Transcript
Marc Maron (0:00)
Lock the gate. All right, let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers? What the fuck, buddies? What the fuck? Nicks, what's happening? How's it going? What's going on? Where are we at today? How are you managing? How are you managing? How's your brain? Are you holding it together? It's going to be day to day with this shit. Thanks for coming by. I appreciate you being here. It's interesting because today I talked to Noah Wiley. I think most people know him, certainly people of a certain age, from er. He was on almost all the seasons of er, and he's got this new medical drama that's called the Pit. And I was surprised, you know, I don't know what regular TV exists. And this is on hbo, I believe it's on Max, but it is. It is another kind of emergency trauma show, emergency based. Noah plays a doctor. And I don't remember ever really watching er, but I did watch all the available episodes of this thing, and it kind of did. It struck some nerves with me. I mean, it definitely got me in some sort of zone around mostly mortality, certainly around health care, but more so in that area of when you're in trouble, when people are in trouble, when people need to go to the emergency room. I imagine most of you at some point have found yourself in an emergency room for some reason or another. And it's a harrowing show. Each episode is an hour of the same day in this emergency room, in this trauma ward, where, you know, they have to, you know, make decisions, triage decisions, where they have to sort of manage intake because of issues with the hospital availability of beds, availability of people who work there, these sort of issues of hospital administration and healthcare in general. And it was. It was. I don't. It was heavy, man. I mean, and Noah Wiley is great and the whole cast is great, but it did kind of bring me back to a place. You know, I spent time in hospitals when I was a kid, not because I was sick, but because my dad was a doctor and because he was also kind of a workaholic. You know, spending time with dad sometimes meant, you know, making rounds with him or going to the hospital and dealing with that smell and dealing with, you know, just the. The. The kind of vibration of. Of illness of all kinds on my young brain. And, you know, I remember my dad, when he decided that motorcycles were not a good thing to play on, took me to see a patient of his interaction. You know, I remember, you know, just the. I just have this very kind of early recall of, of being in hospitals. And then as you get older, you realize that healthcare is obviously very important. Having a relationship with a doctor is very important. And what insurance companies and hospital administrators and managing the type of treatment you can get, what it all means to you, getting the proper attention that you need. And then also the realization that, that being a doctor is just a job. Some are better than others, some obviously want to do a good job, but it's a numbers game, man. And sort of seeing this kind of unfold on this show, just the fragility of life and the sort of weight of being a doctor in that situation and having to do your job, but also maintain your own mental and emotional stability and just. It just. The mortality thing was just really kind of heavy to me that, that it's so fragile and that, you know, these doctors have to be, you know, facing that down in the best way they can, that, you know, life comes and goes, and it definitely goes. So I was surprised and, and happy that I connected with the show in order to talk to Noah. And oddly, the guy who I play music with, my drummer Ned Brower, he's a pediatric nurse and I believe an emergency room pediatric nurse. And he has a small part on this show. And just talking to him about, you know, emergency medicine, it's just, you know, it's another one of those things like I talked about with fires, you know, that you gotta just sort of be grateful that there are people that want to do that and want to do it for a life and want to do it because it's their calling. And it becomes very frightening where you have so many people in the medical profession, especially nurses, who just don't want the gig anymore for a number of reasons. Certainly one of the reasons being for how they were treated during COVID and just staffing issues. I mean, these people are on the front lines in life and death situations and we rely on them. And if the system continues to break down or the wrong people are in leadership positions that create guidelines for these systems, it's fucking terrifying. It's a lot to manage just what's going on in general. But when you really think about this life or death situation and the fact that we're all going to come to a point where we're going to need medical attention, we're going to need to stay on top of our health in a way that's different than when we were younger, that it becomes, you know, fucking terrifying. And there's something about the humanity of this show and also the graphic nature of it. Because it's on Max. You do get a lot of very graphic procedural stuff around broken bones, rashes, heart attacks, you know, other, you know, problems that occur from accidents and all that stuff. But there's a really an interesting focus on, you know, each patient and the never ending stream of patients coming in. I imagine that's how ER was. You do get a sort of the hang of the personalities of the doctor. But it's a very empathetic and I think, you know, mostly realistic kind of exploration of the fragility of life, the fragility of the healthcare system and the incredible burden that's on the shoulders of doctors and nurses. It kind of spoke to me, it kind of puts it in your face. And I think people may watch this differently than I did. You may just see it as this exciting kind of well balanced human drama, a medical show. But I don't watch these kind of shows. So for me it was just sort of like, oh my God, you know, do you even know your doctor? I feel like there was a time where you had a doctor. Am I making that up? I mean, I have a doctor, but he's at the place where I go where the doctors are and, you know, and I've had three there. And the older you get, you're like, you know, who's my doctor? And then when you're dealing with the healthcare system, it's like, what doctor can I see? I don't know that guy. And then you realize that the system is at a breaking point and you don't even know what kind of care you're going to get or if you're going to get any at all. And I feel that way about the country right now too. It's at a breaking point and it's a lot. That layer of mental anguish and despair just combined with the basic awareness of mortality is sort of a lot to handle. But it's shows like these and look, I, you know, look, I think Noah Wiley does a great job as this doctor where, you know, you've, you're kind of, you know, you're in the life of a guy that has to balance this with a certain amount of humanity. I don't know, maybe that was kind of a downer of an opening situation. But, you know, I've just been thinking about things. So I have a few new tour dates to announce. I'm coming to Toronto at the Winter garden on Saturday, May 3. The presale is going on today with the password all in a L L L I N. It's in Caps where I'm reading it. So maybe that's it all in one word. General tickets are on sale tomorrow. I'll be in Burlington, Vermont at the Vermont Comedy Club on Monday and Tuesday, May 5th and 6th. Tickets are. Well, that's actually sold out, so I have to make a decision about whether I'm going to add shows there. I'll be in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at the Music hall on Wednesday, May 7, pre sale today with Password, all in general on sale tomorrow. Tonight I'll be in Santa Barbara, California, at the Wilbero Theater. Then tomorrow, I' in San Luis Obispo, California at the Fremont center, and Saturday, Monterey, California, at the Golden State Theater. Then I'm coming to Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Illinois, Michigan. Yeah. Go to wtfpod.com tour for all of my dates, including the new ones and links to the tickets. Okay, do that. Oh, my God. I don't mean to be morose or dark. You know, my heart's a little stressed emotionally. My brain's a little taxed emotionally and fearing. But look, you know, I'm going to plug on. I'm going to keep plugging away until I crumble or decide to stop. I had kind of a sobering, humbling couple hours yesterday. This guy, well, he's not a guy. He's a director. Steve Fine Arts. He directed a documentary about Eddie Pepitone years ago called Bitter Buddha. He also directed my last comedy special, From Bleak to Dark. But for the past few years, he's been making a documentary about me. Now, I didn't know what the point of that would be, but he was passionate about it, and he's been kind of, you know, following me around with a camera for years, on and off. I think the original arc of it was to sort of capture, you know, my beginning to do comedy after Covid and Lynn's passing, you know, and that arc would end at my HBO special. But over the years, it's become a much bigger thing, and there's a lot in it and a lot of me. And I guess the reason why it was humbling is that, you know, he's been, you know, following me, or you forget that there's a camera on you sometimes. But I guess the. The point of the whole thing is it's a rare thing that you actually get to see yourself as others see you. Almost nobody really gets that. You're kind of locked in your own vessel here, and you can make assumptions about other people in terms of what they may think, what you think they Think. Sometimes they tell you what they think. But I got a chance to, you know, just watch for an hour and a half or so, just, you know, my behavior in all these situations, you know, in these interviews and these moments in comedy backstage in my house. And it was a little rough, and there's all this footage that. I mean, it's good, I guess, but for me, having not really seen it put together, you know, I. For some reason, I just. I don't see myself quite as a, you know, a kind of sad, cranky guy who's, you know, set in certain ways. And I think that a lot of times when I'm in front of a camera, I act a certain way, but. But it was. It was sobering because I think it's an interesting kind of opportunity to. To really assess myself like that. And it. I think it had an impact at this age I'm at. And also, you know, it's over a lot of different years, but, man, seeing me doing standup in my early 20s, it was cringy for me, you know, seeing me, you know, on video. These videos I did maybe after my first year of college and, you know, on a VHS at home and then some comedy stuff, it was like, you know, because you really think that, you know, when you're younger that you've kind of got a handle on things, but it was all posturing and it was all this sort of fake swagger, and I. I don't know what. What compelled me to. To just enter the life I entered. But. And. And also, you know, I was doing things. I was two years into comedy maybe, when I started working as a comic. And. And, like, I. I don't ever consider that. Like, when I talk to comics, I'm like, oh, you gotta pay your dues. But, you know, what that looked like for me, you know, was really starting to work as a comic in difficult situations when I was two years in, you know, and it was like I was 24 years old or something. And I don't know, man. I guess there. There is a way that I can, you know, have some love for that guy, but. Oh, God, it's really hard. And then just to see who I've become in terms of, you know, how I live my life, what's happened in my life, and me and my cats and I'm like, oh, my God. I'm like, you know, I'm a couple years away from just becoming this eccentric old man that, you know, has this weird place in people's minds and hearts and in my community. And my business of like, oh, yeah, you know, angry old Marin. Yeah, he's out there. He's still out there doing his thing. I think he's still got the cats, but I hope it plays well. I guess it's gotten into south by Southwest and I think Tribeca and they talk to some of my peers and there's a lot of stuff in it about the podcast, about me and Lynn, about when I was younger, and it's a lot. And I guess there's some part of people that, you know, documentaries can be sort of scary, but for me, it was just sort of like, oh, no, you know, that's who I am. Not in a bad way. But, dude, you gotta, you gotta start, you know, trying some, to find some things, even in the climate we're in and even in this sort of period of fear and, and despair and seeming hopelessness to, to kind of open your heart and, and, and let some people in or enjoy some life or something. But it's a very engaging hour and a half. But for, for me to watch it, it was like, wow, I, I gotta, I gotta, like, you know, maybe. Maybe just start, you know, letting go of some stuff and, you know, opening my heart a little more in my day to day life. Yeah, I don't know, I don't know what to tell you, but it was a humbler. It was definitely a humbler, but reasonable. And I'm glad I saw it, and I hope you will too. I'll let you know if it ever gets out there. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You sign up for something, forget about it after the trial period ends and then you're charged month after month after month. The subscriptions are there, but you're not using them. In fact, I just learned that 85% of people have at least one paid subscription going unused each month. That's why I'm glad we have Rocket Money as a sponsor. I can see all my subscriptions in one place and cancel the ones I'm not using anymore. It's an easy way to save money. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps you find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Rocket Money has over 5 million users and has saved a total of $500 million in canceled subscriptions, saving members up to $740 a year when using all of the app's premium features. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to RocketMoney.com WTF today that's RocketMoney.com WTF RocketMoney.com WTF. Stop wasting cash. All right, so I already talked a bit about this show and its effect on me. And again, like, I'm getting to an age where, you know, everything has kind of an effect on me. But I do believe that there's a lot of humanity in this show and there's, you know, it doesn't pull its punches about the health care system. It's called the Pit. It's now streaming on Max with new episodes every Thursday. Episode five dropped today. And this is me talking to Noah Wiley. Okay, people, all you folks with growing families know this. The bigger the family, the more people there are who want the best seat in the family vehicle. But that's all changed with the 3 row Lexus TX. When the folks at Lexus made a luxury 3 row SUV that's in tune with every passenger, each seat feels like the best seat. The three row Lexus TX is loaded with innovative tech, plenty of legroom and intuitive features that anticipate everyone's needs. They designed the Lexus TX so that every seat lets passengers plug in or just unwind. It's going to be the most comfortable and versatile place you've ever listened to this podcast. And that third row isn't an afterthought. The cabin has been designed to let passengers of all sizes more immediately accessible. The spacious third row. With the spaciousness and luxury of the tx, everybody wins. Which makes it the perfect vehicle for today's modern families. No matter who's in your crew, there's a place for everyone in the tx. The three row Lexus tx. This is more than a three row suv. This is the era of three row luxury. So you have all this stuff. This is something we share. But you tell me you're telling me there's a story behind everything.