there, but some scummy site like this goes and finds it.
Guest:All right.
Guest:So anyway, it was the Daily Beast, unsurprisingly.
Guest:And although Mark doesn't give interviews to them, he did an event at the New York Public Library with Cliff Nesteroff about Cliff's new book.
Yeah.
Guest:And, you know, they do this thing where at events like this, I don't know if you've ever been to them, where they pass around little cards, note cards.
Guest:Oh, to ask questions?
Guest:Ask questions, right.
Guest:Well, the guy from the Daily Beast got his question in there.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:And it was, you know, definitely bait.
Guest:And boy, did Mark take the bait.
Guest:Oh, no.
Guest:What was the question?
Guest:Oh.
Guest:Well, you can tell what the question is by the headline that says, Mark Maron sounds off on new it boy of shitty comedy, Matt Reif.
Guest:Oh, wow.
Guest:Now, so the funny thing is, I don't have a problem with that.
Guest:Like, I'm like, fine, you know, whatever.
Guest:And so as I saw that, and by the way, all you people who pay your $5 for this and, you know, we give you the promise of like, we'll give you some behind the scenes info.
Guest:You're getting your money's worth today.
Guest:I'm going to tell you a great old behind the scenes story of WTF that took place between texts on an airplane and in my house.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I said, is this Matt Reif, this thing?
Guest:He said, yeah.
Guest:I went, okay, good.
Guest:He says, Bill Maher took a hit too.
Guest:Took a hit, like a straight, like passive, right?
Guest:It happened to Bill Maher.
Guest:I said, okay, great.
Guest:I took a sideline shot at Dane Cook too.
Guest:Here's the next one.
Guest:Dragged you into it too.
Marc:What's that?
Marc:So there goes my fucking day.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:What is this?
Guest:I have to read this now.
Guest:So, yes.
Guest:Well, I'll try to read it as much as possible so that no one clicks on the Daily Beast.
Guest:Yeah, thank you.
Marc:I'll take care of that.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:That's why no one watches AOL Blast.
Guest:So...
Guest:So this is Mark Maron sounds off on new It Boy of shitty comedy, Matt Reif.
Guest:Sub headline.
Guest:The comedian compared Reif to Dane Cook and suggested that anti-woke comics like Bill Maher have to die sooner.
Guest:In a wide ranging talk about the state of comedy Wednesday night.
Marc:Wait, wait.
Marc:So was this guy's question, fuck, marry, kill, Dane Cook, Matt Wright, Bill Maher?
Marc:Like, what is this question?
Guest:I think that would be an awesome question, by the way.
Guest:You married Dane Cook.
Guest:He's a lovable type.
Guest:Oh, absolutely.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'd fuck Bill Maher just because you know that he needs the least.
Marc:He's over in the quickest amount of time, satisfied very quickly.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I'm pretty sure Matt Reif will go the quickest, my friend.
Guest:Maybe, but I feel like he's too pretty and I would be intimidated.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, anyway, yes, that would have been a fine question.
Guest:But no, I don't even know what specifically the question was.
Guest:You could hear it in this piece.
Guest:So he writes, Matt Reif is a bona fide hit on Netflix and a bone of contention for comedy fans and comedians alike.
Guest:The 28-year-old comedian rocketed to viral fame during the pandemic.
Guest:Rife has 18.2 million TikTok followers, another 6.4 million on Instagram, and a combined 40 million views for three specials released in the past year on YouTube.
Guest:But Rife's also been the rage for incurring rage among comedy fans.
Guest:Terrible sentence.
Guest:Like, get an editor.
Yeah.
Guest:For opening his Netflix performance with a domestic violence joke.
Guest:Whether Reif seriously meant to mock a restaurant hostess for her black eye, or if he merely wanted to prove something to his comedy fans and critics by provoking outrage, his gambit hasn't won over comedian and podcaster Mark Maron.
Guest:At a New York Public Library talk Wednesday night to promote comedy historian Cliff Nesteroff's book, Outrageous, A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars, Marin took my question about Reif's purposeful pot stirring and ran with it.
Guest:So here's Mark's quote.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:Well, first of all, like don't jump the gun on Matt Reif.
Guest:If you don't know who he is, he's the new it boy of shitty comedy.
Guest:And he's taken a big chance in his career right now to shit on the mostly female audience that he accumulated through social media to sort of kiss up to these pseudo edgelords.
Guest:And personally, I don't think it's going to go too well for him.
Guest:And ultimately, here we go.
Guest:My producer, Brendan McDonald, my full fucking name.
Marc:Did he put out your phone number too?
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:I mean, dude, you know me.
Guest:I'm so careful about this stuff.
Guest:Like, I am the king of no comment.
Guest:I am the king of heismaning people on any attempts to get any dirt or juice.
Guest:Never do this.
Marc:Holy shit, your full name.
Guest:I fucking text this guy, my partner, my beloved friend and business partner, Mark Maron, two days ago when he is like on a tear over text with me about this guy, Matt Reif.
Guest:Like, what is this?
Guest:This is not this is just terrible.
Guest:It's not comedy.
Guest:How is this popular?
Guest:You know, freaking out about it.
Guest:And to kind of try to make him feel better.
Guest:I delivered this like half-assed theory that I really had not like formulated yet that I was like, you know what though, dude, this is probably good.
Guest:Like we lived through the MySpace age and Dane Cook's rise and like Dane and his bus tour for apes,
Guest:was directly responsible for the Comedians of Comedy Tour, which was a huge hit with Zach Galifianakis and Brian Pussain and Maria and all these great alternative comedians.
Guest:And they started a new movement.
Guest:And like...
Guest:it was like people seeing that the emperor had no clothes, that these new gatekeepers are not there to curate content and to like make things that are like, it's not fucking Robert Evans sitting there and deciding to make the Godfather.
Guest:It's just, it's algorithms.
Guest:It's like, Oh, Oh, what's got,
Guest:Like, it's literally what this guy wrote in his piece about all these data points from social media.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It has nothing to do with, you know, is this actually good?
Guest:And it bit them in the ass with this special because this special is terrible.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And everybody acknowledges that it's terrible.
Guest:They didn't have any quality control on it.
Guest:They were just like, yeah, put the really popular guy on Netflix.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That was ultimately was just my point to him.
Guest:And I don't know if it's true.
Guest:I would never like say this in public until now when my name is in print.
Guest:So he says, ultimate, like, I know that, like, I knew what I was doing.
Guest:I was making him feel better with something that was logical.
Guest:Like, I don't know that it's true, but I know that it was logical.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So he says, ultimately my producer, Brendan McDonald, the genius.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like I'm fucking Lanny Poffo over here.
Guest:The wonder kid.
Guest:I'm sitting here at my desk with like the graduation hat on and robe.
Guest:The tassel is supposed to be on the other side.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:The genius made a good point in saying that he thinks Matt Reif is absolutely...
Guest:actually mobilizing a new generation of comics to push back against what that stands for in much the way Dane Cook did at a different time to once again, you know, be creative and bring a new energy and voice to what that doesn't represent.
Guest:So maybe within show business, there is hope.
Guest:All right.
Guest:So I saw that.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:I'm like, I don't love it, but you know, it's fine.
Guest:In fact, here's the way these texts go after that.
Guest:So he writes back, how big of a mess is this?
Guest:Guess it's not that bad, but I may catch some shit.
Guest:I said, it's not a mess at all.
Guest:These are quotes about other comics.
Guest:The Marwan, I would guess, is going to bite you.
Guest:Not in any damaging way, but you're just going to get a receipt for sure.
Guest:And he said, on his show, you think?
Guest:I said, somewhere.
Guest:I mean, that's a shot and a half you gave him.
Guest:this is my favorite part what's the full quote and i sent back to him what the full quote is these guys just have to die sooner we're seeing it with bill maher now and he wrote back is it in context is the setup there and i just literally wrote lol lol
Guest:I said, you don't get afforded setup on the internet.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:They butchered it.
Guest:Way down in the article.
Guest:Way, way, way down.
Guest:It says, God, I'm scrolling.
Guest:I'm still not even at it.
Guest:That's how far down this is.
Guest:Nesterov's book follows the arcs of Mae West, Steve Allen, and Billy Wilder, among others, from young renegades and firebrands to stodgy conservatives as they got older.
Guest:Of Allen, Nesterov said, before he died, he wrote his last book, and it's called Vulgarians at the Gate, and it's just a bit of a camp classic.
Guest:In the book, he condemns the David Spade sitcom Just Shoot Me and Dawson's Creek and says they're leading to the downfall of America, to which Marin quipped...
Guest:And I think the point is here, these guys just have to die sooner.
Guest:And we're seeing it with Bill Maher now.
Guest:Realizing what he had done, Marin continued, again, I'm going to be fielding calls and probably some tweets that are not going, it doesn't matter.
Guest:That's literally how it is written in the article.
Marc:You can see his whole brain process happening.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So he then I think at this point goes and reads the thing and says, well, it reads well.
Guest:There's a statement to it, definitely along the lines of what I stand for, and it's not a baseless shot.
Guest:The Mar one was a joke, but it reads pretty direct.
Guest:In my experience, most people don't want to give me any air on this stuff, so we'll see.
Guest:So I wrote back, the percentage of people who see what you said and read the actual piece is less than 1%.
Guest:And he said, you mean they'll just react to the click or it won't catch fire?
Guest:I said, dude, people have room in their heads for about five words at a time.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But I said, no one cares about context.
Right.
Guest:He said, okay, hopefully it won't get too bad.
Guest:And I, again, reiterated, nothing is going to be bad in terms of actual damage.
Guest:You should just be prepared to take a hit or two.
Guest:He wrote, okay.
Guest:I said, and here we go full circle for the Friday show here, everybody.
Guest:This is the content you all are waiting for, no matter why you're signed up.
Guest:I said, in wrestling terms, you potatoed them.
Yeah.
Guest:That means hitting someone for real.
Guest:When that happens in wrestling, the other guy is allowed to give a real punch back.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:So he says, how do you think it's going to come?
Guest:And like, this was the moment where like, I couldn't handle my, my exasperation anymore.
Guest:And I just wrote, dude, I'm not a fucking fortune teller.
Guest:You talk shit about someone, expect one or both to talk shit back.
Guest:Or all three, since poor Dane Cook caught some strays there, too.
Guest:Poor Dane Cook.
Guest:Like, this is now the second time in the history of our show I've made Dane Cook a sympathetic person.
Right.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:And you're right.
Marc:People will just see Matt Reif, Dane Cook, Bill Maher should die sooner by Mark Maron.
Marc:Like, that is it, my guy.
Guest:What did Mark Maron say about Bill Maher?
Marc:Oh, that he should die soon?
Marc:First Kissinger, then Maher, baby.
Guest:oh my god i did flag this to his management and say like hey did you guys happen to see the press that came and also mark doesn't have a publicist doesn't like he just never has anything like this okay so i said like you know this is nothing that's going to be a big deal but maybe you should know just in case something comes at it because the quote is that mark suggested anti-woke comics like bill maher have to die sooner in a wide-ranging talk so there's a chance he might
Guest:have to answer to that and his manager wrote back to me and said oh okay thank you for flagging you know we'll definitely address it here uh is it something he said on the podcast or was this last night at the library event and i said uh at the library and then i followed up with no that wouldn't have been on the podcast because well you know and
Guest:And yeah, the manager wrote back, oh yeah, of course, you.
Marc:Right, yeah.
Marc:There is a shield, a protective shield happening, yeah.
Guest:Normally, right, like when you're at a live event and you like to talk, there will be people there waiting for you to say something.
Guest:uh so yes i don't imagine that as of friday when you're hearing this anything terrible will have happened uh maybe i don't know maybe it's a good reason to watch real time with bill maher tonight probably the only reason is this leading to matt rife being on wtf let's see as a maker let's see
Guest:Let's see.
Guest:I have no problem with that, to be perfectly honest.
Guest:It's not like this.
Guest:No.
Guest:I mean, like, I don't think it would be very long or good.
Guest:Like, he's not obviously not a guy with a lot of life or much of interest to talk about.
Guest:He seems like a very shallow, bland person who hasn't lived very much.
Guest:I saw some clip of him on the podcast with some influencer.
Guest:I'm old enough that I don't know who she was.
Guest:But she seems very popular.
Guest:She had some, you know, adult OnlyFans entertainer as her co-host.
Guest:God bless them.
Guest:And he was talking about being, you know, hated by some people.
Guest:And, you know, I guess this is the kind of level that he thinks at.
Guest:This is the type of thinker he is.
Guest:He was like, you know what, I just figured it out.
Guest:that like all these people who hate on me they're just jealous of me they're jealous that's all it is and like you can just you know if someone's hating on you just be okay with it because all that means is the person is jealous like that's literally like what someone says to like a kid in high school right like you know oh don't worry about those kids bullying you they're just jealous of you millhouse like that it's it's very simple
Guest:And this woman, this influencer who, again, I have no idea.
Guest:I don't even know her name.
Guest:But again, popular, large following, has a video podcast.
Guest:She says, I love her for it.
Guest:That's really interesting.
Guest:I'm really trying to wrap my head around what you're saying.
Guest:But so, okay, the people who hate Osama bin Laden, are they jealous of him?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:so i think you have a sense of how an episode with matt rice might go uh on wtf i mean worse than that i would say yeah it would be yeah it would i'm trying to put it in wrestling terms it would be it would be like squash yeah just yeah just this is wardlow powerbomb symphony in a guy and the ref stops it before a pin
Marc:Right, yeah, or Jericho and Lou Hobbs there.
Guest:Yeah, Hobbs, just total squash, right.
Marc:Oh, yay, yay.
Marc:Jealous of Osama Bin Laden.
Marc:I mean, I don't know who this person is, but that's a great rebuttal.
Marc:Holy shit.
Guest:Hang on, we got to give her credit.
Guest:I don't know her name, but I got to pull it up here.
Marc:So what are you going to search?
Marc:Osama Bin Laden.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:Matt Reif.
Guest:Hi, NSA.
Guest:Hi.
Guest:I'm still searching Osama bin Laden in the year 2023.
Guest:I'm so jealous of him.
Guest:That's what I wrote.
Guest:That's what I Googled.
Guest:Osama bin Laden.
Guest:So jealous.
Guest:They're like, I got to figure out where this guy's coming from on his search results.
Marc:That little chat pops up.
Marc:Hey, Brendan, can we help you with anything from the CIA?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Matt Reif says haters are just jealous of him and Osama Bin Laden is the headline it just happened he was on the podcast called Cancelled with Tana Mongau don't know if I'm even saying that right T-A-N-A M-O-N-G-E-A-U
Guest:She is a very popular influencer, whatever that means.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:Great job.
Guest:Hey, give her credit for one of the great responses in the history of a podcast.
Marc:Absolutely.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Anyway, that was my morning.
Marc:Wow, that's a fun morning for you.
Marc:I was wondering why you were late.
Marc:I was like, oh, maybe he has to make a sandwich for Don.
Marc:No, he's literally putting out a fire right now.
Guest:Well, the funny thing is, it's more just like a fire of anxiety.
Guest:Because honestly, nothing's going to happen from this...
Guest:You know, it's not like he went, Mark went on stage and was like, by the way, Woody Allen, totally cool guy and completely innocent.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Like that's a fire.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's like where I'm like, well, fuck, we're kind of screwed here.
Marc:I love that he mentions you and also just retained your text really well.
Marc:I mean, well, like just, just.
Guest:again i'll pat myself on the back a little bit here and say that my text had the intended result right like totally pacified whatever complaints he was having about this guy whatever jealousy he was going through in the moment he was like oh yeah brendan's fucking right the genius is right on this one
Guest:Well, there you go.
Guest:You want the full Marin.
Guest:I give it to you full.
Guest:Even the stuff that happens on an airplane thousands of miles away over the middle of the country.
Guest:You get it right here because you subscribe for the good stuff.
Guest:Woo, baby.
Guest:Speaking of the good stuff, we had absolutely one of our very objectively best episodes ever this past Monday with Albert Brooks.
Guest:And I honestly mean that.
Guest:Like, I'm a guy who has listened to all of them.
Guest:And it's not just recency bias.
Guest:I can measure this up objectively to other great episodes that we've done.
Guest:And I just can't love it anymore.
Guest:One of the greats.
Marc:Well, I loved it, of course, but I don't understand the disconnect of having it at a hotel and not at the garage.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Well, his reasoning is that it's the cat allergy, right?
Guest:And as Mark said, he told him off mic that he had heard about Ed Helms having an allergy attack because of cats.
Guest:Now, that was...
Guest:12 13 years ago and it was in the other house and cats are not allowed in this but like you're not going to convince a person who's like I don't feel comfortable doing it there right so yeah so there's that and then I don't know he just didn't want to have to have someone hosted at his house right so they went to this hotel look it was fine it was a nice hotel as Mark mentioned he got to look out over the Pacific Ocean and it was beautiful right and it provided some nice moments within where they got interrupted which I always love that stuff
Marc:I mean, the happy birthday stuff.
Marc:I mean, that was just really... The guy is just so goddamn funny.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Just so goddamn funny.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:So, Mark forgot to take a photo.
Marc:How does that happen?
Marc:And has that ever happened previously?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:In the same scenario.
Guest:It's like where he's overwhelmed and he's doing too much.
Guest:Oh, okay.
Guest:And here's the thing.
Guest:You might think that's like production negligence or whatever.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:i i'm not in la right i'm not out there with him but i very much tried to cover all the bases and offered several times to have someone there with him who would manage the recording who would take the photos and he did not want it which i understand he wants it to be like robin williams right he just goes there by himself it's not intimidating and i get it it probably makes for a better talk it really does
Guest:and if the negative result of that is that he didn't get the picture, fine.
Guest:At least he tipped the hotel staff, because that was, like, on the list of things I asked him to do, that was one of them.
Guest:So it was take a picture, all the details.
Guest:He forgot the picture.
Guest:He left the tip.
Guest:So ultimately, I'm happy.
Marc:And also, you guys thanked the hotel staff.
Marc:That was awesome.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Hey, you got to say thank you.
Guest:Look, dude, I've been at this for a while.
Guest:I can tell you this for sure.
Guest:Nothing has a greater value on it than an unexpected thank you.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:For sure.
Guest:I still, to this day, get emails from people who we thanked on the Obama episode.
Guest:that are like, oh man, my family talks about that all the time when they heard me on the Obama episode.
Marc:No, that's funny.
Guest:It goes miles.
Guest:Just say thank you when people don't expect it.
Guest:It is a big deal for them.
Marc:So anyway, yes, that's a word to the wise.
Marc:And so the episode is just chock full of just great shit.
Marc:And I honestly was laughing my ass off when Mark is, well, Albert's response to Mark asking him if he's ever known Jerry Lewis.
Marc:Well, I was in high school.
Marc:Just brilliant shit.
Guest:Oh, man.
Guest:Well, I'll tell you, we worked very hard.
Guest:This is a good example of an episode that a lot of production went into it.
Guest:And you just really wouldn't know because it just sounds like a conversation.
Guest:But we worked very hard to map out everything that was in the documentary.
Guest:And then find how we could get into things without rehashing those same moments.
Guest:And if you go watch the documentary and listen to the episode back to back, very few moments overlap.
Guest:It's minimal.
Guest:And the stuff that does overlap allows Mark to branch out into something else.
Guest:And one of the things I knew...
Guest:watching that documentary, which I really didn't have any knowledge of ahead of time was I knew he would tell stories and be great at it.
Guest:Like he has a retention of details.
Guest:That's what makes him so good at crafting sketches and writing scripts, making movies.
Guest:Like he's very good at what the, what story beats are.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so that was part of the strategy was, you know, twofold, find the gaps and
Guest:in between things that are in the dock and you know like mark explicitly did it on the show he was like well it goes from you behind the curtain at carl's house to you're on the tonight show so what happened in there and he was like okay let me tell you but boom perfect that was exactly what we planned for
Guest:But then also getting him to like tell the stories like that was just like lead him to places where he went.
Guest:And he like he told that story about going to the radio station and opening the cabinet.
Marc:Don't open the cabinet with the antenna, apparently.
Guest:Well, also like just the fact that like we worked in radio and we know exactly this guy he's talking about.
Guest:Like I immediately knew this.
Guest:And he says it.
Guest:He's like, oh, these guys are everywhere.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But my favorite part of that story is him doing the guy on the other end of the phone.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And it's like the muffled half heard sentences of that guy.
Guest:Like, oh, my God, that's just absolute gold.
Guest:Like to get that from him.
Guest:He did a Albert Brooks sketch on the show.
Marc:It's so great.
Marc:What if we were down?
Marc:Just insane.
Marc:Holy shit.
Marc:That was great.
Marc:I love the maps with the circles.
Marc:Like, oh, yeah, you know, at night we're broadcasting to Chicago.
Marc:150 million people.
Guest:That's our reach.
Guest:not one call for a half hour and you know like i said to mark on last week's uh bonus episode like there's just something too about when he gets going and his voice you know like it's just it's like a blanket like it just i want to snuggle with albert brooks's funny voice when he's getting like agitated and uh it's just the just the greatest
Marc:He also did the blue moon bit, which was just effortlessly funny.
Marc:Again, he just recalled it.
Marc:He can just do it.
Marc:Just amazing.
Marc:And I'm pointing to his seat.
Marc:I was like, just holy shit.
Marc:The guy is brilliant, man.
Marc:How about when he's impersonating Jack Benny?
Marc:It's all just like a Simpsons character.
Marc:I can close my eyes and see the Simpsons.
Guest:Well, yeah, he had that great thing that I visualized it as he was saying it.
Guest:And I'm like, yeah, of course.
Guest:Like, you know, he was talking about later in the episode, talking about like, you know, how much of a person's comedic character is really them.
Guest:And he's like, well, it's mostly them.
Guest:But like, he's like, I don't know, if you go over to Jack Benny's house and you say something funny, I don't think he's going to slowly look sideways.
Yeah.
Guest:But that Jack Benny thing is a perfect entry point to why I think this is absolutely one of our very best episodes, objectively, because it hits the measurements of what makes a good episode of WTF.
Guest:And there are like three things that I think it excels at.
Guest:One is it's a great profile of an individual.
Guest:And this was a particularly higher degree of difficulty than a normal one because he just made this documentary that profiled him.
Guest:So how do you do that?
Guest:You basically have to tell a second story, which I feel this successfully did.
Guest:It's also a look at comedy history and a telling of things that we don't want people to forget.
Guest:Legacies of things.
Guest:What was important at particular times in history.
Guest:It does that in spades.
Guest:But I will say we do those type of things with some regularity.
Guest:I would say that's a thing we know how to do.
Guest:We know how to do a good profile of a person.
Guest:We know how to present the history of a medium through that person.
Guest:But then there's another thing that I think the very best episodes of this show can do, and it's entirely dependent on the guest, right?
Guest:And that is, it winds up being a great bit of life advice.
Guest:You can listen to this thing and take lessons away from it and apply them to your own life, whatever it is you do.
Guest:And I think those are much more rare.
Guest:Not super rare.
Guest:In fact, we made a whole book out of it, right?
Guest:That was the impetus behind us doing Waiting for the Punch, the book that we did, was there are so many nuggets of wisdom on this show from our guests and from Mark's conversations with them that we should put those things in a compendium.
Guest:So it feels like here's what everyone had to say about growing up.
Guest:Here's what everyone had to say about failure and how to deal with it, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And, you know, Albert had so many of those with such clarity, and they all fit very naturally into the conversation.
Guest:So like that Jack Benny story, for it to be a fun story and a good story, and he's doing the impression of Jack Benny, but to then hear the foresight he had to take what Jack Benny said as a lesson for him to apply to the rest of his life.
Guest:Like, I was like...
Guest:I related to it personally because as I've told before on this show, like I had that realization early in life.
Guest:Like, oh man, don't try to rely on what other people are telling you you'll be known for.
Guest:You'll be remembered for.
Guest:Oh, you should go audition for Saturday Night Live or whatever.
Guest:And it's like, no, I shouldn't.
Guest:That's not my wheelhouse, right?
Guest:And I also, I can't tell you how many times I wind up saying to Mark, like when he's worried about how people are going to think of something.
Guest:I'm like, dude,
Guest:Worrying about how other people are going to receive what you did is a path to misery.
Guest:Like you have to be okay with it on your own.
Guest:And I 100% believed Albert that he has at his age now fully integrated into his life and has for a very long time.
Guest:Sounds like many decades.
Guest:This idea that as long as he's okay with it, then it's fine.
Guest:He doesn't have to worry about it.
Guest:Literally that quote, he says like, I didn't want your opinion on it.
Guest:I wanted to do it.
Guest:I believe it.
Guest:I believe it totally.
Guest:And I think people can really apply it to their own lives.
Marc:Yeah, he's lived it.
Marc:And it's funny because you've kind of seen his paranoia, his jealousy, like all kinds of stuff like on film.
Marc:Yeah, he works through it in his art.
Marc:Yeah, and it's all out there.
Marc:And to see him now and to hear him now talk to Mark and just be a fully sort of realized person and looking back on it, it was really a fantastic time.
Guest:Well, I'll tell you, he said something that I couldn't have related to more.
Guest:In fact, it's basically been my driving motivation since Mark and I started doing this podcast, particularly when, you know, it seemed like this podcast could be a livelihood for us and it had some momentum.
Guest:But he tells that story about taking his wife to the Warner Brothers lot and they're in the parking lot.
Guest:And he says, every one of these cars is someone trying to keep me from doing what I want.
Guest:And oh my God, if that is not my underwriting strategy about going about my business every day that we operate this thing, I'm like, how do I avoid someone else fucking up what I do and what Mark does?
Guest:And we've continued from day one to make the show we want to make.
Guest:And we have not compromised on it.
Guest:And we still own it.
Guest:We've never sold it to anybody.
Guest:And that's going to be the way it is until it's done.
Guest:And so absolutely, I think of everyone as the cars trying to keep me from doing what I want.
Guest:And I will not allow it.
Guest:Totally, totally related to it.
Marc:You just got to stop having people put questions in a hat for more to get.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:As we all must learn, there are certain things completely out of your control.
Marc:That McCain and Mrs. Miller fucking thing he's going to be doing.
Marc:Just no questions, please.
Guest:Well, Brendan, the genius, told me that Robert Allman was really well hung.
Marc:Actually, you said it wasn't really while Hawkins.
Guest:I love... So, you know, there's a part toward the end where they start talking about their moms.
Guest:And, you know, Albert tells a story that, you know, it's about his mom wanting to...
Guest:go to therapy with him and giving him that advice about therapy and mark is telling that story that he's told before about how his mom said i didn't know how to love you when you were a baby and albert's reaction to that was genuine like he's like wow whoa that's a lot of information like yeah
Guest:that was the point when I was first listening to it, when I would say it's the equivalent of like a runner's high, like it had been so good the whole time.
Guest:And that it got to that.
Guest:And I was like, this is just singing.
Guest:This is like a duet between like the two jazz impresarios.
Guest:And it's like, Oh my God, like, I can't believe we're getting this.
Guest:Like I can't believe this is going to be on the show that we make.
Guest:yeah so amazing and i just again that was at that point after you know an hour and 20 minutes or however long it had been i was just floating while i was editing this thing and was there a lot to edit was there was no no very little i will put something in a producer cuts that i took out uh that was really them going up uh through albert's uh snl filmography like all the movies he'd made for that and uh
Guest:It's funny.
Guest:It's a good thing.
Guest:It's like a good thing to point out in terms of production.
Guest:There was a joke that Albert made later that made me reinstitute a part that I cut out.
Guest:Oh, interesting.
Guest:And so it was, you know, there was that moment where Mark was talking about the SNL films and he mentioned the wrong one, right?
Guest:Like he mentioned one that was made by another filmmaker.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And Albert was like, no, that's not mine, but since you liked it, I will take credit for it, right?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:And then what wound up happening is that's where they started talking about all the movies.
Guest:Oh, was this from this guy?
Guest:Yes, that was that guy.
Guest:This was mine.
Guest:And they started going through a lot of the movies.
Guest:And then Mark got back on track and he was like, how did that come about?
Guest:Like, what was your agreement with Lauren?
Guest:And that was like the point to make the edit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Edit with that and cut out everything back to where he said, so you're doing those SNL films.
Guest:I remember those very well.
Guest:Boom.
Guest:What was the arrangement with Lauren?
Guest:So all that stuff was cut out because I felt like, oh, it's a mistake.
Guest:We don't need to have the mistake in there.
Guest:But when he made that point later about it relating to the Jack Benny story.
Guest:That he's like, I learned you don't have to be, I don't care if anyone remembers me.
Guest:I don't care if anyone has some memory of what I did.
Guest:In fact, that's why I took the compliment when you said a movie that wasn't mine, right?
Guest:So I was like, this is so great.
Guest:I have to go back and put that other thing back in.
Guest:Oh, funny.
Guest:That's great.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:But you will hear on the Producer Cuts, you will hear more of what they talked about.
Guest:They're just about like two minutes extra.
Marc:Ah, all right.
Marc:All right.
Marc:That's enough to whet my appetite, honestly.
Marc:There was stuff in the documentary, which was really well done.
Marc:And you're right.
Marc:As soon as I was done with your podcast, I just put on that documentary.
Marc:And it works so good as a nice companion.
Marc:But there were so many...
Guest:bits that albert brooks did that i personally had no idea about like did you know about this albert brooks the way i knew who albert brooks was was from seeing him in uh one specific thing which i will mention shortly uh and saying like you know who is that guy and my father being like he's hilarious and would tell me about those i remember the the frog bit the elephant tamer yeah and and
Guest:And I hadn't seen it.
Guest:There was no YouTube.
Guest:You couldn't just pull up old Steve Allen shows or anything.
Guest:So I just remember my father explaining the elephant frog sketch, which ended with Albert squishing the frog, by the way.
Guest:That's something they don't point out in the documentary.
Guest:Yeah, like he steps on it.
Guest:uh for real uh and so yeah i i had already had this knowledge that he was a uh kind of um subversive even if i didn't know that it was the word i knew that that's what type of comedy he was like i put him in the same part of my brain as andy kaufman who right you know he points out in the piece that andy said that albert was a big influence on yeah yeah
Guest:Well, you know, I was saying there's there's one specific movie and, you know, you mentioned to me over text, we should talk about like your top five of Albert Brooks.
Guest:And, you know, I think that's a good idea.
Guest:But what I did when I put my top five together here was like everything, Albert.
Guest:Like I'm not just limited to the films he made, just like anything that is for me, Albert Brooks.
Guest:And so I have five things here.
Guest:And the first thing is that first movie that I saw.
Guest:And this is entirely personal to me.
Guest:I'm not saying this is his greatest work.
Guest:This is just for me, in my heart, like how I know Albert Brooks.
Guest:And it was Twilight Zone, the movie.
Guest:Ah, yeah, the prologue, right?
Guest:The opening scene, yes, with him and Dan Aykroyd.
Guest:And I knew Dan Aykroyd from Ghostbusters, right, in SNL, and I knew who he was.
Guest:But who's this guy?
Guest:And it was one of those things where, I don't know if you have a memory of this, but...
Guest:I remember very specifically thinking this feels different because I don't think they're reading a script.
Guest:Like I don't think these were, I think like it was my first real feeling of what an improvisational scene was.
Guest:And that's clearly what that scene is.
Guest:It's just these two guys shooting the shit in the car and trying to like make each other laugh.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And, like, I love that scene.
Guest:I watched, I like Twilight Zone, the movie, a lot.
Guest:I watched it a lot as a kid.
Guest:And so, yeah, that was my first real, like, landmark spot for Albert Brooks.
Guest:And it all just kind of grew out of that.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:Yeah, my list includes a movie that I only recently saw, you know, right after your podcast.
Marc:Because it's one of those things where, like,
Marc:know this happens a lot on your show i'm sure i'm not alone but like mark will mention something and then i'll like jot it down or i'll just like have to stop and like put on like some jazz record that he was talking about like i've done that like so many times like he put he like he talked about this pharaoh like album and oh yeah all right cool i'm gonna i'm gonna you know what i'm gonna stop i'm gonna listen to this pharaoh album and you know what it was very good you know what else the songs are about 20 minutes long
Marc:It is exhausting.
Marc:And I can't believe he has this on vinyl.
Marc:Does he flip the vinyl after every song?
Marc:In the middle of a song.
Marc:It's exhausting.
Marc:Anyway, so I'm like, you know what?
Marc:I want to go back to the beginning and watch Real Life by Albert Burns.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:A movie I've never seen.
Marc:I never even knew about.
Marc:And I watched this.
Marc:I bought it on iTunes.
Marc:Yeah, because I don't think it's like streaming anywhere for free.
Marc:I think you have to buy it.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:And I am so glad I bought it because I'm going to be re-watching this movie.
Marc:It is so... Like, he's like a soothsayer.
Marc:Like, it is...
Marc:what reality television is now.
Marc:It is just uncanny.
Marc:And by the way, the entire like, like beginning, it's like an SNL sketch, like where Albert Brooks is just walking down a long hallway.
Marc:And I'm just like, what it's, this is like SNL.
Marc:This is also like the Simpsons.
Marc:I'm just like, this is amazing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The influences are far and wide.
Guest:Like what, what he influenced from that film.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, of course, I'm guessing this is what The Simpsons, you know, writers or creative were thinking.
Marc:We're like, oh, we have to get this guy.
Marc:Because I honestly don't know how they came into contact with one another, but it's such a perfect marriage.
Marc:Absolutely.
Marc:I mean, it's unbelievable.
Marc:It's just he is the perfect conduit for any character on that show.
Marc:So many of them.
Guest:the jokes are so similar to his yes style of comedy and yeah i i have to think you think of a guy like conan o'brien he's absolutely a student of albert brooks you know he he it was in that documentary and he loves him like and you know conan is representative of a lot of the simpsons writers so i i think it's a i think it's an easy line to draw also the ending of real life is so great
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I don't want to give it away for people, but it's a perfect ending.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I'm going to watch that again with my wife.
Guest:So the other, the next thing on my list here is what I kind of want to draw attention to, to highlight Albert's acting, particularly his dramatic acting.
Guest:And it's not a drama.
Guest:I think, you know, it seems obvious for people that went, oh, well, Drive, he's so great in Drive, right?
Guest:Yes, he is.
Guest:And yes, I agree.
Guest:But I think the best representation of what a kind of soulful and empathetic presence he is in film is as the voice of Marlon in Finding Nemo.
Guest:And I already explained how, on the bonus episode, how he literally saved the film.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:His performance helped pull it together when it was a mess.
Guest:And if you go back and watch that movie, it's because, A, the fish is Albert Brooks, right?
Guest:Like, it's the Albert Brooks character, as he talked about with Mark.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And with Rob Reiner.
Guest:But at the same time, it is one of the great representations of a father's love for his child, unconditional love.
Guest:It had to be purposeful that this was something he did when he became a parent himself.
Guest:And, you know, it is as heartfelt and as the word I mentioned was soulful and moving a performance, as you'll see in a major blockbuster movie.
Guest:And it just so happens to be animated and it's his voice only.
Guest:And if anything, I always feel like sometimes voice actors don't get enough credit for that being a harder thing to pull off.
Guest:than a visual performance.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, obviously it's in concert with the animators, but like, if you don't provide the animators something to use, it's not going to hit the same way.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And that, of course, is on my list.
Marc:And I actually don't think of it as a dramatic role.
Marc:I think of it more as a comedic role.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:But you're right.
Marc:It is, in its essence, the Pixar, you know, drama of it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Is it going to tug at your heartstrings?
Guest:Right.
Guest:And if it is, why?
Guest:And if you don't have the right heart to tug at there, then it's not going to work.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, for sure.
Marc:So, yeah, the brilliant movie.
Marc:Next on my list is Broadcast News.
Guest:That's the number one Albert thing on my list.
Marc:No kidding.
Marc:Number one.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I'll tell you why.
Marc:But you go ahead.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:This was a movie.
Marc:This was like an HBO special where it would be on HBO when I was a kid all the time, especially when I came home from school.
Marc:And I would honestly have never seen the beginning until kind of recently, like probably 10 years ago.
Marc:But it's a movie that I personally just love.
Marc:I love the cleverness of it.
Marc:I love the action of it, the pacing of it.
Marc:And it bore out of me a sort of love for media and
Marc:And for news.
Marc:And I just I just loved the characters.
Marc:It's just a brilliant film that that honestly, really, I'm sure touched so many people that are actually doing news and in the media right now.
Marc:So, yeah, that that's that's on my list.
Marc:So why is it number one on your list?
Guest:Well, this is the best way I can put it.
Guest:When Paul Thomas Anderson was on our show and he was talking to Mark about Philip Seymour Hoffman, he said that he saw him in Scent of a Woman in the theater and was watching the film and saw Phil Hoffman's performance and thought...
Guest:Basically it was like, there was love at first sight.
Guest:He said, I thought he's for me and I'm for him.
Guest:And like, I'm going to put him in my movies.
Guest:And he like wanted him to be his leading man.
Guest:Like he was like, that's, that's my guy.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And as I mentioned, like Twilight Zone, the movie was the first time I ever really experienced Albert Brooks.
Guest:I then had seen other movies of his, which I think we're going to talk about shortly.
Guest:I knew him from the Simpsons.
Guest:And then I finally saw broadcast news.
Guest:I don't know, maybe 10 years.
Guest:12 years after it was, it had come out.
Guest:And that was the moment where I was like, he's for me and I'm for him.
Guest:Like, yeah, that's my guy.
Guest:I fully understand everything about his comedic persona.
Guest:Like it's like, it was, it was multiple layers.
Guest:I get his characters.
Guest:I get where the characters come from.
Guest:I get where he, the actor is.
Guest:gets the impetus for portraying them the way he does.
Guest:I get where the comedy comes out of them.
Guest:And then obviously, you know, it's just the marriage of him with the James L. Brooks script, which is such a great script and very knowing about an industry that I wound up becoming a part of, television news.
Guest:And, you know, I can't tell you how many times I've quoted stuff from Albert in the movie, you know?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I say it here and it comes out there.
Guest:I mean, it's like it was like a daily occurrence for me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So, yes, this is like a very special, not just a special movie, a very special performance for me in my life.
Guest:Nice.
Guest:Well said.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What else is on your list?
Guest:Well, I put this on my list to kind of bundle it all as one thing.
Guest:Mm hmm.
Guest:And, but I do have a favorite among this bundle.
Guest:We're talking Simpsons, aren't we?
Guest:Simpsons characters.
Marc:Yes.
Guest:And the number two thing on my Albert Brooks list is specifically his performance as Hank Scorpio.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:the hammock oh oh uh marge's hammocks the hammock district okay so you got uh you got hammocks on third you got uh put your butt there oh you know what actually to come to think of it they're all in the same complex
Guest:hammock town down in the hammock district uh oh man well i mean that's another perfect example it's the same with twilight zone the movie like but it's in animation where these are just guys riffing and it's like seems effortless and it's some of the greatest jokes in the history of the simpsons you ever seen a guy say goodbye to a pair of shoes before like
Guest:What?
Guest:That's an ad lib.
Guest:Like, that's crazy.
Guest:He was not holding shoes.
Guest:He was in a sound booth, like doing a voice for a cartoon.
Guest:That's amazing.
Guest:The Hank Scorpio character is one of the greatest of all time.
Guest:They must have, like you said, they must have just known, oh, this guy, again, this guy's for us.
Guest:He can do anything on The Simpsons.
Guest:And they're just lucky to have him whenever they have him.
Guest:It's been, you know, the one I mentioned a couple weeks ago, Brad Goodman, that guy, that's another great Albert Brooks character.
Guest:He's Jacques the Bowler.
Guest:That's my favorite actor.
Guest:Oh, is it?
Marc:I mean, because I've seen it the most.
Marc:It's like I used to tape Simpsons episodes on VHS, and then I would just have like a VHS full of Simpsons episodes, and I would watch it at night.
Marc:And yeah, and that Jacques the Bowler is just great.
Marc:Like, oh, you'll love brunch.
Marc:It's not quite breakfast.
Marc:It's not quite lunch.
Marc:But at the end of the meal, you get a piece of melon.
Marc:Yeah, you feel very satisfied.
Marc:It's a good meal.
Yeah.
Guest:And all of that, on the DVD of that, I believe it's the first season of The Simpsons, they have all the audio outtakes of him just riffing at that jock character.
Guest:And you can hear people in the background fucking dying.
Guest:It's so great.
Marc:I have that DVD somewhere.
Marc:I should watch that.
Guest:Well, that was just another amazing thing about the interview he did with Mark is that moment where he asks Mark to go see about the noise outside.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I love any time we ever have somebody on the show who has to vamp while Mark gets off the mic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's always just great.
Guest:And you can see all of a sudden he's like creating this little radio play.
Guest:He's like, oh, he's going to go tell them to stop cleaning, which means the next person who comes here will have a messy room.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And the hotel will say, and then like Mark comes back in and he doesn't finish the joke.
Guest:I'm like, oh my God, we lost this gold.
Marc:He was spinning gold.
Marc:I was actually wondering, did you, did you cut it out?
Marc:No.
Marc:Oh my God.
Guest:It would be like desecrating the Mona Lisa.
Guest:Take a knife to Guernica.
Yeah.
Guest:So, yeah.
Guest:So, Simpsons Voices.
Guest:That's the other thing on my list.
Guest:Do you have anything else on your list?
Marc:Yes.
Marc:So, I mean, there's one big one.
Marc:But I must say, like, you know, I started watching, I saw real life.
Marc:I watched Modern Romance, which I never saw before.
Marc:Loved it.
Marc:Yes.
Marc:I mean, really loved it.
Marc:It's like an Apatow.
Marc:It's what Judd Apatow has been doing for so long.
Marc:But then I watched Lost in America.
Marc:Great film.
Marc:And I got to say, when you watch all these movies, like back to back like I did in a row...
Marc:you kind of feel like Albert Brooks, this character in all these movies is just the same guy.
Marc:Like he was a film director in real life.
Marc:He got knocked down to be an editor.
Marc:Now he's an ad man in Lost in America.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:And then he dies in Defending Your Life, you know?
Guest:It's the ACU, the Albert Brooks Cinematic Universe.
Marc:Yes, it really is.
Marc:And also they all loved Easy Rider.
Marc:It's so weird.
Guest:But definitely the guy who is driving that car at the beginning of Defending Your Life is absolutely could be the guy from Lost in America.
Marc:100%, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Like this is just the next chapter of that guy's life.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:And Defending Your Life is, for me, my number one with a bullet of Albert Brooks' performance.
Guest:Yeah, well, and just as a movie, I mean, I think that for you and I probably felt in exactly the right time where we saw it dozens and dozens of times on HBO.
Guest:Like, I think, and at a very impressionable age, too, right?
Guest:We must have been like 13 or so, and it was on almost every day because it was a clean movie, so they could put it on in the daytime.
Guest:You could come home from school and Defending Your Life was on.
Guest:And yes, I love everything about Defending Your Life, but I will say...
Guest:The reason I think I like broadcast news as a better Albert thing than Defending Your Life is because to me, as good as Defending Your Life is as a concept, great story.
Guest:Meryl is great in it.
Guest:So amazing that he got to put her in the role as he tells in the documentary.
Guest:But the core of that movie to me is Rip Torn.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it undoubtedly is where they decided to create the character of Arthur from the Larry Sanders show.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:He is him, but in a heavenly role.
Guest:And I mean, definitely one of my favorite shows of all time, one of my most beloved characters of all time.
Guest:And so, yeah, I watch Defending Your Life and I appreciate all of Albert's contributions to it.
Guest:But it really, to me, is Rip Torrance's movie.
Marc:Oh, OK.
Marc:And see, for me, it's I mean, there are so many that I feel embarrassed to sort of spit them out.
Marc:But like like when I first met my wife's family, like, you know, like we were out to dinner and like we're talking about dessert.
Marc:And I would just say, oh, yeah.
Marc:Do you like pies?
Marc:I'll give you nine pies.
Marc:And, like, my wife's sister or my girlfriend's sister at the time cracked up because she knew that line.
Marc:Oh, man.
Marc:And she was just like, this guy.
Marc:I like this guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Like, it's just a movie that is just so sentimental and just so beautiful.
Marc:And just, I love Meryl Streep.
Marc:Like, she dies in a fire rescuing her family.
Yeah.
Guest:I also like the whole thing about like the size of the brain her lawyer uses.
Guest:She's like, guess how much?
Guest:It does like the hand thing.
Marc:Also, Rip Torn's scene with him.
Marc:Like, you know, I use 45% of my brain.
Marc:How much do you think you do?
Marc:I don't know, 43%?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:But the other thing of Rip Jorn's that I always loved, and I just love it as a concept, is that the food will be a different taste when you're smarter.
Guest:And he's like, oh, can I try what you're eating?
Guest:And he's like, you wouldn't like it.
Guest:And he's like, let me try.
Guest:And he tries it and it's terrible.
Guest:And he's like, tastes kind of like horse shit, huh?
Guest:The great thing about Defending Your Life is just the concepts.
Guest:Oh, I love the concepts.
Guest:Piling one on top of each other, like the nightclub and everything.
Guest:Past Lives Pavilion.
Guest:Yeah, the Past Lives Pavilion.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:Absolutely.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, listen, we're running short on time today, but I could probably talk about Albert for another hour.
Guest:Instead of doing that, if you haven't listened to the episode yet, please go and check it out.
Guest:But I guess we could wrap this up by asking what the best thing in wrestling you saw this week.
Guest:And I could talk about it very quickly and easily because I did not see much wrestling.
Guest:I have been very busy and it was the holiday and I've just got a lot of stuff saved on the DVR.
Guest:But I did catch a match between Mark Briscoe and Roosh.
Guest:And it was very violent in a way that I like.
Guest:Now, I will explain what I mean by that quickly.
Guest:There's a term in wrestling.
Guest:They say, hit hard, but in safe places.
Guest:And if you go watch that match, it looks like these guys are killing each other.
Guest:In fact, when it's over, Roosh's chest is all red and blood vessels are bursted.
Guest:they were hitting each other very hard without doing any real damage to them in their lives.
Guest:Like I'm sure they went back and put some ice on their chest or whatever, but it was not, they're not going to get CTE from that, you know?
Guest:And so I felt like this is the highest level of violence that I will accept before it pushes over into uncomfortable for me.
Guest:And because of that, it was my favorite thing this week.
Guest:Excellent.
Marc:I'm going to have to watch that.
Marc:I have not seen that.
Marc:So, yeah, I'll check that out.
Marc:For me, I'm just loving Big Bill and Ricky Starks there.
Marc:Not only their matches, which they had a great ladder match at Full Gear, but I loved actually after the match with the press conference, Big Bill...
Marc:told the story about how he, uh, you know, is, you know, is recovering from substance abuse and just, I love how vulnerable and how honest he was.
Marc:And I just, I am just rooting for him now.
Marc:So that, yeah, same.
Guest:And I was like, Hey, we gotta get this guy on WTF.
Guest:Yeah, seriously.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like, he'd be our first, like, well, I was going to say he'd be our first seven-foot giant, but we did have Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on, so it's not true.
Guest:Yeah, no, good on him.
Guest:Big Bill Morrissey, and I'm glad that he's finally getting the credit he deserves for all the hard work that's gone in.
Guest:That's going to do it for us this week.
Guest:But if you want us to talk about anything else, just send us a message.
Guest:I've got a lot of stuff as I'm building up here.
Guest:We could do another mailbag episode soon with all of your comments.
Guest:Just go to the link in the episode description.
Guest:Send us the things you want us to talk about and we will do that.
Guest:But until next time, I'm Brendan and that's Chris.
Peace.