Marc Maron stands up for himself on the eve of a WTF milestone

One comic’s last-ditch effort to save his career has become a cultural signpost. Marc Maron’s WTF podcast — among iTunes’ most-downloaded shows — centers on what might be the most insightful interviews in show business. Maron’s conversation with Robin Williams placed the late comedian in a new context, and his train-wreck talk with the watermelon-smashing Gallagher was gripping in its own way. The podcast has also spun off into a live-action series for IFC, the loosely autobiographical Maron.



I spoke with Maron by phone from his new office about the impending 700th episode of WTF, as well as the upcoming fourth season of Maron.



The Pitch: You’re rapidly approaching a milestone episode of WTF. In the last 100 episodes or so, you’ve hit a lot of what seem to be important markers: You got to talk to an idol in Keith Richards, you got to close part of an obsession with Lorne Michaels, and you’ve spoken with President Barack Obama. Looking back, what does it seem like to you?



Marc Maron: You know, I just keep moving. Those were very exciting times, and I think they did have some profound effect on me as a person. I don’t really know if I’ve processed what those are, necessarily, but they were very exciting conversations. It’s pretty amazing. It’s very hard not to feel like something amazing happened when the president comes to your house. So I feel a lot of pride, and that I’ve done something with my life.



And then, you know, I gotta wake up me, so — that’s a little better some days. But some things in my brain have not necessarily changed. [chuckles] Like, “What am I going to do now?” is one. The podcast is great: I love talking to people. But, outside of whatever or whoever is on the podcast, me talking to other human beings twice a week is always very good for me, just on a mental level,
you know?



It’s been interesting for people who have been listening for a long time, or absorbed that back catalog, to hear you develop and grow as a person — if that’s not horribly insulting.



I definitely feel like some parts of me have grown. I can’t deny that. There are other parts of me that remain the same or otherwise, but they’re getting better. I appreciate that as evidence. I feel that, which is good. A lot of times people tell you, “You seem different,” and you don’t necessarily feel different, but I definitely feel like I’m in a different world, in terms of my own self.



What’s been great, listening to WTF, is the balance that the show has achieved. For every William Friedkin, there’s a Daniel Radcliffe. And you still talk to working comics, which seems reassuring. Is that the show keeping touch with its roots?



Oh, yeah, definitely. I think that’s important. I don’t necessarily register a difference that often. I mean, I know that people are celebrities, and I know the president’s the president, but I like talking to comics and I like talking to people who I’m interested in, so I don’t think we’ll ever lose that. I think that’s part of the whole basis of the show, you know?



The podcast has turned into another show with IFC’s Maron, and I’m really curious about the end of the last season, when your character fell off the wagon. As a sober person, what’s it like playing someone going through that?



It’s pretty fun. I felt a distance from it. Those were never my drugs. Part of the thing with this new season, that’s going to start in May, is to take the show to a place where I haven’t gone but could go. This would obviously be the negative trajectory — not the good way to go. This would be what would happen if my worst instincts, my worst compulsions, got me. That was sort of the idea for last season, and this season is what that looks like a year later.



I think it was sort of exciting to act that stuff, and I hope I did a good job, but it didn’t feel that menacing to me. It was sort of sad, you know? That possibility of people that have lost everything because of that illness. I’m just fortunate that I haven’t, in a way, so it’s kind of interesting to explore that safely, through fiction, without having to do it in my real life. You get all of the excitement without getting high or fucking everything up.



Now that you’re coming through Kansas City, it seems like the Midland is a very different place than the Lawrence Arts Center, which you played on your last appearance in the area two years ago.



I don’t think that the venue determines how well I’m doing, other than somebody decided to book me in there. In Lawrence, that arts center? That was great. It was a great fun little festival to do. This isn’t really a full tour. I’m doing three dates in the Midwest as sort of a way of picking up places I’ve never really played in any sort of real way. I’ve certainly never been to Nebraska or Iowa, and in Kansas I was at a film festival.



Is there a chance that these dates will turn into another album at some point?



Oh, yeah. Of course, I’ll continue to do stand-up. Some of the stuff I’ll be doing will be from More Later, which I don’t think a lot of people saw, and some of it will be new stuff that I’m working on. It’ll be sort of a mixed bag. But, yeah: If I keep doing stand-up, we’ll get another special or record eventually. I’ve done, like, five or six, so they continue to happen, despite myself.