Yes, it is. WTF is a podcast show in which American comedy veteran Marc Maron conducts interviews with lots of different comedians and relevant people on the scene, as well as some other characters of honorable mention.
If you are a big comedy nerd and interesting in all of the inner workings of it, then this is the podcast for you, it's a bit like getting a trade magazine pumped directly into your ears. The interviews cover lots of different aspects of the lives of the comics, including, as most interviews would, the in-depth story of how they got started on the scene.
It's incredibly interesting to a lot of people, to learn how the famous acts that we know today managed to climb to that level. A good element that the show brings to these stories is that no parts are ever sensationalised because of Marc's informal style, so all of the stories consist mainly of guys who hung around enough, doing work where they can until they got a break or got seen by someone of importance. And it's this hanging around where they meet the entire community of stand ups to which Marc Maron has been a long running member. The show made it clearer to me what a community amateur/pro comedians form, seeing each other as they would in different venues and green rooms all over the city or country.
Marc here managing to look spookily like Van Pelt
Each podcast is packed with enough jokes, laughter and interesting insight to keep you hooked for the run time of just over an hour, and not a moment of it seems to be wasted with filler as it seems to be an hour or so of pertinent information. The aspect of the show that best displays Marc's nuanced skill as an interviewer is the way that it seamlessly blends amusing anecdotes or jokes with tragic stories about the hardships that many of these comedians have suffered - whether it's bereavement or substance abuse or serious relationship trouble. Now, most interviews will try to cover these different areas to make a diverse piece, maybe even thinking, "hey, if i can get them to cry i might win an Emmy" but the usual artificial atmosphere is not present on WTF and these shows sound much more like a deep conversation between old friends. Most other interviews switch so mechanically to 'now I'm going to ask you about a sad thing' question that you can almost hear an audible clunk. But they seem to flow in as smoothly as they flow out on WTF, helped largely in part by Marc's self reflective style. He would be the first to admit that he has and has had a few problems in his life, and isn't afraid of turning the subject to himself, making a joke and alleviating the heavy atmosphere when we've learned about the hardship and he doesn't break stride doing it.
It can take a little bit of time to get used to Marc's voice itself, and without sounding too English about this, it's loud with a typically American brashness. But this is something of an off-putting illusion when you learn more about his various neurosis and the empathetic way he conducts interviews. It was particularly noticeable to me, when he interviewed Stewart Lee, one of our more soft spoken personalities; the contrast between the two was startling. But although loud and laden with the occasional unnecessary fuck, it's this friendly "Hey man, what's up" style that originally breaks the ice and places the guests in a warm environment.
His big secret, as it always is, is just extensive hard work. The number of guests that he has interviewed is prolific to an incredible degree. I'm not going to try to even offer a choice sample of the list here, because in terms of comedians, it's nearing a 'name them and he's interviewed them' type level. If you go to www.wtfpod.com you can get the latest 50 episodes for free, but I understand that for the full catalogue there is an app that you can buy if you're lucky enough to own a smart phone.
So, ultimately, in terms of research, what to learn and take away from this for our own podcasts or interviews? Well, I think I'd certainly place them in different areas serving different purposes. I've never personally enjoyed getting into a heavy discussion with anyone, friends included, and I don't think that I possess the skill as an interviewer to be able to pull it off successfully. I see the WTF podcasts as a broad bio character piece, where as what we try to do (at least at the moment) is invite guests into our world for a bit of a laugh. I think the warm atmosphere is something that has come to us quite naturally (particularly Ryan though I resent saying it). And I think, at this stage, both because of our inexperience and also our youth, it would be challenging and perhaps inappropriate to try to level with some guests about the hardships they've suffered on a one to one peer basis. So I'm perfectly happy to keep playing the kid, asking a wisened veteran about their experience and theories on comedy and the scene. So in terms of things that our shows share, there's laughs and comedy nerdship, which is a nice blend that I'm more than happy with.
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