“A Day in the Life” premieres on Hulu.

How’s it going, people-

Let me say that if you live anywhere near Grand Rapids, Michigan you should come out to the live WTF at Gilda’s Laugh Fest on the 17th and/or my standup show on the 15th. I’m feeling they will both be good. Come down if you can. If you are in 500 mile radius of Bloomington, Indiana and you want to make the trip I will be at The Comedy Attic March 23rd and 24th. Swing by.

I am exhausted. I’m on a plane as I write this heading to SXSW for a day and then on to NYC to tape the John Oliver NYC Standup Show or whatever it is called. Then back to LA on Tuesday. Insane schedule. Trying not to freak out.

I just left Minneapolis. The shows at Acme Comedy Club were amazing. I hadn’t been there in 12 years. I was banned. I always thought was for a weekend that involved drugs, drinking, a condo and an obese woman, but no. It was because the club owner thought I was a dick. I had to find that out by reading a piece in the local paper. All these years I had mythologized that weekend in my mind as the series of events that got me thrown out but it had nothing to so with it. Well, I guess I’m not a dick anymore. At the very least I am a lot less of dick. It was great to be back at the club. It is one of the best in the country. All five shows sold out and the people that came out were just great. I want to thank all of you.

This week is exciting. On Monday, I’ll be posting an episode with Mindy Kaling from the office. Also on Monday, Morgan Spurlock’s "A Day in the Life" is premiering on Hulu. It is a series of short documentary profiles. I am the premiere episode and in that episode there is footage of me interviewing Mindy Kaling. So, get your technology synched up and check them both out. I like what Morgan’s crew did. Documentary crews can be intrusive and annoying but they were great. I thought they did an amazing job. Jessica appears in the piece as just a voice. She wasn’t expecting so many people to show up at the house and she was a bit hungover so she doesn’t come out of the bedroom. It is a highlight of the doc. There are appearances from Boomer and the crazy stray as well. I think it is an honest portal into my life. Enjoy it. I did and I don’t generally like that much me.

On Thursday, the amazingly funny Fred Willard is on the show. I really had no idea about the slice of sketch comedy history he laid on me. It was great to talk to him.

Okay, see you soon.


Love,
Maron

Why can’t I just be happy?

Lets do this, People-


First off, I am at Acme Comedy Club in Minneapolis this week, Thursday through Saturday. It’s a great club and I haven’t been there in years. After that I will be in Austin, Texas at SXSW on Sunday, March 11. I will be doing a live WTF at 4PM at Esther’s Follies. It will be a one on one with Jeffrey Tambor. I have no idea how to get tickets or how SXSW works so you are on your own getting in. On Monday the 12th I will be taping The John Oliver Standup Show in NYC, if you're in the area you can try to get tickets here. The following weekend I will be appearing at Gilda’s Laughfest in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I will doing a standup show on the 15th and a live WTF on the 17th with Drew Hastings, Tommy Johnagin, Kevin Nealon and Alan Zweibel. Should be good.

That said, I have been plagued with weird headaches in the back of my head and my shoulders are tight and achy. Maybe I’m stressed, maybe there is something growing inside my skull. I don’t know. Let’s try to track it down. Do I have any reason to be stressed? I eat a shitload of nicotine lozenges and drinking over a pot of coffee a day. You see my schedule. My book is due on the 15th. I just had my house ripped apart to install heat and AC and I had a wall demolished and rebuilt. Jessica has moved in. I just rented a huge storage space to house both our hoards. I haven’t moved my stuff yet and it’s already almost full. I need to paint and have a shelving unit built. Shit is all over the house and I just broke down the biggest Ikea unit I have ever seen. I barely remember building it for my ex-wife. You think it could be tension or am I storing a tumor? There’s certainly no room in the storage space for it.

It’s amazing that once you make the decision to live with someone how quickly that becomes frightening. She’s been basically living with me for a year but she always had her apartment, a safe house for her and an emotional insurance policy for me. Now, it’s gone and shit just got very real. I’m excited but I’m also a little freaked out. Why can’t I just be happy? I don’t know, let me ask my aching head.

Speaking of happy couples, Megan Mullally and Nick Offerman are on the show today. It was lovely to talk to them and I can only hope to be as happy as they seem to be.

Marc, Megan Mullally & Nick Offerman

On Thursday Jake Johannsen is in the garage. He’s a pro, been around a long time, I have never talked to him. It was a pleasure.

I have to take some aspirin.


Love,
Maron

The Marc & Tom Show.

Howdy, Folks-

First off, thank you Oklahoma City. I had a fun-filled, power-packed 13 hours there. I got lost driving around for an hour, ate insane BBQ, smelled some new bad things and hung out with an artist that I have a great deal of respect for AND had two phenomenal shows, one of which required some hands-on couples counseling skills I really didn’t know that I had. All ended well. I can’t speak to what happened after everyone left the place but in the room we had it all level.

I want to thank everyone that came out to the shows and thanks for all gifts and foooooood! Fried chicken, cupcakes, cookies, the works. Gracias. Good seeing everyone. Nice meeting Wayne Coyne, too. That was definitely a good hang. He witnessed that second show. I talk more about it all on the show today.

I will be at the Vancouver Comedy Festival this weekend. I know the live WTF is sold out but I am not sure what other shows are available. You can go to the website and check it out.

Along with our regular shows this week we bring a special treat. It’s The Marc and Tom Show. A while back I talked with Tom Scharpling from "The Best Show on WFMU" about doing a show together and we did it. It's not WTF. It's not The Best Show. It's its own thing. Hope you enjoy it. This one-time show will be up for premium subscribers on Tuesday, for everyone else on Wednesday.

And you should know, Tom's station, WFMU, is a listener sponsored radio station and they make their budget through an annual fundraiser. Tune in to Tom's show on Tuesday, February 21st and Tuesday, February 28th from 9pm to midnight Eastern. He'll have all kinds of special prizes and giveaways and you can only get them by pledging during Tom's show. Go to wfmu.org for more info and to listen online, and you can follow Tom for updates on Twitter, @scharpling.

This week on the show, Monday we have the amazing tales of the very funny Big Jay Oakerson. He has some of the best stories you’ll hear. On Thursday I talk to Diablo Cody about writing and where she comes from as a writer and a person. Mentally and physically.

Enjoy.


Love,
Maron

How about a hand for the old guys?

Okay, let’s get into it here, people-


I have not been to Oklahoma City for more than a drive-through ever but this Saturday I will be there for a show and if you live in the area you should come down. I will be at the City Arts Center at 7PM. Get your tickets now. I may add another show depending on how sales go but it seems likely.

Well, I am feeling old and disgusting. If I don’t start going to the gym as opposed to just thinking about going I’m going to crawl out of my skin. I don’t feel 48 but I am 48. I imagine if I had kids I would be more aware of myself aging but I don’t. I can’t watch them grow. I can only tell from photos of myself and recently I have been noticing an older man in the pictures. He looks like an older version of me. It is not the same guy I see in the mirror so I either have to question all cameras' ability to capture me honestly or just start looking at myself differently in the mirror. I can also just deny it’s happening but that would be ridiculous. I’m okay with it. Seriously. As long as my organs keep working and my brain stays relatively sharp I think I’ll be okay. I’m dating a younger women so that will either keep me young or kill me. More will be revealed. I didn’t plan on her. It just happened and I’m going with it. Okay?

In all honesty I have never done better work in my life. I finally feel like I have arrived in my skin and have little fear around expressing myself. It’s strange to me. I think this is the natural progression of things. Why wouldn’t I be doing my best work? I’ve spent years getting here. This culture puts so much emphasis on being young, looking young and appealing to young people that you forget older people have years of craft and wisdom to bring to the table. I think as long as older artists aren’t whining about being old and/or desperately trying to be young there’s probably some great work being done. I am not necessarily talking about me but I am talking about my guests this week.

Nick Lowe is arguably at the top of his game and he is 62 years old. He was a pop sweetheart back in the day and has written some great songs but now he is a bonafide Troubadour. I saw him perform with just his guitar, an open heart and nothing to hide as performer and it was spectacular. We talk about his life in music and he dishes a bit about Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash AND he sings a couple of songs. It is a unique episode. Not your regular WTF. On Thursday Bill Maher is on the show. I went to his home and sat down with him for about an hour. He’s not what I would call an elder statesman but he is definitely in his prime at 56 and at the top of his game.

So, how about a hand for the old guys! Enjoy!



Love,
Maron

I’m not a fucking whore.

Yes, People-


It happened. I am no longer afraid to sing in public. Now I just have a few fears that have to be dealt with: Riding a motorcycle, skydiving and death. I can live without confronting the first two and who really has a handle on that last one.

The shows in San Francisco at Sketchfest were great. The live WTF was sold out and it was fun as hell. The standup went well as did the ‘Bring the Rock’ show which is where I watched my fear of singing and playing die thanks to Dave Alvin. The premise of BTR is a comedian tells a story and then the band plays the song either with the comic or not. This is the show I did last year and sang in public for the first time since the fear set in when I was 15.

The story is this: Years ago when I was living in Hollywood and a doorman at the Comedy Store, the Hard Rock Café opened in the Beverly Center. Me and my friend Jim were hungover and had nothing to do during the day so we decided to go in and check the place out. I was fascinated with all the rock paraphernalia. The place was pretty empty. It was a weekday. We were waiting for our food so I went into the bathroom. I approached the urinals and started to pee. I was looking at the gold records on the wall as I went and a man approached the urinal next to me. We were both just pissing looking up at the records. I looked over and realized it was Dave Alvin from the Blasters. Me being me, I needed to have some kind of earnest moment of connectivity with him so I mentally scrambled for something to say. Given the situation I didn’t want make it too weird. So this is what came out of my mouth: “How come you don’t have any gold records up here?” I really didn’t think it was a shitty question but in retrospect maybe it was. He looked at me and said, “Because I’m not a fucking whore.” After that we both just looked at the wall, did what we had to do, flushed and walked out.

I ran into Dave years later at a show and asked if he remembered it. He said he had only been in that place once and it sounded like something he would say. I guess I didn’t make that big an impression. Probably better off.

I sang ‘Help You Dream’ last night. It was great.

On the show this week I tracked down a guy I started out with who has an intense and wild story, Matt Graham. Matt went from comic to professional Scrabble Player to Poker Player to attempting to play college basketball at 40. Intense dude. Good talk. On Thursday, Bill Lawrence. He created Scrubs and Cougar Town and is also an intense guy. Another good talk.

I'm driving a U-Haul from SF to LA now. I bet you envy me.



Love,
Maron

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