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Callarogas shock media boy.
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There is so much going on with podcasting and comedy
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high I'm Johnny Mack in a busy Wednesday with your
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daily comedy news. Is all right? The big one? Mark
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Maren kind of shockingly announced that WTF with Mark Maren,
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his podcast that's been around for sixteen years, will end
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this fall. On Monday's episode with John mulaney and I
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did pull some clips, Maren said, WTF is coming to
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an end, and it's our decision. He made it quite
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clear that this was a co decision with producer Brendan McDonald.
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He was very very clear about that. Maren said, we'll
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have our final episode sometime in the fall. The podcast
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turns sixteen years old on September first. More than sixteen
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hundred episodes. Probably the most notable one was Barack Obama
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in the Garage. I actually use that to teach my
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college students on this is how you do it. I'm
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going to miss the show a lot. I find Maren
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very easy on the ears, the conversations always good. There
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are a lot of weeks where Maren has the same
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guest as someone else, for example, John Maliney and the
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Maren version of it is just better. Maren explained. It
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wasn't some kind of difficult decision necessarily, neither me nor Brendan.
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We're the only people in charge of this operation at
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every level. We both realized together that we were done.
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All right, let's listen to Mark Maren explain it.
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And this started, you know, the old garage, the you know,
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just no one knew what a podcast was. I was
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coming out of a horrendous divorce. I was wanting to
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figure out how to continue living my life. Things were
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not looking good for me. Brendan MacDonald my producer who
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I'd worked with for years on other things radio and
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streaming related. And when Brandon and I started this saying,
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all we knew was we were going to do it
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every Monday and Thursday, and there was no way to
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make money. There was no way that we knew how
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to build an audience or anything. And it was crazy.
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We were doing it in a garage at the beginning
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that was just a garage. It was filled with junk,
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and it slowly evolved into the show that became what
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you listened to twice a week. Sixteen years we've been
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doing this and we've decided that we had a great
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run and now basically it's time, folks, it's time WTF
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is coming to an end, and it's our decision. We'll
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have our final episode sometime in the fall.
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Now, I remember listening to the show. Podcasting has had
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kind of two waves. The second wave everybody puts around
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twenty fifteen with Cereal, But there was that earlier wave
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when we all first got phones and you would actually
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have to connect to your phone to iTunes and manually
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download a show. Before we left the house. He had
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something to listen to, and I was out running, and
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I remember Maren and Nerdiced were like two long form
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pods that you would grabs. You would just have stuff
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on your phone to listen to as your bran. Maren said,
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we're tired, we're burnt out, and we are utterly satisfied
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with the work we've done. We've done great work. Doesn't
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mean I'll never have, you know, talks like I do
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here or some kind of podcast at some point in time,
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but for now, we're just wrapping things up. It's good
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that he gets to go out on his own terms.
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Maren said, it's okay for things to end. We started
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the show on our terms. We grew it on our terms.
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We'll end it on our terms.
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It's the right decision for me, it's the right decision
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for Brendan. It's okay, it's okay for things to end.
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It's just time, folks. But again, we'll have a few
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more months, so don't get all bummed out. Let's just
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enjoy it. The world is on fire. I have the
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people I want to talk to. We'll find a little joy,
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We'll find a little connection, We'll find a little solid
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in each other's company.
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Also, notably, he never did video, and that's the big
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thing in the industry right now was, oh, you gotta
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have a video, and this has always been an audio podcast.
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Maren Show actually debuted a month after the Adam Carolla
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Show and three months ahead of Rogan, and then he
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got into the interview with John Mulaney, which was separately noteworthy.
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Now what rang my ears? Listen carefully to John Mulaney
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commenting here, Maren asks him will there be another season
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of Everybody's Live? And I had pointed out on this
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podcast a few weeks back Robbie Prau, who heads up
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Netflix Comedy, gave some sort of quote that made me go, huh,
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this isn't the slam dunk we were led to believe. Now,
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listen to m'laney here, I'm not sure this show's coming back.
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Listen Have they said we're doing more yet we Yes.
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There was a plan to do more and we're figuring
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it out.
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Yeah, yeah, are you gonna U?
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I never know what to say to that.
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I also like this clip from John mulaney. He's almost
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defiant that if if something works, he's going to stop
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doing it. Fair enough, respect the mindset, but it's why
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the show doesn't work. But here's Mulini.
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Anytime you say they're figuring it out not a bad set,
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a side of me comes out, you know, like they've
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they've found their groove. No, we haven't. I'll do it blindfolded.
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And also when they say things like they're figuring out,
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it's just a diplomatic way of saying if not.
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Good, Oh, I think they just say it's not good
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when they don't like yeah, I think we're no longer
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living in the decent era of uh, well, they're figuring out.
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I think people want the best for you, John, Oh,
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that's it.
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Molini also talked about being offered the oscars he did
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confirm that it was offered to him. He said, I
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was very flattered. They came to me. Must have been
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last summer, and I knew Jimmy Kimmel wasn't going to
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do it, and they offered it, and it was honestly,
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they had a lot going on, and it's months and
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months of work. Both he and Maren praised Conan. Malini
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said he came out and was not only funny, but
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he elevated the show to the point I almost convinced
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myself that I'd seen these movies and I han't seen
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one of them. Mary makes some good points that Conan
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will sometimes self erase when he's floundering, and in the
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first few seconds of the Oscars, you could see Conan
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was almost heading towards a flounder and then found himself.
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So it's a really good listen Maren and Malaney. But
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I have plenty of more podcasts for you to listen to.
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Joe Rogan had on Jimmy Carr a very good three hours.
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I can listen to Jimmy Carr talk about comedy all
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day every day. Here he talks about Heckler's and.
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Then I'm trying, but then I'm trying to I've got
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a good fastball, and then I'm trying to work on
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the other bits. But that's kind of what I love
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about the industry because.
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It's it's everything.
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You go, yeah, I can get good at that, and
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then I can I can do you like twenty minutes
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of fastballs, and then do I've start About a year ago,
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I started putting. I started working with a videographer and
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putting stuff out of like Heckel videos and people talking
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to me, yeah, I'll and you go. It's just such
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a joyful thing because it's almost like doing the stuff
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when you go, just hit me whatever you want. I'll
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do anything. It's like seeing magician do real magic, because
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you kind of go, right, yeah, I've worked this muscle
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hot enough I can. I'll write jokes life for you now.
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Jimmy Carr is also the guest on kil Tony. Haven't
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gotten to that one yet. The podcast The Town had
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on both Mulaney I'll maybe talk about that in a
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few days and had on Mike Burbiglia. The clip I
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pulled here Mike Burbiglia sounds to me like the Netflix
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money isn't what the Netflix money used to be. Here's
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for bigs.
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Are they still paying top dollar though? Are you? I mean,
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you don't have to give me numbers, but like they're
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still treating you well because I've heard some pullbacks.
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I think there have been. I don't look at other
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people's papers that much, but.
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I mean it's fine.
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I mean it's fine.
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I've never, honestly, I've never made a ton of money
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from comedy specials.
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A lot of it is just like marketing.
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Getting well, yeah, and it's getting like, look, I do
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a really specific thing, like I consider myself the luckiest
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person in the world to have found Netflix. I shouldn't
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even say this on record because it'll make my negotiation
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for the next cringe exactly, but it's it's like Netflix
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is the best thing that ever happened to me, because look.
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I was like, I Mike Berg would turn this off.
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I make shows that are combination of Broadway shows, theater, storytelling,
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and sinup comedy, like nobody before Netflix. Nobody was like,
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we got to get that on Comedy Central.
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And I just now before I started recording, walked the
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Dog for an hour and listen to Diary of a
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CEO with Guess Jimmy Fallon. I really enjoyed it. It
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was nice to hear Jimmy Fallon in real person mode.
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But boy, the way he tells the story he was
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obsessed and convinced he would be on SNL by age
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twenty five. It almost sounds like hogwash, but you listen
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to him say it over and over and he believes it.
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The host even asked him, well, what would happen if
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you didn't get SNL by twenty five, and Fallon like,
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can't even entertain that as a premise of like, what
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do you mean? Of course I was going to get
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it very interesting. There one thing that was a little fun.
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It got cleaned up at the end, But in the
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first half of the podcast, they were making it sound
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like by phrasing it this way that Fallon replaced Letterman,
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I mean kinda sorta, But that's like saying Jay Leno
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replaced Jack Parr, I mean kinda sorta. Later on, Fallon
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said that he replaced Conan, which is factually accurate. A
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note to everybody in the podcast industry, this is my
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number one pet peeve, but I'm specifically calling you out
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Diary of a CEO guy. So in the middle of
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the podcast, Jimmy Fallon is talking about dying, about what
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it will be like when he dies, and it abruptly
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cuts to a live read of the Diary of a CEO.
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Guy trying to sell us an iced coffee. It's a
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train wreck. People. You have to place these commercial breaks.
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It's very easy. I do it on this podcast every day.
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If you notice what I will do is I will
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leend a story in a down inflection and I leave
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a nice little hole there and that's where the commercial goes.
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It's very easy to do, and I don't know why
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people can't do. Whether there's so many train wrecks. The
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worst train wrecker of all is Tim Dillon mid sentence
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train wrecks. Joe Rogan is awful. Plus the reads come
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mid sentence. Spotify do better anyway. Diary of a CEO
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very very good. Listen with Jimmy Fallon. Fallon talks about
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the highs and lows of his career and auditioning when
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he was in his twenties. He says he wasn't the greatest,
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and I'm a pretty positive guy in general, but I
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think it was probably my lowest moment. I remember like
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trying to see what therapy was or if I could
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afford a therapist. I wrote a letter of my best friends,
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like I'm losing it, dude. I think was something on
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the point of like I'm losing it and I don't
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know if I can make it. Jimmy talked about his
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obsession with SNL. I became so obsessed in high school
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that I really couldn't hang out with anyone. I watched
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the show. People are like, can't you tape it? I
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can't tape, but I have to watch it live. I said,
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if I do nothing else in life, that's all I
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wanted to do. And like, even if that, if I
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could go for one season or one episode, then I
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could do whatever I want. Really really good conversation. I
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think Fallon is better than the interviewer Stephen Bortlett. And
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I'm not sure Steven is the greatest host, but he's
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got a pretty successful podcast there and I'm sitting here
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in the basement, so what do I know. But I
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think Fallon is really good there. Also, catching my ears
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is Jimmy does kind of what I do and swallows
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the syllables on the first word of SNL. I'll often
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say sat Night Live or Saturday Night Live or something
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like that unless I catch myself and over an unciate.
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Jimmy a few times says something like Saturnight Live if
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you pay attention across my ears continuing are very busy
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Wednesday and busy a block. Ricky Gervais last week on Friday,
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got his Hollywood Walk of Fame star. He said he
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was humbled and that his success was a mix of luck, persistence,
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and a little bit of pushing against the tide. Ricky said,
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I'd love to claim that it was due to my
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unrival genius, but truth be told, it's a cocktail of luck,
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persistence and a little bit of pushing against the tide.
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You know, you've got to polarize. I think you need
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to know if you're gonna do anything of any worth.
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As many people hate you as love you. But the
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ones that hate you shouldn't affect you. The ones that
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love you, they buy your house, so I'd like to
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thank them. And we've had a few weird years of