Transcript
Marc Maron (0:01)
You just heard Bill Burr on this show a few weeks ago and now you can watch him in his natural habitat, the standup stage. Bill is coming to Hulu on March 14th with his Hoolarious standup special, Bill Drop Dead Years. Get Bill's provocative and unfiltered point of view on everything from marriage and parenthood to dating advice. And yes, dropping dead. See the new hilarious standup special Bill Burr, Drop Dead Years, Streaming on Hulu March 14th.
Mike Elias (0:30)
Lock the gift.
Marc Maron (0:39)
All right, let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers? What the Buddies? What the nicks? What's happening? I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. It's one of the originals. That's what I'm told. I just watched a documentary about myself last night. I'm in Austin, Texas. Hopefully I'll be home. I guess it will be today. When you hear about this. I've been on the road for a week and that doesn't sound like a lot, but every day is at least two to three days in road years. When you're out here and I'm ready to get home, I get a little isolated, a little strangely lonely out here. But here's what's going on. Let me tell you what's going on today. A couple of things. My special taping has been announced. I'll be doing two shows at the BAM Harvey Theater in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 10th, 7pm and 9:30pm There's a pre sale going on today from 10am to 10pm Eastern Time. Pre sale code is is all in all caps, one word. Tickets are on sale to the general public tomorrow, Friday, March 14th. So first off, let's go into who's on the show today because this is an interesting episode of wtf Because I talked to a guy. He's not the kind of guy I usually talk to. I mean, he's as a person, he is, but he's not in entertainment. He's not in music. He's not a writer. But he is a guy. I would. What would you call him? A craftsman. A craftsman of clothing, of accessories. He makes things he wants to make out of brass and out of fabric and out of leather. His name is Mike Elias and he is the proprietor and creator and designer for a place called Ship John that is up in Portland, Oregon. I've mentioned it before because I wear his stuff all the time and it's not because I have to. It just fits me and it suits me. But he's got an interesting story. This is sort of delray Dean Delray turned me on to Ship John years ago. Dean's kind of a fashion plate. Dean is a guy who's always see of a certain type. I mean, it's not for everybody. But there's a world that Dean exists in that has to do with boots, watches, jackets and eyeglass frames, I would say are the primary things guitars as well. He knows about. He knows about a lot of things. T shirts. But one time we were up in Portland and he was opening for me and he knew this guy that had a little workshop and a very small little workshop store, and he designed jackets. I was kind of into the jacket idea. It was a jacket that Dean had. He did some shirts. But I was already on, on board with Filson from many years ago, from probably 20, 25 years ago. And this guy was in the same zone as that. I wouldn't call it work clothes. Some of it is sort of work oriented. But he made this jacket called the Will's Jacket. And it's a very specific and unique design and. And it's fucking awesome. And oddly, Mike Ship John himself designed that jacket 10 years ago. It's the 10th anniversary of the Will's Jacket tomorrow and a lot of you are like, who cares? What is that? What does that mean? It's some guy who makes a jacket. Well, you know, to all of us, no matter what we do, when there are sort of markers of our life, of our career, of our art or whatever it is, it's a big deal. And this jacket is sort of a big deal. And I'll validate that. I will say it's a big deal to me. I wear the thing all the time and it's a unique thing, but ultimately it leads to a bigger conversation. He also gave me an oil oiled tin cloth shirt that I wore on Colbert that was way too hot. It was really not that kind of shirt. But since then, like, there's a I'm wearing Ship John stuff most of the time, whether it's the shirt or the jacket, occasionally a hat. He just sent me the Ship John version of a utility knife, of a Stanley knife, which he has an obsession with, which we'll talk to. But the story is interesting because he didn't set out to do this, you know, he comes from an oyster fisherman family in New Jersey. And the story is great and he's a real, like, he had to learn this craft, not unlike anybody who has to do something creative or that they're possessed to do. And the arc of the story is pretty fucking interesting. And I deal with them all the time. We exchange records, we, you know, we hang out when I'm in Portland or he's down here and you know, there's a lot of stuff that he's involved with. Like I've always been a little, I've always felt like a little bit of a fraud when I wear, you know, boots and jackets that are sort of meant for, you know, hard work, which is sort of why he created the jackets. But, but there is a look to it and it's just something I've landed on. I'm not going to feel too guilty about it any more than I feel about my personality in general in terms of, of being a fraud. I mean it's a, it's a tricky thing and after just seeing that documentary, I've got, I've got some answers about me and they're, they're not the easiest to sort of take. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a lot on their plate right now. If you're also trying to manage the many things you've got going. One way to simplify everything is to put the experts at SimpliSafe in charge of your home security. We've been using SimpliSafe for almost a decade and not only do they give us peace of mind, they always provide the best, most up to date methods for protecting your home. For example, Simplisafe's Active Guard Outdoor protection can help prevent break ins before they happen. They use state of the art AI powered cameras with live professional monitoring agents watching your property to detect suspicious activity. They can also activate spotlights, contact the police, even talk directly to people on your property. Hey buddy, get away from the door. 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I would say that's probably true most of the time. And I kind of talked about how my first viewing of the doc was a humbling experience, but to see it again was even more humbling and sad and entertaining. I mean, I could see it was funny and how it would be funny and touching to people, but to me, kind of re engaging with the grief and re engaging with, you know, what I was going through and re engaging with. Building a comedy set from that was heavy. But I gotta be honest with you, the stuff that had the most impact on me and I imagine some people, certainly the newer generations have experience with this, but we didn't. I mean, I'm 61 years old and there was a period in time when I started doing comedy in the 80s where there were VHS of me that were existing. They existed, I had them, I had not looked at them in many years. And there was stuff I shot at my house with the family's home video camera. And that to me was really oddly the most disturbing stuff to watch in a kind of cringy way. The emotional stuff that I'd gone through in the past four years or five years was not. I could re engage with that. But all the early stuff of me trying to figure out who I was on stage and really trying to figure out who I was as a person is a little tough to watch because the truth is, and I speak to specific people who are either self aware of this or suspect it. If you didn't grow up in an emotionally grounded household that was relatively healthy, where you were, you know, enabled to kind of complete yourself, you know, it's a rough go and you know, you try on a lot of personality pieces, you try on a lot of jackets and shirts and boots, you try a lot of haircuts, you try a lot of glasses frames, you try a lot of music. You read books about like how to be who you are. It's a very specific type. I don't think it's a unusual and I don't think it's unusual in my audience, but. But it's a real thing. So to see myself at different stages in age, but also at different stages in trying to find a voice as a comic, it was a little much and it really kind of fucked with me. While I was watching the show. Because when I'm watching this whole thing and I'm like, you know, I. Am I. Am I still doing that? Am I. Have I landed in me? I mean, I would hope so. And the truth is I have, and it's not great. I know your experience of me is what it is, and I give you as much of myself as I can, which is not nothing. It's an awful lot. Seeing how I am from an outside perspective was really. It was kind of daunting because many of, you know, over the years of listening to me, you know, my need to. Or propensity or compulsion to compare myself to other comics to. To think that, you know, you know, why. Why am I not more popular in a broader way? And the thing is, I never really set out to do that, and I always was kind of against it. So what was interesting about watching this thing is I'm exactly really what I set out to be. But there's always this other part of you that judges your it's not even a grass is greener kind of thing. It's more like that guy seems to have his shit together on all levels. And look at him presenting himself and being broadly popular and making a fortune and being good at what he does. Why am I not that guy? So that's not really a Grass is Greener in the sort of traditional sense. It's just sort of like, why can't I be a whole person that seems to be in control of their being? Why? Why. Why am I always falling horizontally? Why is my brain on fire all the time? Why am I always catastrophizing and thinking the worst of myself? Why? I have answers to these questions, some of them that I've talked about on this show. I have frameworks that I've used over time, psychological and recovery stuff. But. But it's still kind of. It kind of eats at me, you know, like, you know, what. What? I think I'm for everybody on some level, but the truth is, is I'm not. So what was kind of revelatory about watching this documentary about me is that, you know, I'm turning into this. I wouldn't say eccentric character, but a character nonetheless. And I've always noticed, particularly with presidents who start out young and then get old, that there is a turning point somewhere between 55 and 65, where they become the phase before the end form. Not old, old, but, like, this is the beginning of old. I can see it in their disposition, their hair, the wrinkles on their face. And you notice this with actors and Everything else, but it's sort of hard to notice for yourself. But like, I'm like on the outside of middle age here and I'm watching this movie and some things haven't changed, but some things aren't going to change. And at a certain point, some things, you know, you're going to have to just accept about who you are. It is a whole package. And it's been sort of like that way for a while. So I think the big lesson for me was like, all right, well, whatever I thought I was going to be and whatever, on occasion I still think I could be or still still think I should be, is. Is. Is not relevant to the fact that I. I am who I am for better or for worse, and that I think that getting to that point sooner than later with yourself is probably a good thing to kind of like give yourself a break a little bit. The fact is, I'm doing exactly what I've always wanted to do, and I'm doing it exactly the way I want to do it. And so. And there is really no other way yet that voice persists. So removing that guy from the equation means that there's some radical self acceptance that has to happen. And I guess it happened. I think it happened because of this doc. And it's such a weird, emotional documentary portrait of me that when it was over, you kind of get that feeling like, well, it's sad this guy died. You know, when I had to go up on stage, you know, with Stephen after the movie, I got up and I'm like, this guy's still alive. There was a moment where I'm like, I'm still alive. This is not one of those docs where you're like, God, I wish I. I'm glad I've been introduced to his work, but it's sad that he's gone. No, I'm here and I'm walking up to the stage right now. So it was an exciting weekend and I was wearing a Ship John shirt when I got up on the stage because it seems that the. The Ship John shirts seem to fit the. The me who I am currently and presently, and it seems to be pretty much all of me. And the guy who designed that shirt is on the show today. So it is, as I said before, Tomorrow, March 14th is the 10th anniversary of the Ship John Will's jacket. And Chip John is releasing a special decade edition of the jacket tomorrow. You can check it out at shipjohn Us. It might not be easy to get one, and you might have to wait for It. But let's get into the life of Mike now. This is me talking to Mike Elias in the garage. This is an outlier type of talk for me. But the truth is, is that I wear all your clothes.