Anthony Jeselnik is back in the garage more than 13 years since the last time he and Marc talked on the mics. With many career successes and some failures in the rearview, Anthony talks with Marc about where he sees himself in the landscape of comedy today, as he releases his latest Netflix special and while both of them spend a lot of time thinking about the current perception of standup comedy. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.co...
Nov 25, 2024•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Rosemarie DeWitt never really thought she would become an actor because she felt like no one was betting on her. In fact, later in life her father said, “I can’t believe that you’re successful.” Marc finds out what drove Rosemarie away from those low expectations and into a prominent career with credits like Rachel Getting Married, Mad Men, Little Fires Everywhere and the new film Out of My Mind. They also talk about why horror movies, like Smile 2, are fun to make and how the two of them share ...
Nov 21, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Cynthia Erivo has some tips for Marc on how to get more out of his time on set. For example, she always makes sure to get her steps in. So when you see her playing Elphaba in Wicked, she’s wearing her fitness watch under her witch costume. Cynthia and Marc share their thoughts about the vulnerability of singing, with Cynthia having studied the psychology of music before becoming an award-winning stage performer. They also compare notes on Aretha Franklin from their respective projects about the ...
Nov 18, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Transcript available on Metacast Josh Brolin is a natural guest to return to the garage for a second chat because he and Marc relate on many levels. They both find themselves chasing addictions even when they’re sober. They’re both constantly looking for ways to connect with people. And they both just encountered an intense journey for emotional truth. Marc through his recent acting, Josh through the writing of his new memoir, From Under a Truck, which he calls the most humbling experience of his life. Click here to submi...
Nov 14, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jessica Lange admits she’s always drawn to the darkness and madness of her characters, whether it’s Frances Farmer or Blanche DuBois or her most recent performance as The Great Lillian Hall, which dealt with the trifecta of grief, loss and loneliness. Jessica and Marc talk about how she enjoys plumbing the depths of emotion, but also enjoyed a life that’s taken her all over the world, a career that started in the palm of King Kong, and a body of work that includes Tootsie, All That Jazz, America...
Nov 11, 2024•2 hr 30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Robby Hoffman knows she comes in too hot. But that kind of in-your-face enthusiasm helped her go from being one of ten kids in a Hasidic Jewish family to a burgeoning standup comic and television writer. Robby tells Marc about the challenges of her upbringing, including the socially hazardous way she was publicly outed as a teen. They also talk about her love of Uniqlo, Egg McMuffins, and her writing breakthrough on the children’s show Odd Squad. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archiv...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mo Mandel would like you to enjoy his new comedy special, see him perform live and, if you’re a studio executive, greenlight one of his scripts. But Mo also wants to make sure he doesn’t become too successful, otherwise he’ll lose the sweet deal of essentially being a stay-at-home dad. Mo tells Marc about adapting to his OCD, giving up on self-improvement, and getting sober at the same time he was hosting a show called Barmageddon. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly b...
Nov 04, 2024•1 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Filmmaker Billy Corben got an early taste of show business as an aspiring child actor. That aborted career path eventually turned into a new vocation as a maker of documentary films, including celebrated projects like Cocaine Cowboys and The U. Billy and Marc talk about the persistent connection to Florida in Billy’s work and how his latest film, From Russia with Lev, is both a cautionary tale about the dangers of a Trump Administration and a meditation on the quintessential Florida Man. Sign up...
Oct 31, 2024•2 hr 44 min•Transcript available on Metacast The world learned who Robert Patrick was when he showed up as the T-1000 in Terminator 2, but prior to that break out, Robert saw himself as a failed athlete and alcoholic who was lucky to get a chance at success with this acting thing. Robert tells Marc how his personal struggles continued after T2, how being cast in The X-Files and The Sopranos turned things around for him, and how he’s now challenging himself in more productive ways. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and wee...
Oct 28, 2024•2 hr 31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Keith Urban may seem like an outsider who conquered Nashville, but as he tells Marc, he was an outsider in his home country, too. Coming from what he calls an oddball family in Australia who owned American cars and played American country music, Keith’s journey to international superstardom was not without its roadblocks, some due to the industry, some self-inflicted. Keith also talks with Marc about his eleventh studio album, High, and how he didn’t realize it was so personal until the songs we...
Oct 24, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Many films in the career of Robert Zemeckis, including his new one called Here, involve some form of time travel. As Robert explains to Marc, nothing does time travel better than movies. Robert talks with Marc about becoming a filmmaker thanks to Jerry Lewis, his partnership with Steven Spielberg, his collaborations with Tom Hanks, and the making of his beloved films like Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Forrest Gump and more. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and ...
Oct 21, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Al Pacino created indelible memories for generations of moviegoers. But while he was writing his own memoir, Sonny Boy, Al kept coming back to mental scenes of his days in the South Bronx, running around the streets with friends, enjoying the small things in life. Al talks with Marc about his growth as an actor from the stage to the screen, his formative friendship with acting teacher Charlie Laughton, and his career realization that he can only perform in something he relates to. They also go d...
Oct 17, 2024•2 hr 49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Joe Boyd is part of the music industry in so many ways, as a producer, label founder and more, that his new memoir And The Roots of Rhythm Remain also serves as a history of global music, a political roadmap of popular music trends, and an education in traditional music forms. Joe talks with Marc about music as a way of piercing the past, including his own place in moments like Dylan going electric at Newport, Woodstock, and the beginnings of artists like Pink Floyd and Nick Drake. Sign up here ...
Oct 14, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Langston Kerman named his new Netflix comedy special Bad Poetry, harkening back to his time as a high school teacher. But as someone with an MFA in poetry, Langston knows enough about the dividing line between the bad and the good in both poetry and comedy, two things which are forever connected in his life. Langston and Marc talk about his days as a teacher, as well as his time in Boston, his trip to China with students, the best comedy clubs in America, and why John Mulaney directed his specia...
Oct 10, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sebastian Stan believes creativity is the best therapy. So even when he's playing an unappealing person, like Jeff Gillooly in I, Tonya or Donald Trump in the new film The Apprentice, Sebastian knows there's always something to learn about humanity through his performances. Sebastian talks with Marc about fleeing from his home country of Romania at a young age, learning from master filmmakers like Jonathan Demme, seeking out unique material like the film A Different Man, and finding out that his...
Oct 07, 2024•2 hr 31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Connie Chung’s consummate professionalism and journalistic rigor worked against her as she put together her new memoir. Her impulse is to report the facts, but her editors told her she needed to include other things this time, like feelings and emotion. But as Marc finds out, Connie was able to thoroughly explore not only her past, but her family, her husband Maury Povich, and the world-changing news stories she covered as a reporter and later co-anchor of the CBS Evening News. Sign up here for ...
Oct 03, 2024•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast It’s all a combination of old and new for Kaitlin Olson. She’s just finishing up shooting the first season of her ABC detective series High Potential and is now about to begin shooting the seventeenth season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Kaitlin and Marc talk about the show that changed her life, not only because of the steady work it provided but because it’s also where she started a family. They also talk about her teenage head injury, the Pacific Northwest, therapy, the Groundlings, a...
Sep 30, 2024•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Kathleen Hanna’s life and career exist at the nexus of punk rock, outsider art, photography and feminism. Now that she’s been able to put it all into her memoir, Rebel Girl, Kathleen talks with Marc about her upbringing in the Pacific Northwest, the music scene in Olympia, Washington, her time fronting the bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, her solo projects, her activism, and much more. She also explains the underground riot grrrl movement and the space it created for women in rock music. Sign up ...
Sep 26, 2024•2 hr 40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Marvel fans around the world know Elizabeth Olsen as The Scarlet Witch, but Elizabeth says she has a different alter ego inside of her— that of an elderly New Yorker living on her own in the big city. Elizabeth talks with Marc about this fantasy and how it has something to do with a lifelong desire to avoid the trappings of fame. They also talk about Elizabeth becoming a Dead Head for her latest film, His Three Daughters, and how the two of them have a lot in common when it comes to food and hea...
Sep 23, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast As a kid, Jason Ritter felt a lot of pressure as the son of a beloved actor who audiences felt like they knew personally. He didn’t feel pressure from his parents, but rather pressure from the world, believing he had to live up to being John Ritter’s son. Jason talks with Marc about how that insecurity, as well as his struggle to find his own identity, led directly to an acting career but also caused him mask his emotions with alcohol. They also talk about the limits of research, Matlock, and Ja...
Sep 19, 2024•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast While putting together his new memoir, Eric Roberts developed a fuller understanding of his life as an actor. As someone whose parents did not help him establish a sense of self, his journey through various roles and personality types was part of figuring out who he was. Eric and Marc compare notes on revelations about parents and Eric looks back on some of the roles that made him who he is, including his most recent performance in The Righteous Gemstones which is his favorite of his career. Sig...
Sep 16, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hundreds of WTF guests have show business origin stories, but nobody has one like comedian Ali Macofsky, whose impulsive phone call to Ryan Seacrest live on the radio when she was seven years old got the ball rolling on her career. Ali tells Marc about this event and all the other spontaneous decisions in her early life that led to a failed audition for Hannah Montana, solitary trips to The Laugh Factory, teenage alcoholism, and eventual sobriety. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show...
Sep 12, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast She may have won an Oscar for her first film role, but Lupita Nyong’o spent the early part of her life hiding her desire to be an actor. Lupita tells Marc about growing up under autocratic rule, living in a country where creative voices were suppressed, and learning how to speak out even when it’s risky. Lupita also explains why she followed up 12 Years a Slave with Star Wars and how A Quiet Place: Day One helped cure her fear of cats. (Check out Lupita’s new podcast Mind Your Own, launching Sep...
Sep 09, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast It took Chris Robinson a long time to accept being a rock and roll frontman. Even at the height of The Black Crowes’ success, he just thought they were just a group of dudes from Atlanta playing roots music. Now reunited with the band and touring again after releasing their ninth album, Chris tells Marc why it took time and perspective to realize he liked being the guy on lead vocals. Chris also tells Marc about the influence of bands like The Faces and Humble Pie, how he was discouraged from be...
Sep 05, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Drew Lynch never planned on being a comedian. But his pursuit of an acting career got derailed by a traumatic brain injury that left him with a stutter and no career prospects. Drew tells Marc the reason he decided to get on stage and put together a standup act, a decision that made him a finalist on America’s Got Talent and helped him land a recurring guest stint on Marc’s IFC series. Drew also talks about his self-consciousness over his early breaks in comedy and why humility has become a nece...
Sep 02, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast When the topic of past guests comes up, Marc often mentions Brendon Walsh, a comedian who was on several early WTF episodes as well as Marc’s IFC sitcom. Diving into a full conversation more than a decade since he was last in the garage, Brendon tells Marc about the changes in his life since then, including the break he took from comedy, the tragic death of his podcast co-host, the mistakes he’s come to terms with, and why he currently hosts The World Record podcast with his wife. Sign up here f...
Aug 29, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Greg Fitzsimmons returns to WTF after a 13 year absence, but his dynamic with Marc remains the same as it was when they were comics starting out in Boston almost four decades ago. With a new comedy special out, Greg talks with Marc about his unhealthy relationship with worry, how he broke the self-destructive cycles of his family, and how his relationship with Marc evolved from trying to get in a fistfight with him backstage to reminiscing about their road stories and hard-earned victories. Sign...
Aug 26, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Over the past four years, Paul W. Downs has been one of the people responsible for constructing the ongoing story of a lifer standup comic on the show Hacks. Paul talks with Marc about how his comedy background is very different from the fictional Deborah Vance, with his training at the UCB Theater, his days at the vanguard of internet video comedy, and his entry into the world of Broad City. They also talk about embarrassment, becoming less odd with age, and the current crisis in comedy develop...
Aug 22, 2024•2 hr 31 min•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Rooker is known for playing a variety of menacing and intense characters. But menace was something he was always good at, as the protective older brother of six sisters. And intensity is often something people misread because he’s hard of hearing. Michael talks with Marc about growing up in Alabama with no electricity or running water, his bus driver’s outfit helping him land Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, his epic Eight Men Out casting story, his embrace of the comic book world by ...
Aug 19, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Blair Socci comes from an athletic family with a hardened ancestral backstory involving throat slashing and exile. But despite her exterior toughness, Blair spent her youth enjoying poetry, journaling and creative writing. If she hadn't caught the comedy bug, she intended to become a novelist. Blair and Marc talk about her volleyball prowess, how athletics prepared her for comedy, and why she recently felt the need to abandon her anti-social media stance. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full sh...
Aug 15, 2024•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
