BONUS Ask Marc Anything #7
Music Music
So I've got your questions.
I've got your questions in front of me.
Here we go.
I was at your show at the Neptune in Seattle a while ago and I saw you just strolling through the aisles before the show.
I wanted to go say hi, but wasn't bold enough.
Do you always do that?
And how many people actually approach you?
I don't always do it.
I don't know why I did it.
I did it.
I used to do it sometimes to go check out the sound or to go through the back of the house or to say hi to somebody.
Sometimes I like doing it just to sort of
humanize the event.
But I don't know if it diminishes my entrance or it makes people feel more comfortable that I'm just around.
I don't know why I do it, but I'd rather it's not so much I mind that people approach me or not, because why why was I out there?
But I'd rather not, because if someone says, can I do a selfie?
I have to go like not now.
It'll cause a stir.
But I'd rather people just, you know, let me look around and and ignore me if possible.
I've thought about making sauerkraut myself many times.
I feel like you may have done the research on this.
Where did you end up buying the crock weights and top from?
Yes, I'm asking so I don't have to do the work of Googling the shit out of this topic.
I didn't do much Googling at all.
It's someplace called, I think it's called Ohio.
It's called Ohio Stoneware.
They make all of the Crocs and they make the weights and they make the tops and they make big Crocs, little Crocs, Ohio stoneware.
And it seems like there's a lot of places you can get them as a set.
You can get all sizes, but that's what I bought.
In episode 648, James Taylor invited you to play his guitars in New England.
Did you ever go to his home and jam?
I did not.
Why do you think there's such a strong kinship between Jews and Ireland?
I don't know.
I don't know that there is.
I feel it.
Maybe it's the weight of the place.
Maybe it's the sort of the heaviness of the hearts.
Maybe it's some sort of beaten beauty.
I'm not sure what it is.
We are different, obviously, but I can't quite figure it out.
But it's very comfortable.
I can't speak for all Jews.
Many like Israel.
So I don't assume that the same Jews that gravitate towards Israel are looking towards Ireland as well.
I think it's a tough generalization to make.
How different was the recent experience with doing Stern from your 2013 appearance?
Was it weird not being in the studio with Howard?
Not really.
It was better because I didn't care as much.
And I think I was intimidated the first time.
And I thought he was going to...
kind of like hit me with something that was going to, you know, be embarrassing or challenging.
But, you know, this was just better because he seemed more engaged this time.
Do you have a favorite or preferred beverage to drink with dinner?
Just water?
I generally drink zevias.
I'll drink black cherry zevia or ginger ale zevia or a sparkling water of some kind.
Have you read the following authors and what did you think?
Charles Bukowski, Hunter S. Thompson, Neil Postman, Marshall McLuhan, Douglas Rushkoff, Alan Watts, Kitty Krishnamurti, Noah Ben Shea, Morris Berman.
I've read Bukowski.
I've read Hunter S. Thompson.
I've read Neil Postman.
I've read Marshall McLuhan.
I've read Rushkoff.
Bukowski is great.
You know, I love the poems.
I like some of the stories.
Hunter S. Thompson is essential.
One of the great journalists and funny people.
Neil Postman's Are We Amusing Ourself to Death was a life changing book for me.
Marshall McLuhan's work, also a perception changing thing for me.
The first Douglas Rushkoff books were
We're kind of good, and I was thinking along the same lines.
I've kind of lost touch with it.
Alan Watts I have not read.
Krishnamurti I have not read.
Noah Benche, no.
Morris Berman I have read.
I liked his book on nomadic tribes.
I also like that book that he wrote.
What's it called?
Twilight of Shit.
I was sort of obsessed with Morris Berman, if I'm thinking of the right person, for a minute.
Let's see.
Twilight of American Culture.
Yes, that book was sort of a life changer for me in a way.
I like the way he thinks.
But the other one I read was The Re-Enchantment of the World and Wandering God.
I like that guy.
He's a good writer.
During your talk with Tim Blake Nilsson, you mentioned someone named Kelly Riker.
I tried to find her, but the only person I found died in 2013.
Could you, for the sake of my sanity, clarify whom you are talking about?
Kelly Reichardt.
R-E-I-C-H-A-R-D-T.
Kelly Reichardt.
She's a film director who will be on the show soon.
Did you ever really shit your pants as an adult?
And if so, did it go pow?
What a great question.
No, I don't think I've shit my pants in a big way as an adult.
Maybe there's been a couple accidents in my adult life, but I wouldn't say a major pow.
More of a, oh, oops.
Oh, no.
When did you first feel the charge or excitement of comedy as a stand up or as somebody watched as a as a person who watched?
I would I think seeing when I was in high school, seeing Richard Pryor's live in concert was totally life changing.
But so was seeing Don Rickles on television.
There was a lot of that.
Laughter was laughter.
I don't know when I felt the charge or excitement of doing stand-up, but it's certainly gotten better and it's more charged now in a very deeper and very different way.
I was mostly in a tremendous amount of fear and panic and it was really relief-driven.
getting the laugh.
But now I get a charge out of it.
How many more years do you think you can reasonably continue to do the podcast?
And have you considered how you'd send it off when the time comes?
Have not considered it.
I think we plan to do it as long as it stays solvent and relevant.
I have three questions.
Do you decant your dry goods into containers for aesthetic or other reasons?
Have you ever enjoyed a long-running network television show, Fraser, The Good Place, MASH, etc.?
And if so, which one?
Favorite Dylan track?
Uh, I decant my dry goods.
Yeah.
I usually for, uh, to seal them up reasons, I'll put them in bags or I'll put them in the, the, the sort of, um, airtight containers just cause I think it's better to keep some fresher, maybe the nuts and stuff bags.
Sometimes I'll leave them in the bags, but I do like to, you know, kind of rotate.
I rotate stuff, you know, like I run a restaurant.
Have you ever enjoyed a long running network television show?
I can't remember the last one.
I guess breaking bad was really the last one.
Is that network or no?
Uh,
I haven't watched a big three network TV show every week for... I don't think ever.
Favorite Dylan track?
I don't know, dude.
That's a rough one.
I used to go with Visions of Joanna pretty exclusively.
It was a pretty important track to me in a lot of ways.
But there's so many from different eras.
But I still...
visions of Joanna still blows me the fuck away.
And going, going gone recently has been something we've been doing a lot.
We've been playing it, which makes a pretty big difference.
Yeah.
what is your most prized record in your collection and why?
I don't really know.
I used to panic and I've got a lot of copies of Lou Reed's Blue Mask because I always thought that they wouldn't be available or they're hard to find.
And I've got several Dylan Planet Waves records because I don't want to ever be without it.
But there's more.
There's all kinds of records in there.
I've got the first five ACDC records that I love and
The old Aerosmith records from my past, some Tom Waits stuff, Brian Eno records.
There's a lot.
What's your relationship with Tracy Letts like these days?
I don't know.
He texts me occasionally, says hi.
I guess maybe I'll text him.
Why don't I do that now?
Let's see what happens.
Hold on.
He says nice things.
Maybe I drop the ball.
Let me see.
Let's just say how's it going.
How's it going?
Yeah, so the last time I heard from him was February 16th.
Oh, I think it was for the HBO special.
So, you know, we check in with each other occasionally.
I love your laugh, which I would describe as a hissy giggle.
Is that just your podcast laugh, or do you have a more robust guffaw in your repertoire?
I don't know.
I think I kind of... Maybe I do, but I think it always ends up in the hissy giggle.
I think I'm more of a hissy giggler, yeah, but I can do a hissy guffaw as well.
I've been a fan of guitar-based, mostly rock music all my life and finally started playing in my late 20s thanks to your podcast.
What's your best advice for a beginner?
I don't know, you know, I'm not that advanced a guitar player, but, you know, I learned to play the songs you like in a simple way.
So at least you can begin enjoying the guitar without beating the shit out of yourself.
I would just learn songs in a simple way so you can play them and maybe sing to them.
That's how I did it when I was a kid.
And then you want to learn leads and stuff.
You can figure that out later.
If you had the chance to give some advice to your 16-year-old self, what would it be?
Don't pollute your brain with porn.
I saw porn when I was like, for the first time, I guess, when I was 15.
And obviously now it's a lot easier to see it.
And I think it distorted my sense of sex.
So I would say, you know, stay out of the porn, Mark, 16-year-old Mark.
I mean, it was hard.
It wasn't easy to get.
It wasn't like I watched a lot of it because you couldn't then.
But I saw it, and I think it fucked my brain up around sex.
I've talked about that before.
Yeah.
How do I get my cat to stop destroying my furniture?
I've got scratching posts everywhere, and still he is ripping up my sofas.
It's ruining my life.
Well, then maybe you're not a cat person.
You just got to take the hit, really.
And they're going to ruin a couch or something.
Right now, mine, thankfully, are doing the back of a couch.
But I've been through a couple of couches.
It's just the way it goes.
Yeah.
You need to interview Trey from Fish.
Doesn't matter if you haven't listened.
You have a lot in common and you'll enjoy it, I swear.
That's probably true, but I find it to be disrespectful.
I know you have spoken of paring down all the items you have accumulated over the years.
Have you ever thought of auctioning off some items with the proceeds going to a favorite cause?
Sure, but I don't even know how to do that.
I'd have to do it on a website.
I don't know.
I don't have that much stuff.
I don't know what people would want.
Discuss the whole podcast business model you guys have and the switch to Acast.
I love all the new content and recently found myself telling someone wrestling is not fake.
I am curious because well-known podcasts seem to go the way of being exclusive for a specific platform or they create a Patreon system.
Thanks for all the great new stuff.
Um...
I think, you know, we like doing the podcast the way we do it, exactly how we do it.
And I think we also like being in a deal with a platform that offers us a guarantee of money for doing it.
So we know that we have a nice living to be made without, you know, panicking and Patreons and that kind of management.
So...
With ACAST, they've enabled us to do the podcast exactly how we want it and do ad reads exactly how we want them, but also offer us a, you know, a three-year deal and guarantee, which is nice.
It's nice to know that you're going to get paid.
Why is Babylon garbage to you?
Because I didn't like what he was trying to do.
The story was simple.
It's been told before.
And the fact that walked, if I would have thought of it differently, if didn't kill himself.
That would have saved that movie from me if it wasn't so fucking predictable.
And the mixing of, you know, present day and old timey, you know, it's it's it doesn't always work.
And it didn't work in that movie.
I think it would have been it would have been better if he truly honored the period.
And I think it would have been better if it wasn't so fucking predictable and didn't kill himself because he wouldn't have.
There's no fucking way in hell that character would have killed himself.
Yeah.
And there was just a lot of predictable shit in there.
And you can't make up for predictable story points with all this sort of rigmarole and flashy visuals and dance numbers and weird basements and kind of decadence and all that shit.
The only good parts of that movie were directing the movie.
Spike Jonze as a director, I thought that was great.
And I thought some of the...
The Brad Pitt character stuff was interesting.
The Margot Robbie character was destroyed because he contemporized it.
I don't know what he wanted to do.
I don't know why he needed to update her sexuality or make it completely unrealistic in the context it was being presented in.
There's a lot of problems with that movie.
Most of it was overcompensation, predictability, and just hackneyed bullshit.
It doesn't matter how much fireworks, how much money you put into something, or how big you make the fuck fest.
If you're a hack and the story sucks, it's problematic.
Never heard you talk about licorice pizza.
What was your experience with that movie?
I liked licorice pizza a lot.
I had to watch it a couple of times to really figure out whose point of view it was from and what was really happening.
But I thought it was entertaining and it was an interesting time period.
And I thought it was ridiculous, which I liked.
In the 500th episode, which is amazing, by the way, you talked to Stephen Brill.
Do you guys talk sometimes?
You guys should totally write a movie together.
Well, that's never going to happen again, and we do talk sometimes.
Not much.
How does a person unsubscribe to the Plus subscription?
All right.
If you signed up for the subscription, it means you created an Acast account.
Go back to the page where you signed up and log into your Acast account, and you can cancel there.
How was your experiment with being happy going?
Yeah, pretty good.
In and out.
Pretty good, though.
Was it hard not to swear on the air in Morning Sedition's early days?
Yeah, it definitely was.
I think we had a dump a couple times.
Are you still interested in photography?
To a degree.
I just watched that Nan Golden documentary, and that got me kind of reengaged.
I have several books.
I still look at my... I have a Joel Peter Witkin in my home, which I see every day.
So relatively interested.
Do you do anything to relax your guests who may be intimidated by you?
Yeah, I do.
I don't know if they're intimidated, but if they seem tight, you know, I'll try to loosen them up.
It's just through talking, through charm, through just kind of, you know, keeping it light for a minute.
In some older episodes, there was reference to a yoga instructor at the Y named Fat Joe.
His name wasn't Fat Joe, and I'm sorry.
Oh, that's sad.
Do you still know if he is still teaching or what happened to him?
I don't know what happened to him.
Him and I had an awkward exchange.
He's a sweet guy.
And I don't, I didn't mean to call him Fat Joe.
I just noticed that, you know, he was a guy that, you know, lost a lot of weight at one time and he was staying healthy.
And I, I feel bad that if I called him that, but we used to call it yoga, me and Jen Kirkman.
I don't know what's going on with him now.
I don't think he teaches at the Y anymore because that Y is closed.
But I did see him.
He used to come to shows and stuff.
Sweet guy.
I'm a big fan of the Criterion collection, but am mystified what the rules and or arrangement is for the closet picks.
As a recent participant, can you describe how it works?
Yeah, they just have a closet full of all their Criterion DVD Blu-ray releases.
And...
Um, there's no real rule to it.
I mean, you can take all you want.
Apparently I was pretty, uh, prudent and I didn't take, cause what am I going to do with all of it?
You know, you can only, you know, I like free stuff, but you also got to really think about it.
So you kind of get in there and I, you kind of want a moment to, to, you know, look around first before they turn the camera on and then start doing it.
There doesn't seem to be any real, um, rules or arrangement.
You just go for it.
what advice would you give someone experiencing loss?
Yeah, feel your feelings.
Hang in there.
It gets easier.
I don't know if it gets better, but it does... It does...
The intensity changes.
Just hang in there.
Can you give any insight or elaborate on the experience of talking with William Friedkin?
Yeah, listen to that episode.
It's exciting.
It's like the car chase in the French Connection.
Yeah, that's what it's like.
It's like being in the car chase in the French Connection.
Not really.
You know, it's just he's quite a charismatic raconteur.
So you just go for the ride and it's a fast one and it goes someplace.
You're going to get ahead of the train.
Biggest regret about something I've said to a guest.
Yeah.
I upset Nick Cave for a minute because I didn't know something was swaying in Australia.
Called him a cowboy, and I guess he took offense because it means something in Australia that I didn't know it meant.
And I took a while to backpedal and get that back on track.
When you find yourself feeling anxious, do you start creating tasks so you feel like you have control over something?
I don't know.
I keep pretty busy.
And I'm always sort of anxious.
Like, you know, at the beginning of the day, I'm like, oh, my God.
Am I going to get this?
I'm anxious now about finishing these questions.
Have you avoided talking about Chris Rock's Netflix special on purpose?
I haven't watched it, and I'm probably not going to.
I'm not, you know, I just, I don't watch a lot of comedy specials.
So, no.
I did watch Marlon Wayans' special about the slap.
He did a special about how the slap affected him, which I thought was great.
I got nothing against Chris, but I just didn't watch it.
I live in Muscatine, Iowa.
You said your dad lived in Muscatine, Iowa at one time.
Did you ever visit?
If you did, any memory of it that sticks out?
I never visited him there.
Can you give us a rundown of a day in the life of Marc Maron?
It can be a normal day in your life or even a busier day.
I generally get up early.
I feed the cats.
I exercise.
I eat something.
I take my vitamins.
I exercise.
I come back.
I do what needs to be done.
I food shop.
I talk to a guest.
I do some homework for a guest.
I record for the next day.
Then at night, I'll make some dinner.
I'll cook some dinner.
Maybe Kit will come over.
We'll eat dinner.
We'll watch a movie or I'll go do stand-up.
What do you think I do?
Sometimes I go to three supermarkets a day.
Yesterday, I went to pick up a broken Dyson vacuum cleaner at the Dyson repair place, and it's a vacuum I don't even need anymore.
But it was broken, and I wanted it fixed.
Maybe I'll put it out here in the studio.
What is something that you enjoy about organizing your music collection?
Well, just knowing where shit is and trying to make it easier to find stuff, the regular things, and also seeing what I have.
Do you record conversations twice a week or do you like to batch record months worth of WTFs in a few days or something?
However they come.
You know, sometimes we get a backlog going.
Sometimes we're right up against it.
I'm loving your pause on eating meat.
How is it that how is that going?
Any new thoughts?
Does this include fish or do you think you'll stick with it?
It's been going good.
It's been over two months and I haven't eaten any meat or any dairy, no fish, totally vegan, except for a couple of accidents.
But it's fine.
I have no problem with it.
And it forces me to cook differently, which I enjoy.
I don't know if I'm going to stick with it.
I just really want to see what effect it has on my blood work in a month.
I recently reached my three year sober point.
I appreciate having WTF as somewhat of a stabilizing influence in this journey.
I'm struggling with the okay.
So what blues lately about this?
What advice do you have for me about staying clear minded?
Um,
I don't know.
Are you working a program?
Maybe go spend some time with someone who needs help.
Maybe do a little service.
Maybe get engaged with, you know, getting out of yourself and helping someone else.
Isn't that part of it?
Okay, so what is the beginning of why not drink?
So hope I'm not too late.
What do you miss about living in the 1970s?
I don't know, man.
I was a kid in the 70s.
I was like the 70s.
I was like seven to 17.
So do I miss high school?
I don't know.
I miss that.
You know, we seem to have more time.
There was a lot more free mental space.
You know, there were no cell phones.
There was no Internet.
You had to call on a landline and make plans and honor your plans.
So I don't know what our brains were doing, but I know we had control over more of them.
Was there a moment as a comedian when he felt like you had finally made it?
If so, what made you feel that way?
Well, you know.
The first Letterman was important.
There are different sort of moments throughout the career.
Landmark moments?
What's the word?
But, you know, the first Letterman was a big deal.
I'm a Gen X longhand note taker like you.
How do you keep your files?
Mine is very specific and hard to share.
I don't.
They're all over the place.
It's a mess.
Usually I just add them to a stack of stuff I'm working on at the time and then go through them.
But I keep them all.
And then when I've done the work, I get rid of the stack.
Do you know what I'm saying?
I don't throw them away, but I just move on, start creating a new stack.
They're on Post-its and notebooks.
I've been kind of off from that lately.
I've got to re-engage with that.
I'd love Mark to talk more about his past photo work, gear, film, subject matter.
I haven't done photo work really since high school.
And I can't remember what my gear was.
I believe I had a Konica camera and I was sort of, you know, try X plus X. And, you know, I did some processing and doing my own printing in high school, but I didn't really pursue it later because it just there's too much chemistry involved.
Did you see the Henry Taylor exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA?
I didn't see it yet.
Did I miss it?
If you were at the comedy store and collapsed and looked up just before you popped your mortal coil, which comedian would you be happy was the last person you saw?
And which one would you not like to see before you were carried away by baby angels?
I don't know.
Who would I like to see?
Which comedian would I like to see?
It's a very sad moment.
It would be nice to see Maz Jobrani.
He'd be a nice guy to see at the end.
He's a very pleasant fella.
Are there any people you know who really make you laugh who are not writers or entertainers, just damn funny lay people?
Uh, no.
You obviously love guitar and I know you enjoy the occasional jazz.
Have you ever delved into Grant Green, the jazz guitarist?
And if so, what are your thoughts?
I'm starting to like it a little more.
Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, some of that, George Benson.
I'm trying to get, I don't know why I was adverse to it, but I'm getting into it a little more.
What's his name?
Barney Kessel.
You know, I like it.
I'm wrapping my brain around it.
Django.
Django.
Are you going to guest host a daily show?
No.
I don't think I've ever really watched a daily show.
Maybe three, four times.
Name five actors who you would like to work with who would also be intimidating to work with.
I think the big guys, you know, it'd be intimidating to work with...
I don't know.
I find myself, I'm not that intimidated really, but it'd be fun to work with Brad Pitt or Clooney or De Niro in a real way.
Adam Driver, that would be fun.
I'd like to work with Rockwell, Sam Rockwell in a live action thing.
I'd like to work with Lily Rabe.
I'd like to work again with Betty Gilpin.
On the podcast after you shot your special, you talked about something that had come together organically in one of the shows that hadn't happened before.
Would love to know what that was.
Oh, it was just sort of there was a tag to when I called back after I talked about Ireland and, you know, the lighting director saying it's never happened before.
And I said something like, you know, it's weird.
Usually she's a bird.
I called back the bird and that had never happened before.
Usually she's a bird.
And it kind of was a nice button.
But that was the only time it ever happened was the night that I recorded the special.
What do I feed my cats?
Well, Sam and Buster are on special foods.
one's on a urinary food and the other is on a kidney food.
Sam's on urinary food.
Cause he had crystals when he was a kitten and, and, and Buster's on kidney food because, um, uh, I don't think he's got, I only think he has one working kidney.
So I'm trying to, to maximize it.
Um, Royal Cayman kitten food is what I feed Charlie.
Um,
And I give them snacks in the morning.
I give them the Katmandu Life Essentials Chicken Freeze-Dried Cat and Dog Treats, Freeze-Dried Chicken Breasts.
But also I give them vitamin supplements in chewables.
I give Sammy a Vetra Science UT Strength snack.
And I give...
I give them both a VetriScience lysine chewy snack, and I give Buster a couple VetriScience renal essentials of kidney snack.
So there you go.
That's what I feed my cats.
I also give Charlie Icelandic fish, stinky fish, freeze-dried fish.
As a fan of Altman movies, I was always shocked to hear you didn't really connect with The Long Goodbye, which is my personal favorite.
Have you given it a second chance since you've watched it last?
I like The Long Goodbye.
I liked it more the second time I watched it, or the third time I watched it.
I like it more and more as time goes on.
It's definitely not my favorite Altman movie.
I recently watched...
Buffalo Bill and the Indians are sitting bulls history lesson.
I watched that recently.
That's an oddball Altman movie that I didn't, I just dismissed and it was quite great.
Um, so I, I still have to catch up on some Altman movies kind of, but the long goodbye is fine.
I liked it.
I liked his Marlowe and I liked the story.
It was great, but it's definitely not my favorite.
Um,
I would say, you know, McCabe and Mrs. Miller is my favorite.
And I watch that probably twice a year.
And I get more out of it every time I watch it.
I would say the next one...
I like MASH a lot.
I like Nashville a lot.
Three Women is interesting, but I didn't quite get it.
I can't wrap my brain around Quintet.
There's a few of the more theater-grounded ones that I thought were okay.
I do like The Player a lot, though I don't see it as a regular Altman movie.
I love Shortcuts.
But yeah, I did like The Long Goodbye Better.
How do you decide what venue is right to shoot a special at?
I don't know, man.
It's usually, you know, do I like the crowds there?
You know, and sometimes the venues don't work out.
Like, you know, I didn't plan to shoot a special at.
end times fun at the red eye theater here in a red cat theater here in la but it was a default because we wanted to shoot in boston at an old theater but we couldn't lynn couldn't do a boom shot she wanted to do because we couldn't pull the chairs up and we just had to you know make do and figure it out town hall i just i like the management there and it seemed like a historical place in a unique way but not an easy place to shoot a special in the sense that in terms of the set the stage was a little shallow because it was really built
to be spoken in and not to do big theatrical productions, but it all worked out kind of perfectly.
That special looks great.
And a lot of that was, you know, my director and my designer, lighting designer and set designer and the vision we all shared.
But also, you know, we had to adapt to the shallowness of the stage and it really worked in our favor.
It looks like no other special.
Yeah.
So it's really a combination of things.
Can we do it there?
How's the audience in that area?
Is it going to be hard to put a union shoot together?
How expensive it's going to be?
Is it going to be?
A lot of considerations.
All right.
There you go.
I hope I answered your things.