Episode 1568 - Greg Fitzsimmons

**Marc Maron** (0:09)
All right, let's do this. How are you, WTFers, WTF buddies? WTFsters, what's happening? I'm Marc Maron, this is my podcast. Welcome to it. One of the originals of the medium, always still audio, just talking to you in your head, you know, on your little speaker in your car. You don't have to watch anything, just talking. We're just talking here. There's an organic thing to it. Do you know what I mean? There's a just this, just me and you, or perhaps me, you and whoever's sitting there tolerating me, or perhaps it's me, you and one of your kids or two of your kids where you have to explain what something means or why you think that guy is funny. I know there's a lot of different scenarios, but ultimately it's a fairly candid, intimate conversation. On that note, today on the show I talked to Greg Fitzsimmons. Greg Fitzsimmons has been on the show a few times back in the day. He was on a very early episode of WTF with some shorter segments, and he did a full one, I think it was back in 2011, episode 139 But Greg and I go back. We go way back. He's got a special coming out this week. It's called Greg Fitzsimmons, You Know Me. But we go way back, man. I mean, back to the beginning, I think he might have started a little after me in Boston. But over the years, we have a thing, we have a dynamic, and it is friendly, but sometimes it feels like it's right on the edge. I texted Brendan, my producer. He said it was great. We have a good dynamic. And I'm like, yeah, it's taut. It's a little taut. But there are those kind of sort of friendship dynamics that got a little edge to them. And you're waiting to get stuck a little bit. But it's pretty funny. God damn it, I love funny people. I love funny people. I went to a party the other night, hadn't been to a party in a while with a lot of comics. And I was like, people I've known for years, and I was just, holy shit. I'm able to laugh a little more. Maybe I'll talk about that. Look, Greg is on the show today. It was funny. It's a humorous intensity, I think, that we kind of engage in. I keep in the loop as much as I can. I did spend about 12 minutes in my car. I had driven somewhere to run an errand. I was going to look at some new frames for my head to kind of try to get me into some place where I can understand the character I have to play in a movie next month or in October. And I sat in my car, because I had started a reel on Instagram, and it was literally, I think, Chinese, because the caption was in Chinese. And it looked like a car had been taken out of the mud. It looked like a car that had been in a flood. So it was covered with mud, and there was no way to get into the car. It wasn't a great car. It was just an okay car. I couldn't even tell if it was new or not, but it wasn't like some classic automobile. And I watched somebody wash it off, take it all apart, clean off the rust, foam clean it, and put it back together. And at the end, it was just an okay car, but it was salvaged. But the point is, I couldn't get out of my car, because I was watching someone clean a car for like 10, 12 minutes. It's very satisfying. There's a lot of weird satisfying things, but there's nothing more clearly a dopamine hit than the sort of satisfaction. I mean, back in the day, I mean, I used to enjoy watching my clothes in the dryer. I felt like I was doing something. I wasn't doing anything. I had shown up with the clothes at the laundromat, and I guess that was a big deal. But there was something satisfying about watching my clothes in the dryer. So maybe it's that impulse or that kind of connection that is really what watching your phone is all about. It's no different than finding satisfaction in watching your clothes tumble dry. Is there a way we can get back to that, folks? Can we get back to that America where you could just sit and watch your clothes dry and maybe think a bit on your own? Maybe read a book. Maybe look at the vending machine. Maybe get a box of the little box of detergent. Sure. Maybe look at the other people. Maybe wonder, you know, what, why was that piece of clothing left there? Is that anybody's? Does anyone work here? Does anybody work here? Man, just watch, I've watched drains work. I've watched unclogging drains on Instagram. I watch large pieces of dough made into things. It's the same thing. We've got to get back to the drier people. I'm telling you, man, we had at least had some control over our brains then. You know, you could, there was a meditative quality to it because you were in the world. Your clothes were drying. You know, maybe you sat out front of the laundromat, smoked a cigarette. That was the days, huh? Wow. Look, I'll be in Tucson, Arizona at the Rialto Theater on Friday, September 20th. Then I'm in Phoenix at the Orpheum Theater on Saturday, September 21st. I just had to reschedule my dates in Illinois, Napa and Sacramento. Sorry. You know, this is it. I have an opportunity to do this flick, this movie, this piece of cinema for October and November here in LA, and I'm going to do it. And if you're still with me on the other side of that, great. I'm just figuring stuff out, man. I'm 60, and it's not bucket list stuff, it's just opportunities that have come from me doing the work I have done, and I'm going to take those opportunities and then see if I enjoy them, and if I don't, I'll figure something else out. It sounds like I might start going to laundromats and just watching dryers. That's not bad.