Episode 1600 - Bobbi Althoff - WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

Summary5 min read

WTF with Marc Maron: Episode 1600 - Bobbi Althoff

Release Date: December 16, 2024

Introduction

In Episode 1600 of WTF with Marc Maron, host Marc Maron engages in a candid and revealing conversation with Bobbi Althoff, a viral TikTok star and podcast host. The episode delves deep into Bobbi's journey from aspiring creator to influencer, exploring the challenges and triumphs she has encountered along the way.

Bobbi Althoff’s Early Life and Personal Background

Bobbi Althoff opens up about her tumultuous upbringing, providing listeners with a heartfelt glimpse into her formative years. Growing up in a chaotic household with divorced parents who struggled financially, Bobbi shares how these experiences shaped her resilience and ambition.

[25:29] Bobbi Althoff: "I had such bad anxiety. My whole life, I can't remember not having anxiety, but... It's always been there."

Bobbi's early attempts to overcome personal struggles, including a suicide attempt at the age of 14, highlight her determination to forge a better path for herself.

[27:32] Bobbi Althoff: "I was so sure that my life would never get better, that things would never, ever work out for me."

Venturing into Show Business: From Nanny to Influencer

Transitioning from her challenging childhood, Bobbi discusses her initial foray into the workforce as a nanny. These roles provided her with stability and inspiration, fueling her desire to create a more fulfilling life.

[35:03] Bobbi Althoff: "I worked at three families and still keep in touch with them. It was so nice going into somebody's house and seeing things that were functional and peaceful."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bobbi capitalized on the surge in online activity by starting a mask-making business on Etsy. This entrepreneurial spirit laid the groundwork for her eventual rise on TikTok.

[41:57] Bobbi Althoff: "I made $3,000 on masks. It was so good."

The Rise of Bobbi Althoff on TikTok

Bobbi details her strategy for gaining traction on TikTok, emphasizing the importance of consistency and understanding platform algorithms. Her unique approach involved creating a parody persona that resonated with viewers, leading to viral success.

[46:38] Bobbi Althoff: "I leaned into it. I became a parody of a shitty mom. And people believed anything I put out there."

Her breakthrough moment came with an interview featuring high-profile guests like Drake, which significantly amplified her visibility and solidified her status as a notable influencer.

[63:49] Bobbi Althoff: "When Drake saw our interview, he thought, 'I'll do it.' That was when my life changed."

Balancing Authenticity and Performance

The conversation shifts to the pressures of maintaining an online persona. Bobbi discusses the delicate balance between staying true to herself and performing a character that appeals to her audience.

[68:08] Bobbi Althoff: "When my podcast started to get less views, it was when it became into, like, I started to do so many ad reads. I wanted to go back to when it's not a real podcast."

Bobbi reflects on the mental toll of online fame, highlighting the challenges of dealing with trolls and maintaining mental health amidst constant scrutiny.

[70:45] Bobbi Althoff: "My mental health has always been bad because of social media."

Future Aspirations and Evolving the Brand

Looking ahead, Bobbi shares her aspirations to transition into acting and expand her podcast with the help of a professional team. She expresses a desire to move beyond her current platforms to achieve greater success and creative fulfillment.

[74:37] Bobbi Althoff: "I really want to get into acting, and I know that when I set my mind onto that, it's something that I'm going to succeed at."

Bobbi also discusses the importance of building a support system, including hiring a producer to manage her podcast more effectively, allowing her to focus on creative growth.

[77:27] Bobbi Althoff: "I'm in the process of hiring a producer for myself. I'm so excited to get one. Please, somebody help me."

Conclusion

Marc Maron wraps up the episode by commending Bobbi Althoff for her resilience and innovative approach to modern show business. He reflects on how Bobbi’s story exemplifies the evolving landscape of entertainment, where traditional paths are often bypassed in favor of digital entrepreneurship.

Marc Maron: "I liked her story and her moxie and her ambition and just, you know, learning about how the new show business works."

Key Takeaways

Resilience in Adversity: Bobbi's challenging upbringing instilled in her a strong drive to succeed and create a better life.
Entrepreneurial Spirit: Her ability to pivot from various jobs to online entrepreneurship showcases adaptability and strategic thinking.
Navigating Online Fame: Bobbi's journey underscores the complexities of maintaining authenticity while managing a public persona in the digital age.
Future Growth: Her aspirations highlight the potential for influencers to diversify their careers and explore new creative avenues.

Notable Quotes

On Overcoming Struggles:

[27:32] Bobbi Althoff: "I was so sure that my life would never get better, that things would never, ever work out for me."
On Building Her Brand:

[46:38] Bobbi Althoff: "I became a parody of a shitty mom. And people believed anything I put out there."
On Mental Health and Social Media:

[70:45] Bobbi Althoff: "My mental health has always been bad because of social media."
On Future Aspirations:

[74:37] Bobbi Althoff: "I really want to get into acting, and I know that when I set my mind onto that, it's something that I'm going to succeed at."

Final Thoughts

Episode 1600 serves as a compelling narrative of Bobbi Althoff's ascent in the digital world, offering listeners valuable insights into the dynamics of modern fame and the personal costs that can accompany it. Marc Maron's engaging interview style brings out the depth of Bobbi's experiences, making this episode a must-listen for anyone interested in the intersections of personal growth and digital entrepreneurship.

Note: For those interested in exploring more about Bobbi Althoff or listening to the full episode, please visit WTF with Marc Maron.

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Transcript757 lines

[00:02]
Marc Maron
Hey, folks. Today's episode is sponsored by Squarespace. We've always recommended Squarespace as the best way to build your online presence. But now Squarespace comes equipped with design intelligence. Powered by cutting edge AI technology, Design intelligence helps you build a website perfectly tailored to your needs. Go check out wtfpod.com to see a website powered by Squarespace. Then head over to squarespace.com wtf for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code WTF to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com WTF? Offer code WTF. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. All right. Let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers? What the fuck, buddies? What the fuck? Knicks, what's happening? I'm Mark Marin. This is my podcast. How's it going? What's going on there? Everything all right with the thing? How's that. That spot? Did you get it checked out? What's going on with that? With that? That issue with the kid? How's everything going with your foot? What's going on with what? Are you going to cook for the thing? Is the car running better now? When can you go back to the gym? That seems crazy. Oh, really? You had it for, what, two weeks? Yeah, yeah, it's going around. How's everybody doing? Okay. Did I mention I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast. Did I mention that it's called WTF? What's happening? Going strong since 2009. A new show every Monday and Thursday, and now new bonus material every Tuesday and Friday. Geez, that's a lot of yapping. Today on the show, I talked to Bobby Altoff. Yeah. I'd like to talk to you about her if I could because it's an interesting thing. Look, I'm a bit out of the game in terms of keeping up with whatever youth culture is or whatever the cultural momentum is to make us all part of youth culture, if there's even a culture that we can kind of frame as that. But Bobby Altoff is somebody who, you know, I scroll. I have a problem. I have a. I have a scrolling problem. And she pops up occasionally. She. Maybe you've seen her. She does these. She kind of does these. I don't even know if they're snarky, but she does these very intentionally awkward interviews with a lot of black entertainers. But I don't. Maybe you've seen the one of her and Drake where she has this disposition that's very kind of subdued and a bit Pointed and maybe you've seen her, she got long hair. But I saw her do a bit with my friend Andrew Santino and my friend Bobby Lee, and I was kind of curious about her. I didn't know if she was a comedian or where she fell in the world. And I don't know a lot of that. I don't know most of the people that are stars on TikTok or YouTube or Instagram. I don't know who these people are. I always assume, I'm always surprised when I'm, you know, when people are like, oh, yeah, I sold out an arena. Yeah, what are you, what do you do? I do conversations with my dog. I'm like, I have no idea who you are, but congratulations, I guess. But Bobby, I was curious about her. I think it was driven initially by the fact like, well, I mean, if Bobby and Santino talk to her, I mean, why am I not part of this party? Why am I not part of what the kids are doing? Where's my time? But I did find her kind of curious and, and I don't know a lot about this new landscape of show business. I do know that it shifted. I do know that there's an, a new kind of tribalized show business that revolves around YouTube, podcasts and comedians and right wing garbage. I know that somehow or we live in a time where old school mainstream show business has contracted into something that seems confused and without relevance in a lot of ways through streamers and whatnot. But then there's this whole other very exciting, it seems area of show business that occurs on TikTok and Instagram and it's not nothing. I mean, some of these people are getting ratings or at least views of short content driven stuff that parallels what TV shows used to get when there were three networks on the air. So there are big stars in this world. And I think it's a tenuous world and it's primarily self driven by the people that are doing it. And it can all go away rather quickly, I believe. And that seems to happen all of a sudden someone is celebrating for having a candid moment out in public on camera about spitting on a dick. And next thing you know, she might be in trouble for some sort of crypto scam. And then they kind of fade into the woodwork. But fading into the woodwork is more like fading into the digital atmosphere where you're still kind of there kind of doing what you always did. It's just no one really gives a fuck. All that said, I wanted to talk to Bobby, I did her show recently, but I wanted to talk to her about this new show business and, you know, her journey into it and how she became a kind of viral star. I mean, she started doing TikTok videos and developed a following around those with that character she does. And she's now the host of the really Good podcast, which is what I was on. And we shot it at Santa Dor, the cat shelter, which was funny and it was fun, but I knew I had to be kind of, you know, standoffish and bust her balls a little bit. And it's not really my nature, especially now with somebody I don't know that well, but I did it after I talked to her. But anyway, I found the interview to be enlightening and I liked her a great deal. And it does. It is a good, you know, story about what it takes to be, whether it's an influencer or, you know, a viral phenomenon, which is really, you know, sadly, in some ways where most of show business lies now to the point where you've got old school show business just glomming on to whoever can generate some money one way or the other, any way or the other. And so they're shifting as well. So that's, that's who's on the show today. My 2025 tour kicks off in Sacramento, California at the Crest Theater on Friday, January 10th. I'm in Napa at the Uptown Theater on Saturday, January 11th. Fort Collins, Colorado, at Lincoln Center Performance Hall, January 17th. That's a Friday. Boulder, Colorado, at the Boulder theater on Saturday, January 18th. Those Colorado shows might be sold out. I'll be in Santa Barbara, California at the Lobaro theater on Thursday, January 30th. Then San Luis Obispo, California at the Fremont center on Friday, January 31st. Monterey, California, at the Golden State Theater on Saturday, February 1st. A lot of other dates coming up in a lot of red states. It almost looks like a red state tour, which I don't, you know, I didn't anticipate and I think a few months ago I was nervous about, and I'll probably be nervous about it as well as I head into them. But I know you're out there. I know you're out there in Kansas and Oklahoma and the Carolinas. I know that what's going to happen after January 20th is, you know, somehow or another, these shows will become kind of a safe space to speak our minds or hear me speak mine. I'll do what I can. I'm. I'm right there with you. But you can go to wtfpod.com tour for all my dates and links to tickets. But I am right there with you. I, you know, I think we have a weird kind of menacing lull going on right now. Did you all do your gift shopping yet? Have you? I've got something you can get for your whole family right now. The gift of peace of mind. Simplisafe is our choice for home security. And even though Black Friday was weeks ago, you can still get their Black Friday deal if you use my code. Get all the Simplisafe features we've told you about over the years, as well as all the latest achievements in professional monitoring, like the Simplisafe Active Guard Outdoor Protection. Simplisafe agents will be able to see suspicious activity on your property in real time and prevent crime before it happens. Hey, get off the porch. I see you. And like I said, Simplisafe is extending its massive Black Friday deal for WTF listeners this week. You can take 50% off any new system with a select professional monitoring plan. This is your last chance to get their best offer of the year. Head to SimpliSafe.com WTF to claim your discount and make sure your home is safe this season. Don't wait. This offer won't last long. Keep your home, your family and your peace of mind protected by going to simplisafe.com wtf. There's no safe like Simplisafe. When do I. When do I start to enjoy the good things? That's what I was thinking about people I know that, you know, are very successful to the point of like, wow, what do you even do with that level of success? And they've got everything they want and they go out and they do things. They do stuff. They buy fancy cars, they'll stay at a fancy hotel. Look, I'll fly business. And I, you know, I'll eat, you know, wherever I want to eat. But I don't. I don't know what it is with me. What are the good things? I guess that's something everyone has to decide on their own. And I think about stuff. I'm like, why don't you buy a nicer car? I'm like, why? You know, why don't you go on a nice trip? I'm like, I don't know. I don't have to. After a couple of days, I'm just me in another place and it's not amazing. I've got to figure it out. Time is running short. I've got to figure out what the good things. All I know Is that I was with Terminix exterminator guy in my crawl space under the house yesterday, trying to figure out where these fucking rats are coming in. And I thought I'd plugged all the holes, but he said, no, look at these holes around these pipes. I'm like, they can get in those. And he's like, yup. And I'm like, that's crazy. How do they even do that? He's like, well, I don't know. It's all cartilage, and they just kind of make themselves. They can kind of worm their way in there like a rat. And I'm like, oh, my God. And I had some of that foam, you know that. That foam stuff that you fill holes with? And I was just, like, squirting that around the pipe holes. And it's like, it makes this big foamy thing that gets hard. And I thought that was great. And I'm like, this is the good stuff. This is where. This is one of the good things. I guess it's the little things. I don't know. But, you know, I could. Man, I could spend a morning or at least a couple hours just foaming holes. You know, I. Maybe I'm in the wrong line of work. You know, when you find that kind of stuff, you know, totally rewarding, and think, like, you know, this is. This is what I worked for. I don't know. Most people would just have some guy do that, But I'm like, I got the foam stuff. He's like, you should put it in there. I'm like, oh, my God, this is amazing. I'll do it. I'll do it. Okay, so, Bobby Altov. I. I will tell you again that I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation to the point where I told Brendan, I'm like, you're gonna like this one. This is a good episode. As I mentioned before, Bobby Altoff is the host of the really Good podcast, which you can listen to where you get podcasts or watch on YouTube. I think I'm gonna be on there mid January at some point. And this is me meeting and talking to Bobby Altoff. I got a lot of travel coming up. Going to New York, New Jersey. I got the tour dates next year. Once I'm on the plane or in the car, I'm good. Leading up to that moment, a little stressed out. And look, if you've got a lot of travel coming up or maybe one big trip that requires a lot of planning, it probably feels like you have a lot on your plate. You might think that hosting your place on Airbnb while you're away is too much of a hassle. But what if someone else took care of everything for you? That's what can happen now with the Airbnb co hosting network. You can get a co host to handle all the hosting duties for you. These are high quality local co hosts who take care of your home and your guests. They'll create the listing for you, manage your reservations, and even send messages to your guests. Then the co host will be on hand for any support your guests might need when they're at your place. So someone else takes care of everything and you still make some cash while you're away and your space is being unused. Now go make your travel plans and let a co host handle everything else. Find a co host@airbnb.com host is it too loud?
[13:37]
Bobby Altoff
No, no, no. It feels so cool.
[13:39]
Marc Maron
Does it? Yeah, it's audio.
[13:41]
Bobby Altoff
I never do.
[13:42]
Marc Maron
It's old school.
[13:43]
Bobby Altoff
I never have the headphones.
[13:44]
Marc Maron
No. Really?
[13:45]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. I like it, though.
[13:47]
Marc Maron
Well, I mean, I think when you do video, you don't really need it.
[13:50]
Bobby Altoff
No.
[13:50]
Marc Maron
Yeah, it helps when you do audio to hear yourself.
[13:53]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[13:54]
Marc Maron
So, like, why were you late?
[13:56]
Bobby Altoff
Let me tell you.
[13:58]
Marc Maron
You better have a good one because I was about to get mad.
[14:00]
Bobby Altoff
No. Okay. You know what? So many parts of this I fucked up. I really thought that it was at three. So I planned my whole day around it being at three. And I was like, so my kid goes to her dad. Both of my kids go to their dad's on Wednesdays, so I like to see them for a little while. So my kid gets out of school at 2. So I said, okay, I'm gonna go pick her up at 1 early out of school so I can spend time with her. And then I'm gonna leave the house at 2 o'clock and then be on time.
[14:29]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[14:30]
Bobby Altoff
So I picked her up at one, we went to Baskin Robbins, and then we get back to the house. My assistant sends a text to my sister and is like, are you guys on your way? She's like, on your. On our way. And she's like, bobby, it starts at 2. We don't leave the house at 2. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. So I was like, bye, kids. Gotta go. Ran out of the house. I was able to shave off 11 minutes. So I was like, okay, we're not going to be that late. I regained the whole 11 minutes by missing the turn onto the. Is it the two you're off of?
[15:00]
Marc Maron
Kind of, yeah.
[15:00]
Bobby Altoff
Okay.
[15:01]
Marc Maron
I'm 34, the two.
[15:03]
Bobby Altoff
And then I was supposed to go that way, and I was like, no, I got all the time I saved. Came right back on.
[15:09]
Marc Maron
Well, you know, if there weren't kids involved, I'd be more angry.
[15:14]
Bobby Altoff
It was truly me trying to plan my day around seeing my kids for a little bit more.
[15:19]
Marc Maron
How old's that kid?
[15:20]
Bobby Altoff
She's four. So she's in preschool.
[15:23]
Marc Maron
Oh, wow.
[15:23]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, my youngest is two.
[15:25]
Marc Maron
Oh, wow. There's so. That's a lot of. It takes a lot.
[15:29]
Bobby Altoff
It does.
[15:29]
Marc Maron
High maintenance.
[15:30]
Bobby Altoff
They're so high maintenance. And they get very sad if the days that they go to their dad's go at five.
[15:36]
Marc Maron
Right.
[15:36]
Bobby Altoff
They don't get to see me between school and then their dad, so I try to sneak in. So I got her out of school early to make it, and I still messed up.
[15:43]
Marc Maron
It's so hard.
[15:44]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Do you have kids?
[15:46]
Marc Maron
No. No, I do. I didn't do it.
[15:48]
Bobby Altoff
That's the hardest thing in the entire world. But it's the. It, like, hurts how much I love my kids.
[15:56]
Marc Maron
That's why I think that's the way it's supposed to be. I mean, I think if there's any other way, it would be bad.
[16:01]
Bobby Altoff
That would be.
[16:02]
Marc Maron
But you had them so young.
[16:03]
Bobby Altoff
I did. I was 22 when I had my oldest, 24 when I had the second.
[16:07]
Marc Maron
Well, what? Was that always the plan?
[16:10]
Bobby Altoff
Honestly? Yes. But I was a nanny before, and I love.
[16:18]
Marc Maron
I've loved kids my whole life, and you can leave.
[16:21]
Bobby Altoff
You can. I didn't. You know what, though? I would dream about, like, the parents letting me have overnights with them. I'd be like, if you guys want to go on a vacation, just, like, let me take care of them. You can leave. Don't even charge me. Yeah, that never happened. And I started dating my kid's dad when I was 21.
[16:42]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[16:43]
Bobby Altoff
And by 22, I got pregnant.
[16:45]
Marc Maron
You had kids?
[16:46]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And I was. I wanted.
[16:47]
Marc Maron
It was all on purpose.
[16:48]
Bobby Altoff
They were both on purpose.
[16:50]
Marc Maron
Yeah. And. And. And you're thrilled about it?
[16:53]
Bobby Altoff
I love being a mom. It's, like, the most exhausting. I think my life would be a little bit easier without them, but I just. I love it. I want 20 more kids if I could have them.
[17:02]
Marc Maron
Well. Well, how many kids in your family?
[17:04]
Bobby Altoff
I am one of six, but we have different dads, different moms, spread through there, you know?
[17:10]
Marc Maron
No, I don't know.
[17:12]
Bobby Altoff
No, Never heard of that.
[17:14]
Marc Maron
I've heard of it, so. Okay.
[17:16]
Bobby Altoff
So lots of half siblings.
[17:17]
Marc Maron
Oh, okay.
[17:18]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[17:18]
Marc Maron
But you were all in the same house growing up?
[17:20]
Bobby Altoff
No, no, no. But my mom had a daycare in my house growing up for my first seven years of my life, and I think that really made me love babies.
[17:27]
Marc Maron
Yeah, I think that would do it.
[17:29]
Bobby Altoff
But some of my siblings ended up hating kids. But some of us, it went one or two ways. Either loved it or you hated it.
[17:36]
Marc Maron
Yeah. So wait, so how did it work? So your dad had my.
[17:40]
Bobby Altoff
So my mom had three kids before she met my dad.
[17:43]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[17:44]
Bobby Altoff
And then my dad recently, as in within the last 10 years, found out that he actually had. So he thought when he met my mom, she thought he had no more kids.
[17:52]
Marc Maron
What do you mean? But he did have kids.
[17:53]
Bobby Altoff
We found out in the last 10 years through Ancestry that he had a son 40 years at the time. It was 40 years ago.
[18:02]
Marc Maron
Wait, so when he married your mom, he had no kids that he knew about? Yeah, but now there's one.
[18:07]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, it was the pastors. So I'll tell you. My. My aunt one day calls my dad.
[18:13]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[18:13]
Bobby Altoff
And says, hey, does the last name blank ring about? My dad goes, yeah, that was the daughter of the pastor that I used. I mean, like, it was the pastor's family of the church that I used to go to. And she said, okay, well, through ancestry, it's saying that he has. Like, he's been looking for his dad his whole life. And it's saying he has a close relative in our family. And my dad goes, oh, because he knew he slept with his mom.
[18:41]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God.
[18:41]
Bobby Altoff
She never told him or anything, though. So once he turned in his adulthood, tried to look for his father and used ancestry, connected to my aunt and found my dad. And now I'm going to take my kids in December to go spend two weeks near. Near his house.
[18:57]
Marc Maron
So you just met him when? How many years ago?
[18:59]
Bobby Altoff
Five years ago.
[19:00]
Marc Maron
Was it totally weird?
[19:02]
Bobby Altoff
It was so weird at first. At first I was like, who is this guy?
[19:05]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[19:05]
Bobby Altoff
Now my brother. I was pretty mad at first because I was like, my dad had an.
[19:09]
Marc Maron
Affair with somebody and had.
[19:10]
Bobby Altoff
No, it was before my mom.
[19:13]
Marc Maron
No, but I mean. Right, but was she married when he.
[19:16]
Bobby Altoff
No, no, no. Because it was the daughter of that past. They were just both young.
[19:20]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God. Yeah.
[19:21]
Bobby Altoff
So my dad lived his whole life thinking he waited to have kids late, but really he had a kid when he was younger.
[19:26]
Marc Maron
Oh, my. So how did he react to that?
[19:28]
Bobby Altoff
He is so nonchalant that he truly was just like, yeah, I have a son now. And then started spending all of his money buying Disneyland tickets and Everything for that family. And I was like, dad, you don't have money to be doing this. What are you doing? But then he was just trying to make up for lost time.
[19:43]
Marc Maron
How old was the kid?
[19:44]
Bobby Altoff
40. 40 years old when he met my dad. He has. But he has kids, so we. My dad was taking all of the kids to Disneyland.
[19:52]
Marc Maron
Oh, so your brother's 45?
[19:54]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, now he is. My dad is 70.
[19:58]
Marc Maron
Oh, so.
[19:59]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[19:59]
Marc Maron
So your dad's got these grandkids too?
[20:01]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah, he got the whole thing. He loves it, too, because he bec. Like, it was right before I had my first kid. So he became a grandpa to three kids. I mean, two kids really quickly. And I was like. So he took that title from my dad before I got.
[20:14]
Marc Maron
And he has a relationship with them?
[20:15]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, yeah. My dad is so close with these. This whole.
[20:18]
Marc Maron
Over the last five years.
[20:19]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, we go there. I went this last year, I took my kids to Hawaii and they. We all were in Hawaii for. For their birthdays.
[20:26]
Marc Maron
Are the grandkids your kids age?
[20:28]
Bobby Altoff
No, they're. They're like 10 years older.
[20:30]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God. It's like this whole other family tree.
[20:34]
Bobby Altoff
It's amazing, though. But you.
[20:36]
Marc Maron
So you grew up with three half siblings?
[20:39]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, and then I got one more.
[20:41]
Marc Maron
So you're the only kid of your parents?
[20:43]
Bobby Altoff
Me and my little sister, the one that was sitting on the side here.
[20:45]
Marc Maron
And you grew up here?
[20:47]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, we lived in Claremont, which is pretty close to here.
[20:50]
Marc Maron
So you grew up in la?
[20:51]
Bobby Altoff
Ish, Kind of, yeah. My grandma lived in Pasadena her whole life, and after high school, I spent a lot of time at her house in Pasadena. Yeah.
[20:58]
Marc Maron
So, like. Like, I know you deal with a lot of friends of mine. Yeah, I do, but never asked me to be on your show.
[21:06]
Bobby Altoff
I. Now I am.
[21:07]
Marc Maron
No, it's too late.
[21:08]
Bobby Altoff
It's not too late. It's never too late. But.
[21:11]
Marc Maron
But I think you're different now.
[21:13]
Bobby Altoff
I'm. I'm the same person.
[21:16]
Marc Maron
No, it seems like you're. You're doing something other than that character.
[21:20]
Bobby Altoff
No, you know what? I. You're right. I kind of stopped for a second. I think the thing is about comedy is I started more trying to be in comedy, and then I started to read way too many comments, read way too much about how much people hated this character of mine, and I tried to become too likable, I think, but that doesn't do as well as the character. So I've recently gone back to the same character. So, like, in the next season that's coming out the next year, like, we need to completely bring back the character and just have it be the old days. Cause that's how it does best. That's how I. It's more fun doing it like that. It's just.
[21:57]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[21:57]
Bobby Altoff
So, yeah, I'm going back to it and.
[21:59]
Marc Maron
Okay. So. Because, like, I started in podcasting 2000. What, nine.
[22:05]
Bobby Altoff
That's crazy.
[22:06]
Marc Maron
Yeah. And I do it the same way I always have. So, like, when I started doing it, it was sort of similar to, like, but a different. A whole different system. Like, there were no podcasts when I started.
[22:17]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[22:17]
Marc Maron
And then it just became this thing that kind of grew up around me and the other guys that were doing it, but a lot of them have gone to video. So you started in a whole different sort of world, but it was equally as unknown in terms of how you were going to make a living or do whatever you were going to do. So when you growing up, I mean, what was your plan?
[22:40]
Bobby Altoff
My plan? I don't know. I think I had a crazy childhood. As in, I wanted to grow up so bad. I wanted to be crazy.
[22:49]
Marc Maron
How.
[22:51]
Bobby Altoff
Just chaotic. Never at peace.
[22:53]
Marc Maron
But your parents were. Stay married?
[22:55]
Bobby Altoff
They were divorced when I was 10, but they lived in the same house till I was 16. And they just fought all the time. And it was just. It was really.
[23:03]
Marc Maron
There were five kids there.
[23:05]
Bobby Altoff
There was only me and my little sister at that time. My older siblings were older than me. So when we. When we moved to. Are you familiar with Paris, California?
[23:13]
Marc Maron
No.
[23:13]
Bobby Altoff
It's like. Do you know where Riverside county is? Yeah, it's out there.
[23:16]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[23:17]
Bobby Altoff
So we moved to Riverside county and it was just me and my little sister. My older sister ended up moving in with her dad, and my older brothers were in college.
[23:24]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[23:25]
Bobby Altoff
So it was just me and my sister, and we grew up. I don't. We just wanted to be. Grow up really, really bad.
[23:33]
Marc Maron
So it was crazy in the house.
[23:34]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. It was just not a peaceful environment. It was an environment that I very much wanted to have kids and give them something completely different because I was like, I don't want that.
[23:45]
Marc Maron
You wanted to be a good parent with a vengeance.
[23:47]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Like, look, this is what I would have turned out, like, if you guys were good, good parents.
[23:51]
Marc Maron
How's that going? Are you doing it?
[23:53]
Bobby Altoff
I think so. I would say I. I think that I am a pretty good mom. I am very much. That's all I do. I think that's. I'm mainly a mom, and sometimes I work, but so.
[24:04]
Marc Maron
So, okay, so you grow up in this chaos. But you like your parents.
[24:08]
Bobby Altoff
I love them. They're different now than they were then. They didn't know how to raise kids. They. My dad lacks patience. Yeah, very much so. He, like. If we were bad and stuff, he didn't know how to handle things, so he wasn't gonna. I would beg my dad to ground me because I was like, can you have some Just regular parenting rules. I want you to ground me. I want you to, like, treat me like my friends get treated. But instead, he resorted to unhealthy ways of disciplining and my mom, too. So it's like, I've never had hitting and screaming and cussing and.
[24:45]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[24:46]
Bobby Altoff
Just saying the meanest things that.
[24:47]
Marc Maron
How were their lives? Were they miserable?
[24:49]
Bobby Altoff
They. Yeah, they were broke and they fought a lot about money. Like, a lot. When the recession happened, I remember my dad was at home way too much, and it really, like, my mom and him just fought, and we. We were always. My dad would often break the law doing stupid things like trying to save money. He would. I remember having such anxiety driving because I knew that our. Our car had the. The, you know, the little registration tag. The number.
[25:19]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[25:20]
Bobby Altoff
It was always printed off of his printer. Like, he would get one for one of the cars, pay for one, or get a friend to pay for one, and then he would photocopy it and just glue it onto the cars.
[25:31]
Marc Maron
Oh, through the little number for the year.
[25:32]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah. Because he couldn't. We couldn't pay for it, so he didn't want to get pulled over, so he would just do that. And I remember driving all the time, like, my, this is illegal. I'm gonna get in trouble.
[25:41]
Marc Maron
Full of anxiety.
[25:41]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, such. I've had such bad anxiety. My whole. I can't remember not having anxiety, but.
[25:47]
Marc Maron
Well, that's what happens when you grow up in chaos.
[25:49]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[25:49]
Marc Maron
You just get like. And then you, like, either become, like, a completely out of control weirdo or a control freak.
[25:56]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And I'm a control freak and a weirdo, but I'm. I'm a very much control freak.
[26:01]
Marc Maron
I think that's the one benefit of growing up in chaos is that if you go that way. Yeah, you're a little tightly wrapped, but at least, you know, you have your shit together vigilantly.
[26:10]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. I look around and I'm like, I want to be just in control of every little thing around me.
[26:15]
Marc Maron
And why would you not? Right. So it was all this little, like, little breaking the law that just caused.
[26:21]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, but you knew it. I always knew that he was. Because my mom would always tell us, like, your dad just does this and this and this. And I would always be like, oh, my gosh. He's going to be like, your dad could go to jail. And I'd be like, my dad's going to go to jail.
[26:32]
Marc Maron
Oh, my God.
[26:33]
Bobby Altoff
How do I. Like, I lived in fear my dad would go to jail. We lived in our house, but didn't pay a mortgage for so long. So the bank would come and take photos of our house, put them on the foreclosure sites, and then we'd have to, like. I remember having to put. We'd put, like, blankets on our windows and, like, try to cover it up. We'd park our cars always in the garage or, like, just make it hard to tow away.
[26:55]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[26:56]
Bobby Altoff
And our cars would be repossessed, or we'd go to grocery stores and it was a hit or miss whether or not the card would swipe and it would work, or they would be like, sorry, you're not. This isn't going to work. Or at school, my dad's favorite thing to do was to write checks that would get bounced. So it was, like, constant.
[27:13]
Marc Maron
Yeah. And you're older than your sister.
[27:14]
Bobby Altoff
I am three years older than her. Yeah. And so she actually is a little better than me.
[27:18]
Marc Maron
Well, yeah, because you took all the weight of it.
[27:21]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. I had. She. She grew up in a little bit more peaceful times.
[27:24]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[27:24]
Bobby Altoff
So when I was. When I was 16, I tried to kill myself. No, not 16. 14.
[27:30]
Marc Maron
14.
[27:30]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[27:31]
Marc Maron
Do you remember the moment?
[27:33]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I remember it. I. I had kind of, like, toyed with the idea for a little while before, but. As in, I would sit there and cry in my bathtub and be like, I'm going to do it. But I would never actually take steps to do it. I would just kind of think about it until I remember one day coming home from school, and everything was just chaos. My parents were fighting. Kids at school were just. They were high school students. I didn't fit in at my school at all.
[27:59]
Marc Maron
Why?
[28:00]
Bobby Altoff
Because I was. We. My mom didn't want us to go to the schools by our house, so she put me in, like, the. We used a guy's address that was in, like, the nicer neighborhood.
[28:08]
Marc Maron
I did that with my dad's office address because my friends went to another school. Oh.
[28:12]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[28:12]
Marc Maron
But it wasn't because it was a better school. I just had more friends there.
[28:16]
Bobby Altoff
See, you had a good reason. Mine was like, I actually. Sometimes I wish I went to the other school because maybe I would have fit in more. But then also I probably would have turned out not very good because I would have probably done, I don't know.
[28:27]
Marc Maron
Criminal.
[28:27]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I probably would have. So I'm like, thankfully, I guess my parents did put me into. But I. Because of that, all the, the kids were middle class and I wasn't middle class and I.
[28:35]
Marc Maron
They bullied you? Bullied you for that?
[28:37]
Bobby Altoff
I just, I think it was mostly in my head. I did not want people to come over to my house because it was embarrassing. I didn't. It was just embarrassing. Like my house was falling apart and it was a really nice. My dad built our house. It was a very beautiful house at its prime.
[28:54]
Marc Maron
What did he do?
[28:55]
Bobby Altoff
Your dad build houses? So he built our house.
[28:59]
Marc Maron
So he did a good job with that?
[29:01]
Bobby Altoff
No, because it was falling apart and.
[29:05]
Marc Maron
He couldn't fix it.
[29:06]
Bobby Altoff
No, because we couldn't afford to. He took out so many loans to build this house that he was just bad with money. It was like we'd had times with having money, but he was so bad with it that like it would go away and we would, we. Sometimes we'd have Disney passes and then sometimes we wouldn't because it was like he wouldn't pay that month and then we couldn't go. He's like, he had this idea of us being this perfect middle class family, but it's never.
[29:28]
Marc Maron
Yeah, he wanted. It didn't work out. He was always struggling to make it happen.
[29:32]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[29:33]
Marc Maron
So when you tried to suicide yourself, was it anxiety?
[29:37]
Bobby Altoff
No, it was depression. I was so sure that my life would never get better, that things would never, ever work out for me. I was like, you're always going to be this like misfit. Nobody's ever going to like you. You'll never fit in. You'll never be good enough. So I went to my room that night and I was like, you're done. Like, this is it. Like, I don't want to do this anymore. I could have done better planning. It wasn't like the smartest way to do it because it didn't were clearly, I'm here, I better.
[30:01]
Marc Maron
You didn't do better planning?
[30:02]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I mean it is. I ended up just like, I remember taking a lot of Tylenol. I took like one of the Costco ones and just kept taking them and taking them and taking them. So I just ended up in the frickin er for two weeks. My mom woke me up, like, came in and was like, what? She saw the note. Obviously I had locked the door. She like broke into the room or something.
[30:21]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[30:22]
Bobby Altoff
And then was like, what did you do? What did you do? And then dragged me to the hospital where they like, I was in ICU for a week. It was. It was.
[30:30]
Marc Maron
Were you in a coma or something?
[30:31]
Bobby Altoff
No, my liver was pretty fucked from like all of the. But they ended up being able to. Whatever they did in there, I was fine.
[30:37]
Marc Maron
So your liver bounced back.
[30:39]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Which was always a big fear of going forward was. It's like I had to limit. Like, okay, don't drink too much. Like you're. But ended up bouncing back. So I was.
[30:48]
Marc Maron
Your numbers are good.
[30:49]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I'm good now.
[30:50]
Marc Maron
But like, when you didn't succeed, what was the feeling?
[30:55]
Bobby Altoff
I was so angry. And they made you feel so stupid in the hospital. Like, see with what you tried, people don't end up dying. They just end up like quadriplegic. And I was like, you dumb bitches. I wanted to go. And now you're making me feel like more bad that I didn't succeed. Like, you're just making me come back with a vengeance. I'm gonna do it right next time.
[31:13]
Marc Maron
What do you got around here that I can.
[31:15]
Bobby Altoff
I know. I was like, that sucks. But then because of that, my parents separated. Like, they. The. They forced my parents to go not live together anymore, so.
[31:24]
Marc Maron
Oh, who did? The state.
[31:25]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah. I had to take. I had to go to like, therapy and stuff. Like, I had to live with my brother until my parents would separate houses.
[31:34]
Marc Maron
So. So they actually stepped in, like the domestic courts or something and said someone.
[31:40]
Bobby Altoff
Stepped in and I couldn't go.
[31:41]
Marc Maron
That it was an unhealthy environment.
[31:43]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And I would have to go have meetings with CPS where my mom would be able. My shoulder. Like, you tell them anything, they'll take them away. And I was like, okay.
[31:50]
Marc Maron
I was like, take woo away you away. Me.
[31:51]
Bobby Altoff
They kept saying. My parents were like. My mom was trying to like, scare me into thinking CPS would just take me if I said too much. So I was trying to be very careful of, like, why.
[32:02]
Marc Maron
When they decided what they. It sounded like they were ready to break up anyways.
[32:06]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. They didn't live. They were on separate sides. They were divorced. They were on completely separate sides of my dad's house.
[32:11]
Marc Maron
So he had to get out.
[32:12]
Bobby Altoff
No, she left. So she got an apartment and.
[32:15]
Marc Maron
And you went with her?
[32:16]
Bobby Altoff
No, I. I went with her, like, here and there. My mom only had a one bedroom apartment.
[32:21]
Marc Maron
How'd they decide that she was the one to go?
[32:23]
Bobby Altoff
My mom hated the house. Oh, she hated it from day one. So she. She was ready. She was like, all right, fine. That was what she needed.
[32:31]
Marc Maron
Stayed in the house with him.
[32:33]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And then. But that was when I was 14. And then when I was 18, I moved out. So it was four years. It wasn't too long.
[32:39]
Marc Maron
But the suicidal stuff left because of therapy and because of.
[32:42]
Bobby Altoff
You know, it always was there. It's always been there.
[32:46]
Marc Maron
Really.
[32:47]
Bobby Altoff
It's. It's not anymore.
[32:49]
Marc Maron
I would say, because you're ungrounded.
[32:50]
Bobby Altoff
I'm not grounded at all.
[32:52]
Marc Maron
Right.
[32:53]
Bobby Altoff
And the feelings that caused it never left. It just changed. Like, to this day, the feelings are still there. I just get therapy to work through them more. But the feelings of you're never gonna be what you want to be, or you're never going to be the best at what you do, or you're never, like, you don't fit in.
[33:09]
Marc Maron
Isn't that interesting? Because, like, I. You know, I've thought about that a lot myself. Is that when you have parents that are, like, emotionally irresponsible. And I talk about this a lot, but I read this. This book, and he said that if your parents are emotionally abusive one way or the other, that you have a hard time as a child blaming them. So you blame yourself and you put this thing in your head that you're the shitty thing.
[33:32]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[33:33]
Marc Maron
And then you do that at such a young age. It doesn't go away.
[33:36]
Bobby Altoff
That's. I've never really even looked into it. I just kind of lived this way.
[33:40]
Marc Maron
But you know what I mean, it makes sense, right?
[33:42]
Bobby Altoff
It does.
[33:42]
Marc Maron
And then you just have this voice in your head that sort of like, you're not as good as that.
[33:45]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Like, you'll never be as good as anybody else. That does what you. Yeah.
[33:49]
Marc Maron
So when you turn 18, where you go?
[33:52]
Bobby Altoff
I got a job as a nanny. And then I.
[33:56]
Marc Maron
How do you. Did you.
[33:57]
Bobby Altoff
I used care.com to get a job as a nanny. I'm. And then I got. I got. Well, first I was working at. I worked a bunch of jobs. I started working when I was 16, so. But when I was around 18, I knew I wanted to leave. And my dad was, like. At one point, he got really mad at me one day and was like, get out of my house. And I said, okay.
[34:15]
Marc Maron
And that was it.
[34:16]
Bobby Altoff
And that was it. And I left. And I never looked back. I never moved back. I was gone.
[34:20]
Marc Maron
But you never got fucked up on drugs or anything?
[34:22]
Bobby Altoff
No, I've always just been aspiring to get rich instead. I got Fucked up on this, like, need for. For success in life. That's my. That's my advice is like, so trying to succeed.
[34:33]
Marc Maron
So that's how you fought the voice. You're like, I' show you.
[34:36]
Bobby Altoff
I try to. That's what I'm trying to do still. I'm still just trying to make it so that I can be proud of myself one day.
[34:43]
Marc Maron
So. All right, so you do a bunch of jobs and you end up as a nanny.
[34:47]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[34:47]
Marc Maron
That must have been interesting to come from where you come from and then being these nice families.
[34:51]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, yeah. It made me. I was never jealous. I was just looking at them like, this is what. I know. It's out there now. Like, I know you can be a happy family and have a nanny one day and do all of these things. And I wanted it so bad.
[35:04]
Marc Maron
Were they. Were any of them, like, you know, impactful in your life? The family?
[35:07]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, they. I keep in touch with all of them. I worked for three families and I still keep in touch with them. I check in on their kids randomly because it was so nice going into somebody's house and seeing things that were functional and peace, peaceful attachments with the.
[35:24]
Marc Maron
Kids and the family.
[35:25]
Bobby Altoff
And I loved my first job as a nanny, and I was so grateful that they gave me that job. Yeah, I was. I'd like. Because I was 18, it was my first time as a nanny. So it's. The person who first takes the risk on hiring you is amazing because then it helps. It sets it up, the future if.
[35:40]
Marc Maron
You do it right.
[35:40]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah. And I loved it. I had three kids. They were. One was a baby, I think I started when he was three months old, and then one was two and one was four. And I did everything with those kids. I worked 70 hours a week at points, because the parents were both working, and it was amazing. And then one day they looked at me and they were like, we're moving to la. And I said. They were like, so, I'm so sorry. And I was like, I'll move with you. So I did. You were like, really? No, I never lived in their house. I went and found an apartment by them because I was like, I'm not losing this job.
[36:12]
Marc Maron
That's how you got here.
[36:13]
Bobby Altoff
That's how I got back to la.
[36:15]
Marc Maron
And so these kids, they knew you from when they're very young and you still have a relationship with them?
[36:20]
Bobby Altoff
I haven't talked. I haven't seen the kids. I'll talk to their parents. The kids were so young, they don't remember Me. But I worked that job for a bit. Then I worked for another job in South Pasadena for a while. I would live with my grandma, kind of like between apartments. My grandma had a house in Pasadena.
[36:37]
Marc Maron
How was that place?
[36:38]
Bobby Altoff
I loved my grandma, whose mom was at my mom's. She's my. Like, she was the best. I like wear her cross that she had every day of her. To get any picture of my grandma, she was wearing this. She was the piece in my life that I would go to. And she always had her doors open for me when I. Whenever I wanted to. So when I was 18, I would kind of stay with her here and there. And for months. I would always have my own place, but I would come back to her. And my last job before I got married, I lived with my grandma and we would. It was. So the job was in Marina Del Rey, but her house is in Pasadena. So she would wake up with me every morning at 6am, make breakfast with me. I'd make her eggs on toast. She'd make me coffee, and we'd sit there at 6am every morning, have that. Then I would go. And then I got married.
[37:24]
Marc Maron
And so the. So I guess that coming out of your childhood, this. This nanny thing gave you some stability.
[37:31]
Bobby Altoff
Yes.
[37:32]
Marc Maron
And then your grandma. Thank God for grandmas. Like, you know, she was stable.
[37:36]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And she was just. She always believed in me and she. I was going to community college and I thought that I would. I've always known, and my siblings all say this, that if anybody was gonna be really successful, it would have been me. Cause I had the one. Like I was the only one who had the ambition.
[37:53]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[37:53]
Bobby Altoff
But I didn't know that I would be successful. I didn't know what I would be successful.
[37:57]
Marc Maron
Did you have other plans? I mean, did you have plans?
[37:59]
Bobby Altoff
I had this really weird dream of becoming a lawyer.
[38:03]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[38:04]
Bobby Altoff
But I was not. So I got a. I got an AA in political science and I got accepted to UC Davis to go finish that degree, but I was pregnant and Covid happened, and I was scared that going to class, I'd get Covid and give it to my baby or something.
[38:17]
Marc Maron
But you went to UC Davis?
[38:19]
Bobby Altoff
I was supposed to start, and then I.
[38:21]
Marc Maron
So you just went to the community college for two years?
[38:23]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[38:23]
Marc Maron
And you finished it?
[38:24]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[38:25]
Marc Maron
Yeah. UC Davis. That would have been a trip.
[38:27]
Bobby Altoff
I. It would have been.
[38:28]
Marc Maron
I've been there.
[38:29]
Bobby Altoff
I wish I finished it.
[38:30]
Marc Maron
Yeah, I did. I did comedy at UC Davis. It's up. It's in between. Here in San Francisco. Right.
[38:35]
Bobby Altoff
It's A little. Yeah, it's out there. It's up north.
[38:37]
Marc Maron
It's closer to San Francisco, I think, isn't it?
[38:39]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[38:40]
Marc Maron
Yeah, but it's like. It's the only thing in Davis.
[38:42]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[38:42]
Marc Maron
Is that college? Did you go look at it or anything?
[38:44]
Bobby Altoff
No, I just. I applied to several UCs. That was the one that I got into, and I was like, all right, I'm gonna go there.
[38:50]
Marc Maron
So when you got married, was it. Was that. Do you feel like, in retrospect, because you're not married anymore.
[38:55]
Bobby Altoff
No.
[38:56]
Marc Maron
What do you feel like that was another sort of attempt at stability?
[38:59]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I was. So having a kid was an attempt at stability? I thought.
[39:03]
Marc Maron
After you got married?
[39:05]
Bobby Altoff
No, before.
[39:05]
Marc Maron
Oh, you had it before?
[39:06]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Well, we got pregnant before, but I wanted a baby.
[39:09]
Marc Maron
How was that guy? A nice guy?
[39:10]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, he's. He's an incredible dad. My kids are on their way there right now, and he, to this day is. Is just. He's always. He didn't necessarily want to have kids when we got pregnant. Like, he was. He was more of like, let's just. I was like, let's just try one time. He's like, okay. And then I got pregnant. He was like, oh. Like, that was too fast. I'm.
[39:30]
Marc Maron
But you knew that's.
[39:32]
Bobby Altoff
Oh. I was like, I'm happy. He was like, oh, my God. And I was like, thank God. I'm having a baby.
[39:37]
Marc Maron
And you were what, 22?
[39:39]
Bobby Altoff
I was 20. Yeah. Yeah, 22 when I got pregnant.
[39:43]
Marc Maron
And Covid had just started.
[39:45]
Bobby Altoff
No, Covid started during my pregnancy.
[39:48]
Marc Maron
During the pregnancy. So then that's when he started recording?
[39:52]
Bobby Altoff
No, I started my podcast.
[39:54]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Or whatever you were doing.
[39:56]
Bobby Altoff
I started that right after I had my baby.
[39:58]
Marc Maron
Oh, so no.
[39:59]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[40:00]
Marc Maron
And you did it through the second pregnancy?
[40:02]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah.
[40:03]
Marc Maron
Okay. So does Covid that played into you.
[40:07]
Bobby Altoff
Being home and starting to do that? Definitely, I think. Well, also, like I said, I've always been searching for what I would. I was never gonna be just a stay at home mom. I think as much as I wanted to want that, because it was like I needed. You know what? It also comes back to being insecure because I was insecure about my. A lot of the moms I would meet were working moms, and I was like, I can't just be the only one that has no college degree, no anything. I felt so inferior to. Even if even the moms who are stay at home moms, they had college degrees. They were all just do. Like they had.
[40:42]
Marc Maron
But they had husbands at work or something.
[40:44]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah. And I was so embarrassed meeting moms that were college educated and I just. Were they older than usually. Yeah, they were always at least 10 years older than me and I just.
[40:54]
Marc Maron
Did they treat you like a kid?
[40:56]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, well, they just. Yeah. I never felt like I fit in with them. And that's just goes back to how I've kind of felt my whole life. But I felt like I was just not going to be. I didn't feel. So I tried to be a stay at home mom, but I never felt like I fit in with the other moms.
[41:13]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[41:13]
Bobby Altoff
Because especially we lived. At the time we moved up north, so we lived right outside of Silicon Valley.
[41:19]
Marc Maron
Did you have plans for making this money that you wanted to make before TikTok?
[41:24]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I've always had like a plan of the lawyer. Yeah. So I first. Before TikTok, I. When Covid started, I was like. They made a mask mandate and my mom had just gifted me a sewing machine.
[41:39]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[41:40]
Bobby Altoff
And I was so pregnant. Like I was eight months pregnant. I believe somewhere around that, like I.
[41:43]
Marc Maron
Remember being waddling around.
[41:45]
Bobby Altoff
Yes. And I was like, people are gonna need masks. I'm gonna make them. So I was like, I'm gonna start a mask making company. So I started selling on Etsy masks. I learned how to make them and would go to Target and buy bed sheets.
[41:58]
Marc Maron
You get sewer?
[41:59]
Bobby Altoff
No, I learned for this.
[42:00]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[42:01]
Bobby Altoff
And I. I got pretty good. Like, I would. My mom, the sewing machine she got me, like, would embroider. Pretty shitty embroidery. But it was there.
[42:07]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[42:07]
Bobby Altoff
So I would embroider people's names and saw. I sold them for like 22. I made $3,000 on masks, though.
[42:14]
Marc Maron
And pretty. That's pretty good.
[42:15]
Bobby Altoff
It was so good. But I was going to turn that into something TikTok. But I was always doing little.
[42:21]
Marc Maron
Were you watching TikTok?
[42:23]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That was right one. Because of COVID I feel like everybody got very. They were just drowning in it. And I had always been so angry that I didn't catch the YouTube wave of.
[42:35]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[42:35]
Bobby Altoff
Success. So I was like.
[42:36]
Marc Maron
But did you have an idea for YouTube or like.
[42:39]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I would. I bought. So I was. I bought the. I don't know if you know, but every. Right now it's sold out everywhere but the G7X. The Canon G7X camera. Yeah.
[42:47]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[42:48]
Bobby Altoff
So back when I was 16, I bought that camera and I was like, I'm gonna be a vlogger. And I would try to record videos, but I would never. Like, I never had. I would I would always be too scared to post videos because I thought like, oh, my kids at school are going to see this and stuff.
[43:01]
Marc Maron
What were you going to talk about?
[43:02]
Bobby Altoff
It's the same thing everybody else does, just little like vlogs. Like, this is what I'm. But also my. I just didn't. I don't know, it didn't. Didn't work. So when TikTok started and I started seeing people blow up, I was like, you will not miss this wave. You will not. Like I told myself, you can't miss this. So I was posting like a crazy person. Like so much.
[43:20]
Marc Maron
Like after the masks, you.
[43:22]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah, it was during COVID Yeah. Because after the mask. I stopped the masks as soon as I gave birth because I was like, this is insane. Like, it hurts to frickin so. Like it doesn't. Is not pregnant. Yeah. And I'm pregnant. And I'm like. I was pulling all nighters because these people were crazy about when they wanted their masks. They're like, I want. But I was also, you know, I'm such a. Like, I have the mentality of like, say you'll do it and then just make it happen. So I'd be like, I can send it. I mean, I. I gave an option for overnight shipping.
[43:52]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[43:52]
Bobby Altoff
Even though I didn't have like the mass produced or something.
[43:54]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[43:55]
Bobby Altoff
But I was like, it was an extra $10. So if people would click that, then I'd be like, I'd go wake up and go sew the mask real quick and then be like, all right, here you go. So I was like, I would always charge a little extra and there'd be things that I'd have to then go do.
[44:09]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[44:09]
Bobby Altoff
To make it happen.
[44:10]
Marc Maron
And you probably lost a little money doing that.
[44:12]
Bobby Altoff
No, to sleep. I was just going fast. Yeah. Because they paid for their own shipping and they paid. So I was just losing sleep.
[44:19]
Marc Maron
Did you have a brand name for your masks?
[44:22]
Bobby Altoff
No, no, no. I think it was just under my name at the time. I don't know. It was just.
[44:26]
Marc Maron
So when you get. So when you decide to do TikTok, was there a model? Were you watching certain people that you thought like, well, this is the way to do this.
[44:34]
Bobby Altoff
I would look at viral videos and be like, how do I get on a trend? What do I do? I watched a lot of. I had a kid, so I watched a lot of mommy vloggers. The first thing I tried was to get my sister to help do something. I said, lexi, let's make a sister page. So we both logged in if you like. If there's somewhere in the world where you can see the name history. I wish they would do that. On Tick Tock you could see how many times my name has changed. Because it started off as Lex and Bob.
[45:01]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[45:02]
Bobby Altoff
And it was going to be just a sister page. So I was like. But she wasn't doing her end of it. She's never had that.
[45:06]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[45:08]
Bobby Altoff
Like I need to be super successful. She was just in the military. She was like I'm doing what I.
[45:12]
Marc Maron
Your older sister?
[45:13]
Bobby Altoff
My little sister.
[45:13]
Marc Maron
That one. She's in the military.
[45:14]
Bobby Altoff
She won't. Yeah, she just got out now she helps me with every my life.
[45:17]
Marc Maron
Oh, she's part of your team.
[45:19]
Bobby Altoff
Yes.
[45:20]
Marc Maron
So. So you were. It wasn't really about celebrity, it was really economics.
[45:24]
Bobby Altoff
I just wanted to make enough money.
[45:26]
Marc Maron
To be self supporting and not live the life you grew up with.
[45:30]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[45:31]
Marc Maron
But did you have a sense of how one made money by making a viral video?
[45:36]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, just people would post how much money they would make on social media.
[45:39]
Marc Maron
But was that from brand?
[45:42]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I knew that I knew needed to get followers to get brand deals. So I was like how do I, how I knew what I needed to do was get become one of the people who's known on there. Not just have viral videos but have people who follow you and who want more from you.
[45:56]
Marc Maron
So it's funny though because you grew up in this age where like I come from, you know, basically over a lot of years, you know, not really making it in regular show business. So that wasn't even on your radar really.
[46:11]
Bobby Altoff
No. That yet.
[46:13]
Marc Maron
Right. To be an actor, to be a comedy person.
[46:16]
Bobby Altoff
No, it came pretty early in it when I remember a few directors had reached out to me when they noticed I was acting in them and would be like oh do you wanna do this? And I was like actually yeah, that'd be great. And as a kid I would like. Of course everyone has that dream of love to act but I never did any steps towards acting or anything.
[46:34]
Marc Maron
Right. So when you first start doing the videos, just you and your sister and that dimension pan out and then he switched to.
[46:39]
Bobby Altoff
Then I, I don't know, I try to think back. I don't know if I was always sarcastic or if that like I had to have been cuz my first video that I made that was I had seen this viral trend where you pretend your kid's name is like your name spelled backwards and then I was like look at my daughter. It's ibob.
[46:57]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[46:57]
Bobby Altoff
And I was like. But then I. I really leaned into. Because I. I've always been very aware of, I guess, how dumb people look sometimes.
[47:05]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[47:05]
Bobby Altoff
So when people would believe things like that, I was like, they believe anything. So I was like, let me just.
[47:10]
Marc Maron
Believe things like what?
[47:11]
Bobby Altoff
Like my kid's name is Ibob. I was like, there's no way people could see this and think that it's real. But they did. So I was like, oh. Then I said her name was Richard.
[47:19]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[47:20]
Bobby Altoff
And people were like, you would name your daughter Richard? And I was like. Like, I doubled down, and that's when the character was born. I was now a parody of, like, a shitty mom. And I was like, yeah, I named her Richard. And somewhere out there, that video is there where I'm like, I named her Richard. I wanted a boy. I had a girl, so I named her Richard. Anyway, and then it. I went down and I kept doing it. I went and thought of the most insane things that I could think of, and people would believe anything. Yeah. So I was like, I'm taking Richard to get braces today because her two front teeth, Gruen, and they're not straight. And that pisses me off. So. And people believed anything I put out there. And it would go so viral. But what I was really gaining was the people who knew that I was kidding and were, like, in on it. Those were the people that followed me and have supported me through then.
[48:02]
Marc Maron
So, like, just thousands of comments like, you're a shitty mom.
[48:06]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah. Of, like, her. It was going viral on, like, on. On. On the random little. You know, the little news things that were picking up stupid stories. It'd be like, mom names her daughter Richard Quickbait. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And. And then I started doing parodies of, like, a. Like, I became not only a shitty mother, I was a shitty wife, too. So I would have my, like, ex. Ex husband and husband at the time. He would play a part of, like, this cheater.
[48:31]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[48:31]
Bobby Altoff
And then I would be. I would. I would pretend that, like, I'm an oblivious housewife who has no idea. People would definitely make. It was getting a lot of attention on TikTok because I was getting, like, 40 million views on some videos.
[48:43]
Marc Maron
And TikTok was pretty new at the time.
[48:45]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, it was. It was right when people started to grow on there, when it became really pop, because it was right when Covid.
[48:51]
Marc Maron
So. So, okay, so you got 40 million views. How did you make that money? It's the beginning.
[48:55]
Bobby Altoff
In the beginning, I wasn't making crazy. I Signed to an agency, probably pretty quickly into it. And then I started to get brand deals, so I'd make like 10.
[49:03]
Marc Maron
It was an agent specifically for Tick Tockers to get brand.
[49:06]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, it was like a management team. No. Yeah, it was just. It was just around TikTok and all of that.
[49:12]
Marc Maron
So there's a whole world of show business.
[49:13]
Bobby Altoff
Just around influencers. Yeah. Just around Tick Tockers, even.
[49:17]
Marc Maron
Oh.
[49:18]
Bobby Altoff
So, yeah.
[49:18]
Marc Maron
Why didn't I assume that? Of course.
[49:20]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, it's. It's cra. I was so blown away when I saw just how much money you could make from just TikTok, but. And then I was able to transfer my. I was like, strategic in transferring followers over to Instagram.
[49:33]
Marc Maron
Well, so what was the first brand?
[49:36]
Bobby Altoff
The first brand I worked for, I want to say it was so long ago. And it was probably before I signed a management team. It was FabFitFun.
[49:44]
Marc Maron
What is that?
[49:45]
Bobby Altoff
It's like a subscription service for this box they send you full of things.
[49:50]
Marc Maron
Oh, right. No, we did some of those. Like, when we started the podcast. Yeah. We had, like, Adam and Eve sex toys and stuff.
[49:56]
Bobby Altoff
Was it a subscription?
[49:58]
Marc Maron
Well, no, it was. You'd get a package and you get, you know, of stuff, and then it wasn't a subscription. But we did those boxes.
[50:04]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Where they give you boxes of.
[50:05]
Marc Maron
Well, yeah. And we did the, like, food boxes and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[50:10]
Bobby Altoff
Yep.
[50:11]
Marc Maron
And that was like, just somebody aggregating other products.
[50:16]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Usually it'd be a box.
[50:18]
Marc Maron
So it's like branding on brand.
[50:19]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[50:20]
Marc Maron
Oh, so then. All right, so when. So then you start to move people over to Instagram.
[50:26]
Bobby Altoff
So also, you're making money on the TikTok Creator Fund. And I've always made a lot of money on that because I've always had viral videos.
[50:32]
Marc Maron
How does that work?
[50:33]
Bobby Altoff
Per view you get after a certain amount. No, it's. Once you get, I think, 10,000 followers, you can apply to be in it. And then it's like as. As long as. Back then, it used to be any video. Now it's over a minute. So if you notice, all of my videos are over a minute.
[50:48]
Marc Maron
Yeah, it's because you want to stay in the fund.
[50:50]
Bobby Altoff
No, it's because you don't get paid unless the video is over a minute.
[50:53]
Marc Maron
Right?
[50:53]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. So if I want to get paid, I have to make it over a minute. So all of my clips are always over a minute.
[50:58]
Marc Maron
So you're making money, Right. You know, pretty close to when he started.
[51:02]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[51:02]
Marc Maron
For just from that.
[51:03]
Bobby Altoff
Just from that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was. I remember. And my dad, too. So funny. I remember him saying early on he would. He would track my followers. I remember he'd be like, you're gonna hit a million by the end of this month. And I was like, no, dad, that's not how it works. I'm not gonna get there that fast. And I did. And he was like, see, I told you. And he would send me. Every time I'd go up, like, 0 point, 1.2, 1.3. He would send me a screenshot and be like, you did it. You did it. He's finally given up on, like, sending me my stats.
[51:29]
Marc Maron
Yeah, but he's proud of you.
[51:31]
Bobby Altoff
He was so proud of everything. He still is. He's so proud of everything I do online. He's like, mate. He loves to tell literally everyone that I'm his kid.
[51:39]
Marc Maron
He gets a kick out of it.
[51:40]
Bobby Altoff
Yes.
[51:41]
Marc Maron
And your mom.
[51:42]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, she's equally. They. I think no one's as proud of me as my sister.
[51:47]
Marc Maron
The one out in the porch.
[51:48]
Bobby Altoff
The one out on the porch?
[51:49]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[51:50]
Bobby Altoff
She has inside. So she lives in. I have an adu, and she lives in it. And in her house, she has, like, a shrine of all of my achievements. And every time I go somewhere or get invited to something, she keeps something from it and puts it to it. And she's just so. She's such a proud little. She's never cared to be in the spotlight. She just likes to, like, see me.
[52:11]
Marc Maron
When do you. When do you. What do you consider your big break in terms of when everything changed? Like, so you got a manager who's like, oh, yeah, brand representation. But then, like, you shift from. You. You take the. The sarcastic, snarky character, and you decide to engage with people.
[52:29]
Bobby Altoff
So it's really hard to come up with content every day when you don't have someone else to do it with, you know? Like, if it's just every day. Yeah. You don't. You lose relevance fast. I would. My goal was that every day I needed to post a video that hit a million views, and if I didn't, I felt so shitty. So I would try to. I'd.
[52:47]
Marc Maron
You just beat yourself up?
[52:48]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, no, I just keep posting. I would be like, I can't sleep until. Yeah, I need to get a video with a million. And I. I almost always hit that goal. I just had to, like, okay, that video is a flop. Delete, try again. Delete, try again. Like, I. I was so determined every single day for almost three years. That I had to get a video that hit a million every day. I needed to stay relevant. So I was like, how do I. Yeah, so you did. And then. Yeah, yeah, I did. And then.
[53:13]
Marc Maron
Was there a science to it ultimately?
[53:16]
Bobby Altoff
I mean, it was just figuring out. You really don't know. It's like even to this day, I don't know what's going to actually take off and get really like, get a lot. Sometimes you can have an idea, but for the most part you really never know. Some things can just some things you can think are going to hit and it just doesn't.
[53:33]
Marc Maron
But yeah, I got a guy doing mine and like this weird thing hit like it was crazy. It's.
[53:37]
Bobby Altoff
It'd be so random.
[53:38]
Marc Maron
What is that? Oh, it's not 40 million. But it was sort of like, what? Why would that.
[53:41]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, why would that. Yeah, that'll happen to me too. Where I'm like, okay, that's interesting. But then I'll post something that I'm like, this is definitely going to. And it doesn't. And I'm like, okay, that's what. But there's like some science to it. Like there is some, like I said, I know clickbaity things to do or ragey things to do to get people to pay attention. Yeah, yeah.
[54:02]
Marc Maron
Like what?
[54:03]
Bobby Altoff
Like if you say something in the first three seconds that is makes them watch it till the end, the video is going to do better. So it's just if I say like, I can't believe my sister did that at the end. Or if you show like a little preview in the beginning, something crazy that happens, they'll sit through and watch the.
[54:19]
Marc Maron
Whole thing for a minute.
[54:21]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[54:21]
Marc Maron
So you're basically producing shows that are a minute long.
[54:24]
Bobby Altoff
That are a minute long. Yeah. And I kind of do that. I have to do it every time.
[54:29]
Marc Maron
So that's the nature of the business that you had to kind of figure out for yourself.
[54:33]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And just get really.
[54:37]
Marc Maron
So the focus was like, this is working now I've got to nail it every time.
[54:42]
Bobby Altoff
It was just I needed to get bigger and I always. So there's different tiers to online fame. I would say, right. There's. There's like, oh, she's a tick tocker. Then there's. There's a few people that break through that and then get known everywhere and then get. Are now like, I, I would say kind of go into celebrity.
[55:00]
Marc Maron
Like who.
[55:01]
Bobby Altoff
So right before I ever took off was. There's Alex Earl. I don't know if you've heard of her.
[55:06]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[55:06]
Bobby Altoff
I remember watching her and being like, oh, my God. She's like, she. She did it. She broke that threshold of, like, now she's invited to, like, fashion shows and she's like. Right. She gets into, like, now you get into the next level of top tier influencer. Yeah, yeah. Now you're.
[55:19]
Marc Maron
You're really up there and you're still an influencer. Yeah, that's the title.
[55:23]
Bobby Altoff
If that's. If that's what you're doing. Right. Because it's like, she could have also, if she was, like, into acting and stuff, she could have broken out or, like, you know, like Addison Rae, she broke out into acting. Or Charli D'Amelio. I think she was on Broadway recently.
[55:35]
Marc Maron
Really?
[55:35]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. So it's like, there's different levels of, like, breaking out and then doing another thing. Becoming bigger than just your TikTok platform.
[55:44]
Marc Maron
That's the model, like, now, like, you, like, if you want to make it to one of those places, this is the way you do it. No one's going to help you.
[55:54]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. You're going to just have to figure it out. You just need to. You need to start trending. And if. It's like, I knew I was always getting views, but I wasn't the most popular thing and I knew I needed. I wanted so badly. I remember being like, I need to have my moment where I become so popular that I transformed that. Yeah. I knew in the back of my.
[56:12]
Marc Maron
You didn't know really how you were.
[56:14]
Bobby Altoff
No, I had no idea. I had no idea. And I. I knew it would happen because I know that anytime I set my mind on something, I will make it happen, but I had no idea what would be the thing that would push me into that. I just knew that I needed it to happen. I wouldn't be someone that would just be a mommy vlogger on online all day because that's not what I wanted and that's not what I was going to settle for.
[56:35]
Marc Maron
And so what. What was the turn?
[56:38]
Bobby Altoff
So I was getting very burnt out by just making videos every day that were kind of the same. So I was like, you would do.
[56:45]
Marc Maron
What was most amount of times you had to redo a video.
[56:48]
Bobby Altoff
I would post like 20 times in.
[56:49]
Marc Maron
A day and just delete them into one hit.
[56:51]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah. So I was just. It was exhausting. I wanted a way to collaborate with people because anytime I would collaborate with other influencers, it would do well. So the thing was, is that everyone and their mothers and you know this, I'm sure.
[57:04]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[57:04]
Bobby Altoff
Start Podcasts. It's like, that's the thing. That's. Everyone starts a podcast. And I thought that was the stupidest thing. I was like. Like podcasting. I think there's a joke right now where it's like, they need to make podcasting equipment more expensive.
[57:15]
Marc Maron
Right.
[57:16]
Bobby Altoff
Because everyone starts one. And I was like, I was the.
[57:18]
Marc Maron
Time, not a video podcast. There's a difference. Like, when we did it, you know, it was. I think at the beginning, it was mostly audio. Like, there were a couple of people doing video, but it was still that. That streaming capacity in the kitchen wasn't really quite there yet.
[57:34]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[57:34]
Marc Maron
And we're audio guys, so we stay in this. But at that time, because what I would call a podcast is, you know, it's like a. An hour or what, a long audio thing. But by the time you're coming around. What. What is the definition of a podcast? Just because it seems like there's a lot of people sitting on TikTok with mics and they don't have the podcast.
[57:54]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, for sure. So that's why mine was born. It was a parody of a podcast. And that's how it started. It was. I was making fun of people who had a podcast because I was like, this is the dumbest thing. But for a minute, mine truly was a parody. It wasn't even on pod. I tried not to have it on. I wanted it just to be video. I wanted it to be a full parody, which is why it was called the really Good Podcast. It was just a fucking stupid name I could think of. And, like, it was just. It was a parody of a podcast. I was like, everyone has a podcast. So I had listened a lot.
[58:24]
Marc Maron
You didn't have a podcast?
[58:25]
Bobby Altoff
No, I didn't. I didn't want it to be. It became one, and it became like, I became. I. And I would say, too, I've recently said, like, I feel like when my podcast started to get less views, it was when it became into, like, it started to turn into a real podcast. And it became so, Like, I was starting to do so many ad reads. So I was like. I remember having a talk with my team maybe a week ago where I was like, I don't want this to be a real podcast anymore. I want to go back to when it's not a real podcast, because that's when I do best. And I don't do well as just a regular, like, podcast host, because that's not. I'm not. I'm not good at it. Like, I don't have the You're a minute person. I. I am. I'm a. Well, I can do a conversation, but I need to be in a character. I also just don't. I don't know. It's like, you have to be. If you want your podcast to be what sustains you. You got to be like. In that. You got to be doing all those ad reads. You gotta be like, I. I don't. I'm not. I don't have the. I wouldn't say work ethic. I guess I'm just not focused enough on it, or I don't have enough.
[59:18]
Marc Maron
Well, you're not. You're not necessarily a broadcaster.
[59:21]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[59:22]
Marc Maron
You do bits.
[59:23]
Bobby Altoff
How often do you put out an episode?
[59:24]
Marc Maron
Is it Monday and Thursday?
[59:26]
Bobby Altoff
See, I. I couldn't do that. And that's where I was losing them as I was like. Like, guys, I'm not doing this once a week. Like, I'm doing it when it feels right to me. Like, I want to do it when it's, like. It's. That's how it started. Was like, I do one whenever I found someone I wanted to do one with.
[59:39]
Marc Maron
Yeah. No, you got to have the same consistency. It's just a longer arc, and it's a different audience, I guess.
[59:44]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And I didn't have. I don't have that.
[59:46]
Marc Maron
Oh, really? Because why. It seems like you had the motivation, but you just.
[59:50]
Bobby Altoff
I think because I have. I've. What I've learned from my podcast is that, like, really where my goal is. I like comedy. I like. And I think that when you start to become too. I don't know if it's, like, palatable, but I was becoming too real. Yeah. It was just becoming me talking like this in the episodes, and it was just. That's not what I.
[60:10]
Marc Maron
That's what you were. Not what you're known for.
[60:12]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[60:12]
Marc Maron
So when you start to do the parody, that's when the. You get the big guests.
[60:17]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, that's when I. Yeah, because. So to take it back a little bit, I. Throughout my whole pregnancy, throughout however long this. The podcast is now, I listened to, you know, Guy Raz is how I built this. I listened to that religiously. That was my. I listened to that because I was like, you know, I've said, I want money, I want success. So I listened to this, and I. I've always wanted to start a company. I've always wanted to start something. But. So when I started my podcast, I was like, I'm gonna make it a parody of how I built this.
[60:45]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[60:46]
Bobby Altoff
Because Guy Raz is a great interviewer. I'm not. So I looked up how he interviewed people and I was like, he does a lot of research. I'm gonna go into this with no research. I'm gonna go into this. This with nothing. And originally it was actually called so you're rich. And I was just going to interview rich people and figure out how they got there.
[61:02]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[61:02]
Bobby Altoff
But I was like, this is kind of hard to be guy Raz. So let me just like the first agency I was with at the time, or that was the second agency, but they were like. They accidentally sent me an email thread of internal emails about my pilot episode that I had sent them, where they were like, she thinks this is going to do well. That's so. It was so mean. And I was like, I'm not going to post this. This podcast is stupid. It was like. I was like, this is not gonna work out. This sucks. And I wasn't gonna. I sat. I think I sat on it for like a minute. I sat on my first episode for a minute. Then I was like, everyone in my life was like, post this. My ex husband was like, I believe in this. It's gonna do well. It started off as me genuinely thinking I could be a well researched, but like, it was still gonna be like a spin. It was still gonna be just video. It was gonna be acting like I was gonna go in there. And my first episode, I was ruthless. Like, I was like a cold hearted. Like, I don't actually care about you at all. I would, like, be very mean to the guest. I would be very. Just like I was in such a character.
[61:55]
Marc Maron
And did they know that?
[61:56]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[61:57]
Marc Maron
Oh, yeah, yeah.
[61:57]
Bobby Altoff
They knew we would like. And we would break and I'd start laughing and I'd be like, okay, okay. Let me just like compose myself again and go back. Rick Glassman was one of my first ones on the.
[62:07]
Marc Maron
On the real one. The hour long one.
[62:08]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He was. He was one of my first ones. It was always an hour, it was always long.
[62:14]
Marc Maron
And it was on Instagram or where.
[62:15]
Bobby Altoff
YouTube.
[62:16]
Marc Maron
YouTube.
[62:16]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. But I wasn't really even. I was mostly posting clips of the long.
[62:19]
Marc Maron
How'd you get Rick Glassman? Why Rick Glass?
[62:22]
Bobby Altoff
So random. But. Well, my very first guest was someone named Maria. Was Colleen Ballinger.
[62:29]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[62:29]
Bobby Altoff
Did she was like big on. On social media?
[62:32]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[62:32]
Bobby Altoff
So I did. And she had a Netflix special and stuff. But I had just DMed her because I was friends with her then. I want to say Rick was my second guest. And I had posted basically a thing where I was like, hey. Well, I figured out that I could not pay for, like, I couldn't pay for celebrities to come on, but I could, I could guilt trip them in.
[62:51]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[62:52]
Bobby Altoff
With money. And I. At the time, all I had to spare was 300. So I was like, if you comment on this video and you tag a celebrity and it leads to me successfully interviewing them. Yeah, I'll pay you 300.
[63:04]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[63:05]
Bobby Altoff
So I think someone tagged Rick or something and he was like, all right, I'll do it. And I paid that person 300 bucks. Rick came in and did it with me. That one was only a 20 minute episode, but it, the clips did great. Yeah, I think. And then I kept doing that strategy until $300.
[63:19]
Marc Maron
Strategy.
[63:19]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. And then I landed funny Marco using the same strategy. He's. He's a comedian. He's. He does social media mostly. Keep up with like pranks online and stuff. Yeah, he. So I did his. I interviewed him and that was the one right before I blew up. And that one, that one definitely like set me over though. Like, that one got so many views. Our interview together. And then from that interview, I interviewed Drake. It was like him. Drake was mutuals with Marco.
[63:50]
Marc Maron
Oh, okay.
[63:50]
Bobby Altoff
And saw our interview.
[63:52]
Marc Maron
He got a kick out of it and he thought, I'll do it.
[63:53]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Because it's. He saw like, it's a fun. Yeah, it's a fun way for people to figure out like how they would react in that situation, I guess.
[64:01]
Marc Maron
And so Drake put you over the top.
[64:04]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Then that one obviously, like there, that was. My life changed.
[64:08]
Marc Maron
Yeah. How so immediately?
[64:12]
Bobby Altoff
Well, as soon as it filmed nothing, but it took a month probably to actually get it out from when we filmed it to when it actually saw.
[64:19]
Marc Maron
Why you cut it?
[64:20]
Bobby Altoff
No, because it, it just, it was the pro. Like I was working with, you know, Drake is Drake and I was working with his team to like, his team filmed it and everything. So between waiting for it to actually be ready to go and like our first clip going live, I remember just, you know, you're sitting on something that's gonna be seen by everyone and you're like, oh my God. I remember just being like, this is crazy. I have this video.
[64:43]
Marc Maron
So you would clip it and you put it out in clips.
[64:46]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[64:47]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[64:48]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[64:48]
Marc Maron
How long were the clips?
[64:49]
Bobby Altoff
60 seconds, two minutes sometimes.
[64:51]
Marc Maron
So you do an hour. But that, but the model was still a tick tock model or an Instagram model.
[64:56]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, because. And to this day, I don't I.
[64:58]
Marc Maron
Mean, like, you never show the whole hour.
[64:59]
Bobby Altoff
No, I do. I always do. But, like, my, my team, my, like my podcasting stuff. A Studio 71. I don't so much focus on the whole hour, though. I still focus on my clip.
[65:10]
Marc Maron
It's still about clips I care about.
[65:12]
Bobby Altoff
Is my social media clip.
[65:14]
Marc Maron
So. So Drake goes crazy and then, like, what changes for you immediately?
[65:20]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[65:21]
Marc Maron
Outside of visibility. Money.
[65:22]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Right. As soon as the Drake episode, I signed with wme, but as soon as the first clip went out. Yeah, wme. I got a DM from someone there.
[65:32]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[65:32]
Bobby Altoff
Signed to that agency. They helped me put it out. They were. I was actually like, yeah, it's just a YouTube video. I don't really put it out as a podcast. And they're like, no, you have to put it out as a podcast. Yeah, huge. Like, this is. You'll. You'll charge.
[65:45]
Marc Maron
Podcast chart.
[65:46]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Like, you'll, you'll be up there. And it did. For a second, I just, I was like, okay. So I. They kind of helped me with everything, and they were really amazing with how they came and all. They all rallied together to quickly get this ready because it wasn't really a.
[66:01]
Marc Maron
So they've just totally adapted to the new model of show business, which is what you are.
[66:06]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[66:07]
Marc Maron
And. And since then. So how long ago was that?
[66:11]
Bobby Altoff
That was. I, I, last July. So it's been over a year now.
[66:16]
Marc Maron
And so now you're, you know, self sufficient, solvent. You bought a house.
[66:20]
Bobby Altoff
I haven't bought a house yet. I rent a house.
[66:22]
Marc Maron
Okay, but so what? So what happened? So now you say you're returning to the character. What was the decision making and influence on you to do what after Drake? What did they tell you to do that now you have to pull back from. Because you thought it was more successful before.
[66:42]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I think I. No, I kept on it for a while. I kept doing the character for a long time.
[66:47]
Marc Maron
I've seen a few of them and like, you know, I've seen ones with you and Santino.
[66:51]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[66:52]
Marc Maron
On the golf course.
[66:52]
Bobby Altoff
And you and Bobby. Yeah.
[66:54]
Marc Maron
Playing golf.
[66:55]
Bobby Altoff
It was probably recent that I stopped.
[66:57]
Marc Maron
But the golf one and the tennis one with the guys. I know those were hours, but you clipped them up.
[67:02]
Bobby Altoff
But yeah, they were posted on YouTube and the YouTube videos do really well, too. They get with those guys. Yeah. I think I have like 1.7 or something million followers on YouTube and I. They do. Well, they'll still get around like 300,000 to a million views per episode.
[67:20]
Marc Maron
And how do you make money from that through YouTube.
[67:21]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[67:22]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[67:23]
Bobby Altoff
As well.
[67:23]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[67:24]
Bobby Altoff
It's pretty great.
[67:25]
Marc Maron
So now you're at this point where you're. You've decided that you're going back to the character because you tried to not do it for a while.
[67:32]
Bobby Altoff
I would say that I didn't so much try not to. I just started to care too much about, you know, because I told you that I built my career off of like needing those comments that are like believing this. Like, oh my gosh, you go viral when people think you're just actually like this. And it's, it's more like it was funny, I think that I started to fuck with people. Yeah. It's. It's fun to roast people. It's fun to. It's fun to have them roast you back and stuff. But then people sometimes would be like, oh, look, so and so's coming on her episode and roasting her as if, like, I know when I did an episode with Ops Offset, he roasted me the whole time and I loved it and it was so great. And we were friends after.
[68:08]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[68:09]
Bobby Altoff
And everything was great. The Internet was like, see, he's like putting her in her. Like, they took it so seriously. And they were like, see, like these people are saying what? And it's like as if I didn't post this episode myself and I didn't choose to have this guest and I didn't sit there. And then, and then like I said, take this and then post it. Why would I post it? If you genuinely was being mean to me or if I genuinely. But people believe they're just online. They're so dumb. Yeah. And they, they believe things without even doing one second.
[68:37]
Marc Maron
That's sort of like what's wrong with the world.
[68:39]
Bobby Altoff
It really is. They don't do. They can't think about things for more than two seconds. They have no. It's just like they see something, they react. They don't have any sort of deep thought process.
[68:48]
Marc Maron
But that's interesting because that's why, you know, politics is so fucked up. It's why everything's fucked up.
[68:53]
Bobby Altoff
Because nobody.
[68:53]
Marc Maron
It's because people engage with the phone as if it's like FaceTime or something.
[68:58]
Bobby Altoff
For sure. Because if they're just so stupid and it ruins. It's like my mental health has always been bad because of social media. So it's funny that I came into a career with where it's all on social media and live off of it.
[69:12]
Marc Maron
But you realize it, like, I guess that's the double edged sword of it is that it's good that you're not putting anything toxic into the world. You're just fucking with people's heads a little bit. But the number of people that can't see the joke or don't process it in any other way other than this is real.
[69:28]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[69:29]
Marc Maron
There's more of them than anything else.
[69:31]
Bobby Altoff
So many they believe. I saw Andrew Tate did a video recently saying that I said I was going to leave the country. Like, he said, list of celebrities that said they're going to leave the country of. Trump won.
[69:43]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[69:43]
Bobby Altoff
And he said, me too. He's like, bobby Altoff, you. And I was like, first of all, there's just. So I. What the fuck? I was like, where did I even know what. So I get a lot of comments now being like, leave the country, bitch. Like, you said you were going to leave the country. And I was like, why do you pick up. Well, I actually don't know where he got that information from. I was like, yeah. I was like, I never, I've never said I was going to leave the country. I was like, I posted a Kamala thing and I guess he decided that I was going to leave the country because of that. But I was like, now I get people saying I'm going to. Because he has the most lovely die hard people online that will come for you. And they like, they come with a vengeance. I was like, guys, so it's okay. Like, I didn't. Why do you care if I said that, even?
[70:26]
Marc Maron
Well, he's working. He's got a grift going too. I mean, he's just trying to hold on to followers too.
[70:30]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[70:30]
Marc Maron
And they don't really take into mind necessarily the destruction that they're unleashing.
[70:35]
Bobby Altoff
Not at all. I don't, I don't understand how you can. I'm so careful about what I put online and what it'll result in. And I feel like a lot of people kind of just.
[70:45]
Marc Maron
Well, I think they want that result. They're trolls.
[70:47]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, they do.
[70:48]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[70:48]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[70:49]
Marc Maron
And they know they've got the attention of a very specific type of emotionally immature and angry bunch.
[70:58]
Bobby Altoff
Yes.
[70:58]
Marc Maron
They're like tribal warlords.
[71:00]
Bobby Altoff
They're waiting for something to piss them off.
[71:02]
Marc Maron
Yeah, go attack that girl.
[71:04]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[71:05]
Marc Maron
So how are you handling that?
[71:07]
Bobby Altoff
I. I don't know. I'm handling it. I mean, I think that I don't really care about that stuff too much. I think what I start. So after, after the offset interview, I had a hard time staying in the character because I felt like I want people to like, I want people to know I'm nice. I want people to know I'm this real person. I want people to, like, like me. Yeah.
[71:26]
Marc Maron
For who you are.
[71:27]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. I'm like, just like me. Because I'm not. Like, this is a character to understand. So I think that I started to lose the character because I was, like, trying to become likable again. Like, I wanted to show people, like, oh, I'm a real person. I have feelings. Like, it's so. But then it didn't work, and it's like, that's. And it does well, but it's not. It's not doing what I needed to do. It's not doing the crazy numbers it was doing, because it's like, I've lost that uniqueness now. I've become like every other podcast that.
[71:54]
Marc Maron
Just has blabbering people.
[71:56]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. I'm not. I have. No. And I'm not. I'm still not doing research. So it's not a good podcast. It's still a shitty podcast. But, like, it's like, now I'm. Now I'm trying so hard. Yeah. Now it's. It's. It's. Now it's too much. It's become too real. That it's just so. I'm like, I want to go back to what was fun about it, which is just roasting people and being roasted. Like, I want to be roasted. I want you to. I want. It's just fun. Like that.
[72:16]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Yeah.
[72:17]
Bobby Altoff
So I am.
[72:18]
Marc Maron
So how long were you experimenting with being yourself?
[72:21]
Bobby Altoff
I experimented with being myself for probably, I don't know, like, maybe two seasons.
[72:28]
Marc Maron
Okay. What's a season in this world?
[72:30]
Bobby Altoff
Whenever I decide. I don't even know, I just. Whenever I get bored of filming and I say, that's enough.
[72:35]
Marc Maron
That Season two, Season three.
[72:37]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. I don't know. But now I'm on this one. I kind of have done a little bit more. And now this next one, I'm being very, like, mindful to keep into that, even though it's sometimes hard because.
[72:46]
Marc Maron
So you're back? This sort of snotty girl's back?
[72:49]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah. There's the very hate. Like, the hated girl who just sits back.
[72:56]
Marc Maron
Is it working again?
[72:57]
Bobby Altoff
Is it? What do you mean? What's working? I haven't started it yet.
[73:00]
Marc Maron
Oh, you haven't gone back?
[73:01]
Bobby Altoff
I've done one episode, and it did really well, and I was worried that people would think I was mean. And again, I need to stop reading comments. Everybody tells me this. Everyone who has a platform is like, stop Reading comments.
[73:13]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[73:13]
Bobby Altoff
It's so bad for you. Yeah.
[73:14]
Marc Maron
But you know that that's just part and parcel to doing the character.
[73:17]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. I need to, I need to separate myself and know like, that they, if they hate her, then it's not me. So it's fine. And it is what it is. Yeah.
[73:24]
Marc Maron
So now that you're kind of a it, it doesn't sound like the pressure is ever off you.
[73:30]
Bobby Altoff
The pressure? No, I don't.
[73:31]
Marc Maron
Either from you or from your handlers or whoever you call them.
[73:37]
Bobby Altoff
I think there's always going to be pressure unless I, like, somehow magically cure all of my mental problems.
[73:42]
Marc Maron
But the pressure to work.
[73:44]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. No, it's never. I think a lot of people would look at me and be like, oh, you're doing well. And I don't look at myself like that at all. Like, I see myself as the same, slightly better than I was. Not at all where I needed to be and not. I see myself still. I think what's funny is people will a lot of the things people say, and I think that's why it'll hit me hard. And that is stuff that I believe about myself where they're just like, that's right.
[74:11]
Marc Maron
And the trolls are good at that.
[74:12]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Because it's like, I, I believe this. It's like you're, they're like, she's, whatever, her, her 15 minutes are up. And it's like I, I, I'm like, they're, they're gonna come back, though. Guys just know me because I, I'm not letting it. It's like, it's, I've, I've successfully, I successfully employ a lot of people now. I know what I'm doing is doing well. And I.
[74:34]
Marc Maron
And you know how to do it.
[74:35]
Bobby Altoff
And I do. Yeah. And I've become good at my job.
[74:37]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[74:38]
Bobby Altoff
And it's, and it's. But there's so many bigger goals that I have. Like, I've, I really want to get into acting, and I know that when I set my mind onto that, it's like something that I'm going to succeed at.
[74:49]
Marc Maron
So the part of the goal is now to, like you said, to get into that next tier.
[74:54]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[74:54]
Marc Maron
And how's that going?
[74:56]
Bobby Altoff
It's going well. I got to be the very tiny, tiny role in a movie. And it was really. That experience was so cool. It was such a small role and it was literally over. Like, I was a zoom character. But it was so much fun working with the director and having them tell me what to do and just that experience of acting, I was like, I love this so much.
[75:15]
Marc Maron
But it's funny, it seems like financially you're probably making less doing that.
[75:20]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, for sure. That was like my lowest paid day today and all of my. So much less. That's. That I would. I love. I mean, I. I've really, like, come to love acting and I really. I would love to make that my next.
[75:33]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[75:34]
Bobby Altoff
So the podcast and. And then on. On the same note of the podcast, I would love to have like a. A talk show, like a.
[75:41]
Marc Maron
Someone trying to put that together for you W. Me or anybody.
[75:44]
Bobby Altoff
Well, I'm not with uta.
[75:45]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[75:46]
Bobby Altoff
But, yeah, they're definitely working on a lot of different things. They. They know my goals and they know what I. What I want to do, and they're.
[75:53]
Marc Maron
So. Would you. Would you sacrifice some of your control to be part of a bigger project?
[75:58]
Bobby Altoff
I would love to. I hate being. I want someone to be my boss.
[76:02]
Marc Maron
Yeah.
[76:02]
Bobby Altoff
Like, I don't. Yeah, I loved. I loved having, like, working in a house for parents. I like that. I don't really. I don't have to. As much of a control freak I am. I like having a boss. Like, I like having someone who goes.
[76:15]
Marc Maron
Like, well, maybe we should do it this way.
[76:16]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, I would love that. I would love someone. I hate it. For the last year and a half or two years, it's like, it's been all on me. And it's so much pressure to have it on you. And it's easy to doubt yourself, but it's harder to doubt someone else. That's like, no, this is what's going to happen. This is what we're going to do.
[76:31]
Marc Maron
Try this. Yeah, but you, but you do, like, in relinquishing a little bit of control, then when it doesn't go the way you wanted to go, then you probably retract back to like, well, fuck if I should.
[76:42]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, if I could just. I could have. Yeah, I'm sure that. But, you know, I thought of it like, even, and I'm sure this is what happens is you kind of start in acting even. Right. I'm obviously starting on the lowest. Like, I'm, I'm. You have people like, I mean, I guess at no point do not. But like, having the director be like, do this, do that, do this, do that. It's like, like, I love that feeling of being told what to do and, like, being told how to better myself.
[77:07]
Marc Maron
Yeah. And also just to take chances that you wouldn't necessarily do or you wouldn't think of or challenge Yourself in a new way.
[77:14]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, my. Right now, I'm trying to. We're. We're in the process of hiring a producer for myself, and I'm.
[77:19]
Marc Maron
For what?
[77:20]
Bobby Altoff
For my podcast.
[77:21]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[77:21]
Bobby Altoff
And I'm so excited to get one. I'm like, please, somebody.
[77:25]
Marc Maron
Yeah, yeah. You know, help me. Help me do that.
[77:28]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[77:28]
Marc Maron
My brain's about to break.
[77:29]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Like, even hiring a booker, we're gonna hire, like, a.
[77:32]
Marc Maron
You're gonna do live shows? Oh, you mean booking guests?
[77:36]
Bobby Altoff
No, but yeah, for booking guests. I really want. I. It's so hard to come up with that all on my own.
[77:41]
Marc Maron
Oh, no.
[77:41]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah.
[77:41]
Marc Maron
We've had a booker for years, and you just get a list of people that are around or available.
[77:45]
Bobby Altoff
That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So much easier because I. Even Andrew Santino and. And Rick Lawson, I would have never known them if I hadn't, like, comments hadn't connected me to them, even with my. Like, I have a booker who's just. It's just him working on his own, but I want a team that's actually going to be able to know, like, what's trending or what's. You know.
[78:06]
Marc Maron
So this is the next stage.
[78:08]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. There's a lot going to change in this next year, and I'm very ready for it to change.
[78:13]
Marc Maron
Well, it was great talking to you.
[78:14]
Bobby Altoff
It was great talking to you. And are you going to come on my podcast?
[78:17]
Marc Maron
Yeah, of course.
[78:18]
Bobby Altoff
Oh, you changed your mind. And the worst. Are you. Are you sponsored by Liquid Death, or do you buy it?
[78:23]
Marc Maron
No, they, like, they literally sent me. I don't think we did one ad for that. Them maybe one years ago, and over like, a period of months, they sent me, like, a hundred cases. So I had like, like, in my. In the kitchen of the ADU here, I had, like, just stacks and stacks of Liquid Death.
[78:38]
Bobby Altoff
You're just drinking them all?
[78:40]
Marc Maron
Yeah. Now, like, I'm like, I'm literally starting to get low on them. And I'm like, I don't know what happened, but I could use some of more of the sparkling.
[78:47]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, I'll tell Morgan. What?
[78:50]
Marc Maron
Did I turn down your podcast at some point? Point?
[78:53]
Bobby Altoff
No, I. I just. I just. They asked me today. They were like, we should. Thought they were like, we're going to talk to him about it. I was like, oh, that'd be great. I would love to have them on when.
[79:01]
Marc Maron
When we do it. Are you going to do the. The. The snarky girl?
[79:04]
Bobby Altoff
If you roast me, I'm going to do it. If you promise to Roast me.
[79:08]
Marc Maron
Like, roast means just kind of try to take you down a notch.
[79:11]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Just do the. And Andrew Santino and Bobby Lee were amazing.
[79:15]
Marc Maron
Andrew's very good at that.
[79:16]
Bobby Altoff
He's roasted.
[79:18]
Marc Maron
He's a born dick.
[79:19]
Bobby Altoff
He is. He really is. I was like, oh, my God. That was my. Was that my. My first time meeting him was on. On that. I was like, oh, my God.
[79:28]
Marc Maron
He's really good at it.
[79:28]
Bobby Altoff
He's so good. He's quick. He's quick with it.
[79:30]
Marc Maron
He's so quick, and he's just like, well, this whole show is just beating up on Bobby.
[79:34]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah, it's amazing. I love that for them.
[79:37]
Marc Maron
And Bobby's a sweetheart.
[79:38]
Bobby Altoff
He really is his. I know. I felt bad because I was beating up on Bobby during my episode. I was like, that's what sometimes happens to me, too, is if I get a. Like, sometimes I feel bad because I have a guest that's so nice that I'm like, oh, my God. And with Bobby, I was like, I had a hard time at points, like, being mean to him because I was like, he's not. He's. He's so nice.
[79:57]
Marc Maron
Yeah. I have a hard time roasting because, like, innately, I, I. I'm trying to hurt somebody.
[80:04]
Bobby Altoff
Yeah. Yeah.
[80:06]
Marc Maron
So you got to be pretty. And I don't. You know, I'm not great at it, but I think I'm. I'm up for the challenge.
[80:13]
Bobby Altoff
Bouncer back. Yeah. I know some people are, I think, with. I have a lot of guests that are so excited to come in and get to roast me because they're like, we've done. We've watched all your episodes. We were like, we're going to do such a good job, and it's just, like, funny, but it's also just, like, whatever happens kind of happens.
[80:30]
Marc Maron
Okay, I'm game.
[80:31]
Bobby Altoff
All right, that'll be great.
[80:32]
Marc Maron
All right. Good.
[80:33]
Bobby Altoff
Talking very much.
[80:39]
Marc Maron
That was great. I guess maybe because I'm like, I'm learning what the kids are doing. I don't know. I liked her. I liked her story and her moxie and her ambition and just, you know, learning about how the new show business works again. You can watch the really good podcast on YouTube or listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. Hang out for a minute, people. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game, shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out? Well, with the name your price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower Your insurance bill, too. You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance, and they'll help find you options within your budget. Try it today@progressive.com and now some legal info. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. If you go back 10 years ago this week, that's when we had a great WTF with Jenny Slate. It's episode 558, and it's funny, it's emotional, and it's available to listen to right now in whatever podcast app you're using.
[81:52]
Jenny Slate
And then he was like, well, I think you'd be a great addition to the show, and we're gonna get you an office. And I was like, so I wanted him to say it. So I was like, so I'm gonna be on Saturday Night Live? And he was like, yeah. And I was like, that's so great. And I was like, I know you've probably. You've seen this, like, happen a million times before where people were like, I can't believe it, but this is my childhood dream, and I'm so excited. And he was like, okay, well, don't tell anybody, because, you know, we haven't announced it yet. And I was like, can I tell my nanas? And then he laughed, and he was like, how old are your nanas? And I was like, they were this, you know, age. And then. And he laughed, and I was like, can I give you a hug? And he was like, sure. And then we hugged and. And I went outside and Seth was waiting there. And he was like, well, what did he say? And I said, he said, I'm going to be on the show. And Seth was like, whoa, that doesn't really happen. And I said. He said I could have an office and stuff. And then Seth was like, let's try and go find John Mulaney. So we went into the offices because I knew John and we couldn't find him. And then I was like, well, I'm going to go. And then I went outside and I went into the courtyard of Rockefeller center and.
[82:57]
Bobby Altoff
Whoops.
[82:58]
Jenny Slate
I'm getting emotional.
[82:59]
Bobby Altoff
Okay.
[83:00]
Jenny Slate
I called my parents and I said, I'm going to be on Saturday Night Live. And it was really exciting.
[83:08]
Marc Maron
Yeah, that's great.
[83:09]
Jenny Slate
Yeah.
[83:11]
Marc Maron
Where are my Kleenexes?
[83:12]
Jenny Slate
I don't need any.
[83:13]
Marc Maron
Okay.
[83:15]
Jenny Slate
I never cry when I just. You know what? It is a beautiful story. And sometimes I forget that.
[83:20]
Marc Maron
Yeah, we now have crying.
[83:22]
Jenny Slate
Oh.
[83:23]
Marc Maron
I had clean it. Oh.
[83:26]
Jenny Slate
Because it is, like, cool to achieve something that you've always wanted and to do it kind of on your terms. Yeah, to call my parents. Like, they were just so stunned. Like, we were all so stunned. Just I came from, like, this fucking haunted house with these two artists with the woods on fire and just, like, had this one dream and went to college and didn't become an asshole and, you know, did that and it didn't. I was there for just the right amount of time, but, you know, to just call them and make that phone call.
[84:01]
Marc Maron
Right.
[84:02]
Jenny Slate
Honestly, I forget about that.
[84:04]
Marc Maron
Right.
[84:04]
Jenny Slate
And it was really, really meaningful.
[84:07]
Marc Maron
That's episode 558 with Jenny Slate. To get all episodes of WTF ad free, sign up for WTF Plus. Just go to the link in the episode description or go to wtfpod.com and click on WTF Plus. And a reminder before we go, this podcast is hosted by Acast. This is a good tone. I like this tone. Boomer lives Monkey and lafonda Cat Angels everywhere.