WTF with Marc Maron (it's a podcast)

I had to stop Stoller, his voice was too unbearably shrill for me. Also his whine just...nails on a chalkboard

Yeah Bert Kreisher was unbearable.

Todd Glass was pretty interesting. Felt like Maron did some good interviewing, trying to get Todd to drill down into his discomfort.

I haven't listened to Kreischer...now I am glad, lol

whats the russell brand one like? i havent listened to any wtf's in a while.

I enjoyed the Russell Brand one more than his comedy. Came across as bright and affable.

I am so far behind on these.

Yeah, Russell Brand was really good. I thought I hated him, but hearing him talk without watching him be all twitchy helps a lot.

definitely. russ brand seems really smart & reasonably thoughtful. i begrudge his success far less than previously had

His persona is so overwhelming it's sad. Russell Brand the person seems like an interesting guy.

He's very quick too, I loved his riffs with Maron

The Russell Peters one was interesting too--the guy is playing arenas and works outside of Maron's personal heirarchy, that he seemed dumbfounded, while also doing a good interview.

(P.S. I can't write today.)

tbh russell brand was russell brand. but the russell brand of his radio show or halfway thru a season of big brother, not the guy you see in the papers or at scripted hyper show.

really great eps lately; feel like maron's doing much better at connecting with (bigger) celebrities.

the ralphie one was wonderful. love that i can love a conversation so much even when i don't know the interviewee at all.

his interviewing is improving, you can tell he's listening a lot more

it works best when people talk about subjects he is interested in or is knowledgable about. i've got the donald glover one soon and i bet that is super awkward, tbh, because they seem worlds apart in what interests and inspires them.

Nah, the Glover one is good.

i didn't really like the Glover one. Glover comes off as pretty unlikable weirdly. i mean, not that he does or says anything unlikable but more that his demeanor was kinda -- trying too hard maybe? Or just awkward?

haha Ralphie named his daughter April June May

i dont think he got that right

Ralphie May seemed super prepared for that interview. As in: these are my WTF-compatible stories. I think it was the lowest Maron to guest speaking ratio of any episode--mostly Marc saying, "Really?" "Those guys sound like dicks." etc. Still, enjoyable interview.

Stephen Wright wasn't all that revealing or interesting a guest, but he's Stephen fucking Wright, so it was awesome to hear.

^^^ otm re Steven Wright

oh wait, I did find him interesting so *partly* otm :)

What I really loved about the Todd Glass interview was how it was so in-line with how young people think and react when they are finally coming to terms with themselves, but with added benefit/anger/experience of having an adult's perspective. That shit about not being able to hold someone else's hand really resonated for me. I sort of haven't been able to stop thinking about that interview for the past week.

Yeah, I liked that too, how real it was. It made me feel for him that he sort of hung onto "I'm doing this for the kids" like a safety blanket...not that it wasn't a really good motivation but through the interview it was almost like a tic, like he really needed that to talk about himself, how in his mind if he did it this way it'd be okay, he'd be safe somehow.

I'd only come across him a few months ago on another podcast and had found him very sort of animated and almost like a man-child in a way. Maron was right about how it's about as focused as you'll ever hear him.

Oh yeah, "I'm doing this for the kids" as safety blanket is really otm. It's also incredibly poignant, I think, especially considering how often he reverts to juxtaposing kids today (i.e. that story about seeing those two boys in Boston) with his own youth, where he almost seems apologetic when he says that he was ok and his family loved him, AND YET the obvious anger when he says he "didn't get to have a youth."

I also loved Maron, being his close friend, expressing surprise and gratitude at this whole new side of him that he can finally talk about. That's always a response I like hearing, though it's not as prevalent obv: this idea that when someone comes out, their friends have this new aspect of their personality to get to know. It can be a wonderfully intimate thing.

Yeah, absolutely. The stuff he kept going back to about his parents actually did get me thinking, that in a way a supportive household is good, and sure he *should* be comfortable with his sexuality but it just highlights that disconnect that you can't just be gay in your own house, that from what he saw or the way he interpreted everything outside of his house, he could absolutely NOT be gay. And really, it kind of drives home what a huge *mental* leap it is to come out. Not just wrestling with your family and friends being okay with it, but you yourself being okay with it.

I could talk about it for hours, I was very moved by the psychological insights of that interview. Which is kind of gross-sounding, I don't mean to sound like a scientist and a labrat but it made me think a lot about my gay friends.

My husband kind of laughed at me when I told him about the Glass interview, he had never heard of him and was like 'he came out on a podcast, wtf'...but that's the thing. It wasn't even the actual coming out that was notable, as the process, and the emotions of doing that laid out right in front of you, which is something a lot of people might not have much experience with. Including me.

Anyway, tl; dr

I was having dinner with my recently-divorced friend and we were talking about movies we'd seen in the past few months; I brought up the British film Weekend, which was a nice segue into talking about the Todd Glass interview as they both deal with the politicized aspects of identity--of public v. private, marginalization from "mainstream" as well as the marginalization within the "mainstream" of one's own subculture, and the discomfort of straddling complex social lines.

Really when I say that I haven't been able to stop thinking about Glass it's because of how his emotions remind me of my own when I was coming out at 18, and so in a cyclical way it makes me relive a lot of my own coming-out process and its attendant anger and activist tendencies and ambiguity.

I don't know that it's gross-sounding to be moved by the interview; I feel like why it's so special is because we've been inundated with many rote "coming out" narratives, but none of them seem to have gone into such in-depth analysis of someone's neuroses (I mean, he still has trouble saying "gay"!). It was really thrilling because you hardly ever experience someone figuring out themselves right in front you, and finding the words to say all those things he has never been able to.

I really enjoyed both Todd's and Bert's episode. Bert I knew about from his constant appearances on Jay Mohr's show.

xpost, Yes, you nailed it.
It was interesting how he wrestled with the idea of the 'femme' gay, vs how he saw himself...there was definitely an otherness there, that somehow his own 'type' of gayness was quite separate from "that".

please sban me for overuse of airquotes

done :)

Pete Holmes' laugh gets under my skin fer some reason. I can never tell it apart from somebody faking it.

xpost thanks hoy

its my pleasure :)

(i didnt rlly and never could!)

never say never, lol

paul feig's voice sounds like weird al

It was really thrilling because you hardly ever experience someone figuring out themselves right in front you, and finding the words to say all those things he has never been able to.

OTMFM. What a great episode. I want to talk about it for hours.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! Have y'all heard his "follow-up" on his own podcast? In some ways it's much less interesting because it doesn't have that same sense of urgency, even if it has his same manic passion. There is a bit of progression re: his comfort level, though Sarah Silverman guests and provides a nice counterpart in a different way from Maron; where he tried to prod him through his process, she seems to gently confront him on some of his stances.

Todd's episode with Chelsea Peretti was great, especially her Home Shopping bits.

Thanks for the tip, Billy - I will check out Glass's podcst. I'd like to hear the followup!

Sure! I'd be interested to see how you respond to it vs. the Maron one, since it seems to be more about refining his language/views than figuring them out, which is part of what made the Maron interview so exciting. At the very least, he seems like a fascinating, complicated guy.

I've been meaning to listen to that episode w/ Peretti. I assume anyone who writes for Parks & Recreation is going to be hysterical.

The glee with which Maron and Jimmy Kimmel discussed the night Jimmy went on Jay Leno's 10pm show and publicly shamed him to his face and to the audience's approval was so fun to listen to. Otherwise, Jimmy Kimmel is fairly uninteresting.

The viciousness with which Kimmel treated Leno that night was pretty damn great. In case you've never seen the clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axwO6BkCtIo

fuck this matt graham guy. wanted to yell at him several times "maybe all this bad stuff happens to you cause you are an insufferable prick" and then he breaks out that he feels that all women are satan's helpers here to suck the life out of me. good luck on okcupid, dickhead.

lol. 1 of my takeaways from it was at least he used 2 take ghb himself rather than dose chix w/ it

I bailed halfway through because I was getting a real whiney woe is me vibe from him...is it worth listening all the way through?

it got WAY worse. Stay away.

Looking forward to tomorrow, though.

Bill Lawrence. I hope he talks less about Scrubs and Cougar Town and more about Clone High!