The Battle of Kursk

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Mark Maron** (0:09)
Hey folks, it's Mark Maron from WTF. A year ago, we started the Full Maron, which means a year of weekly bonus episodes only for subscribers, extended interviews, Q and A's, special mini series, stand up, and lots of hanging out with me. The working metaphor for my anxiety is the calls coming from inside the house.
Were there any episodes that you felt like you just didn't get it right? Yeah, there are. There are probably more than I want to admit. Frankly, I don't know why I like you so much. I don't either. I went to my first professional wrestling match for this series that's called Wrestling with Mark. Subscribe to the Full Maron at go.acast.com/wtf.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:50)
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**Al Murray** (1:10)
acast.com Opasnost, opasnost, welcome to We Have Ways of Making You Talk with me, Al Murray and James Holland. James, with gaudy wallpaper behind him.

**James Holland** (1:20)
I rather like it though. It's very green, this house.

**Al Murray** (1:23)
Of green behind you, yeah.

**James Holland** (1:25)
It's green at the front as well, the whole facade of the house.

**Al Murray** (1:28)
Very nice, very nice.

**James Holland** (1:30)
It's a strong look. But anyway, more to the point, how are you, I mean, now that you're a star of the West End stage.

**Al Murray** (1:36)
Don't get ahead of yourself.

**James Holland** (1:38)
Well, I have got ahead of myself. It's amazing.

**Al Murray** (1:42)
Yes, we've done a couple of shows now and it's been a very intense week.
What was really interesting is we did technical rehearsals all week. So we last ran the play a week ago on Friday and then we did technical rehearsal since, which is basically, hold on, they're waiting for lighting and you stand around for half an hour and then they go, hold on, we'll wait for lighting. And then you stand around for another 20 minutes and they go, great, okay, do it again. You come in through the door and they go, hold on, we'll wait for lighting.
So we had basically had that most of last week and then Friday night. So we ran out of time to actually run a dress rehearsal proper. So Friday night.

**James Holland** (2:23)
Oh, that's a bit frustrating.

**Al Murray** (2:25)
Yeah, but it was fine really, because it certainly concentrated minds and the senses, put it that way. So yeah, we had sold out Friday and Saturday, which was great fun.

**James Holland** (2:38)
It's amazing.

**Al Murray** (2:39)
Yeah, it's genuinely amazing.

**James Holland** (2:40)
And you smashed it obviously.

**Al Murray** (2:42)
Yeah, it was great. It was really good fun. It was really good fun. It's that strange thing of, you know, you work on a thing and we're pretty confident that it's quite good. And it's the energy, the liberation of putting it in front of an audience and them really liking it. So everyone laughed at the right bits and all that. Everyone laughed at the right bits. They also laughed at some places which I don't think many of us had anticipated quite, which I think is always interesting when you're doing a comedy.
But now we have to do it for three months. So there's...

**James Holland** (3:12)
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I mean, I'm not a professional actor. So I remember, you know, well, I do remember from school plays and I think kind of maximum run was maybe five performances total, but a fifth one, you're just like, oh God, I'm bored of this.

**Al Murray** (3:26)
Yeah, yeah.

**James Holland** (3:27)
And I never understand how you kind of can do something for kind of six months, doing the same thing every single day. And everyone goes, yeah, but the audience is different. So, you know, I was kind of thinking, really?

**Al Murray** (3:36)
Well, we'll see, we'll see.
We'll see. It's just the thing I'm going to find out. But yeah, no, it was great. It was really good fun this weekend. And, and, AD. Bond came, I know, on Friday. So yeah, we've had some, we've had some afflicted in, which is very nice.
And one of the, one of the crew, fully afflicted as well, who, you know, one of the carpenters or something, one of the guys bringing in the stuff, bringing the set.

**James Holland** (4:01)
How amazing.

**Al Murray** (4:02)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

**James Holland** (4:02)
Anyway, well, I think I'm going to get up on the, I think the third week of July is my, my, my.