Transcript
Marc Maron (0:02)
Hey, folks. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. We made a great website using Squarespace, and you can too now with the best features Squarespace has ever offered, like Design intelligence, which uses AI technology to help you get the exact design specifications you need. And Squarespace payments, the easiest way to manage your sales in one place. Go 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, let's do this. How are you? What the. What the Buddies? What the Nicks? What's happening? I'm Mark Maron. This is my podcast. Wtf? Welcome to it. Welcome to all you people that have been here for a long time, some of you new people that have a lot of catching up to do. Look, you guys, I don't know if you. You know this or why would you. Maybe some of you would, but. WTF? This podcast will turn 16. 16 years old on September 1st. That's a couple months away. 16 years. It's a long time. A long time. It's a long time to do anything. And it's certainly. I've. I've said recently that I know when I'm living it, I don't feel like time is passing by quickly. But, yeah, all of a sudden, you know, you're old and you realize you've been doing something a long time. And this started, you know, the old garage, the, you know, just no one knew what a podcast was. I was coming out of a horrendous divorce. I was wanting to figure out how to continue living my life. Things were not looking good for me. Brendan McDonald, my producer, who I had worked with for years on other things, radio and streaming related. And when Brendan and I started this thing, all we knew is we were going to do it every Monday and Thursday, and there was no way to make money. There was no way that we knew how to build an audience or anything. And it was. It was crazy. We were doing it in a garage. At the beginning, that was just a garage. It was filled with junk. And it. It slowly evolved into the show that became what you listen to twice a week. Sixteen years we've been doing this, and we've decided that we had a great run. And now, basically, it's time, folks. It's time. WTF is coming to an end, and it's our decision. We'll have our final episode sometime in the fall. It was not Some kind of difficult decision necessarily. Neither me nor Brendan, who are the only people in charge of this operation on every level. I record it here in my garage studio. Brendan produces it in his chair in Brooklyn. And it's always been a two man operation. And we always said, well, how do we know when we're done? And I always said, well, whenever Brendan says so, and he always said, well, if Mark is finished, then we're finished. And thankfully, we both realized together that we were done. And there was no convincing or pushback or arguing. We were done and it's okay for things to end. 16 years and we have been through a lot. And I'm talking about me and you, the audience, me and Brendan, me and my life, me and my cats, me with my guests, me with, you know, my equipment, you know, me with, you know, moving and things change. But you've been through the entire arc of my life and everything that's happened in it for the last 16 years. And a lot of it was not easy. A lot of it was amazing. A lot of monumental things really happened on this show. And this was a show that was started when there were no podcasts and now there are nothing but podcasts. It's been an incredible time in my life and Brendan's life. We've done things that we never thought we would be able to do. Because of the podcast. My life changed dramatically. All the things that I set out to do before I did the podcast as sort of a Hail Mary pass to be a stand up with an audience, to try my hand at acting, to, you know, to, you know, have experiences with other people that were, you know, one of a kind and completely exciting and unique and engaging and revealing. To talk to a president in my garage. So many things happened because of just this. Setting up a mic in my garage with Brendan, you know, on the knobs, producing it, discussing with him how we do it all. It was a real creative partnership. And you, the audience, have been here through all of it. And I shared everything I could with you because that's the way I do it and with my guests. And there have been so many amazing guests. And it really comes down to the fact that we have put up a new show every Monday and Thursday for almost 16 years. And we're tired, we're burnt out, and we are utterly satisfied with the work we've done. We've done great work. And this doesn't mean I'm never going to do something like this again. Doesn't mean I'll never, you know, have talks like I do here or. Or some kind of podcast at some point in time, but for now, we're just. We're wrapping things up. It's okay. It's okay to end things. It's okay to try to start some other chapter in. In your life. And I'm talking to myself. I. You know, this. This podcast has been my connection to you people. It's been my connection socially to people in my business, people I never thought I'd meet before, creative people, interesting people. It's a very big part of my spiritual, social, and psychological life. But I'll be honest with you, it's nice to be able to end things on our terms, and we've always had that power to do that, and that's what we're going to do. We started the show on our terms, we grew it on our terms, and we'll end it on our terms. Look, we've had great partners who have helped us do the show over the years. Acast has been our partner for the past three years, and we've been able to do things on our terms with them. We always had that, and it's always been the way we've done it, and that's been great. And we've been very fortunate to be able to do things the way we want to do them. And now this is. Part of it, is ending it the way we want it to end. And look, the thing about burnout, about being tired, and about the way me and Brendan are, is that we are very focused and very particular and very hardworking in this endeavor. And the quality of the work we've done, every fucking episode, is its own greatness, because we're crazy dedicated guys who really want this to be the best show that it can be. I bring what I bring to the table. Brendan brings what he brings to the table. And, you know, God forbid, we just keep plowing along and. And something diminishes. And we wouldn't want to just keep plugging along because we can. At the risk of our burnout or our. Our sort of, like, you know, passion, you know, starts to. To drift or it starts to get sloppy. We're just. We're just not those kind of people. And look, I mean, look, I've got a lot of stuff going on. I've got a lot of projects going on, and we're still going to be doing this for the next several months, and we'll try to have as many people on as possible. Many people that maybe want to do it, never did do it, or people that maybe will do it. Now that, you know, this is the sort of like home stretch. But I do want to sincerely thank all you people, you know, for being along on this journey with me and with Brendan and with all the guests, because we really did something here and I want to thank you all for that. This isn't a sign off, but that's the big news and I'm sure we'll talk about it more in the weeks to come. I'm sure that you guys will want to chime in, but just for now, thank you for being here, as always. And it's going to be, there's probably going to be some ups and downs over the next few months with me emotionally around the reality of this, but it's done with, with, you know, this is a, a full hearted decision. It's the right decision for me. It's the right decision for Brendan. It's okay. It's okay for things to end. It's just time, folks. But again, we'll have a few more months, so don't get all bummed out. Let's just enjoy it. The world is on fire. I have people I want to talk to. We'll find a little joy. We'll find a little connection. We'll find a little solace in each other's company. We'll learn some things, we'll get some laughs, we'll cry a little bit and, you know, we'll move on. That being said, the first guy to hear about it was my guest on the show today, who's a good guest for this, for this particular episode. John Mulaney is here and he's been listening to this show since the very beginning. He was also on episode 551 and episode 743. He's been through a lot since then, I would say. He's currently hosting the Netflix talk show Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, which had its season finale last week. So, yeah, I get to break the news to John. Also, I wanted to mention this. The documentary, Are We Good? The screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City next month, that's a documentary about me. There are two screenings. Saturday, June 14th at 5pm that's at the Okx Theater on Chamber Street. Then Sunday, June 15th at 5:30pm it's screening at the Village east on 2nd Avenue and 12th Street. You can go to wtfpod.com/tour to get tickets for that. And oddly, in the current cut of the documentary, it is not brought up that, that we are retiring the show. But I'm excited. I'm excited. There are things going on. I mean, I just went to the premiere of Stick. That's the show I'm in with Owen Wilson. I will tell you about that, will I? Yes, I will. First, though, I was just talking last week about the great heroes of art and culture I've encountered in my life. All the things that celebrate freedom of expression and diversity of creativity. The stuff that expanded my worldview and helped me see life through other people's eyes. Yeah, like Arkham comics, underground art, weird music, like the residents. So much stuff. I can't imagine where I'd be without all the things that took me to that edge of human expression. And it's a damn shame to see people trying to steamroll and bury the arts. You don't need me to tell you that the arts are experiencing funding cuts that are unprecedented. So it's more important than ever to have places like BAM that are keeping the arts thriving and vibrant, just like they've been doing for more than 160 years. I just filmed my comedy special at BAM, so you probably heard me talk about how great the venue was, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. BAM is a world renowned hub of theater, music, opera, visual arts, films, literature, and of course, it's cutting edge dance programs. This is North America's oldest performing arts center. And when you give to bam, you invest in the future of a unique artistic community. You help make their iconic spaces accessible to all. You help create a welcoming home for diverse programming, and you ensure that there is always a place for artistic risk and innovation. Give to BAM today. Go to BAM.org support because this is where we're at. You know, it's going to be on us. It's going to be on people that have the means to donate to places that still represent what a democratic creative world looks like. It's scary. I think about it every day now. I really think about it every day. Like all the things that were important to me coming up, all the things that built my brain, all the weirdness and there's no end to it. To the type of music I was turned on to, the type of writing I was turned on to, some of it fringe stuff, some of it just, you know, you know, people that really lived on the creative edge that had, you know, that had personal weird tragedies and lives that were able to document it and talk about it and make it into art. So please, if you can, if you have the means to donate to these places, please do it. Please do it. Bam.org support as I said, working in that space was amazing to me. So look, in terms of the future, I seem to have a lot of things going on. I did go to the premiere of this new show, this new Apple show that I'm on with Owen Wilson, which premieres June 4th. I think they're going to drop three episodes. And they had a nice little red carpet event at the AMC in Century City with all the cast there and the producers and the writers and everybody on the crew. It was kind of great. Got dressed up in the one suit I have. I have actually two suits. But the thing is, I had never seen it. I didn't watch any of the cuts. You know, I was trying to do what Owen does. You know, Owen doesn't watch anything he's been in ever. He's never seen anything he's been in. I talked to him about that. I understand that. But, you know, like, I did this independent movie that I wanted to see the rough cut in case I had any suggestions. I was a producer on it and he was also a producer, but I guess of stick. But he explained it to me. He said, look, you know that fight scene that you and I had? I remember it as like the greatest fight scene ever because it was not a real, like stunt driven fight scene. It was an emotional explosion between two old friends. He says, I just remember that as great. Why not just hold on to that? And I respect that. So he actually went out during the screening itself. He went out with his brother Luke to get something to eat. And, you know, I watched it and I gotta say, it's gonna be a touching series. I feel like I did pretty well in it. I. I feel like I. I did the character, I represented myself. I was doing some new things for me in terms of acting and how I was approaching it. But I gotta be honest with you, this series is a heartfelt, heart wrenching experience. And the comedy balances out the emotions pretty well. I think people are gonna enjoy it. I think you're gonna enjoy it. And it doesn't matter if you don't know anything about golf, because, you know, I didn't and I'm in it. And sometimes when they're interviewing me on the junket, on all these outlets are interviewing me about what my relationship with golf. I almost feel like I should lie, but I don't. I did learn enough, I think, to portray the guy that I portrayed. I didn't need to step up and look like a real golfer, but I think I could look like a real caddy if necessary. And, but mostly in this show, I was an emotional caddy, I think, for a lot of the characters. But all that said, I do recommend you watch it because I think it is a very human and a very moving series. In a rare turn, all the characters kind of transform, all the characters change. And that's really what you want from an arc of a story about any character is that they do change. And this is a kind of found family. Is that what you call it? A kind of makeshift family of underdogs who, who are kind of moving towards self realization and trying to let go of some things. And it's a, it's kind of a beautiful thing. Feeding yourself is hard enough sometimes, but what about when you have a whole family of mouths to feed? If that sounds familiar, it might be time to streamline dinner time with Home Chef. Choose from more than 35 meals and 18 extras per week, including kids themed special meal kits. Home Chef delivers fresh ingredients and Chef designed 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, taste and recipe ease for my type of diet. This week's menu has stuff like the roasted Korean tofu with mushrooms and snow peas or the veggie lovers stir fry with noodles and peanut sauce. But you can take a look at the menu and find out what's best for you. For a limited time, Home chef is offering WTF listeners 18 free meals, plus free dessert for life and of course, free shipping. On your first box, go to homechef.com WTF that's home chef.com WTF for 18 free meals and free dessert for life. Stop trying to figure out what to make for dinner and open the door for Home chef. Again, that's homechef.com WTF and you must be an active subscriber to receive free dessert. Free dessert. 16 years, you guys. Wow. It's gonna be fun, though. I think I do think we're gonna have. I think we're gonna have a little as. As much as I'm capable of. This will be a bit of a party. Is that possible? Is that overselling it? Is that it's. It's gonna be good. And John Mulaney, I did his show. I did that. Everybody's live with John Mulaney. Had a nice time and it's always nice to talk to him. I haven't talked to him. I think everybody else has about, you know, what he went through with, with getting sober. I imagine we're going to get into that a bit. Everybody's Live with John Mulaney, just wrapped last week. I couldn't make the rap party because I was doing a press junket for Stick. I. I don't know if it's clear whether he's going to do more, but they're all there if you want to watch them, and they're pretty unique and odd. This is me talking to John Mulaney and breaking the news. This is an ad by BetterHelp. And BetterHelp is trying to do something that I've been trying to do on this show for a long time, destigmatize men's mental health care needs. Six million men in the US Suffer from depression every year, and it's often undiagnosed. A big reason for that is the pressure around asking for help. But listen, it's okay to struggle. Real strength comes from opening up about what you're carrying and doing something about it so you can be at your best for yourself and everyone in your life. If you're feeling the weight of the world, talk to someone. Anyone. Could be a friend, a loved one, or even a therapist. I've been going to therapy lately because I knew it was time. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform. You can join a session with a therapist at the click of a button, helping you fit therapy into your busy life, plus switch therapists at any time. As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise. Talk it out with BetterHelp, our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com WTF? That's betterhelp.com. wTF? Heavy shit, man. Jacques Derrida.