Episode 1605 - Ask Marc Anything: A Full Maron Special Presentation
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WTF. It's 2025. Here we go.

All right, let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fuck, Nicks? What's happening? What's going on? I'm Mark Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. Welcome to the year 2025. What a year it's going to be, I foresee. I don't know how you're feeling. I don't know what you did. How was your New Year's? Did you go out? Did you stay in? Did you ruminate? Did you despair? Did you make resolutions? Did you celebrate? Did you get fucked up?

Did you get sober on the day after? What was that? Yesterday? Wednesday? What day is it? I'm tired of this holiday time. I'm always thinking it's Sunday when it's like Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday. What did you do? Are you okay? Are you saddling up for the new year? Are you buckling up for the new year? Are you standing at the edge of the new year? At the ledge of the new year? Are you about to...

dive in what's happening where we at you all right i don't know i don't know what to tell you are you are you is it foreboding is that the word i want are you are you paralyzed with a sense of like oh my god oh my god here we go god damn it what's gonna happen

Can't be good, but today's okay. How's that? Future's not looking great, but I'm having a good hour. Huh? Right? Well, look, I hope you got through safely. I hope everything's all right. I didn't do much. I don't usually do much. I certainly don't work on New Year's. I gave that up a long time ago. I was feeling a bit under the weather, so we just kind of hung out and watched a Mike Lee movie. I've been watching a lot of Mike Lee movies. That guy is the master.

Every fucking movie all the way back. I can't even, I can't tell you really a better movie than his first movie in a lot of ways. Bleak moments, uh,

He is a master of exploring and depicting the human condition with honesty and poetry and not the sort of jerk around of a story. Who needs a story when you just have the ebb and flows and tensions of human beings interacting with each other? Honestly, he's made some bigger movies, but man, yes, I'm going to talk to him. So I've been loading up on Mike Lee movies and that can go either way.

Many of them are not what I would call uplifting. They're honest, but they're not uplifting. Let's talk about movies, but let's do some business first. Happy New Year. Did I say that already? We'll do what we can. We'll do what we can. Look, today, one of the regular things we've been doing since we started the full Marin bonus feed in 2022 is a series called Ask Mark Anything. Me being Mark.

So today's episode is made up of a collection of my answers to listener questions. It's basically like I'm the guest on today's episode and you folks are interviewing me. And just in case people are wondering why we do episodes like this around the holidays, there are a few reasons I will tell you. For one, people are out of their routines during this time of year. So regular listening gets disrupted. And so things will get back to normal next week.

And also, it's not a great proposition for guests. If someone's coming on because they're promoting something, they don't want their episode to air when people are out of their listening habits. So instead of skipping the week or re-airing an older episode, it's a good time to highlight some of the stuff we've been doing over there on the full Marin for you.

So this is a collection of Ask Mark Anythings. And yeah, enjoy it. You know, maybe I'll answer a question that you have been wanting to ask me.

Also, it's almost time for my tour dates to start again. I'll be in Sacramento, California at the Crest Theater Friday, January 10th. Napa at the Uptown Theater on January 11th. Fort Collins at Lincoln Center Performance Hall Friday, January 17th. Be in Boulder at the Boulder Theater on Saturday, January 18th. I'll be in Santa Barbara, California at the Lobero Theater on Thursday, January 30th. I'll be in San Luis Obispo.

I've been corrected. That's California at the Fremont Center on Friday, January 31st. And Monterey, California at the Golden State Theater on Saturday, February 1st. I know these first couple of dates are going to be with Ali Makovsky. We've got to decide whether we want to drive up.

to Sacramento and Napa or drive down. There's an Indian place just outside of Bakersfield that we're pretty partial to, me and Makovsky, and we kind of want to go there. So that might be the reason we get into a car for five or six hours, to go to this Indian restaurant at basically a truck stop off the 5 in Bakersfield.

But I'm also coming to Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Illinois, and Michigan. You can go to WTFpod.com slash tour for all of my dates. So my New Year's was pretty low-key. It's always the way. I don't know if I already said this, but I don't work on New Year's, and I was feeling a little under the weather, so we just...

I cooked some pasta. We watched a movie. You know, I kind of festered in mild illness, just a cold. But over the last week, I've been doing shit. I think it's a natural thing for New Year's, even if you don't plan on doing it.

is to do some shit around the house or around your life or, you know, kind of get ready. Mark the transition by what did I do? I cleaned up all the rat shit in my basement. I got my power vac out. Some listener made me very paranoid about rat shit in general and vacuum cleaners and bugs and viruses and things that, you know, I could inhale and die from. So I wore a bit of a mask most of the time.

And, you know, I think it might have been generational. Generations of rat shit down there. And we foamed up. I told you we put the foam in the hole. So I haven't seen any rats. They haven't showed up in the traps. I did find one fairly, what's a mummified carcass from many years ago. Maybe the original rat.

of the basement but i cleaned all that up i got rid of a lot of shit down there and uh just tidied up went through my stuff tightened some things around the house some uh toilet paper rollers and you know i kind of i bought a drying rack that was a big purchase a drying rack i'm living large over here i got a drying rack at target i went to target the day after fucking new year's it was busy

But I stuck in. I bought a drying rack. Nice one. I think it's bamboo. Because I don't dry shirts. You know, I don't dry t-shirts. I don't put them in the dryer. I just think that burns them. It cooks them. It makes them bad. So drying rack, that's my big purchase for the new year. As opposed to just hanging them on chairs all around my house. Also, a little update on the plaid shirts.

They've entered the Goodwill ecosystem. I appreciate all you people wanting them, a bit of the history, but I decided, you know, I thought, well, maybe I could sell them. Maybe I could get Dean to sell them. Maybe I could bring them over to a vintage place. Maybe I could start packing them up and giving them to people. But I decided, hey, if these are cool things that I've got to offer, let somebody have that moment at Goodwill. I mean, if you're, you know, a Goodwill shopper,

And you're doing it because you're looking for cool shit, not because, you know, you can't afford clothing. Sometimes it's nice to be like, holy shit, look at this. I can't believe I found this. I want to spread that joy. If people even like the kind of shit that I like, that they may find one of those things and be like, God damn, how often do you find good shit at Goodwill anymore? But then again, this is my ego talking. I think that, yeah, my shit's cool, but who knows? It just could be...

Old man, you know, cusp, boomer, Gen X, cusp, flannel shirt bullshit. I don't know, but they've reentered the ecosystem. What else did I do on New Year's? I've been cooking my ass off like I own a restaurant because I'm finally...

I finally feel like I'm home for a bit. And even the gigs I have coming up are, you know, around California. So I just kind of dug in and cooked for the week and, you know, threw out a lot of stuff. That's the other thing, the garbage event of the new year. Time to throw the shit away. I'm going to go through every room and get rid of everything that I haven't used in a year or two.

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All right. Yeah, I don't like it when I get a cold because I can't exercise. And then I went out and exercise. I didn't feel good about that. But whatever, man. Whatever. It's the new year. My resolution. My resolution for the new year is to act like I'm in the final fucking quarter here. I'm in the end zone. Time to give the zero fucks in some ways and just do what I want to do and live the life I want to live and not let my brain die.

drag me down every day. How about that? How about try to differentiate between what's happening in your fucking brain and what's happening in reality and stop thinking about what's happening on your phone. Look out for that dopamine charge. Look out for that dopamine distribution system you hold in your hand every day. God damn it. I look, reality is not thrilling, but it is reality.

So between my phone and my brain, I'm stuck in the middle of bullshit. But all right. So let's try to, I'm going to try to like, you know, reel it in on both sides and get grounded. There's a lot happening in my life that is very human and very tragic and very grounding in the way that I have to show up. I have to show up for some stuff.

But aside from that, it's just time to appreciate how much time I have left. Who knows how much time and how things are going to change culturally. But, you know, I have to assume I'm fucking 61 that, you know, do it now, pal. Do it now. Whatever that is. Unfortunately, a lot of times it's just like, you know, I just like to cook and play guitar and listen to records and, you know, do chores and

Is that weird? Is that living it? Are you kidding me, man? I cleaned that rat shit out of my basement and I felt like, man, that was fucking awesome just to look at all that cleanness. Some people hire people to do that. Why deprive yourself of the joy of finishing that?

Huh? I know how to live, folks. It's not about buying things. It's not about owning things. It's not about jumping out of planes. It's about simple, mundane tasks that you can finish and eat or throw away. Right? There you go. There's some Buddha wisdom. So...

I've been watching a lot of movies, as I said earlier, a lot of Mike Lee movies, which are just fucking profound. But I've seen a lot of the movies that might be nominated for Oscars, and I don't know if you want my opinion or how deep I'll go into any of these things, but I'll run through this little list in front of me just for the fuck of it. But I did go see Nosferatu, and...

You know, Kit's a big horror fan and she doesn't like vampires. And I, you know, I can take it or leave it, but I do like that fella Eggers, the director, and I've liked all his fucking movies. And I think he's meticulous and he's a, you know, a fan of history and he, he has a vision. And to be honest with you, I didn't really know the story. I didn't, I don't think I've seen the original Nosferatu. I don't think I've seen many Draculas. I don't give a shit. So this was all new to me.

And I thought it was a fucking masterpiece. I don't know what people were saying about it, but you know, it, it is kind of paced in a slow way, but once it turns, it, it's fucking, it's, it's fucking beautiful. And I didn't know it was kind of some sort of insanely toxic love story with the future of mankind in the balance, uh,

But God damn it. It was, uh, there was a humanity at the end of the thing that I didn't expect. And all the performances were great and it looked great. Uh, I, I would go see that again.

I saw a Nora, which I think is also a fucking great film. I would be more than happy if that won all the awards because it subverted all my expectations of what was going to happen in that story. Midway through once the, you know, Armenian thugs get involved. I was, uh, I was thinking that it was going to get violent and weird, but it got, it got funny and sweet.

And again, that second half, whether, you know, it starts off as sort of what do you call it? Like this sort of fairy tale thing or what do you call it? A princess story or Cinderella story. And then it just turns into a very unique and subtle and and slightly disturbing love story.

And I think it was great. The Brutalist, another big film. I thought that was astounding. Again, a long movie, a big movie. But man, what a performance by Adrian Brody. And what an interesting story about class, immigration, anti-Semitism, art, addiction. It's all sort of there in a fairly...

unique and historical context. I thought it was a great movie, a complete unknown. I saw most of it. I had to dip out for five minutes to deal with my father spinning out. As I told you the last time I talked to you, but I thought a complete unknown was great.

I thought he did a great job. I thought the look was great. I thought the clothes was great. It's a nice time for clothes. It was before things got weird in the late 60s and things were sort of cool. And there was a lot of like rummaging of the late 50s for clothing going on.

And I just thought it was stunning and all the music was good and it moved. I know he fudged some historical bits and pieces, but performances were great by everyone, really. And I was completely captivated by it. Did not see Conclave.

Saw real pain. I liked it. I liked it. You know, being a bit neurotic, I eventually I got anxious. Sing Sing is being talked about a lot. We talked to the guy from that, Clarence Macklin, which was one of the great conversations. And I thought it was very human, interesting movie and a look inside a world that we don't really get to see in an honest way.

The Substance, big fan. Again, not a horror movie, but that was my kind of horror movie. Wicked, I thought that was okay. You know, everyone seems to love it, which I'm very happy about. As far as musicals goes, I thought it was pretty. The songs were nice. It was long. But, you know, in terms of my ability to judge a musical, I'll give it good grades. Movies have been sort of saving my sanity. And this sort of journey into Mike Lee has just been great.

We'll see what happens. We'll be here. Our schedule picks up. This is the last of the special episodes for the holidays. And we'll get back to doing what me and Brendan do the best, which is this show, these conversations, the people we talk to. And we'll deal with things as they come.

And I will remain engaged. I will remain engaged with the people in here and you out there. And now I'm sort of 100% focused on putting my stand-up set together and moving towards...

That's special. I like when I just have the podcast and the stand-up to do. It kind of... It's my wheelhouse, and I can keep my facial hair and not try to figure out how to be someone else.

I talked earlier about New Year's resolutions, and I guess we all know deep down that so many of them are hard to maintain. Like, let's say you want to start eating healthier food or getting more nutrients. You might have a plan that you follow for a little while, but it's hard to stick with it when you always need to go shopping or need to prepare meals for yourself. That's why AG1 is an easy way to improve your health in the new year.

It's a daily habit that's as simple as filling up a glass of water. I'm always on top of my vitamin regimen and taking care of my gut health, but I know it's not easy for everyone. So I hooked up some folks with AG1. I got some for Kit. I got Brendan set up with it. It's a quick drink with a pleasant taste. So this new year, try AG1 for yourself. It's the perfect time to start a new healthy habit. And that's why we're happy to have AG1 as a sponsor. AG1 is offering new subscribers a free $76 gift when you sign up.

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This show today is a collection of questions that have been asked across many of the Ask Mark Anything episodes we've done on the full Marin. We've done 19 of them and just posted a new one this week. If you want to sign up for the full Marin, just go to the link in the episode description or go to WTFpod.com and click on WTF Plus. Here we go with your questions. ♪

Here we go. It's time for Ask Mark Anything. Got a lot of questions. A lot. Let's get into it. Who is the drummer on your intro track? He rocks. Okay. Well, that guy, that's John Montagna, who does all the instruments in the WTF theme. We solicited listeners for a theme. It was a long time ago because we had to move away. We used the opening chords of...

down payment blues by ACDC for a while. And we didn't really realize whether or not we were breaking some kind of rules. So we solicited listeners for a theme. We got quite a few entries, but then John did it. And there's a video out there somewhere, if you can find it, of him actually putting together the theme with all the instruments used. And there's some toys involved, as I recall.

Does Sandler still not want to do the show? Look, I don't know anything about Adam Sandler or if that is an active not want to do. I mean, I've asked him and he said he would. It didn't happen. Sometimes things just get lost or they don't find time or or maybe he's being polite. But I can't say that he is actively not wanting to do the show. All I know is he hasn't done it. He's been pitched it. But I don't know if that pitch outside of the one that I made personally got to him.

or whether he really does this kind of thing outside of Stern or people that he's really close to in terms of talking on podcasts. Do you think character actors are more interesting and better conversationalists than leading men and women? Or are the leading actors just more guarded because they're more famous? Actors, it's a crapshoot. You don't really know what's in there, and you're usually invested in them for roles they've played. And what you consider a character actor, I would say in general...

The conversations I've had with real character actors are always pretty good. You know, John C. Reilly, Michael Shannon, you know, Paul Giamatti recently, Stephen Dorff. I would say, yeah, because they live a different life than movie stars. I think movie stars are guarded, but, you know, Josh Brolin was pretty amazing. So, but I would say, yeah,

On a percentage basis, I would say probably character actors are not better guests, but they are better conversationalists or they live kind of interesting lives. Would you like to interview Taylor Swift? Sure, I would like to interview Taylor Swift. It'd be interesting. I don't know what she's like in a long-form interview. I don't know that she'd ever do it, but she certainly...

One of the biggest performers on the planet. It would be interesting to talk to her. It's kind of amazing how any performer at that level, you know, does what they do. I mean, you know, I it takes a lot out of me just to do a show for a thousand people in, you know, Chicago. I don't know how you perform for 20,000, 30,000 people. I think music's different. But yeah, I'd like to talk to her. Why not?

You mentioned in a recent episode that Willem Dafoe didn't like you, but I went back and listened to that episode and he seemed perfectly engaged. What did I miss? I don't know. You missed how I was feeling in the room, how he was looking at me. Maybe it was just him. Far be it for me to project that stuff. I do that often. Would you ever sit down with Jon Stewart for a WTF episode? You two, for all your clashes many years ago, are very like-minded today in your cultural and political tone, conversations, and beliefs.

Yeah, I would, but I doubt he ever would. And it wouldn't be fun. I recently listened to your Amy Mann episodes. In both episodes, Amy mentions that you should come over to the pool since they redid it. Have you been over there since those episodes aired? I have not. I ran into her at a restaurant recently. But no, I haven't been over. We haven't really been friends since then. How many guests roughly have you interviewed that didn't want the talk to be released?

Conversely, are there any talks that WTF decided not to release? There's only been a couple where guests have said, don't release it. Neil Brennan, the first time, the first one we did, he decided that I didn't give him the respect he deserved. And eventually we made up and did another one. And David Fincher, who

I don't know why he didn't want it. Who knows? I don't know why, but we're sitting on that. There were some guests that asked us not to release the episode, but we convinced them it would be okay. There were a couple of those where they were just freaking out, a little insecure, looking back at it, wondering what they said. But they eventually relented and were fine. There were guests we chose not to air for various reasons, but

No reason to say who they were. It was not necessarily their fault. It just was what it was. Would you categorize the Fincher talk as a good talk or a great talk? It's a great talk. We talked for a long time. Never to be heard, I guess.

What made you decide to start doing repeat guests for a full show? And how do you decide who gets to come back to the garage? Well, it became apparent that after doing this since however long we've been doing it, which is a long time. What is it? 19? It's like a long time since 2009. So there are people that we interviewed early on that have had entire lives since we talked to them.

And it'd be silly not to be open to sort of kind of complete the arc or at least this portion of their life. So that's one of the reasons. Another reason is there are people that I like talking to. So a combination of those things is what decides whether they come back to the garage, whether I like them and we had a rapport or.

and mixed with how long it's been since I've been here. But sometimes people just like to hear me talk to people I know, and usually comics. So we figured, why not do more of that? Were there any talks you went into with low expectations and the guest exceeded them? Look, I got to be honest with you, and I say this a lot. I never know what's going to happen. I don't know if my expectations are low, but I don't really know if...

most people can do what I want to do, which is have a loose conversation. I think one that comes to mind is, uh, uh, Norm MacDonald, because I didn't even know, like if he could talk like a regular person, a lot of people who are somewhat characters on stage or have a certain style. I just don't know. Another good example is this past Monday, Melissa V.S. and your always liked her. I worked with her all the time at the comedy store. I thought about having her on, but I didn't even know if she could have a full conversation. Um,

Just by nature of what I thought her personality was. And I turned out to be wrong. Does it annoy you when a guest says they listen to your show all the time and then clearly know nothing about you? Yes, but I don't know who they think they're fooling. I can always tell when they say, yeah, I listened to your show and they name an episode they listened to and it's not last week's. I know their list. I know they're lying. A lot of times publicists or managers, uh,

When someone says they'll do the show, they'll go pop out a couple. So sometimes they'll mention like two thinking they're fooling me. But I know, I know the truth. Do you have any stories of times when you run into someone that you've interviewed in the real world and not recognized or remembered that you've interviewed them? Yes, that happens a lot. And I don't mention it because I've done like what, almost 1,500 of these interviews.

I don't I don't I don't mention it because I know usually I've interviewed most people. But sometimes there's a tell if they go, I should do the show sometimes. I'm like, oh, OK, great. I don't go, wait, I thought we did it already. But yeah, there's definitely more times than I'd like to admit where I know the person, but I don't remember whether I've interviewed them or not. But I have interviewed most people.

The trickier thing is, do I approach people that I've interviewed thinking they'll remember me? It used to be different because I used to assume that was just sort of another interviewer that any famous person has to deal with and that I wasn't put in any other kind of light. Just, oh, yeah, I remember I do because I'm like that. I do a lot of press. I don't really always remember who they are, to be honest with you, even if they're long interviews.

I remember one time I saw Jack White at LAX and I approached him. I'm like, hey, man, Mark Marin, I interviewed you once. And he was like, yeah, of course I know who you are. And I'm like, oh, all right. Well, that's nice.

Was there a conscious decision to stop doing live WTFs or did it just fade away? Well, we did those primarily to create a revenue stream for the podcast, which was almost impossible to do back when we were doing that. We would allow people to donate money. This would be for Patreon.

And also the live WTFs were purchasable through a separate pay site. And also it was a big ordeal to get it done. And it was really a different show. So it was a mixture of fading away and also getting more ad money and shifting out of that economic model or that pay model.

When you're on the road, do you take a portable podcast recording setup with you in the event you get a spontaneous opportunity to interview someone in their home city? I do. I usually bring it in order to specifically record Monday show or Thursdays, depending on how long I'm away. But always the opportunity is there. If it's there to interview somebody, I'll do it. It doesn't happen too often, but I do take the rig with me when I go out there.

Do you ever listen to the produced version of the podcast to see what made it in and what editing liberties Brendan took? Not really. I will listen to episodes that Brendan like thought came out amazing or that he did a miraculous job editing, or if I can just tell that he was proud of the work. But generally I trust him, uh,

A hundred percent. And he'll tell me, like, sometimes I'll just ask him, I'm like, did that thing make it in? He's like, nope. And I'm like, all right. What are your thoughts on so many celebrities starting interview podcast years after you and a few others brought it mainstream? Do you think it dilutes what you are doing when the same guest is having multiple long form discussions at the same time? I don't know. I don't pay attention to any of them. I don't listen to any podcasts. Uh,

Brendan's on top of it sometimes. But ultimately, it was like that at the beginning. It was even worse at the beginning of podcasting because there was only a handful of us. And especially with the comics, a lot of them would go from show to show. And I think the thing that I resent the most is that because of their peer group, some of these bigger celebrities have a lot easier access to certain other celebrities that I may want to interview. And we can't just get to them.

So that bums me out. But other than that, I don't know. I don't know what's going on out there. We do what we do. And generally we do it differently. Was there a specific point where you and Brendan realized WTF was going to pay all the bills or did it just sort of ease in? No, there was a point. You know, I was all in all the time, as was Brendan. But Brendan, you know, had to have another job.

Because he has a family and he's smart and he doesn't, he's a responsible human being. So he had another job for the first, oh my God, must've been four or five years more than

What? Probably, yeah. Probably a five-year. He had a job until 2013, and he was secretly working as my partner on WTF and editing everything. He was doing the same job. He just couldn't tell anybody about it. It always bummed me out.

Because I always wanted to bring him up in interviews, and I couldn't because he had a no-compete clause at his other job. So it was on the down low. And then in 2013, he said, look, I'm going to go full-time with WTF. And I said, hey, man, you don't have to do that. Don't take any chances. I was freaked out. I'm like, you got a family, man. Look, I could lose everything. I don't care. But don't do it, man. But he was like, don't.

don't worry about me. I did the research. I'm not, I know what I'm doing. And I'm like, all right. And that instilled a certain amount of confidence in me as well. Cause I don't pay attention to numbers really. So I don't know what the fuck is going on, but that was the point. One episode that has always stood out to me was Cheech and Chong. Do you have any fond memories of that interview? I loved every second of that interview.

That interview was amazing because I grew up with Cheech and Chong listening to their records. And I couldn't believe I was going to get to interview them both together. And when I had the headphones on and they were just sitting there talking, they sounded exactly like Cheech and Chong. It was fucking hilarious. What a great day that was.

I've been listening to WTF since almost the beginning, but I'm still confused by some of the stand-up lingo. What is a bringer show? What is the difference between a feature spot and a headliner? What is a middle? When you say closer, does that only refer to jokes or are headliners also called closers? Okay, well, let's go down the list.

A bringer show is basically a show where in order to get on stage, you have to bring people. Usually there's a number of people, friends, family, whatever. But that is what gets you your spot is if you bring audience paying audience members.

What is the difference between a feature spot and a headliner? The feature spot is either the middle spot, which is the one between the opener and the headliner, or the first act on a two-person show, say at a theater. Someone's featuring for you. That's usually how it's used. Like the opener is usually in a club. The person who does like five, 10 minutes up front brings and hosts the show generally. And then the feature is the next act or the middle. The middle act is

is essentially the act between the opener and the headliner. Closer. A closer is somebody who closes the show. Now, obviously, if you're at a club, the closer would be the headliner or on a long show or like maybe there's five acts on who's closing. So, yeah, it's the same as the headliner, but not always because it could be just on a show where everybody's doing the same amount of time and somebody's got to close. So, like, when am I going on? You're closing, right? So...

And yes, a closing bit is a closing bit. What's your closer closing bit?

Can you expand about why the night of the Chevy Chase roast was such a bad night for you personally? Well, I can. I had accepted to do the roast. I'm not really a roast comic. I don't really know how to do it. I still don't. I didn't really know how to do it then. I'm not very good at insult comedy as a genre. You know, I can be funny in an insulting way, but I didn't really know the format. It made me nervous.

I had to write a bunch of jokes. My ex-wife Mishna wrote a couple jokes, and it was before the roasts were really a thing. But the bottom line was it was a huge dais. There were just, it seemed like, 100 people on it. Many of them had nothing to do with roasting.

The audience was huge. It was at the Hilton, I think, in New York City, and they were eating. And it was just a flat night. Chevy didn't really want to engage or be there. Everyone was bombing. And I just had a very hard time bombing that hard in front of that many people and my peers. And it just kind of sent me spiraling.

into a kind of, not a nervous breakdown, but it was embarrassing. It was hard to bomb that hard. Look, they made it look good, but it just felt like a very public humiliation. Now, granted, any bomb is that in a way, but you do get used to it. But I just didn't feel, it just felt like a very almost...

dismissive room. Chevy wasn't fun. There was nothing fun about it. And once the joke started crapping out, it's just like any other bomb. It was just a big one. And I felt like it made me look bad. I felt like everyone was judging me, even though everyone else was bombing, except for maybe a couple of people. And I don't know. It was humiliating and it made me doubt myself in a very deep way.

I have to assume there are some comics you don't enjoy as much as others. Without or with naming names, what is it about certain comics that you don't enjoy? Perhaps type of material or stage presence or something else that

Well, I don't like not being able to see somebody's being, you know, I don't like people that are so distance from their material or from their style that I can't get a sense of who they are. I don't like hackney jokes. I don't like comics that don't have very good material in terms of originality or how it's executed. I don't, I don't like people that aren't necessarily interesting or innately funny or

But I can appreciate a pretty broad spectrum of comedy, but I like to see I like it to be a full, fully realized thing, both on behalf of the comic and and and his or her or their connection to the material itself.

Um, I don't like people that that do cheap comedy or or or just I can even handle a little bit of hackiness from comics if they at least approach it in a different way. It's really a mixed bag of why I register people as being not funny or I can't watch it. Sometimes I'm embarrassed for them. Sometimes I feel like it's hard for me to watch. There's a few different reasons.

To the best of your knowledge, what are the demographics of your audience? Have they shifted at all throughout your career? Do you have thoughts on why your audience is who it is? Well, early on, I didn't have an audience. And after the podcast...

I had some people who were kind of left over from my political radio show on Air America, and they were still around. But then a new group of people, podcast fans, came, and they didn't really know me as a stand-up, and they used to say they would come to support me, which I didn't need. But I've noticed that my fans are either sort of sensitive and intelligent younger people who kind of get where I'm coming from, people my age, couples and men. I used to see a lot of...

men coming to my shows alone, just because, you know, I imagine that their friends didn't know who I was. I think those two groups are still with me. But it's usually intelligent people, like-minded people, grownups who tip well and behave. It's a real blessing. I'm very grateful for the audience that I've built over the years since I started the podcast. Yeah.

Do you have guitar face, riff smirk? Do you make funny faces during playing or are you consciously trying to stay cool? And in your opinion, who has the best, funniest guitar face? Huh.

I have seen footage of me playing and I do do a thing. There is definitely a guitar face there. It's not too dramatic. It's not forced. It does happen naturally. I'm very rarely consciously trying to stay cool. I can't seem to pull that off. But something does happen when you're sort of in it.

And it happens to me. It's not particularly funny or over the top, but it's definitely there. I think the coolest guitar player still, for the most part, is...

is probably Keith Richards because he does something with his whole body that's kind of laid back. It's kind of a slow groove thing. And his face is always cool. He kind of leans back or leans into things. And I still think as somebody who becomes an extension of his guitar in a fairly honest way when he's not, you know, really doing a showboat thing, it's got to be Keith. Yeah.

The funniest guitar face, just right off the top of my head, I think that Jimmy Page, as cool as he seems, has a very peculiar and funny guitar face and also physicality when he's playing guitar. When he's swooped over, you know, he's kind of, and his legs are kind of spread, he's cool, but he definitely has a goofy guitar face. But those are just ones that come to mind. I'm sure if you were to run a bunch by me, I could make other, you know,

Other suggestions as to both of those best and funniest guitar face. Would you like to make a movie about your time as a door guy at the comedy store and Sam Kennison days? No, I don't. I don't know where that movie would go. I mean, and it would have to if we were to really do it right. The scenes of us doing Coke at the house at the table, they would have to be like, you know, 18 hours long.

I'd actually like to see that in a way. What the fuck could we have been doing, you know, from two 30 in the morning till 10 the next morning? What could we have been doing? What could we have been talking about? Has that ever been documented like straight through just a table full of people doing blow for like eight or nine hours? I'd like to do that movie. Um,

Be like an Andy Warhol film. It'd be some sort of marathon just to see what it would look like. I'd like to see a documentary of that. Have you underachieved, overachieved or achieved exactly what you'd hoped? That's a good question because I don't know if I see myself as an underachiever in terms of what I've actually accomplished. I do see myself as an underachiever in terms of what I think I should have or could have accomplished. But those don't really count because I've accomplished a lot.

In the sense that I don't know that I've overachieved, but I have achieved exactly what I wanted to do. I don't know if it's what I hoped I would do, but I've sort of slowly done most of the things that I was interested in and wanted to do. And the reason I say hoped, because I don't know that my visibility in terms of my ego is as big as I hoped it would be, but I have actually somehow managed to do almost all the things that

that I set out to do when I got into show business, i.e. having my own show, doing stand-up comedy, directing some episodes of that show, playing music, acting in movies, and, well, obviously this podcast, but that was an outlier. I didn't expect this to happen at all. So I guess I have achieved exactly what I wanted to,

I don't know if hoped is a good word because I'm not sure I have framed it properly most days that I feel like I could have not done more, but gotten more attention. So that hope didn't happen. And it's probably better off since you're currently in a relationship with a woman in her 30s. Do you ever worry that you could get stuck with a kid? Well, you know, it's something we discuss and kit is really pretty clear about

about not wanting kids. We're both very involved with animals. When I met her, she worked at an animal shelter. She just got a new kitten, Maven, who's a half-sibling of Charlie. And we've talked about it, but I'm pretty clear that I don't want them. And she is as well pretty clear on it, and for real reasons. And I don't really need to share those. But so I don't

I don't worry I'll get stuck with a kid, with Kit. I've had those worries in the past, but that's the past. Have you been asked why you're never happy? I'm asked that question all the time, and each time I'm genuinely offended. Well, I've done jokes about that. I mean, I don't know what happy is. It's like, are you happy? I never really saw happiness as a goal, and I guess a lot of people do. I'm aspiring to okayness.

But so I've gotten that question plenty of times in my life and my I don't know if I get offended, but I'm just sort of like, what does that even mean? How is that a goal? Happiness is fleeting. And I believe happiness is fleeting, but I do believe I experience it occasionally, more so now that I'm older. I'm definitely not never happy.

I'm extremely interested in the contrast between my self-perception and others' perception of me. Curious about where you think this comes from because most people don't give a shit, it seems. Well, where it comes from for me is almost paralyzing insecurity. And also from that comes paranoia. And from that comes self-consciousness.

And from that comes projection in terms of what you think other people are thinking about you, because a lot of times they're not thinking about you at all. But generally, I'm a lot harder on myself. And I think people see me in a way that I see myself, which is not always great, but they don't really see that. The friends I have see me for who I am and the good parts of me, because usually I'm comfortable to show those parts with those people.

But I think all that stuff comes from just not tremendous parenting or given a sort of grounded sense of self. You're always going to be a little paranoid, a little hyper-imaginative about your impact on things and people, and also just tremendously self-conscious. So it's sort of a curse. But as I get older, I also realize like,

I'm definitely not as bad as I think I am or as awkward and fucked up as I think I am. And also many people only see the part of me that is genuine. And there's more of that lately. So I don't know. I have a little more self-acceptance. Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night and think, fuck, why did I say that? Or generally have regrets about revealing too much of yourself?

Yes. I don't think it's like waking up in the middle of the night, but after a standup show or after something on the podcast, I have to kind of accept that I said it and live with the decision. Usually I don't regret it, but I don't always know why I do it. And I do feel a little exposed by it, but that is...

a big part of how I do what I do. Inside your comedian brain, what is the difference between you standing on stage trying to make a live audience laugh, you sitting alone with a microphone trying to make your podcast audience laugh, and you in private conversation trying to make an individual friend laugh? Or is it all the same to you?

No, they're all very different. You know, when you're on stage, you know, that's your purpose. That's your intent. And you're moving towards them. And, you know, it's very immediate. And that is the job of the comic. You want to get laughs where you decide to get them. Sometimes it's impulsive. Sometimes it's improvised. But generally, that is your job. You get up there and you focus and you do the job and the craft of making the audience laugh.

And there is a version of me that lives up there. These versions are not that different. Sitting alone with a microphone here, I'm not that as conscious of trying to make people laugh. And I wouldn't say that I'm always funny. I think that I'm more varied. I would say I'm less funny here than the other...

certainly on a standup mic. I know when I've got something funny to say, and I know that how to innately pace it, but it's not my intent on this mic, uh, to be funny all the time. I can relax, uh,

um, in private conversation. Well, look, man, if I've got a friend and you know, you're kind of riffing it out, you're going back and forth. They say something, I say something. So it's more spontaneous. It's more exciting. It's part of the exchange. Uh, and that, I think that is where, um,

the idea of being naturally funny becomes very apparent. It does on the standup stage as well in improvising, but in conversation where you're kind of in an interaction, a relationship, in a conversation, and it kind of moves the conversation along or to add something to it. You know, I do it a lot with Sam, with Jerry, all my friends. I like making those guys laugh. And

And sometimes out of those conversations comes great ideas for standup. Not directly, but you know, sometimes we're talking about humor, but they're all very different. The things that you, that you talked about here, the three me's, there's probably a couple other ones too. My dad recently started dating after my mom died. I'm wondering how your grief comes up in your current relationship with Kit and

Well, I mean, my relationship with Kit began in the shadow of Lynn's death within four, like five months. And it was, you know, the thing with Kit has evolved. I mean, we didn't know it would keep going. We were in the middle of COVID. I was paralyzed with sadness. She was dealing with her own grief around things in her life. And it was more of a companionship thing that we didn't have very big expectations of, out of, or if any, of.

And it went on a long time like that. And then it became a little deeper and it became a little bigger. But it's still there. And, you know, I can talk freely about it. And she, you know, has a full understanding of it. Yeah. It comes up sometimes.

Have you made a will? If so, who are you leaving everything to? Well, I just redid my will. And a good portion will go to my brother if he lives. I've given a nice chunk of change to some people who are important in my life, good friends.

I've also left Brendan a large sum, if it still exists when I do die, to disperse to charities that at that time are currently in need. And I've left my records to Dan at the record store. Where and when are you able to find peaceful moments in your life? I don't know. I can find them anywhere.

You know, I like sitting around playing guitar. I like being out here, sitting here. I like my couch. Sometimes I like hiking up the mountain. I like sitting on my porch. I do like sitting on the porch sometimes. I liked it more when I was smoking cigars. But yeah, I can find peaceful moments on my couch. I can find them anywhere. My car, they don't last long. Here, I'll do one for you now. That was good. Did you feel it? That was a good one.

I find a tremendous amount of peace cooking. That is something I do often. I like to do it. I like to have the food I like to eat, but I do like cooking. And as a matter of fact, I'm going to cook a banana bread right now, a vegan banana bread, because I got three almost rotten bananas and I'm looking forward to it. What is the best sandwich you've ever made? Shit, I don't know. That's a good question.

The best sandwich I ever made. I used to enjoy making a patty melt for reals, you know, with a good burger and Swiss cheese and fried onions, fried nice and brown on rye bread, crispy toasted rye bread or grilled rye bread. You get the patty.

You put that bread into the butter or oil in the pan on one side, put the slices of cheese on each one, get them good and fucking toasty, put the patty in there already cooked, and then the grilled onions, and then put the other piece on top, and then press it a little bit. That's a pretty good fucking sandwich. Really good sandwich. I do enjoy the post-Thanksgiving bread.

turkey chopped liver sandwich, sometimes with a little cranberry sauce. That's a pretty good sandwich. Do you snack at the movies? Yeah, I have a big popcorn, no butter, giant Diet Coke. Since you've been sober, what is the absolute closest you've come to drinking or taking drugs again?

I don't think I've come close to drinking. I don't think I've come close to cocaine or weed. The closest I've come is, you know, the moment where you have pain medicine prescribed for pain, but you know, you don't, you know, the pain's not as bad as would require medicine, but you figure, well, I've got the medicine, uh, and you know, I've got a pass here. Why not take it? But I don't. Um,

But I do know that pain meds, when I've gotten surgery or something like that, they work. So I have taken oxycodone when I had my tooth ripped out of my head, but just one. And then eventually I throw them out. But they do linger in the cabinet longer than they should.

I'm curious what your relapse back into drugs and alcohol many decades ago was like and what precipitated it. I know you have 20 plus years of sobriety now, but you've been in the recovery community for a long time. I just think your answer might be helpful to the newcomer. Well, I don't know what if there was a precipitating factor. I think that when I first got sober, oh, very early on when I got sober after the first time I got sober was 1988.

You know, and I'm coming up on 24 years and it's, what is it, 2023. So do the math. You know, it took me a long time to put together the years in a row. But the first time I got sober, I went into rehab because I was, you know, psychotic from sleep deprivation and cocaine abuse. And, you know, just to get out of the, I got into rehab and, you know,

Afterwards, I didn't really lock into the program. I went to a few meetings when I went back to New York, and then I just kind of didn't do anything. And I stayed sober for about a year and a half. And then that was sort of the pattern. I'd go out for a year or two, and then I'd stay sober for a year and a half. But it wasn't until the last time I got sober, really, in 99, that I was sober.

um, that I really learned how to, uh, take in the program, understand the program, use the program, understand powerlessness, work the steps. It wasn't until 99 that I really did that. And, and within that year or two, you know, upon getting sober in the late nineties, I was in and out a bit, but not much and not for very long. I didn't really relapse once 99 came along. That was it.

And I just did what I was supposed to do. I listened to the suggestions. I went to meetings at least once a day for years. I got sponsors. And it was just a matter of doing the work. And also, it was helpful that I met a lot of people in the program. The woman who became my second wife in a disastrous marriage got me sober. And I think a lot of getting me into the program was driven by me wanting to be with her, even though that didn't work out.

I'm still grateful for that. Have you healed from your attachment trauma from childhood? Now, this is a big question. I have never heard of the condition of attachment trauma. So I had to look it up. And I definitely have that.

I'll read you the definition here from the Internet. Attachment trauma is considered to be a traumatic experience an infant or child has when a primary caregiver does not or cannot provide adequate care, affection and comfort. So that is the core of my emotional foundation is that both of my parents were not

really capable at any type of safe selflessness or nurturing type of care. My mother was very self-involved. My father was completely self-involved, and neither one of them really kind of lived up to the emotional responsibility of being parents.

My mother, I believe, resented my brother and I. There are incidents with my brother where, you know, he was crying and she would just, you know, lock him in a bedroom because she couldn't handle it. Turns out he had a milk allergy and there are just a lot of different stories. And I've talked about this with my mother. So but seeing it written out like this attachment trauma story.

And looking at it, is attachment trauma PTSD is a question here on the Internet. Attachment disorders are nearly always a symptom of C-PTSD, complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Oftentimes looks like this. Attachment issues and relationship struggles, intimacy issues, flashbacks, mood swings, anxiety, depression, addiction issues, eating disorders, personality disorder traits.

That sounds to me a lot like borderline, and I think that would also probably fall under the umbrella of this, but I have certainly had a lot of these. Relationship struggles, intimacy issues, flashbacks, mood swings, anxiety, depression, addiction issues, eating disorders, personality disorder traits. Yes. Check, check, check, check, check. This is...

All relative to attachment trauma. I imagine there's degrees of it. My parents were present, but they just saw me as extensions of themselves and their own sort of concern, panic, worry, anger. And it really left me emotionally crippled in some respects. And you're asking me, you know, I've had to break this down. I like that you gave me this new term, this new language, attachment trauma.

But I've dealt with it in a lot of different ways. I am hyper aware of it. You know, I found the fantasy bond by Robert Firestone very helpful. I found sobriety very helpful. But but the truth of the matter is, no, I don't think I have healed. I don't know if I will. You know, I've worked hard on accepting who I am and I've certainly worked hard on awareness around it.

And certainly my addiction issues are not the drugs that I used to do, but I do go on very compulsive about caffeine. And now I'm sort of back on nicotine a bit with the lozenges. You know, I've had, you know, sexual compulsion. I've had very certainly an eating disorder and certainly anxiety in like I don't know.

You know, sadly, you know, the people that you attract and that you're connected to when you have trauma are going to be people with trauma in various forms of recovery or unrecovery as you are. And a lot of that, you know, kind of leads to relationship issues.

My intimacy issues, my intimacy issues, I'm aware of. I'm aware of that. I have a hard time receiving love because I can't really fundamentally trust it. I have a hard time. I don't have a hard time showing up for people or being supportive or being there for them. But to really sort of let myself love people is tricky. And I've sort of taken the path of least resistance.

Um, in some cases, uh, I'm not, I'm getting old and I, I'm not wired for the drama of, of like-minded people, even though the, the emotions can be strong. And I don't know if I'm ever going to heal. I think I've healed, but I don't know if I'm ever going to overcome them and become a functioning emotional person.

You know, what comes with acceptance is also the idea that I'm old or older. And I don't know if I want to go through what it would take to sort of try to, you know, learn how to be loved and learn how to love, you know, with a full open heart. Even though people say it's amazing, I don't know. Maybe it is, but I don't know. I don't seem to be doing the work that would get me there, but I do seem to have a certain amount of self-acceptance. Yeah.

I don't know. So, yes, I have healed to a degree, but I've also become a bit callous, I guess, or not callous, a bit shut down maybe, or a bit sort of I've surrendered to maybe not doing the work, but I think I've healed.

in the way of self-awareness and behavior for the most part. But I don't know if I got back what I lost or what I never had. What is your retirement plan? Will you ever retire? I seem to think I will. I do feel like I could. I don't know if that's real. My retirement plan right now is to get permanent residency in Canada, which is like a green card where if I spend two out of five years up there, I can get healthcare and also work.

And there's a lot to work up there. I don't see it as giving up my citizenship, but in my mind, it's a fantasy. It's a retirement fantasy. And yeah, I do feel like I would like to wind down. I feel like I would like to detach from show business entirely sometimes if I could, if I had the willpower. How do you cope with getting older? You interviewed a bunch of older folks and they seemed at peace with their age. Did you take away any useful advice?

I seem to acknowledge that I'm getting older. I can see that I'm getting older. I'm kind of fascinated with the idea that I'm getting older. I do feel my body getting beat up because of my compulsive nature around exercise. I think I'm coping okay. I'm a little afraid of what may happen to my body, my brain inside my body. I think the mortality fear, it's there and there.

If I let myself do it, it gets me anxious. But in terms of the actual aging and being the age I am, I'm okay with it. Now, do you have any phobias? It doesn't need to be clinically recognized. Just anything that particularly scares you or creeps you out. I don't like being scared by things in the moment, but there's very few things that I'm scared of in a way that is sort of ongoing. I don't like being startled.

by, you know, wild animals, insects, humans. But that's not really a phobia. I would say that my longest and sort of pronounced phobia is of water I cannot see the bottom of. Large bodies of water or even smaller bodies of water that are too deep for me to assess. I think I have a fear of that. I don't love flying. I'm afraid of it, but I've had to accept and live with that one.

I love the idea of plummeting out of the air. I have a terrible fear of being T-boned in my car. There was an accident that happened in Albuquerque where a drunk driver was barreling down a side street so fast, ran a stop sign and struck, broadsided another car, but drove right through it. It hit it and soared over it and decapitated four people in it. I have a very...

Being T-boned in a car is really my day-to-day most active fear because I'm not out on the ocean all the time. I don't like flying over water either. That's a double whammy. I'm so afraid the combination of flying and flying over large bodies of water is just horrifying to me. The idea of crashing into the water and just being strapped into a seat or

At the, you know, at the bottom of the ocean is, is probably metaphorically the loneliest image I can possibly even think of, even though I'll be dead. But that one really gets me. I really, a lot of, I got to do a lot of fucking be in the moment kind of stuff. A lot of self-talk flying over those large bodies of water.

I found out my 16-year-old cat Vinny has a bone tumor on his leg. He has arthritis, so amputation isn't an option. The vet told me he has maybe six months. I'm 30, so you can imagine the emotional connection I have to a cat that I've had for more than half my life. I've never had to put an animal down before. I'm working hard to be present and enjoy this time, but the anticipatory grief is too much some days. Do you have any advice for this kind of grief or how to cope until that awful day?"

Well, no. No, there's no advice. Because what's happening and what happened to me in these situations is I sort of made my cats hang on for as long as I could. And I think that alongside of your anticipatory grief is the realization that it's the right thing to do. And eventually that'll sort of, that'll kind of become very obvious. And you'll just realize that keeping them alive is probably selfish behavior.

And that they'd be more, they'd be okay dead. And then they're not people. They're not experiencing this the same way you are. And, you know, you're doing something loving and you're doing something necessary. It's the hardest part about owning pets. And I grew up with a mom that was very not present for it. She'd just drop them off and have them put down. But lately, for the last two cats I had put down, I was there with them and held them while it happened.

which is closure and it's horrible, but it's pretty good. You feel like you're there from right up to the end, but there's nothing to do about that anticipatory grief other than know that you're doing the right thing and you'll sense when it's time because they will have had enough and they've lived a pretty good long life. You gave them a good life. It's okay. It'll be sad for a while and you'll always remember that guy, but there's plenty of kittens around, pal.

I'm about 30, and I've been dealing with a lot of things like career stress, identity issues, depression, etc. I've had a couple of older individuals in my life tell me that it gets easier when you're into your late 30s, 40s, and beyond. Would you agree with this? Do you have any advice to make these years easier? Well, look, I mean...

it does get easier, but there's core things that, you know, will have an effect on your perception and disposition that are kind of deeply wired into you. And they'll, you know, they'll, they'll fuck you up all the time. They'll, they're, they're just there to, to cause instability and, and doubt. But you learn how to sort of manage those. I would say that, and I've said this before, that the one regret I have is I,

I was so hard on myself, and it sounds like you're being hard on yourself. And I don't know that there's a way not to be hard on yourself, but a lot of the things that are plaguing you now will resolve themselves naturally. It just will happen out of you won't even know it, and it's not a choice.

So a lot of things you can't have answers for where you're at, but they will resolve themselves for better or for worse. So maybe be a little less hard on yourself and try to engage with the stuff that interests you and not, you know, be so don't beat the shit out of yourself about all these things that, that seems so important because the reason why it gets a little easier is that in your

40s and beyond, you realize that they really aren't that important and they weren't, but you couldn't have looked at them that way while you were in it. I don't know if that's helpful. It might help because of the answer to this next question is sort of attached to that. How do you get yourself to do the things you don't want to do? I just told Kit this and it's a habit I've gotten into.

I really, in my mind, when I don't want to do something, those are the things that just sit there undone. You know, Kit got mad at me the other night because when I see something that needs to be done, I usually just freak out and do it. It's just the way I am now. Like, just so it doesn't stick in my craw or annoy me or get me obsessed. But things you don't want to do, I find, obviously, you have to do them, is really consider how much time it's going to take you.

Because a lot of times there are little things that are just annoying. Even if you're one of those people that you can't make your bed. Like I make my bed every day. I never think not to make my bed. But if you have little things, even things that aren't so little, just really kind of think, how long is this going to take me really? This thing. And a lot of times it's like 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Even if it's an hour, like working out. What's a fucking hour? What's a half hour? What's 15 minutes? What's 10 minutes? Right?

Just realize that like you don't want to do it. You fucking hate it, but it's only going to take you 13 minutes and it'll be done. Maybe that'll help you. I'm writing a series of children's books to promote mental health and wellness in the shit show that is Modern Times. What are some important topics you think should be addressed? Well, I used to do jokes about this, but you don't want to diminish a kid's spirit.

in terms of what we see is happening in the real world. But I think a premium should be put on somehow making it understood that life can be difficult sometimes and life can be scary sometimes. And sometimes there aren't answers for questions that you want answers to.

And also, sometimes you have to realize in the moment that you like what you're doing and that it's important to you. And also, I think it's important to understand that sadness is part of life.

As is happiness and as is sort of learning things. I guess these are all pretty, pretty normal children's book stuff, but like, I don't wouldn't know how to handle like, you know, death or sickness and stuff, but I think it's all in there. I think it's just trying to be funny and, and, um, earnest, but not, um, overbearing about, you know, the difficulties of the reality of life and somehow try to make them perky. Yeah.

That's what I do with my comedy for grownups. In the future, after you've passed, somebody will discover WTF and become a devoted fan like the rest of us. What's your message to that person? Well, there's very little that you won't know about me from all the work I've done. I've done all I can. I've done the best I could. And there's a lot of it.

And if it sticks, welcome. And also, I'm saying this from the grave, which is exciting because it's being recorded. And that's just exactly who I am. I'm now talking to you from the grave. Just talking. How would you describe yourself using only three words? What is that? Some kind of... Is that a standard question? I don't know. How about, I'm almost there.

I'm almost there. Thanks for the questions, folks.

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Find your push. Find your power with Peloton at onepeloton.com. Hey, Full Marin listeners get new Ask Mark Anything episodes every few weeks. We just released a new one today. So here's a little bit of that. What was your experience visiting the Criterion Closet? Did they reach out to you? What is the conversation before you go in there? Could you back up a truck and just say, load it up?

No, I mean, they asked me to come on and I think it was connected to some sort of premiere or something, but I went over there to Criterion. Yeah, they invited me. No, you know, they show you the closet. It's just one person with a camera and they suggest that maybe you pull some stuff before, you know, get a sense of what's in there and decide, you know, kind of what you want before you pull it or else you're going to get overwhelmed and not know what to pull. I imagine you could back up a truck, but I don't know what your life is like, but what

I've got more shit that I know what to deal with. I've got boxes of DVDs that I don't even watch anymore. I don't have an organized library. I don't generally need more shit.

So the stuff I got, you know, I was curious about or I wanted to own, but I didn't want to overdo it. But they don't really put a limit on you. So I guess you could pull a truck up. If you want all the Ask Mark Anything episodes and all the other bonus episodes we release twice a week, just go to the link in the episode description or go to WTFpod.com and click on WTF Plus. On Monday, we've got Adrian Brody. And a reminder before we go, this podcast is hosted by ACAST.

Here we go. ♪♪♪

Boomer lives. Monkey and Lafonda cat angels everywhere. I'm sweating.