My People.

Vegas, People!

I was at Wiseguys in the Las Vegas Arts District and it was truly great. The audiences were amazing. It’s sort of a perfect room for standup. Low ceilings, wide. The sound of the audience reaction coming back at you is perfect. It’s really the only place I play in Vegas. I’m definitely not a strip guy. I just can see myself and my type of material really being a draw for the average casino-goer. Even if they know me. I imagine if they saw a poster or ad for my show at someplace like Caesars they would say, ‘I know that guy. He’s good. I just don’t think I’m up for it. We’re having too good a time. He’s a bit heavy.’

I’m okay with it. When I do Wiseguys, it’s locals and people that travel in from other places. My people, mostly. Much better. 

My dad’s wife brought him out for the show. I think he may be a little too far gone for the big traveling, the walking. It was the first time he seemed very fragile to me. The walk across the street from their hotel almost did him in physically and mentally. He shuffles a bit. He’s paralyzed with a fear of falling down. He had a hard time during lunch with some stomach issues. I guess it was the first time I spent time with him in a few months and he seemed like he was getting worse. He seemed to be fading a bit. 

He still knows me. He knows mostly what’s happening and where he is, I think. He’s a bit confused. I know I am seeing the best he’s got. A lot of energy goes into him trying to make me believe he’s still got it together. I’m always grateful that his wife Rosie is taking care of him. It’s definitely taking a lot out of her. I know we’ll have to get some help soon. She needs a break. He was a lot to deal with before he got old. 

My mother’s sister Barbara passed away last week. I was pretty close to her all of my life. She was my cool aunt. She was a great mother, grandmother and my mom’s best friend. It’s going to be difficult for my mom. She will be missed. 

It’s amazing to me that I am dealing with this stuff for the first time and I am turning sixty this week. When your parents have you at a young age, you’re kind of old when they are getting really old. They seem less like your parents and more like people that aren’t that much older than you. 

This all seems heavy, I know. It is. My birthday this week is the first one I’ve really registered for a while and somehow it signifies change. A transition. The beginning of the home stretch. I hope. I’m not saying that to be dark or weird. It just is. I start factoring it into how I think about the future for the first time. If what I am doing requires consideration about the future in terms of it being doable I have to factor that in. Will I be here long enough to enjoy this and is it worth it? 

I mean, I don’t even know if I’m going to outlive two of my cats. 

Yom Kippur today. That may be having an effect on my brain and heart. I’m not fasting or going to temple but the weight of it is wired into me. I am reflecting on my year, my life.  I am trying to look at myself with the perspective of a guy who has been here 60 years. Where could I have been better? Who did I harm? How can I be more of service? Acknowledging loss. Getting humble. 

I hope you all are holding up. Sorry about the weight of this missive. 

On a lighter and much less thoughtful note I talk to Chevy Chase today. I treated him like a guy I loved as a kid and tried to keep him engaged and not piss him off. I think I did it. On Thursday I talk to LeVar Burton about LeVar Burton stuff. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Trade Secrets.

The Midwest, People!

Flying back from St. Louis as I write this. I did five great shows. Great crowds. Club work is the real work of standup. It’s really the best place to see a comic. I’m working the new material. Getting it tight in the late night trenches. 

I don’t know why I freak out so hard before I travel. Especially to the Midwest. It’s just weird. My anxiety levels are not getting any better pre-travel. It usually stops almost immediately once I get in the air. Not when I go to the Midwest though. 

The Midwest is different in my mind. I get paranoid. I’m starting to realize that I really have to tether my imagination to practical reality. It just goes full catastrophic micro and macro almost all the time. 

I didn’t realize until last week that I was working Rosh Hashanah weekend. So my brain creates a scenario where an antisemitic nut job comes in from the sticks of Missouri to take out a Jew while he’s on stage. Happy New Year. It’s a strange kind of inverted self-importance. Obviously, it didn’t happen. I can’t say I wasn’t relieved to see the club’s security with metal scanners at the door. I really have to reel my brain in. 

I’ve been to St. Louis before but I forget. It’s a great city. Good people. I had a good time. 

There were several vegetarian restaurants. All the ones that I ate at were great. My favorite record store is there, Euclid Records. Picked up about 30 albums. I did some live radio. I chose to do it. A morning drive-time show one day and an afternoon drive time show the next. Yes, I wanted to sell a few more tickets but I also wanted to get back into live radio head. It’s exciting. 

I know the woman who owns Clementine’s Creamery, Tamara Keefe. It is probably the best ice cream anywhere. Sometimes I miss real ice cream because vegan ice cream is really hit or miss. Something I make do with when I have the craving. Somehow Clementine’s has nailed the non-dairy ice cream. It’s all about the texture. I asked how they got that smooth, dairy-like feel and of course she said it was magic. Trade secrets. 

Tamara took me on a tour of their new manufacturing facility. It was pretty amazing. Freezers the size of my house. The high point was she had the ice cream designer let me try a bunch of their new vegan flavors. I’m not sure that’s what she’s called but you get it. I have to say, it was pretty exciting just trying a bunch of weird, good vegan ice cream. One had sweet potatoes in it. Another one was a coconut macaroon flavor. I even got to taste fresh ice cream right out of the mixing machine before its deep frozen and packed into pints and it was fucking great. I considered the whole experience a full meal. 

As I said before, comedy clubs are where the real work gets done. I do The Comedy Store all the time. I don’t do too many clubs on the road because in most of the markets,I do bigger venues. I forget that clubs are kind of rough sometimes. Some clubs go out of the way to make the comedy experience amazing but that’s rare, I think. When it comes down to it, club comedy is about selling drinks. Some club owners care about the comic's experience but historically the club owner/comic dynamic can be dicy. When you are starting out you are really at the mercy of the owner because you want to get on stage. You want work. So, you take what comes with the gig. Good or bad. Suck it up.

I had a new kind of awful onstage experience at Helium over the weekend. I really thought I had all the bad experiences that were possible at a comedy club but nope. Surprise. I imagine those of you who listen to my show may have heard comics mention the check spot or the check drop. It’s when the servers give the audience their checks to pay out. It usually happens about two thirds of the way into your set. Not a great time. The audience gets distracted with math and money but we have all learned to take the hit and lose the attention of much of the audience for a bit. It's part of the job. It’s a rare club that doesn’t have a check drop. 

Helium has taken it to a whole new level. Apparently, they have a franchise wide POS system. The card machines to take the payments are linked to a network. Fine. The problem is, each machine beeps with every transaction. That’s right, an audible check drop. Just random beeps coming from all over the audiences for 15 minutes during your set. I can’t think of a bigger indicator of giving zero fucks about actual standup than that. An ongoing distracting reminder of what you are really there to do. Sell drinks. 

Apparently it’s been going on for a couple of years at the club. I couldn’t believe it. I guess now I know there’s a new shitty on-stage experience for the list. Noted. 

Today I have a moving and funny talk with Gary Gulman about his new book and his struggle with mental health stuff. Thursday I talk to comedian Aparna Nancherla about her new book and her life in comedy. Great talks. 

Enjoy!

Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!

Love,
Maron

Context and Connection.

Here we go, Folks!
 
Naomi Klein is on the show today. I can’t even tell you how long I’ve wanted to talk to her. Since way back when I had a show on Air America. She is one of the great public intellectuals and activists. She’s written several groundbreaking books like No Logo and The Shock Doctrine and now she has a new one out tomorrow, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World. Amazing. 
 
I’ve always been impressed with her mind and her ability to execute big ideas through her acute, educated, progressive perception. She makes sense of the world we live in through a leftist intellectual lens. She has blown my mind with her ideas and revelations and she has done it again with this book. Which I read cover to cover and underlined, a lot. 
 
If you understand politics and how they go hand in hand with the corporate takeover of every available space including our minds and how late stage capitalism will not stop feeding itself until we and the planet are totally depleted, you will enjoy her work. 
 
I talk about a lot of the stuff that we covered but I am no intellectual. I am not a great progressive. I’m lazy and a bit selfish and a bit detached from real activism. Heading into the conversation I was struggling with my own shame and inaction. I think, sadly, this is a familiar mental space for many heavy hearted, terrified liberals. We may even like it. 
 
I think the great service a public intellectual provides is context and connection. So many of the threats that are pressing down on us may seem disparate and fragmented but what Naomi does is find the connections. Connections between capitalism and climate change and the underside of capitalism and fascism. Also how the age of the branded self fits into fascist ideas. 
 
I was excited talking to her. 
 
On a lighter note, my fridge is still broken. The guy put the door back on the freezer and the ice machine was actually working for a few days but then it stopped and started making the noise that caused me to call the repair place initially. Full circle. Did it even really happen? Three months of intense visits and texting. I imagine a new fridge is going to happen soon. 
 
See, even that little story makes me feel like a fraud. Like an ice maker is important with fascism on the horizon and the warming earth. 
 
Ice would be nice though. A nice cold drink on a hot 128-degree day is good. See, rationalization is a powerful tool that helps us get through life but also easily exploited by consumer capitalism. 
 
Ice cold drinks are pretty great though. 
 
As I said, I talk to Naomi Klein today and on Thursday I talk to Hannah Einbinder. She’s a comic and one of the stars of the show Hacks. (She’s also Laraine Newman’s daughter).
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

An Apron and a Knife.

Cooking, Folks!
 
I like to cook. I cook a lot. Too much, really. It calms me. It’s like meditation you can eat. 
 
I like the action of a kitchen. Any kitchen. When you have orders to get out it feels like a life or death situation. I never worked in high end places. I did short order work at a bagel joint in high school. I did deli work in one of the last Jewish delis in Boston and counter work in a groovy old hippy-owned place. I did a week of line work at a bar/restaurant called Matt Garrets in Coolidge Corner. I was not cut out for the line. I am not a real cook. I saw myself as one. All it takes is an apron and a knife. I was a disaster on the line. In embarrassing myself I did learn the need for having cooking chops and collaboration when cooking chops. 
 
When I was younger, after high school, I considered culinary school but it all looked very serious. Looking back at it now, maybe it would’ve been a good decision. I could be retiring from a hotel executive chef gig around now like my old roommate. I don’t know if I ever would’ve had the goods to stand out as a chef so I never pursued being a pro. Not unlike guitar, I like being good enough at it to enjoy it and get fun results through self-expression. Results I can hear and eat. 
 
The reason I knew it was possible to just learn to cook on your own was two sided. Some good, some not so good. I’ve told bits and pieces of the story before. Maybe even the whole story. I had a professor in college I was very taken with. He was an impressive guy. Philosophy. I looked up to him. He saw this as an opportunity to become a bit obsessed with me and a bit predatory. He saw my nebulous sense of self and identity as a way to pester me and cause me great anxiety and confusion. He desperately wanted me to be gay, at least for a little while. 
 
Despite this, I spent a lot of time with him and went to many dinner parties at his house. Sometimes with girlfriends. Human shields. Framing this as a traumatic period at this point in my life is a bit helpful but the trauma was eclipsed by this guy’s cooking. He was a self-taught gourmet chef of sorts and could cook for many people. He was great at it. I thought it was so impressive and it made me believe I could do it. He did not make me believe I was gay. You win some, you lose some. So, over the years I learned how to cook. I wouldn’t say I’m great at it but I can do it for myself and others. It’s a gift. 
 
I haven’t talked to a chef in a while. It was fun talking to Michael Symon today about his life and restaurants and food. My old friend Todd Barry is also on today’s show talking about his new YouTube special. On Thursday I talk to Bernie Taupin who wrote some of the greatest songs of all time. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

The Ukrainian Conflict

I’m going out there, People!
 
Dates in Los Angeles, Bellingham, WA, Vegas, St. Louis, Portland, OR and soon Denver, Albq, NM and more up at wtfpod.com/tour.
 
I think I’m looking forward to getting out there into the country and doing some long sets. Things seem simultaneously more and less menacing out in the world. I am generally pleasantly surprised when I get out there and see the people and hang out in the strange cities. We’ll see. It’s what I do. 
 
I want to thank everyone who came out to the screening of Dog Day Afternoon I hosted for American Cinematheque at the Aero theater in Santa Monica. What a great night it was. Obviously, it wasn’t about me, it was about the movie. I did feel responsible and proud for presenting it. I don’t believe I’d ever seen it on film and it was a beautiful print. I’ve watched that movie four times now in the last few months and I could watch it again tomorrow. It is of its time and also timeless. That’s what you’re looking for in art. Perpetually relevant because of its humanity. Visceral. There isn’t a false note in it. Without a doubt Pacino’s best performance. And that’s saying something. 
 
A woman who was an apprentice editor of the film had reached out to me about almost accidentally destroying the one print of it on her way to a screening for executives and Pacino. It was run over by a bus while she was hailing a cab. Great story. I had her tell it before the movie. 
 
I’d like to talk about the Ukrainian conflict. Not the one with Russia but the one that took place in my kitchen a few days ago. I don’t want to bore you with bougie luxury problems but I have been obsessed with getting the ice maker on my old refrigerator fixed. It came with the house. High end. I don’t even really need the ice maker but I get obsessed with small things being right because I have so little control over so much. It gives me focus and the hope of justice and order. 
 
It’s a long story that I tell on today’s show but it’s been going on for months. I’ve been going back and forth with a repair guy who is Ukrainian. All the repair guys for the company I use for this appliance are Ukrainian. This guy told me not to get a new fridge because they have too many computers in them. He became obsessed with fixing mine because it seemingly couldn’t be fixed. He said it was because the water pressure was too high and it kept blowing everything up. I told him I adjusted the valve. I was wrong. It wasn’t the right valve. It was all my fault. Months of us trying to get it fixed. 
 
He finally came with his son in a last-ditch effort to fix it. There was water spraying all over the place. He was yelling at his son in Ukrainian. I was uncomfortable. Then a hinge broke sending ball bearings all over the place and he was yelling at the fridge, ‘Eighteen years I’ve been fixing these. I hate this fridge. I hate it!’ 
 
His son came up to me and said, ‘It’s fucking Murphy’s Law. Always.’
 
He told me to just get a new fridge or he could order a hinge and keep trying. I didn’t want to see him defeated. I’m invested. We wait for the hinge. 
 
So, now my freezer is propped shut with one of the shelves leaned up against it on the outside on a towel. I had a plumber put a valve in the correct place. The saga continues. My fridge is his Goliath. I’m rooting for him and I feel stupid. I think that’s a common feeling for a lot of people in relation to a lot of things. I have faith. I just hope he doesn’t string it out because I’m an idiot. We’ll see. 
 
Today I talk to the amazing Maria Bamford for the sixth time on the show. Always exciting. I talk to Jeff Sharlet on Thursday about his book Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. Not uplifting but sobering. It’s good to know what’s up. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

The Well-Informed Clown.

Hurricane in Cali, Folks.
 
I’m not numb to the news. My brain just seems to know how to prioritize it based on the clickbait headline or the legitimate one. 
 
Reporting on extreme weather is its own genre. The buildup to what was supposed to be a major, rare tropical storm that was going to hit Southern California was pretty dramatic. I take most weather hysteria with a grain of salt. Even in these end times of apocalyptic heat and storm the old wisdom that forecasting is still speculation usually holds. Even with all the tracking technology, you never really know how it’s going to go. I thought I was far enough inland not to have to deal with the intensity of wind and rain the coast was going to get. Turns out, by the time it got to LA it had shifted its path and intensity to being just a medium barrage of rain. 
 
I kind of knew it would. 
 
I did think, as I do all the time, about the panic things? Why haven't I gotten a generator? How does a generator power a house? Why haven’t I replaced or cleaned my rain gutters? What if it blows my roof off? What if I have to tarp my roof? Is my ladder even big enough? What if I fall off the roof? What if it brings one of the old trees down on my house? What if the power goes out for days? What about food? What if society breaks down and looters run amok in the streets? What about water?
 
Well, I have water. For some reason, Liquid Death has sent me about 50 cases of water over the last half year. I think we did one ad with them. It keeps coming though. So, no matter what happens I’ll be good with water. Sparking and flat. 
 
Unless that’s what they come looking for. The hordes. 
 
The storm was fine. Easy. Manageable. The power did go out for a few hours for reasons I can’t even understand. It almost felt like so much press went into setting us up for a disaster that the power company felt like it was the least they could do to make us feel like we weren’t duped into overreacting. Like, ‘Let’s just turn it off for a bit so they won’t be numb to the reality that horrendous weather is upon us. Let’s give them a taste.’
 
I’m already a little numb. Maybe not numb, but neutered. I feel powerless over the weather, disease, coming fascism, my past, politics. I think I’m pretty well informed. I know what’s up. I can’t rationalize it anymore. I’m terrified but I can’t live in that. All I can do is entertain the reality. That’s actually what I do for a living. On the metaphorical level that’s what we do in our brains. We know the reality but we don’t really take any action because it feels futile so we entertain it as our mental disposition. 
 
One character we play for ourselves is the well-informed clown that believes we do all we can by living the life we live. The other clown is the uninformed one that does everything to ignore what is going on in the name of living the life they think they should live. Another clown is just screaming and crying and hopeless all the time. That’s usually the funniest one. There are subsets to these hellish circus people but that’s another paper, maybe a book. 
 
Anyway, keep your clown healthy and focused and maybe try a different nose occasionally. 
 
Today I talk to Amanda Seales, who I think might be my twin somehow, about her special and her new doc In Amanda we Trust and life, a lot of life. On Thursday I talk to Andrew Leland about going blind and his book, The Country of the Blind: A Memoir at the End of Sight. Great talks!
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Progress? Who Knows?

Hello, Brothers and Sisters.
 
That’s so weird-looking written down. I imagine there are churches that start their emails like that. 
 
I just got back from Salt Lake City. I love it. 
 
I know I always say that when I get back. I can’t really put my finger on why I love it. You wouldn’t think that would be one of the places where I have a lot of fans but I sold out four shows. I always do there. That’s about 1200 tickets. It’s always been one of the handful of cities where I work out my new stuff. 
 
The assumption with some of these cities is that I really couldn’t do a theatre there or they only have a huge theatre or I can swing back through in six months with the set worked out. 
 
Salt Lake is a once a year thing for me generally and it’s always productive. I acknowledge the weirdness. Always. I know that the place is a kind of electric sterile but it’s not bleak. I know that it's basically a functioning theocracy. I know Mormonism is an odd, truly American religion. When we landed at the airport the missionaries were returning. There were hundreds of people with signs welcoming them back. The women seem to be in updated pioneer wear. Which I found out to be true. The ladies are allowed to wear schmattas with flowers now. Progress? Who knows?
 
The fact is, the people in Salt Lake are always nice, seemingly decent, caring people. Actively. I think the fact that drinking does not seem to be a huge part of the culture. I mean, I don’t know how many Mormons come to my shows but I’m sure there are many. The audiences are just great. They listen. I trust them. 
 
So did Howard Hughes and the mob. For very different reasons than the ones I have. 
 
I think that’s it though. The trust. I’m working on material that’s kind of deep and a bit risky for me emotionally. So, SLC was the perfect place to do it. Again, I trusted them. I knew they would stay with it, not be judgmental and I could see if I could get through to the laugh and let it sit. 
 
I appreciate the SLC audiences for that. Look, I know that as a state and a city it’s not perfect. It may even be dangerously weird and with the same problems all cities have. They’ve always been good for me. I’m glad it was the first club stop with this new set. 
 
Today I talk to the amazing Jessica Chastain. Just being in her presence was a bit intense for me. On Thursday I talk to comedian Nimesh Patel. Great week. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

The Only Place for Me.

Manhattan, Friends.
 
I just had the best trip to NYC I’ve had in years. I’m trying to figure out why. Let’s break it down. 
 
There was absolutely no reason for me to go other than I wanted to go. That was probably the biggest difference from most of my trips. I just needed to be in a city, THE city, the best city, really. I already knew that my spirit is fueled by Manhattan and I need to fill up a few times a year. That happened, but there was still something different about this trip. 
 
I realized that I do love my house in LA. I don’t even mind LA right now because there’s water and the weather hasn’t really been as apocalyptic as elsewhere. I can spend all day at my house just doing shit. There’s always shit to do. I distract myself by doing little shit. It’s not a complete waste of time because most of it needs to be done. A lot of it I do to counter the anxious business of my brain. The problem is, I am still alone doing it most of the time. I don’t feel part of something. Some massive, organic, multi-faceted beast that I can become part of and lose myself in. That beast is NYC.
 
I found that it has a Ritalin effect on me. My brain interfaces and is dwarfed and appropriated by the city. I level off. I relax by being part of it, engaged. 
 
I realized this trip that if what I am working toward is spending part of my life, what’s left of it, enjoying it by being thoroughly engaged in living it, body and spirit, NYC is the only place for me. 
 
Aside from being one with the city in a general way, there are also people all over I can engage with. Friends, strangers, performers, artists, weirdos, tradesmen, and on and on into some Whitmanesque list. 
 
I just came here wide open and I spent many hours talking with friends, seeing art, doing comedy, eating. All without making plans ahead of time. It’s a short trip everywhere and the journey is engaging. I can be spontaneous about engaging with the most interesting people I know and seeing the best of what art and life is about. 
 
I don’t want to live in the fucking country. I don’t need to be in the woods. New York City is a big part of me. Always has been. I should just figure out how to be here more, as much as possible, as I get older. Enjoy my life. 
 
Today I have an amazing conversation with Alex Winter about his new doc The YouTube Effect,  along with his other docs and his life. Thursday I talk to Adam Conover about his career and about his work on the negotiating team for the WGA. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Big Nothing.

Chores, People.
 
I’ve been self-employed most of my life. It’s a blessing, I guess. There were years where I made no money and self-employment felt a lot like doing nothing but with a very active brain. Actively telling me I’m doing nothing but sometimes writing something down trying to make sense of the world and myself. Myself outside of doing nothing is very active mentally. 
 
Lately, perhaps because I own a house, doing nothing is actually very busy. I guess I need to redefine nothing. That’s a life’s journey. Food shopping, cooking, laundry, refilling bird feeders, fixing a gate, playing records, playing guitar, watching old movies, watching old comedy, reading news, reading not news, sex, sleep, watching reels, making and drinking coffee, etc. These aren’t nothing. These are a full-time job. All of these take up space in my brain while some other part of my brain is crunching the soul numbers and working existential equations. That sentence would be an example of that work. 
 
Listening to Blue Mitchell right now while wondering if my cat’s kidneys are failing while dreading tomorrow. Spinning the plates. A lot going on in this big nothing. It’s the work. 
 
I think there’s a rat in my basement. I think that’s why the cats are acting weird. I set one trap down there and I don’t check it enough. There was one decaying down there a couple weeks ago. I think they sense when there’s one around. Or maybe I’m just too focused on them. When you get too focused on the cats with some kind of concern I think they get nervous because you are and it’s a vicious cycle that only ends when you take them to the vet to hopefully be told nothing is wrong. Which is most of the time. I think that’s a good amount of a vet’s business. People freaking out about their animals which eventually freaks the animals out and the vet stops the insanity for part of their living. 
 
I saw the Barbie movie and I have big feels about it on many levels. I talk about it on today’s show but it may not be as clear as this text exchange I had with a woman I know:
 
Her: Barbie was so boring and unfunny. I don’t get it.
Me: I thought it was a masterpiece.
Me: I definitely got the feels and some laughs.
Me: Progressive Cultural Trojan Horse.
Her: Maybe I should watch it again. I think TikTok really had me expecting something different
Me: It’s brilliant.
Me: I mean, if you didn’t get it, you didn’t get it.
Me: I don’t think seeing it again will make a difference.
Her: I think it’s that it was feminism 101 and I was expecting feminism 500. But the visuals were amazing and Ryan Reynolds and Kate McKinnon gave great performances. I just wanted it to do too much.
Me: Who cares what feminism it was. It’s there and it’s thorough. Millions of young girls are going to see it. It has a lot of heart. Totally entertaining. It’s a full on entertainment product seeped in progressive politics. That’s a big lift. It’s fucking genius. I thought some of the gags and jokes were solid. Totally unique vision. Tremendous accomplishment.
Me: The way it handled men was truly inspired comedy.
Me: I was lit up the whole time. Proud of it for some reason.
 
Reading it now I see I may have mansplained Barbie a bit but I was excited. Also, Ryan Reynolds isn’t in the movie. I knew what she meant though. Gosling. 
 
I’ve been watching a lot of old Don Rickles and listening to a lot of old punk rock. It’s not nostalgia, it’s nourishment. I guess I’m creatively craving some fuck you energy. I guess I’m worried I’ve lost some of my fuck you-ness. I’ll get it back. 
 
Today I have a truly lovely chat with Melissa Villaseñor who I was concerned may not talk much. She did. On Thursday I talk to Gary Mule Deer who was at The Comedy Store when it opened and had a very interesting, long career in the showbiz racket. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Funny People Presence.

Got out there, People!
 
I hit the picket line on Friday. I’m not sure I would’ve done it if It was entirely up to me. I tend to feel like I do my part when I talk about things on the podcast. I certainly have spoken in support of the strikes by both the unions I am a member of, SAG/AFTRA and WGA. I have explained what they are about in terms of grievances and possible resolutions. 
 
It takes much for me to get out there. Tim Heidecker texted me that he and Chelsea Peretti were going and we should get a funny people presence on the line. I reached out to some comics. We met down at the main Netflix offices, were given t-shirts and a sign and got into the line. It felt correct and righteous to be out there with the rest of my community, striking for correct compensation and representation. I clocked Tim, Eric, Chelsea, Reggie Watts, Jon Daly, Hannah Einbinder, Nick Thune, Jeff Baena and Joe Mande. There were plenty of people I knew but didn’t really know. It was a powerful turnout.
 
I don’t know why I checked but I got in over 11,000 steps. Wait, I do know. I went to the picket line instead of exercising at my regular time. I knocked out both at once. 
 
It’s always a little about me which is an understatement but flexible. 
 
I’ve been watching a lot of Mike Leigh movies. Some part of my brain is preparing. I’m hoping to have an opportunity to direct a film and I want to know and feel what I really like in terms of specific elements of direction. I’ve been watching his early films that he did with the BBC and I find them totally engaging in terms of the empathy his lens has for beautifully flawed characters. He affords the actors, and hence the characters, a profound amount of space to unfold and exist in what seems an authentic world. 
 
The fact that it takes a certain amount of courage in art to sit with the familiar flaws of people without resolution or polish or judgement is a sad state of culture. It implies tolerance with its gaze. Because of divisiveness and entitlement and viral ideologies that compromise the humanity of individuals, it's heart-swelling and essential to watch something that should be the way we all see the world and others. It's inspiring and deep. 
 
Today my old friend Jim Gaffigan talks to me for the seventh time on the show. I love talking to Jim. We catch up about his life and new special. On Thursday George Schlatter returns with some old show biz stories we didn’t get to the first time he was on. We fill in some gaps in my curiosity about Ciro’s nightclub which is now The Comedy Store. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Solidarity.

Union Strong, Folks!
 
I am a proud dues paying member of both the WGA and SAG/AFTRA. In good years I get my insurance coverage from SAG. In really good years I get it from WGA. In bad years I scramble like everyone else. I never take my membership for granted. 
 
We are all striking. Both Unions. Solidarity. 
 
Despite what anyone thinks about Hollywood or show biz and what any of us do out here, we work for a living in a highly competitive business with very specific corporate overlords in most cases. Not everyone makes a lot of money in this racket. Struggle is the norm. In most cases there’s hardly any job security. Unions are important.
 
Obviously, the issues now are with AI and streaming services. There were concessions made years ago about back-end and residual payments. Some of those issues remain but now we're also dealing with issues of literally owning artists' identities for future use as AI representations and having machines generate actual scripts. Creepy. 
 
I really don’t work much as a writer. It was never my bread and butter. I have written on my own show and sold shows that were never made. My main union is SAG/AFTRA. 
 
The specific issues that SAG/AFTRA is negotiating around are:
 
 - Compensation, which has been eroded with the rise of streaming.
 
 - Rules that need to be updated to account for current structures for both upfront pay and residual payments.
 
 - Artificial Intelligence rules, specifically the need to protect the identities and the work of union members going forward.
 
SAG/AFTRA was not offered a fair agreement that addresses these terms. In terms of what we can do on the podcast, it’s pretty specific. 
 
While the union is on strike, we will not be booking anyone to promote anything that's the product of the major studios, broadcast television networks, streamers and other members of the AMPTP trade association.
 
The Union guidelines do say that any pre-banked press appearance that was agreed upon AND completed before the strike date of Thursday, July 13th, is permitted to air or be published. 
 
We have a few interviews that are banked from before the strike and we will still air those interviews to discuss the guest's life and work.
 
Today's interview with Cillian Murphy was recorded on Tuesday, June 27th. On Thursday I talk to an old comedian friend Michael Rowe about his career in comedy writing and he tells me some good stories.
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Jogging Memories.

Going back again, People
 
I visited my dad this past weekend. He is hanging in. He seems even more present and engaged than the last time I was there. I’m not hanging on to hope necessarily but it is very nice that he is not worse. I got him and his wife laughing quite a bit. The jokes are still landing with him and that’s a good sign. They are usually about him. So, his wife laughs even more than him. I think she needs it more. 
 
Kit went with me which was very supportive and good. It’s not really easy for me and it can't be easy for her. To be honest I’m not sure I’ve taken in the full emotional weight of it all. Maybe I have. I don’t know. I have a level of acceptance about his condition and I don’t project into an almost guaranteed horrible future much. 
 
I feel it’s my responsibility to spend as much time as I can handle with him but I’m also enjoying it. It makes me appreciate him more and think about him and the life we’ve had more intently. 
 
When someone is losing it mentally I would imagine it’s common for most of the conversations to either be a direct or an indirect attempt to jog or refresh memories. It helps both of us. 
 
I’ve been trying to trigger memories a lot lately. Especially when I visit my hometown, Albuquerque. I almost always go by the two houses that I grew up in. I just look at them and let the memories come. This time I went by my elementary school as well. I went to the streets I walked and drove on as a child. I drove the old highway behind the mountain to appreciate what is truly beautiful about New Mexico outside of me and my memories. The timeless vibe of the mesas and piñon trees and mountains and the expanse of clouds that was the ever-present backdrop of my childhood and remains within me now, easily activated. 
 
I’ve been thinking about the past not nostalgically but almost in an attempt to track my journey to who I am now. When I go home, there’s always new fragments that find their place in the timeline. Younger bits and pieces, moments, feelings, fleeting images of my life that I can now understand with the benefit of hindsight and some acceptance. It’s like filling in the gaps and filling up my sense of self. 
 
Albuquerque is a strange, somewhat beaten city. Not unlike most cities there’s an element of tragic, rugged, desperate humanity. This also shifts my perception of the place and expands the lense on how time passing and cultural problems persisting coincides with my own aging. 
 
It was great to talk to Lukas Nelson today about his relationship with his father Willie and how loving and supportive it is and was. Recording that talk before I saw my dad humbled me a bit. I didn’t really have that feeling growing up but it seems to be happening now. 
 
I talk to comedian Sarah Tiana on Thursday. I see her almost every week but we’ve never really hung out. Not unlike most of us comics her journey to do the comedy she wants to do is unique. It was nice talking to her and Lukas. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Mind Your Digits.

Happy 4th, Folks!
 
It's not just America's birthday this week. It's also the birthday of The Full Maron. If you didn't already know, The Full Maron is our WTF+ subscription tier that gives you ad-free access to every episode of WTF and weekly bonus episodes.
 
Now that we've been doing it for a year, there's 52 weeks of bonus episodes waiting for you in the archive. We released a collection of Full Maron bonus material on the free podcast feed last week so you can hear what we've been doing: Extra stuff from WTF interviews, Ask Marc Anything episodes, movie talk, special miniseries, standup, The Friday Show, and lots more. Plus, you get every WTF episode from the beginning, all completely ad-free.
 
If you want to sign up for The Full Maron, you can do it right now by clicking here.
 
I know it’s a tough one this year given that the nature of America has gone a bit sour. Democracy is crumbling and fascism beckons but you can still enjoy some food, friends and fire-based entertainment, right? Maybe celebrate the America you want to have. Envision it. Maybe make some of that fire-based activity some kind of magic burning ritual to rid the country of demons and monsters. We need to do everything we can. 
 
I’ll just give my yearly advice. Mind your digits. It was risky when we were younger to light that brick of Black Cats while you were holding it before you threw it in the air and scrambled for cover as lit firecrackers flew haphazardly everywhere. You’re older and slower now so light those babies on the ground. 
 
Don’t light anything anywhere that can ignite the entire state you are in. 
 
Don’t burn your meat. Watch that grill. 
 
Don’t get so wasted you die somehow or permanently destroy your relationships with friends of loved ones. 
 
Don’t fire any guns at humans. 
 
Do something nice for someone you don’t like. 
 
Today is conspiracy theory day on the show. I talk to Robert Guffey about the long history of different conspiracy theories and how many of them have been assimilated into the new fascist origin story of Qanon. I was kind of an amateur conspiracy buff when I was out of my mind back in the day. I believed a few. It took a while to get my brain back. Robert’s new book is called Operation Minndfuck: Qanon and the Cult of Donald Trump.
 
On Thursday I talk to actor and now director Joanna Gleason about her dad, Monty Hall, her acting and her new movie. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

The Art and Me.

Inspiration, People.
 
I don’t know why I keep pushing myself to create. I don’t think of it as a responsibility or anything especially disciplined other than showing up and doing what I’ve always done. It’s a habit. It’s what I do. I love it, usually. 
 
I think what is happening now is something that has always happened. I did the special, now I’m just treading water, staying in shape, playing with ideas. I’ve got a good 45 new minutes that work well. I’m enjoying it. But at some point, something deeper has to happen for me. I have to access some throughlines or emotional ideas that have some resonance and emotional risk for me. I need to get out there on ice, the tightrope, whatever you want to call it. 
 
I seem to go through a spiral of insecurity during these unique times. Generally what brings it on is watching the work of people I respect. Not comics. I’ve been watching movies, films. Some I’ve seen, some I haven’t. I can’t keep up with the present but I certainly can’t keep up with the past. 
 
The point is, I generally don’t see myself as an artist. The odd thing about standup is that it's a base endeavor. In its purest form it’s just someone telling jokes and getting laughs. That is literally all that’s required. Even when I put a special out in the world, people generally watch the special once and then years later for whatever reason may watch it again to see if it still makes them laugh. 
 
That’s the half of it. I know what I do is a bit different and I generally feel like I’ve pulled something out of myself and molded it into something that does the job and honors the expectations of it but transcends it as well. I’m aware of that. 
 
At times like these, I just hit a wall and doubt the whole endeavor. So I watched a couple of Wim Wenders movies and a Todd Haynes movie. All movies that I have seen when I was younger. I realized watching them that it wasn’t nostalgia. It was me upgrading my brain. Because they were real art. I needed to re-engage with them so we would both see where we were at. The Art and me. I’ve changed, it’s changed. We grow together. I see myself differently each time I engage with it. 
 
That’s what art can do. 
 
Then, I beat the shit out of myself for a bit. 
 
It ultimately made me accept, in the moment, that standup is the craft I have chosen or that chose me. I’m not a filmmaker or a painter or even a writer. I’m a comic. This all made me push myself into a place of beginning to take the risks on stage I needed to in order to start doing the work that is important to me to do. That is all I know. I don’t know if it’s art, but it’s what I do. 
 
Today I check back in with comedian Kyle Kinane after a lot of years. It was great seeing him and catching up. On Thursday I talk to a great character actor, Clifton Collins Jr. Good week. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Not All in My Head.

Okay, People-
 
I guess I’m okay. How are you?
 
My brain has been a bit overactive lately which isn’t always a great thing. I’ve had a lot of time to think and integrate what is coming at me and try not to read too much into it. 
 
I’ve begun reading a new book by Naomi Klein called Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World. It’s about her personal experience of being melded with someone else (Naomi Wolf) in the public discourse primarily through social media platforms. The book deals with the struggles of self both public and private, in a world with personal brands, AI, social media and the impact that has on politics, culture, progress and autonomy. I just started it but it's working my brain. It won’t be out until September. 
 
I deal with the idea of the ‘double’ all the time. There are always fake accounts on IG claiming to be me popping up and trying to grift my fans. There’s who I am on the podcast, in standup, on film, in life. There’s what other people think of me and what they think I am. There’s my own sense of self and memory. There’s AI which I have, up to this point, avoided. I’m sure it will become unavoidable at some point. There is also the desire to get out and save myself. To turn it all off and stop engaging at all to see what I am left with and try to be at peace. 
 
Is that bailing?
 
I’ve always been on a conscious journey to self-actualize and be in the world with myself and have a place in the world and live with who I am and create from that place. To be grounded. Every day feels like there’s an assault on that foundation. At least in my head. 
 
Life would have been easier if someone had enabled my self-esteem as a child but that ship has sailed. 
 
After reading a bit of the book I realize it may not all be in my head. I never saw myself as a brand or saw what I do as content but that’s how it sits in the hyperreality that we’ve all grown to accept as most of reality. That hyperreality dictates a large portion of who public people are and it can get away from you. I limit my engagement with it. 
 
On today’s podcast I talk to Sir Ben Kingsley. On Thursday I bring back Tom Dreesen to tell me some of the old mob stories he has from his days opening for Sinatra. He was telling them to me in the parking lot of The Comedy Store and I thought they were great. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Wandering the Halls.

Doing the work, Folks.
 
I seem to be back at it. I guess I never really stopped. I just don’t think I fully comprehend the life I live. What I do. How I do it. It always surprises me, though I don’t think my process changes that much. 
 
I seem to do comedy most nights of my life. I just do it. It is what I do. Has been for years. 
 
I had a moment the other night when I was at The Comedy Store and realized I had been wandering the halls of that place since I was 22 years old. There were years in between when I didn’t live out here or wasn’t working there that much but the truth is The Comedy Store wired my brain almost 40 years ago. 
 
I can obviously see that I am aging and I am an old man but some part of me has always lived there and still does. I did three sets there on Friday. One in each of the rooms. I did the show run by the door people. I was the special guest but I was a door guy in 1987. I started in that room. The Belly Room. 
 
It just gets me thinking sometimes. Do I do this because I love it and it is my primary form of creative expression? Do I do it because I feel like it’s my job, my duty? Do I do it because I just don’t know what else to do with myself and it’s a compulsive activity? Do I do it because it’s how I feel alive and engaged?
 
All of the above. 
 
The bigger question is: Do I know how to not do it? I do not know how to not do it. It’s like eating or exercising. I have to do it. 
 
I want to know how to not do it but it's who I am. I wonder sometimes if I have a life outside of the work. I am not sure I do. 
 
I am having a good time working on jokes and stories. I did an hour and a half at Largo the other night, then I did it again at Dynasty Typewriter. It was all pretty much new stuff. Same me, new stuff. I love the exploration and discovery of improvising on stage. 
 
I do need to balance my life out a bit. It’s all work that I love and the rest of the time it’s cooking, organizing, listening to music, playing music, shopping, writing, watching, thinking…hey, wait, I guess I do have balance. I guess I am doing other stuff. It all blends together and is what I am made of. 
 
I talk for a living. I have to feed the engine.
 
Today I talk to Ramy Youssef about his show Ramy and his experience as a first-generation American-Muslim. Loved it. Thursday, I talk to Felicia Michaels, a comic who was at The Comedy Store when I was a door guy and she’s back there now. Some back-in-the-day talk with her. Great. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Interspecies Affection.

Wired, People-
 
Man, I have got to turn my brain off or stop doing everything at full intensity. I lack the ability to compartmentalize properly. Everything just vibrates wildly at the same frequency. Every task is loaded with the same dire need for completion. Whether it's cleaning my car, feeding my cats, getting medical tests, making coffee, trading in records, cooking, taking care of bills, fucking, everything, same intensity. 
 
Each day is fueled by the panic of not getting everything done and there’s really no urgency to any of it and most of it is ongoing. 
 
I guess the point is I seem to like panic and dread. BUT the other side of that is that when everything is so loaded there’s a feeling of immense satisfaction when I get them done. Folding a load of clean laundry feels the same as if I just finished writing a novel. 
 
That’s the sad reality. I load up my docket with the mundane tasks and ongoing chores because I like being busy with that stuff. I don’t like writing. So, every day is filled with my life’s work of maintaining basic life.
 
I spent three days cleaning my office and I feel like I changed the world. I did. Mine. 
 
I really need to do some fun stuff like spend more time with friends, take a vacation, figure out how to just be calm and enjoy my life. What!? Without panic and worry? I don’t even know what that looks like. I can feel it’s possible. I can visualize it. 
 
Most of my patterns are so dug in I’m not even sure that free will exists outside of them. It all feels like chaos out there. It is. Maybe that’s what freedom is. Embracing the chaos. Riding the wave of not knowing or accepting that I actually don’t really know almost anything. Obviously, I have the freedom to do most of what I want. But what exists outside of my chosen reality and what does it take to get out there into that zone? It feels like that zone exists somewhere in between knowing you're about to get in an accident and hitting the other car. 
 
Also, I’m emotionally stunted and broken. I seem to spend a lot of time scrolling through animal vids. The ones that get me are the interspecies affection ones. Like dogs and cats, humans and monkeys, cats and birds, etc. There really seems to be genuine frequency of love out there among the beings without self awareness. I need to get there. Get out from under the paralyzing effects of my self awareness. Enough to open it up and be in that love frequency. I think I read that as chaos. I have to get this shit straight. Time is running out. 
 
Sorry, too much coffee today. A lot going on with my synapses.
 
Today I talk to my Bad Guys costar Anthony Ramos about his life journey from the projects to baseball to the original cast of Hamilton. Thursday, I talk to Jeff Stilson. He’s a great comic who wrote for Letterman for years and has been part of some classic comedy shows. Good week. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron

Wet Over Crispy.

Gray days, People!
 
I’ll take them. The weather in LA has been a bit San Franny lately and I fucking love it. If I hear another person whine about the slight chill in the air and the occasional drizzle I may set them on fire. This weather is so relieving to me. Not just because I prefer it but because it means I’m not worrying about the state burning or the air being filled with apocalyptic cinder particles. 
 
I didn’t move here for the weather. I don’t mind most weather. The fact is, it will be more than 100 degrees for long stretches of weeks ahead and knowing the earth is soaked and the water containers are full make me way less anxious. Bring on the clouds. Climate change is bad but I’ll take the wet over the crispy anytime. 
 
I reunited with an old friend of mine over the weekend. A guy I have known since he was a little kid and I was a slightly older kid. Our families were friends. I hadn’t seen him in more than 20 years. We lost touch. When he was a teenager he started doing comedy after I had been doing it a few years. He couldn’t really cut it so he decided to quit. He was funny. 
 
I ran into him here and there over the years. I helped him out of a crisis back in the day and got him into a better living situation. Then, I just lost him. I would hear things here and there about what he was doing. He got married, had a kid, got divorced, was having a hard time, kind of lost, etc. He reached out a few weeks ago and we got together the other day. He went to The Comedy Store with me. We caught up. It was very emotional. 
 
We get lost sometimes. People. I’ve been lost and found a few times. I’ve lived long enough to lose friends to disease and drugs and accidents. That’s part of it. I’ve also been around long enough to lose people to broken hearts and broken spirits which is in some ways harder. When some light goes out in someone and they can no longer access the essence that made them open to life it's hard to encounter but it too is part of it. 
 
I was nervous having heard things about this guy that his spirit may be broken and he may have hardened somehow. We were emotionally connected at one time, like family. I wondered whether or not that was gone. 
 
Right when I saw this kid (53 years old) at my door I knew he was still in the light somehow. There was still that connection and it was engaged. It's an amazing thing about life and the people in yours. Sometimes, time goes by and people get away from you, for years even. When you reunite and the essence of who you both were is still there it’s a beautiful thing. One of the amazing life moments available if you don’t lose yourself entirely or shift your brain into something alien or alienating. 
 
Today I talk to comic and actor Vir Das about India and controversy. On Thursday I have what I thought was a very fun and funny talk with the perpetually odd William Shatner. Good week. 
 
Enjoy!
 
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
 
Love,
Maron