As you may have noticed by now the Vancouver Comedy Festival is in full swing in our fair city and the big closing show (well one of them) is the WTF? Live with Marc Maron. I had the pleasure of chattign with Marc before his show this Friday night and we chatted about what it takes to get a podcast off the ground, how he goes about booking guests for it and some of the things he likes about Vancouver.
You can still try to get tickets to this performance on the ComedyFest website.
Robert (RS) – You are coming here to Vancouver to record one of your always entertaining WTF? Live podcasts. I was wondering how often you get out on the road to do these types of shows?
Marc Maron (MM) – We’ve done a lot of live ones. It’s kind of inconsistent in the “when” we do them. We don’t have a set schedule for them. We them monthly. So we aim for a new live WTF? each month. We got this chance to do one in Vancouver for the festival which is a good chance for fans in Vancouver to see it. Plus we had the chance to get Bob (Odenkirk) and Dave (Cross) and a few others on.
RS – It’s obvious that the podcasts you record in your garage and the ones you record live are different, is there a difference preparing for live vs. garage recordings?
MM – I don’t really prepare too much for anything. The live ones are just really funny people who are going to be funny. I definitely should know a bit about the people who are going to be on but mostly I just want things to happen organically. And usually it does. I’ve been pretty lucky. You put funny people in front of people and generally they are going to be funny.
RS – Do you get a chance to come up to Vancouver often?
MM – I love Vancouver, I’ve been up there many times. I’ve done this festival a few years now. It’s a beautiful city. I love the sushi. There is always a few places I always go to up there, I just really like it.
RS – It is well documented that you are a cat lover/owner. I had a cat growing up, so |I was wondering if it has always been cats in your household or if you had any other pets growing up?
MM – When I was younger we went through a lot of old English Sheepdogs. My dad was into showing dogs, so over the years we had I’d say four Old English Sheepdogs. Then later we got more into cats. There was always two or three cats around. Now I find I don’t have the time for a dog. Dogs are too needy for me. I can’t have anything needier than me in the house.
RS – I wanted to know what recording gear and software you use when recording the podcasts and if you had any “tricks of the trade’ to share?
MM – The biggest trick of the trade is to have a reason to put something out there. To do podcasts all you need is something that sounds produced and consistency. All you need is some good mics and a pretty good ear. It’s not that expensive to do “sound” especially just talking. I use some pretty expensive mics in the garage but even with those purchases my initially investment was around $1000. I use a Shure SM7 and I run them into a small analog mixer a Samson MDR6 and then I just run that into Garage Band on my Mac.
RS – I find that in some podcasts you have great relationship with your guests, almost like you are friends.
MM – Not really. Most of the time we know of each other or have heard of one another. Like 95% of the time you are hearing the first conversation for the most part. You can say we are in the same community. We book it all on our own out of the house here. So we book it through the community, like if I have to ask somebody for somebody else’s email to get in touch with somebody.
RS – for this WTF? Live podcast in Vancouver you have Bob Odenkirk & Dave Cross joining you. Anything to say to the fans in advance?
MM – Limit the number of baked goods you bring me that would be helpful. I don’t want to get really fat. I’m really looking forward to coming up there. I love Vancouver, I know it is going to be a great time. Plus I have added some other people from the festival to the podcast lineup so it will be more than Bob, Dave and myself. We’ve got two more lined up and we are waiting to hear back about a few more people.
RS – Sounds like quite the podcast.
MM – Yea. Usually with the live ones we try to get five or six people involved.
RS – I can speak for the other people here in Vancouver when I say I was already excited for the podcast when it was just Bob and Dave joining you, but knowing that you have other acts from the festival joining in has me looking forward to it even more now.
MM – Me too. See you all there on the 24th.
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