Episode 1651 - Mike Birbiglia

**Marc Maron** (0:09)
All right, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fuck, Nicks? What's happening? I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast, WTF, welcome to it. If you're just getting on board here, welcome. I know some people are curious. They've been reading about it. It's sort of still amazing to me, but not really. Just how we all create our own little bubbles. And I know for a fact that most people don't know who I am. Most people in the world. But that's okay. It's really okay. I'd rather be a little below the radar. I like to just cruise at my own altitude. And, you know, I don't want to be something everybody looks up in the sky and says, Oh shit, look at that thing. No, I just kind of want to zip by my own lane, my own frequency and my own altitude and live the life. But if you are just checking in for the first time, welcome. You've got a lot of catching up to do. It's only about 1600 and and and change episodes, but they're all pretty good. I can vouch for them because I was there when they happened. I hope you're well. I hope that thing cleared up and I hope that, you know, everything was OK with that meeting you had. And I also hope that you don't hurt yourself because you're not paying attention to the road right now. Wake up. Hey, hey, don't ride the brake. I was in a car the other day and the guy was riding the brake. There is nothing I cannot stand more than that. It makes me furious. I'm sure there's deeper issues that are probably being brought up. But the riding the brake thing, I can't, I can't take it. I don't know how to ride the brake in anything. Well, that's not true. I maybe not ride the brake, but I'll hang out in a lower gear sometimes. So, look, you guys, I know a lot of you are watching and reading and hearing and freaking out about what is really martial law here in some parts of the Los Angeles area. This is an authoritarian shit show of a political theater put on by our sociopathic huckster clown king to flex his dick and show us what the future holds. But it is happening. But I do want you to know that even people that know better that when it's sort of presented as the state of California is burning, the state of California is in chaos. The state of California is crumbling. Just know that the state of California is fucking huge. I mean, is it, what is it? Is it the biggest state or is Texas? Is it the second biggest state? I mean, there is shit going down and it's horrible shit. There are peaceful protests that have been instigated into something maybe more than that by the Marine presence, by the National Guard presence. The cops here were doing fine, but I'm telling you, this is a flex and this is the country we're living in now. And anybody who watches this shit, that watches this horrible reality of innocent people being ripped out of their homes with no due process and taken away and watches clips of that and thinks, yeah, this is the way America should be. You're a shitty person. You're just a shitty person. And there's a lot more shitty people than I ever imagined. You know, I used to think people were fundamentally or innately decent or cared about other people, but something's broken the brains of many. There's a mania, there's a doubling down, there's a honoring one's worst and most primitive instincts in relation to other human beings. There's a loss of decency, a loss of tolerance, a loss of basic love and respect. And it's just being fanned. These flames are being fanned. And this is the shit show we live in. I'm grateful to the people that stood up and got out there and tried to have a peaceful protest like we're allowed to do, to speak our minds and show what we believe in as Americans. And it takes a tremendous amount of courage to do that. But I just want you to know that not unlike most other states, probably all other states, California is a huge place with lots of different kinds of people in it, lots of good people, lots of iffy people, lots of shitty people, lots of people that are struggling, but it's massive. And this idea that this state is crumbling, because that's how it's being contextualized or presented to you on your phone or in the clips you're watching is not true. There are people standing up, there are people out in the streets, there are people engaging in their democratic right to a peaceful protest. There are people like me talking on microphones, and there are people just kind of, you know, herding horses and, you know, doing some farming and, you know, trying to have a life. But I don't think you should be blind to it, but just know that this is political theater on behalf of an authoritarian government in what's becoming more and more a fascist culture in order to terrify and frighten the average person. And it's probably working. That said, so I got Mike Birbiglia on the show. And look, I go way back with this guy, and I've talked about our history together on episode 94 Then he was on again for episode 300 when he was the interviewer of me. I was in his film Sleepwalk with me. He's also the director of Don't Think Twice. He's had four Netflix specials, including his latest called The Good Life. And silly problems between me and him. They're not even problems, they're just feelings. Persist mostly in me. And look, I know it's me, and it's one of these weird kind of things I have to deconstruct and live in and figure out why these feelings exist and what I need to act on. Probably none. And you know why I have this thing with him, I don't know. But he keeps coming back, folks. He keeps coming back because, you know, I think on some level we like each other. On another level, he's got a special coming out.