The Big Empty.

Panic, People.

I guess I’ve been a panicky person my whole life. I try to hide it and maybe it does recede a bit when I’m engaged with something, like a person or a task, but my resting brain is panicky.

When we are in a time where panic is warranted and reasonable, I generally think it’s the appropriate response and not some psychological aberration.

That implies that my mind works normally. Whatever that means. Well, it doesn’t. It never has. I was brought up with panic. Not too many principles, but panic. Worry. 

Oddly the idea of treating my anxiety is still dubious to me. Which is puzzling, but also makes me understand the spectrum of questioning medication. I mean, you want to be able to handle it. You want to feel healthy enough to not need it or fight the convenience of it. Get obsessed with side effects and the compromise of your physical, mental and spiritual sanctity. That goes for any condition. Not just psychological. It’s dumb. Ego driven. 

I can't take it anymore. It’s taking me to the edge of sanity. 

I’ve been here before and generally I just ride it out. Fuck. It’s too much. 

Like I’ll walk you through something that just happened. I texted Kit. No response. I’ve grown accustomed to not hearing back from people I text. I don’t respond half the time for a day or two. It’s hard to know when text threads end or if you’re waiting for a response. It’s part of life. I’ve adjusted to it. 

For some reason I locked in and my brain just took off. She didn’t get back to me. I knew she was probably sleeping or doing laundry or at the dog park but my brain just what if’d it to something horrible and that became the dominant narrative. Car accident. Hospital. Death. What do I do if that happens? Her cats, her family. How do I handle that? Cutting back and forth between that and her most likely napping. Which she was. 

It’s exhausting running all the scenarios all the time. With anything. With no indication that any of it is happening. It takes my brain to very dark places. 

It’s been going non stop lately. With everything. Sadly with the political climate and the environmental climate there are plenty of indicators that the worst is happening. I wish, in light of that, I could find a bit of peace in my personal life but I cannot. 

I know this is no surprise to those who know me and my work. But when am I going to do something about it?

I mean, I drink a gallon of coffee a day and constantly have a nicotine pouch in my mouth. God forbid I start by stopping that shit. I don’t.

I am terrified of the emptiness of my core.

I don't really know how to have fun or relax or just sit for very long. I am capable of all these things but my wiring seems to prefer panic and compulsive relief as opposed to peace of mind and acceptance. 

I know, I know. This is basic existential stuff that I could get relief from with basic spiritual ideas. 

I don’t know what it’s going to take to stop fighting the big empty and embrace it. Buddhism?

Anyway, I talk to Jane Marie today about a lot of things including her podcast The Dream. On Thursday I have a kind of amazing talk with comedian Chris Fleming. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Homemade Falafel.

Texas, Folks.

I have traversed the Country of Texas over the last few days. I appreciate it, but I don’t love it. It’s petty and deeper than politics. I grew up in New Mexico and there was always a bit of a state rivalry and judgement of Texas. Shallow stuff. 

I do really like certain parts. Oddly, Houston mostly. 

We started the run in Oklahoma City which I have been to a few times. I always psyche myself out before going to certain places. Red states, mostly. When I get there it all dissipates pretty quickly. What happens in my mind is not reality. Reality on a person-to-person level is always better. Heartwarming even. 

There is a vital creative scene in OKC. I had a nice crowd. I had a great breakfast. I liked the hotel. 

The funniest thing was when me and my opener Blair Socci got to the hotel, we were checking in and Bobby Lee walked out of the elevators. Crazy. He was there shooting a movie. Fred Armisen was there too. I had breakfast the next day with him. It was very comforting to see some friends doing creative stuff in a place I never expected to see them. I also reached out to Wayne Coyne. He and The Flaming Lips are headquartered there. He didn’t make it to the show but the rest of the band did. 

Friends really make you feel less alone in the world. Especially when you are out in it and surprised by them being there. 

The show in OKC was great. 

Then we drove to Dallas which is a sprawl. When you are out in the Country of Texas there is a weird, powerful zen to the plateau of it. It’s massive. Seems like the whole world but the cities seem to go on and on for miles. There is more road construction there than anywhere I’ve ever been. Miles and miles of it. Not pretty. 

The show in Dallas was amazing. The Majestic Theatre is beautiful. A guy I knew back in the day from Boston was working at the place so we did some catching up and time travel. Again, old friends make you feel less alone in the world and bring you back down to earth and give you an opportunity to remember who you were and are. 

I love Houston. It’s such an amazing, diverse city. Great art and great food. I reached out to Mo Amer when I was there and he had me over to his house for homemade falafel. It was awesome. I met his wife and kid. We ate and talked. It’s truly sweet when people put a premium on hospitality and connection. Beautiful afternoon. 

I also revisited the Rothko Chapel and saw it with newer, older eyes. While I was meditating on the massive panels this time around I realized the true power of darkness. The inevitability of it. No one got close to the abyss in painting as he did and these were some of the last works he did before he died by suicide. So, the spiritual nature of the space took on a deeper meaning. It was dark and nebulous but honest. It wasn’t a cry for help but it was pulled from space by a man at his existential end. 

The Houston show was a bit rowdy but great. 

I’m writing this overlooking the Riverwalk in San Antonio. I hope this show is a nice end to this run. We’ll see. Parades of tourists trudging along the river doesn’t make me optimistic but I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Today I talk to W. Kamau Bell again. He’s a great guest and this was our best talk. On Thursday I talk to Mike Elias. He’s the creator of Ship John and his journey as a craftsman is a unique conversation for the show. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

The Daily Garbage Churn.

I can take it, People!

I think I can. It’s day to day. 

The arc of feelings from self righteous anger to suicidal ideation. I get that it's a limited range. The dark spectrum. On the light spectrum I have fleeting blurts of mania to exhausted peace of mind. 

My maternal lineage goes back to Ukraine. Galicia. Which was an oil boom town. I’d like to think of my great, great, great grandfather working those wells. A Jewish roughneck. I stand with Ukraine politically and genetically. 

I’ve been out in New Mexico for a few days visiting my dad and his wife who has a huge family. It strikes me that as a person who doesn’t have kids and is relatively disconnected from my extended family that I have a lot less unfolding and seemingly never-ending drama in my life. That is the excitement of family and connection. There’s always someone to talk about for better or worse. In the absence of that, it’s just the daily garbage churn of the manifestations of my own insecurity, shame, panic and despair along with all the other trash I throw in the hopper.  The four horsemen of my personal apocalypse. 

I know, I’m tired of me too. 

That’s why, lately, I am taking every opportunity I can to be among other people talking in real life. I was waiting on line at a coffee shop here and some guy complimented my sunglasses and the next thing I knew we were talking about his tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, his family, trips to Venice he had taken, his Italian roots and my boots. That happened in five minutes. People like to talk to people. It’s better when it’s casual and loose and not driven by ideology and politics because that’s when you're listening to a self editing recording device and the person’s humanity fades into the machine or disappears. 

I’m writing this before the Oscars which I hope to watch and record the intro of the show after. 

I’m hoping for Anora to win Best Picture. I think it’s a perfect Hollywood movie in that it subverts its Hollywood movieness. 

I’m hoping for Brady Corbet for Best Director because he’s a visionary artist with real old school, almost European mastery. 

I watched his first film last week, The Childhood of a Leader. Made in 2015. I have to say, it may be better than The Brutalist, which was very good. It’s real deal cinematic art. It poses more questions than, if any, answers. It leaves a lot of space for engagement and wonder. It has a seamless logic, cinematically and story wise. Corbet is a rare talent. 

I’ve gotten a bit of reaction to my cynicism around boycotts. I get how they work. I get the intention of leveling economic pain against a corporation or in most cases, a particular billionaire oligarch. What I don’t see is its impact on the current political hellscape that is unfolding and deepening daily. I don’t see how it stops Trump or has any real impact on his presidency. If it makes you feel good, go for it. I’m onboard but it feels to me like we are beyond that having any real political impact. 

Maybe public perception will change and maybe more angry people will once again believe that civil service in the form of candidacy will manifest. People who believe in democracy and how it actually works will seize the minds of the angry, disenfranchised and disillusioned, and make them believers in a government by the people, for the people, voting the grifters and shills and useful idiots out. That’s if voting remains a thing. 

But in the meantime, if you want to go out in the world and shop at actual stores and stop buying Teslas, all the power to you. Whatever gets you through the day. 

Today I talk to Don Johnson, a real Hollywood veteran. On Thursday I talk to Will Oldham, aka Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, about the power of art and humanity and other lighter things. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Jerky and Jesus.

The South, People!

I’m in it. It’s different. 

I’ve been going to the South to perform for a long time. I am always apprehensive before I go because of assumptions about the people and politics and religiosity of the region. Back before I had any name recognition I was afraid of how my material would go over or if I was even safe. As I’ve built my audience, I know that most of the people at the show know what they are getting into. It’s easier but still a bit frightening for different reasons and still does not feel entirely safe. 

In the past, I would leave thinking I was being judgmental and the people I would encounter in passing were all generally good people. Nice. Obviously, my audiences are nice people, or at least, fans of mine. Also, the people I would encounter at businesses or restaurants or working at convenience stores were generally pleasant as well. 

I’m not sure what has changed but I’m still willing to bet it’s me. The things that were different were political or cultural ideas. In the past that wasn’t at the forefront of passing conversations and there was a willingness to accept others. Even if we had different ideas or beliefs. I’m not sure that is there anymore. I may be projecting or I may just be living in the real division between Americans and it made me feel awkward or alien or like an outsider. It's fair to say there are people I encountered in passing who are responsible for what is happening in the country, which is terrifying. 

So, I felt that. Again, I don’t know how much is in my head but I can read the news and know that the effects of their choices are real and brutal. 

The audiences have been amazing. All of them. Asheville, Louisville, Nashville and Lexington. Actually, as I write this, I haven’t done the Louisville show. So, I’ll get back to you on that. I have had some of the best shows of my life in Nashville though. I think because people who live in these blue dot cities have to deal with the divisiveness day-to-day in their state governments and it's much more real to them and has been for a long time. Also, the fear of even your neighbors at this point in terms of speaking your mind must be paralyzing. So, to be in a room of like minded people trying to have a laugh and realize you’re not crazy must be good. I’m trying to do that for them. 

I do like the country down here. It’s beautiful. The drive from Asheville to Nashville is stunning. I did experience something I had never experienced before. I went to a Buc-ee's. It is the Walmart of truck stops. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before. You walk in and it’s huge. There’s all the stuff that you see at other truck stops, just much more of it. At truck stops down here you can find some jerky and maybe a fun Jesus shirt but at Buc-ee's there’s an entire wall of jerky and a full boutique of faith based clothing and tchotchkes. 

And, sadly, standing in front of a wall of jerky with the racks of Jesus shirts behind you is not a unifying moment for me. It was daunting and a bit off-putting. Look, I appreciate cured meat and the story of the savior but there’s something about the time we are living in where I think, ‘Is it all going to be this eventually?’ Jerky and Jesus. Oh, and brisket, which crosses all ideological lines. 

Again, I don’t want to be a hater so I’ll just count myself among the frightened trying to make their way through with some dignity. 

Today I talk to actress Carrie Coon. She’s a firecracker. On Thursday I talk to Chris Hayes. We talk specifically about his new book The Sirens' Call, about the impact of technology and social media on our minds. Great stuff. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Slow Time.

Snow, People.

I’m glad I have the driving chops to navigate snow. They’ve come in pretty handy my last couple of trips.

I was excited to wear layers and a parka with fur around the hood. I like snow and winter and the cold air for a day or two but it was really fucking cold. We flew into Cedar Rapids last Wednesday and walked out to find the rental car covered in snow and it was so cold my hands hurt within seconds.

Thankfully I had my big dumb gloves as well. 

I’d been to Iowa City a few times before but sometimes I don’t remember a place until I get there. I had forgotten just how slow time goes by in the Midwest. That’s not a criticism. I guess it can sound like one if you come from a big city but there are two sides to it. If you want to get the most out of life and at the top of that list is time, Iowa might be for you. I had moments when I’d look at my watch thinking an hour went by but it was like 15 minutes. I think that is getting the most out of life on a basic level. Time just plodding by. It was a bit zen in a way. 

I guess it’s probably different for each person. If you’re busy, you’re busy. I was not. I was waiting. 

The show was great in Iowa City. Good people. My people. I have been nervous about going to red states during this transition to Competitive Authoritarianism and seemingly conditional cultural free speech but there are large communities of like-minded people anywhere I go in this country. 

I’m not fundamentally a political comic but I am a comic that talks about what is happening in the world from my point of view because we are living it. I can't get up there and just pretend like it's not happening or ignore it. I talk about shit. I talk about how I see it. I do that for maybe the first fifteen minutes. 

I address the fact that there are probably some Trump supporters in the audience and I say, ‘They didn’t come here on their own. You brought them. You married them. That’s on you.’ That gets a laugh. 

The Des Moines show was awesome. People are appreciative. My crowds need the relief of being in a room of hundreds of like-minded people in a city where that is rare. 

Kansas City, Missouri was good too. Big Theater. About 1100 people. Relieved. 

A guy came up to me after the KC show and said, ‘I’m one of the Trump guys here!’ He seemed like a pleasant enough fella. I said, ‘Did I get it right?’ He said, ‘Yeah, he’s crazy!’

I’m not completely sure I understand why he was so excited about it but that’s the bunch of his supporters I don’t quite get. The ones that enjoy the mentally ill, cruel presidential spectacle. I mean, I get that life is slower in the Midwest but I wish there were other options for satisfying entertainment other than watching the country burn on your phone or specific streaming channels. 

All and all, a good trip. Great shows with Lara Beitz opening. I’m looking forward to the next stretch in Asheville, Nashville, Lexington and Louisville. 

Today I have a great talk with Brady Corbet who directed The Brutalist. On Thursday another great one with Palestinian comic Mo Amer. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Among the People.

Pop, People.

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl. I never do. 

I like how it's always misconstrued as condescension or some kind of posture. I just have no idea how to watch any football, or most sports, because I honestly give zero fucks. Zero. 

I have nothing against sports and sometimes I think I may have actually been a better person if I had learned how to enjoy them on the field and off but I was never guided that way. I also think I just may have always given zero fucks. 

I never liked the culture around sports in high school. I never really had any sense of school or team loyalty. I can appreciate the excitement people get from it and understand why rooting for a team is a deep emotional connection but, not unlike my blasé attitude around god and belief, it’s just not how I am or was wired. I’m really not sure it was for the best but it just is. 

I think that’s why I can't stand political culture at this time. The same sort of fervor and angry, shallow emotions that drive sports fanaticism now drives politics. Unfortunately, the sport or pseudo-sport that it's most like is professional wrestling. Which I do understand as theater and entertainment but it's hard to grapple with when it affects thousands of lives, perhaps ending many. The heel is the president and he’s a sociopathic huckster clown autocrat. 

It’s not that I’m not competitive. I am. I try not to be. Because most of my competitive instincts are based in insecurity and self judgement and manifest in kind of snotty blurts and mildly bitter reactions to things. I know it isn’t real. If I change my perception and accept who I am (finally, at 61) I don’t have those impulses. On most days I can muster that up. Self acceptance. 

It is a challenge on other days. 

How you feel about yourself can determine your degree of misery and panic and sadness in your life, in relation to things happening outside of you. 

It’s good to get out of yourself. Get out there among the people. Even if it’s just to be part of it. 

I’m relearning that getting out among the people is necessary for me. I’m fortunate to have two primary jobs, comedy and podcasting, that put me into very immediate and engaging relationships with other humans. A single one and crowds. It keeps me human. It keeps me from getting lost in my head or my phone or my past or my catastrophic (always) future. 

I also need to just be around people, strangers, just out in the world. 

I went to Canter’s Deli by myself late the other night. I’ve been going there for almost 40 years. It's grounding. Just to sit there and eat the food of my tribe in a place filled with other late night eaters. Some solo, some groups. People watching and sharing space and being very present. 

It’s human to be around the passive vulnerability of others just existing and eating and talking. 

I miss that about living in NYC. 

I have to make sure I stay connected to it so I know we are all still here. I am still here. 

Today I talk to the magically talented Ariana Grande. On Thursday I talk to the big movie director James Mangold. Awesome week of talk and engagement. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Entertaining.

It’s a haul, Folks.

I write this thing every week. I have no idea how many people read it. Sometimes I dread it but I do it. It’s good to write. Helps one think. 

I just got back from a road trip to some gigs up in Northern Cali. I took Blair Socci with me to do shows in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Monterey. Pretty little towns. The shows were solid. Good crowds. 

Something shifted in me doing these shows. I put a lot of pressure on myself generally and I think I’m getting tired of it. Because of who I assume my audience is, I feel like I have to have answers or solutions or a plan of attack to get through what seems to be a very effective and unstoppable authoritarian takeover of our government. 

Even saying that is a bit jarring to people. Some people really want to hang on to the idea that this is just another presidency, an aggressive and scary one, but a presidency nonetheless. I don’t believe that is true. I don’t know what it would take to get what’s left of the media to report on that, call it what it is. It will happen eventually, if they are allowed to continue reporting at all, in terms of access. I assume an actually undeniable constitutional crisis will occur in the coming weeks that will be doubled down on and there will be no denying it. 

That said, given that the people who come to see me are like-minded I feel a responsibility to report. Not the news, but my feeling about what is happening and how I am dealing with it. I hit some groove with it that was new to me in these last few shows. 

I will entertain. 

I spend some time up front expressing my feelings of fear, hopelessness and anger (in a funny way). Then given that it's out in the open and we are all on the same page, I set out to just be funny. There’s some heavy topics thrown in but somehow I have become excited to be entertaining. Informed and with a point of view, but entertaining. 

I’m doing some story driven bits that roll well and get really big laughs and I felt happy about that. They aren’t saying anything challenging or confrontational or necessarily political. Just some fun bits and people were laughing the laugh of people who were relieved to be able to find it in themselves to do it. 

My people. 

I also want to acknowledge the passing of David Lynch here. He was a visionary artist who I believe had a profound impact on all the arts. I don’t quite get a few of his movies but I like watching them. To see the work of a brilliant director committed to his unique vision and have it be singular is rare. Though I think my two favorite films of his are The Straight Story and The Elephant Man, I do enjoy engaging and reengaging with the ones that don’t quite come together for me. I blame myself for that lack of understanding. 

Marianne Faithfull also passed away. The arc of her life and career and her commitment to finding a voice through it all kind of changed my life. When the album Broken English came out I had never heard anything like it. The depth of the mysterious dark intensity of her singing haunted me and I’ve stayed kind of haunted by it. 

So, RIP Marianne and David. 

Today I talk to Ke Huy Quan about his epic journey to become an Oscar winner. On Thursday I talk to Demi Moore. It hasn’t happened yet but I’m excited about it. Love her. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Resistance Is Essential.

The pushback, People.

I’m back in it. 

I remember doing comedy in the days, months, years after Trump became president the first time. It was tense. I never know who’s in the room and what they may believe or what they are willing to do because of their beliefs. It’s a delicate balance. 

People who know what I do generally know where I stand and that I will put that out there a bit in my shows. When I do a show or a set for a general audience and I talk about politics or what we are all going through collectively, part of that collective definitely doesn’t think like me and it’s going to irritate them. What they do when confronted with that irritation is the wild card. 

But I’m going to do it. 

I don’t know if I am courageous or not. I do know if I don’t speak my mind (and be funny about it) I will feel like I failed myself and my heroes. So, I do it. Resistance is essential and as this country becomes more of an autocracy or fascist or authoritarian or oligarchical, resistance is fraught with a certain amount of fear and risk. But I think if I can follow it with a cat joke I can usually pull it off. It’s necessary. 

Punching down is easy and there’s no risk to it other than revealing yourself to be small and an asshole. If you’re surrounded by small assholes as an audience it’s big fun for everyone involved. We’ve all punched down at some point in our lives. The hope is you don’t get addicted to the rush of cruelty that it gives you. That’s a dangerous monkey to have on your back and also a shitty foundation for community. 

The idea of speaking truth to power gives you a different rush. If it is what you feel and believe, and you are surrounded by at least a few like minded people or people who can't give voice to it, there is a sense of release from the bondage of fear and maybe a small glimmer of hope that the spark of humanity hasn’t gone out. 

If you flip that, speaking power to truth, I think that is the duality. If power speaks to truth or, more likely, yells at it and does it over and over again, eventually truth will buckle and retreat and hide. Hopefully waiting for a gap or hole or a pause so it can  pop out again and reveal itself but that’s not guaranteed. Human truth is a pretty fragile and vulnerable force. 

Almost everything in our cultural dialogue mutes human truth. Even when it’s on full display or acted out in bits and pieces on TikTok or IG. The context of a reel is a punch to the brain to trigger an emotional reaction that is mostly fleeting. It exists unto itself to generate attention by evoking a feeling. So, if you live in your phone, your humanity gets used up by reacting to these bits and pieces of events and cries that make you feel the feels, but to no true end. They dissipate quickly. 

Challenging people in real time with provocative material is where the real feels happen. Sometimes, like the other night, it lands and it upsets people to the point where they speak out, disrupt the show, condemn it and get thrown out of a comedy club. How the other people in the room react is where the real power of a moment lives. 

I just see it as part of my job and, believe me, I wish I didn’t have to do it, but I do.

Today I talk to Erin Brockovich about environmental and consumer advocacy and speaking up and fighting the good fight. Thursday I talk to Noah Wyle about his new show The Pitt and the current state of healthcare and the people who provide it. Good week. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Like-Minded People.

It’s happening, People.

The war on tolerance has been waged and won. The fight against liberal democracy, inclusive culture, civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants' rights and science has brought us here. It's been brewing and festering probably since the New Deal, definitely since the explosion of progressive culture in the '60s. 

We are entering a dark time politically, culturally and environmentally. I am not a political scientist or pundit. I’m just a comic. I’m not totally keyed in to much of the dialogue. I know what I see and feel and that’s a foundational dread and anxiety. 

The loophole of elective democracy is that a fascist can be freely elected and then destroy the system that delivered him there. It’s not new or even unusual. It is new and unusual for us and scary. Democracy as a governing body is apparently very codependent by design. A real people pleaser. Which leaves it open to abuse by assholes, gaslighters and domestic terrorists. 

There is an us and them when it comes to much of what drove us here. We are going to have to deal with a lot of douchebaggery coming down from the top and into passing moments with other humans in our lives. 

They thrive on our discomfort, pain and fear. They fucking love it. 

It’s going to suck. We don’t know how bad it will get. We don’t know how it will affect our everyday lives but it will. 

I’m not sure how I will handle the dramatic shift in culture. I guess we’ll find the like-minded people who enjoy what we do. I guess we’ll learn to thrive in the shadow of a multipronged attack by policies enacted by religious fanatics, racists, tech oligarchs, hate nerds, corporate monsters and their minions. 

The survival of decency and empathy is kind of on us. Individuals who have it in them to think those things are important. 

The survival of American Democracy is a little less hopeful. I certainly don’t do enough. I know there are ways to get involved. Fight for what’s right on a community and state level. Believe that change is still possible. We’re going to have to get through a lot of PTSD to get to those actions. To be proactive. 

Art, self expression, being who you are proudly and vigilantly is important and I believe it's going to be challenging when you feel surrounded by emboldened dummies who just want to shut you down. 

There are special people that do special things with their talents. Keep doing them. We don’t have to lower ourselves and debase ourselves to appeal to the narrow-minded who would rather everything be similar or something they understand.

People are going to die because of the thin majority’s discomfort with people who are different. A discomfort that becomes disdain and then policy. 

Hey, look. I hope I’m wrong. I hope I’m overreacting. I know some people are viewing this as a normal presidency in the context of how our government works and we just have to wait it out and see how the people vote the next time. 

I am unable to look at it that way. 

Today Bill Burr is back to catch up. Thursday I talk to comedian Sophie Buddle. Good stuff. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

The Fires.

Harrowing, People.

It has been a stressful, terrible few days. The fires in Los Angeles are ongoing and terrifying. I am lucky as of this writing. I am safe. The animals are safe. Kit is safe. Kit’s animals are safe. Many people have lost everything. It’s incomprehensible but it was always a possibility out here. 

It is devastating. I feel awful for so many people that are dealing with the destruction. Entire communities were decimated. It looks like a nuclear bomb went off in some parts of LA County. It feels like post-9/11 here in terms of the collective trauma that people are moving through. A terrorist attack makes you afraid of more terrorist attacks but you believe, or at least it's possible to think, that terrorists can be stopped. 

You can't stop the wind. 

The reality that every time the wind picks up in Los Angeles there is a possibility that everything will be immolated seems nearly impossible to live with. 

This is what it will be like here all the time now. It used to be that there was a general detachment during fire season. It always seemed that the fires were ‘over there somewhere in the mountains.’ They would get close but not close enough to warrant evacuation. Just a mild to extreme panic. 

We always knew the possibility of this. It was part of the devil’s bargain you exist with to live here. Earthquake, fires. Some part of you was in enough denial or blind faith to just accept it. Hope for the best. Those days are over. 

It seems that if you are a rational person you would move as quickly as possible. I imagine many will. I am making plans. 

To be tethered to the Watch Duty app compulsively updating to see if another fire has broken out somewhere nearby. Will you be woken up in the middle of the night by an alert on your phone to evacuate immediately? Will you need to leave your home? Will your friends need to flee? Is it too late for you or people you know? It’s not a sustainable way to live with any psychological grounding other than terror. 

Look, many people live with this terror in the world for many different reasons. Some man made, other environmental. 

Checking the app for fires every few minutes. 

I realized in the midst of this that the feeling of needing to check to see if you are in the path of destruction over and over will be a lot like checking your news feed after January 20. Where’s the fire? What has he done? Am I safe? Can I live my life freely without overwhelming fear? 

The layers of terror and anxiety that are building upon each other is something akin to a perfect storm, like the perfect storm that created near 100 mile an hour winds that turned the fire into rapid assault from a barrage of embers traveling as projectiles. House to house. Tree to tree. 

I really don’t know how I will manage things in that much fear. Denial and reason can only get you so far. The desire to retreat into self, hide, run, do something drastic will be an edge that many of us will be living on. 

The possibility of paralysis is constant. Creative paralysis, emotional paralysis, political paralysis. The urge to shut down will be there upon waking. 

The act of just living your life day-to-day will be what saves you. Small things. Errands. Reaching out and being there for other people, pets, kids, your job or life pursuit. 

The only way to push back will be to live your life and vigilantly be yourself and do the right thing. Take care of your mind and loved ones.

Try not to be turned out by fear and become a shell. 

There are many ways to help people whose lives have been upended by what’s happening here, or anywhere frankly. Reach out. Help any way you can. It’s the human thing to do. 

Sorry about the weight of this dispatch. 

Today I talk to Richard Gadd about his series Baby Reindeer and all the humanity that entails. Thursday I hope I’ll be talking to comedian Mo Welch. We’ll see. Things are a bit chaotic out here in terms of people being able to do things. The situation is, again, fluid. 

Stay here. 

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Markers and Windows.

Hey, People.

I’m not losing my mind but it seems overloaded and shorting out a bit. I don’t acknowledge burnout is real but maybe it is. I am not sure what to do about it. 

It’s been a rough few days. A director who I talked to on the show and I knew socially a bit has passed away. Jeff Baena died by suicide. He was a real artist and unique director and writer. It’s very sad. Then yesterday I found out that an old friend of mine, comedian Jim Short, passed away. We were estranged for a long time over bullshit but I talked to him a few months ago and we worked through it. He was ill. I was glad we were able to reconnect and let go of the past. 

Life is short and hard. As I get older I realize that I have had many lives. I think everyone loses touch in an immediate way but I have no idea who or how the guy I was made his way through the world and survived. 

When your life is rooted in a creative pursuit that you are chasing wherever it takes you and it is the most important thing in your life, your journey takes you to many different places geographically and mentally. To the point where you actually feel you have had many lives, because you did. 

When people pass away, especially ones who you didn’t stay in touch with or ones who just passed through your life, the moments of grief take you back to who you were during that time. You can kind of get a sense of yourself remembering your experience with them and who they were in your life at that time. The journey you are on resonates in memories of relationships because you don’t really feel your brain changing over time that much. 

When you don’t have a family, your history all lives in time spent with people who come and go. So, it becomes hard to see a throughline to my life. Just people, places, events and things that are markers and windows into my experience. 

I have to get a handle on compartmentalizing all that I do and all that I think. The difference between what I do in the world and what my brain is doing on its own. It’s exhausting. I had a minor wake up call that I have to get my mind together and grounded. 

I hit two parked cars. Parking. What? Yes. 

I insisted, against the reality of the situation, that I could get into a parking space that I couldn’t. Turning into it I hit the parked car on my right on its back bumper. I hit it a bit harder than I thought. I could tell by the awful crunching sound. I backed out and tried to re-angle my car and, as I was easing into the spot looking to my right, my side view mirror dragged along the car on my left. A double-header. I left a note on the car on my right. The person in the car on the left had just parked. So, they got out and took my insurance info. The other car’s owner called me later. My bumper was cracked and needs to be replaced. 

All in, about 3K in damages because I had my head up my ass.

I need to pull it out. 

Today I talk to actor Adrien Brody about his career and his new film The Brutalist. On Thursday I talk to the genius filmmaker Mike Leigh about his life and his films including his new one Hard Truths.

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Needy Animals.

Happy New Year, Folks?

I guess we can dream and wish. Stay in the day. 

It’s the feeling of powerlessness and isolation that is daunting. Even though people who believe in democracy are not really the minority, the cultural force and momentum of what is coming is overwhelming. It almost feels like it’s on purpose. Like that's the plan. Like real authoritarian shit. 

A third of the country is terrified and hopeless. Another third couldn’t be more thrilled about that. And another third doesn’t really give a fuck either way. Those are the ones that scare me the most. It hinges on them. Maybe my math is off but the ratios are tight and it doesn’t bode well for vulnerable people.

I’ll be honest with you. My holidays have been pretty trying. I’m not really a holiday person and I wasn’t really buying into the forced festive nature of the time but last week was marked by panic and minor crises that I guess were educational somehow. I’m not knocking the holidays and I am certainly open to any and almost all distraction on a daily basis with an enthusiasm that can only come from existential terror. 

I was forced into the present a few times last week. 

I went back to New Mexico on Christmas Eve. I went to see my dad to get a feel for where he’s at with his dementia and to spend time with the timeless vibration of the state that defines some part of me and grounds me. 

The night I got in I went to a small family gathering of his wife’s family. Ate some tamales. Split. He seemed a bit more vacant but still present for the most part. The following day I got a call from my cat sitter that Charlie had explosive diarrhea all over the house. Literally all over the house. It’s not a small house. On my bed, in the dining room, in the den, the stairs. Almost like he was making a point. 

The next day was the large family gathering of my dad’s wife’s family. I go every year. Again, my dad seemed okay. Detached, but okay. After another call from my cat sitter that Charlie is still shitting everywhere I had Kit take him to the vet the next day. 

Christmas night I decided to go see A Complete Unknown. My dad went home and his wife’s son and grandchildren were going there to open presents. Ten minutes into the movie I get a couple of calls and texts from Rosie, Dad’s wife, saying there was a problem with my dad. Then her granddaughter texted saying I had to call Rosie because my father was being abusive and crazy angry. I left the movie and called. Rosie told me my dad threw a rage fit and told everyone to get the fuck out of his house and he started kicking presents around. Apparently, he did this all without his walker. Anger is a powerful drug. 

Everyone was scared and shocked at the outburst. 

She put him on the phone because she believes I’m the Dad Whisperer, which I am. I asked him what the fuck was wrong with him and why did he lose his shit and scare everyone. He said he didn’t. I pressed him. He said it was because no one was talking to him. So, he ruined Christmas for everyone.

I wish I could say this was because of his dementia but he did this my whole life. Erratic, abusive outbursts when it wasn’t about him enough. I told him that. He said it wasn’t true. I got choked up.

It’s what remains of a person. I guess it was a long shot that my old man would become docile and manageable like some dementia patients do. The 'fuck you' is the last to go with guys like my dad. 

I enjoyed A Complete Unknown. Very good film. 

All that said, Charlie was diagnosed with stress-induced colitis because I left him. I realized he does this in one way or another every time I leave. Doesn’t eat, vomits, shits or a trifecta. Now I know for sure. 

I have a dad that rages when he doesn’t get love or attention and a cat that shits everywhere for the same reasons. 

On Friday morning Kit went by my house and found the ceiling leaking in the kitchen. I woke up to the possibility of a burst pipe and my house being out of commission while the ceiling has to be torn out. Awesome. I had her turn off the water main and pulled a team together over the phone to deal with it that night and I flew home a day early. 

It turns out it was the loose bolts on the bottom of the tank of the toilet upstairs. Water was seeping into the floorboards and finally bubbled the paint and leaked into the kitchen. A blessing. Just a paint job fix. 

What did I learn? That needy animals can be dangerous, scary and may shit all over everything. And sometimes things aren’t as bad as you think. Important lessons. 

Happy New Year. 

Today I talk to actor Ron Livingston, who I like. On Thursday we have a special Ask Marc Anything episode. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

This Time of Year.

Happy Holidays, People!

Or do what you can. Do the best you can. You can get through it. Or enjoy. 

This time of year is always weird for me. I wasn’t really brought up with holidays in the house for very long. I mean, you can’t avoid them. They’re pervasive, intrusive, tiring but I have to assume that many people enjoy them. Right? I’m always surprised that I know all of the Christmas carols because I don’t even really remember singing them. And I’m a Jew. 

I know all The Beatles songs too. Similar somehow. The Beatles songs are comforting, familiar and there are so many. I feel like there’s five Christmas songs, I think. I guess they’re not really similar. They both can get annoying but the intensity of Beatles songs doesn’t really really pick up once a year. They’re just always lurking. 

I know everything slows down this time of year. It feels quiet. Like everyone is cloistered in their own little family and friend world. Somehow it always surprises me. I am generally alone-ish. I have a moment of, ‘What the fuck is happening? Where is everyone?’ Then I realize I’m all alone in this world and I’m not connected to anything or anyone that is festive and nostalgic and god-loving. 

Even Hanukkah was a bit intermittent. It happened sporadically and generally not for all of the nights. Over the years I have lit a candle or two. It feels good but not because it takes me back to family and community. It just makes me feel like a real Jew, which I like occasionally. 

I tend to get a bit spaced out during this time. I wouldn’t say depressed. I think it's more pensive and reflective. Depressed. I know it’s not clinical, just a feeling of separateness and isolation. Untethered. 

The reflective part is difficult. I don’t have many regrets but I do have a bit of shame about past incarnations of myself and my behavior. That is not regret but it is hard to accept sometimes. I lean into knowing that I have changed in many ways. It’s comforting but sometimes it’s really hard to do that. I really can't believe I was who I was at certain times in my life. When I pick these periods and events to reflect on I try to give myself a break, forgive myself. That doesn’t really work. The knowledge that I don’t act like that anymore and I am aware of my behaviors and try to act differently is the best I can do. 

I have enough distance from past me now to really see myself honestly. It’s a little rough. Life is short and weird. Some things change and some things don’t and you ultimately run out of time. 

Joy. There’s a lot of talk of joy this time of year. I can understand it. I think I can feel it. I have no control over it. Is it a choice?

Maybe if I focus on gratitude and look at the parts of my life that were and are great that would be helpful. I’ll do that. 

I really have to start seeing myself in a positive way. That’s what I will work on this week through the New Year. 

I’m trying to see myself in relation to the work I’ve done. I’ve been beating the shit out of myself for not doing enough comedy. Which means not doing it compulsively. I have a tour coming up that is a continuation of the tour I put on hold to do a few acting jobs one after the other. Instead of being pissed at myself I should just frame it as working in another medium that I wanted to work in and feeling it out. 

Now I have to lock in to expressing myself with the funny and let the time we live in move through me. I’m not exactly clear on it all but I’m reading some books. In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Maté, Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen and The Crisis of Culture by Olivier Roy. Light stuff. Holiday reading. 

I had an amazing time shooting in NYC on Deliver Me From Nowhere with Jeremy Strong and Jeremy Allen White and Paul Walter Hauser. It was a small part but Bruce Springsteen was there every day and because I had talked to him on the show before I was comfortable just hanging out and chatting with him. It was amazing. 

I have a good life. 

Today I talk to Bruce Vilanch about Bette Midler, writing for variety shows and the Oscars and other back in the day stuff. Thursday we look back at the roots of WTF with a bunch of material that was only available as bonus stuff. So if you aren’t a bonus subscriber this will be your first time hearing this stuff. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Ham-Fisted Garishness.

The Boss, People.

I’m flying into New Jersey to do a little part in the Springsteen biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere. I get to pretend like I’m a recording engineer for a few days.  Knobs and such. Not too many lines, just the illusion of riding the faders.

I played Largo with the band the other night and I think it went pretty well, I feel like I’m singing and playing better in front of people. It doesn’t seem like a big deal but overcoming fears and doing new things is just as impactful in your sixties as it was when I was kid. 

It’s always good to unload some fears. Free up some space and try not to let it be filled by expanding existing fears. 

This anticipatory period of despair is only for another month. Trying to live life as we understand it now, with a bit more intensity, is fraught with the nagging reality of the oncoming cultural and political shit show that will shift our way of being. 

Anxiously (and not the good kind) waiting for chaos. I imagine it will start with an oppressive display of ham-fisted garishness followed by days or weeks of theatrical signings of executive orders and immediate investigations of innocent people and the pardoning of traitors while moving people who live and work here into camps or prisons. Ringing in the new year with fear and desperation for millions while millions more celebrate it. The new cultural norm of thriving on the thrill they get from seeing people defeated, hopeless, in pain and ostracized for any number of reasons. 

Their bootlicking clown puppets will buffer them with hack anti-woke jokes that they believe imply inclusivity, but are inclusive only as long as their terms are accepted and the terms are their cultural dominance. Their idea of free speech is reveling in ‘Shut the fuck up, you fucking babies.’ Many will. 

No reason to legislate authoritarianism. It will just happen at the hands of so many willing to terrorize and troll people into silence and compliance. 

Good times. 

Maybe I’m being a little extreme. I hope so. 

The movie The Order is now out in theaters. Maybe that’s why I’m being a bit dark in this dispatch. It’s the true story of the first white nationalist domestic terrorist group in the States. I play the radio host Alan Berg who was gunned down in his driveway for the way he thought and talked. It was only a few minutes of screen time but it resonates. 

Every state has at least one operating domestic terrorist group now and the incoming administration is sympathetic to their agenda on some level. 

The movie was directed by Justin Kurzel, who I talk to on Thursday's show. I watched many of his other movies. He's a great filmmaker. It’s grim, dark, poetic Australian stuff. Check it out if you have the tolerance for that. The films I watched are Snowtown, Nitram and True History of Kelly Gang. Great films. 

Today I talk to Bobbi Althoff. She’s a bit of a viral sensation with her odd interviews of entertainers. I was kind of curious about her and her character but the conversation turned out to be very informative about what show business is now, with the younger generation. I also found her story quite engaging and inspiring somehow. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Mind-Blowing Events.

A bit of relief, People.

I’m weird. Emotionally screwed up. I have a handle on it for the most part. I accept who I am, ish. 

It’s exciting when new information that pertains to who you think you are gets introduced into your brain. It’s also good when new information about the world based on someone else’s point of view or perception informs your own. It’s also good when your expectations are hijacked by reality and they are completely different, for better or worse. 

There are mind-blowing moments. I like to have my mind blown. It doesn’t get blown by just anything surprising. It gets blown when new territory is opened up in my mind and it spreads and informs everything else. Or when a burden is lifted and that frees up more mental space. 

I had a few mind-blowing events happen over the last week. As some of you know I went to NYC last week to do a music show and check out the potential venue for my HBO special taping in May. I was nervous about the music show. I was excited about the venue but I hadn’t seen it in person. 

The biggest revelation that happened came through an email from a listener who was responding to my musings about possibly having ADHD. This was new to me and quite a few listeners have been chiming in about it. Primarily around discussions or mentions of narcissism which I know I don’t have. I have too much self awareness and guilt, dread and conscience to have that. I always assume I had some traits of it because I grew up with it in my father.

A listener named Cameron wrote about ADHD:

‘We are attempting to orient ourselves to the new information but what it looks like is self-centered behavior, in part because it is but it's not because of narcissism… People with ADHD's self-concept or sense of self fades when we are not doing the things that matter most to us. People think of misplacing keys as the example of memory challenges. We misplace our sense of self. So when you perform music at Largo the experience is always better than the thoughts that lead up to it. I teach and when I teach I am reminded of what matters to me. Our experience informs our sense of self providing important feedback loops.’

What!? We misplace our sense of self. That nugget will change everything for me. I doubt I’ll go get diagnosed or seek medication. I tend to use a cognitive approach and information that changes my understanding and/or perception is helpful. 

So, as I wander the world wondering where my self is while I converge on things that matter, anxiety rules. 

Just to lay out the events of the last week without writing a book here:

I’ve been reading a book that I barely understand by the author Olivier Roy called The Crisis of Culture about the predicament of the reality (or lack thereof) that we are living in and it’s informing some of my own perceptions and informing some of the creative work I’m doing. Mind-blowing. 

I played the gig in NYC and I believe I played better than I ever have and was actually happy about it for a few days. Mind-blowing. 

I went to the Comedy Cellar which I usually avoid for many reasons. One being that I decided I wasn’t really welcomed there. The other being that I have an estranged friend that I haven’t really spoken to in years that is there a lot. The last being that I just haven’t set foot on that stage in years and I was nervous about it like I was when I was starting out there. 

So, I found myself and thought, ‘I’m Marc Maron. I belong there as much as any other comic that came up there.’

I went. Saw the old friend and it was fine. We spoke for the first time in years. I did a spot and it was great. Everyone was relatively happy to see me there. Mind-blowing. 

This whole anxiety/misplaced self business leads to fear and speculation and most of the time it isn’t real. 

Big week. 

Today I talk to Jesse Eisenberg about his new movie A Real Pain and other stuff. Intense guy. Thursday I talk to comedian Andy Blitz who I haven’t really talked to in years about the old days of Luna Lounge and what’s he’s doing now. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

The Untethered Mind.

Back in LA, People.

New Mexico was good. I had time to think. Too much. 

There was no TV where I was staying and I tried to stay off the phone and the computer. I have to be honest. My brain untethered from distraction is not the greatest neighborhood. I’m trying to clean it up. Do some repairs. Some of the structures up there are so old and the foundations so solid they are hard to tear down. Maybe I’ll just move some new stuff into them. That seems to work. Brighten them up a bit. 

I’m happy I feel the need to spend time with my dad. Some of you have commented that it’s odd given what I have said about him and our relationship in the past. I say, not really. My father and I have had our ups and downs but busting his balls has always been part of the dynamic. It may be one of the reasons I became a comic. 

If you have selfish, needy parents who have no real boundaries and see you as an extension of them instead of a separate person when you are child it leads to a crisis of self. That’s what I have grown to believe. Given that, either you disappear or you push back. That pushing back could be for a lifetime on some level. A little bit of fuck you goes a long way with vampiric parents. I mean, you’re not going to feel great about yourself but at least you’ll have some space to figure it out. 

Oddly, that is exactly why I started to do comedy. To have control of some space of my own. I don’t think it was really entertaining for a few years but I figured it out. I leaned in. My biggest fear when I was younger was being embarrassed by my mother or just being embarrassed by life. There is no way to confront that fear radically other than doing possibly the most embarrassing job. Not embarrassing on an appearance level or an economic level but by putting yourself out there to possibly be rejected. Even to the extent of courting rejection in order to try to defy it. I mean, it’s important to be funny and most of what I am talking about I realized later but it seems to make sense to me. 

To this day, sometimes when I do comedy, I feel like my entire sense of self is on the line. That is exactly the way my relationship was with my parents before I could fight it. 

As I’m writing this some of this is just becoming clear to me. Exciting. Thankfully I have a craft in place that will override the need to make everything cringey. Though I still enjoy a bit of that. Keeps shit real. 

I can just be funny now. 

I was very excited to talk to Luca Guadagnino. When we booked him on the show I had no idea his new film Queer was based on the William Burroughs book. I’ve been obsessed with Burroughs most of my adult life. I still can't really wrap my head around his work entirely but I do know it blows my mind anytime I pick any of it up and start reading. 

To talk to someone for an hour about their work and the work of Burroughs was a real treat. 

The antidote to the untethered mind. Talking to other humans in an open way. In this case, talking about someone who untethered their mind and let it go further out than almost anyone in the name of personal expression. 

On Thursday, I talk to Dwight Yoakam. His new album is great but the talk we had was just as good. He’s a historian and storyteller. I’m not even sure I needed to be there. I’m glad I was though. We listened to Creedence on my couch after the talk. Good times. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

A Familiar Corner.

Back in Burque, Folks.

Been home in New Mexico for a few days. Heading up to see the old man today. I don’t know what to expect but I know I can't expect him to be better. It’s kind of amazing that I am the age I am and I still have a dad alive at all. And a mom! Who I can't seem to get to pick up her phone. I’m doing my part. 

I think I am having some old guy mental phenomenon happening. Maybe specifically childless old guy stuff. I think if you have kids your sense of time passing is different. You can see it in your kids. It hits me out of nowhere and somewhat suddenly. 

Maybe something is shorting out in my brain. I don’t know. 

I was standing outside a theater in Los Angeles last week. I have been there many times over the years since I’ve lived in LA. Which is on and off but mostly on since 2002. Twenty-two years. That number just stopped me in my tracks for some reason. I was standing on a familiar corner and I could remember all the times I had been there with many different people, friends, girlfriends, a wife. It was bits and pieces and it all seemed so far away and so immediate simultaneously. 

I knew some of the events were a long time ago now but I couldn’t really account for time since they happened. It was like my mind couldn’t process time. It was past but all present. Like it all happened last week. Like everything that's happened in the years I can remember happened yesterday. It was as if the gap between the past and the present was lifted but everything seemed far away but all one experience. My life. I don’t know if I’m explaining it clearly. 

I was looking at the last 22 years all at once and I felt like I was separate from it. It was a kind of grief. It was all behind me but alive and active in my mind. The memories that fight to be held. The place they hold in my mind is/was alive in a place in time and it’s conflicting with what is now. The present.

My memories become a parallel universe that I’m living in outside of myself. That I have to engage with. I guess the memories that make us who we are happen to be the ones we revisit enough to define our thinking about who we are. Some are connected to scars, souvenirs of a past. 

Apparitions of life experience are haunting my aging vessel. I’m happy to have them. 

Maybe when I come home to Albuquerque it grounds me in a way where I have the space to recollect. Or just collect. Bits and pieces of my life swirling around in my mind. I have to stop them one at a time, grab them and connect them to the story. Make them linear. 

Seeing my dad as his memories fade and disappear along with his basic ability to function also weighs heavy on me. 

I guess I’m scared of the ghosts leaving. What else do we have?

Today I talk to Anthony Jeselnik again. Just catching up. It’s been years since he’s been on. On Thursday I talk to Steve Furey. A very funny guy I’ve gotten to know recently whose mom is going to be very excited he’s on the show. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Rare Magical Beings.

Ringo, People.

I met Ringo Starr. 

I know maybe you think because I interview so many people and have met so many people that it’s not a big deal. I learned my lesson when I talked to Paul. I wasn’t as excited as I should’ve been because I consider myself a John person. Ridiculous. Meeting a Beatle is like meeting a wizard. They literally changed the world. After seeing that Get Back documentary my entire perception of them changed and it was confirmed that they are rare magical beings. 

The situation was a bit odd. 

I went to an art opening. Lily Kwong has a show here in LA. She does very interesting, beautiful, photogram-type work that involves plants with various photographic processing techniques. She’s married to Nick Kroll. When I was there I saw a few people I knew. Ed Helms was one of them. I don’t think we’d seen each other since he was on the show wheezing from cat allergies in my old garage more than a decade ago. I didn’t stop the episode to help him. Needed to get that hour.  I don’t think he’s been avoiding me because of that. Maybe. 

Anyway, he was about to leave and I asked him where he was going. He said he was going to an event and he didn’t know what to expect. It was a listening party for Ringo’s new record. It reminded me that I had been invited by T-Bone Burnett out of nowhere weeks ago and forgot about it. I don’t generally love a quick change of plans but I thought, ‘Fuck it. I want to be in a room with Ringo Starr.’

So, I went down there. It was at Village Recording Studios in Santa Monica which is famous, I think. 

There were about maybe 50 people there. I was looking for people I knew. It was a true Boomer music industry event. A lot of proud gray hair there. There were what seemed to be OG rock and hippie women there with their long silver hair. It was kind of awesome. The men just looked like old music dudes. The guys from The Milk Carton Kids were there who I had met at Conan years ago. I hung with them. 

Ed Begley and his wife were there. They’re sweet. Joe Walsh was there. I reintroduced myself to him. He’s been on the show. He was polite. I don’t think he had any idea who I was. Stephen Stills was there. He seemed very intimidating to me. His wife was nice. It was cool to meet him. I get nervous and excited but I always want to talk longer. This was not the place. 

Ringo came in and I kind of rushed over to meet him. He was with some other old music dudes. One of whom liked my Richard Lewis tribute. So, we all talked about how much we missed Richard. It was sweet. 

Ringo was so Ringo. It was amazing. He was funny. He looked great. It was actually a real thrill to share the space with these folks. The record is great. Maybe I’ll get to talk to him someday. 

The vacuum situation has settled down. Thanks for all your input. 

Today I talk to the amazing Cynthia Erivo about Wicked and life and music and acting. Thursday I talk to Rosemarie DeWitt about her work and Lynn Shelton. Good week. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron