Comedian Mary Beth Barone’s Brilliant ‘Galaxy Brain’

**Mary Beth Barone** (0:00)
So when I had been doing comedy for a few years, my Aunt Donna told me a story that I'd never heard before. She said when my grandma Barone, so my dad's mom was on her deathbed, she hallucinated. And she said, I was five at the time, she said, Mary Beth is at the foot of the bed, and she's on a stage, and she's telling dirty jokes and using vulgar words into a microphone.
When I heard that, I got chills. Because it wasn't like I heard that as a kid, and I really like, I was like, I'm going to follow that narrative and make it come true. It was like, I heard that after the fact, and I was like, holy shit.

**Sam Fragoso** (0:39)
I mean, it sounds made up.

**Mary Beth Barone** (0:40)
My Italian grandmother was a witch.

**Sam Fragoso** (0:48)
Welcome to the show.
Today, comedian, actor and writer, Mary Beth Barone. You may know her from her stand-up comedy, her own podcast, Ride, which she co-hosts with Benito Skinner, or their hit series, Overcompensating, where she writes and stars as Benny's older sister, Grace. This week, she debuts her first Netflix special. It's excellent. It's called Galaxy Brain. And it's an hour that covers everything from dating and therapy to politics and Catholicism, all filtered through the dry, deliberate, and self-aware delivery that's become Barone's trademark. And so we begin today's conversation with the making of this new special, how she's grown since her first independently produced special, Thought Provoking, and the years that led to this pivotal moment, growing up the youngest of six in Connecticut, the odd jobs that funded her early years in New York, the open mic that changed her life, auditioning for Saturday Night Live and not getting it, and why that was actually a good thing, and how she's found her voice as a performer. Before we begin, if you're enjoying Talk Easy, you can subscribe here on YouTube or follow the show wherever you get your podcasts. All of it helps our team continue making these episodes each and every Sunday. With that, here is my conversation with Mary Beth Barone.
Mary Beth Barone, nice to meet you.

**Mary Beth Barone** (2:21)
So good to meet you.

**Sam Fragoso** (2:23)
How are we doing?

**Mary Beth Barone** (2:24)
Oh my gosh. I've dabbled with straight male hosts before. I can't say that they've been my favorite experiences in the podcast part of my life.

**Sam Fragoso** (2:34)
So I have to rise to the occasion.

**Mary Beth Barone** (2:35)
I have high hopes for this one. I'll just say the pressure is on. Pressure can be on. I feel like you're straight, but you're not like other straight guys.

**Sam Fragoso** (2:42)
What does that mean?

**Mary Beth Barone** (2:43)
Just like different. You're different. Asking questions off the bat, different.
That makes you different.

**Sam Fragoso** (2:50)
Yeah. I mean, it's an occupational hazard in my case.

**Mary Beth Barone** (2:52)
Yeah.

**Sam Fragoso** (2:53)
On Stradio Lab.

**Mary Beth Barone** (2:55)
Oh, good.

**Sam Fragoso** (2:56)
You talked a bit about how you were considering quitting stand-up comedy. The host said, every time we talk to you, you say, I may be quitting stand-up comedy.
Where are we at today?

**Mary Beth Barone** (3:09)
Today, so instead of quitting, in that moment, I decided to double down even harder on my stand-up career, and I went on tour, and then I ended up selling a special to Netflix. For the time being, and again, careers like life, not linear, I've decided to stay.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:28)
But what is that? Is that a real thing or is that a bit that you're doing, that you do genuinely consider? What are we doing here?

**Mary Beth Barone** (3:35)
I think around that time, I wasn't having that many big career successes that felt like it was keeping me in it.
So I think sometimes, especially in this industry, when you feel like you've just been told no so many times, it's like, how long am I going to put myself through this? So I've had many low points where I thought, you know what, maybe this actually just isn't what I should be doing. But I think those were always empty threats. And I've also had to watch stand up change so much since I started, some for the better and some for the worse.

**Sam Fragoso** (4:05)
What do you mean?

**Mary Beth Barone** (4:07)
So stand up is now, it's a lot online. You're experiencing stand up a lot on the Internet, which back when I started in 2016, it was a live experience and then you had a taped special or YouTube videos or someone's set would end up online.