-Our next guest is a very talented actor and comedian.
Comedian -- he's one of the best comedians.
He's the host of the "WTF" podcast
and stars in the new film "Stardust,"
which is in theaters and on demand starting November 25th.
Here is Marc Maron.
Marc, look at you. -How are you, man?
-You look great. -I'm outside, Jimmy.
I'm outside. -That's what I'm talking about.
You're outside. All right, all right.
-All right, already. What are we doing?
-I love that you're outside. -...doing outside?
I got the trees here. -I would do the same thing.
I would do the same thing.
-I'll tell you, I miss something, though,
about being in this --
I don't know how you're handling this,
but one of the things I used to enjoy about doing the show
is in the dressing room you had the nice cookies
and maybe a t-shirt. Now are they being sent to me?
Because that's one of the reasons --
it's not the only reason I do it,
but am I getting the cookies?
-Of course you are. -Thank you.
Because I don't know how this is going to go without the cookies.
I like to be jammed on sugar every time I talk to you
so I can keep up.
-Well, Marc, it's been a long week for everybody.
But you -- -Oh my God, thank God!
Right? I mean, jeez.
I thought I was going to have to leave the country,
and that's not easy now. I had a big plan.
But if you want to get out, you can't. You know why?
Because, we're plague-infected pig people
who can't behave like responsible adults.
You can't even go to another country.
It's like, "I'm from America,
I'd like to spend a year in Ireland."
"Sorry, you plague-infected pig person
who can't act like a responsible grown-up."
"But I have my mask." "Well, tell that to the other
pig people that live in your country.
You plague ridden monster." [ Laughter ]
"Look at you, you plague- infected pig person."
[ Laughter ]
So, I'm glad that I can stay in the country
because I would've had to, like, you know, mail myself somewhere.
Just for a little while. -But you got out.
You said, "I'm not watching this.
I got to get away somewhere."
-Oh, I did, yeah, for the actual election, I'm like,
"What's the point of maps and numbers for three days
that aren't going to go anywhere, but sit there
and make you go like, 'Oh, my God!
Is he going to win?'" -Yeah.
-So, I went to up to Big Sur, and I went to a hotel
where there was spotty wi-fi, spotty cell coverage,
just me alone with my thoughts,
and it was nice to really experience
the pure existential panic and fear
without being interrupted by
televised existential panic and fear.
It was surprising.
The small amount of information I was getting
was enough for me to freak out without any input whatsoever.
So, I was there looking at the ocean,
just sitting there going like, "Oh, man, we're in trouble, man.
This is not going well, but it's pretty.
Look at the birds." -Yeah.
-So a couple of sweaty nights of panic but no TV.
And I got home right in time yesterday to catch
what was the turning point, which was very exciting.
And, I guess they voted out COVID too,
no more COVID, which is nice.
That's a relief, because I was getting tired of that.
-Next thing they have to vote out
is quarantine sourdough bread.
-Dude, I think that's over.
I saw that kind of trickle away within three months.
You got these like, hipster dads and cute young moms like,
"Look at the bread I made."
But now they're just like, "Where I bury my family?"
"I couldn't -- I -- [ Laughter ]
The bread didn't hold me back.
Enough with the bread, what do I do with the bodies?"
-That was all fake. [ Laughing ]
It was covering up, yeah, something deep.
-Yeah. Oh, yeah. Just fury.
Just like, "This will be fun. Look, dad's making bread."
Three months later, "Dad's a monster."
-Dad's getting a divorce. -"Make some more bread."
"The bread's over. Give me some candy."
-So, I take it you haven't done any baking, then?
-Well, you know, I do enjoy cooking.
I'm shucking my own oysters.
And that's not code. Well, I guess it is,
'cause I'm doing that too. But I'm actually --
[ Laughter ]
I'm actually -- -Oh, my gosh.
-I'm actually -- -Are you really?
-I buy oysters and I shuck them.
I learned how to shuck them for the -- you know,
I'm going to need to know that in the future.
-Do you wear a chain glove?
-No, no, no. I watched a video. I'm getting better at it.
But I like to eat the oysters.
I do baking. I enjoy -- like I got it
in my head last week -- a couple weeks ago,
I'm going to make this cake.
'Cause I have the "New York Times" cooking app,
or the Instagram for "New York Times" cooking,
and cakes will come through.
And one day, I'm just sort of like, "Aw, man, life sucks.
I'm going to make that cake, and I put a lot of work into it.
Got it -- You need a Bundt pan,
and you've got to poke holes in it to pour the butter into.
It was a complicated bit of business,
and I screwed up the last step. And I knew it --
-Yep. -As I did it, like,
I screwed up the cake.
But I'm like, it's probably still okay, I'll just --
it's going to come out of the pan, and I turn over
the Bundt pan to take the cake out,
and it's stuck in the Bundt pan. So now I'm just like livid.
I'm furious, and I'm like, [bleep] it,
I'm throwing it away.
So I start ripping the cake with my hands.
Hot cake, with my hands, out of the Bundt pan
and throw it in the garbage.
But I took a fistful of it.
Like, it's equivalent to maybe a piece or two,
and just start shoving it in my mouth,
and they're throwing the rest away,
shoving the hot cake in my mouth, which was terrific.
So -- But the problem was, I got all the food shame
without the pride.
I screwed up the cake,
and was just angry at myself, and I was eating it
by the handful, which made me feel like a pig.
And so there was no joy. Very little joy.
-Yeah. No. -Just shame and fury.
But, a week later, I nailed it.
Made the cake, and it came out perfect.
But then, the other problem is,
I was like very proud of my cake, but I live alone.
So, now I got to figure out how to unload the cake.
So, I'm out in the street with my mask on.
My neighbor's cleaning his car, I'm like, "Troy, you want cake?
How about some cake?" And Troy's like, "Yeah."
So, I go in the house, I bring Troy some cake,
and then I give it to him, and that puts you
in a weird situation, 'cause two hours later
I'm kind of hanging around outside looking for Troy, like,
"Hey, how was the cake? Cake pretty good?"
And then he's like, "It's a little sweet."
And I'm like, "What the [bleep] do you want?
It was free cake." I didn't say that part out loud.
But that's what I was thinking about it.
-Don't judge. You just say it was good
and you go back inside.
-But then he said as I'm walking away, he goes,
"You should open a bakery."
So I guess this is the announcement.
I'm opening a bakery. -This is not true.
Before we get into your bakery,
I want to talk about "Stardust."
Because I'm very excited about this.
I'm very, very excited about this.
I love David Bowie. -Yeah.
-And this is a story -- a very specific time in bowie's life.
-Right, this is getting --
People are going, like, "It's a biopic."
It's not a biopic. Yeah, it's very --
It's a -- Why am I holding a piece of paper towel
on national television? Because I'm outside my house!
[ Laughter ]
There's no mystery to this anymore, Jimmy.
-No! -I saw your couch last week.
You had to go back to the studio because your wife was like,
"Can we not do this in the house anymore?
Does this have to be done in the house, Jimmy?
I can't keep the kids quiet for an hour, Jimmy."
-"Get back to work."
Yeah, exactly right, buddy.
-I'm making a bread, Jimmy! -Exactly right.
-But this -- I like this -- -Okay, so anyways --
-I like this because you're the publicist for Mercury Records.
-Right. Ron Oberman was kind of a down-and-out publicist
for Mercury Records.
And the time period, it's before Bowie's a star.
He had a hit with "Space Oddity,"
But no one knew whether he was a novelty act or a one-time thing.
And he made "The Man Who Sold the World" and it got --
People didn't know what to do with it.
It was a dark record. -Yeah.
-So they kind of send him to America.
In the movie, he doesn't have the right papers.
I'm the only guy that's going to champion him.
The label doesn't know what to do with it.
He's about to lose his deal, but I think he's a genius.
So it's sort of -- My part of the movie is him and I --
I I'm trying to get him little gigs
to play or be on the radio without the proper paperwork
for him to play, so we spend a lot of time driving
in the car across country.
He sort of doesn't know who he's going to be
or what he wants to be.
And there's all these conversations about music
and about whether he believes in himself.
And there's a back story about his stepbrother
who had mental problems, and he was worried
he was going to have mental problems.
So it's a very small slice of a young Bowie's life.
-I love that. I know you love music.
So I go -- -Love it.
-Marc is perfect for this because we always discuss music.
I know you're a giant Stones fan.
Me as well. We just love --
-Yeah. -I mean, just mu--
Do you remember the first time you heard Bowie?
-The first time I heard Bowie
I think was at a 7th grade dance.
The song "Fame" was a big hit. -Whew, wow.
-And I remember this because there was a local AM deejay
named Bobby Box, and you know, when you're a kid,
you listen to the radio all the time
and Bobby Box was the guy.
And Bobby Box was coming to our school to host the dance,
so we're all excited to see Bobby Box.
Turns out, he's basically a dwarf
and he was just like a giant head in a strange plaid suit...
-Yep. -And we are like,
"Oh, man, this is sad."
-That was real deejays back then.
-Right, real guys. But then "Fame" comes on,
and you know that part, like, "Fame, fame, fame, fame..."?
-Yeah, John Lennon. -Did you know -- Yeah.
I found out John Lennon was part of that crew.
And it's always weird when you find that out
'cause then you're listening for the John Lennon,
for the one John Lennon "fame."
That's John! -Yeah, or it's like this,
like, "The song isn't about him 'cause he's going,
'Is it about you?' He's harmon--
So the song is not -- Yeah, I love finding that stuff out.
-Do remember like Velvet -- like Lou Reed,
"Satellite of Love"? -Yeah.
-Listen to that. It's Bowie in the back.
Like, 'cause he produced it.
So, "uh-hoo!" -Yes.
-It's like, that's Bowie!
You didn't know that, Jimmy. -I didn't know that, dude.
-You didn't know it. -You just saw that.
-And I just told it to you, and now you're gonna know it.
-Wow! -Now you know,
"Satellite of Love" by Lou Reed --
listen to it, it's on "Transformer."
-Bowie's back there. -You keep giving me --
Oh, "Transformer," that's unbelievable.
No way. You just -- -Yeah.
-You keep giving me gifts. -Go listen to it now.
-You keep giving me gifts. -I know.
-The next thing I want is cake.
-I'll give you cake. Oh, my God.
-Dude, stay safe, thank you so much for coming back
to our show. I want to show a clip.
Here is Marc Maron in "Stardust." Take a look.
-Jeez, Tom, I have been calling for weeks,
looking all over for you.
Did you get that album, the David Bowie album?
Did you listen to it? -Yeah, yeah.
-Great. -I listened to it.
-Great, when can I get you two to sit down
for an interview together?
-Look, I'm -- Listen, I'm really busy right now.
-No, no, you listen, okay, and listen good, okay?
You don't want to miss out on this, man.
I mean, this guy's going to be big.
-Oh, yeah? How big is big? -Big.
-What, like Jerry Reed big or Todd Rundgren big,
or what are we -- -No, I'm talking like Dylan big.
-[Bleep], come on. -Serious.
This guy's like the English Bob Dylan
with avant garde outrage all wrapped together.
-What are you, reading this off the [bleep] press release?
Marc Maron, everybody. "Stardust" is in theaters
and on demand November 25th.
Marc, thank you so much again for coming on.
It's always a pleasure, buddy. -Thank you for having me.
It was the easiest "Tonight Show,"
I did my own hair and makeup, wore my own --
-I'll get you those cookies. I promise.
-Thank you, I'm counting on it.