If I’m not mistaken, they’ve changed the pay structure on the app and some of the reviews are complaining about the old model. I think that before, you had to pay for the app and then also pay to upgrade and get the back catalog, which pissed people off. The current model is, free app with access to the 50 most recent episodes, and then pay for access to everything. I too thought the $1.99 was worth it to get the old shows, and I do like having the capacity to stream or download at my choice. Just MHO though.
I’ve been listening to the very first episodes, and wow, Maron has really polished it quite a bit since then. The first few seem to be more about “doing comedy” than just the long-form relaxed interview that he’s settled into now. It’s interesting to see (hear?) the progression.
I recently started listening myself and am glad to see it’s not just me that finds his opening monologues dreadfully boring. The interviews themselves are very good though. I used to feel guilty about fastforwarding through his opening but not any more.
He really needs to drop it. It really pulls the show down if you let it.
I just listened to the Gallagher interview. Marc was right during his monologue when he said he was overly aggressive. He came across as if he had no intention of listening to anything G said. Pretty much attacked him the whole time and then kept claiming that he wasn’t. He was just “having a conversation”. Uh huh.
I do like his interviews though other than that trainwreck.
I enjoyed the Rogan one as well. Does anyone have any idea about why Rogan thinks Carlos Mencia is so damaged? I saw the video of them arguing about joke theft, but what all of that stuff about terrible things happening to Mencia, and him being a victim?
I’m bumping this because I’ve been listening to the back catalogue of Marc Maron’s podcasts all week and they’re great – can anyone recommend other similar podcasts? I’m particularly interested in podcasts focused on behind-the-scenes comedy or film or television info.
It’s funny to me that I know most of his guests from watching their standup back in the early 90s when Comedy Central (or its precursors, Ha! and the Comedy Channel) used to run clips of standup comics almost 24/7, and I was a depressed middle/high schooler at the time and would watch standup as self-medication. He’ll drop a name I hadn’t thought of in 20 years, and I’ll remember that guy and then feel all proud of myself for knowing comedy history.
And I agree with some of the posters in this thread who’ve said that Maron’s intros can be off-putting at first, but they’re worth listening to once you warm up to him. One of the episodes I listened to recently (can’t remember which one) had an intro involving him looking through the U-Line catalog and contemplating ordering a lab coat and pink hardhat, and it made me laugh until I was crying.
A very similar podcast is Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show; he’s got a small crew helping him, there isn’t the deeply-introspective stuff at the start, and they play little games like “guess which celeb tweeted this” for a few minutes each show, but it’s very similar and of high quality, in guests and discussion. Go back to episode #99 for a simply excellent interview with Adam Savage; it really changed my impression of him (in a good way).
There’s Adam Corolla’s podcast, although that does have lots and lots of Adam Corolla in it. But you will hear a lot about how TV shows and movies get made in Hollywood, behind the scenes.
Be warned: that show has chronic buffering problems.
