Episode 763 - Joe Matarese
Marc:Lock the gates!
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fucking ears what's happening i'm mark maron this is wtf it's my podcast welcome to it hope you're hanging in i hope that the holidays the first wave didn't beat you down too much maybe even at a nice time i don't know i underplayed it dramatically today on the show
Marc:My old buddy Joe Matarese is here.
Marc:Joe and I kind of started together back in New York, and he's got a podcast called Fixing Joe, and he's also got a CISO comedy special coming up.
Marc:That's this Thursday, December 1st.
Marc:But I haven't talked to him in a while, and I always liked Joe, despite the fact that he never seemed to believe that I liked him.
Marc:because I was hung up on a joke of his that I still like, but he thinks I'm fucking with him for some reason.
Marc:Perhaps I'll bring that up in the conversation.
Marc:I'm going to be in Chicago this Saturday, December 3rd, for two shows at the Vic.
Marc:You can go to wtfpod.com slash tour to get the link up for tickets.
Marc:I think the first show might be sold out.
Marc:Second show is, I believe there's still...
Marc:Yeah, I think there's still tickets.
Marc:I don't keep on top of this.
Marc:I'm excited.
Marc:I don't know how cold it is, but I'm preparing for it here in L.A.
Marc:It got chilly in L.A.
Marc:It's a brisk 55 degrees right now, and I'm wearing a toque and a flannel over a T-shirt.
Marc:I layered up.
Marc:What else have I got coming up?
Marc:In the immediate future...
Marc:Not till January 24th, I'll be at the Ruby Diamond Concert Hall in Tallahassee, Florida.
Marc:February 17th, I'll be at the Carolina Theater in Durham, North Carolina.
Marc:On February 18th, I'll be at the Night Theater in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Marc:And then March 2nd, the Ridgefield Playhouse.
Marc:That's in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Marc:March 3rd, the Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Marc:College Street Music Hall in New Haven, Connecticut on March 10th.
Marc:uh troy savings bank music hall a lot of coming up i got burlington coming up and we're adding more dates on into the spring you can go to wtfpod.com slash tour for all those dates there's a bunch there's gonna be a bunch of new ones gonna be up there soon i i've been having some experiences you know i read an article
Marc:huff post piece on uh the uh the escalation in um heckling since the uh election of trump the escalation in uh uh
Marc:You know, nasty name calling, heckling or just a sort of ease in which people say shitty things about ethnic groups or about liberals.
Marc:That buzzword is back.
Marc:The liberal, the broad liberal buzzword.
Marc:You know, some people are Democrats, some people Republicans, some people are independents.
Marc:But like liberal takes on this whole sort of like meh.
Marc:Like it even means anything to anybody who uses it in that tone.
Marc:But but it's back.
Marc:It's been here before.
Marc:Familiar with it.
Marc:But I, you know, I work as a comic and, you know, you have to sort of figure out the angle in terms of how you're going to talk about this stuff.
Marc:And I've been.
Marc:Almost nonpolitical for most of, you know, the run of this podcast, give or take certain issues that affect me personally.
Marc:And this affects me personally.
Marc:So I'm going to talk about it.
Marc:But I'm not it's not about alienating people.
Marc:It's just about having an emotional response.
Marc:And then, yeah, I'm watching other comics and they're nervous.
Marc:Everybody's nervous.
Marc:Nobody knows what's going to happen.
Marc:They don't you know, they're nervous about the president, whether they voted for him or not.
Marc:The new president that's going to come in.
Marc:They're nervous about the country.
Marc:They're nervous about everything.
Marc:And people get afraid to talk up there.
Marc:But you got to express your feelings if that's the kind of comic you are.
Marc:And you have to realize what the fuck is up.
Marc:I don't know where people are getting their information or what they're basing their engagement with reality on.
Marc:I know that there's a general lack of a sense of the interconnectedness of humanity because we're all so fucking detached and just sort of shut into our own little worlds, our own little cliques, our own little communities, our own little homes, our own little online avatars and screen names.
Marc:I don't know where people have.
Marc:What is the collection?
Marc:What is the collective?
Marc:What holds us together?
Marc:People don't get their news from the same place.
Marc:Most people get their news from clickbait and hearsay with the occasional catchy meme.
Marc:There's no barometer of truth or integrity to most of the information that's out there.
Marc:So people like, well, how do you know?
Marc:You read a what?
Marc:You read an article?
Marc:Well, how do you know it's true?
Marc:Who knows anymore what's true?
Marc:I just kind of.
Marc:You know, I kind of click around, kind of, you know, surf a little bit, take in some, you know, just read the headlines and then, you know, here I take in what people tell me.
Marc:I see some pictures and, you know, whatever sticks, whatever sticks that, you know, whatever I feel in my gut.
Marc:is truth that's what's truth well that's that's not real not really good integrity barometer of any truth it's like yeah what what's integrity what what does that even mean anymore it's not even a word i don't think that's a a made-up word journalistic integrity that's that that that is a a talking point
Marc:All right.
Marc:So you just find news that fits your particular point of view and makes you comfortable in your personal truth, whatever that is left or right.
Marc:Yeah, that's that's pretty much it.
Marc:Well, terrific.
Marc:So that's out.
Marc:There's no collective sensibility about the integrity of information.
Marc:So as a comic, you know, yeah, all I can do is what I've been doing for the last couple of decades.
Marc:And that's speak from my heart and react to what's going on now.
Marc:I'm prepared to process and deal with heckling in the moment.
Marc:It's not something I have a problem with.
Marc:It's something I learned early on.
Marc:It's a skill set that as a comic, you either lock into and you learn how to do or you don't.
Marc:I did.
Marc:I don't take any shit up there.
Marc:That's our space.
Marc:That's your comic space.
Marc:You know, first of all, heckling in general, you know, despite what anyone is saying, it's not right.
Marc:You're supposed to behave like a fucking audience member.
Marc:But it seems to be an established type of thing that people like heckling is a thing we have to deal with continually.
Marc:Now, the idea that there's an upsurge in inappropriate heckling is some hecklers help the show.
Marc:Some hecklers want to have a conversation.
Marc:But some hecklers are just, you know, kind of fuck you people.
Marc:And we know who the fuck you people are.
Marc:Here's the interesting thing.
Marc:Look, I have I'm not having some major issue in, you know, accepting as an American the election.
Marc:I'm not, you know, I'm not naive.
Marc:Yes, the election is done.
Marc:We have a new president.
Marc:But the only thing that the popular election, if anything, implies other than the number of votes one candidate had over the other, it's not a matter of winning or losing.
Marc:But what it is a matter of is there is no social mandate for being a douchebag in public.
Marc:There is no majority.
Marc:This is a minority rule.
Marc:It's the way the republic works.
Marc:It's the way democracy works in this country.
Marc:I understand that.
Marc:But the numbers do not and should not give anyone a social mandate to be a fucking douchebag in public and treat people badly and say shit that they know that they shouldn't have said.
Marc:This is what's going to have to happen ultimately is that people...
Marc:who respect humanity, whatever side you're on, who respect the collective idea of what our country represents, which is we all live together.
Marc:We're all Americans.
Marc:You're going to be called upon if you're a decent person, no matter who you voted for.
Marc:We're going to have to say in public situations, hey, you know what?
Marc:Hey, it's still not OK to do that.
Marc:No, you don't have license to do that.
Marc:And whatever that is, you fill in the blank for yourself.
Marc:Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Marc:You know what?
Marc:It's not okay to say that.
Marc:Not saying it's against the law.
Marc:You have a constitutional right to do it.
Marc:But socially, in the world we live in, in American culture and society, it's like, act like a fucking person.
Marc:So there is no social mandate.
Marc:for being a douchebag in public.
Marc:I understand people are excited on both sides, but that's just the truth of it, and that, as a comic, is something we're all gonna have to deal with.
Marc:It's like, if you don't like the show, leave.
Marc:If you wanna make a spectacle out of yourself while you're leaving, fine.
Marc:If you wanna talk out during the show,
Marc:I'll deal with you for a little while.
Marc:But ultimately, you're just ruining the show for a lot of people that wanted to see the show because of your opinions in that context.
Marc:There is no social mandate for being a douchebag in public.
Marc:Try to act like a human being.
Marc:You know what they are.
Marc:This is a bipartisan request.
Marc:So Joe Madaris, Joe Madaris and I go way back.
Marc:I don't know that we were like buddies, but we were around each other and I always liked him.
Marc:I always liked Joe.
Marc:Very nice guy.
Marc:I liked watching him do stand up.
Marc:I just liked him.
Marc:And we never had any real beef.
Marc:He lives in New York and I know he's got this podcast going.
Marc:We've been trying to figure out how to get him on because he's not out here a lot and I was happy we put this in a can a while back.
Marc:And there's a couple interesting things going on for Joe.
Marc:As I said earlier, he's got a new comedy special on CISO.
Marc:That premieres this Thursday, December 1st.
Marc:He also has a podcast called Fixing Joe.
Marc:You can get it wherever you get podcasts.
Marc:But also, he's doing this interesting thing.
Marc:He's making...
Marc:a TV show based on his podcast and web series, okay, on Fixing Joe.
Marc:And he's looking for writers.
Marc:So if you're interested, and this is real, if you're interested, you can go to joematterese.com to take a look at his web series, read the show description, and contact him through the email listed on the site.
Marc:If you want to be a writer for Joe's new show, I've never, I've never, this is a, this is a very democratic way to do that.
Marc:I don't know what, if Joe knows what he's gotten himself into, but, uh, but that's what he told me to tell you.
Marc:And I'm telling you that right now.
Marc:And now let's, uh, let's talk to my old pal, Joe matteries.
Yeah.
Guest:I had a moment, believe it or not.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Listening to one of your interviews, and I don't know if I should say which comedian it was.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:I was listening to the Al Lubelle episode.
Guest:And I'm sure... It's a great episode.
Guest:It was.
Guest:It wasn't that long ago, so you probably... It's a great episode.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:i don't know i don't know how detailed your memory is for different sometimes well he mentioned to you that he was jealous of your neuroses because yours was more masculine than his do you remember that yeah and he said what he hates about his is that he can't make decisions yeah and he has to ask everybody what they think and he said you come across more like
Guest:tough yeah and i was i remember i was driving home from a gig i was at laugh boston yeah and i wasn't happy with how i did yeah i just i don't know it was like one of those it was one of those like the the last show was the worst one all right not horrible but bad enough to ruin all the other ones
Guest:yeah yeah the last one was bad and i got an email oh my god you ever get the email from a fan right after the show the next morning oh yeah i opened my email yeah i'm at the i'm still at the starbucks in the hotel that laugh boston is before you drove home before i drove home yeah i open an email
Guest:And it just says, Hey man, was that your show last night?
Guest:You might want to up your meds.
Guest:I don't know what's going on with you, but it wasn't funny.
Guest:And you seem like you're in a bad place.
Guest:You might want to like get your wife to psychoanalyze you some more and fix you.
Guest:Like, cause I have a psychologist wife.
Guest:And, uh, he was just like, it wasn't funny.
Guest:It wasn't good.
Guest:Um,
Guest:Just really nasty negative shit about my show.
Marc:But was he being a douchebag or he just didn't get it?
Marc:Was he just disappointed?
Marc:No, he was right.
Guest:That's what it was.
Marc:I didn't have a good show.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you could just say, hey, it happens.
Marc:The other shows were good.
Marc:You couldn't put it into perspective.
Marc:You could do that.
Guest:But something hit me where I was like- I hate when they hit.
Marc:Where they just somehow read exactly what you think you might have gotten away with it with some people.
Marc:And then they're just sort of like they tell you exactly what you were thinking.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:And then also it was Easter.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was missing like the candy exchange.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I was.
Guest:Because you still had to drive four hours or what?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I won't be home till noon.
Guest:They already had their Easter baskets.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:not a big deal in my house really right but my kids are only eight and four years old they don't know that but that guy didn't like you didn't need to up your meds you just had a shit was it what was the second show saturday yeah fucking well this is what i don't know if you ever did laugh boston it's in this hotel and uh usually the audience is whatever corporate event is going on in the worst yeah so that's what it was
Guest:Now, you're at a point where you finally get your fans, but I hear you on your podcast talk about doing shows sometimes where you got some other people that just came.
Guest:Yeah, you got to do the work.
Guest:Well, yeah.
Guest:Well, I'm at the level that it's almost all people that just came.
Guest:And a few fans.
Guest:And a few fans.
Guest:Yeah, it's hard for those fans to understand.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So when you talk really honestly about being on medications, you're being a dad, and you're 22 years old, you're kind of lost sometimes.
Guest:I don't really want them in the audience.
Guest:don't say that no I mean I want them but I mean I've come to the point where I'm like in my head I'm going if everyone here was like 35 to like 70 yeah this is a this is a home run 95% of the time oh no I agree with you it's nice to have a grown-up audience grown-up
Guest:Yes.
Marc:So what'd you write back to this kid and what happened?
Guest:I wish I could pull up the email right now, but I wrote him back.
Guest:What do you mean?
Guest:I just said like, dude, you fucking hurt my feelings.
Guest:It's Easter morning.
Guest:Do I really need to, you know, I got to drive all the way home.
Guest:This is what I wake up to.
Guest:And I'm feeling kind of shitty and I start driving and I put on your episode with Al Lubell.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And he's talking about not being able to make decisions.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it just fucking hit me like a punch in the face, like a punch right in the nose where your nose bleeds.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I was like...
Guest:I can't make decisions.
Guest:No wonder I can't make decisions.
Guest:I do a podcast called Fixing Joe where the audience and my guest is trying to fix me.
Guest:They're helping me with every single thing in my life.
Guest:I go, that's pathetic.
Guest:That's not a confident stance.
Guest:I go, you're done.
Guest:It's not fixing Joe anymore.
Guest:I go, I want to be able to make decisions.
Guest:And I was driving my wife crazy, returning everything I would buy from car, wanting to return a house, just stuff you can't return.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We went through a point where the house we were living in before, the house we live in now,
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like I couldn't just move forward.
Guest:I would just be like, we got to fix this and we got to fix this.
Guest:Like I have a brother who's in construction.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Every, you know.
Guest:Really?
Guest:He used to be for many years.
Guest:He was like a general contractor.
Guest:He knows how to do everything.
Guest:So whenever I would go to do something or want to do something, hey, do you think I should do this?
Guest:What do you think?
Guest:I'm returning stoves and dishwashers.
Marc:I'm torturing people.
Marc:So anxiety-ridden.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah, I mean, I don't know if what I'm doing is the right way to do things.
Marc:I get jealous of people that just sort of get things done because really-
Marc:Once you set things in motion, it's all about dread.
Marc:But you're actually buying shit and giving it back.
Marc:But I bought this washing machine I'm not happy with because I don't think it's cleaning things.
Marc:But you don't return it.
Marc:Well, I made some calls.
Marc:And the thing is, is that they don't make them any different now.
Marc:The old style washing machine with the real thing, the agitator that fills up all the way, they don't exist anymore hardly.
Marc:It's all this low water, water efficiency, no big agitator shit.
Marc:So I guess what I'm gleaning is that we all just have to live with slightly dirty clothes now because that's the way it is.
Guest:well what i'm learning is is like a you know a version of that yeah which is just just move forward man yeah stop moving backwards so much because i got to tell you when i heard that interview with lubel you didn't want to be al lubel i really i felt bad i wanted to i wanted to drive to your house and hug al lubel i'm trying to remember like the last time we were in the same world
Marc:You know, like where, because I know you get mad at me because I always quote this joke of yours.
Marc:You've mentioned it on your show.
Marc:Like several times.
Marc:Several?
Marc:Maybe twice.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:No, but I mean, it was like, because there was a time, I guess I'm a little older than you, but you were kind of around.
Marc:And when I was living in New York, when did you start?
Marc:I started comedy in 89, believe it or not.
Marc:right okay jesus so yeah and that's not much longer after me so we were in new york around the same time and you had your kind of spiky hair good looking guy doing your thing i always thought you were some sort of you know uh bro i'm sure you did yeah but i think i think i was yeah i think i've evolved away from no no no i definitely think that but it's just so funny how sometimes you hold people in this place and then
Guest:like i would see you around and then i knew you had this uh that you were struggling with things and you were doing it publicly and then you did the podcast did you did you get divorced too never got divorced somehow i just didn't get married so i was a lot older i didn't do the young marriages i had a long couple of long relationships but somehow didn't marry them yeah luckily yeah i'm trying to remember like
Marc:Because, I mean, we didn't know each other that well, but we knew each other well enough.
Marc:We were around, like, stand-up New York and shit, right?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I have one vivid memory about you.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Was it a bad one?
Guest:Yeah, kind of.
Guest:What happened?
Guest:But you didn't piss me off or anything.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Just for some reason, yeah, we didn't hang, you and I. I don't know.
Guest:Did you decide I didn't like you or something?
Guest:No.
Guest:No.
Guest:I just think you were one of those guys.
Guest:You know what you kind of remind me of?
Guest:What?
Guest:Like, when I started in 89 in Philadelphia.
Yeah.
Guest:Really, a Philly guy?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I did my open mics at this place called the Comedy Works and the Comedy Factory outlet.
Guest:They were across the street from each other in Philadelphia.
Marc:With Kurt?
Marc:No, it was way earlier.
Guest:Way before that.
Guest:My guys were Paul F. Tompkins, was the host of my open mic.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And Todd Glass was a couple years before me.
Guest:And believe it or not, Adam McKay.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Really?
Guest:The Adam McKay did open mics with me also.
Guest:And those guys hated me.
Guest:Because you were a bro?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I had a mullet.
Guest:I had Cavaricci pants.
Guest:It was bad.
Guest:I did a Nicholson impression.
Guest:I mean, everything you shouldn't do, I was doing.
Guest:Well, you were doing what you thought you had to do to do the job.
Guest:I didn't know that you could be yourself.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I really didn't.
Guest:But you're from Jersey?
Guest:I used to drive over the bridge, sign up for the open mic.
Guest:I lived 15 minutes away from Philly in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
Guest:So it's easier than going to New York.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I waited four and a half years before I moved to New York.
Marc:So wait, you're going to Philly, you're doing Nicholson, you got a mullet?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And the comics would yell, no, from the back.
Guest:And I would still do it.
Guest:You know those guys that just keep doing the same bit that works at open mic?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you don't... I know now, but back then you didn't know that you should be doing new shit and evolving.
Marc:Where they're trying to help you.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Don't!
Guest:I still remember this guy, John Matta.
Guest:Don't!
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I would still, I would put the hand on the head.
Guest:Oh, you did it all, huh?
Guest:The things that Dennis Miller made fun of, I was doing.
Guest:Well, he used to be a prop comic.
Guest:Don't put it too high.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, that's good to know.
Marc:Yeah, there you go.
Marc:Take that.
Guest:Dennis Miller did props?
Guest:He did.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, you know what it was is when I started,
Guest:I would do what other comedians were doing.
Guest:That's what I would do.
Guest:I would go, oh, they do jokes about commercials.
Guest:I should do jokes about a commercial.
Guest:I didn't talk about me.
Marc:Well, no, but that's not a bad mistake.
Marc:I mean, you're figuring out how to do comedy.
Marc:Right.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:I mean, some of those are like Adam McKay doesn't even do stand-up anymore.
Guest:No, he did it for a short amount.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But he was weird and alty.
Guest:So was Paul F. Tompkins.
Guest:I know, but they were... But I like them.
Guest:There's nothing wrong with it.
Marc:Yeah, but what I'm saying is that whatever they eventually ended up doing, broadening whatever they became, it's like you wanted to do club comedy.
Marc:I was tougher then.
Marc:I wasn't as neurotic as I am now.
Marc:Yeah, that's a question that's sort of interesting to me.
Marc:You always struck me as a guy.
Marc:What did you grow up?
Marc:Italian, working class?
Marc:What was it?
Guest:100% Italian.
Guest:But not really, you know, it's odd is not really working class.
Guest:Like I do jokes years ago, a lot about not being an Italian Italian.
Guest:You know, my dad is a chemical engineer.
Guest:He I used to say I'm more of an Alan Alda Italian.
Guest:That's what my dad he's not a Tony Soprano.
Guest:He's an Alan Alda.
Guest:You know, because people don't realize Alan Alda's Italian.
Guest:He is.
Guest:But he is.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:My mom, more of the stereotypical Italian.
Guest:Like my mom, I would describe as Ray Romano's mother on Everybody Loves Raymond.
Guest:That's my mom and my grandmom are very similar.
Marc:Right, but still, it's how you're going to enculture yourself in high school and grade school.
Marc:I imagine most of what defines you was who you're hanging around.
Marc:Sure.
Marc:And you must have been hanging around those guys.
Guest:You know what?
Guest:It's funny.
Guest:That's why you end up moving.
Guest:And you also end up moving away from your family if you feel different.
Guest:I guess, like I said, I wasn't being me.
Guest:I was being these guys.
Guest:But you felt that.
Guest:But I could feel it, because I knew I wanted to be a comedian, even at 15 and 16.
Marc:Yeah, I went through a lot of different personalities.
Marc:Like, it wasn't just, you know what I mean?
Marc:Like, I could sort of move freely through a lot of different groups.
Marc:I mean, culturally, you know, I wasn't Italian.
Marc:I was Jewish, but I was in New Mexico.
Marc:It didn't matter.
Marc:I went through a little bit of a hippie period, a little bit of a new wavy.
Marc:I would kind of move around.
Guest:Me too.
Guest:I was more of the hippie 10th grade in high school.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:I had the long hair.
Guest:Everybody had the rock T-shirts.
Marc:But you were a rock guy.
Guest:I was into rock.
Guest:I smoked a lot of pot and went to a lot of rock shows.
Guest:Who was your band then?
Guest:I always liked Rush growing up.
Guest:You were a Rush guy.
Guest:I was a Rush guy.
Guest:I got to admit it.
Guest:Wow.
Marc:I've been criticized for giving Rush short shrift on the show.
Marc:I've dissed Rush.
Marc:You have.
Marc:Yeah, I have.
Marc:But I saw them three times.
Marc:Look, I'm not going to deny that they're great musicians.
Guest:That's what they are.
Guest:I was a guitar player in high school.
Guest:And 2112 is great.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:What is that?
Guest:But now, I think I have all... I love that you're just... Dude, buy it.
Guest:There was nothing more fun than when you played guitar and getting your first echo pedal and getting to go... I was like, yes!
Guest:You played guitar?
Guest:I did, in high school, yeah.
Marc:You were going for the full rock guy.
Guest:I played in some bands, but I never got...
Marc:great at that i kind of i think i i used to bail on a lot of things stand-up is really the only thing in my life i didn't bail on me too you too but you still play guitar like you're very good i don't play never played in bands never had the confidence you know what i mean like i don't i should play with guys now that that would be just for fun but like i i don't i never had the confidence like i think the thing with stand-up was like
Marc:It's a weird thing.
Marc:Like, cause some people like, how do you do that?
Marc:They don't understand how you do it.
Marc:I don't know how not to do it after a certain point.
Marc:Like even at the beginning where it was like, this is going to suck.
Marc:Like you do that first, those open mics and like, it wouldn't be that great.
Marc:And like, and then you sometimes have weeks in between them just going like, Oh my God.
Marc:Fuck, I got it, you know.
Marc:And you kept doing it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Because no one could tell you anything.
Marc:I don't know what... I can't ever figure out what the hell it is, why that was the thing.
Guest:I think because I wasn't smart enough that I actually... If I got the littlest response, that meant going well early on.
Guest:You were like, that went great.
Guest:They laughed a little.
Guest:So you were never a sports guy.
Guest:You were a rock guy.
Guest:I was a sports guy, though, too.
Guest:I played sports, but I quit...
Guest:i bailed on that too at like ninth grade what was it baseball yeah you know what i had my first anxiety attack oh this i love the that's come you're like you know you're being interviewed by someone who's a really good interview when just jogs oh really is that is that the trick i really think it is don't you love that feeling when you're like i forgot that just opened the side of my head it's the best yeah
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So wait, so in ninth grade you were playing ball?
Marc:I was playing ball.
Marc:But did you know it was an anxiety attack?
Guest:No.
Guest:What happened?
Guest:I remember, and it's in my Comedy Central half hour, the whole long story.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it was true.
Guest:I bought some pot off a kid at school.
Guest:I went home.
Guest:I smoked this whole joint.
Guest:i don't know what was going on in my head now even now that i think about it yeah but i and i drank really two big glasses of vodka before a game i had a game that night what the i have no idea but like hours later right the game you know yeah and uh i thought it was just like something was in the pot all of a sudden just like
Guest:this like trippy feeling went through my body you know like the tingling and everything that an anxiety attack is but I didn't know because I was so young I was like what the hell I started running I went outside I just started running oh my god
Guest:around my neighborhood trying to work off this buzz of some sort.
Guest:Made it worse.
Guest:Got so paranoid that I told my mother that I was high.
Guest:I said, I smoked pot.
Guest:I know you don't know this, but I smoked pot.
Guest:i can't breathe i'm like i think i'm gonna die and she my italian mom i drove me to the pediatrician i swear to god she must have been afraid if she took me to a hospital that we would get arrested right she didn't know
Guest:And I had to tell the pediatrician that I smoked.
Marc:This is ninth grade?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Ninth grade.
Guest:And oh, my God.
Guest:And I felt high for like a day and a half.
Guest:Huh.
Guest:Like, it just felt like it never went away.
Guest:I didn't make the game.
Guest:I never went to the game.
Guest:And to me, that represents the end of sports.
Guest:I don't remember.
Guest:For everybody.
Guest:It was a big game for everybody.
Yeah.
Marc:The day sports died in America.
Guest:I remember being very good at baseball.
Guest:That was really my sport.
Guest:It wasn't like the jock across the board.
Marc:So maybe you're married to a psychologist.
Mm-hmm.
Marc:And I imagine you see a therapist.
Guest:I don't anymore.
Guest:I did for seven years.
Guest:This guy that everybody saw in New York City that sees only comedians.
Guest:Have you heard about him on your show?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What's his name?
Guest:You've heard him on the show?
Guest:I've heard about him.
Guest:His name's Alan Lefkowitz.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So what's the diagnosis there that you just had a fear of success or failure?
Marc:Because it sounds like all that stuff is you not being able to make a decision and then sabotaging your ability to do the ball game.
Marc:Like, I don't know exactly what that comes from.
Guest:I mean, I think I've done that in my life.
Guest:Well, I found out later in life also that my dad has this anxiety thing, too.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And it kind of runs in our family.
Guest:My brother had it.
Guest:My brother had it.
Guest:You just have the one brother?
Guest:I have a sister and a brother.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So he had it too?
Guest:Well, he probably wouldn't appreciate me saying it on your show, but I think he definitely struggles with anxiety.
Guest:And our anxiety would, you're more intellectual than me, transpose?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:What would you say?
Guest:It would surface as anger.
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Because everybody that knows me from the time of stand-up that you know me from in New York, and I don't know if you were ever in the room to witness it, when I would lose my shit.
Guest:On stage.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I love that.
Guest:Comics would love it.
Guest:Jim Florentine would egg it on.
Guest:Florentine.
Guest:You were a snapper.
Guest:I was a snapper.
Guest:The guy's going to snap.
Guest:But it was like my Pete Dominick.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You know Pete?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Pete called it Jekyll-ing.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:Because I would be completely.
Guest:I'm a very easygoing, happy guy.
Guest:And then one button.
Guest:Boom.
Guest:Rage.
Guest:Rage.
Guest:Yeah, I did the same thing.
Guest:What the fuck?
Guest:Mine's always right there.
Guest:But it went away with the medication.
Guest:I haven't had it happen in like, I swear to God, I'm like six years rage free.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, the medication took it away.
Marc:Because I'm not doing medication and I'm doing it cognitively.
Marc:How do you do that?
Marc:I try and stay away from people that provoke me too much.
Guest:But on stage, there's always gonna be somebody that goes, you're soft.
Marc:I've become very diplomatic with that.
Guest:Age makes caring as much go away.
Marc:I guess so, but I'm also, I'm pretty open up there.
Marc:You know where, like even with trolling in general, like trolling's different, but like on stage, like I'll engage somebody, like even if they're not, they don't know who I am, I'll be like, all right, so look, like Stuart Lee said a very powerful thing to me.
Marc:He goes,
Marc:He had a realization.
Marc:He quit comedy.
Marc:He's a British comedian.
Marc:He's a genius.
Marc:But he quit because he didn't want to deal with these idiots anymore.
Marc:Basically, the thing was when he came back, the realization he had was that if somebody doesn't like you in the room, he feels bad for them now because they didn't make the right entertainment decision.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Guest:That's like Norm MacDonald has a similar.
Guest:Does he?
Guest:He says, it's kind of funny, and it doesn't work.
Guest:They paid to see something funny, and it's not.
Guest:It's funny.
Marc:I was like, I love that.
Marc:But he has a little empathy towards it, especially if they don't know you, and they're just sort of like, this sucks.
Marc:I'm like, yeah, I'm not your guy.
Marc:Wait, there's another guy after me, or whatever you want to do, but how about we don't fuck up the show?
Marc:I mean, I understand your plight.
Guest:See, what you're saying is me on meds.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:That's how it goes through my brain now.
Guest:But it didn't then.
Marc:But you never tried to work that shit out?
Guest:Seven years of therapy, and it didn't fucking touch it.
Guest:It would still happen.
Guest:So you believe that this is just a chemical basis to this?
Guest:It must be.
Guest:I don't...
Guest:Yeah, it doesn't happen.
Guest:And it would happen.
Marc:Because your parents are nice people.
Marc:They're still together.
Guest:My dad's the same way.
Guest:He's the nicest guy.
Guest:But there's times growing up where he snapped.
Guest:And it was like, whoa, dad's scary now.
Guest:And it would be physical at times.
Guest:You know, my dad hates it.
Guest:I've said it on my podcast, but my dad fucking tackled me when I was in high school.
Guest:He got that.
Guest:Broke my leg.
Guest:He broke your leg.
Guest:He broke my leg and didn't apologize.
Guest:Wow.
Guest:And it went like 30 years of me going.
Guest:I broke it in violence or by accident.
Guest:Well, in the violent act of me cursing my mom out at the dinner table.
Guest:Oh, so provoked him.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Him saying, you're grounded, and me saying, not only do I not care that I just cursed at mom, I'm going right out the front door.
Guest:I'm not grounded.
Guest:And then...
Guest:he my dad's six three he's a big guy he jumped on top of me and my leg just gave out out on the front steps and broken leg and he's like it ain't broke you know never apologize and he's just he apologized yet he apologized through alan lefkowitz saying does that bother you that he never apologized and i said yeah it kind of does i just realized in here that it does and he goes
Guest:What else bothers you?
Guest:I go, well, my dad never said he loved me ever.
Guest:He's like, would you like him to?
Guest:I'm like, yeah.
Guest:I think that would be kind of nice.
Guest:He goes, tell him it hurts you.
Guest:Don't tell him you're mad.
Guest:Tell him it upsets you.
Guest:He goes, no one can get mad at you saying, hey, man, that hurts.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Which became like a great thing in life just to be able to, when people fucking do shitty shit, just go, hey, man.
Guest:So did you do it to your dad?
Guest:I called him on the phone.
Guest:After, right after?
Guest:Right after.
Guest:I'm parked in front of the therapist.
Guest:and my dad's like i never apologized for that i'm like no he goes oh i'm sorry man i'm sorry and i go you also never said that you loved me and you know i think it kind of could be a reason why i lose my shit on stage which i thought but i don't think that really was and he's like you need to hear that
Guest:i go dad i do stand-up comedy yes the damage is already done no but meaning that's why i do it because there's these fucked up things right that are on that's why i think sometimes guys go into comedy it's really sometimes it's there's they looking for that love love yeah maybe no i mean i've heard that i believe that's true because like i the
Marc:i always fought it though because i did i seem to do what you did like but not so much you were always pretty pleasant up there when you were doing your act right yeah yeah pleasant and then yeah and then you'd snap but like i really think i went up there to challenge an audience like from right out of the gate like you know i was going to challenge them to love me and then be like yeah see not lovable right like you know
Guest:So you make it funny.
Guest:It's funny.
Guest:It wasn't funny for years, really.
Guest:That's funny to me.
Guest:It would go over as not funny.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:You remember seeing me back then?
Guest:Yeah, I always thought it was funny.
Guest:But yes, sometimes the audience, they just don't get it.
Marc:Well, I'm not sure there was something to get.
Marc:They were like, this guy's got problems.
Guest:He seems like he's mad about something.
Guest:No, no.
Guest:Tell me if I'm wrong on this, because I went to the comedy store last night.
Guest:I didn't perform.
Guest:I just kind of watched a friend of mine go on.
Guest:And I had lived in LA for a short time.
Guest:And I always feel that the difference between stand-up out here versus New York
Guest:And why I kind of like West Coast comedy more, whereas New Yorkers usually come to the West Coast and they're like, fuck these comics.
Guest:They need it.
Guest:It's easier here or whatever.
Guest:Comedy store's not easy.
Guest:No.
Guest:I find that the audience, or if it's just the comedians, I feel that they...
Guest:they do weirder stuff.
Guest:Like, they go another route.
Guest:It's more traditional in New York.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:It's kind of boring.
Guest:Like, I like that... In the clubs.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Especially in New York.
Guest:And why is it?
Marc:Is it because of the comedians, or is it because the audience in New York is more... I think, like, you know, now, like, if we're just talking specifically about clubs, like The Cellar, The Stand, Gotham, you know, the club scene, because there's an alt scene that's its own thing there, as there is here, but, like, when you're dealing with...
Marc:Like the store, were you in the little room?
Marc:Where did he perform?
Guest:When I lived in L.A.?
Guest:No, when you were there last night.
Guest:Oh, he performed in the, I guess that's the original, right?
Guest:Right.
Guest:The original, yeah.
Guest:I watched Bobby Lee went on.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Well, that room's like the cellar.
Marc:But it seemed great.
Marc:Yeah, no, you got to show up for work.
Guest:It was packed, though.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:It's popular again in that place.
Guest:You know when we're at that level of comedy, you can walk in, in five seconds, you go, good crowd.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:Well, that like those guys are all they're shooting.
Marc:They're firing on all cylinders, you know, but there is I think there is a little different context.
Marc:There is a different there are some guys you'll see that start in New York and they go with the New York style.
Marc:But, you know, a guy like Bobby Lee, he's a big you know, he does a big physical act.
Marc:I mean, part of the reason is that you don't have that much room on the stages of New York.
Marc:It's true.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:It's small.
Marc:Like the stand, what is it?
Marc:I mean, I've only been there once.
Marc:It's a tiny stage, and the cellar is very restrictive.
Marc:You just have that little area, and there's a fucking piano there, and then you've got about, what, six feet and about three, four feet in between you and the crowd?
Marc:Right.
Marc:But, I mean, that's obviously not the only reason, but for someone like Bobby, he needs some room.
Right.
Yeah.
Guest:But you doing that conversational style and like saying what you just said where you said, I tested you.
Guest:What was the line?
Guest:I pushed you.
Guest:Challenged you.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Challenged you to love me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like that feels like it would work here better than it would in.
Marc:I think that's true.
Marc:I think that New York that my thoughts about it was always, you know, you got to be really punchline efficient and you got to keep it coming.
Marc:Uh-huh.
Marc:You know, they don't indulge much, you know, dicking around.
Marc:You know, you can't, like here, once you find a freedom to it, like a room that you're comfortable in, you can try things.
Marc:Like I don't, the comedy store is like, I'm very comfortable there.
Marc:So I'll, you know, I don't mind bombing a bit.
Marc:But it also seems like.
Marc:But also you had Esty standing there going, oh, that wasn't funny.
Marc:You know, like, you know, like you're always being tested.
Guest:I think maybe because here you're in the heart of show business.
Guest:I mean, there's posters everywhere you look.
Guest:There's another comedian on a billboard.
Guest:It's part of the city.
Guest:Well, yeah.
Guest:And I feel that if you're... That might be true.
Guest:And when you're being yourself on stage, like you're saying, that's so Marc Maron saying what you just said.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That here they... Give you the benefit of the doubt.
Guest:Not only do they give you the benefit, I think it resonates as they can imagine that on a television show.
Guest:I think that's true.
Marc:I think that there might be a more, like everybody likes seeing stars show up.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And I think that a lot of times, like the comedy story, most of the people up there, they've seen somewhere a lot of times.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Where in New York, you still got a lot of guys who are just doing the job.
Guest:It's the job there.
Guest:Here, it's like, how do I get this to not be my job?
Guest:Yeah, or get more.
Marc:Yeah, get more, where it's like, okay.
Marc:They're a little more excited here, too, in a way.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:It's not just, here, you're driving a place, you're going to go out.
Marc:Sometimes in New York, you feel like people are just sort of like, oh, let's go in here, it's here.
Marc:They walk over.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:I think it's a bigger, sometimes it's a little bigger deal to go out here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:And I'm noticing that at this time around and what I have going on this week.
Guest:What are you doing?
Guest:I have all these pitch meetings set up that my manager put a sizzle reel together of my last one hour special.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And he connected it with this web series that we shot.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That showed a lot of my neuroses.
Guest:I did a web series called Fixing Joe.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That had all actors playing all the other parts.
Guest:Right.
Guest:it's probably the best thing i've ever done where i was like this i'm like i almost want to just go into the meetings and be like here it's all here what do you want from me what the fuck it's done like but i really don't want to play a comedian on the show like i want to challenge myself a little bit and say you know here's this is the show but i'm not a comedian i'm just joe who's a guy who has this job construction guy well yeah you know whatever but
Marc:No, no, I think that's interesting because you'd be like, it's sort of against type to have a dude that looks like a dude dude with real kind of anxiety and problems, neurotic problems.
Marc:Because I think you're neurotic in a different way than I am.
Guest:Probably am.
Guest:And I think one thing that I was amazed at my manager, which made me think, wow, he's on board.
Guest:I didn't think he would be.
Guest:We had a meeting last week.
Guest:Who's your manager?
Guest:Rick Dorfman, who everybody knows for 100 years.
Marc:Yeah, I had an awkward meeting with Rick Dorfman once, yeah.
Guest:I've had a hundred awkward conversations with Rick Dortman.
Guest:He'll tell you we fight all the time.
Guest:But like there was a moment in the meeting where I was like, I don't even care that I fight like he gets me and he doesn't want me to be another guy.
Guest:He's like, dude, like I told him the story of want my dad to say he loves me and all that stuff.
Guest:And he's like, dude, you got to use these in the meeting.
Guest:He's like, you're a good guy.
Guest:He's like, you're not a fucking lunatic.
Guest:I've been married for over 10 years.
Guest:My parents have been married for 50 years.
Guest:I'm this sensitive person underneath it all.
Guest:I told you that tough guy that I was in Jersey and all that just went away.
Marc:Yeah, but the struggle continues, right?
Marc:So the idea of a character like you, who's a good guy, but kind of an alpha dude, the alpha neurotic guy is not something I've seen a lot.
Marc:Do you know what I mean?
Marc:Right.
Marc:It is sort of interesting how you would play it where you don't understand why you have these problems, but some of them are kind of crazy, like not being able to make a decision and just playing that against your wife or whatever, realizing...
Marc:that the rage is it's interesting that should be you should be able to sell that show we hope but i mean uh and i had to write a log line which i've never done in my life you ever try to write a log line for your show like joe is a yeah like what the sitcom is in two sentences yeah no i don't know if i ever did that i just go in there and blather and you know get get some laughs and have them put it together that's okay
Marc:But for years, though, it's not good.
Marc:It's better to have a law going because for years, they think they know you.
Marc:They don't know you.
Marc:You got to tell them what you are.
Marc:Or else they'll just be like, oh, you're that guy.
Marc:I'm like, really?
Marc:I didn't think I was that guy.
Marc:Like, yeah, that's what you are.
Marc:And I'm like, no, I don't think so.
Guest:But I feel like you're probably similar to me when you go into these meetings.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:If it doesn't feel genuine and there's not a real connection.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It feels like there's no way we're going to sell right now.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't you know, it's like I've gone to a lot of those meetings and, you know, you're usually going for laughs and, you know, you listen to them.
Marc:You want to listen a little bit and and, you know, let them chime in and work off what they're saying a little bit.
Marc:But.
Marc:They rarely go.
Marc:So, I mean, the odds are against you even if you feel good in the room.
Guest:Is that not helpful?
Guest:I had Craig Ferguson on my podcast.
Guest:I've had him on.
Guest:He's a great guy.
Guest:And he said something.
Guest:I bring it up all the time, and it's simple.
Guest:But it really makes sense.
Guest:He defined show business.
Guest:He compared it to the movie Shawshank Redemption.
Guest:He said in that movie, Morgan Friedman, for the whole movie, is trying to get paroled.
Guest:And he's trying fucking so hard.
Guest:And then at the end of the movie, he's basically like, fuck you.
Guest:You're not going to parole me.
Guest:He's just basically like, who gives a shit?
Guest:And boom, they stamp it paroled.
Guest:He goes, that's show business.
Marc:Yeah, that's true.
Guest:and and i said to you walking in your house you said how you how you like la and i said and and i think i just defined it talking to one of my friends before i came here and uh i said what is it about la it feels harder to be your genuine self like and i hate that because it's like you start going oh show business is so here do you thank your friends all the time for putting up with i should i should i should
Guest:He appreciated it because he felt the same way.
Guest:He was like, dude, because he used to be in a couple of different bands and big almost shots.
Guest:And he said, I feel so insecure when I'm in L.A.
Guest:And I said, yeah, it feels harder to be your genuine self.
Marc:But you know what that is, you know?
Guest:yeah yeah well i think we just define what i am and if i can just yeah if i can just be that and not try to be it it's like when i watched at the comedy store last night you can tell the comedians yeah that aren't trying to be something right right like they're nailing but yeah but they're there you know it takes a long time most of those guys have been around a while yeah they're making it look easy they're making it like they just like ali wong went up she's the best she was cracking me the fuck up oh that's great you watch your special
Guest:I saw like a hair of it.
Guest:She goes on pregnant.
Guest:It's great.
Guest:I got to check it out because she had me dying.
Guest:She's going to do it her way.
Guest:I mean, because I'm a guy that has two little kids and I'm like, if my wife was here, she'd be fucking dying.
Guest:She said some joke about, why are you out?
Guest:Didn't you just have a baby?
Guest:Why are you out?
Guest:She just pauses and it's so honest.
Guest:I love that.
Guest:She goes, I'm this close to throwing my baby in the garbage.
Guest:I was like, that's, yes.
Guest:And if you're 22, like I said earlier, you're like, that's the meanest joke.
Guest:Oh, why are you saying that?
Guest:You have to have lived life to realize why that's funny.
Marc:I think there's a lot of people coming to the clubs now that are a little more older and a little more, I don't know what it is, but I've been fortunate to sort of cultivate an audience that gets me in whatever the fuck it is I do.
Marc:But I think you're right.
Marc:I think the point that Ferguson is making is getting to the point where somehow or another
Marc:you don't give a fuck yeah like it's hard but like when i started the podcast i i'd let it go i'm not gonna have a tv show i'm not gonna be that big a comic i don't know what this is gonna do but i gotta do something before i i have to figure out another job right you know what i mean right but like i felt it in my heart and i've talked about this before that i let it go like you know how how long do you hold on how long do you remain delusional
Marc:to where it becomes a liability where people are like, no, he doesn't know it's over.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:You don't want to be that guy.
Marc:I hope I'm not that guy.
Marc:You're not that guy because you have self-awareness.
Marc:But the freedom of not giving a fuck and then having this thing work out on my own terms and whatever was great because now everything's sort of like, yeah, I'd like to do that and I'm ready to do that.
Marc:That's the other thing you got to realize.
Marc:You're ready to do it.
Marc:And that's a funny thing that we put these people in power, these fucking executives that come and go.
Marc:They're always moving to other jobs.
Marc:And we're like hanging on.
Marc:They're like the judge and the jury of this thing.
Marc:It's like...
Marc:What do they know?
Marc:Right.
Marc:It's a fucking crapshoot for them, too.
Marc:They're like, I don't know.
Marc:Should we do it?
Marc:It looks a little risky.
Marc:I don't want to take the hit.
Marc:All right, well, fuck it.
Marc:Let's not do it.
Marc:That's the decision.
Marc:Right.
Marc:I'm not going to hang my career on this.
Guest:And I love that show business is at that level now where it's like,
Marc:i'm gonna go all the way around you guys i just went around you i don't know if you noticed but i'm around you now you know you ultimately want to work with people and if they're going to support what you do you want to it's all collaborative you can't you know on that level if you want to be in the box you know and have the money that someone's going to give you you know this the uh the other thing is this weird kind of like parental relationship it's like i'm ready i'm ready mom dad i'm ready to work can i have the money now
Guest:you know like right you got to get past that emotional shit but i the other thing is it's like what like where is it really now like there's so many fucking channels and stuff you know you just all we want to do is earn an honest living well i think that's what helped me be at this place where you don't care as much is that you can go around like i just did a special where i had two investors give me the money and we made it
Guest:And like I started this tour.
Guest:I just said, fuck it.
Guest:I'm going to try.
Guest:I just start trying things because there's ways with the podcast and social media to get things out.
Guest:Like I had people going because I started this tour called Outside the Box.
Guest:Right.
Guest:where fans and i'm not the first guy to ever think of doing this yeah i kind of just kind of gave it a name yeah and and said i want see if you fans can bring me to your city some way i go here i put the tour name on my website here's how to do it so you know there's just so many ways now and like when the fans heard me on different radio stations talking about how they can bring me to their city to do some sort of
Guest:yeah charity or you know it's not charity it's like a fundraiser whatever you want to raise money for and i i even got a uh a sponsor did it work yeah it's like it's like it just started i've had like two of them how are the shows they're awesome because it's like it's your fans and then they bring other people that they think would like you it's great usually people with kids and stuff like that yeah and
Guest:And this Yards Brewing Company started supporting it, you know, at least in this where they sell their beer.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Which is like Philly and South Jersey.
Guest:And they're trying to slightly broaden, but they're like a real niche company.
Guest:market and i was like i said to the guy on the phone like i'm literally like i'm my own salesman now i'm on the phone with the head guy at the beer place yeah and i'm like dude i go i don't know if this is going to sound insecure or negative i go but i i don't know a comedian that wouldn't love every gig being two hours from his house
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:I'll do these every week.
Guest:Right.
Guest:He goes, you know, we can do shows in the brewing company.
Guest:We have this whole tasting room that we can, like, put a stage in.
Guest:Because these guys are huge comedy fans.
Guest:Right.
Guest:That's how it happened.
Guest:Right.
Guest:The Arts Brewing Company?
Guest:Yeah, like, open for Bill Burr.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I literally...
Guest:It's like I use that as a selling tool.
Guest:I contacted Bill.
Guest:I go, dude, you're doing the Wells Fargo Center.
Guest:That's 16,000 people in Philadelphia where I'm from.
Guest:Can I open for you?
Guest:Because I think that could help strengthen my thing there.
Guest:And he's like, sure.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:So it was fucking awesome.
Guest:I put all my jokes together that were like perfect for a Bill Burr audience.
Guest:I mean, killing in front of 16,000 people in your home city was just like the greatest buzz.
Guest:And Bill backstage is going, I don't know if I love these big shows.
Guest:I like the 3,000.
Guest:And I was like, I came off stage.
Guest:I go, Bill, I could do this every night.
Guest:You're crazy.
Guest:This is incredible.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When was that?
Guest:That was like six months ago.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And these people from Yards are in the audience.
Guest:They hired me to do some corporate event.
Guest:This was classic.
Guest:I put like dress pants and a dress shirt because I think it's a corporate event.
Guest:It's a brewing company.
Guest:I get there.
Guest:It's all dudes with tattoos and beards.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:All like hipsters.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And like you couldn't say a joke that was too off color for them.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Like they just loved everything.
Guest:And I was like, dude, we got to do something together here.
Guest:Let's do some sort.
Guest:You guys should sponsor my tour.
Guest:And then like I said.
Marc:In Pennsylvania.
Marc:In Pennsylvania.
Guest:In New Jersey.
Guest:This is fucking perfect.
Guest:And like I'm on the phone with fans and they're like, you use social media for like kind of what it's for.
Guest:that's kind of a great idea.
Guest:I'm like, am I the only guy?
Guest:And then I told it on DePaulo's podcast, and then he starts trying to do the same thing.
Guest:Oh, yeah, how's it going for him?
Guest:I don't know, because I know he's trying to do it on this massive level, like give me $14,000 for one show in your backyard kind of thing.
Guest:And I'm like telling the fans, I'm like, no, I'm trying to make it affordable.
Guest:I want you to make money.
Guest:You're the producer.
Guest:You make money, I make money.
Marc:I think that's an interesting thing about a lot of us now is that
Marc:You know, in the way that show business has changed, I feel like I actually feel like I'm making an honest living, like, you know, that I'm working hard and I'm doing it on my own and I'm getting paid for it, even with the TV show, because until you get it that because there was years where they I don't know if you ever got one of those development deals where I did.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:But then you're like, oh, well, what does this money mean?
Marc:Well, it means that if you don't deliver, someone's going to make note of that.
Marc:I have this weird principle with that shit.
Marc:I like doing my own shit.
Marc:Like even the TV show, IFC doesn't pay like FX or like, or in my, my fame is not like Louise or anyone or bills, but like, it's where I can handle it.
Marc:And, and I, and I'm making a living and I'm saving a little money and that's all you really want.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Like, I don't understand why guys like some guys who are billionaires, why are they working?
Marc:Why are you working?
Guest:Isn't the idea to stop?
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, like I even feel that with this week and pitching the shows that I'm like, I don't really, I'm thinking so much smaller than I used to think.
Guest:It's like, I used to be like, I want to get my own show.
Guest:And I went, Oh my God, I could get like,
Guest:I could get crazy famous.
Guest:Now I'm like, I just want to get a little deal so I can buy, I want to buy a rental property, like a small one in a resort area.
Marc:What made you hit the wall?
Marc:Because it seems like from when I first met you, from bro guy to rage guy, that there must have been some cathartic moment where you're like, I got to fucking change.
Marc:Was it meeting your wife?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:It was.
Guest:100%.
Guest:She loved you, and she was like, what are you doing?
Guest:There was moments where, well, first, before we were even married, you might need to go see somebody.
Guest:You need therapy.
Marc:And she was already, was she in school?
Marc:Was she a therapist?
Guest:When we first started dating, she was finishing up.
Guest:finishing up her master's at drexel and then seven months in our relationship she wanted to take they have to do a one-year internship to get the phd i still kick myself because i think we picked the wrong place but we she had it narrowed down to ucsd in san diego and in san francisco those were her two places
Guest:To do the internship.
Guest:But I remember thinking, because it was a two-year internship in San Francisco.
Guest:And I remember thinking, two years?
Guest:That's just so long, which isn't.
Guest:But now, as an older guy, when you were that age...
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You're like, I can't live in Sanford.
Marc:I don't want to be away from Philly and New York for two years.
Guest:Well, this is what was weird is I lived in L.A.
Guest:for a year and a half and I was that guy that was like show businesses and everything.
Guest:I want a wife and kids.
Guest:I remember thinking that my friend knew that then.
Guest:yeah my friends were like what are you fucking crazy i had the development deal i was blowing through all the money living here and i lived in burbank i was like just buying stupid shit because i wasn't working i'm living in la i'm just spending the development in burbank yeah spending your 200 grand
Guest:Yeah, just spending, buying couches and buying people dinners everywhere we go.
Guest:And then I had a little bit of money left.
Guest:I moved back and my brother, the real estate contractor guy goes, dude, you should buy a place in Hoboken.
Guest:I go, I never even heard of Hoboken.
Guest:He's like, Hoboken is right outside of New York City.
Guest:It's a good spot.
Guest:You should buy a place there.
Guest:So I look, I find an apartment, I buy it, fix it up a little.
Guest:Thank God that I bought that place, because I think that was just enough to make my PhD wife, because I met her like three months after coming back.
Guest:And she was at Drexel, so that's Philly.
Guest:I start doing gigs down there, and me owning this place, like I said.
Guest:Was it a two-bedroom?
Guest:It was a two-bedroom.
Guest:Thought I was going to rent it out.
Guest:I had like a couple of comics stay there.
Guest:I was like, I can't, I can't do this.
Guest:You'll make it garbage.
Marc:You got a shot of making a nice thing here.
Marc:Just give it to a comic for a month.
Marc:It's like, what happened?
Guest:And it was across the street from Artie Lang, which I didn't know at the time.
Marc:He could use it as a crack house.
Guest:They're the equivalent.
Guest:So Artie and I started to become friends.
Guest:I started working with him a lot on the road.
Guest:And then I meet my wife.
Guest:I started dating her.
Guest:She's like, wow, you're fixing up the place.
Guest:She thought I wasn't even heterosexual when she first met me.
Guest:That's how into making the place nice I was.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I had it pimped out when she came over the first time.
Guest:She's like, you sure you like women?
Guest:I'm like, yeah, I swear.
Guest:I do.
Guest:I do.
Guest:I just like candles.
Marc:I want things to be nice.
Marc:I like it nice.
Marc:Could you not touch that?
Guest:Please.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I ended up selling it and making some money.
Guest:So my brother was right.
Guest:And that ended up getting us our first house.
Guest:So you went and put it right into a house.
Guest:that was smart yeah but then i lost it all on that first house because it was a bubble the bubble yeah yeah the bubble and it was in a shitty school district i didn't have kids yet and i didn't realize that that was important so you took the hit because you paid too much for the house you sold it at a loss yeah my mother-in-law never forget her classic we she comes with us to look at the house yeah she goes right up to the owner we'll take it
Guest:we love it doesn't even consult me so i have to pay asking price for the house which i would have bid it down you know or try to do something but there was no way for you to go like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa she that's my mother-in-law this is me i probably should have done that but this is before i heard the alubel episode
Guest:There was no confidence in anything.
Guest:So, yeah, I mean, there were moments where I can remember vividly my wife saying, I'm not saying I'm going to divorce you, but if you don't get on meds, like, there's a chance that this isn't going to work out.
Guest:Why, were you yelling at her?
Guest:I wouldn't yell at her, but I would... You'd yell around her?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I remember a vivid moment trying to pour gas.
Guest:My car ran out of gas in her mom's driveway, and I went to a Target and bought a gas can, and I must have bought the wrong nozzle, and I couldn't get it in the gas hole, so gas was just running down the side, and I was just going, Motherfuckers!
Marc:loud and my wife comes over she's like I grew up on this street everybody's outside my mom's in what are you doing you're embarrassing me there was a lot of moments of embarrassment like I used to oh it's so sad I used to do that where you'd yell like on the street like in conversation like even if you're not yelling at them your pitch is like and you don't even know it because you're just an angry guy and they're like why is this happening
Guest:we're online at the movies just the embarrassment of the woman with the rage guy yeah i was that guy and then it was good i got when it hit ground zero is when i got fired from a comedy club this is what made fixing joe start as the podcast so i got fired at a club in hartford connecticut
Guest:two nights in a row, lost it at different hecklers.
Marc:What was that called, The Frog?
Marc:What was the Hartford Club?
Guest:This one was called City Steam.
Guest:It was there for 100 years.
Guest:It's still there.
Guest:It's like a weekend room.
Guest:The first night, it was a bachelorette party with like 40 people in the audience.
Guest:And I was like, I was aware enough to know that I'm going to lose it because they were fucking yelling at the feature.
Guest:You opened it?
Guest:You opened with losing it?
Guest:Well, they were featured.
Guest:Whenever the guy before me is getting shit on, that's when I like take it like I'm the big brother now.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I would go on stage and I would just, yeah, I lost it.
Guest:I made them cry.
Guest:I think a girl cried and left.
Guest:You and Nick DiPaolo.
Guest:I Nick DiPaolo'd it.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:They left.
Marc:They left during the show.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And then the show was great, you know, once you get them all out of there.
Marc:He just shamed them out.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And the rest of the crowd was like, yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Fist pumping me on the way.
Marc:That was great.
Guest:That was great.
Guest:And I'm like, well, the manager's really mad.
Guest:And then the next night, some loud Italian guy, and I held it in for the whole set.
Guest:And then the set was done.
Guest:I see that I got the light.
Guest:I'm at 45 minutes.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I just said, you know what?
Guest:I did all my material.
Guest:I ignored you for 45 minutes, but I'm...
Guest:Basically done.
Guest:Now I'm going to tell you how I really feel about you.
Guest:And I just went off on this guy for so long that they shut the mic off.
Guest:While you were on stage?
Guest:Just no mic now.
Guest:Was people there?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:The full audience.
Guest:Were you doing well?
Guest:I did great up until then.
Guest:Oh, then it got bad?
Guest:Well, once again, the crowd would like, like you said, how you love it.
Guest:A lot of people loved it.
Guest:That's where I would get in a problem.
Guest:And then, you know, that moment where you're like the crowd sort of like, nah, it's a little too far.
Guest:I don't think I could not afterwards.
Marc:Yeah, I was that guy.
Marc:And I knew like when you're in it with somebody and you're like, you really feed in the anger and then you feel the crowds with you.
Marc:And then there's one beat where they're like, no, no.
Marc:No.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When you say something really harsh.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Nah.
Guest:No.
Guest:It's usually like saying, I want you to die.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Something that was a joke connected to them dying on the way home.
Guest:The word cunt will do that.
Guest:Cunt can do it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Definitely.
Guest:So the manager called me the next morning in the hotel, and he's like, hey, man, I'm a big fan, but I can't have you do another show here.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It's just, you know.
Marc:You were booked for another one?
Marc:There was a whole other night?
Marc:Was that the Friday?
Guest:I'm trying to.
Marc:You know what it was?
Marc:I think the Thursday was the first one.
Guest:They let you do Friday and then Saturday you're gone.
Guest:Saturday you're gone.
Guest:Yeah, the middle moved up.
Marc:The middle you went to protect.
Marc:He got his big shot.
Yes.
Marc:Hey, Joe, thanks for looking out for me.
Guest:I'm doing your dates.
Guest:So, stupid me thought in my head, this could be my hook.
Guest:Because I used to like to try to find ways.
Guest:Really?
Marc:The rage hook?
Guest:The snap guy?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I had a moment.
Guest:And also, I have an album that I sell that is all...
Guest:Oh, you recorded it at all?
Guest:I recorded 11 different... I went back when I started thinking, oh, this is a hook.
Guest:And I realized I had a lot of recordings of losing it.
Guest:And I went and I was like, let me find the best ones.
Guest:And when there's a comic you really look up to...
Guest:There's like certain comics when they come up to you and tell you they like a bit.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It makes you go, oh, like it makes you like, oh, a tell was one.
Guest:If a tell goes that bit, I like that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or you like when you said, you know, I still think that it's not funny.
Marc:It's just the beat.
Marc:The beat.
Marc:I don't know, because I remember it.
Marc:Maybe not everyone remembers it.
Guest:Maybe it's honest.
Guest:I don't know.
Marc:No, it was the futility of it.
Marc:The Atari game was when you just had Pong, right?
Marc:When we had Pong.
Marc:Yeah, and then there was that one level where it was just you and the wall.
Marc:And the wall.
Marc:There's no winning.
Marc:That's what was funny to me.
Marc:There's no point to it.
Guest:Oh, see?
Guest:I read into it.
Guest:You intellectualized it.
Guest:Yeah, I did.
Guest:I don't think the crowd ever did.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Thank you.
All right.
Guest:I need a room of Marc Maron's.
Guest:You don't have to do that joke anymore.
Guest:So where was I at the story?
Guest:Oh, no, your hook, your new hook.
Guest:Oh, so I think, so I start piecing together a comedy album, and I can remember sitting at the cellar, and I say, Bill Burr's there, and I go, dude, I'm thinking of making an album that's just all my worst moments.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Like all losing it, heckling beats.
Guest:And he goes, dude, I'd buy that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I was like, oh, I'm making it then.
Yeah.
Guest:I got it.
Guest:And I narrated them at the beginning.
Guest:And still to this day, if I pitch that on stage, they don't want my fucking albums where it went well.
Guest:They're like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Guest:Forget those.
Guest:Where's the one where you lose it?
Guest:I'm like, it's this one.
Guest:It's called When a Comedian's Attack.
Guest:They're like, give me that.
Guest:Give me that.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Sign that.
Guest:Yeah, that's the one they want.
Guest:They love it.
Guest:And do they still...
Guest:yeah still to this day like i'm like i'm out of them they're like oh that's what we want those you got more i'm like you can buy it on itunes it's there it's there when comedians are you know what you know yeah you know what sucks though is those things go in loops on like spotify and pandora and i'm like someone could be listening to a stand-up loop of like louis yeah and then all of a sudden you hear me going fuck yeah like they don't even know where did this come from
Guest:Well, you make a couple bucks.
Guest:It's still coming.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I thought I had this hook of the snap.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Because I had one of them on stage where the crowd was shitting on me.
Guest:Then I was shitting on them.
Guest:Then they would shit on me.
Guest:And I made it a little like ad lib in the moment bit about it where we were keeping track.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Who got what.
Guest:I'm giving them points.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We were just shitting on each other.
Guest:And it was like really working.
Guest:I was like, that's going to be this is what it's going to be.
Guest:And.
Guest:I did the first Fixing Joe episode after I got fired.
Guest:Bill Burr, I figured, perfect guest because he has that famous outrage in Philly.
Guest:And he's like, dude, that's a terrible idea.
Guest:You don't ever want to be arguing as your career...
Guest:You can't fake lose it.
Guest:He said he wanted the... Oh, fake lose it.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Well, he was like, you can't... How are you going to get... And he goes, it's like... The album is real losing it.
Guest:Yes, it's real.
Guest:But I found the funniest ones.
Guest:Right.
Guest:There is one track on that album where I give myself a loss.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:I think the Heckler won.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I hate when that happens.
Guest:She was fucking brutal.
Guest:This girl just was... Oh, good for her.
Guest:She was tearing me up.
Guest:Good for her.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But Burr was like, that's like being on a sitcom, playing some over-exaggerated character, and now it lasts 12 years.
Guest:You can't make it on purpose, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, he goes, you wouldn't be happy.
Guest:You wouldn't be creatively happy.
Guest:So I kept doing the podcast.
Guest:But yeah, the psychologist's wife.
Guest:Having kids makes you fix yourself, too.
Marc:How old are your kids now?
Guest:Eight and four.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, yeah, you got to show up, and that's something you wanted to do.
Marc:That's not something you fell into.
Marc:Like, you left here thinking you wanted to have a family and live that life.
Marc:You left L.A.
Marc:that first time.
Marc:Like, I want to have a wife and kids and be a person.
Marc:It was very important to me to have both.
Guest:So because of that, you shaped up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, yeah, I can remember moments where I would just...
Guest:Where I thought I was going to get divorced and I could like, this is when I just had a son.
Guest:I remember my wife and I having a fight, seeing his bedroom from our bedroom right after the fight and just like bawling, being like, I can't, I don't want to not be here sleeping in this house with my family.
Guest:Like this, ah, like divorce is easier when you don't have kids.
Guest:But if you have kids and you're like, you're not here anymore.
Guest:It's always awful.
Guest:What I say on stage is to be hard to witness the guy who's the improved version of you.
Guest:yeah right right right you're doing a better job yeah he you know because i'm add you know bad and this guy's all focused i he i go he wouldn't i know it wouldn't be another comedian she's not going down that road again no who would yeah like do you you see everything that you did that happen with you and your divorces where the the next guy was like a total opposite of you
Marc:No, I don't know.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:I don't have to deal with them.
Marc:I know the first wife's dude.
Marc:He's a good dude.
Marc:He's a teacher.
Marc:And she's a psychologist.
Marc:So they worked out.
Marc:And I'm happy about that because there was no way.
Marc:I'm not even sure I'm the greatest emotional investment now.
Marc:You know, like the second wife, I know why she left, you know, and I know what, you know, I know what I did.
Marc:And she ended up marrying a dude that got some bread and he's a writer and she, you know, he's in show business and stuff.
Marc:I think they're okay, but like they both did the right thing, but it doesn't make me feel any better.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So wait, so now your wife though, does she have a private practice?
Guest:No, see, I let the audience think that my wife is a therapist.
Guest:My wife actually is a neuropsychologist with a PhD and studies Alzheimer's disease.
Guest:She does 100% research.
Guest:She's like a scientist.
Marc:Okay.
Marc:She never wanted to do the therapy?
Guest:No, she wasn't interested.
Guest:I mean, she has to- She's a researcher.
Guest:Researcher, but you have to learn everything.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, there were times where she had to do therapy.
Guest:I can remember when we were dating, she had a couple of patients.
Guest:They make you learn everything, but-
Guest:No, she has a lot of friends and psychiatrists that she can tap into when I knew what medication.
Marc:I wanted to take you to level off on that shit.
Marc:How much has it changed?
Marc:I never really embarked on the medication here and there, but not much.
Marc:But you sound like you're all for it.
Marc:100% for it.
Guest:The web series kind of starts from the beginning of me starting the meds and takes you through it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It takes about two months before they really even are doing anything.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So it's a slow progression.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Then all of a sudden you're like...
Guest:oh that thing that i i think i even tried to write something about that about it being like a yeah like a phantom type feeling yeah but yeah it's weird it's like it's in a headlock i think i've heard you describe right medication yeah i remember the one it does give it gives you new personality but it doesn't get rid of the old one yeah the old one's inside going what are we doing yeah
Marc:Yes.
Marc:Right?
Marc:And the new one's like, take it easy.
Marc:We're okay.
Guest:It's like it's in a headlock.
Guest:It wants to fight, but it can't.
Marc:But your kids are all right?
Guest:That's a good one to ask.
Guest:well i think my son has some of the stuff that's how old is he another joke i do you notice your negative traits way quicker than your positive traits in your own children oh yeah yeah like he has some of the rage he maybe and then he has psychologist mom who's like tell us your mood
Guest:She wrote faces on a piece of paper from a smiley face to a little smiley to a nothing to a sad.
Guest:You're trying to map out his moods.
Guest:I'm like, oh no.
Guest:Psychologist kid.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He's eight, and the daughter's four?
Guest:Yeah, so he's in third grade, and yeah, she's too young to decide.
Guest:But they're having a good time?
Guest:It's awesome.
Guest:I feel like you're working towards the ending.
Guest:I feel this now.
Guest:I was going to say this, when you listen to somebody's show...
Guest:a lot and you listen to it a lot you're like you're waiting for wrapping up are you are you good you're waiting for it i'm like fuck here comes the are you good a day and a half of what's mark gonna ask me is this gonna go well is he gonna hate me am i gonna be able to tell he wants me to go he wants it to fucking end he wants to get out like that shit but then when you go do it
Guest:Well, I didn't think any of those things.
Marc:I know.
Marc:I was like, I don't even need to research this one.
Guest:Yeah, it's an easy one.
Guest:Just fucking put a fucking shirt on and go do it.
Marc:Yeah, because you talk to Joe.
Marc:They're not going to freak out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You don't write shit down.
Guest:Someone tells you to go see a movie, I write it down.
Guest:It's got to go in the iPhone.
Marc:No, I kind of remember that stuff, but if I have an impulsive thought that I think I need to share, I better make sure it's not like a bomb of some kind.
Marc:Do you know what I mean?
Marc:If I have feelings, I'm going to fucking email that guy back.
Marc:I'm like, well, maybe take a second.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:But now I've gotten so detached from it.
Marc:I forget to text people back.
Marc:I forget emails.
Marc:I don't know where the fuck my brain's at.
Marc:I don't know what's happening, but I just space it.
Marc:And then I'll be going through my texts.
Marc:I'm like, holy shit, I did not answer that guy at all.
Marc:And that was three weeks ago.
Marc:And then I'll just answer like he just texted it.
Marc:Oh, no, I can't do it.
Marc:Sorry.
Guest:Have you ever tried Adderall?
Guest:No.
Guest:Never?
Guest:No.
Guest:Well, you couldn't now.
Guest:But I have friends that are addicts that can take it if you take the time-released version because you can't overtake time-released Adderall.
Guest:I don't know that I have ADD, though.
Guest:No, I don't think you do either.
Guest:I can usually tell.
Marc:I have anxiety issues, and I also...
Marc:I don't know what the other issue is.
Marc:I, you know, I do like, like I seem to operate at my own pace, but like when I have to do jobs, I do them.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:Like if left on my own devices, I do a lot of things at once and I usually get everything done, but there seems to be, there would probably be a more efficient way to do things that I don't always do.
Guest:Right.
Guest:do you know i guess but yeah with me it's it's attention deficit like you just space it out well it's i just start i forget a lot and you really notice it when you are an adderall user and then you decide to try not taking adderall one day you're like this is how i was this is horrendous i don't even i'm bumping my head constantly it's just like
Guest:Bang, bang.
Guest:I get injuries because I'm just like, I'm not in sync really.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah, forgetting things.
Guest:It was always like that?
Guest:I can't drive very well.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I can't read.
Guest:I can't read.
Guest:How old are you?
Guest:I'm 48.
Guest:So maybe, what, you don't think maybe it's just getting older?
Guest:No, no.
Guest:And not being able to read a book without having to keep rereading the paragraph over and over again?
Marc:Yeah, but that's my whole fucking life.
Marc:I mean, it's got to be interesting.
Guest:Maybe you're not reading the right book.
Guest:How about if you can tell it's interesting, but there's a little radio playing and it's hard for you to focus?
Guest:That's what I noticed in my son when he's playing baseball.
Guest:If there's something else going on the next field and he's just looking over there, I'm like, dude, the guy just pitched it.
Guest:You can't look to the right.
Guest:You're going to get hit in the face.
Guest:And he'll be like, I don't need to wear my cup today.
Guest:I'm like, I think you do.
Guest:I think you might want to wear it today.
Marc:He goes, I don't need it.
Marc:You might see a dog across the street distracting from fielding a grounder and protecting your balls.
Guest:It's hilarious.
Guest:He's actually said to me, I don't need the cup because I'm playing in my YBNR league is his lower level league and then his travel league is the other one.
Guest:I'm like, what is the difference?
Guest:People hit a ball at your balls.
Guest:You need the cup.
Guest:I'm an idiot.
Marc:So that's what we've learned today, is that no matter where you are, if there are balls being hit, you should wear your cup.
Marc:Wear the cup.
Marc:That's a metaphor, too, for life.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Always wear your cup.
Guest:That's the title of the pitch this week.
Guest:Is it?
Guest:Episode one, wear your cup.
Guest:Is it?
Guest:No.
Guest:It should be.
Guest:It should be.
Guest:All right, good talking to you.
Guest:You too, man.
Marc:Okay, watch Joe's special on CISO this Thursday.
Marc:Go to WTFPod.com for all your WTF needs.
Marc:Check the tour schedule.
Marc:A lot of dates coming up are going to be adding dates.
Marc:I'll keep you in the loop on that.
Marc:Be nice to people.
Marc:There's no social mandate for being a douchebag in public.
Marc:Let's try to be people.
Marc:Can we?
Marc:How about I play some distorted guitar for a minute for all those that hang in for this?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:.
Guest:.
Guest:.
Guest:.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Boomer lives!