Episode 1680 - Christopher Guest

Summary

WTF with Marc Maron Podcast – Episode 1680: Christopher Guest

Date: September 22, 2025
Host: Marc Maron
Guest: Christopher Guest (comedian, filmmaker, musician, member of "Spinal Tap," creator of "Best in Show," "Waiting for Guffman," etc.)

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Overview

This episode features an in-depth, relaxed, and illuminating conversation between Marc Maron and Christopher Guest. Guest is known for his groundbreaking improvisational films ("Spinal Tap," "Best in Show," "Waiting for Guffman," "A Mighty Wind") and his distinctive position within comedy, music, and even British parliament. The discussion explores Guest's creative process, philosophy, personal history, and unique perspectives on art, satire, collaboration, and life outside show business.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Marc Maron's Reflections on Authoritarianism, Art, and Resistance

Timestamps: 03:25 – 17:45

• Marc opens with a candid meditation on contemporary politics, censorship ("shut the fuck upness"), and the authoritarian pressures on artistic and comic speech under the Trump administration.
• Emphasizes the historical role of "fuck you" in art as a form of resistance and a check on power:
  • “There’s a lot of fuck you in art, there’s a lot of fuck you in satire, there’s a lot of fuck you in painting, there’s a lot of fuck you in theater, there’s a lot of fuck you in music. These are the arts that, you know, stand up to fascist bullshit in one form or another.” (Marc Maron, 05:05)
• Expresses concern over the impact of removing voices like Jimmy Kimmel’s from the air and the capitulation of corporations to government demands.

Meeting Christopher Guest: Setting the Stage

Timestamps: 17:45 – 19:02

• Guest begins by joking about a beverage commercial he did, highlighting his dry humor (“It’s beer. It’s… beer. No, it’s not. It’s not beer. It’s water.” – 17:57)
• Guest shares how he distances himself from the hype and gossip of show business, preferring to read, play music, and lead a private life:
  • “I don’t read anything about show business. I haven’t since 19-early-80s.” (18:33)
• Quick segue into musical hobbies—Guest is an avid musician and generous with his collection of guitars.

Music, Instruments, and Generosity

Timestamps: 19:02 – 25:18

• Guest details his lifelong habit of gifting prized guitars to deserving musicians, telling a heartfelt story of giving a 1955 Les Paul Gold Top to a virtuoso jazz player.
• Maron and Guest bond over the mystique and obsession with instruments and the process of playing ("I play them virtually every day...I go through probably four of them in a day." – Guest, 23:36).

On Practice, Creativity, and Artistic Anxiety

Timestamps: 23:44 – 25:18

• Guest describes his daily, solitary creative process: recording multitrack music for his own pleasure, not public release.
• He reflects on the lack of anxiety he feels performing, while empathizing with Marc’s occasional performance nerves.
• “It’s only for me. It’s not for anyone else.” (Guest, 24:48)

Early Career, National Lampoon, and Lampoon Culture

Timestamps: 25:40 – 36:38

• Guest recounts his “fluke beginning” at the National Lampoon magazine and radio show, joining at its inception in 1970.
  • "No one ever said no from the very beginning… I had control of everything, virtually everything." (27:31)
• Describes the infamous, competitive, and sometimes verbally combative culture at Lampoon, under leaders like Henry Beard and Sean Kelly.
• Reflects on how many of his contemporaries are now gone (“Easily 80% are dead, I think.” – 35:05) and the effect of hard living on creative talents.

Improvisation vs. Scripted Work, Creative Process in Film

Timestamps: 36:38 – 43:35

• Guest and Maron geek out about the magic of improvisation, likening it to jazz:
  • “It's about the… it's gone. Yes, it's gone. It's pure. It's jazz.” (Guest, 36:46)
• Explains how he and Eugene Levy write detailed outlines for their films, but all the dialogue and on-set action is improvised:
  • “We’re not going to start playing in a different key. We're... We're not gonna play a solo at the same time someone else is doing it... you can hear it... It's the same thing with what we did in those movies where you're sitting with a really good band.” (Guest, 37:25)
• Contrasts this with faux-improvisational mockumentary TV shows that merely mimic the style.

The Evolution and Discovery in His Films

Timestamps: 43:35 – 49:11

• Shares how “Spinal Tap” almost never saw the light of day due to clueless executives and was ultimately greenlit by Norman Lear.
  • “...if it hadn’t been for that, never seen the light of day.” (Guest, 44:24)
• Discusses finding joy in editing as part of the purest creative process—more satisfying than feedback or external approval.

Early Theater and SNL

Timestamps: 46:43 – 54:20

• Guest worked on stage in New York (serious, not comedic roles), before a surprise call from Lily Tomlin pulled him into writing and performing for television.
• Laments how much of the original creative energy among 70’s Lampoon/Lemmings performers—Belushi, Chevy Chase, Paul Jacobs, Alice Playton—was lost to excess before SNL, especially due to drugs.
  • “Half of what they had was diminished before they even went to SNL easily.” (Guest, 53:40)

Jazz, Clubs, and British Comic Influence

Timestamps: 54:20 – 64:59

• Reminisces about working at the Village Vanguard in NYC, where he interacted with jazz luminaries (Bill Evans, Nina Simone, Rahsaan Roland Kirk).
  • “He (Kirk) said to me one night, ‘Chris, where I am right now, you can’t write to me…’ He was out there.” (Guest, 56:57)
• Highlights the formative influence of “Beyond the Fringe” (Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller) on his approach to comedy and intellect:
  • “...absolute blazing intelligence and funny. And it became sort of a bedrock thing…" (Guest, 61:47)

On Revisiting the Past and Discomfort with Nostalgia

Timestamps: 65:00 – 66:32

• Guest avoids watching his old work or reliving the past—even journals from formative experiences are left alone:
  • “It makes me uncomfortable.” (65:25)
• Maron empathizes, finding old standup “the worst thing I’ve ever seen.”

British Peerage and the House of Lords

Timestamps: 78:34 – 82:58

• Guest explains for American listeners the difference between nobility and peerage in the UK and describes inheriting his father's barony and participation in the House of Lords.
  • “It's not royalty. It is a different thing... So that's the basic premise. It's not royalty.” (79:41)
  • Recalls being summoned with a medieval parchment and wearing crimson robes.
  • “There are people who still use ear horns.” (80:31)

SNL and Hollywood Work

Timestamps: 83:00 – 85:52

• Reflects on his one year at SNL in 1984 during Lorne Michaels’ absence, working alongside Billy Crystal, Martin Short, and Harry Shearer.
  • Guest was disinterested and was looking for an excuse to leave: “I had just met my wife Jamie. And I said, that is more interesting to me than this is.” (84:23)

The Creative Process: From Best in Show to Mighty Wind

Timestamps: 67:34 – 74:30

• “Best in Show” originated when Guest, at a dog park, realized the snobbery and subtle elitism of the purebred dog world.
• All character-driven comedy starts with Guest’s own observations, then developed with Eugene Levy. The ensemble cast is handpicked based on "musical" intuition—the right players for the right “band.”
  • “These are the musicians in this piece. And we know they can play these things.” (Guest, 70:58)
• “Mighty Wind” is directly rooted in Guest’s Greenwich Village folk background; pokes fun at the over-seriousness and lack of perspective among folk musicians.

Philosophy of Comedy, Humility, and Earnestness

Timestamps: 74:00 – 76:49

• Argues that the humor in his films comes from earnest but deluded, not malicious, characters.
  • “Their earnestness is what’s funny, and their delusion is what’s funny.” (74:49)
• Stresses the necessity of self-deprecation and humility as a creative.
  • “If you can't be self-deprecating as a general sort of thing in life, you're in trouble.” (Guest, 74:28)

Daily Life: Fly-tying, Music, Outdoor Passions

Timestamps: 86:27 – 90:44

• Guest leads a highly disciplined, ritualized day: reading newspapers, exercising, tying thousands of flies for fly fishing every year, and playing music.
  • “I tie 3,000 flies a year… I have an entire workstation of that stuff…thousands of threads, thousands of feathers.” (Guest, 87:27)
• Fishing, and crafting flies, is self-expressive and absorbing, but he takes pains to avoid ascribing mystical “Zen” qualities to it.
• Describes seeing all life, speech, and character as musical:
  • “It's all music. Voices are music. So if I come upon a character, it's music.” (Guest, 90:27)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Art as Resistance

  • “For democracy to work in this one, the response to 'shut the fuck up' is 'go fuck yourself, fuck you.'”
    — Marc Maron (05:23)

• On Improvisation and Process

  • “It's about the... it's gone. Yes, it's gone. It's pure. It's jazz.”
    — Christopher Guest (36:46)
  • “You can’t recapture it sometimes. And that really is what you're living for.”
    — Marc Maron (43:13)

• On the Magic of Ensemble

  • “These are the musicians in this piece. And we know they can play these things.”
    — Christopher Guest (70:58)

• On Comedy Roots and Lampoon Culture

  • “We walk in, and people would look at each other and it was like gunfight at OK Corral... a gunfight… a verbal gunfight.”
    — Christopher Guest (32:03)

• On Humility and the Source of Comedy

  • “If you can't be self-deprecating... you're in really big trouble.”
    — Christopher Guest (74:28)
  • “Their earnestness is what’s funny, and their delusion is what’s funny.”
    — Guest (74:49)

• On Personal Philosophy

  • “I hear music in people’s voices. So if you hear a coach... that’s music. Someone just played that music. And I want to hear it, and I want to play that.”
    — Christopher Guest (90:03)

• On British Peerage

  • “It’s not royalty. It is a different thing… So that's the basic premise. It's not royalty.”
    — Guest (79:41)

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Segment Timestamps (Highlights)

• 03:25 – 17:45: Marc's First Amendment/authoritarianism monologue
• 17:45 – 25:18: Music, guitars, aversion to showbiz, and musical process
• 25:40 – 36:38: National Lampoon years, Lampoon “combat”
• 36:38 – 43:35: Improvisation as jazz, creative methods
• 43:35 – 49:11: Editing Spinal Tap, industry skepticism, and pure process
• 54:20 – 64:59: Early jazz influences and British comedy
• 74:00 – 76:49: Self-deprecation and the humor of earnestness
• 86:27 – 90:44: Fly-tying, fishing, and the philosophy of daily creative life
• 90:45 – 91:01: Maron and Guest reflect on the conversation

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Tone and Atmosphere

The conversation is warm, thoughtful, and often gently humorous, with Guest displaying signature dry wit and Maron’s probing, self-aware style. Both men digress into incisive storytelling, philosophy, and the pure joy found in process, improvisation, and authentic creativity.

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Summary

Marc Maron and Christopher Guest embark on a rich, free-flowing dialogue ranging from Guest’s early days in the cauldron of National Lampoon, his evolution as the king of improvisational comedy, and his profound love of music and the outdoors, to his brief sojourn into peerage in England. Guest’s humility, artistic generosity, and philosophical clarity shine through as he details how improvisation, rigorous preparation, and the ear for the "music" of life are at the heart of his creative life. If you care about the magic behind truly original comedy, the sacred moment of improvisation, and the necessity of "fuck you" in art, this episode is essential listening.

Transcript

[Marc Maron]

Look, you heard me say it before. I don't know how much time I have left. There are a lot of things that pass me by, especially when it comes to books, and I worry about having enough time to get to them. But another thing I always say is there's no late to the party anymore. And the Foxed Page is a great way to get back in the loop of great literature. The Foxed Page is a podcast and YouTube channel that dives deep into the best books. It's basically your favorite college English class, but very relaxed and way more fun. No exams, no participation, and only books you really want to read. Your host is Kimberly Ford, a bestselling author, a one time professor and PhD in literature. She offers up entertaining, often funny lectures that will leave you feeling inspired and a little bit smarter in a nice literary way. She digs into everything from J.D. salinger to yellowface, from Stephen King to Madame Bovary, from Pride and Prejudice to Trust. Want to get the most out of what you read? The Foxed page is for you. Visit the foxedpage.com or find it on YouTube and podcast platforms. All right, let's do this. How are you? What the. What the Buddies? What the nicks? What's happening? I'm Mark Marin. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. How's everybody doing? Grim times. I don't know. I don't really keep up with social media that much. I don't know what's going on on TikTok or Threads or Facebook or Twitter. I don't. I really don't. I do engage with Instagram a bit. I do poke around a bit there to see what's going on elsewhere sometimes. I generally read the news, but I don't, I don't really. I. I am out of the loop sort of day to day with a lot of what's trending or infecting the minds of the masses. I'm not really on YouTube. I don't know if it's an old man thing. I don't know if it's zero fucking. I don't know if it's just how I budget my time, but I'm just not. I'm not on the pulse of all that. Though it did come to my attention somehow through this or that, that the, the rapture is happening tomorrow. Which I, on some level, pretty exciting. I mean, that's sort of a big day. I guess that's when all the believers just kind of rocket into the sky like, you know, lit fireworks and, you know, kind of zoom up to heaven. I'M not sure where it leaves the rest of us, but I don't guess it can be any worse than where we are right now. And I have to assume that with a lot of those people raptured up, it might be relatively pleasant for, you know, for as long as whatever's supposed to happen down here to happen, you know, what can we do? You know, the rapture's out of our hands. But I think some things that may be in our hands are what's happening in terms of just blatant authoritarianism.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

And.

[Marc Maron]

Fascism, which go hand in hand. I believe the government is sort of a authoritarian operation beneath Trump, who's just a godless autocratic monster. It's kind of a symbiotic perfect storm of a fucking nightmare politically. And the administration being driven by the 2025 guys is, you know, they've put jackboots on Jesus and it's unfolding into a very, you know, very efficient and frightening authoritarian driven fascist operation. And I spoke about this a bit, and I don't see any reason not to continue speaking about it, that anybody who's dismissing the firing of Jimmy Kimmel as a business decision, that's a shallow point of view. Sure, abc, owned by Disney, made a decision to take Jimmy off the air. But this is how corporate entities who are not people capitulate to government. Strong arming, this government being fundamentally authoritarian. So you can say it was a business decision, and you can say that late night was dying, and you can say that network TV is dying. All that to be true. But what is more sort of frightening is that the corporate entities that represented show business are, you know, no longer have strength. They're competing against streaming, and they capitulate. So in an optimistic view, if by some miracle of corporate democracy, these corporations stand up to this administration and fight for what is really the freedom of speech. You know, maybe we have hope, but I've not known corporations to operate at the behest of democracy. They do at the consumer. And I guess some of these boycotts of Hulu and Disney are maybe making an impact. I don't know what will happen to Jimmy, but the bottom line is that this was strong arming from an authoritarian administration to shut him up and to make an example of him. For anybody who speaks out against the administration, and as a comic and as somebody who believes in the First Amendment, the only part of the First Amendment that this administration, through their policy and through the people within it seem to defend are the words shut the fuck up. And behind that is the power to implement shut the fuck upness. Now for democracy to work in this one, the response to shut the fuck up is go fuck yourself, fuck you now, without being able to have the go fuck yourself, fuck you response to shut the fuck up, we just get, you know, enforced shuck the fuck up ness. And that is not democracy. And historically and from my point of view, there's a lot of fuck you in art, There's a lot of fuck you in satire, there's a lot of fuck you in painting, there's a lot of fuck you in theater, there's a lot of fuck you in music. These are the arts that, you know, stand up to fascist bullshit in one form or another. I'm not saying all art. Some of it's just pretty. And the stifling of these voices of fuck you or hey, this is, you know, I'm out here on the edge of fucking human understanding and consciousness and creativity. I'm a fucking astronaut of art. Just because you don't understand it or it makes you uncomfortable, you're gonna see it as some sort of leftist plot or you're gonna shut it up. I mean, accommodating the sort of most shallow, least sophisticated, least interesting, most boring among us because they're uncomfortable with people who aren't like them or art doesn't kind of fall into, you know, the parameters of what they understand, which is, you know, forest paintings or AI generated trump masterpieces. The more we accommodate that, the more we're going to homogenize into some, you know, thoroughly fascist country on one level and just frighten people who are afraid to explore. And if you start sort of demonizing the arts because you don't understand it or it threatens your way of thinking, then what the fuck do we have? I mean, it's, look, this is what's happening. This is the portal. They're using the death of Charlie Kirk to stifle all voices of resistance. And that's straight up authoritarian bullshit. Already many people are afraid to say fuck you, to shut the fuck up. But if it becomes enforced, you know, no more fuck yous to our shut the fuck up. We're, you know, it's over now. Look, I, I, I'm, I'm not sitting here with big solutions or big hopes, and I, I guess you just have to fight for it any way you can. On a lighter note, today I talked to Christopher Guest. Very funny guy. I've tried to have him on for years. Anytime he had a project I would try to have him on, just never happened. All it took was for his wife, Jamie Lee Curtis to say, give him a call. And it happened. He came over. You guys know him from the movies he wrote and directed, like Waiting for Guffman, Best in show, A Mighty Wind. And of course he's been part of Spinal Tap for more than 40 years. There's a new Spinal Tap movie. He's here and we had a very pleasant talk. I got a couple of names wrong, but you know, he corrects me. That's just old. Just oldness. The oldness coming through. The documentary about me. Are we good? Opens on October 3rd in New York and Los Angeles with special screenings around the country on October 5th and October 8th. Go to arewegoodmaren.com to see where it's playing, get tickets. And there's still a couple of weeks to pre order the graphic novel. WTF is a podcast on Kickstarter and here's the deal with that. If we get enough pre order to push The Kickstarter past 200 grand, Box Brown is going to create a special WTF trading card featuring me and the original Garage Cats. And that will be sent to everyone who pre ordered the book through Kickstarter. If it reaches 250 grand, we're going to make a frame set of four different cards for every person who ordered a book. Go to z2Comics.com WTF I also, I just saw one battle after another. I went to a small screening. I just, I wanted to see it. I was willing to wait, but I went to a very intimate screening in a relatively small screening room and I'm ready to see it again tomorrow on fucking imax. What a goddamn movie. I'll try to get a few words in about it after I tell you a little bit about. Okay, let's do this. When you think of home security, what do you think of? Probably some sensors on your doors, an alarm, maybe some cameras inside your house. But here's the thing. Those all come into play after someone breaks into your house. That's a reactive approach. We've recommended SimpliSafe on WTF for years because they take a proactive approach. SimpliSafe is designed to stop crime before it happens on your property. Simplisafe's Active Guard Outdoor protection uses AI powered cameras that can identify a potential threat, like someone lurking on your property. Simplisafe's professional monitoring agents can use two way audio to confront the intruder, letting them know they're being watched on camera and that police are on their way. That's real security. And Simplisafe is So confident in what they do. There are no long term contracts or hidden fees. You can cancel anytime. Right now you can get 50% off their new SimpliSafe system with professional monitoring and your first month [e-mail] WTF? That's SimpliSafe.com WTF? For 50% off and your first month free, simplisafe.com WTF? There's no safe like SimpliSafe. I wanted to add to the First Amendment discussion that as a comic doing club work, I see a lot of comics still, you know, speaking very freely and pushing back and doing the funny that is in. In the name of fuck you. In the name of resistance, in the name of satire. These are the tools that the comic, the satirist, the humorist, the playwright, the artists have to keep power in check with no checks and balances anymore in terms of the norms that have been destroyed within the government itself. You require voices of resistance and fuck Eunice and fuck funny to be a check on power. I mean, now that none are left, if you take away the speech of those individuals courageous enough to do a funny kind of, you know, go fuck yourself with that intention, like, look, this is why this is wrong. This is what's really happening. This is who you are. This is who we are that, you know, you lose. One of the last bastions of a check on power is artists, comedians, playwrights, musicians. Once you start fucking shutting them up, there's no check. And this is not a reliable check. This is not like, you know, some sort of, you know, means to balance power within the government. Those have all been destroyed through single party rule. But we're out here in the trenches of being human, you know, with a lot of fuck you and us. And, you know, it's frightening. I mean, are they gonna start putting National Guard troops in comedy clubs? I mean, the Comedy Store, you know, you can put. They put the phones in the bags so you can release what you wanna release if you record yourself. But you don't have a bunch of rats in the audience looking to start shit with your words, you should still have some control over that. But that's the other thing. All these platforms by which everyone thinks they have the freedom to say whatever they want. Corporate owned and completely vulnerable to government interference and control of algorithms. All right, look, it's a bigger conversation. It's not really my wheelhouse on some level, but I'm trying to keep abreast of the situation. And, you know, I'm just trying to keep. Go fuck yourself Fuck you. You know, a healthy answer to shut the fuck up in America. One battle after another. Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie is spectacular. It's got a fucking great pace. It's rooted in the Thomas Pynchon book Vineland. So it's got a lot of that great Pynchon esque, satirical kind of writing and names and ideas. On a deep level, this is a satire, but in terms of balancing the humor of the thing, it's not prescient. It's happening. So there is a terrible core of this movie that is very reflective of the culture we're living in. Though much of it is funny and framed as funny. If you look at the situations in the language that. The kind of balance between funny and just abject terror, because of its representation of what we are very close to in terms of a police state, it's. It's a very provocative balance. And Paul Thomas Anderson pulls it off, I think, you know, drawing from Pynchon more directly in Inherent Vice, which I watched a while ago, which is also a hilarious satire of a different time. You know, he's kind of perfected it now through the pace, the music, the characters, the, the, the, the framing. I mean, it's just a stunning film that just kind of keeps punching. And the performances are great, but it is foreboding because it is a reality we're very close to living in, if not already there. And the humor is good. It's enough and it still packs a punch. I've got nothing negative to say about this movie. It's essential watching and it will be used by right wing ideologues as an example of a truth about left leaning resistance. You know, mark my words on that. Go see it though. It's spectacular. I'm gonna go see it again. I'll wait until, to talk about it again until everyone else goes and sees it. Okay, you guys, Chris Guest is here and it was an honor to talk to him because he's important in the history of modern comedy and he's a great guy and he's brilliantly funny. Spinal Tap 2 the End continues is now in theaters. And this is me talking to Chris. 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[Christopher Guest]

I'm gonna open this now. So I don't. Never had one of these.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Really.

[Christopher Guest]

Even though it's our.

[Marc Maron]

It's, you know, it's. It's just water.

[Christopher Guest]

It is. Well, we did this commercial where we say it's beer.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And they say, no, it's not. It's not beer. It's beer. It's. It's beer.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

No, it's not. It's not beer. It's water. Is it what? Lager. It's not beer. Not any kind of beer. That went on for a while.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

So.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah. Anyway, they didn't.

[Marc Maron]

I, I have to. I. I have not seen it yet. I have to see it. Are you mad about that?

[Christopher Guest]

I can't say I'm mad about it. No.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I just haven't.

[Christopher Guest]

No, I don't really. I do things and then I move on. I do other things, you know.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But you don't get preoccupied with the reaction.

[Christopher Guest]

No, I don't read anything about show business. I haven't since 19 early 80s.

[Marc Maron]

What turned you off to that?

[Christopher Guest]

I didn't. I just didn't like it. What? I didn't like any part about it. I don't read anything about show business. I read period. Period. I read others. I read books. I play a lot of music every day.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Record several times a week. I was recording today.

[Marc Maron]

When you like it.

[Christopher Guest]

This is not going to help you in any way.

[Marc Maron]

No. People ask about that. The old garage was cluttered with stuff. And then when I moved into this more sterile environment, I had to pick some of the clutter. There is some sort of backstory on that. I bet it's not that interesting.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, I'll be the judge of that.

[Marc Maron]

It was never my hammer.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh.

[Marc Maron]

The backstory on the knife is, you know, I had a person who. It's not even sharp.

[Christopher Guest]

I'll take this one though.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, go ahead. Take the knife and take whatever you want. Except for well, no, you can have whatever you want. So the, the music thing though, now are you in a situation where you have too many guitars?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, I have been giving away guitars for 30 years.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I started getting guitars in 1966.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Okay.

[Christopher Guest]

And I started playing in a band probably then.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And over the years I've had a lot. But then I figured I didn't want to sell them. I wanted to give them away to musicians I knew that couldn't get really good guitars. So I've given away some nice ones. Really crazy.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Crazy ass.

[Marc Maron]

What was the one that you picked up and said, well, a lot. I'll be giving one away?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, I had a friend come to my house a few years ago and he is one of the great players in the world today. And he played everything. And then he got to this one and he said, ah, oh. I said, yeah, that's pretty great. So I thought about it and he left town. I thought he, he needs to have this because he is probably the great guitar player in the last 50 years.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

I would say.

[Marc Maron]

Who is it?

[Christopher Guest]

A person I know he's. He's a jazz player.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Okay.

[Christopher Guest]

And I gave it to him.

[Marc Maron]

And what was.

[Christopher Guest]

Was a 1955 Les Paul Gold Top.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh.

[Christopher Guest]

P90s, P90s that I had bought for $500 in 1981.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh.

[Marc Maron]

That's like my dream guitar.

[Christopher Guest]

Les Paul signed it for me. I played with him on a TV show.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Uhhuh.

[Christopher Guest]

And it was a great. Is a great guitar. And he plays it at gigs.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Not solely, but it's one of his guitars that he plays.

[Marc Maron]

Specific sound that P90 sound.

[Christopher Guest]

All of my. Well, I. Most of my guitars have P90s.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, but do you play them? I like them because they get dirty.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So in. We've toured, you know, for the last 40 years in this guys of these odd people that we created. And so we've been fortunate to play big tours at big venues. Wembley and Carnegie hall and Albert hall and the rest. Carnegie Hall. And so I've taken typically 12 to 15 guitars on the road in our shows. And then you finish and you say, well, I don't really need six of these. I'll give them to people I have. I'm. Now if I can get rid of another six or eight, I'll be good.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I want to, I want to take like there's a few that I got for free here and there. None of them are classic, but my. I just like to consolidate and take in a lot of the stuff that I Don't really use, but I just have. And to get, like, one thing that I really want, which is, like. Well, I'd like to get a real gold top. I have a reissue of a 56 over there from Gibson that fell down and the headstock broke off. Yeah, that happens. And it's on there Good. Now. We did a good bonding, and it still plays well. But to have a real one would be great. Like.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah, well, you can.

[Marc Maron]

I can have one.

[Christopher Guest]

You can get one.

[Marc Maron]

I know. I don't know. I don't know where to go exactly.

[Christopher Guest]

I can help you with. I can help you with that.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And just because I like. I've got a. I've got a Les Paul custom back there that's not old, and I've got that old Vibrb amp over there. I could get rid of that. And like, these I like. That's a 73 Telly Deluxe. That's a 61 Les Paul Junior. This FJN, I think, has been altered, but that's sort of a nice acoustic. Yeah, but, like.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah, I. I had a 56 Les Paul Junior. Like that one?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I played that for a long time. And I played it actually in the first Spinal Tap film. I played that, and then I gave that to a friend. And most of my guitars are kind of super good, I guess.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Which is nice. I have.

[Marc Maron]

And you've had them forever.

[Christopher Guest]

I've had some of them for a very, very long time.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And again, I play them virtually every day. I go through probably four of them in a day.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Wow.

[Christopher Guest]

Every day.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

What's the Pratt. Wait, like, what kind of music are you practicing? And what's your practice? Are you concerned with.

[Christopher Guest]

I'm not concerned. Is the first key. And I heard you speaking about this. Well, I don't know if it was recent. I don't know the date of that, but it affected me because you sounded as if there was anxiety about playing, about performing, about which I understand. I guess I've been doing it for so long, it hasn't been really a thing I've had, fortunately, been able to go out and do these things. But I can recognize what that is because I've played with enough people where you feel that it's not practice necessarily in scales or anything else. I do that occasionally. It's mostly thinking of a song that I want to record, a random song, and then laying down all the tracks. So I'll put down the piano part first, and then I'll put down guitars, mandolins, mandola, Mandocello.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Then I'll put down electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and then put in string parts. And then the next day I'll say, don't like the violas. I'm taking them away. And that's what it is. And it's only for me. It's not for anyone else.

[Marc Maron]

Just to sit there at the end of it all and go, like, this is nice.

[Christopher Guest]

It's not even the end of it all. I'm hoping.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Because then I have to check some lunch things I have to do. But let me know if you've heard something that I.

[Marc Maron]

Well, we could check the news. It's probably debatable.

[Christopher Guest]

And I don't. I mean, you're in a world where you are active, in a sense, I. In what I do, whatever that is. I'm not on any social media. I don't read again, about the business. So I really wouldn't know anything unless someone told me by accident. Someone told me. Well, they'll say, da, da, da, da, da.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I mean, not literally da, da, da. And I'll say, oh, I didn't know that.

[Marc Maron]

No, I. You know, I don't keep looped in as much as I could, I guess, but, I mean, at some point, I mean, I love the movie, the big picture.

[Christopher Guest]

Ah, okay. You're allowed.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And that was like. That was before the improvisational movies, correct? Or had you done.

[Christopher Guest]

See, that was. We had done tap, right? Yes.

[Marc Maron]

But it seems to me that you had a pretty. Like, you talk about not checking in with show business, but there was a time where you lived within it.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, I was doing things, but I wasn't playing the other part of it. This may or may not be interesting to people, but it's kind of a fluke beginning, which was. I think I was 21 or 2, and a friend of a friend said, they're starting this magazine. I was living in New York, and maybe you could write something for them. And that magazine was the National Lampoon. It was the first year of the magazine, 1970. And I wrote a piece with a friend who was my.

[Marc Maron]

Which guy?

[Christopher Guest]

His name was Tom Leopold. He's a.

[Marc Maron]

And you're just living in New York?

[Christopher Guest]

Living in New York. I was going to the School of the Arts. It's now called something else.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Tisch.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah, right now it's called Tisch.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Okay.

[Christopher Guest]

And I was in school with Michael McKean, and we were writing songs beginning in 1967 together. And so I started writing for them, and they said, yeah, well. And I Said, not understanding how things work, maybe. I said, oh yeah, we'll write. And they published the thing. It was the first year. I said, what I think I really do is I write music, I do voices and things. And they said, oh sure, well then we'll build a studio. I said, great. So they built a 16 track studio.

[Marc Maron]

Lampoon did, sure, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And they said, and you can basically do whatever you want and then we're gonna have a radio show and you can do whatever you want. I said, great. So no one ever said no from the very beginning, which is not necessarily a good thing because you would then think you're gonna get slapped down pretty hard. But I didn't really get slapped down all that hard because I did a lot of plays in New York and I had started something where I had control of everything, virtually everything.

[Marc Maron]

The National Lampoon Radio Hour.

[Christopher Guest]

The Radio Hour, the show Lemmings, which I co wrote with some of the other Lampoon people. Just.

[Marc Maron]

This is 72.

[Christopher Guest]

That was 73, maybe.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And then more albums we did, I think six albums.

[Marc Maron]

But let's, let's talk about that for a second because like for me, the National Lampoon was a brain changing magazine. That, that when I was a kid, because I'm. What am I, 61? I'm gonna be 62 in a week.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah, well, you're. I could be your dad, you know.

[Marc Maron]

Well, not quite.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, if I was.

[Marc Maron]

If you having. When you were 10.

[Christopher Guest]

No, no, no. If I had you when I was 16.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I could be your dad. So yeah, if I had a weird weekend, let's say. Well, it wouldn't even been that weird weekend. That wouldn't even. Honestly, no, things were pretty good when.

[Marc Maron]

I was 16, but. But for like I grew up in the crashing wave of what happened in the 70s. Sure. So, you know, picking up on the Lampoon and then, you know, going back and getting back issues. Mad magazine, the Lampoon, listening to Lemmings.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Like it was. And Robert Crumb. These were important things.

[Christopher Guest]

Absolutely.

[Marc Maron]

Developing what it was.

[Christopher Guest]

It was a big change in. Yes, it was an explosion. And I just happened to be in this place and we would walk around the East Village, McKean and I in 67, 68.

[Marc Maron]

And this is after he's done with Carnegie Mellon or whatever.

[Christopher Guest]

Yes, he had left there.

[Marc Maron]

He was there for a year with Alan. Right.

[Christopher Guest]

With what's the actor, Dave Lander.

[Marc Maron]

Dave.

[Christopher Guest]

Dave, yeah, he had left also. As did Loudon Wainwright. He left also. And we then ended up in the same very serious Acting school, very serious. And they had said to me I had auditioned, and they said I was 18 or whatever. They said, are you willing to give your blood for the theater? And I thought, give my fucking blood?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

What are you talking about? I'm 18. I was hoping to meet girls and do some weird stuff that I didn't even know I was gonna do yet. My blood. And I was so intimidated by that that I went to bard college for a year and then thought, where's that?

[Marc Maron]

New Hampshire?

[Christopher Guest]

No, it's in upper state New York. Well, it's just up the Hudson.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Then I didn't ever think, I'm gonna give my blood for the theater. I thought, maybe this is better. So I then ended up being at NYU and writing with McKean. And we'd walk around the East Village, and buildings were painted in psychedelic colors and people were wearing my makeup. And 90% of the people were tripping, so they were walking around holding fake flowers that weren't even there and watering the sidewalk where there was nothing. And I just thought it wasn't my thing. Actually. I didn't really do that.

[Marc Maron]

Not directly.

[Christopher Guest]

I may have been the only person who was watching this unfold in front of me. But McKean and I would basically do what we did then 50 years later, which was whatever that was, we would start a running thing. He crashed in my apartment because he'd broken up with his girlfriend. We would start at 8 in the morning, this thing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And we were making each other laugh by 8:15, and it wouldn't stop. And we thought, there's no name for what this is. It could have been annoying to other people, I suppose, but we found it fun improvising and doing music and doing music and writing songs and playing and. Yeah. So it seemed like it was quite fun.

[Marc Maron]

So the Lampoon guys, like, who was at the helm of Lampoon at the beginning?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, when I was there, the head really was Henry Beard.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Hmm.

[Christopher Guest]

Sean Kelly became a very big part of what I did because he wrote lyrics to the songs that I wrote.

[Marc Maron]

He was a brilliant guy, huh?

[Christopher Guest]

He was great. And he was. He was great. He was.

[Marc Maron]

I know his son's a writer.

[Christopher Guest]

Yes, Chris.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah. He was. Yes. He was great and Henry was great.

[Marc Maron]

And Tony. Hendra.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yep.

[Marc Maron]

Hendra was there.

[Christopher Guest]

O' Donohue was there.

[Marc Maron]

O'. Donohue.

[Christopher Guest]

And again, this was walking into this thing every day, and people would look at each other and it was like Gunfight at OK Corral. We walk in and look at each.

[Marc Maron]

Other at the magazine.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And then the look was a gunfight.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

A verbal gunfight.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And that's how he generated stuff.

[Christopher Guest]

I thought, this is not even close to being a problem here. This is. Don't. Just don't.

[Marc Maron]

Don't what?

[Christopher Guest]

Don't even start. Don't even start. Because whatever I do is essentially verbal.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I don't sit down. I write outlines. When I. Eugene Levy and I have done a bunch of movies that we wrote. But essentially we write an outline for six months, but then we're doing this movie where we're talking with no rehearsal. We're just talking.

[Marc Maron]

But the outline's pretty thorough.

[Christopher Guest]

Very thorough.

[Marc Maron]

And is that the way the Radio Hour worked too?

[Christopher Guest]

Well for me. After I wrote that one article, I started doing the records and the radio show. And that was improvised.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And Lemmings was all improvised.

[Christopher Guest]

No, no, no. We had to write that. Cause that was eight days, eight shows a week. And that was a thing. No, that would have been maybe more fun. I don't know.

[Marc Maron]

But, I mean, did you feel like. Was there an agenda? You know, was there a manifesto to the humor, or was it just to push the envelope?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Hmm.

[Christopher Guest]

I would say pushing the envelope.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Was mainly the thing. And that famous cover of the Dog with the Gun.

[Marc Maron]

Gun.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah, that. That shows the sort of. Oh, yeah, yeah. And people were shocked by a lot of that stuff. That wasn't my humor, by the way. Much of that was not my humor. Whatever I did there was what I thought was amusing, I guess, at the time. It may or may not have been, but I was not. I didn't subscribe to that. Pushing that. Just to push that.

[Marc Maron]

That was like Michael o'.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Donoghue.

[Christopher Guest]

That was mainly o'. Donohue. It wasn't Sean's thing. It wasn't Doug Kenny's thing, for that matter. It wasn't Henry Beard's thing. There was a group of people who thought, we'll just keep pushing this and we'll do. See how far. And nobody ever said, get out of here. They never did. So we were just. They kept doing it, I guess.

[Marc Maron]

Well, there was a balance to it. You had a couple of those guys and a couple of guys who were just, you know, being funny, I guess.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And when you did Lemmings in the Radio Hour, all this talent that later went on to become fairly significant guys. You're all just a bunch of kids, really.

[Christopher Guest]

I was 22.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

It's so crazy because it's mythic, but.

[Christopher Guest]

You know, it's mythic. It wasn't mythic at the time. It wasn't mythic. Obviously, in retrospect, we were just given the keys to this thing where they paid us to do whatever we wanted to do. And that was unusual.

[Marc Maron]

But isn't it amazing that so many of those people, you know, at that time, just by coincidence, turned out to have the talent and longevity to remain funny?

[Christopher Guest]

I guess, looking back on it. And 80% of them are dead, by the way. Is that true? Sure. I think about that a lot. I think because I'm older and I think. I think on my fingers, I think. Yeah, easily 80% are dead, I think.

[Marc Maron]

Well, I guess it happens.

[Christopher Guest]

Dead. Well, it does happen, apparently. Dead. Dead and dead. Yeah. So a lot of dead. But that is what happens. But with that specific group of people, it's a high percentage.

[Marc Maron]

Well, a lot of them were living hard.

[Christopher Guest]

A few went down because of that. But the other thing is just dead. Yeah. I mean, I'm not a doctor. I should have explained that before I came on, because you looked at me in a kind of reverential way when I walked in to suggest that I somehow had, like, a degree in something in life and I didn't want to burst your bubble in the first five minutes. Well, I appreciate that, and I really don't know that much about it any more than you would or anyone else who didn't go to medical school. But they are dead. I do know that.

[Marc Maron]

It does happen.

[Christopher Guest]

It does happen.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But I think it's interesting that. Because improvisational, like outlining and working improvisationally and with music as well, because I think about this a lot with myself, because that's how I generate on stage. It's all through improvising and outlines. That. That is really the most satisfying part.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So it sort of speaks to why you don't. After it's done, you know, why check back in. The act is what is.

[Christopher Guest]

And it's about the. It's gone. Yes, it's gone. It's pure. It's jazz. I compare. I've been interviewed a million times about this.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Million and one.

[Christopher Guest]

In about a few weeks, I'm going to New York to do this interview at the New Yorker Festival. And inevitably someone will say, describe how this works. And I'll say, well, I work with Eugene and work for five or six months and work out this thing. And then we go to the set and we're on the set and everyone knows their back history and they know the thing. And then someone will say, so tell me about the rehearsal. Process. And I say there is none. What do you mean? Okay. Hard to explain. We just start talking.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And we are. I guess we're good musicians because we're not gonna start playing in a different key. We're. We're not gonna play a solo at the same time someone else is doing it. Can't actually explain it unless you do it. So there you are. And because you do what you do and you play, you would know the idea of sitting down and playing with someone, and someone would say, well, how do you know what to play? You just know. You can hear it. And you're following someone or they're following you. And it is the same thing with what we did in those movies where you're sitting with a really good band.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah. And also that the moment. There's nothing better and nothing that can really top. Like, if I'm on stage and I've got an idea that's funny enough to get laughs, but I know it's not finished, and I sort of frame it as, like, I corner myself on stage to be funny. I'll wait for the thing to reveal itself. And then when the punchline or the moment comes, I don't know where it comes from.

[Christopher Guest]

No. And you can't explain it.

[Marc Maron]

No.

[Christopher Guest]

There's no way to articulate that.

[Marc Maron]

And it's the best.

[Christopher Guest]

And to me, that's what I've always done since I was a kid, even not knowing even there was a thing that I was doing. And it's the most fun thing to do. It's pure. I think it's pure. And that's right. If you look at some forms of stuff, scenes in movies and comedy, movies where people have done it 10 times, and now we're on the 15th take. It's not surprising that it would seem not that good or not funny or not, fresh or not. Because they've done it a lot.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

It gets played out and you just.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And it's not. And I just work in a different way. It's not. It's what I do.

[Marc Maron]

But it's interesting, too, because you do the entire. What is happening. It's my fault.

[Christopher Guest]

I like it.

[Marc Maron]

It's pretty.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

But it's.

[Marc Maron]

It's my phone coming through. My producer hates that. It's not you.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh. Where is your producer?

[Marc Maron]

In Brooklyn.

[Christopher Guest]

Really? Are they on? Are they listening to this?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Nope.

[Christopher Guest]

No.

[Marc Maron]

No.

[Christopher Guest]

That happens. It's funny. This is the color of a pedal I have, which is a reverse pedal.

[Marc Maron]

That is just a piece of art. It does nothing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

But it's the same color as my reverse.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

I like it.

[Marc Maron]

What's a reverse pedal?

[Christopher Guest]

Do you. Oh, it's tantalizing. I have several. One's made by this Chase Bliss company, which makes amazing art Pebbles. It's backwards.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, it plays it backwards.

[Christopher Guest]

It's in real time. It's kind of everything is.

[Marc Maron]

So you get that weird, psychedelic, Beatlesy.

[Christopher Guest]

Well. Or nuanced. Which is a thing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So was it at the beginning, though? Was it going to be music for you?

[Christopher Guest]

I did everything at exactly the same time. Everything evolved.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So I did. I worked as an actor. I was writing and I was playing music.

[Marc Maron]

All in New York.

[Christopher Guest]

All New York. And I remember someone. I went to an audition and someone said, the man at the table said, when are you gonna decide? I said, decide what? He said, well, it says that you do. I said, why do I have to decide? And he rolled his eyes as if this was a problem.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, how do we package you?

[Christopher Guest]

I thought. But I like doing all of the things. And his look was right, good. But at some point I said, but I don't feel there is that point. And he. Whatever. He said.

[Marc Maron]

And then you figured it out, or.

[Christopher Guest]

I didn't, but I just did it.

[Marc Maron]

Well, what I was gonna say about improv versus scripted is that because you do full films that are all improv. Like, there are moments in scripted movies that are obviously moments that happened once in the midst of 15 times shooting something. And they're usually the most transcendent moments and they just stand out.

[Christopher Guest]

And it shows you that organically, people understand, even if they don't know how to describe it, they understand that something's different about that moment. But then why is the other stuff so shitty? You see, because it makes the other stuff look worse. If someone. That's what's called an ad lib, if it's in the middle of a structured thing, as opposed to improvisation. But again, 40 years I've been discussing this to no avail. But you've done this both, so you would understand.

[Marc Maron]

What would the avail be?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, it's a fool's errand, because I expect the minute I start describing it, the eyelids start to.

[Marc Maron]

I understand it shut.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I say, well, of course. But they don't. How am I supposed to explain this? I don't know how to explain this.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Well, you're.

[Marc Maron]

Well, I mean, what you've sort of opened up for the world is singular. I mean, you know, the first Spinal Tap, it started the whole mock documentary trend.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yes.

[Marc Maron]

Which infused itself into television almost everywhere.

[Christopher Guest]

Yes, yes. The difference is that those things are not improvised.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yes.

[Christopher Guest]

They're just shot by. It's a faux version of that where they use a technique which looks like it's that. And they make the camera move like this, which it wouldn't normally be anyway. And then they do what they do.

[Marc Maron]

You're making me feel good about something.

[Christopher Guest]

Okay.

[Marc Maron]

In that I'm not a guy that when people say, you know, it's all about the process, it's about the journey.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I. I generally think, like, I guess, but it's kind of nice to finish something. But the way you're talking about it, and I know it for myself as a performer, that nothing beats that moment we just talked about. When something comes out of nowhere and it's the best and you can't recapture it sometimes.

[Christopher Guest]

No.

[Marc Maron]

And that really is what you're living for. I have to assume that the nature of creating music and the nature of creating improvisational comedy films or improvisational comedy, that is the lifeblood, you know, like the fact that it comes into a complete movie and is edit altogether. But I really believe for you that the process of these things is what it is about.

[Christopher Guest]

Totally. And editing those films, whether it's best in show or waiting for Guffman. These movies I've done, we edited. I sat with Bob Layton, the editor, for a year and a half, eight.

[Marc Maron]

Hours a day, but without feeling pressure, just enjoying that as well.

[Christopher Guest]

And here's a big key to this. When we did Spinal Tap, we took it to places we had made, 20 minute version because we couldn't explain this. And these executives looked at it and said, what is this? Well, they said, who are these people? They seem not that bright. We said, well, that's us, first of all. That's us in the. In the thing you're seeing. Yeah, but I don't. What is that? What is this?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, it's supposed to be in a documentary form, following this band, but who are these people? That's us in the thing. So. No, no, no, no, no, no. And Rob Reiner eventually went to Norman Lear and Norman just said, oh, okay, just get off my back here. Just go and make the movie. If it hadn't been for that. Never seen the light of day. And the second one that we just did would never have seen the second if the first one, because the grandkids of those people that we went to, same thing. What is this?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. Really?

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, absolutely. Not even a clue. What is this? Well, it's a band and they're. Yes. So that's what that is.

[Marc Maron]

But what do you attribute that to?

[Christopher Guest]

Ha ha. Well, I. I think that would be presumptuous to say.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Okay.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

I, I.

[Marc Maron]

Mean, I, I, I mean.

[Christopher Guest]

I mean, you work on the edge of things.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

In what you've always done. And there are certainly people that would look at what you do as being scary or something or. He said that.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. What? What?

[Christopher Guest]

And that's a different crowd that goes to a place where there's. There are people eating, and the guy comes out and says, freeways.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. What.

[Christopher Guest]

What is this? I'm on a freeway, and then the. The guy behind me, he's honking. What is that? You know what I mean? Now, to me, that is like being executed. Just putting a thing over my head and shoot me then.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Because there's nothing there. It's not funny. It has the rhythm of what is supposed to be funny.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Sure.

[Christopher Guest]

But it's not funny. It's not an adventure of any kind. So whatever this other thing is is not immediately accessible. I understand that. Again, when I've done my things, I've said, I just want to do this little thing. It's a little thing, and maybe some people like it enough so that I can do another thing. I'm not trying to make mission impossible. I'm trying to do this weird little thing. But they still. There's no question in my mind that no one would have bitten. No.

[Marc Maron]

So you were really kicking around as an actor at the beginning.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, I wouldn't. Kicking around sounds a little like a hobo. I worked in New York on stage for about six years, and I was doing great. I was just doing plays. I love doing plays.

[Marc Maron]

Not just comedies. All kinds of plays.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, no, no. Not comedies at all, actually. Just doing plays. And then I got phone call in 1975 when people had phones.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Actual phones.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Christopher Guest]

The phone rang in my apartment in the Village.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And a person said, hi, this is Lily Tomlin. And I said, hello. Hi. She said, I want you to be on my show. Okay.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And she brought me out to la. I'd never been out. She said, I want you to write and be on this show with me. I said, oh, great.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So then I got to write that I got to be on the show, and I got to write music for that show.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I was, you know, 26 or 8 or whatever I was. And I thought, this is then. And from there on. What meant a lot to Rob was Norman Lear saying, here, do this.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Rob said the same thing to me. Later on, Rob started Castle Rock.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And he said, do you have any ideas for a movie? I said, actually, I do have an idea.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Which I wasn't gonna tell anybody about.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Honestly, I don't go to meetings and say, please.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And he said, what is it? I said, da, da, da, da. He said, go and do it.

[Marc Maron]

Which one?

[Christopher Guest]

I was waiting for Guffman. Great movie. I said. He said, yeah, just go and do it. We'll see you at the premiere. So I did that. I did several other films with them. They just said, do whatever you want. It was a small budget. We just. I had control of that. Yeah, go and do it. Write the music. Yeah, go and do it. There you go. So if that person hadn't said, there's no way in the world I could have gone to a conventional studio and said, well, it's in this little town.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Christopher Guest]

And there's this guy.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I'm sorry, I'm losing. What? There's no way to explain it.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Rob trusted me. I've known him. There's no way any of that has improved. And I. So I say. I think I said at the outset, I've been very fortunate to have fallen into some things and not have had to slog around. I don't have anything in a drawer that hasn't been done.

[Marc Maron]

And when you come up with. Well, I guess what I was referring to about kicking around as an actor, you did show up in movies here and. Well, show up.

[Christopher Guest]

Show up meaning have one line in a death wish or two lines or whatever it was. Yes. I was 23 or whatever I was.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I was at the Lampoon, and I had an agent, which was amazing. And they said, you. You can do one line in this movie.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, was it with Bronson?

[Christopher Guest]

No, the scene was with Vincent Gardenia.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

They don't. They didn't send you the script. It was just a guy and. And the director was this. I guess he's dead.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Like the other people. I told you.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Long dead.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And he was famously horrible, man. And I was in the show Lemmings at the time. And he said, yes, you're gonna play this part. My hair was down to here.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So there are pictures of me with Chevy Chase and Belushi and we all had hair down. He said, I'm gonna have to shave your head. I said, well, I can put it under the hat. And he said he was an Englishman. No, no, in the scene, you see, I'm going to have you remove your hat. And I Said, well, New York cops don't take their hats off in this case. They will, however. And I thought, I'm going after this guy because I know what this deal is now.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

They cut my hair short.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Of course, I didn't take my hat off.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Christopher Guest]

And we're shooting in the middle of the night and I thought, I'm gonna. I hope he fires me on the spot. So he'd say, christopher, I want you to walk over here. And I said, do you mean here or should I walk over there? Wouldn't it be better? And the crew started laughing. I said, because it would be wonderful if I could not only walk there, but also here, you see? Because then kept doing it. Boom, boom, boom, boom. He didn't know what to do. I was furious. And did the rest of Lemmings with short hair.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

A box of Cuban cigars arrived at my house the next week. And it was the perfect thing of a bully. Someone coming up against that and going, nah, the fuck you.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So that was that little thing. Yeah. So of course, when you're starting out, you do one line, two lines. I mean, it's not. You don't know what the movie is. It was a horrible movie. You don't even know what the film is. You just don't know the context. So I did a few of those things and then the Lily Tom thing happened and then it was a different thing.

[Marc Maron]

Well, I think it's important, too, to realize that you know what drives some of us. And maybe I'm projecting here, but you have to have a healthy amount of fuck you in you.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Hmm.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, well, I don't know if. I don't know. You could also say that's insane because I had no right to. To. To just to do that. You know, most people just do what they're told and they do it. I thought, I really don't care. I really, truly.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Christopher Guest]

Hope that he says, go home, because it's 3 o' clock in the morning and I'm in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I would go home.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. So it was.

[Marc Maron]

It wasn't a pushback against, you know, being.

[Christopher Guest]

No, no, it wasn't. It wasn't a political thing where I'm saying I'm gonna, you know, just. No, you just wanted to get fired. And I had nothing to back any of it up.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. Right.

[Marc Maron]

Other than youth.

[Christopher Guest]

Other than me and youth and whatever that is.

[Marc Maron]

And the fact that you wanted to have long hair for the Lemmings show.

[Christopher Guest]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So working with Belushi And Chevy and all those guys, you know, at that time who were the primary lemmings.

[Christopher Guest]

I wrote it with Doug Kenney and Sean and. And the other cast members were Belushi and Chevy Chase, Paul Jacobs and Alice Playton. And I had co written it with. I'd co written the music and the other stuff with. But the cast members didn't write it. We were just in it.

[Marc Maron]

Was there a sense though, where you were like, these guys are the fucking funniest people in the world? No.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

No.

[Marc Maron]

No sense of it. We were just doing a thing.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, there were circumstances which made that answer appropriate, which was that. How do we say in America they may not have been doing their best.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

At that time. Because they were young and.

[Christopher Guest]

Yes.

[Marc Maron]

Drugs.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, I mean, the saddest part is that they were. Half of what they had was diminished before they even went to snl easily.

[Marc Maron]

From what?

[Christopher Guest]

From lifestyle.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And it was a lot of ODing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

In 72, 73.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And by the time 75 rolled around, or 76.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

It was severely diminished.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Really?

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, yeah. And I'm not. Yes, absolutely. So I had a difficult time, frankly. John was a really funny guy, but he was hurting himself and other people were hurting themselves that early. Oh, yeah, yeah. When they were 22, 23.

[Marc Maron]

Because that was sort of what people were doing at the time.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, some people were doing it, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

But you saw the danger of it.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, what I saw was that this. There was a thing going around where. And a lot with musicians. Where. And they weren't musicians per se, but with musicians. In 1966, 7, 8 people thought, if we're really wrecked, if we're really stoned, we are going to play so well. Yeah, that'll be really good.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Christopher Guest]

And it looked like they were to their faces looked like they were playing well.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

But if you're not in that state of mind and listening to it, it's not.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So that's that. So going to the Fillmore where everyone is the band. Everyone is. And I thought, man, this is bad. Yeah, really bad. It sounds like a seventh grade garage band, basically.

[Marc Maron]

Right. But they thought they were killing.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, they're killing it. They're just killing it now. Look, there are people, maybe one in a million. Jimi Hendrix. There are people who go out there.

[Marc Maron]

Coltrane.

[Christopher Guest]

There are jazz people who can go out there. And that is a rare thing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Certain musicians on the dope.

[Christopher Guest]

I'm just. I'm thinking when I was 20.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I was given. I knew the. My family Knew the owner of the Village Vanguard, which is a very famous jazz club in New York. And he said, you're in college. Do you need to make a little thing? Yeah, sure. That would be great. He said, yeah, you can make $5 if you work. Taking money at the door. So go down the steps. It was 350 to get in. The problem was, I couldn't add. This became a thing. So I'd see six people coming down the steps. It was $3.50. And you're thinking, I don't understand what's so hard about that? But for me, I thought, oh, God. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hi. Yes. Here you go. Give me a 26. 3. And I would fake the amount I'd give them.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, just.

[Christopher Guest]

Here you go. And they would walk in. It was dark. They would go in. I think, oh, God. God, you chipped. You owe them $5. And I go back into the club. Excuse me. I gave you the wrong amount. Oh, well, that's so nice, son. That's so nice of you. Let me give you a. No, no, I don't want. No, I just gave you the wrong thing. I was sweating. I'd go back into that thing. A little box with a key, box with their money. Seven people coming down the steps now. And I thought, I didn't learn anything from the six people. I still don't know what that amount was. Seven, three. Nothing. Just blank zero. Here. Here you go. There you go. I thought, oh, no, no, I owe them $8. I owe them. They would go in. They went in and they sat next to the people that had just. I thought, now they're going to think, this is a bit where I'm being the nice. The thing. And I had my back to the second group. I said, here, just take this. Just take the money. Thank you. Well, I should give you. No, don't. Then Max Gordon, who was the owner, said, maybe this isn't the best job. So the next thing, I find myself with Roland Kirk, who later became Rasha, and Roland Kirk sitting in the kitchen. And he was blind. He would sit there. I'm moving my head back and forth. And he said to me one night, he said, chris, where I am right now, you can't write to me. Oh, yeah, Yeah. I thought, that is amazing. And I would lead him out to the bandstand. And he was. Where you couldn't write to him. He was out there.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, he's way out there playing like, what, two or three saxophones at once?

[Christopher Guest]

He would play a middle One which was a drone, and then he would play harmony with the left and the right.

[Marc Maron]

Is he one of your big jazz guys?

[Christopher Guest]

I would say Bill Evans.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, my God.

[Christopher Guest]

Bill Evans, Jim Hall. I was deep into any jazz guitar players, and I got to see them at this club, which was just Larry Coryell. Just these people.

[Marc Maron]

West Montgomery, Wes Montgomery.

[Christopher Guest]

I got to see these people close up, and it was just amazing. It was just great.

[Marc Maron]

How old were you?

[Christopher Guest]

I think I was 20, maybe 19. And the other thing was, you didn't always recognize people. So guy in a black suit, white shirt, black tie. Oh, excuse me, sir. That's 350. Max says that's Bill Evans. So you can actually let him go in. Ah, yes, I do. That's Nina Simone. She can just go in. Onslaught of famous people that. Seeing them in the.

[Marc Maron]

Which club was this?

[Christopher Guest]

The Village Vanguard. It's still there.

[Marc Maron]

How'd you get that gig?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, I wouldn't call it a gig. A gig sounds important. Max Gordon, who started the club in the 40s, and it's still there, and it's the. The place to play. And the greatest albums have come from there. Yeah, he. He was a friend of my family's, and he said to me, you're in college. You might want to make a couple of bucks.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, my God.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And there I was at the. In the. The amazing part of bebop, because that was really early 60s to. To the late 60s. That was the boink, you know. And so all of the great players came through there.

[Marc Maron]

But did you. Did you like jazz going in?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. You did?

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah. Well, it started the fact that I liked guitar players, so I'd heard Charlie Christian and all these people who were playing jazz. I didn't have a particular thing. Any good guitar player was great.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, but.

[Marc Maron]

But so do you. I mean, to be put in that world and then to be able to stand and watch it listen and listen, it must have reconfigured your brain.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, again, you don't know because. No, you're not comparing it to anything.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Okay.

[Christopher Guest]

You know, it's not as if. Holy shit, man. I'm standing in its historical thing.

[Marc Maron]

No, but the creativity.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, no, it's so deep. People of that level, you know, and there's a version of that which is the equivalent in comedy for me.

[Marc Maron]

Who's that?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, and it's another luck thing. Just total ass luck.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

As Benjamin Franklin used to say. He used to say that a lot, actually.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, Total ass luck.

[Christopher Guest]

He would say things and they didn't always write these things down because when he'd say to John Adams, or he was the older one, but he'd say. And you think, well, it doesn't sound like it's of the time, he'd say, get your badass out of here, he would say. And you'd think, well, it couldn't have been that literally.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Christopher Guest]

But it was.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So I happened to be in London when I was 12. My father was English, and we'd go back and forth a lot and I got to see a show called beyond the Fringe.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Ah, yes.

[Christopher Guest]

And that was the seminal moment in my life.

[Marc Maron]

Really?

[Christopher Guest]

Absolutely.

[Marc Maron]

And who were the players at that time?

[Christopher Guest]

The people that created it were Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller, all smarter than anyone, walking upright, period. And funny. And I thought this. That's a really good combination, just blazing intelligence and funny. And it became sort of a bedrock thing, subliminally, I guess, for me, in some way. And it was a new thing there because you didn't have people coming from university that went into comedy.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

The comics were coming from working class people.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Christopher Guest]

Everywhere.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And this was. It's not so much a class thing, but they had all gone to Oxford or Cambridge and they came out of that. The same thing then happened with Python, and then the same thing happened with.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Da Da Da Da.

[Christopher Guest]

They were the next generation of that.

[Marc Maron]

How much of that was improvised?

[Christopher Guest]

None of it. Yeah, none of it. But they were wildly. Well, Peter and Dudley could improvise and I got to do them with them at the Lampoon. Actually, we were in New York, but it wasn't about that. It was about that combination of smart and funny, which was. You know, Jonathan was a neurosurgeon. He was also funny. He was directing opera. You know, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were doing their thing. I mean, it was just. And Alan Bennett, the last one alive, is still with us and wrote some of the greatest plays. And anyway, that, to me, was a. That was a foundational thing for me.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, it's just so, like. Well, that. That mixture, that combination of. Of witnessing improvisational creativity in jazz and then in intelligent, you know, highbrow, kind of like killer British comedy that just.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, it was luck. It was luck because my parents knew someone who knew someone. We were in London. I got to see that some of the cast, when they came to do it in Broadway, then lived with us in New York. I was 12 or 13. I was absolutely. My head was exploding. And then later I had the effrontery to Write to Jonathan Miller and say, would it be okay if I worked on your next project doing what is what he was. Or is it as Abe Lincoln would say? Yeah, well, again, he. Following in the. In the thing of Franklin.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, sure.

[Christopher Guest]

Same kind of thing. These people spoke in a different way than you read because they want history to think that they were sort of elevated in some way.

[Marc Maron]

Not the case, anyway.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I don't want to besmirch these people.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So I wrote him a letter, as people did in those days, a lectural letter.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And he said sure. And I was 18.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I went to London and his assistant on a film he did called Alice in Wonderland. And everyone. Every famous English actor in that thing. Peter Sellers, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave, Peter Cook. It was just me being in that thing as a kid, just watching Ravi Shankar wrote the music. I'm in the studio. What? I'm just standing there thinking just. This is being injected into my.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Bloodstream. Thinking, this is heady. This is really heady.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I wrote a whole journal about that summer.

[Marc Maron]

Where's that? In a jar.

[Christopher Guest]

It's a good question. It's a good question.

[Marc Maron]

You should revisit it. Be interesting. You're afraid.

[Christopher Guest]

I. I don't like revisiting what I.

[Marc Maron]

Do, but that would just be checking in with the old. You like, you know, your feelings, you have no desire to.

[Christopher Guest]

It's makes me uncomfortable.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, I know. I just saw some footage of me doing stand up in 1988 and it's the worst thing I've ever seen.

[Christopher Guest]

But everything's out there now, right? Look on YouTube and you could probably find your stuff, some of it, but.

[Marc Maron]

This was actually part of a documentary a guy made on me. And I gave him from the box of tapes I have that I never looked at.

[Christopher Guest]

And when do we get to see that?

[Marc Maron]

It's coming out.

[Christopher Guest]

October. Great. People that like you are gonna love that. You may think, but for me, it.

[Marc Maron]

Was the most uncomfortable thing. And it was only for a few seconds. I can't.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah, no, I can. Yeah, I can understand that. But aside from you pushing you aside for a second, people are gonna like that.

[Marc Maron]

So I think so. It's an emotional thing. It's a lot to watch two hours of yourself from an outside perspective. It's not.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I wouldn't be able to do that.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

It's not great.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah. What is it? You keep holding this. Is that hair bomb or something?

[Marc Maron]

No, it's just nicotine.

[Christopher Guest]

But in what form is that In.

[Marc Maron]

A little tobacco less pouch.

[Christopher Guest]

I don't understand. What does it say on the lid?

[Marc Maron]

It says, Zin spearmint, 3 milligrams. It's a brand of tobacco less pouches that, you know, give you a little bit of nicotine.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Never even heard of that.

[Marc Maron]

Yeah, well, I mean, it's. It's like. It's like chewing tobacco, but no tobacco.

[Christopher Guest]

Or snuff.

[Marc Maron]

Right. But no. No tobacco.

[Christopher Guest]

So when you wrote. When you were a rodeo writer.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

You would use the real stuff.

[Marc Maron]

Sure.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Big wad.

[Christopher Guest]

Cope and hate.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Hate, you know, Cope. Yeah, sure. Big dip of that. That usually when I was on the bowl, it would start to separate because I always had trouble keeping it into one little thing. And I'd get violently ill. And it made me ride better.

[Christopher Guest]

As we're going to look at now. Can we put that.

[Marc Maron]

See the clip? Another embarrassing clip. So in terms of generating the stories for the movies, you know, Guffman, mighty wind, for your consideration, you know, where does that usually start for you? Is that something you do with Eugene or is that something. You know.

[Christopher Guest]

It came from me.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. All of them. Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Just walking around. And I was at a dog park, and we had a dog at the time, a mutt dog.

[Marc Maron]

And for best of show.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I was just walking our dog. He was a rescue dog.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And this woman with a purebred dog came up to me and she said, what's that? He said, it's Henry. It's her dog. But what. What is. Well, he's. He's mixture. And she gave me a look which is. I'm so sorry for you. I feel so badly that you have to put up with this. And I thought about that in the deepest way of thinking. It's sort of racism. It's sort of a lot of things.

[Marc Maron]

Elitism.

[Christopher Guest]

And it led me to that. And then I said to Eugene, I have this idea, as I did with these other things. And he fought me on a lot of these things. And once we sat in a room, it kind of all took off. And he was a great writing partner.

[Marc Maron]

So from there, you.

[Christopher Guest]

You.

[Marc Maron]

You thought about the world of dog shows.

[Christopher Guest]

Yes.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Yes.

[Marc Maron]

I was in that world briefly, as my dad was into showing dogs. For a brief moment, we had a purebred old english sheepdog.

[Christopher Guest]

Wow. Where was this located?

[Marc Maron]

We were in albuquerque, new mexico. The dog. Yeah, I grew up there.

[Christopher Guest]

No.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I grew up there. And he. The dog's name was cheerio, lord raglan.

[Christopher Guest]

Nope. Nope.

[Marc Maron]

Yep.

[Christopher Guest]

Nope.

[Marc Maron]

100% did you name it?

[Christopher Guest]

That?

[Marc Maron]

No, that comes from the breeder in each name.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, that's right. It goes down.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Cheerio, Lord Raglan. And my dad would, you know, spend hours with the. With the table and the brush because it's in old English. And I remember a couple of going to dog shows, being in that world, like it's a real memory.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Wow.

[Marc Maron]

Did you go into that world?

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, sure.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

We spent almost a year researching this. Yeah, we hadn't been. We went to all of the local shows here. We went to Westminster, and it was quite a thing, as you know. Cause you had the actual thing. I was. I was so young, but, yeah, absolutely stunned by how cutthroat it was. Way more than we had in the movie. There would be people in the grooming place backstage, and these guys would come by with shears and just cut a huge hunk out of one of the dogs and keep walking, ruining that dog's chances for another year.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh, my God.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, yeah.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Oh, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I thought, I can't show that because we were told all these stories. I can't show that. It's too horrible. It's weird enough as it is, you know?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

But that was a. That was fun to do because it was a real bizarre world for me. It was an eye opener.

[Marc Maron]

And it's just like from there, you and Eugene, you start to focus on character building. Right.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, the story. What's the first, second and third act? It's meeting people. Create the characters meeting these people. The mid part where they're on their way to the show and then the show. It's a conventional premise in the sense of how it's.

[Marc Maron]

But each different character that comes from just talking, improvising, talking.

[Christopher Guest]

Knowing that Fred Willard should play what this. It's also done. Specifically, we say, Fred has to play this. Catherine o' Hara has to play this.

[Marc Maron]

You've got your players.

[Christopher Guest]

Parker Posey has to play this.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

These are the musicians in this piece.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And we know they can play these things.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Christopher Guest]

And now that is a great thing. In the same way, using that same analogy, music of saying, I have this idea for a song. Oh, fuck, wait a minute. This guy's a great pedal steel player. I know the bass player thing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

That's the band.

[Marc Maron]

This is the band my girlfriend still talks about and has a lifelong attachment to the name. Every nut bit.

[Christopher Guest]

Okay, well, tell her if you see her that we found ourselves. Well, didn't find ourselves. We were making a movie, apparently. But I drove my Own vehicle, which we didn't have the money to get. Someone pull us and shoot the way they would do in a professional thing. So I'm driving this motorhome in Canada and it's raining. I'm thinking, I have no idea where I'm going. We didn't have police. We had nothing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Just driving along and I said that. I said, da, da, da. Something nuts. And I thought, as I said that. What the hell is the matter with you? You don't know any names of these things. And I started in real time doing that. No plan, no concept that I knew more than one or two things. It just kept going and going.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

The nuts, the nut thing. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Now, I guess, like in. In terms of. The closest to you personally in terms of these movies, has to be Mighty Wind, right?

[Christopher Guest]

In terms of my background. Yes.

[Marc Maron]

And what you lived and saw.

[Christopher Guest]

I grew up in the Village, in the heart of that thing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Walk out the door, Bob Dylan walks by.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Et cetera. All these people. I played in Washington Square park when I was a kid. When I was 12, 13.

[Marc Maron]

Guitar, mandolin.

[Christopher Guest]

Guitar.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yep.

[Christopher Guest]

Then mandolin.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yep.

[Christopher Guest]

Yep. And then whatever. Yes. That was from my experience. The first thing I thought of was a person who was in that world who I will not name.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Are they dead? They may be dead, but I don't know. But the. The. The idea that a folk musician would have this massive ego.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And talk about what they do as if it's, you know, Vladimir Horowitz or something.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And they had this sort of thing where they say, you know, Chris, I've written a lot of songs about miners and mining people and railroad workers. And, you know, I did hobo for a while. I thought, what the. What the hell is. No sense of humor. But there's no perspective. And so we, of course, on the first album did a piece about the Spanish Civil War, where, as you know, I thought just this blind thing, which amused me to no end.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Because there was. There wasn't a hint of. You're kidding. No, not kidding.

[Marc Maron]

Earnest.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Fully earnest.

[Christopher Guest]

Sure.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Which movie was really the most fun in terms of discovery? All of them.

[Christopher Guest]

It's all fun. All fun, all the time.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I've learned, if nothing else, if you can't be self deprecating just as a general sort of thing in life, you're in trouble. You're in really big trouble if you can't look at what you do and go, boy, that was stupid. Or whatever. Because that separates. In the world that we know today. There are people we know that we read about on the papers that could never do that for a second.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Marc Maron]

And it's important to humble yourself.

[Christopher Guest]

I think so.

[Marc Maron]

And that's where the funny is.

[Christopher Guest]

And those people that we play or the parts that Gene and I put together were people that. These are not bad people. They're not great talents.

[Marc Maron]

Right.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

They're not big thinkers. They're doing the best they can. And their earnestness is what's funny, and their delusion is what's funny.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Christopher Guest]

Because in their world, this is the biggest thing in Waiting for Guffman. That play is the biggest thing in the world. It's gonna be huge in the mighty win thing. They think this is gonna lead to other things.

[Marc Maron]

And for your consideration.

[Christopher Guest]

Yes. And that is the darkest of all. That is really dark. And I wanted it to be dark. And when I saw it, I went, boy, this is. Wow. Okay. No one's gonna see this, because who wants to watch the darkness of this?

[Marc Maron]

People saw it.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, someone saw it. But what I'm saying is that there's no relief from the darkness, from the real disappointment from the. You know.

[Marc Maron]

But there are people like Catherine o' Hara you must go way back with.

[Christopher Guest]

Not so far, no. I mean, I didn't know her during SCTV. I didn't meet her until the 80s, I guess.

[Marc Maron]

But McKean you've known forever.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Baoban.

[Christopher Guest]

No, no, I didn't know Bob until the 80s.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Wow.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

No, yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

But again, you meet these people and in a millisecond, you know that they can do this kind of work.

[Marc Maron]

Higgins is kind of a marvel.

[Christopher Guest]

He was a new. Oh, nobody smarter, nobody funnier, nobody more musical. Just an absolute brilliant. He's in the Tap. New Tap film.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh, good, good.

[Marc Maron]

And Shearer you've known forever.

[Christopher Guest]

Yep, I have.

[Marc Maron]

And when you did the Big Picture, the choice to do that was a scripted movie.

[Christopher Guest]

It was.

[Marc Maron]

But, like, almost to, like, you know, you were making a movie about movies and you were satirizing movies to a certain degree. And so that choice and that experience of doing a scripted film that had to look a certain way, specifically, it's.

[Christopher Guest]

A conventional movie in that sense. So I had to plot out every. And just people had to learn their lines. The stuff with Marty Short, people assume that's improvised. It isn't. It's all written out. His scenes in there. And when I pitched that, as the kids would say, I hadn't been Mr. Pitcher, I hadn't gone to hundreds of meetings, but I went to this Meeting with the head of a studio, and I'm doing. Explaining this. And he fell asleep. The president of the studio fell asleep three times in the pitch. And his neck would fall back, and then he would wake up. Like, you'd see people on the subway, just. And he'd nod. Yep. And he'd keep nodding, and then the eyes would start to shut, and he's out again, and I'm still explaining this. And then the last time, his head snapped back and he snapped forward, and he said, great, let's do it.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. Okay.

[Christopher Guest]

And I got up and I left, and my writing partner in the hall said, fucking great. We get to do a movie. I said, I'm not doing a movie with that guy. He never. There's something wrong with this. This isn't right. I don't care if he said, let's do it. This is not. This is wrong.

[Marc Maron]

And you didn't do it with him.

[Christopher Guest]

Nope.

[Marc Maron]

It reminds me of a story that my. My buddy Jerry Stahl was pitching something to an executive, and he walked into the room, and the guy was diswrought. He looked upset. And Jerry was gonna pitch a comedy, I think is how it goes. And he sits down, the guy goes, my mother just died. And Jerry goes, oh, my God. And he goes, but go ahead. Go ahead with the pitch.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, sure, but go ahead. Yeah. Wow.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah. I know what I would have done.

[Marc Maron]

So you didn't do it with that guy?

[Christopher Guest]

Nope.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Nope.

[Marc Maron]

But was the experience of doing a scripted movie. I don't want to say challenging, but did you learn a lesson there in terms of, like, maybe I don't want to do this?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, what I did know was that the other thing was what I love to do the best.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right.

[Christopher Guest]

That's what I did know.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

So can we just talk briefly about the royalty thing?

[Christopher Guest]

The royalty thing? The royalty thing. Well, I'm ascap, so when I do a song, not royalties.

[Marc Maron]

I'm talking about British royalties.

[Christopher Guest]

Know what you're talking about.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

I know.

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Sorry. Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

You're somewhat barking up the wrong tree.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Okay. Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I think because people confuse royalty with the other thing. And in England, there is a group of people called peers, or as Abe Lincoln used to say. He used to say, peers of the fucking realm.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yes.

[Christopher Guest]

He would call them.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

People would say, that's weird.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

The lost quotes.

[Christopher Guest]

Exactly.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yep.

[Christopher Guest]

And a peer is a hereditary peer is someone who. In their. In the history of that family, someone makes that person something, and then it goes down to the person. Down to the person.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. Right, right.

[Christopher Guest]

And then there are peers that are life peers that are appointed by them. Prime minister. And they get to do that for a year and then it goes away.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Okay.

[Christopher Guest]

So that's the basic premise. It's not royalty. It is a different thing. And then people get to sit in the House of Lords, which is a. The upper body of Parliament.

[Marc Maron]

And this is something you did.

[Christopher Guest]

Sure, why not?

[Marc Maron]

And that was the reason.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Why not.

[Christopher Guest]

Why not? Yeah. I had thought about not doing it.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I got a letter from aipeer.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Saying I think you would find this opportunity to be a good one. He said, it's a benign and seductive.

[Marc Maron]

Place and just for the experience.

[Christopher Guest]

For the experience. So for several years before they changed the rule where they said to hereditary peers, you can go home now. It was fascinating.

[Marc Maron]

What'd you learn?

[Christopher Guest]

I learned many things. One thing I learned was that there are people who still use ear horns.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh, good.

[Christopher Guest]

And I'm doing this, but it's that thing you see in movies where it looks like a powder horn that's in your ear, but actually you can hear better.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

There were actually people using those. For real.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

There were occasions where we got to wear these robes that were crimson robes and situation. That's like being in a movie, except Victim Mature is not there.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I met some amazing people that were in my boat and just happened to be people who just could come down through the family. They may have been documentary filmmakers, they may have been musicians. They were just. Isn't this weird? You know? Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

And you just got that through your father?

[Christopher Guest]

My father, his brother. His brother. You know, I mean, some of these things are.

[Marc Maron]

What was the title?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, it's a long title. You get sent this thing. It's. I remember thinking, this is horrible because I know this is going to happen, but my dad has to die for this to happen. Then you get a letter saying you get a writ of summons written in medieval writing that says the monarch requests the thing of the wisdom of your thing. It's this long thing and what's written on that is the right honorable the Lord Hayden, guest baron of sailing in the county of Essex. So it's not something. When you're ordering from Wendy's, you don't say. If you're giving a name. Sure. Or coffee at a. Your coffee name. That's not a good coffee name.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

No.

[Christopher Guest]

My coffee name is Dr. X, which is not a real person, I don't think. I mean, for people who follow those movies with, you know, those movies at comic book movies and I Did this off the top of my head. And this person looked up at me and said, you're Dr. X? I said, what? You're Dr. X? I Said, yes. And the person was impressed. Really impressed.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I couldn't figure out if this was an Avenger thing that I had never heard of.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Because that goes deep. Those.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I still don't know. Someone will call in. Well, not literally, because I'm gonna go home.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

If that was a thing. But that's my coffee. Name. Dr. X.

[Marc Maron]

And you were on SNL for one season.

[Christopher Guest]

This is in 1984. My friend was producing that. Loren was gone for five years.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And when he left, my friend Bob Tischler from New Jersey took over as a producer.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

He said, you should come on the show. I said, well, I'm doing this movie with Spinal Tap. I said, thing. Well, then come after that. He said, we said, I was with Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Harry Shearer. And we said, we'll sign one year contracts.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And they paid us.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And they said, you can do whatever you want. I said, I want to direct all the movies. I'll be on the show. I'll write the show. We did it for one year and.

[Marc Maron]

We left Good times.

[Christopher Guest]

No, no, no. What's amazing talking. Because I only met you once in an airport and I've seen and heard you, but you are. You were so hopeful when you said that. You had this great look on your face when you said Good Times. Seriously. It was. It made me feel bad that it wasn't because on this. On the first day. No, it was on a Monday.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

I was sitting next. Sitting next to Marty Short and he said, what are you writing on this piece of paper? I was writing American Airlines Flight 2. I'd called my lawyer on the Monday and said, can I. Can I go home? He said, probably a little late at this point. I had just met my wife Jamie. And I said, that is more interesting to me than this is. I really just don't want to do it. No.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And he said, it's going to be hard for you to get out of this. And we would fly on alternate weekends back and forth to la. She would come, I would go there and we were married five months later. So. Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

See how other things on your mind.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Oh, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

I like that. There's a. This is sort of a callback to Death Wish.

[Christopher Guest]

Well, yeah. Death Wish moment.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Were you like, who can I make fun of on this one?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

To push the.

[Christopher Guest]

No, there would have been no way And Bob was a friend of mine. And it was. Look, most people would have said, they're giving you a lot of money, you can do whatever you want. You can leave in a year. What's the matter with you?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So.

[Marc Maron]

And it just wasn't even the improvisational or even the work.

[Christopher Guest]

You know, there were moments where we had fun and we got to do some weird stuff. Yeah, Billy, that was. We had fun. We laughed. But, yeah, in. In the. In the. I would have gone. If he'd said yes, I would have been out of there.

[Marc Maron]

Really?

[Christopher Guest]

Yeah.

[Marc Maron]

All right.

[Christopher Guest]

Absolutely.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah. All right.

[Marc Maron]

So to sort of bring this all together, I think that, you know, the threads are, you know, improvisation, jazz, you know, discovery, comedy, the funniness of. Of earnest people. But I think we should. In music. But I think this fly tying thing, because when I. When I texted you, I mean, not only did you say fly tying, tying flies, but you had specific types of flies. Is this a real thing for you?

[Christopher Guest]

It's so deep.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

It is deep.

[Christopher Guest]

It's huge.

[Marc Maron]

I have some. I have experience with it.

[Christopher Guest]

Okay, so this is another thing I do every single day. So the day is, I wake up, I read six newspapers roughly.

[Marc Maron]

Not about show business.

[Christopher Guest]

Not about show business.

[Marc Maron]

You avoid the art section completely.

[Christopher Guest]

It's not even ever. Nothing.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yep.

[Christopher Guest]

I read that I exercise for an hour.

[Marc Maron]

What's that look like? Treadmill.

[Christopher Guest]

I have a gym where I can do different things, and I rotate through those things. I do that because I need to keep fit. Ish. Because I walk in rivers a lot and I ski and I do a lot of outdoor sort of things. So I started tying flies 40 years ago. And after I work out, I then tie flies for an hour, and then I'll play music, and then I'll have lunch, and then I'll do it again in the afternoon.

[Marc Maron]

Same thing without the exercise.

[Christopher Guest]

Correct different patterns. But I have thousands. I tie 3,000 flies a year. You look worried. The thing is, it's for people who do that. It's totally. Can't explain because, you know. But I've done this for a long time, and I use them and I give them away to people, and they've been successful. And that's really fun when something works.

[Marc Maron]

So you'd invent your flies?

[Christopher Guest]

I have, but it's more about doing them well and doing a really good, good job of. Or even if it's a offshoot of something and doing them well, and they work and they last and they're kind of.

[Marc Maron]

So you've got organizers full of feathers?

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, no. I have an entire workstation of that stuff. Drawers. Thousands of threads. Thousands of feathers. Yes. And I can swivel around, and my music thing is right there, literally in a chair. I can swivel and then record behind me. So I can do both in my office.

[Marc Maron]

It's like the two worlds. It's the world of control and the world.

[Christopher Guest]

It's fun every time I do that. It's fun, huh?

[Marc Maron]

And do you fly fish a lot?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

Oh, yeah.

[Marc Maron]

Where do you go?

[Christopher Guest]

Well, we bought a house. We built a house on a river 40 years ago.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

And I've gone all over the world, but I travel with a friend and we camp out in the wilderness on rivers. And I pull this little trailer thing. He sleeps in this little trailer. I sleep in my truck thing. I'm leaving tomorrow to do it.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Okay.

[Christopher Guest]

And I do this a lot and have since 85, I guess. So it's a big part of what I do.

[Marc Maron]

And is it. I don't want to use the word spiritual or meditation or anything else. The pace.

[Christopher Guest]

I think that. No. And people say that must be very Zen or there must be something. I don't know how to. I always liked being in the outdoors. And this was this weird thing growing up in New York City where I only wanted to be in the mountains.

[Marc Maron]

And now you are.

[Christopher Guest]

I got to do that. When I was a kid, I would go away and have chances to do that and ski, and I was never happier than that and that with. So in high school, I was in a band, but I was also on all the teams, and those two groups never met.

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Yeah.

[Christopher Guest]

So I had good friends that did both, but they never. I was the middle sort of person, connective person.

[Marc Maron]

Well, that's good. That's good for humor.

[Christopher Guest]

Maybe. I don't know. I mean, I hear music in people's voices. So if you hear a coach, well, the thing you gotta do is, see, you're going back three steps. You gotta take two, and then you throw it. I hear that's music. Someone just played that music. And I want to hear it, and I want to play that. What he just said, I want to play that.

[Marc Maron]

That's interesting. So you really see it all as music.

[Christopher Guest]

It's all music. Voices are music. So if I come upon a character, it's music. And if I feel I can do that as I'm driving along in the country endlessly, then I know that I can. Then it'll be okay.

[Marc Maron]

Great.

[Christopher Guest]

This has been amazing because I've seen you from afar. And I was sort of afraid to enter your zone because you're passionate about what you do and say. And I thought, well, I don't know if this is going to get into an interesting area for you, but here we are.

[Marc Maron]

Did you enjoy it?

[Christopher Guest]

I did, very much.

[Marc Maron]

Well, thanks for doing it, Chris. What a great guy. I'm going to take up fly fishing. I'm going to tie flies. Spinal Tap 2 the end continues. It's in theaters now. Hang out for a minute, folks. 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 [e-mail] and now some legal info. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law. Not available in all states. Hey people. The full WTF archives are now available on Supercast. For $3 a month, you can get every episode of WTF ad free, plus hundreds of bonus episodes as well, including this bonus episode I did. About the doc, about me. Are we good? There's one thing where I'm at home after being in la, you know, probably before I went into rehab, I'm not sure when it was, but I was clearly like, you know, kind of being kind of dicey, you know, like dice clay. Ish. I could see that, you know, my brain was pretty fucked from. From everything I was taking in. And I saw myself as this drug warrior and you know, I was smoking cigarettes and you know, kind of my hair was long and up and like. And I'm, you know, taking this position that was not earned and you know, who the wants to earn that anyways?

[Interviewer/Host Assistant]

Right?

[Marc Maron]

Like I. It was, it was all a fabrication, personality, fabrication to, you know, to be something or also to be you. It was like you were wearing like Iron man suit in those things. Like you were. It was such armor. Like that's what I saw. Yeah, but it didn't fly. No power at all. To sign up for the full Marin archives, go to the link in the episode description or go to wtfpod.com and click on WTF. And a reminder before we go, this podcast is hosted by Acast. I'm going to play some guitar and I want it to be known that I am a okay amateur guitar player who enjoys playing and I believe is getting better. According to Joe Bonamassa, I'm a fraud and talentless. And I assume he's talking about my guitar playing and not my comedy, because I think I poked the bear a little bit on some podcast that got picked up by guitar podcasts. And yeah, I'm not going to necessarily apologize, but I just want people to know I'm not pretending to be anything I'm not as a guitar player. I wouldn't say I'm talentless, and I'm not a fraud, because I'm not pretending to be anything. But I'm okay, here's some some. Okay, slide guit.

[Christopher Guest]

Sa.

[Marc Maron]

Boomer Lives Monkey and La Fonda cat Angels everywhere.