WTF with Marc Maron Podcast

William Zabka spent the ‘80s playing a variety of bullies all seemingly modeled after his star-making performance in his first movie, The Karate Kid. But by the time he was in Back to School, William grew tired of playing the same jerk again and again. He tells Marc how he expanded his life beyond the typecasting, through music, through family, through world travel, through the arduous mounting of an Oscar-nominated short. And now, with Cobra Kai, it's all come full circle, as William finally gets the chance to explore the depth and pathos of the bully who started it all, Johnny Lawrence. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

31 Maj 20211h 7min

Andrew Santino and Marc didn't know much about each other, aside from both being Comedy Store regulars and comedians from different ends of a generational divide. But in this conversation, they discover the similar paths they both paved in comedy, starting out with no money and no connections, finding themselves unhappy with their early work, and preferring the life of a lone wolf to the life in a pack. Andrew also talks about being a Comedy Store comic starring in a fictional show about the early days of The Comedy Store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

27 Maj 20211h 22min

Whether he was getting booked on The Tonight Show or becoming the first standup to have a hit sitcom based on his act or finding success as a professional poker player, Gabe Kaplan says it all happened in spite of his lack of ambition. Gabe tells Marc how he really wanted to become a professional baseball player, how his athleticism served him well in Battle of the Network Stars, and how his initial years in standup were spent opening for strippers and bellydancers. They also talk about the making of Welcome Back, Kotter and how playing Las Vegas got Gabe into poker. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

24 Maj 20211h 20min

Rickie Lee Jones is, first and foremost, a storyteller. She realized at a young age that she could process her feelings and tell her own story through the fiction of songs. As she tells Marc, that same impulse prompted her to write a memoir in which she could present her life story through the narrative of her extended family of vaudevillians. Rickie Lee and Marc also talk about her formative and tumultuous relationship with Tom Waits and why it's hard for her to reminisce about her early albums and the hits that made her a star. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

20 Maj 20211h 12min

American audiences know Eric Bana from his complex performances in movies like Munich, Black Hawk Down and Ang Lee's Hulk. But in his native Australia, Eric got his start doing standup and sketch comedy. Eric and Marc share their respective experiences of the Australian comedy scene and Eric explains how his gift for mimicry and impressions helped him transition from sketch to dramatic acting. They also talk about Eric's new movie The Dry, why the demise of movie theaters is greatly exaggerated, and why Australian actors are rarely allowed to play Australians. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

17 Maj 20211h 13min

Kristin Hersh needs to make music. Whether it's with her bands Throwing Muses and 50FOOTWAVE or in her solo albums, making music is a compulsion. But she only recently figured out that music was her way of managing trauma. Kristin tells Marc about a life changing car accident, her dissociative disorder, PTSD, “switching,” and how processing all of this helped her understand the music she'd been hearing in her head all her life. They also talk about her new book, Seeing Sideways, which deals with Kristin raising four children on a tour bus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

13 Maj 20211h 12min

Steve Miller didn't expect to become a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer with hit songs that stand the test of time, like The Joker and Fly Like An Eagle. He was just a kid from Wisconsin who loved the Blues and wound up with teachers like T-Bone Walker and his godfather Les Paul. Steve tells Marc how he got his first breaks in clubs run by the Chicago Mafia, how he learned an important lesson from Paul McCartney, and how he discovered a lost 1977 concert performance which he's finally releasing. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 Maj 20211h 26min

Mark Normand is relieved to get back to the comedy clubs after a year of doing outdoor shows and other compromised sets during the pandemic. But Mark never considered stopping because comedy is something he has to do. Maybe it goes back to growing up feeling like an outsider in his own family of overachievers, or maybe it's how he coped with childhood anxieties like bedwetting, or maybe it has to do with being a victim of crime at several points in his life. He tries to get to the bottom of it with Marc while they also reminisce about the New York comedy scene and the fight-or-flight impulses they have as comedians. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

6 Maj 20211h 24min