BONUS Producer Cuts - Regina King, Tim Heidecker, Mark Hamill, Tom Scharpling and more
Hey there, Full Marin listeners.
It's Brendan, the producer of WTF, and this is the last installment of producer cuts that we're going to do here for you on the Full Marin.
If you've been listening to the Full Marin for the past several years, you know what these are.
And as you probably have noticed, I haven't been introducing them lately.
We'll be right back.
because I want to make sure that all Fulmarin listeners are aware of what's going on with your Fulmarin subscriptions.
And there's great news.
The Fulmarin and the WTF Archive subscriptions are going to stay active even after the final WTF episode drops.
What is going to change is that your subscription will now be hosted by Supercast.
Whatever your current subscription is will transfer automatically, including all your billing details.
You don't have to change anything.
The previous two tiers, the full Marin and the WTF archives, will now be one tier, the full WTF archives.
And the deal is all subscribers are going to get that for the same amount, $3 a month.
You'll all have access to everything in the ad free catalog.
That's all the WTF episodes, as well as all the bonus episodes we've ever done.
There's nearly 300 of those.
So your price is going down every month and you're still going to get everything we've ever done.
You can continue to access this on whatever your current podcast platform is.
You don't have to change that.
But something that is new is that these can now be accessed on Spotify.
We know a lot of you have asked for that.
Going to Supercast makes that possible.
So if you want to move your subscription to Spotify, you can do that.
However, if you don't want to move, just stay put.
Your subscription is going to stay in place.
Supercast will be managing that now.
Your billing just continues as it is.
Just also to make sure you know, those payments have always been processed through Stripe.
That's where they're going to be processed going forward.
Supercast is not getting any direct access to your credit card data.
Neither do we here at WTF.
That stays with Stripe, which is encrypted and has security measures to protect all your data, as it has since the moment you signed up for WTF+.
You will be getting an email about this and it will have all the full migration details, basically everything I just said, but you'll see it there in print.
However, if you do need any support, if you have any questions and you want someone to help you, you just reach out to support at supercast.com support at supercast.com.
Okay.
And without further ado, here are the last of the WTF producer cuts.
So I know a lot of you are like a lot of clips of me were running around.
I have no idea that that's going to happen.
And I'm very detached from whatever reaction there was to it.
It's fine.
It's fine.
I'm just happy that I don't base my life chasing clips or trying to create clips that do that.
It's very nice.
It has been very nice to be here on this show in sort of an analog way.
Old school audio.
Very hard to repost audio clips.
No one really does it.
We're kind of our own little world here with just me and you guys.
And we do what we do.
And we do it...
you know, pretty deeply.
I'm just relieved.
I'm also relieved that somehow or another, I don't, I don't want to go chase any of the reaction or chase causing more shit or anything like that.
I just, I had things to say and I said them on other podcasts and it's all of a sudden it's like, holy fuck, how is this stuff happening?
Because it's video.
And that's the game.
But I feel good about everything I said.
And I've said some of it here.
But I'm looking forward.
I'm looking forward to ejecting.
I'm going to hit eject.
At least for a little while.
I know I've been talking about this a bit.
So...
Charlie has come out of the Prozac fog and he's back to his fucking insane self.
And I maybe I forget.
Maybe I'm in a constant state of mild PTSD with these fucking cats.
But he's fucking insane, man.
And, you know, I hope whatever I'm embarking on kind of works.
I can't compartmentalize this shit.
It's all of the utmost importance and very impactful in my life.
I can't just somehow be like, dude, they're just cats.
They got a little problem.
Don't worry about it.
They're good.
And I'm like, no, it's a fucking, this is the whole life.
I don't know what to do, man, with my time because there's so little of it.
And I just don't know if I manage it well or it's like I'm going to go play music today.
I cooked a bunch of stuff the other day just because I like looking at it in the fridge.
I haven't eaten it, but I should eat it.
I'm just not, I don't know if I'm in the routine.
I seem to be drifting with my friends.
I'm not finding the time to hike.
I'm just like compulsively going to the gym and going to the workouts and running.
I'm just not making people time.
Except for these conversations.
It's OK.
It's OK.
You know, and, you know, it's all scary, but it's OK every day.
And I told you that me and Buster Kitten are now on the same medicine.
So that's a double reminder for me to take it and to give him the medicine.
It's supposed to give him confidence so he can stand up to Charlie.
And I'm finding that I'm having a little more success standing up to Charlie.
So maybe it's working all around.
I don't know.
Just before I forget it, like what's interesting about because I just talked to Spike Lee the other day.
And what's interesting about caught stealing is that New York in and of itself as a character defies what you defies division.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Because I just noticed that once you say it, when I'm watching the movie, you got the Chassids, you got the Puerto Rican guy, you got you, you got Austin, and you've got a—what's her name?
Kravitz?
Yeah, yeah.
And it's like—it's just New York.
Yeah, it's just New York.
New York is—
What supposedly is how America is supposed to be the melting pot.
Sure.
New York, y'all are living together.
That's it.
If you've got a problem with someone, you better solve it because you're going to run into them.
I think it's the only place.
Yeah.
Because I lived there for years, and I've lived in San Francisco.
I've lived in Boston, which is, that's, you know.
And here, where everything's so spread out.
But New York, you don't even think about that shit.
No.
It's kind of amazing because Spike's new movie with Denzel that... Highest to lowest.
Highest to lowest.
You know, there's a middle, like half the big part of the caper, it just drops into the Puerto Rican day parade.
And it's just so New York.
So New York.
I got to tell you, I feel like, and I've been saying this when we've been doing our press.
Yeah.
Something about Spike and Darren, when they have New York in their films, New York is always going to be a character.
Yeah, for sure.
And I love that because it puts me in a space.
You know what I mean?
That's what a film is supposed to do.
I'm not supposed to be here anymore.
That's great.
It's been a little weird.
I mean, just in holiday weekends get a little weird.
August, I think, is a little weird.
It slows down.
I guess a lot of people are on vacation.
I guess they're either preparing for reengaging in the fall or...
The end of the world.
I don't know, but I always notice August, mid-August, everything seems to just slow down and come the holiday weekend.
It's just, it's almost like peaceful in Los Angeles.
I mean, it has been hot.
And that kind of makes the silence a little more intense when you go outside and there's no one out because it's so fucking hot.
And everywhere you go, you're hot.
And it just slows things down even more.
But I don't know.
It is definitely a time of, I don't know if it's reflection.
I'm starting to realize that I can't.
I'm not a guy that I can't really sit around that well and do nothing.
I've been just loading up my mind, watching things, I guess to keep me distracted, but also to feel things.
But I've been practicing a lot of music.
I've been writing things down.
I've been managing with an ongoing high-maintenance cat situation.
dealing with my relationship, dealing with friends who are not well.
Yeah, and just when everything slows down, all that stuff comes into heavy focus because there's no way to kind of get away from it.
But in light of all that, when things do slow down, you start to grapple with the idea that you can handle it.
You know, you don't have to freak out.
I think when you're in the pace of the work week or you're in the pace of, you know, just dealing with your everyday life, if it's busy in reality or busy in your mind, when everything around you slows down, I guess it's for me, it's a good time to try to get things into perspective, to be in the present, to enjoy or try to find some peace in the quiet environment.
And kind of reel in the brain.
I don't know.
It's not all good.
I mean, there's a foundational sadness that has either been there since I was born or it is just on me because of the weight of the world.
But even with that, I can find a little peace, maybe a couple laughs.
But, yeah, it's just a reckoning moment.
with what has gone by with almost like... I've talked about this on stage recently.
I'm starting to notice in a very real way...
Mostly because of Instagram in terms of reels that come at me that, you know, my generation is where we're the old guys, the old women older and that you've been seeing people, you know, your whole life, it seems, you know, people in my business.
You know, since I've been out here since 2004, kind of.
And then I was back and forth to New York.
And then 2007 or 8, I kind of dug back in here.
And, you know, I've known a lot of these people for, you know, 30 years.
I used to only see myself getting older in pictures.
But now I see all of us doing it.
And it's okay.
But there is a little...
A little weird sadness to it.
Because I don't think I feel time go by like most people who have bigger lives than me, you know?
Kids, whatnot.
Not only is that where...
Ben Stiller sat, but it's also where Mandy Moore.
Yeah, Mandy Moore sat in that chair.
Yeah, Mandy Moore.
Sure, any number.
Jessica Chastain.
Married to the Dawes guy.
Yeah.
You're a Dawes guy?
I like their first record.
I didn't listen to much more.
Look at this offering me a jewel, too.
I don't know whose that is.
Somebody lost it.
Yeah, the Dawes guy, the guy who used to do their amps.
fixed up a couple of my amps.
He used to make those amps that were once projectors.
You ever seen the projector amp?
No.
It's literally the casing of an old Bell & Howell.
Oh, okay.
Like a 35-millimeter projector.
Right.
But there's something about the sound amp in those things that is very desirable in a lo-fi kind of way.
Right.
So he made amps, and he took it back.
But he helped me with some of these old Fenders, but I got to bring them back in to another guy.
Yeah, I got some amps that need... Like what?
What do you got?
Just a couple of Fender Prinstons.
Like that one?
Yeah, but black.
Black and silver.
Oldies?
Yeah, one's old.
And then I got a brand new one that's like the Tone Master thing, which is all digital.
Oh, yeah.
And they work... You don't have no problem with it?
You can't tell the difference.
Yeah.
That's probably the reality of it all, is you can't tell the difference.
But I've got that old Champ, and then that Deluxe over there is like 53.
It's really old.
And that one's kind of a rare thing.
That is actually from 1961.
Look how good a condition.
It's great.
But there's something goes on.
You've got to get them tweaked.
Yeah, you've got to have an eye.
The problem is like, I'm fucking 61 years old.
I'm going to be 62 and I'm, I'm, I'm limiting my life because of these fucking cats.
It's hard for me to travel.
I don't have the freedom I want because I'm worried like, well, what if I got to lock Charlie up for days while I'm gone?
And so what, when do I get to the, when do I get back to that?
Jesus Christ.
I had so many cats in my life.
I had cats back in the old house that I let outside in the hills of fucking Highland park, Los Angeles.
Fucking coyotes everywhere.
I let them out every day.
Sometimes they didn't come home all night.
What happened to that guy?
Well, I guess he smartened up because, you know, Boomer probably got eaten.
Deaf Black Cat got eaten.
But whatever, I feel like there was a point where I've handled every kind of cat emergency of all kinds.
I've put cats down, but I still get so overly invested that they dictate not only a lot of my life, but a lot of my fucking brain.
What's going on with you guys?
What is going on with you?
What is going on with you?
Are you managing?
Have you leveled off a bit?
Did you get through it for the day at least?
Did you get through every day?
Every day for me, and I've said this before, feels like at least two days.
And I just, whether I want to or not, I seem to kind of go through the full emotional spectrum each day.
Most of it self-generated and some of it external.
But I'm engaged in the world half the time, engaged in my head maybe half
40% of the time, and then engaged in my phone or a TV show the other 10% of the time.
I don't know if that's good ratio.
I don't know if those are good numbers.
So, but I hope that you can, well, what am I?
Do what you want to do, but starting to realize how much you engage with what's in front of you, reality, whether it's passive or not, and how much you're in your head,
And whether you have control of that or not, which you do, and then how much you're just, you know, letting your brain interface with a dopamine garbage delivery system.
Yeah.
And sleep and and sleeping, sleeping.
You know, that's get a free pass on the sleeping because your brain kind of does what it does.
If you can remember it, sometimes helpful anyway.
Well, I appreciate that you enjoyed this special.
It was great.
And putting them together takes a long time.
I mean, I was running that material for almost two years.
Okay.
So it starts to take shape as time goes on, you know, random bits.
I start to see connections and then the gift of the fires.
Okay.
Yeah, but the through line.
Well, you've got to find the through line.
I'm hearing better without the headphones.
I can turn it up.
Would it help if there's more volume?
Is that good?
Yeah, that's good.
As an actor, though, I have to tell you how much I admire...
stand-up comedians because it's like that old story where the actor, he's doing Hamlet and he's just horrible.
The audience is shifting in their seats.
Eventually the out-and-out boo and he turns and he goes, hey, what do you want?
I didn't write this shit.
So you can always blame the writer.
The stand-up is out there by themselves.
No filter.
It's all them.
Yeah.
It's really astonishing.
I never heard that joke.
Well, it's not so much a joke.
It's probably a... It's one of those great portals into the actor.
Exactly.
We always have someone we can blame.
Pull the mic up to you.
We always have someone we can blame.
It's a bad play.
The director didn't get it.
Whatever.
I have to say that I also have been binge-watching, re-watching, re-binge-watching The Sopranos, which I don't know if it's great for the head.
I don't know where it puts you after a certain point to be in that morally...
That moral vacuum of Tony Soprano and what surrounds him.
I guess it's not great.
The show is great, but I don't think it's good to binge watch it.
Because I don't know if that's making me aggravated or the time is making me aggravated.
But there is some part of me...
That, you know, no matter how good things are going in my life or how many things have worked out, I don't express gratitude to myself or to the world enough.
I don't really I take a lot of my accomplishments and how far I've come.
In stride to the point of almost being dismissive.
You know, I live in a sort of impulsive, self-gratifying zone.
And when I'm not in that, I'm wondering, you know, what horrible thing is going to happen next?
Not in the world, but yeah, well, in the world, in my life.
It's just weird that when everything is going okay personally, that I can just sit, I can just be in my living room, on my couch, by myself, just sitting there and thinking like, when's this shit going to stop?
How much more of this shit can I take?
What am I talking about?
There's this core thing that I guess is part of the alcoholic profile that's, you know, restless, irritable and discontent business that I'm getting reacquainted with.
And it's not great because you have to sort it out.
And I believe that there are some people that really know me, as you probably think that for yourself as well.
But, you know, you know, as I get on with it, I feel like there are some things that I totally, you know, keep inside of me and keep sort of protected.
And over time you learn, well, you know, don't act out of this.
Don't act out of that.
Don't act out of, you know, resentment.
Don't act out of self-pity.
Don't act out of insecurity.
If you can, you know, try to take contrary action.
You learn lessons over time.
And you learn how to behave.
And that management of all this going on in you sort of becomes your public personality, though mine is pretty expansive.
And I do explore most of it.
And look, this is all sort of.
And kind of happening with me watching the doc about me and actually experiencing some of the perception that other people experience with me, which is a rare glimpse.
And I don't think it's we all get that opportunity to see that, especially over a three year arc.
Oh shit, I didn't do the backup.
All right.
Well, hopefully it'll work out.
You can do a John Turturro.
Lost 15 minutes.
You remember when John Turturro was on?
I realized about 25 minutes into it that it wasn't recording.
And I'm like, fuck!
And he goes, where did it end?
And I go, I think around here, he goes, I'll do it again.
And he did it.
Amazing.
To me, that level of actor where you're just like...
I can, here's like, be in this play.
Here's the thing.
It's just like, I have consumed the play and I can regurgitate that back at you without even breaking a sweat.
And then like, excuse me, after that, that was for Brendan.
Sorry, buddy.
I burped a little.
Ugh, sorry.
It's a soda.
There's a countdown.
There's only going to be a finite amount of those, Brendan.
So... That reminded me.
Let me make sure my phone's off.
That's his biggest... I didn't realize that was the big problem was removing the fucking...
Well, I'm lucky we're not going to be doing it much longer because I think his most challenging thing is when really old guys are in here, their bodies make noises that they're not conscious of.
Sure.
Just weird growlings and gurgles.
Because they're coming apart.
It's just like their skin is still holding that stuff in.
Exactly.
But it's just a matter of time before it comes out.
It all collapses.
Yeah.
So that hasn't happened yet.
What is happening out there?
Every day is a week.
Oh, my fucking God.
I don't know what happened.
I mean, I've mentioned this before a lot.
I don't know if it was COVID or if I'm getting older, but every day seems like three days.
Again, you know, I have two jobs.
Well, I've got I've got this job and I've got my night job doing comedy.
And then one day a week I have a third job breaking down boxes.
It seems that every week before trash day, I got to take it depending on, you know.
The incoming boxes, I got to break down boxes.
And at some point it feels like, holy shit, am I running a retail store here?
What the fuck is happening?
How do I got an hour's worth of boxes to break down?
But that's the world we live in.
We all have to break down the boxes.
I guess that's a metaphor for something.
I don't know.
It depends on what you think the box is.
I haven't really worked it out.
It just kind of dawned on me that moment.
Breaking down boxes.
The boxes of us, right?
It's interesting in this business, in this business where it's at now, when you say something out loud,
about a person, but you may not mention the person, but if you're critical of people, I don't care what people do.
I don't care what people say in terms of in their choice publicly or what their job is.
I don't care what jobs they take.
It's their decision.
But in the public sphere,
You can be critical of that.
So I guess that on that level, I have my opinions about why I don't do something or why I see something the way it is in terms of a cultural movement or in terms of some sort of trend or whatever.
I have opinions about that.
That doesn't mean I want to police anybody or deny people or say that people shouldn't do things.
Do whatever the fuck you want.
But I mean, we got to have opinions.
That's part of conversation.
And, you know, if you were a decent Democratic person on some level, then, you know, you would hear me out and tolerate it.
And then, you know, maybe have your own opinions.
But what's interesting to me is how quickly their retort is always, oh, he's just jealous.
He's just jealous.
He's just bitter.
Yeah.
And it's such a shallow comeback.
It means nothing.
I certainly have nothing to be bitter about.
I'm not bitter about my lot in life, all right?
And also, I'm trying to think about jealousy.
You know, what is jealousy?
The idea is that jealousy is that you want what someone else has, right?
And in this culture we live in, that usually means money.
And it usually means lifestyle.
And it usually means followers and clicks.
And the truth is, I was born with FOMO.
I believe that is the core of my anxiety.
I think that shortly after I was born, I was in the maternity ward.
And I was looking at, you know, two cribs down.
And I was thinking, well, that guy looks like he's got a better deal than me over there.
What's going on in that crib?
How do I get over there?
Why can't I get in that one?
I don't know what that is.
I think it's a fundamental discontent.
I guess as I got older, there's some insecurity involved in it.
But there's nobody whose life I want.
And that's the weird thing.
It's like, I don't want...
what people have necessarily.
I think what it comes down to fundamentally for me is just love.
I think it's just love, the love that I can't quite accept and that I try to push away, but one anyways, it's just love.
What about me?
It's really a core existential emotional thing.
It's not about things.
It's not about lifestyle.
It's not about, you know,
other person's creativity necessarily, because if I felt that way, if my jealousy ran like that, I wouldn't be able to appreciate anything.
I guess I'm difficult to love on some level because I have a nice following.
I have a nice audience.
Everyone that I perform for, I enjoy.
They're like minded people, but there is a ceiling to it.
Uh, so I accept that.
I guess the point is, is that when you say someone's jealous or bitter, the implication is kind of selfish.
That means like why, you know, of course he wants what I have, or he just, uh, is mad that he can't have what I have.
And it's like, that is almost never the case.
I would say never, uh,
Never.
But I think it's more for me just a fundamental insecurity of inability to accept myself for who I am most of the time.
And I think that not that people have it better than me, but I sometimes I just have this idea that people...
have their shit together better than me.
And that might be the case.
And that's something I can work on.
It's not something I can get from somebody else or I want because someone else has it.
Is this just babbling?
Am I navel gazing?
Huh?