The WTF Podcast With Marc Maron

[Famous Mortimer]

http://www.sho.com/site/greenroom/video.do

has at least part of the Smothers / Jillette episode on it.

[Tiny Poster]

That's just made me hunger even more for it!

Comedy and Everything Else is another (sometimes) quite good "comedians talking about comedy" podcast. Whist it's nice to hear American comedians leaning so far to the left, sometimes the show gets bogged down in bad reasoning and endless repetitive stoner discussions. And the recent Kyle Cease episode points up just how good Marc Maron was on the Carlos Mencia/Dane Cook interviews.

[Bennygaylord]

Had a quick search for Stewart Lee podcasts and found the WTF Podcast with an interview with Lee. Hated the host and his shilling at the start. The music, too, irritated. I'll give it another shot though as as the interview progressed I found him more likable and knowledgeable about the general comedy scene (in the UK and US).

[Famous Mortimer]

You have to put up with the shilling as it's either that or paying for it. Lots of the interviews are quite poor (I've listened to most of the first 60 episodes so far) but there's enough moments of gold to keep at it.

Besides, his show is >>>>> Adam Carolla's, who in the last episode of his I'll ever listen to said that all Indian people smell of curry and all Muslims are terrorists. No irony, no joke, it's on the Pauly Shore episode if you'd like to hear for yourself.

[Tiny Poster]

Carolla gets let off the hook for his (very) dodgy views because of his popularity. Go on his show and you can reach a *huge* audience. Supposedly intelligent, liberal people go on there and either agree with his racist shite/idiotic opinions on torture or just clam up about it.

He does have a knack for extemporisation, mind. He'd be good on JAM.

[gloria]

The Jim Jefferies ep is great, really entertaining.

[vrailaine]

Enjoyed the Judd Apatow and Carlos Mencia ones. Loved that bit where one guy said he called Carlos up on stage so he could run backstage to hide his notes.

Able to recommend any more? I'm sure there's a lot of shite amongst the lot. Getting the Tim Key one now.

...I see Greg Fleet replied to a negative comment on the Stewart Lee one, bit odd, no?

[Indecisive On A Name]

I was going to post this in a Stanhope thread but am going to post in this thread instead.

Doug Stanhope was on a recent Joe Rogan USTREAM show (video) and towards the end, they talked about Marc Maron and WTFpod. They talked about the Stand Up Boot Camp as well. The show was quite long (2 and a half hours) and some part were a bit dull, but overall rather interesting and much more accessible than Rogan's usual stuff. The audio is available as podcast and can be downloaded from here.

I read that Rogan was supposed to be on the 2nd Mencia WTF episode but he decided not to after listening to the 1st episode. Maron has been trying to get him on the
WTFpod since then but sounds like they don't like each other very much.

Marc Maron talked about Joe Rogan during his appearance on the Kieth and The Girl podcast

[DuncanC]

Really fantastic two-parter with Louis C.K.:

http://wtfpod.libsyn.com/episode-111-louis-ck-part-1
http://wtfpod.libsyn.com/episode-112-louis-c-k-part-2

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

Thanks for that. I'm glad I looked at this thread, there's some fascinating stuff in here, although Maron naming the podcast "WTF" marks him out to me as an instant dullard and sets my teeth on edge whenever I hear or see it.

[easytarget]

The stupid name bothers me too, it suggests the show is broad and idiot-friendly rather than neurotic, introspective and interesting.

Try to get past it and imagine that the twats tune out after a few minutes.

[TIAL]

I think the title was born out of Maron's neuroticism. It used to be more focused on the moments where you reflect on those low moments in life and ask 'what the fuck?' Listeners would email in with their WTF moments and share the pain, as it were.
But this seems to have been lost now it's more about the interviews.

[Indecisive On A Name]

That's right, TIAL. Actually, Marc Maron explained it himself in the 100th episode, which you'd like to listen to if you're interested in the podcast or Marc Maron.

Just finished listening to the second Louis CK episode. I've never read or listened to such a revealing interview of him before. I couldn't recommend those episodes more.

[edit] added Louis CK bit

[DJ Solid Snail]

I've just watched Putney Swope on the basis of Louis C.K.'s recommendation in the first episode and wow, yes, I can see how it might have changed his entire perception of movies - what a thoroughly brilliant piece of work.

[clingfilm portent]

Yeah, that Louis C.K. interview is one of the best I've heard... just fantastic. I admired the man to begin with but I'm bowled over by some of the things that come to light. To think when I first saw him a few years ago in 3 or 4 short clips doing purely absurdist short gags.. I had no idea he would turn out to be so extraordinary.

[Madison]

New one up, interview with Sarah Silverman. First q "we've known each other a long time, how come we never fucked?" second q "when you fucked all those other comedians, did that make you funny?" Yeesh.

When she gets a word in it's a pretty good interview.

[YoungAmerican]

I believe the newest one is the first time a CaB poster has featured on WTF.

Me?  I was on one of the first live shows, and did a proper studio interview a month or so ago.

Marc is doing a really wonderful job with this show, I think.  Interesting to read about it from an outsider's perspective.

[padougy]

Currently listening to the first Carlos Mencia one, really enjoying it - though Marc Maron's voice can't help but remind me of Adam Buxton's 'Amercian Movie Star' character.

I bet you hear that too the next time you listen to the podcast.

[Muggins]

The recent Mike Destefano episode is amazing, humbling and so incredibly worthy of an hour of anyones time- greatest episode so far!

[Tiny Poster]

The recent Mike Destefano episode is amazing, humbling and so incredibly worthy of an hour of anyones time- greatest episode so far!

Yep, amazing stuff.

I also loved Doug Benson revealing how precious some comedians/comic actors can be, and actually naming Ben Stiller as one of the people who won't hang around with him because he takes the piss out of his bad career choices.

[Steve Lampkins]

I never realised Doug was so old and has had such a long career. I've only got into him through Doug Loves Movies, and haven't really heard his straight stand up. He sounds a lot younger than 46. Weird thing to say I know.

[Tiny Poster]

I know, it always boggles me too. He actually looks younger now than he did when he was doing extras work.

[Famous Mortimer]

Mike DeStefano was the interesting one from the last season of Last Comic Standing. I thought, even though his Italian tough-guy shtick wasn't all that funny, was far and away the most comfortable comedian up there, and should have taken it in a walk. I didn't even find out til after the show he was a Buddhist, either.

[Tiny Poster]

His Italian tough-guy schtick isn't schtick though - he actually has very close ties to organised crime! It's this and his tragic heroin/AIDS/HIV background that allows him to be comfortable onstage.

He talks about how he doesn't care for LCS on the podcast, and how the tour is a bit awkward given his material.

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

Jesus Christ Marc Maron is starting to really get on my tits.

[Tiny Poster]

Come on - details!

[Kishi the Bad Lampshade]

I don't know, he grates on me. I suppose he has some skills as an interviewer in that his openess and lack of fear in putting forward awkward/personal questions that other interviewers might shy away from leads the interviewees into more raw and interesting territory. But I find myself always skipping the pre-interview bits of the podcast now, partly because they don't usually seem to contain anything interesting but also because his whole attitude of "yeah my life has been fucking DARK man watch me get to the PAIN" just irritates me. Not that I'm saying he hasn't had pain in his life, and I suppose that's part of how he gets good interviews - like I said, openess about his own life leads others to open up - but I guess I'm too British to find it anything but a bit self-aggrandising and showboaty. Even at the end of that DeStefano interview, I switched off the last five minutes, having been blown away by everything that came before it, because it started getting kind of self-indulgent and "YEAH DARKNESS AND PAIN MAN, SO DARK". Also what I've seen of his standup is actually pretty crap.

[Little Hoover]

It's interesting to me, at some point he said something about people in Britain not really having therapy as an outlet, which made me think that conversely being in therapy perhaps encourages self-indulgence in artists, it's like an excuse for them to talk about themselves, so maybe that has something to do with the way a lot of them talk. It's like he's still in session.

His accent reminds me a lot of Simpsons EP David Mirkin, who's similarly quite a blabbermouth. I tend to skip the intros and outros now, partly just so it syncs with my journey times more. I've fallen behind a lot lately with the podcast lately anyway.

His honesty is part of his charm for me, but I can certainly see that it's a bit grating some times.

[Bennygaylord]

Yeah, I hate everything but his interviews. Can't stand his nonsense. The interviews are brave and usually encourage the guest (though I've only listened to Ansari and Stewart Lee's shows) to be more forthcoming.

[Little Hoover]

I quite like his stand-up, not brilliant but not bad by any means.

The two Carlos Mencia interviews are well worth listening to, even if you don't know anything about him.