WTF with Marc Maron (it's a podcast)

After listening to Fitzsimmons on WTF, I actually started listening to selected episodes of his own show. The interview with Natalie Manes from Dixie Chicks last April was a) hilarious and b) O_O

yeah the point was not so much 'it has to be hislop' as his kin.

Just saying that I don't envision this podcast taking an international lean anytime in the near future, except for occasional live shows in other countries or impromptu interviews with new non-American comedian friends.

hence me citing someone non-Hislop in my hilarious theoretical scenario hoy hoy

i think ellen would be a good interview

I'd listen.

Hell, I'd even listen to a Leno interview, but I'd be flipping my iPod a bird the whole time.

Leno would be must listen imo, assuming Maron doesn't get all polite

It'd be fun to hear how Leno would react if he somehow let himself get cornered. I don't think his people would let him anywhere near WTF, though.

Letterman, on the other hand, wouldn't open up or be serious at all if he's not on his own turf. It would be a pointless interview.

Someday, someone will get a good interview out of him.

do not understand american talkshow tradition but still wonder what happened to arsenio hall

and i obv only know arsenio hall for rap references

have you seen Larry Sanders?

Arsenio situation isn't that complicated—a lot of the local tv affiliates that carried his show had to drop it when Letterman's show started on the national CBS network, and that essentially killed it off).

ok but then he disappeared for 15 years?

I have seen the first season of Larry Sanders but its the backstage stuff I find funny, monologues and selling any celebrities shit every day is just RMDE@USA.

do not understand american talkshow tradition but still wonder what happened to arsenio hall

He guest-hosted on Access Hollywood the other day and he legitimately looked like he hasn't aged at all. Very odd.

Well yeah, I don't know where he's been really since 1994. Arsenio would be a great WTF interview.

he did that Sammo Hung cop show, where halfway through they realised they should bring in a sidekick who could deliver some snappy dialogue, as the star couldn't actually speak English

presumably he went hiding for a bit after the talk show was axed, but also got paid enough for it that he's been able to live a comfortable middle-class life and doesn't have a desperate need to see his face on posters

Who would you like to hear interviewed on WTF? I'm waiting for Steven Wright, Nick Offerman, Andy Daly (non-live), Andy Zaltman...

Offerman on Kevin Pollock's podcast is A++++. Check it out if you haven't yet.

My WTF want list is...

Dennis Miller
Paula Poundstone
Brett Butler
Richard Belzer
Dan Aykroyd
Steven Wright
Judy Tenuta

Would love an hour with Belzer!

Dennis Miller would be an insane interview. Doubt it'll ever happen though.

well maron is a fan of stewart lee so brit comedy isnt anathema to him. id love to hear him interview dylan moran.

Lee isn't exactly 'Brit Comedy' as 'Alt Brit Comedy'.

some of my favorite eps have been ones with guys i didn't really know about, like ron shock or eddie brill. i'll listen to any older guy who's been around the block a few times. albert brooks would be cool, or even jeff foxworthy or ron white. or judy tenuta.

He guest-hosted on Access Hollywood the other day and he legitimately looked like he hasn't aged at all. Very odd.

― polyphonic, Monday, August 29, 2011 8:59 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

black dont crack

wrt leno i'd love to hear that ep, and i dont think maron would try to put the screws to him - i think he respects leno's old stand-up more than you guys do even if he isnt a fan of the tonight show, and i dont think it'd be hard for him to find a sympathetic angle

yeah i bet a leno interview would be fairly amicable. maron was raving about that war for late night book for weeks, and after reading it, i actually had a little more sympathy for leno. he's a hack but a hard-working hack and i can't really blame him personally for anything that happened with the conan debacle. plus maron is never a dick to the famous guests.

i've been open about not liking maron much as a personality/comedian so keep that in mind but the idea of the maron/wtf sitcom sounds pretty awful.

do not understand american talkshow tradition but still wonder what happened to arsenio hall

― gay socialists smoking mushrooms with their illegal gardeners (a hoy hoy), Monday, August 29, 2011 8:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Bill Carter's book (The War For Late Night) is a decent resource for what happened/didn't happen to Arsenio. It's largely forgotten now, but Hall was consistently beating Carson in the ratings in major markets in the late 80s/early 90s -- in some cases, crushing him. The fact that he vanished soon after is some combination of bewildering and fucked up.

The Late Shift is the one about Letterman/Carson/Leno/Arsenio, The War for Late Night is the newer one about Conan and Leno

Yeah, I'm still not very sold on Maron himself, he grates on me some times, particularly when he is doing his little pre-interview bits. But I do like how even the guests I couldn't really care less about turn out to be interesting listens. Like the recent Jimmy Shubert one was good, I liked hearing the stories about Kinison and Mitzi Shore between their fits of laughter. I figured I'd abandon that episode early.

xp Oops, you're right, but War For Late Night does have a bit of Arsenio backstory.

I would love a few more Australians next time he travels there like
Wil Anderson
Paul McDermott
Tony Martin

Def. would love Chappelle
Joan Rivers would be killer
Ron White maybe, not for his comedy so much but just bc I hear a lot of comedians like him
Brett Butler would be great

listening to sudeikis, seems like a super nice guy obv but as far as episodes goes it's a bit dull

a lorne michaels episode would be pretty interesting though. hoping richard lewis could persuade larry david to do it as well.

Larry the Cable Guy would be interesting, if he had the balls to not use his character for the interview.

i don't think richard lewis cared about being on one way or the other

As much as I'd love to hear a Lorne Michaels interview, I get the feeling he'd just stonewall Maron when he tried to delve into anything interesting/controversial.

Wil Anderson
Paul McDermott
Tony Martin

Fleet made sense bcz they have common ground to connect on, even without having known each other before. Anderson has no darkness beyond the aching trials of being a sex symbol and doing the same material for 15 years, McDermott hasn't been a comedian since '94 and has never ever displayed any interest in deconstructing or elucidating his persona, and Tony... well, he's opened up about his hideous family history of late in his two books, but still only where he sees an external gag in it, not to ~share~ anything -- and Maron would have to dig into 25 years of material including around 200 hours of radio highlights to find a reason to interview him.

I bet Julia Sweeney would be good.

Stanhope was a pretty insubstantial interview today, yet a fun listen all the same.

I don't know, Stanhope's libertarian rambling revealed him to be kind of an asshole.

I knew that going in. I guess I just gave him a pass since it was altogether mild.

Yeah, I didn't really know Doug Stanhope apart from his Louie guest-spot, and the interview didn't make me want to get to know him further.

same here (though i haven't seen the louie ep yet).

my #1 wtf wish is for him to pick off the rest of the kids in the hall

is Stanhope the guy who pops up on Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe occasionally?

he is, a hoy hoy. im in two minds about stanhope, he can be a great stand-up but sometimes he can pander to his moronic audience too much.

I listened to that Nick Offerman interview (on the Kevin Pollack show) recommended upthread. Good interview. That podcast is weird: lots of famous guests, who get to talk for 2 or 3 hours, but the host is such a non-presence, and you really do have to skip the first 15 minute of name droppiness.

Yah, the Kevin Pollack show can be very hit or miss depending on the guest. He's great at keeping things moving but no surfaces are going to be peeled back.

Having said that, the Steven Tobolosky episode of the KP show may just be my fave podcast episode of anything

ooh ty, I <3 the Tobolowsky Files

I like the turn towards actor interviews this week! Jon Hamm (which was great) and Bryan Cranston (which I just began listening to) are, I hope, just the beginning of a new strand of WTF guests.

one of marc's intros this week was so emasculating it was hard to listen to. like in one intro he talked about over obsessing about his body, about being too scared of dead animals to dispose of them himself, and about his fanboy crush on jon hamm.