I love show business.

Hello, people-

Congrats to all you Oscar winners, wait, what am I doing?

I’m going to keep this brief! First off I will be in Portland, Oregon this Thursday, Feb. 28, and in Seattle at the Neptune Theater this Friday, March 1. I think there are some tickets left for both—maybe. Get on it if you want to come. Please check the schedule at wtfpod.com/calendar for upcoming dates.

I love watching the Oscars. That’s all I’m going to say. I love Anne Hathaway and I am not ashamed of that. I love Jennifer Lawrence and I am okay with that as well. I was upset that Silver Lining Playbook didn’t win big. I thought it was a sweet, raw movie about broken people with a lot of heart. It was good to see Jack Nicholson and I think Seth did a good job. It was really one of the best awards for many years in my opinion. Why am I telling you this? Well, I have to admit, I love show business. There, I said it. I think I’ve said it before but I just need to be clear with myself and you. For whatever it’s worth, show business is the business I chose and I’ve been in it, kinda, more than half my life. I never imagined how it would pan out or whether or not it would at all but I’ve always loved it. So, it’s always fun to watch the spectacle of celebrity strutting like the American royalty that they are. It’s also interesting to check in yearly with how everyone is aging and/or trying to fight that process.

Speaking of beautiful, broken people I have Mike White on the show today. Mike’s show, Enlightened, on HBO is really one of the rawest, most compelling shows on the air. I really encourage you to check it out if you haven’t. It’s disturbing and awesome, raw and real. Mike is a genius. Our talk was intense. On Thursday Coedian Darryl Lenox talks about his fall from the grace of his friends and family and how his battle with blindness changed his heart and career. It’s a humbling talk. Hope you dig it.

Stay well.

Boomer lives.


Love,
Maron

There are some things I’d like to keep private.

I’m up north, folks-

First things first. For all you Tom Scharpling and Marc Maron fans there’s a new Marc and Tom Show up and available. You can either go here or just go to iTunes and search Marc and Tom. It’ s great verbal jam. Tom has a great story about a bad encounter with a famous athlete at a Who concert. Plus, I'll talk about the secrets of my rock and roll past. And one of us cops to pitching a movie studio on Big Momma's House 3.

Thank you, Ohio. Despite all of my whining about ticket sales we had great crowds in Cincy and Columbus. They weren’t packed, but they were perfect. The venue in Cincy was a place called Bogarts. People got me nervous saying it was just a shitty rock club. It turns out it is a haunted theater that has been around since the early 1900s. I’ve never performed in a place where the actual theater looked exhausted. That space looks like it had been through just about everything a building could go through and it needed a rest. It felt like it wants to just collapse. I though it was great. There were all these maze-like hallways in the backstage area and every room felt like it had seen some shit. A few ghosts were hanging around. As always, I don't mind having ghosts around. I think they are good for the show.

Columbus was great as well. We played a beautiful theater and the balcony was "dark." That’s a nice way of saying we didn’t sell enough tickets to seat it. I didn’t obsess too much. The place was perfect and the crowd was stellar.

Mike Lawrence did a great job opening for me. People love that guy.

I’m currently in Vancouver recovering from an amazing live WTF during which Margaret Cho talked about my penis for ten minutes. There are some things I would like to keep private. Guess that’s off that list.

Please check wtfpod.com/calendar for upcoming dates in Portland, Seattle, Eugene, Chicopee, Boston (stand up & live WTF,) SF, Bethlehem PA, Milwaukee and Austin TX! As far as I know the IFC show, "Maron," premieres in May and my new book, "Attempting Normal," is out at the end of April. Looks like it might be available for preorder here. You might want to wait for cover art.

This week on the show I finally sit down with Eddie Pepitone for an hour. He brought Steven Feinartz with him. Steven directed the documentary on Eddie called "The Bitter Buddha" which is out this week in select theaters around the U.S. and will be on demand and on iTunes starting Tuesday, February 19th. That's tomorrow. It's been at a bunch of film festivals, most recently at Slamdance. The website is here and you can buy it on iTunes.

The lovely and intense Aimee Mann talks to me on Thursday AND she sings songs. This has been a long time coming. She’s an odd and interesting bird.

Enjoy.

Boomer lives!



Love,
Maron

Back to snow.

I’m trying, Folks-

Snow.

First off, I want to reach out to people in Cincinnati OH, Columbus OH, Vancouver BC, Portland OR, Seattle WA, Eugene OR, San Francisco CA, Bethlehem PA and Milwaukee WI. I will be in your towns in the next few months. Please check the listings to the left of this email. The re-scheduled dates for the Boston/Chicopee show are Chicopee on March 29th and Boston on March 30th. That’s two shows in Boston. A live WTF and a standup show. One standup show in Chicopee.

Back to snow.

My deepest apologies to the people of New England who were planning on coming out to see me at either the Boston or Chicopee gigs but there was just no fucking way it could happen. I was ready to go. I had asked my agent if there was any chance the gig would be canceled or whether or not we should cancel it. On Wednesday it was all systems go and everyone was just looking at the forecast as bad but doable. I know snow. I lived on the East Coast for years. I have done gigs in snow and driven to them in blizzards, so I was in. Then as shit started to unfold I realized a few things. I didn’t want my fans driving in horrible conditions, I didn’t want people not to come because they were afraid to drive and, because of the forecast, many people just weren’t going to come because of what might happen.

I got up Thursday, packed and loaded my car up for the airport and I just had that feeling. Something in my gut made me get on the phone and take a stand with my agent to get the shows moved. It just seemed unfair to too many people if the storm happened AND if I got there and the venue cancelled I would have had to eat the travel and the tickets. So, I put in a call to the agent and started driving to the airport. He called me back and said it was done. No shows and we’d reschedule. When I watched the news and the Twitter feed I can honestly say I have never been happier to see such a shitty snowstorm hit with such impact. I was off the hook and we all get another shot to do some shows that everyone can get to and no one well get stranded or hurt doing it. Unless there is another Blizzard on March 29th and 30th then I will have to re-think my entire belief system and get straight with God.

Thank you all for the amazing feedback on the Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner episodes. I really can’t express what an amazing experience it was to talk to both of them. I’m very happy you dug the talks.

This week on Monday I try to get behind the chaos and madness that seems to be Tom Green and on Thursday the renaissance man that is DC Pierson talks about any number of media he seems to be excelling in (and he’s not even 30 yet). I will try to keep my old man crankiness

at bay. Try.

Enjoy.

Boomer lives!



Love,
Maron

I have an inner Alter Kocker.

Shalom, Friends!

First things first. I have dates coming up in Boston (stand up and a live WTF) and Chicopee, MA, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH, Vancouver, BC (stand up and a live WTF,) Portland and Eugene, OR, Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA and Bethlehem, PA! Please check my calendar at wtfpod.com for more info and dates if you can’t see it directly to the left of this paragraph.

Thanks to all who came out to The Egg in Albany. It was a fun show. I was a little nervous that they moved me to the smaller venue but it seated 400 and it was full. The Egg is an amazing place. I felt like I was inside a giant piece of Mid-Century Danish Modern furniture. Beautiful venue.

I did a monster set of an hour and 45 minutes at the Sixth and I Synagogue in DC. We packed it out and I appreciate you coming. I am happy to say I think I pulled in a few more bucks than I did at my Bar Mitzvah. I earned it. It was a much longer set than my Bar Mitzvah and I think I put much more work in to it. About a half a lifetime’s worth as opposed to a few months learning songs in a language I didn’t understand.

This is a very exciting week on the show. On Monday I talk to Mel Brooks and on Thursday I talk to Carl Reiner. Just a little heads up, when I talk to Mel I may have become and old Jewish man for a while. It happens. I think I have an inner Alter Kocker. I guess we all do. I don’t want to tip too much here but I will say it was an amazing experience talking to both Mel and Carl. Mel was tricky in that there is very little he hasn’t talked or shpritzed about. I actually watched hours of different interviews and TV segments. I always remembered him as being hilarious but I had forgotten or maybe never knew just how fucking funny he is. I tried to find a way to connect with him that would get me to places other than his public narrative about himself. I think I succeeded. He was very taken with me and he insisted that I talk to Carl. He said he would set it up and he did.

Mel is 86 and Carl is going to be 91. It is astounding how much clarity they both have and engaged in life they both still are. Mel and Carl hang out together almost every night. Mel goes to Carl’s house and the two of them spend hours together. The whole thing is very touching and they both talk about it. Talking to them was an incredible experience for me. I will get into specifics on the show. Just know that I was beside myself for both of these interviews in a way I have never been. It all felt so familiar but so otherworldly simultaneously. Hope you enjoy the talks.

Boomer lives.



Love,
Maron

I have a head full of snot.

I have a head full of snot, People-


Shit, I forgot to plug a live WTF show that is happening at Trepany House at The Steve Allen Theater here in LA tomorrow night, Tuesday, January 29th at 8PM. It should be a wild show. It will feature Jason Nash, Christina Pazsitzky, Matt Kirshen, Jeff Richards and Jim Earl. Get tickets. Come down.

Albany! I will be at The Egg this Friday. Come out! I’ll warm you up from the inside. Also, Cincinnati and Columbus Ohio! I’m coming your way Feb. 14 and 15. Get your tickets or I’m going to start to think I have no people up there! Links are to the left.

Yes, I have a cold. Not the flu. Not yet. What the hell is happening in the viral world when it becomes this hard to decipher what you have? Or are we just too hyper aware and frightened that we don’t know what a cold is? I mean, I think it’s a cold. It seemed to happen all of sudden like I was struck with it. I had no idea I had enough liquid in my body to fill my sinus cavity with the amount of viscosity that seems to be in there. No body aches, no fever. My head is just a snot manufacturing machine at the moment. Probably more than you needed to know.

I’m leaving my hometown of Albuquerque, NM as I write this. I’m at the airport. I flew in for a surprise party for my buddy Dave’s 50th. I’ve known him since 2nd grade. That is fucking crazy. We went to Hebrew school together. So, there were people there I hadn’t really seen in decades. It’s hard to catch up with people when you have to cover 20 years. The touching thing was that I remember these guys as kids. We were all kids together and those same kids are inside these grown up bodies, but in terms of how they talk, act, move, think, it’s all roughly the same with differing degrees of bitterness and/or success. I wasn’t sure I was going to go but it was amazing and a bit bittersweet. Hearing about people who died or divorced or disappeared was a bit overwhelming because so many of them are frozen as kids in my mind. The guys who were alive were all doing pretty well and weathering the storm of life honorably.

I ended up staying like a block away from where I grew up. It was bizarre. There was this huge piece of property with two old homes on it that belonged to one of the original big landowners in the area. I knew the families that lived there when I was a kid and spent time in both the homes back in the day. There’s a barn and all kinds of animals around and a farm. One of the kids from one of the families, Matt Rembe, made it all an inn and retreat. He added rooms and a restaurant and a farm store. It was so bizarre to be there and catch up with him and his family. The place is called Los Poblanos Inn & Organic Farm. It’s amazing. If you ever want to spend time in NM, and feel NM, I recommend it. (http://www.lospoblanos.com/) Oh, and I was in love with his sister Emily when I was in Junior High.

Sweet shows for me this week because on Monday I talk to Lucinda Williams. I love her music. It’s rare to hear a singer/songwriter so emotionally raw both vocally and musically. I was nervous and honored to talk to her. On Thursday the very funny and very tall Jew, Gary Gulman, is in the garage. Great guy. Good talk.

Enjoy.

Boomer Lives!


Love,
Maron

Eating and talking are my strong suits.

My eyes are burning, people!


Before I get into that you all should know my tour dates. They are right there to the left of this sentence. Come out if you can!

I’ve been up at the Sundance Film Festival for the last few days. I don’t have a film up here. I’m not doing any standup. From what I could tell IFC flew me out and put me up (very nicely) to have dinner with people. No problem! Eating and talking are my strong suits.

Breathing is also something that I take for granted as being something I can do well. Not up here. Altitude is a bitch. All fun is undercut by the slight feeling of drowning on land.

The high point so far was I snuck away from a scheduled event to see the Foo Fighters. They were up here promoting the documentary, Sound City, that I talked about last week with Dave Grohl. I got myself into the private gig because I earned a few friends with the show. I had heard that many of the people who appeared in the movie were going to be at the show including John Fogerty. I can’t even list all of the people on the show because I didn’t know all of them but the ones I did know were: Alain Johannes from Queens of the Stone Age, Chris Goss from Masters of Reality, Corey Taylor from Slipknot, Krist Novaselic from Nirvana, Pat Smear from Nirvana, Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick, Lee Ving from Fear, Rick Springfield from himself, Stevie Nicks and FUCKING JOHN FOGERTY! Are you kidding me? They all did songs from their respective bands. They were all great but Fogerty was way amazing. He did a bunch of CCR stuff including an extended Keep On Chooglin’. Just one chord riff with a two chord turn around that just grooved like the olden days. He sounded the same, he riffed better than ever and it was astounding, actually. The Foo Fighters backed all the performers in one form or another with Grohl alternating between guitar, bass and drums. It was a good night. It rocked hard. The place only seated about 400 and I have to say it was one of the best rock shows I’d seen.

I saw a few movies, met Kyle MacLachlan, had wild game chili and got bunch of swag. I went skiing today for the first time in seven years. It’s like riding a bike. I was just ripping down the hill and I didn’t realize I was an old man until about 2pm when I couldn’t breath and legs were wobbly. I’m not sure what happened to my eyes. I think the sun may have burned them. I’m writing as a semi-blind person. I’m impressed with my typing ability. It’s not right, it’s improvised, but I seem to have a general sense of where the keys are.

John Hodgman is on the show Monday, finally. This was the third time we recorded a WTF. The first time, I lost the file. The second time was a live show that was awful and I never posted it. So, if everything works you should be listening to us chat about cultural criticism and Brookline on Monday morning. On Thursday the insane and inspired Tim Ferriss will hopefully set me straight and get me on a fitness regimen that isn’t too crazy.

Enjoy.

I can’t see.

Boomer lives!



Love,
Maron

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