Transcript
Marc Maron (0:02)
Hey, folks, it's time to grow your business, enhance your online presence, and build your perfect website with Squarespace. Start with Blueprint AI, Squarespace's AI Enhanced website builder to get a fully custom website in just a few steps. Then choose whatever features you want to get the most out of your site, just like we do with wtfpod.com check out squarespace.com wtf for a free trial. And then when you're ready to go live, use offer code WTF to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com WTF? Offer code WTF. Yes, Squarespace. Let's do the show. All right, let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers? What the Buddies. What the Nicks. How you doing? I'm Mark Marin. This is my podcast, wtf. Welcome to it. How's it going? Today on the show, I talked to Liza Trager, who is great. So great. I've met her a long time ago. I didn't really register her for a long time, but I knew she was around and then I just saw her. It's one of these things that happens to me with young comics. I watched some of her special and I was like, holy fuck, why am I not talking to this person? She's hilarious. She has a special on Netflix called Lisa Traeger Night Owl. She's also on the Netflix series Survival of the Thickest. But it's funny that I've done a couple of these interviews lately with these kind of bombastic Jewish female comedians and they just kill me. Actually, Jessica Curson will be on Thursday show. So it's a big week of fucking hilarious. Women on this show could not stop laughing. Los Angeles. I'm back at Largo tomorrow, April 22, for an 8pm show. Then I'm at Dynasty Typewriter this Saturday, April 26, and again on Tuesday, April 29. Toronto. I'm at the Winter Garden on Saturday, May 3 for two shows. Burlington, Vermont. I'm at the Vermont Comedy Club for two shows on Monday, May 5, and one show on Tuesday, May 6. Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I'll be at the Music hall on Wednesday, May 7, and then I'm in Brooklyn for my HBO special taping at the Bam Harvey Theater on May 10th. Two shows there. Go to wtfpod.com tour for all my dates and links to tickets. Had something odd happen to me the other day. Kinda odd and retro at the same time. You know, we do this bonus material and we did an Ask Mark anything and you know, people Send in questions, and I answer them. And somebody asked me, what are my favorite Lynyrd Skynyrd deep cuts. Someone's been listening. You know, I have this weird thing where I guess I have a fairly broad personality in some ways. I mean, you can pigeonhole me. Cranky guy or neurotic guy or angry guy, you know, whatever. Whatever you want. Whatever box you want to put me in, you can put me in there. But those of you who listen to this know that it's not. It's a pretty big fucking box, and there's not much of a lid on it. And, you know, there are periods in my life that were kind of. Is it. Do I want the word anachronistic? But I don't think they're unlike some other people. You know, because of my proximity to the college, when I was growing up and working at a restaurant across from the college, and because of my fundamentally kind of New Mexico townie upbringing, you know, I've got many worlds in me. You know, I've got Lynyrd Skynyrd and I've got Brian Eno, and they both exist, and they both bring me a tremendous amount of joy. I can go from Brian Eno to Lynyrd Skynyrd pronounced just in the flick of a switch and be just as excited. I can go from Mingus right into AC DC Power Ridge, no problem. No problem. Doesn't require a big shift for me. I just have many. I. I have multitudes. What is it? See, I got Whitman in me, too. Somewhere someone asked me also about my favorite poem. I should have thrown this one in there. I chose William Carlos Williams, the Red Wheelbarrow, because that one's succinct. That's the one I go back to in my head. But Song of Myself. Come on, Whitman. Here's the line. Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes. That's right, man. I can do it. Skynyrd and Eno, equal space. Equal space. But anyway, my point was being that we had another one of these horrendous school shootings and. And actually, a fan of mine's daughter was. Was there, and I got a DM through Instagram, and it's fucking horrendous that they continue to happen. And the only reaction from the political forces in control is that, yeah, these things happen. People kill people, not guns. And it. The logic of it is ridiculous and disturbing, that. But this argument's been going on. She shouldn't even be an argument but this position has been going on forever, no matter how many kids die. And it's fucking heinous. And it's like. It's like a. A perfect example of the disease that is killing America. But the odd thing is, so I'm listening to. Someone sent me a song list of the Skynyrd songs that I chose. And one of them was Saturday Night Special. And it's on the album Nothing Fancy. And it's about a.38 special. It's about a gun, and it's really an anti gun song. It's about a handgun, the.38 Special. And there's several stories within it about people getting shot with them. And the chorus is, Mr. Saturday Night Special. Got a barrel that's blue and cold that ain't good for nothing but putting men six feet in a hole. So good lyrics. But I would consider that an anti gun position by one of the seminal southern rock bands. And you kind of associate the south with, you know, the sort of cold dead hands thing. Can't take my gun away. So I was having this moment where everything came together for me and I hadn't listened to the song in a while. Even when I chose it, I didn't think of it as an anti gun anthem, you know, But I listened to it again. I'm like, holy shit. You know, this is an anti gun song by some real rebel southern rock guys. And you know, I. I was kind of like, wow, well, that was ballsy. You know, back then maybe, right? I. You would think so that these guys of that ilk would do an anti gun anthem. But what's very interesting is that at the end of the song, it kind of. So the last couple verses. Handguns are made for killing, they ain't no good for nothing else. And if you like to drink your whiskey, you might even shoot yourself. Heavy, right? But true. And then the last verse is before the chorus is, so why don't we dump people? Oh. Oh, wow, I misread it. Oh, good. Well, that makes me feel better. Oh my God. I had this big point and it doesn't even matter. The last verse is, so why don't we dump them people to the bottom of the sea before some old fool come around here and want to shoot either you or me. It's anti gun all the way through. But I thought the last verse was, why don't we dump all people to the bottom of the sea? And I was like, holy shit, that's how deep that amendment runs. Is that the solution on the level of this band of these representatives of the American south is that why don't we get rid of all the people so the guns can live free of us? But I misread it. I don't know. Should I even leave this in here? Oh, my God. You know, sometimes song lyrics, you know, you think you hear one thing and it's not. Do you find yourself eating the same thing over and over again? You probably don't want to do that, but I get it. Life is a lot. And you get done with a long day of work and you don't have time to search for new meals or pick out ingredients or learn how to cook something new. Well, Home Chef gets it too. Delivering fresh ingredients and chef design recipes conveniently to your doorstep to simplify your cooking experience. Users of leading meal kits have rated Home Chef number one in quality, convenience, value and taste and recipe ease. You get more than 30 options each week with lots of choices for different dietary needs. Check out this week's menu for some of the featured dishes like orange teriyaki pork and rice or Chesapeake peak style salmon cakes. Last time I got the garlic ginger tofu tacos. There's definitely something for everyone, folks. For a limited time, Home chef is offering WTF listeners 50% off and free shipping for your first box, plus free dessert for life. Free dessert for life. Go to homechef.com WTF that's homechef.com WTF for 50% off your first box and free dessert for life. Homechef.com WTF you must be an active subscriber to receive the free dessert. You hear me? All right, well, that was a tremendously funny misread of a anti gun anthem, which turns out it was here I thought it was, but there was a caveat that at the end, you don't mess with the Constitution, you just get rid of all humans. My brain worked with that for a while. I thought it was very telling, but it was also very wrong having read their lyrics right here in front of you. All right, so I'll give you an update on Charles. You know, I think it also should be noted if you'd like to note it. I noted it that one of the things that made me realize that I was okay at this, at being on these kind of microphones was at Air America. This was, you know, that was put together to try to stop a second Bush two term, a second W term. And the politics of that time were dire as well. Not as dire as now, but seemingly they were because they were as dire as they could have gotten. But we didn't anticipate they'd get more dire, but that's besides the point. But the truth is that during that time, we were doing a political comedy, and we were doing political news and political talk, but I was also sort of developing my own voice on these microphones. And so much of it was built on cats, really. So much of it was built on cats, I'd say. Rescued five feral cats, kittens from my back alley in Queens. And the narrative of that is what really kind of gave me a voice, these cats. So. And also, it was a nice reprieve for people during that time, the story of these cats. So here we are with another episode of where's Charlie At? With where's. What's Charlie doing? What the is wrong with Charlie? Well, I can't answer that question, but the struggle for me around medicating Charlie has sort of resolved itself. He's been off the Prozac now for almost a week, and he's back to himself. And I couldn't be happier. Yes, he's still running around, beating up on Buster and sometimes on Sammy. But I will accept that. It's the behavior that I'm worried about when I'm away. But I'm gonna try something different with that, something less permanent. You know, maybe some gabapentin or this other stuff. You know, some people recommend cbd, other people recommend fellow Aromata. I got them all over the house, the Felways. And despite how they work for your cats, they don't work for mine. I didn't think they would, but I've had them on for, you know, over a week, two weeks here and cbd. I don't know. I might go gabapentin. But the point is, what a relief in my heart and mind and for Charlie as well, that I took him off this Prozac. Because whether I was projecting or not, what I sensed in Charlie on the Prozac was he had all his impulses to be himself, but he couldn't get to him. And I sensed a frustration there that might have been projecting, but. But who cares, you know? You know, your cats. I know mine. Some people think I anthropomorphize too much and that I'm reading into it. But he seemed frustrated that he could not be himself. And it was making a sad. It was making me sad. So I took him off, and he's back. He's just the same guy. He was very engaged, very excited, very intrusive, a little bit crazy, maybe a lot crazy, but he's not even three yet. That was the other factor. Like, what am I doing to this guy? So I'm thrilled to have him back and I try to get in the way of him fucking with the other cats. And I've decided to get him more enrichments. More enrichment. I didn't know that word, enrichments until I went to the North Carolina Tiger Rescue. They have enrichments for the, for the, for the tigers in the form of tires. I didn't get, I didn't get Charlie. A tire hanging from a rope. Not quite big enough for that. But looking at cat trees, people, you know, people who have a nice house or enjoy the decoration or the decor of their house, eventually, if you have cats, you let go of a couch, you let go of some chairs, you. You'll put up with some stink, you'll put up with some things, some vomit. You know, you'll, you'll, you'll sacrifice furniture, you'll make exceptions. But the step to cat tree is a big one because then you're just giving your house to the cats. They have it anyway. But if it's a big enough house or there's enough space, you can, you know, spread it out a little bit. But once you dump one of those big ugly cat trees, and there's. There may be nice looking ones, but let's be honest, it is what it is. Once you dump one of those giant cat trees into a room. Not your house anymore, pal. Nope. You've given in. And that's that. It's their house. And that's where I'm at. I'm on the precipice of buying a hideous cat tree because maybe Charlie, with a little more enrichment, will settle the fuck down and stop beating up on Buster. But that might just go on for a while. Anyway, that is what's going on. That is what's going on right now. Looking at Catri's Charlie's Charlie again. I guess I should give you the update of my parents. They're both hanging in. Thought I'd give you an update, talk to my dad. Still knows who I am. We have conversations that are limited to the several hours of memory that he has or memory of the several hours before I talk to him. But it's okay. My mom's okay. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. The conversations with my mom are like, how you doing? How you doing, Mom? All right. How are you? I'm good. What's going on? Well, nothing. What about you, Mark? Well, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. Okay. Yeah. So nothing. You do you're not doing anything fun? I don't know. Not really. Okay, well, I guess that's it. I love you, but that's fine. Maybe I should call her after I do this. Just have that conversation again this week. All right, so look, Lisa Traeger. This was great. It was a great comic talk. It was a great funny talk. I love her. Her Netflix series Survival of the Thickest is now streaming. She's got a special on Netflix called Night Owl. This is me talking to Liza Trager, folks. We're only a few months into the year, and I've already been all over the country in 2025 doing my stand updates. I've been up to Napa and Sacramento, then back down to Santa Barbara and Monterey. I was in Colorado and back in my hometown of Albuquerque, then the Midwest. And it's odd even when I've been to a town that I'm always surprised and I always do new things. There are certain things I like to do that I always do. But I'd never driven over the Black Mountains of Kentucky. I'd never done all that. You know, when you get out there and you get out in the world and you get off the interstate, you know, you get to really take it in. And I've got plenty more travel to come as I build up to taping my standup special. Traveling is a big part of my life. And if you do even a fraction of the traveling that I do, you might start thinking about hosting your place on Airbnb while you're away. And now 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. Find a co host@airbnb.com host. Your cat died. Seventeen.
