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The first 10-15 minutes of WTF with Marc Maron

Started by madhair60, January 28, 2019, 11:56:44 AM

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Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Sin Agog on January 28, 2019, 07:01:08 PM
Everyone, I'd just like to know: who are your guys?

"My guys were Talfryn Thomas, Joan Sanderson and the Family Ness."

"Do those guys know Stewart Lee?"

alan nagsworth

Yes, as an interviewer he has an often incredible knack for having done fuck all research into his guests and asking dumb questions. There are occasions where a connection is made through some vague detail and you can actually wean some decent content out of it, but it's too few and far between for me to want to trawl through all he's done. The only time I ever listen to his podcast is when I'm interested in hearing pretty much anything his guests have to say (Steve Albini, for example, whose any casual anecdote or banal, pragmatic work technique is always solidly engaging to me). Otherwise I just can't be bothered to invest my time in what could ultimately prove to be his guests explaining a bunch of shit their fans already know.

Also, yeah, the intros are insufferable. I'm not at all arsed about the length of his career, where he's been or where he is now. He is a seasoned interviewer fer cryin' out loud, and I'd wager that a large portion of his listeners skip the intro and only continue to listen because of the broad variety of his guests. I really can't imagine anyone ever sitting through a huge monologue of "HERE'S THE FUCKEN THING: MY CURRENT GIRLFRIEND WHO I'VE BEEN WITH FOR A MONTH - THE BEST MONTH OF MY FUCKEN LIFE I GOTTA ADD, JUST GREAT - SHE'S SUCH A GOOD PAINTER. I'M TALKIN' LIKE, WOW, AMAZING. YOU GOTTA SEE THIS STUFF although hey she might not want you to see it, she's modest, she's a creator, heck I probably shouldn't even be tellin' you guys this but SHE IS JUST THE BEST AND WOW, YEAH. SO HAPPY RIGHT NOW" and thinking "hm, that was enjoyable and not at all a waste of my time!" It's crap.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: madhair60 on January 28, 2019, 12:52:00 PM
All of them. Honestly unlistenable.

True. Sometimes it's 10 minutes and it can stretch to an unmerciful 20 minutes or more. Youtube vids usually have a blue time stamp in the first comment that skips you straight to the start of the interview but if you're listening to mp3 on the go then you have to stab blindly at the timeline until you hit the start of the interview. It confounds me why he thinks anyone would want to hear him play his guitar at the end of the thing, the very definition of indulgence.

Pranet

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on January 28, 2019, 06:51:11 PM
Probably not.

Maron wouldn't buy a Nuggets compilation, that's too niche for him. He only listens to the Stones* and Bob Seger while playing dreadful guitar. Spot on otherwise.


He might do if he got "turned on" to them by one of his guests. Man, I never even knew that shit was out there, etc.

Pranet

One of my favourite moments in WTF was the icy silence after Marc Maron said to Nick Cave something like "I don't really know much about Australian music apart from AC/DC".

Bless him. I like him really.

Sin Agog

He has an interview with Lanthimos coming up that might be interesting or interminable.  He mentioned it in a recent intro where he talked about the nature of having an open mind like his. Fucking liar.

Do like a lot of his pods, though.  Usually the ones with thoughtful wimmens are my favourite, if a bit Hollybabbly.

Sin Agog

Quote from: Pranet on January 28, 2019, 07:26:08 PM
One of my favourite moments in WTF was the icy silence after Marc Maron said to Nick Cave something like "I don't really know much about Australian music apart from AC/DC".

Bless him. I like him really.

I think that was shortly after really fucking off John Cale by bombarding him with V.U. questions.

I do sometimes get annoyed at the life story formula.  Often his interviews will start really great, getting them to chat about their interests or something topical, before being cut short in favour of a typical abc story, sometimes eliciting a sigh from the interviewee when they know it's about to happen.  Whenever I used to get forced into interviewing peeps for the radio, I'd do the same thing out of sheer laziness.

up_the_hampipe

Marc Maron inspires real anger and hatred in some people. I think he's alright, bit of a dick sometimes (though some people take it way too seriously when he's just ribbing, i.e. with Kumail and Michael Ian Black), but he's great in GLOW.

Rizla

I've not listened for a while apart from the Coogan interview which wasn't quite as bad as I'd been led to believe. When he interviewed Obama I half expected him to ask him if he'd ever auditioned for SNL. Staamps daat caam.

Hat FM

is there a correlation to his long preamble and his cats going missing/committing suicide?

Puce Moment

I find it hard to judge the guy too hard given how tenacious he has been building his podcast and re-booting his comedy career. But he *IS* a genuinely irritating man, and I found his stand-up and sitcom to be extremely hacky and tossed off.

I remember the first WTF? I heard back in 2010, and it was a fantastically intimate and frank interview with that problematic little man known as Andy Dick. I loved it. But in that time the cast has become so huge that he clearly has his time stretched. The problem with this approach is that he does fuck-all research, even with those interviewees who he clearly knows nothing about. This unfortunately leads to really broad and boring questions of the Alan Titchmarsh kind, in which the person's most famous or infamous work is discussed.

The recent Coogan interview is a case in point. I know this is a general audience podcast, but surely it is mainly listened to by comedy fans? What we get is Maron asking really basic questions about his career, a long discussion about fucking Tropic Thunder, and almost no real interest in the specific comedy firmament that was 80s UK comedy as the mainstream (ITVs Spitting Image overlapping with the new wave of edgier alternative comedians on GLR).

Also, why was Coogan doing an impression of a man pretending to be American?

checkoutgirl

The Andy Dick episode was immense. I've listened to it at least 4 or 5 times. But I think that's because Andy Dick is so fascinating to me, his sexual history, his humour and his life story, the lot. If I was to criticise Maron it would be for having so many obscure musicians who I don't care about (the guitarist for Camper Van Beethoven) and comedians who I don't give a shit about (Gabriel Iglesias). I think he once interviewed that singer Josh Groban who I'd never heard of. Just a shopping list of no-one.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: Puce Moment on January 30, 2019, 12:04:51 PM
The recent Coogan interview is a case in point. I know this is a general audience podcast, but surely it is mainly listened to by comedy fans? What we get is Maron asking really basic questions about his career, a long discussion about fucking Tropic Thunder, and almost no real interest in the specific comedy firmament that was 80s UK comedy as the mainstream (ITVs Spitting Image overlapping with the new wave of edgier alternative comedians on GLR).

In the 80s, Maron was in LA working at the world famous Comedy Store, going on depraved benders with Sam Kinison, floating around some of the most iconic names in stand-up comedy. I doubt he knows or cares that much about the 80s UK scene. He could do a little more research, but I wouldn't expect him to want to delve into something he has little awareness about.

Puce Moment

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on February 01, 2019, 01:51:23 PMIn the 80s, Maron was in LA working at the world famous Comedy Store, going on depraved benders with Sam Kinison, floating around some of the most iconic names in stand-up comedy. I doubt he knows or cares that much about the 80s UK scene. He could do a little more research, but I wouldn't expect him to want to delve into something he has little awareness about.

I guess my issue with the podcast is that his lack of research or interest in many guests leads to especially shallow interviews of the kind that you find on junkets or shitty chat shows. I'm not expecting ComComPod levels of comedy theory dissection, but I would like him to do some cursory research. Perhaps he needs to do less interviews - certainly his interview with Stewart Lee showed that he did have a desire to learn about Uk alternative comedy.

His veneration of Kinison and the whole tedious American Coke Stand-up of the 80s has always been a problem for me - although I did notice recently that he mentioned he watched some old Kinison and found it pretty shit.

Puce Moment

Quote from: checkoutgirl on February 01, 2019, 01:15:32 PMThe Andy Dick episode was immense. I've listened to it at least 4 or 5 times. But I think that's because Andy Dick is so fascinating to me, his sexual history, his humour and his life story, the lot.

Absolutely - I watched the Norm interview with Andy Dick recently and he seems so vulnerable in it - compared to how full-on he can be in other settings. I find his almost complete inability to stop taking drugs and sexually assaulting people pretty fascinating. It's pretty sad.

checkoutgirl

Quote from: Puce Moment on February 01, 2019, 02:02:03 PM
Absolutely - I watched the Norm interview with Andy Dick recently and he seems so vulnerable in it - compared to how full-on he can be in other settings. I find his almost complete inability to stop taking drugs and sexually assaulting people pretty fascinating. It's pretty sad.

His exploits as a child and young man are amazing. Lining up a load of children and getting them to bend over and playing "butt bongos", streaking with his friends through his neighbourhood, getting so many blowjobs that he's bored of them, shagging that female police officer etc etc. Mad.

Pranet

Quote from: checkoutgirl on February 01, 2019, 01:15:32 PM
The Andy Dick episode was immense. I've listened to it at least 4 or 5 times. But I think that's because Andy Dick is so fascinating to me, his sexual history, his humour and his life story, the lot. If I was to criticise Maron it would be for having so many obscure musicians who I don't care about (the guitarist for Camper Van Beethoven) and comedians who I don't give a shit about (Gabriel Iglesias). I think he once interviewed that singer Josh Groban who I'd never heard of. Just a shopping list of no-one.

Some of the interviews with people I'd not heard of have been very interesting. I have been starting to lose interest in part because at times now it feels like it has become part of the standard hollywood promotion circuit, lots of people I have heard of but I'm not particularly interested in hearing speak for an hour.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: checkoutgirl on February 01, 2019, 03:31:48 PM
His exploits as a child and young man are amazing. Lining up a load of children and getting them to bend over and playing "butt bongos", streaking with his friends through his neighbourhood, getting so many blowjobs that he's bored of them, shagging that female police officer etc etc. Mad.

There needs to be a conversation recorded between Andy Dick and Russell Brand. I think they'd have a lot of stories to trade.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Sin Agog on January 28, 2019, 07:31:00 PM
I do sometimes get annoyed at the life story formula.  Often his interviews will start really great, getting them to chat about their interests or something topical, before being cut short in favour of a typical abc story, sometimes eliciting a sigh from the interviewee when they know it's about to happen.

I liked when John C. Reilly politely but firmly informed Maron that he had absolutely zero interest in going through his life and career in that fashion. He'd never listened to the show before, so clearly had no idea what was expected of him. To be fair to Maron, he still managed to get an okay interview out of a very private man who doesn't like talking about himself or his work.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Rizla on January 29, 2019, 11:49:09 AMWhen he interviewed Obama I half expected him to ask him if he'd ever auditioned for SNL.

That made me laugh.

I wonder if Maron secretly realises that the reason he never became as revered and successful as many of his stand-up peers is because he's not very good. He's not terrible, just wholly unremarkable.


McFlymo

I just can't stomach the dude at all, at all, at all.

I fucking hate when interviewers interrupt their guests and chip in with pointless summaries of what they've just said and I hate that he constantly brings it back to himself. He's not a very deep or interesting guy and I don't feel he gets anywhere interesting with his guests.

He's obnoxious and shite.

Thanks.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

His recent interview with Christina Hendricks is alright for the most part, but maybe that's because I don't really know much about her. His ABC approach to examining her life story worked, as it actually revealed quite a lot about who she is and where she came from. Fair enough, that's what you want from an interview.

HOWEVER, what is Hendricks most famous for?* Mad Men. Once Maron got to that part of her career, it instantly became clear that he'd never really watched the show. Now, I don't expect him to watch every single episode of a long-running series to research an interview with one of its stars, that's a ridiculous demand, but I cringed when he sounded shocked and confused by her objectively correct claim that Mad Men contained loads of humour. Half an hour spent on Google would've availed him of that fact. The concept of a serious drama also being very funny seemed utterly alien to him.

He's not a very deep or nuanced thinker, is he? I don't really mind the man, he's harmless, but he's an experienced professional comedian who doesn't seem able to grasp commonplace ideas. I suppose that's what happens when you've spent most of your life just thinking about yourself.

*Don't, you're better than that.

Dusty Substance


Hey, folks. Lock the gate* etc.

Thing with Maron, and Herring too, is that they were doing the podcasting thing before most others were. Maron in particular took the idea of eavesdropping on a conversation backstage at a comedy club, where there's no censorship, time limit or barriers of taste. And for that, I'm grateful to him for pioneering what's become my favourite medium in the last decade or so.

However, he is a bit of a somewhat self-aware dick and those intros are interminable.

I've not listened to an episode for ages and looking at the last couple of years of guests I may well dip back into again. Any recommendations since 2017?


(* When I last re-watched Almost Famous a couple of years ago I was really taken aback to realize that Maron was in that film and that was from where "Lock the gate" came from)






Dusty Substance


This thread inspired me to dip back into some of the WTF's I've not heard and went straight for the Coogan interview. Christ, he just said "Briddish hisdory". He sounds like Dave Clifton.

Rolf Lundgren

Coogan's accent is jarring but it does start to wear off after about 20 minutes.

I don't listen to WTF on a regular basis, only dipping into episodes that look interesting so Maron doesn't grate on me. His interview technique is fairly simplistic but I'm pleasantly surprised by his restraint from talking about himself. I keep reading that he's self absorbed and all the rest of it and that may well be true but I couldn't tell you much about his life because he doesn't shoehorn his own experiences into every interview. I am of course not including the opening 15 minutes which I always skip because I'm not insane.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: Rolf Lundgren on April 17, 2019, 06:10:42 PM
Coogan's accent is jarring but it does start to wear off after about 20 minutes.

I don't listen to WTF on a regular basis, only dipping into episodes that look interesting so Maron doesn't grate on me. His interview technique is fairly simplistic but I'm pleasantly surprised by his restraint from talking about himself. I keep reading that he's self absorbed and all the rest of it and that may well be true but I couldn't tell you much about his life because he doesn't shoehorn his own experiences into every interview.

He used to be guilty of that, it was maddening, but over the years he's calmed down a bit. These days he's more content to just ask straightforward questions and let his guests talk. Which is what an interviewer is supposed to do, obviously.

kidsick5000

Quote from: lankyguy95 on January 28, 2019, 05:21:14 PM
What's worse, Maron's preamble or Herring's?

There could be gold in either, but I've sat through enough back in the day to never try again. Always skipped.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

There's never any gold in either, you've made the right choice. Herring's preambles involve nervously delivered, unfunny routines he's only just written in his notebook, and Maron's boring self-indulgence has already been accurately described in this thread.

I don't tend to skip through them as they're actually quite handy. Stick an episode on while you're doing something more useful around the house: cleaning the cat's litter tray, putting your rubbish out, making a cup of tea, going for a piss. By the time you're done with all of that, it's usually time for the guest to come on.

Or I could just not do any of that stuff while skipping through the intros. Whatever, it's a comforting tradition in my house.

Quote from: Pranet on January 28, 2019, 07:26:08 PM
One of my favourite moments in WTF was the icy silence after Marc Maron said to Nick Cave something like "I don't really know much about Australian music apart from AC/DC".

Near-sequel today: Mark Arm, who has spent 31 years politely noting that Seattle's grunge music was based on The Scientists, feedtime, and the Beasts Of Bourbon, not an original idea of his, responded to Maron saying "and then GRUNGE MUSIC, huh! You got that whole thing started!" by politely noting "we were very much inspired by the Australian bands I was listening to at the time."
"AuSTRALian bands! Like who?"
"Oh, the Scientists, the Beasts Of Bourbon. Feedtime, especially."
"I don't know those bands. How did you hear of THEM?"
"Well, you'd read about them in zines and then buy re-" Maron cuts him off to change the topic, as he can't see an opening to talk about rebuying the same 12 Led Zeppelin records every decade of his life.