WTF with Marc Maron (it's a podcast)

I'm always amazed by the pointlessness of the intros: Marin will tell you his preconceptions of the interview subject, then in the interview he'll tell the subject the same thing using the exact same words

Yeah he did that in the Louis Theroux interview, which seemed to take forever to get started even after it had started. Also I don't get why Maron has to play dumb so often, like when Theroux said he studied at Oxford and Marc says something like, "Oxford? I know it. It's like the Harvard of over there, right?" Is he stalling for time or something - what is that?

He's not always an easy listen, that's for sure.

Also dumbfounding was Marc wasting a bunch of time having Theroux talk about the pronunciation of his name and then in his intro Marc gets it wrong

Ah you wouldn't treat anything theroux told you as unvarnished tho

Also I don't get why Maron has to play dumb so often

i dunno, you might be giving him too much credit there marc doesn't seem to retain a lot of info outside of the topics of

- blues-rock / guitars
- standup
- american film from the 1970s
- old grudges
- rehab
- himself

Marc says something like, "Oxford? I know it. It's like the Harvard of over there, right?"

It was even worse than that, it was something like "Oxford, Cambridge? Whats the difference? Are they the same?" and Louis said "Its like Harvard and Yale, man"

willful ignorance, more like

ha ha yeah Maron is the master of claiming that some stereotype was upended for him through a conversation, and then going back to that stereotype soon after

Saw his Thinky Pain recently, thought it was really good.

Also I don't get why Maron has to play dumb so often

i dunno, you might be giving him too much credit there marc doesn't seem to retain a lot of info outside of the topics of

- blues-rock / guitars
- standup
- american film from the 1970s
- old grudges
- rehab
- himself

― not even my mate ross king sniffed out this hot gossip (bizarro gazzara), Monday, March 20, 2017 12:12 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm and why i stopped listening

I had to stop the Louis Theroux ep when they started talking about Theroux doing Rogan's podcast. Just not into it when he gets faux-combative with guests and all of them that I've tried lately have been either that or obsequious.

Who's doing the interview format well these days?

Kevin Pollack does a good job

xp Joe Rogan is great imo

The Reza Aslan interview today was great, as is generally the case when anyone talks to Reza Aslan.

Who's doing the interview format well these days?

David Axelrod

^ otm

Axelrod's guest list ranges from shitty people (John Kerry) to people who need to be set on fire (Sean Spicer).

But it's rare to hear conversations with people like them that aren't about scoring points. The Paul Simon (musician) one is notable for being one of the only non-excruciating Paul Simon interviews. And the ones with Karl Rove and Hugh Hewitt were surprising.

Adam Buxton's interviews are generally excellent, though the framing is silly and has turned off a couple of people who I recommended it to who didn't know his style.

willful ignorance, more like

This is OTM re: Marc's playing dumb - I think it's closer to a weird defensive stance. It's amazing how the whole show for years has been about how he's evolving past these petty grudges and stifling prejudice about people and if anything it usually feels like he has actually gone backwards

Paul Shaffer! should be good!

Haven't made it to the Ann Hathaway interview, but from the opener sounds like peak crushed-out Maron.

lol the name "Anne Hathaway" didn't click with me for some reason. I thought he was talking about his obsession with Anne Bancroft or some 70s actress. Then when it dawned on me I was like WTF?

you were like wtf wtf, i get it

I remember the period he was all googly about Rachel Getting Married. He controlled himself better here than I'd expected.

So far behind because MM annoys me so much but gotta catch up on these
Walter Hill
Mark Lanegan and Tiny Jangly Magical Hat Man (Mac Demarco)
Mark Mothersbaugh
John Michael Higgins & Maria Bamford

I learnt that Mac DeMarco is not a frat rapper from that WTF episode

Kim Deal is amazing, hey that's not news but still. she sounds like Ruby Wax too. the stuff about Albini is great.

surprised this thread hadn't been updated much lately.

I'm scared to listen to the Kim Deal ep. Maron + woman who is a musician is a scary combo.

seemed like it was mostly "Do you remember this Boston thing? I do too!"

^ yep, it was like 89% this, and then Marc repeatedly calling the Last Splash line up the original.

also attempts to remember Boston things that neither actually could

I tuned in but now I know why I never listen to this guy, he's terrible.

I wonder how this show is doing. My own habit is listening as an afterthought. Have to wonder if things like the Apple Podcast / iTunes redesign hurt the show, with it coming up less front-and-center in my feed the way it used to twice a week.

Looks like hes run out of interesting people to talk to lately tbh

I wouldn't say that. Plenty of recent guests have been great (Rita Moreno, Macauley Culkin, Laurie Metcalf, Derek Waters, Ta-Nehisi Coates). I still listen to it first thing every Monday and Thursday.

I haven't listened to the podcast in ages, but now he stares out at me from my TV whenever the Netflix G.L.O.W.screensaver pops up.

loved the jennifer lawrence ep

NYT photo piece on the Cat Ranch garage.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/arts/television/marc-maron-podcast-garage-moving.html

Good one with Tracy Letts from a few weeks ago.

I abandoned WTF for a long time but have been coming back to it since a lot of the podcasts I like are on hiatus or releasing sporadically lately. After listening to a lot of shows with a WTF-inspired format, it's nice to return and remember "oh right, he is actually good at this." Enjoyed the Culkin one, Duncan Jones, Greta Gerwig, still need to listen to Ta-Nehisi and some of the other recent ones.

Bill Janovitz was a good one today, though he was way more into talking about his writing on the Stones than his own band.

Which reminds me, I can't remember the last time I listened to Buffalo Tom. Will rectify shortly.

Bill Janovitz was a good one today, though he was way more into talking about his writing on the Stones than his own band.

Well, they are his guys.

Oh shit, Sharon Stone is on Monday!!

She's v good in Mosaic

They Might Be Giants also coming up soon

Drew Carey episode that went up today is great.

Agreed!

The recent interview with Neal Brennan is really good, they dig into some deep stuff together. One of my favorite conversations of recent memory imo. (Am already a fan of Brennan’s tho...it might not be so great if you don’t like him)

Recent one with Vanessa Hollingshead is a good one. Had no idea she was Michael Hollingshead's daughter (he's the one who gave LSD to Leary, the Beatles, etc.)

paul mccartney one really bad :(

McCartney repeats his anecdotes word for word in different interviews.