Latest news with #MarcMaron
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Business
- Telegraph
The struggling comedian who invented the podcast – for better and worse
In the late summer of 2009, a struggling comedian, actor and radio host sneaked back into the building of his former employer, Air America, and surreptitiously used one of their studios to record an interview with fellow stand-up Jeffrey Ross. It was, said Marc Maron this week, a 'Hail Mary pass', one last shot at keeping his flagging career alive. It worked. Almost 16 years and 1,648 episodes later, WTF with Marc Maron is coming to an end, with the podcast wrapping up around the time of its anniversary on September 1. Maron's Hail Mary not only revived his career – it invented a genre and sparked the podcasting boom. WTF is considered to be the 'OG' of long-form interview podcasts (hate long, rambling interview podcasts? Blame Maron) and inadvertently created many of the podcasting tropes we now know all too well – the introspective intro, the hyper-informal interview, the incongruous advertisements read out by the host. Where Serial (which began five years after WTF) created the true-crime podcast genre, WTF drew up the blueprint for the interview podcast. Adam Buxton, considered to be the UK's podcast godfather, was directly inspired by Maron to begin his own podcast in 2015.. From humble beginnings, WTF has become a cultural phenomenon, reaching 55m listeners a year, winning awards and even interviewing a president, Barack Obama, when that sort of thing was unheard of for a major politician. (Obama made a special visit to Maron's garage in the suburbs of Los Angeles to record the episode.) In 2022, Maron's interview with Robin Williams was chosen to be preserved by the Library of Congress. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Marc Maron (@marcmaron) Breaking the news on the podcast to his guest, comedian John Mulaney, on Monday, Maron mused on the beginnings of WTF. 'When this started no one knew what a podcast was. I was coming out of a horrendous divorce, I was wanting to figure out how to continue living my life, but things were not looking good for me. When we started this thing, all we knew was that we'd do it every Monday and Thursday. There was no way to make money. We didn't know how to build an audience.' With producer Brendan McDonald, he figured it out, and as he said to Mulaney, he has interviewed 'everyone'. Al Gore, Mel Brooks, Quentin Tarantino, Hugh Grant, Keith Richards, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Mavis Staples – what started as a niche concern for US stand-ups became a 'must-do' for all celebrities. Maron's low ebb in 2009 - the divorce, losing his job, stand-up career failing to hit the heights of his peers – became his greatest gift and the show has become famed (and, for some listeners, feared) for its gargantuan opening monologues, in which Maron will riff on whatever is in his head. This scrappy, confrontational, neurotic, angry, worn-out, misanthropic Jewish comedian found himself unloading all his problems, including his drug and alcohol addictions, to the listener. His honesty was not just bracing, it was inspiring. His listeners bonded with him. 'I think the first hundred episodes are me asking celebrities to come over and help me with my problems,' he said. Crucially, this defenceless approach caused his interviewees to open up. The show threw out the traditional conventions of the interview. Maron does little or no research into his guests, rarely plans any questions in advance and talks as much as, and sometimes more than his guests. 'I just want to have conversations,' he has said. Refreshingly, Maron never flatters his guests and, at times, is openly hostile towards them (the show features a lot of score-settling from the world of US stand-up comedy). Part of the charm is Maron's determinedly lo-fi set-up – after using and abusing his Air America door-pass for the first few episodes, the podcast recording moved to a desk in Maron's garage in Los Angeles, where it remains to this day. Maron has the knack to completely disarm his interviewees. 'People who come into his garage feel like they can unburden themselves,' McDonald once said. Recording twice a week, every week, for 16 years (Maron has never taken time off and even records when he is touring or on holiday) means that every wrinkle of Maron's life is documented in WTF. In 2015, he interviewed the director Lynn Shelton (and again in 2018), who he would later begin a relationship with. Shelton died aged 54 from leukemia in 2020 – she had only been ill for one week. In true Maron fashion, he kept podcasting, and kept talking. Speaking to Mulaney, Maron wasn't shy about taking credit for his seminal contribution to podcasting, but he also recognised the negative side. 'I partly feel like I've done an amazing thing for the culture,' he said, 'but I also partly feel like I've released the Kraken.' The Kraken being the mind-boggling saturation of podcasting, with seemingly every minor celebrity having their own warts-and-all podcast. Maron can also take some of the credit/blame for Maga favourite Joe Rogan, whose own podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, began a few months after Maron's. Rogan's podcast is now the most popular in the US. (Rogan was a guest on WTF in 2011 – they didn't get along too well.) WTF's listening figures have waned in recent years, with the show rarely troubling the podcast charts (as pointed out by Rogan), but the show still attracts the biggest stars – David Cronenberg, Ryan Coogler, Ariana Grande, Demi Moore, Erin Brockovich, Mike Leigh and Adrien Brody have all been on this year. The show's farewell tour will surely feature some impressive names (a return for Obama perhaps?), with Maron hinting this week that it might finally tempt some who have previously turned the podcast down. Many listeners will be bereft, but Maron is philosophical. 'It's OK for things to end,' he said in his intro this week. 'This began when there were no podcasts – and now there is nothing but podcasts. We had a great run. It's just time, folks.' The five best episodes of WTF with Marc Maron 1. Robin Williams (episode 67, 2010 Notable because, four years before his death, the actor talks openly about suicide, but there is so much more to the conversation than that. You get every side of Williams here - manic, hilarious, crude, sad, defeated, upbeat. A remarkable interview. 2. Louis CK (Episodes 111 & 1112, 2010) Maron's willingness to haul his private life onto the podcast was perhaps best seen in this double-episode with CK, in which the two comedians reveal they used to be close friends but had fallen out. And then, slowly, across the podcast, the old pals find each other again. Slightly tainted, of course, by the recent allegations against CK. 3. Gallagher (episode 145, 2011) Not everyone will be familiar with the watermelon-smashing cult US comedian, but he was a legend on the American comedy scene. Maron, however, opens up a discussion about Gallagher's frequently homophobic and racist material. Following some robust conversation, Gallagher storms out – Maron's first and only walkout. 4. Barack Obama (episode 613, 2015) The interview that put rocket fuel in the whole medium of podcasting, with the sitting US president willing to tackle everything from the Charleston massacre and gun laws to race relations in America and his own legacy. His use of the n-word made headlines. 5. Eve Ensler (episode 1028, 2019) An extraordinary, difficult conversation with Eve Ensler (writer of The Vagina Monologue) about her recent book The Apology, which tackled the violence and sexual abuse she was subjected to by her own father. At one point both interviewee and interviewer are in tears, unable to talk.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Stick review: Owen Wilson is full of charm in this wry, unassuming golf comedy
There is no logical reason why Owen Wilson 's new Apple TV+ dramedy Stick (Wednesday, Apple TV+) should be so full of charm. Once a regular collaborator with and even muse to high priest of cinephile quirkiness, Wes Anderson, Wilson has not had a project of note in years. Then there is the uneven quality of Apple's comedy output, which errs to a fault towards twee and fluffy (witness the unfiltered horror of feel-good soccer drama Ted Lasso). Plus the series is about golf, which already had its moment in the comedy spotlight with Caddyshack (let us also acknowledge underrated Kevin Costner rom-com Tin Cup ). Absolutely nothing about Stick screams obligatory binge-watch. But Stick sticks the landing. It coasts on the melancholic charm that was a feature of Wilson's early career as he plays a former golf wiz named Pryce Cahill, whose life has crumbled into a mid-life disaster zone until he discovers a young prodigy (Peter Dager) with a great swing and a terrible attitude and vows to make him famous. A likeable ensemble is filled out by Judie Greer as Pryce's ex wife and podcaster Marc Maron as his roguish best pal, Mitts. Owen Wilson, as Pryce Cahill, discovers 17-year-old golf prodigy Santiago Wheeler, played by Peter Dager. Photograph: Apple TV+. With his marriage and golfing prospects both in the bunker, Cahill is at rock bottom. But when he discovers the 17-year-old drop-out, Santi, played by Dager, thwacking a ball on the practice range, he's convinced he's stumbled upon the next Tiger Woods . Initially alarmed at being pestered by a random middle-aged man, Santi eventually comes around to Pryce's sales pitch. That is in contrast to his understandably suspicious mother, Elena (Mariana Treviño), who wonders about Pryce's motives and why he is so obsessed with turning her son into a star. Much like Wilson and his career-making performances in The Royal Tenenbaums and Zoolander , Stick has a satisfyingly ambling quality. It is never in much of a hurry; there is plenty of time to slow down and admire the scenery. But as Cahill and Santi strike up a partnership and head on the road – inevitably, there is a big amateur tournament they hope to win – there are hints of a deeper sadness underpinning Pryce's meltdown. As Pryce lowers his guards, so the series gradually becomes a character study in loss, survival and learning to move on. READ MORE The one caveat for the Irish viewer is that Stick insists Cahill's name should be pronounced 'Kay-hill', which will feel like nails driven into your ears. You won't want to scream at Stick – but you may want to take it aside and explain Cahill does not rhyme with 'fail'. That speed-bump aside, this wry, unassuming comedy swings, hits and, to mix sporting metaphors, knocks it out of the park.
Epoch Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Marc Maron Calls Time on His Long-Running Podcast Show
Actor and comedian Marc Maron, best known for his popular podcast, 'WTF With Marc Maron,' is bringing his show to a close after nearly 16 years. The 61-year-old made the announcement during a June 2
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Marc Maron's ‘WTF' Podcast Ending in the Fall: 'We're Burnt Out'
Marc Maron's WTF with Marc Maron Podcast is ending after 16 years. Maron announced the news on his Monday show, saying, 'It's nice to be able to end things on our own terms. We started the show on our terms. We grew it on our terms, and we'll end it on our terms.' More from The Hollywood Reporter Joy Reid Launching New Video Podcast in Post-Cable TV Push (Exclusive) MLB Legend Ken Griffey Jr. and ESPN Analyst Michael Collins to Host Golf Series for Hartbeat (Exclusive) 'Mythbusters' Veterans Kari Byron and Tory Belleci to Launch 'Mythfits' Podcast (Exclusive) Maron and his producing partner Brendan McDonald made the decision together, he said, explaining that the pair behind the two-team groundbreaking podcast are simply burnt out. 'WTF will turn 16 years old on Sept. 1. Sixteen years, it's a long time. It's a long time to do anything,' he said to open his show, which welcomed on guest John Mulaney. 'All of a sudden, you're old and you realize you've been doing something for a long time. This started in the old garage. No one knew what a podcast was. I was coming out of a horrendous divorce. I was wanting to figure out how to continue living my life. Things were not looking good for me.' He continued, 'When Brendan and I started this thing, all we knew was that we were going to do it e very Monday and Thursday. And there was no way to make money. There was no way that we knew how to build an audience or anything. We were doing it in the garage in the beginning that was just a garage filled with junk. And it slowly evolved into the show that became what you listen to twice a week. Sixteen years we've been doing this and we've decided that we had a great run and now, basically, it's time, folks, It's time. WTF is coming to an end and it's our decision.' The final episode will be some time in the fall, and Maron said they will try to have as many people on as possible before they end in what he called the 'home stretch.' 'Thankfully, we both realized, together, that we were done,' Maron, 62, continued in the announcement. 'There was no convincing or pushback or arguing. We were done. And it's OK. It's OK for things to end. … This was a show that started when there were no podcasts. And now, there is nothing but podcasts.' The GLOW star said this doesn't mean he won't ever have a talk or appear on a podcast again, but that he's looking forward to starting another chapter. 'We have put up a new show every Monday and Thursday for almost 16 years and we're tired,' he made clear. 'We're burnt out. And we are utterly satisfied with the work we've done.' Maron thanked the iconic podcast's fans while teasing his new chapter, which includes his new Apple show with Owen Wilson Stick releasing on Wednesday and the documentary focused on him, Are We Good? directed by Steven Feinartz, that follows the podcaster-comedian-actor as he deals with the loss of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton, who died in 2020, amid a shifting comedy landscape. Maron is also working on a new comedy special for HBO set to release this year, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The special filmed in New York City in May. WTF has remained a top, most-streamed and downloaded podcast since it launched on Sept. 1, 2009, and now boasts nearly 2,000 episodes and more than 55 million listens per year. He's interviewed actors, comedians and icons ranging from Robin Williams, Keith Richards and Nicole Kidman to former President Barack Obama. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Marc Maron to end his ‘WTF' podcast after 15 years of interviewing comics, actors, musicians, Obama
LOS ANGELES: Comic and actor Marc Maron said Monday that he's ending his popular and influential podcast 'WTF with Marc Maron' after nearly 16 years. Maron said on a newly released episode that the last of the nearly 2,000 episodes he has hosted will be released later this year. 'Sixteen years we've been doing this, and we've decided that we had a great run,' Maron said. 'Now, basically, it's time, folks. It's time. 'WTF' is coming to an end. It's our decision. We'll have our final episode sometime in the fall.' The 61-year-old Maron said he and producing partner Brendan McDonald are 'tired' and 'burnt out' but 'utterly satisfied with the work we've done.' Maron was a veteran stand-up comic who had dabbled in radio when he started the show in 2009, at a time when stand-ups were trying out the form in big numbers, and many listeners still downloaded episodes on to iPods.
