Billy & Buddy - Volume 2 - Bored Silly With Billy: 02

Martin Luther King Jr. David talks with Marc about the importance of bringing his cultural background and life experience to roles of all stripes, including his character in the new movie Gringo, who was not initially written as a Nigerian immigrant. Sharon Stone made a decision after she achieved fame with Basic Instinct. She wanted to build a way forward in Hollywood without being typecast. Sharon tells Marc how she navigated that part of her career, leading to projects like her recent multimedia mystery series Mosaic and collaborations with artists she always admired. Sharon also talks about the family incident that forced her to mature at a young age and gives her opinion on Hollywood's reckoning with sexual harassment and abuse.

When Marc was a young comic living in Boston, Buffalo Tom was one of his favorite bands. Buffalo Tom frontman Bill Janovitz joins Marc in the garage to talk about the band's rise from the pre-Nirvana days of indie rock to a point where huge mainstream success remained just out of reach. What happened after that? Also, Marc's buddy Danny Lobell returns to talk about turning his life and standup routines into a comic book in the style of one of his heroes, Harvey Pekar.

Jennifer Lawrence takes a break from being one of the biggest movie stars in the world to stop by the garage and talk with Marc about Kentucky, cats vs. Russell, Darren Aronofsky, Amy Schumer, learning a Russian accent for Red Sparrow, and living a relatively private life for someone with a very public profile. Jennifer and Marc also compare their respective symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder.

There's a lot of overlap. Filmmaker Duncan Jones put his philosophy degree to good use when he started making science fiction films. Duncan also talks to Marc about the burdens of having a famous parent - his being David Bowie - when you're trying to carve your own path. Plus, comedian and metal guy Brendon Small returns to the garage to talk about his new Galaktikon project. Heather Graham had stories she wanted to see made and roles she wanted to play, so she took them into her own hands. Also, comedian Sebastian Maniscalco returns to talk about his new book and the success he's achieved since his last appearance in the garage six years ago.

Gina Rodriguez is living the dream with her Golden Globe-winning performance as Jane the Virgin, roles in big Hollywood movies like Annihilation, and new opportunities as both a director and a producer. But she can't stop putting pressure on herself. Gina grew up wondering why there weren't any Puerto Ricans on TV and now she feels a responsibility to advocate for better representation of Latinos in entertainment.

Gina and Marc talk about cultural changes and challenges, as well as Chicago, boxing, dancing and Rita Moreno. Almost a decade ago, a down-on-his-luck Marc Maron told year-old aspiring comic Esther Povitsky to run far away from The Comedy Store because it would be the death of her. Thankfully, she did not take his advice and they talk about why that place wound up meaning so much to both of them.

They also break down their kindred attachments to ice cream, departed celebrities and sentimental household objects. Esther also explains how her new TV show Alone Together came to be. Tracy Letts is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, a Tony Award-winning actor, and someone Marc is nervous about saying hello to when he sees him out in the world. Show business finally clicked for Riki Lindhome when she started the comedy music duo Garfunkel and Oates with her friend Kate Micucci.

It makes sense because, as she tells Marc, she always wanted to perform when she was growing up in Buffalo, catching glimpses of musical theater from touring companies in Toronto. Also, Laurie Kilmartin is back to talk about her new book and have a few laughs about death. Ezra Furman started writing songs when he was 14 years old after hearing Bob Dylan but while still wanting to be a member of Green Day.

Ezra tells Marc how those seemingly contradictory preferences took hold in his music and performances, how comedy was his road not taken, and how he struggled with coming out to his bandmates and friends. Rita Moreno is a show business legend with an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony to her name, as well as several lifetime achievement awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She tells Marc about the ups and downs of her 70 year career as a singer, dancer and actor, from the highs of working with people like Jack Nicholson and Gene Kelly to the lows of racial typecasting and sexual harassment.

Bass player and record producer Don Was is a Renaissance man in the music world. Whether he's producing albums for bands like the Rolling Stones or running the jazz label Blue Note Records or playing in his own band Was Not Was or directing documentaries about fellow musicians like Brian Wilson, Don always knows what he's doing.

As he tells Marc, Don attributes a lot of his expertise to growing up in Detroit just as a pivotal shift in the American music scene was happening in the Motor City. Macaulay Culkin considers himself retired, dabbling in whatever he chooses at any given time. It's understandable he would want to settle down, considering he was one of the most famous people on the planet by the age of ten. Mac tells Marc about the struggles and the joys of his acting days, much of which was shaped by people like John Candy, John Hughes, Michael Jackson and Mac's father.

Also, comedian Cameron Esposito returns to the garage to talk about the recent bus tour she took with her wife. Derek Waters created Drunk History, but he really doesn't want to know about the darkness that lies in his family history. And while he doesn't have a drinking problem, he's long been plagued by sleep problems. These are just some of the things Marc learns about Derek, in addition to his love for Bob Seger, his celebrity interactions while working at Tower Video, and his relationship with Bob Odenkirk that changed his life. Laurie Metcalf has never been through anything in her acting career like what she's going through now.

They also talk about Laurie helping to found the Steppenwolf Theatre company, reviving Roseanne for , and mastering the challenge of her role in Horace and Pete. Also, Tom Segura returns to the garage to talk about his new special and to sort out why his wife is dreaming about Marc. Richard Jenkins is one of the great character actors working today but he was a late starter in show business. As he continues to rack up awards and accolades for his performances, including his latest in The Shape of Water, Richard reflects on the early days of his acting ambitions in Illinois corn country and the intervention by his high school English teacher that got him on his way.

Comedian and actor Fortune Feimster joins Marc in the garage fresh off getting engaged to her girlfriend, which feels pretty far away from the young Southern girl who didn't come out as a lesbian or perform comedy until she was in her mids. Fortune tells Marc how she got the nerve to do both, why her grandmother was her rock, and how a random security guard helped her fix the relationship with her mom. Ta-Nehisi Coates is one of America's most celebrated and insightful writers.

But there's part of him that would be fine with it all going away. Marc and Ta-Nehisi talk about the impulse to pull back when things start to get good, the burden of being treated as a representative for a larger community, and the reason Ta-Nehisi finds Black Panther so relatable. They also discuss two of Ta-Nehisi's biggest influences: James Baldwin and David Carr. Ring in the New Year with the Maron Family. Marc takes a trip back to some of the earliest episodes of WTF to hear classic interactions with his father, mother, and brother, all of whom help explain how and why Marc got to where he's at now.

From his dad's wild ideas for Marc's career to his mom's cautious relationship advice to his brother's concern over getting in too deep with their parents, Marc has no shortage material to take to his next therapy visit. Marc closes out with some old friends. Author Michael Marcus might not have made it to the garage if his life had continued the way it was going.

He talks with Marc about his days of criminal behavior, addiction and eventual sober living, all of which he wrote about in his new book, 1 Son. Also, Marc's friend Dr. First, hear Todd Glass and Marc talk about the perils of going home for the holidays. Finally, a beautiful story of hope and humanity from the late Mike DeStefano, recorded around the holidays in Photographer Neal Preston is known for taking some of the most iconic shots of the world's most famous rock musicians.

Steven Van Zandt, a. Steven talks with Marc about learning to play music by watching the Beatles, learning to be a performer by watching the Rolling Stones, and using those skills to form a partnership with his career-long collaborator, Bruce Springsteen, a relationship that Steven kept in mind when shaping his performance as Silvio on The Sopranos.

Darren talks with Marc about the universal mysteries that inspire him - from numerology to Old Testament parables to shadowy professions - and the personal implications behind movies like mother! Plus, writer-director-producer and Loudon Wainwright fan Judd Apatow stops by to talk about getting back on the standup stage for his Netflix special, Judd Apatow: At some point after James Franco became a high-profile movie star, he found himself asking, "What if you get everything you want and nothing changes? Only now, with his new movie The Disaster Artist, which he wrote and directed, does James realize what he was chasing and what he has in common with The Room director Tommy Wiseau.

Like the protagonist of her new film Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig grew up in Sacramento, spent the summer going to the state fair, had a complicated relationship with her mother, and escaped to institutes of higher learning in New York City. Marc and Greta talk about the desire to get out from under the weight of your home town, how that tension translated into her acting career, and where she was coming from when she wrote and directed Lady Bird. Marc finds Sam to be a thoughtful son of the South who let his early interests in avant-garde photography, filmmaking and artwork open the door to a career in music.

Plus, Bob Saget returns to the garage for a rare third appearance to talk about his new special, his just-wrapped movie, and the sudden change in his life. Rob Huebel and Marc start a new podcast within this podcast. It's a show called Contact List and they're pretty sure it makes them sound like jerks. It's an extra helping of music talk for Thanksgiving.

First Marc sits down with filmmaker Kasper Collin and jazz musician Bennie Maupin to talk about the documentary I Called Him Morgan, which deals with the life, love and murder of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan. For Christina Pazsitzky, comedy was finally something she enjoyed doing after burning through twenty-two different jobs in the course of four years. She talks with Marc about her troubled teen years, her ineffectual degree in philosophy, her general post-college aimlessness, her stint on MTV Road Rules, and the other circumstances of her life that made the grind of standup comedy seem exhilarating by comparison.

Christina also talks about how she and her husband, Tom Segura, are dealing with the early years of parenthood. He's no stranger to historic national turbulence, as he came of age in the Vietnam Era and received his draft notice shortly before the U. Senate, and his time writing for The West Wing.

But she was also a backup singer in a disco band with her twin sister Kelley and a budding cellular biologist with a degree in Medical Technology. Kim talks with Marc about all of that as well as her hard-fought sobriety and her reasons for coming around on digital music production.

From garage bands in Providence to noise rock in San Francisco to his current jam in Los Angeles, John has been doing it his own way, including the creation of his own music label, to churn out an abundance of albums. Jenna Fischer came to Los Angeles when she was 22 with no contacts, no guidance, and no idea of what it meant to sink or swim in show business.

Now with a successful acting career and a long-running role as the beloved Pam on The Office, Jenna wants aspiring actors to get the advice she never got. As she tells Marc, that's the main reason she wrote her new book, in addition to detailing some of her own true Hollywood stories.

John Hammond was kid from New York with a dad in the music industry, so it's no surprise he became a recording artist. But it was a bit unexpected that he became obsessed with the Blues at an early age. Joy Behar was already a successful comic when she became a co-host on The View. Joy talks with Marc about the many chapters of her life, her new book about surviving Donald Trump's presidency, and whether or not comedy can ever be inappropriate.

Marc completely missed the era of music that writer Lizzy Goodman chronicles in her book 'Meet Me in the Bathroom: Actor Willem Dafoe might have had a hard time standing out while he was growing up as the seventh of eight kids. Bassem Youssef was a surgeon in Egypt who started doing a YouTube show from his house and eventually became the most popular television personality in his country, doing what people called "The Egyptian Daily Show.

Also, Marc's old friend and co-worker Sam Seder stops by to talk about doing political news every day in the current climate. On a list of the world's funniest people, Tracey Ullman ranks pretty high. Despite being born Brian Warner, Marilyn Manson doesn't separate his stage persona from who he is as a person. That makes for an interesting chat with Marc in the garage. Marilyn talks about his early years getting kicked out of Christian school, being beaten up for playing the triangle in the school band, and starting up a poetry night for his first taste of performing.

So it's as good a time as any to have the two brothers in the garage for separate chats. First, Beau tells Marc about being the big brother, taking a First Amendment stand, and staying busy in fickle Hollywood. Then Jeff talks about the music he makes, the path to enlightenment, and the transcendence of The Dude. Marc presents a special audio version of the first chapter of Waiting for the Punch: This chapter features thirty WTF guests talking with Marc about growing up.

Elliot Gould was at the vanguard of American New Wave Cinema in the s, but he tells Marc there were two enemies always working to diminish his potential: Top Chef's Tom Colicchio discovered a passion for cooking at a young age, thanks to a book his corrections officer father found in a prison library. Even now as a celebrity chef, with restaurants around the country, Tom still marvels at the simplicity of cooking. Pete tells Marc how he landed the show just shortly after graduating high school, how he survived a lonely upbringing on Staten Island watching Eddie Murphy's standup concerts, and how a life-changing traumatic event in his childhood pushed him toward comedy in the first place.

Lee Daniels got his start in show business by running a nursing agency. That may seem unusual but the road to success for the producer-writer-director behind Precious, The Butler and Empire has always been unorthodox. As Lee tells Marc, the sideways nature of his path to achievement matches up with his personal life, in which he found out by phone one day that he was going to have to put the breaks on his partying and become a father to his niece and nephew. Kathy Bates hammered her way into movie and pop culture history with her Oscar-winning performance in Misery. Plus, comedian Graham Elwood stops by to talk about Ear Buds: Not every global pop superstar would feel at home in Marc's garage, but Lorde isn't your average global pop superstar.

The singer-songwriter takes some time before kicking off her worldwide Melodrama tour to talk with Marc about her life in New Zealand, her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, and the math of making pop music.

WTF w/Marc Maron - Howl

They also go down a music rabbit hole as Lorde reveals herself to be a knowledgable student of classic rock, power pop, rhythm and blues, and Phil Collins. Warren Hutcherson and Marc were getting their starts in standup around the same time. Then, as Marc recalls it, Warren was suddenly a television writer and wasn't on the standup scene anymore. Warren explains how his college-age writing was responsible for his somewhat accidental entry into comedy, which led to him running the network television gauntlet, navigating the conventions and biases of Hollywood on his way to becoming a writer and showrunner on programs like The Bernie Mac Show.

Steve Jordan is considered one of the greatest rock and roll drummers of all time. He joins Marc in the garage to talk about his years playing in the house bands for David Letterman and Saturday Night Live, which included being part of The Blues Brothers' band. Jay explains what it was like being raised in a family that was righteously engaged in politics while also beset by criminal activity and alcoholism. He also tells Marc why it's important to him to see Canadian culture reflected in film, which is one of the reasons he wrote and directed the new movie Goon: Last of the Enforcers.

Alice tells Marc about the early formation of his band, how his return to Christianity helped him confront his alcoholism, and how he's remained sober for nearly 40 years. Brent Weinbach and Marc need to have a good conversation about crying. Once that's out of the way, the two of them figure out how Brent's performance-based comedy, filled with multiple characters and flights of absurdity, is connected to his pursuit of becoming a jazz musician as a teenager.

It also has something to do with why Brent thinks Chico is the best Marx Brother. Pat returns to the garage now that she's turned her harrowing personal stories into a new memoir called 'Rabbit. The details of what happened in between help explain why Jennifer is one of our best actors, so much so that Marc even asks her for a few acting pointers, which Jennifer is happy to provide. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the greatest basketball players ever, but he's happy if you know him as a writer, a cultural critic, an activist, a chronicler of African-American history, an actor, an ambassador, and a coin collector.

Kareem and Marc talk about all those things and how life in America is similar to life when Kareem was a young man. Plus, therapist Phil Stutz returns to the garage to talk about the follow up to his enormously successful and helpful book The Tools. Canadian comic Mike MacDonald survived four decades in comedy, drug abuse, Sam Kinison, chronic illness, psych wards, and a liver transplant to make it to the garage.

Mike takes Marc through his early days doing comedy in Canadian punk rock clubs up to his return to the road after recovering from a major organ transplant. Also, writer Jon Ronson returns, this time to talk about porn, which he explores in his new audio series The Butterfly Effect. Keith and Kenny Lucas are identical twins and Marc is freaking out at how similar they are.

Well, freaking a little bit anyway, but only at first because once the three of them get talking it's hard not to be taken with the Lucas Brothers' story. Thankfully, as they tell Marc, comedy came calling. Rory Scovel is from the South, he was born into a legacy of postal workers, and one of his first jobs was in production at a local TV station.

It's all great background material for a comedy career, which is probably why Rory and Marc have such a thorough conversation about doing the job of comedy, from the grind of working on the road to the art of being a warm-up comic to the craft of making an hour-long stand-up special. Also, Maz Jobrani is back to talk about being a comedian and immigrant in Trump's America.

Former Vice President Al Gore has been thinking about change his whole life, whether it was the way the changing media shaped our politics or the way a changing climate altered the way we live on this planet. He talks with Marc about our current political atmosphere, the Trump administration, his regrets about the election, the progress he sees on climate issues, and the continuing fight for the environment as depicted in the documentary An Inconvenient Sequel: David Alan Grier studied to become a serious actor at Yale School of Drama, which actually came in handy when he got cast on one of the funniest shows of all time, In Living Color.

David talks with Marc about his varied career on stage, screen and in the comedy clubs. Plus, comedian Joe Mande takes a break from Twitter to stop by the garage and talk about how he staged an award show for his new standup special. Marc believes - and many agree with him - that Randy Newman is an American genius. They talk about Randy's early albums, his struggles with songwriting, his film scores, his latest album Dark Matter and his legacy in American music.

David Remnick is a seasoned journalist, an accomplished writer and a proud amateur guitar player. But he's also the gatekeeper of an American institution as editor of The New Yorker. With indelible roles in shows like The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie, and Horace and Pete, a lot of people feel like they know Edie Falco very well, even though they only know her characters.

Edie helps Marc dispel some of these preconceived notions by discussing her early struggles as an aspiring actor, why she wanted to be a mother, who intimidates her when she's on set, and how she dealt with a major dilemma when she was offered the role of Carmela Soprano.

Blues legends Keb' Mo' and Taj Mahal are distinctly different individuals. One grew up in Compton, California, the other grew up in Springfield, Massachusetts. One was raised on Caribbean music, the other got schooled in the Southern Blues. One is quiet and contemplative, the other is an excitable storyteller. But as they tell Marc about their separate journeys, it actually makes sense that they wound up weaving their styles together and collaborating on a new joint project, TajMo. Give a listen to how the sausage of television gets made as Marc talks with the creative team behind the show GLOW.

First, hear about the process of scripting a season of television as a group from the show's writers, Rachel Shukert, Nick Jones and Sascha Rothschild. Then Marc speaks with the creators and showrunners Carly Mensch and Liz Flahive who had to bring all the parts together and still maintain their long-standing friendship. Filmmaker Jeff Baena was always into movies that didn't fit into easy categories.

He tells Marc about having his mind blown at an early age thanks to directors like Kubrick and Fellini, which helps explain how Jeff could wind up writing a screenplay like I Heart Huckabees and directing a twisted Middle Ages comedy like The Little Hours. Also, Marc gets his friend and television foil Dave Anthony to stop so they can talk about Dave's new book and make fun of each other.

First, Chavo Guerrero Jr. Then Kia Stevens talks about going from social work to wrestling stardom and how she was able to play the character of Tamee, aka Welfare Queen, by drawing on past incidents of dealing with racial stereotyping in the wrestling world. Jason Mantzoukas is a great improvisational comedian, which you would know from seeing him in shows like The League, on podcasts like How Did This Get Made?

As he explains to Marc, it was only after undertaking a global musical quest, having mystical experiences in foreign lands and being jailed in Morocco that Jason realized his true calling was comedy, which is still the one thing that quiets his fears and anxieties. Even when she was in school, Jenji Kohan didn't like being told what she couldn't do. Jenji tells Marc about her early influences, her string of unsatisfying writing jobs, and the inspiration she drew from working with Tracey Ullman.

Despite a surname that is practically synonymous with modern American cinema, Sofia Coppola didn't want to be a film director. She tells Marc about her early career ambitions and how they inevitably led her into the family business. Marc sits down with his coworkers Alison Brie and Betty Gilpin to take stock of the time they spent shooting the first season of the new Netflix series GLOW and to learn a bit more about each other now that they're not in character anymore.

They also discuss their newfound appreciation of wrestling, Alison's realistic fear that she wasn't going to get the part, and the reason Marc was intimidated by Betty. Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon are married. They also wrote the movie The Big Sick, which is based on their lives and in which Kumail plays himself. Marc also wrote an episode of television that was based on Kumail, only Kumail did not play himself. The three of them talk about the circumstances surrounding that situation and about the making of the movie.

Plus, comedian Jim Florentine stops by to talk comedy, rock and driving Metallica around. When Marc crossed paths with writer Ariel Leve back in the '90s, she was working at MTV and on the verge of making a splash as a print journalist. Ariel didn't know she would soon uncover the trauma inflicted by her gaslighting mother.

As Ariel tells Marc, she would have to decide with whether telling the truth was a betrayal. Also on the show, in what was probably a mistake, Wheeler Walker, Jr. It's a doubleheader of singer-songwriters who are separated by several years but tied together by similar tragedies that reshaped their lives and their art. Then Marc Mulcahy talks about the stops on his journey, from his work with Miracle Legion to finding mainstream recognition as part of the show The Adventures of Pete and Pete to realigning everything through his solo work.

Marc interviews an interviewer when Lesley Stahl spends 60 minutes in the garage. The veteran journalist tells Marc what it was like to cover Watergate, interview U. Presidents, report on the struggles of real people, confront the changing nature of journalism, and become a grandma.

Also, Demetri Martin returns to talk about his new movie Dean and the new challenges he's facing with his standup. Marc travels to Washington, DC for a conversation with his old radio co-worker who now happens to be a United States Senator. The Senator works through the challenges of the Trump Presidency, gives his impressions of fellow Senators and explains how his career in comedy helped him in politics. Jake Fogelnest was a teenager with a public access show who was thrust into a high-profile MTV gig and before too long was in rehab for drug addiction.

Now Jake's a successful writer and show runner but it all started out with him as a year-old comedy fan going to the clubs of New York City to see people like Marc Maron. Plus, Ron Funches returns to the garage as he gets ready to head out on tour, ready to talk about losing some TV shows but also losing pounds. Danny Fields is a music manager, a publicist, a magazine editor, a writer, and a conduit to some of the greatest artists ever, including Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, the Doors, the Ramones, and many others.

Danny takes Marc through a his experiences during a half-century of cutting edge music and pop art and also explains his role in an infamous Beatles controversy. Also, guitar legend J Mascis stops by to hang out, talk about Adele, and play some tunes. Griffin Dunne caught the acting bug at a young age and had early success with movies like American Werewolf in London and After Hours.

But tragedy struck when his career was ascendant and his whole family channeled grief into activism. Griffin tells Marc about that journey, as well as the moment he finally felt comfortable in show business. Plus, Bill Burr stops by because the new season of 'F is for Family' is coming out, but actually he's all worked up about drums. But as AJ Mendez Brooks, she spent most of her life coping with mental illness. AJ tells Marc why she decided to open up about her struggles now that she's retired from wrestling. Also, Fred Stoller stops by again, this time with some insecurity over the interviews he did for his new book.

Joel Hodgson took his Midwestern sensibility, his interest in theater of the absurd, his standup comedy experience, and his robot assembly skills, put them together and created the beloved comedy institution Mystery Science Theater The new MST3K stars Marc's neighbor Jonah Ray, who also stops by to talk about being in one of his all-time favorite shows and doing the new season of his own show Hidden America.

Kevin Bacon started his career with an awkward experience on the set of Animal House. Then his fear of becoming a major star after Footloose led him to self-sabotage. It wasn't until he rejected Hollywood's idea of being a leading man and embraced being a character actor that everything flourished. John Michael Higgins is instantly familiar to audiences after seeing him in the Christopher Guest movies and Pitch Perfect and so many other films and TV shows. But he and Marc discover in the middle of their conversation that they actually share a comedy connection going back decades.

They also talk about his Broadway career and his big break playing David Letterman. As she tells Marc, Wendi lived at home with her parents until she was 26, worked at a hotel in Anaheim while she was in the Groundlings, and kept a job on the side even when she was starring in shows like Reno Marc's friend Al Madrigal also stops by to talk about his new special and to smooth over some rough patches in their friendship.

Although Mark Mothersbaugh co-founded Devo, he didn't think it was a band at first. To Mark and his bandmates, Devo was an art movement. Mark Lanegan is the soft-spoken elder statesman of the '90s Seattle grunge scene. Marc Maron talks with the former frontman of Screaming Trees and finds out how Mark went on to collaborate with a wide variety of artists, from Guns N' Roses to Belle and Sebastian. But first, singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco brings his laid-back Canadian rock vibe to the garage as he releases his third studio album and helps answer a puzzling question: Why does Marc like his music so much?

Poor health kept Walter Hill out of the Army in the '60s, but that twist of fate led him into filmmaking during the tumultuous end of that decade.

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Walter tells Marc about being there for the major shift in cinema during the '70s, making his own influential films like The Driver, The Warriors and 48 Hours, and working closely with actors like Steve McQueen, Eddie Murphy, and Richard Pryor. Walter also explains how he helped kick off the Alien franchise. Marc is a fan of Amanda Peet when she's playing funny, quirky characters, like in Togetherness or Brockmire, and when she's cold-hearted and mean, like in Changing Lanes or Syriana.

He finds out in person if those two sides of Amanda come to the surface in real life. Kamau Bell stops by to talk about some of his projects and winds up talking with Marc about pretty much everything going on in the world. Baron Vaughn knows that growing up without a father and sharing a bunk bed with grandma can ignite the comedy spark. He tells Marc about being a latchkey kid watching cable TV and drawing inspiration from the black comedians of the early '90s. With a successful comedy and acting career to his name, Baron was also able to document his search for the father he never knew.

Plus, Moshe Kasher returns to the garage to explain why he wants to get to the bottom of the trickiest stuff in his new show Problematic. It turns out Michael Chiklis and Marc went to Boston University at the same time, but soon after school Michael got cast as John Belushi in the movie Wired, which almost ended his career on the spot. Michael talks about how he bounced back with The Commish, transformed himself with The Shield, and finally got to engage his passion for music with his debut album Influence.

Plus, Kurt Braunohler and Lauren Cook are in the garage to talk about their new podcast Wedlock, with Lauren on the verge of giving birth at any minute. Marc tries not to fanboy out too much with Anne Hathaway in the garage. While he attempts to keep it together, they talk about her path from party girl to motherhood, the lessons gleaned from messed up relationships, dealing with the aggressive anonymity of the Internet, and the real monsters in her new movie Colossal.

Plus, Aimee Mann just released what Marc thinks is her best album, so she stops by to play one of the songs from it. Just as WTF evolved since that first episode in , Jeff evolved from the Roastmaster General to a comedian using his talent as a put-down artist in order to help us all better understand each other. New York Times comedy critic Jason Zinoman is the one person analyzing comedy from the most prominent journalistic platform in the world. So naturally Jason and Marc would want to talk about the nuts and bolts of creating comedy and, very specifically, the origin of David Letterman's influential brand of comedy, which is the subject of Jason's new book.

Plus, Hank Azaria is back in the garage to talk about bringing a gleefully drunk sportscaster to your televisions. Marc was blown away by author Paul Beatty's celebrated novel The Sellout and wanted to know how a writer can turn a stew of ideas about identity, race, pride, language and representation into a provocative and hilarious book. Paul visits the garage to provide some answers and reflection. Plus, Marc's friend Jackie Kashian stops by to talk possums, iguanas, sci-fi, and her new comedy album.

Paul Shaffer takes Marc down the path that turned a piano-playing kid from Canada into a keyboard-for-hire who became the bandleader for the famous Toronto production of Godspell. Religious scholar Reza Aslan has spent his life studying the facts and misconceptions about belief and the evolutionary reasons people need to believe in something larger than themselves. Beginning with his family fleeing a religious revolution in Iran, then landing in Oklahoma as a child and growing up in a Latino community in San Jose, Reza talks with Marc about his lifelong exploration of faith, including the findings of his new documentary series, Believer.

Also, Dax Shepard returns to the garage to talk about CHiPs, the movie he wrote, directed and stars in. Filmmaker Louis Theroux once tried to make a documentary featuring Marc but he never used the footage. Marc's been puzzled by that ever since, but when you look at the subjects of many Louis docs - addicts, criminals, hate mongers, pornographers - Marc might be lucky Louis never made that movie. Marc talks with Louis about evolving as a filmmaker, learning from Michael Moore, and what went into Louis's latest film, My Scientology Movie.

Kevin Nealon is trying a new approach to life in order to be less of a people pleaser and to allow himself some anger from time to time. Kevin also talks about the importance of his friendship with the late Garry Shandling. But that familiarity came with a price, as 20 years of successful work actually led to a complete bottoming out in Fred's life.

He tells Marc how he pulled out of it. Plus, Andy Kindler stops by to talk about the big change in his life. Eugene Levy brings more than five decades of comedy history from north of the border into the garage. Eugene also explains what goes into co-writing Christopher Guest's largely improvised films. Whether you see her in Christopher Guest's movies or on 2 Broke Girls or as Stifler's mom, Jennifer Coolidge is always a unique comic presence. She tells Marc how she put her wild New York City cocaine days behind her to come to LA and join the Groundlings, where she established her comedic chops.

Jennifer also talks about her blown chance to get on Saturday Night Live and what she learned from that missed opportunity. Filmmaker Raoul Peck spent more than a decade putting together the documentary I Am Not Your Negro, a powerful film illuminating the words and life of writer and social critic James Baldwin. That's not surprising when you consider how she was influenced by her Texas roots, her early piano playing, performing arts school and her estranged father, who she only got to know later in life.

Comedian Trae Crowder does not shy away from his Southern upbringing, in which he saw economic devastation and drug abuse lay waste to several generations around him. But in defiance of the stereotypes some might assign to him, Trae finds himself being called the Liberal Redneck Comic. He and Marc talk about what those labels mean in today's social climate. Plus, Lena Dunham returns to the garage as the final episodes of Girls draw near. They also discuss how the lines between fiction and reality got blurred while Will was making his new show, Flaked.

Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams knows there's a stark difference between the way he views the work throughout his career and the popular perception of it. Whether it's his years in Whiskeytown or his song New York, New York becoming a rallying cry after , Ryan tells Marc why history has created a different narrative of these events than what he experienced at the time and how that guides what he's doing today.

If Steve Jones was going to start a band after a troubled upbringing filled with petty crime, it makes sense that the band wound up being the Sex Pistols. Steve takes Marc through the formation of the band, the rocket ride to the top and the just-as-fast dissolution, which led to Steve's descent into heroin addiction. If Bill Paxton hadn't suffered from rheumatic fever when he was growing up in Texas, he might not be in show business. Plus, Marc's friend Dylan Brody returns with an all new ornate wardrobe. Marc had prejudged comedian Joe DeRosa. He thought he was a Philly tough guy who wouldn't want to have anything to do with a guy like Marc.

Now that they're friends and realize how similar they are, they can commiserate about the insecurities and doubt that plagued both of their careers. Also, John Hodgman and Jesse Thorn stop by to compare facial hair. Robbie Robertson is in the garage to give Marc the full lowdown on the history of The Band, from its origins as a backing group to its final bow with The Last Waltz. Robbie talks about being with Bob Dylan when he went electric and dealing with the blowback of that, and he explains how he came to have such a great working relationship with Martin Scorsese on many of the director's films.

How did an '80s glam metal bassist become one of the most prominent music managers in the industry, representing Sia, Weezer, Train, Courtney Love, Fall Out Boy, Lorde, and many others? Marc hears one of the most unlikely stories of show business success from his friend of more than 20 years, Jonathan Daniel.

Plus, comedian Nick Thune stops by to talk about making jokes with Jesus. Martin Landau is an Oscar-winning actor with a lifetime of work on film, TV, and stage.

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But he's also one of the foremost educators on his craft. Comedian Martha Kelly told Zach Galifianakis she cannot act. That didn't stop Zach from casting her as one of the leads on his show Baskets, but Martha's insecurity plagued her throughout life and, as she tells Marc, probably had something to do with her alcoholism, depression, eating disorder, and suicidal thoughts.

John Larroquette knows that people still identify him most strongly with Night Court, and he's okay with that. John believes things would have been different if he hadn't made his character, Dan Fielding, endearing beneath his cynical exterior. John and Marc talk about booze, recovery, sobriety, Stripes, The Librarians, and the one job that was so intense, John forgot his wife's birthday for the only time in 40 years. Roger Corman made hundreds of films and gave huge opportunities to filmmakers who became the best Hollywood has to offer.

Now, at 90 years old, Roger joins Marc to look back at his career of high concepts and low budgets. Plus, hear from a young director, G. Echternkamp, who just went through the full Corman experience while making Roger's latest film, Death Race James talks with Marc about the band's continued growth, his recovery from not only addiction but also anger issues, and his belief that bands need to reconcile no matter how bad the break-up. Martha Plimpton says she learned how to act on the job. She talks with Marc about her childhood roles in movies like The Goonies, how those paved the way for her work on Broadway, and what she does to overcome crippling stage fright.

Plus, Marc's friend Laurie Kilmartin stops by to talk about how she was able to take overwhelming grief and turn it into a new comedy special. Marc leaves the cozy confines of the garage and heads to New Jersey where else? Just two Jersey guys hanging out, talking about dads, depression, fear, fulfillment, and the future. Bruce tells Marc how and why he constructed "Bruce Springsteen" and what he's learned about the struggle we all go through to become who we really are.

Singer-songwriter David Bromberg is a human bridge between at least a half-dozen different styles of music. Plus, David explains why he quit for 20 years and developed a highly specific obsession. Marc makes a pilgrimage to Las Vegas for a sit-down with Sammy Shore, a comic with a long show business life that doesn't quite have the ending he planned on.

Sammy tells Marc about starting his career as Shecky Greene's partner, becoming the opening act for Elvis, starting The Comedy Store, and how each of these successful points of his career seemed to fall apart every time. It's not entirely accurate to say this episode has never been heard by anyone before. It's the first time Marc and Brendan ever did anything like this together in front of a live audience. A lot of former child stars have been in the garage, but Derek Trucks wasn't so much a child star as he was a prodigy.

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At the age of nine, Derek was a guitar wizard. He talks with Marc about avoiding the pitfall of becoming a novelty act and evolving into a versatile practitioner and appreciator of music, with help from several notable mentors along the way. Annette Bening attributes her longevity in acting to stopping when she wanted. She talks with Marc about being able to put the brakes on her career when dealing with the responsibilities of parenting.

They also talk about privacy, winning or not winning awards, Warren Beatty, and the many influential people Annette worked with who are no longer with us, including Garry Shandling, Mike Nichols, John Candy, and Robin Williams. They record these conversations and release them as The Marc and Tom Show. This one was recorded almost four years ago and was never released. For the first time, hear Marc and Tom talk about painful high school experiences, times they've fallen victim to con artists, what they plan to do during the apocalypse, and more.

Featuring theme music by The Tokeleys. Comedian Billy West is a master of voices and one of the preeminent voiceover artists working today. Billy tells Marc about his need to escape into characters while growing up in a chaotic home. It was a retreat from reality that led to success later in life with Ren and Stimpy, Futurama, The Howard Stern Show, and countless other projects.

And it all hinged on his lifelong love of The Three Stooges. Casey Affleck says he doesn't want fame or stardom. So how's he handling it now that the spotlight keeps getting hotter? Casey talks with Marc about growing up in Massachusetts, maturing as an actor, living in the public eye, having kids, dealing with an alcoholic dad, and creating his performance in Manchester by the Sea. In September , Marc recorded a conversation with the legendary Jerry Lewis. Until now, no one has heard it other than those in the room. This was supposed to be a full-length episode of WTF, but the interview was compromised and there were no plans to release it.

Marc explains what happened as we present this never-before-heard conversation. Comedian Shane Mauss saw his career gathering steam only to stall out and make him feel like opportunities were passing him by. Then an accident that left him with two broken feet coincided with another journey. One that involves neuroscience, psychedelic drugs, and an altered perception that led to a career rejuvenation.

As Dana Carvey puts it, he gave a Heisman to fame, essentially putting himself on the sidelines of showbiz for 15 years. Dana and Marc talk about the string of events that happened after SNL and Wayne's World that prompted Dana to reevaluate what's important in life and how he's developed a new perspective on his early years. This time the guest was comedian Maria Bamford, the sidekick was still Jim Earl, and the investigative reporter was Eddie Pepitone.

The only people who ever heard this were the people who made it, plus one angry program director who didn't want to put it on the air. Gothic folk duo The Handsome Family meet up with Marc while he's in Albuquerque to talk about American roots music, carnival sideshows, meeting your heroes, and dealing with bipolarity.

But first, documentary filmmaker Sam Pollard joins Marc in the garage to talk about his new film Two Trains Runnin', a look at the summer of , as history converged in unexpected ways. Comedian Joe Matarese has struggled with bouts of rage, anxiety, and paralyzing indecisiveness. Joe also explains why his big idea of being the comic who snaps on the audience didn't have a lot of running room.

This limited series dives deep into the WTF Vault aka a shoebox under producer Brendan McDonald's bed to present lost Marc Maron material that has never been heard by anyone else. In this episode, hear an unaired test show Marc and Brendan created ten years ago for a nighttime variety program on Los Angeles radio, featuring Patton Oswalt as the guest and Jim Earl as Marc's sidekick. But things didn't go the way they were supposed to. Scott talks with Marc about why the album and his career fizzled, how they were both resurrected, and how he connected with a son he never met, who is an accomplished artist in his own right.

Plus, Marc delivers his annual Thanksgiving Day pep talk. Michael Shannon cuts a pretty intimidating figure on stage and screen. The combination of his Southern upbringing and his early-career immersion into the Chicago theater scene probably accounts for much of his intensity. Michael and Marc talk about his experiences with creators like Tracy Letts, William Friedkin, and Jeff Nichols, and they delve into what occupies Michael's mind when he's not acting. On the year anniversary of 'Please Kill Me: An Uncensored Oral History of Punk,' Legs and Gillian tell Marc why they wrote it in the first place and why it still resonates two decades later.

Also, Marc's neighborhood buddy Andre Royo stops by to talk about his new independent film Hunter Gatherer. So he's well prepared to get into everything with Marc during a visit to the garage, including his multicultural upbringing, his early exposure to both hip hop and musical theater, his reasons for making Hamilton, and what "Weird Al" Yankovic has to do with all of it. Talent manager Shep Gordon had no real interest in pop music. He was a young hippie making money dealing drugs to rock stars. Shep tells Marc how he transitioned into a life of management and production with an eclectic group of clients including Alice Cooper, Ann Murray, Teddy Pendergrass, Raquel Welch, and a bunch of celebrity chefs.

Also, Marc reflects on the Presidential Election. On the eve of the U. Presidential Election, you owe it to yourself to hear this conversation between Marc and journalist Sam Quinones. Sam's travels in Mexico and his curiosity about the epidemic of opiate addiction in America led him to discover how cheap heroin production, pain management proliferation, impeccable marketing and unfettered capitalism combined to create a crisis that is at the heart of modern American dysfunction. Endless Boogie was never supposed to become a band.

It was made up of some guys who worked at Matador Records, one in particular who loved to collect old vinyl. Frontman Paul Major and guitarist Jesper Eklow tell Marc what it took to put the mother of all jam bands together and how the band's style is influenced by Paul's nearly obsessive practice of collecting rare LPs. Roger Waters wrote songs that changed rock and roll, organized them in ways that changed how albums were made, and performed them in ways that changed how concerts were staged.

The Pink Floyd frontman tells Marc why he only now feels like he's getting it right. Ron Howard knows the key to longevity in show business. He should, considering his evolution from child actor to sitcom star to award-winning director to highly respected producer. That would be enough for most people, but it only got better from there. Comedian Ritch Shydner is a true road warrior who made his reputation during the comedy club boom of the s.

Ritch talks with Marc about diving into the deep end of stand-up comedy, getting out entirely, and then coming out of retirement after more than a decade away from the mic. Plus, Anthony Bourdain stops by with his new cookbook to tell Marc how to make the things we take for granted. David Crosby readily admits that he probably shouldn't be alive.

Drug addiction, alcoholism, and health issues have taken their toll but have not knocked David out. Singer-songwriter Margo Price entered the garage on a wave of acclaim and notoriety that is rare for an artist with only one album. But Margo's country music bona fides are not in doubt. Despite her modest origin as a young Midwestern cheerleader and dancer, Margo encountered personal tragedy, struggles with depression and a battle with substance abuse on her way to Nashville.

Larry Clark does not consider himself a photographer and he explains to Marc why he doesn't. But that didn't stop a young Marc Maron from being drawn to Larry's raw, unflinching photos and his uncompromising art. Larry talks with Marc about his photography, his experiences in war and in prison, his struggle to get clean, and his films Kids, Bully, Another Day in Paradise, and Wassup Rockers. When Marc first saw Hutch Harris perform live with his band The Thermals, he was won over immediately and invented a whole mythology around who Hutch Harris must be.

But as Hutch tells Marc, he was just a kid who wanted to start a band and did it with talent, timing, a lot of gumption and a little luck. On a related note, Marc's friend Dan Pashman stops by to talk about the expectations we have when we see our favorite artists play live. Comedian Rachel Feinstein has conquered one of the most difficult spaces in the comedy world: You better be able to give as good as you get if you sit there. Rachel talks to Marc about her early years of living in squalor and having second thoughts about a comedy career, all while honing her craft and gaining the respect of her peers.

If you're wondering how John Prine, one of America's greatest living songwriters, came up with such great lyrics, just look to your mailbox. John tells Marc how his days as a mailman provided him time to ruminate on music, which led to his discovery by Kris Kristofferson, his friendship with Steve Goodman, and his encounters with Bob Dylan, Sam Phillips, Bonnie Raitt and others. America is plenty familiar with Katie Couric in the role of interviewer. But what about when the roles are reversed? First, Kamasi Washington tells Marc how an Inglewood kid growing up in the early 90s wound up at the forefront of a modern jazz revolution, including groundbreaking work with Kendrick Lamar and his own massive debut album, The Epic.

Then jazz critic and writer Ben Ratliff joins Marc to open minds and change old listening habits, as he explains how to truly enjoy music in the age of unlimited options. Comedian Geoff Tate always found it a little odd that Marc needed to squash so many beefs with other comics, because the two of them hit it off so well. Marc and Geoff explore the shared parental connection that helped them relate to each other and also gave birth to a lot of their comedy. Comedian Chris Garcia thought his upbringing was fairly typical as the son of first-generation immigrants, with stories and experiences that paved the way nicely for a career in comedy.

But Chris tells Marc that a recent trip to Cuba and the discoveries made there changed everything he knew about his family, particularly his father. Shake It, Shake It 1: Rumble At Newport Beach 1: A Casual Look 2: After School Rock 1: Last Year About This Time 2: I Love You, I Do 2: Mega-sales and multi-million dollar profits were unheard of. Success was measured in tens of thousands while album sales of , were considered sensational.

Nefarious, transient and unaccountable, the music biz was essentially a hidden profession, shielded from the sons and daughters of good Americans. Lew Bedell entered this circus of dreams in , having spent eight years as a minor professional entertainer. Before lawyers and accountants took over the music biz. A daughter, Lillian, had been born to the couple three years earlier.

A Russian-Jewish immigrant from Odessa in the Ukraine, 36 year-old Joe ran a small garment factory in El Paso where there was a small but flourishing Jewish community. At 18, Sara, who was born in Yonkers, New York also to immigrant parents, was half her husband's age. At some point in the early s, following an acrimonious divorce from Joe, Sara Bedinsky and her two young children went to live with her brother, Max Newman - Uncle Max - who became a surrogate father to Lewis and Lillian.

In , Max, who'd assumed the role of paterfamilias by default, took the entire brood off to Los Angeles to begin a new life in a city that was barely out of the orange grove stage. Joe Bedinsky is believed to have remained in El Paso. Max's son, Herb, was born there in Max raised Lewis alongside Herb, and, to all appearances, it seemed as though they were brothers.

Max was something of an entrepreneur and began to make connections. In the s, LA's burgeoning Jewish population began leaving Boyle Heights with its 30 synagogues and streets lined with barrels of pickled herring, for the Fairfax area of Hollywood, the city's new Jewish heart. He opened Maxwell's, a large bar in downtown LA which flourished during the war when the area teemed with sailors and service personnel involved in the Pacific campaign.

He also ran a stock liquidation business. These enterprises may or may not have brought him into contact with various individuals who used police mug-shots as passport photos, the same fellows who ran the jukebox trade and much of the liquor business. It was here that Bedell, a six-foot bundle of garrulous bluster, discovered a flair for comedy. On 25 September , Sara Bedinsky and her son changed their name by decree in a Los Angeles county court from Bedinsky to Bedell, completing the Americanisation process that began when Joe Bedinsky made the journey from the Ukraine at the turn of the century.

Their act consisted of the pair cavorting on stage while miming to topical hits, predominantly a few tried and tested favourites by Bing Crosby, the Andrews Sisters and the humorist Spike Jones. It held them in good stead for the next seven years as they schlepped around the country as a support act on the supper club and variety circuits. They would usually drive between gigs, alternating shifts at the wheel to overcome fatigue. Occasionally, an entertainment scribe tippling rum and coke in a dim nook of some smoky nightclub would give them a passing mention in his column.

Their turn at New York's renowned Latin Quarter supper club in early was said to have "convulsed the customers".

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Of their appearance at the seater RKO Theatre, Boston on 10 April , it was noted "The Bedell and Mattson pantomime to popular recordings is both fresh and funny. Some acts of this type are pretty tame. But this one gains momentum and works up to a smashing climax. Bedell and Mattson take the floor with their nonsensical record playback mimicking. The pair have developed into terrific comics. Off to a five-bow mitt. They pay strict attention to visual aspects of platter mimicry, working out spilt-second routines in which take-offs of Crosby, 'Wait Till The Sun Shines Nellie' , Spike Jones, Carmen Miranda and long haired artists are spotlighted Bedell and Mattson's panto-to-discs continue to please.

Opening with the Andrews Sisters' 'East Of The Rockies', the duo combines antics and hefty showmanship for hefty palming It's likely that Bedell landed this minor cameo through writer Sid Kuller, who wrote the screenplay. Of their show there on 20 December , Billboard's man noted: Their break-in date scores heavily. Their Kay Thompson and Dragnet skits were hilarious. Pair is aided by 'Renee' in several dance routines Now getting solo offers, Bedell kept the act going out of loyalty to Mattson.

Television was getting the big push in post-war LA and the nine-month stint enabled him to ease off touring and work nearer home, appearing as a stand-up at local niteries such as Billy Gray's Bandbox as late as July He and Bedell kept in touch over the years. As he approached his 36th birthday in the spring of , Bedell felt he was at a pivotal point in life and when Herb Newman and Uncle Max approached him with a business proposition, Lew listened well. Bedell's junior by six years, Herbert Howard Newman was a music industry pro, having learned the business working as a West Coast sales rep for Mercury Records, and in a similar capacity for Decca's LA branch.

He now planned to launch his own label, Liberty Records, in partnership with another cousin, Simon Waronker, a violinist with the studio orchestra at 20th Century Fox. Era opened for business at North Highland Avenue in March , its distinctive logo depicting swirling neutrons, a timely reflection of the Atomic Age.

Max was appointed comptroller. Si Waronker, incidentally, went on to launch the very successful Liberty label with a new partner a few months later. Having grown up through swing and jazz, Bedell and Newman were deeply immersed in the pre-rock spirit of the time. As a consequence, both men were out of step with the underlying trend towards rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues.

In truth, they didn't much care for it, let alone understand it. Their world was a hangover from the Hollywood of the s when crooners were all the rage and supper clubs like Ciro's and the Mocambo were the epicentre of night life. By the mids, the neon glow of Las Vegas was rapidly eclipsing the glamour of the Sunset Strip, as many Hollywood stars were now choosing to socialise away from the public eye. But in other ways, their timing was fortuitous: Modern promotional methods were coming into play. Sales reps were being phased out in favour of regional promo men whose sale aim was to secure radio play and TV exposure.

Usually former deejays with good industry contacts, they seized the chance to service the growing number of indie labels springing up in LA. Among the first of this new breed were George Jay and Irwin Zucker, both important if unsung figures in the genesis of early LA rock. Era and, subsequently, Dore owed their survival if not their very existence to Jay, a former Los Angeles disc jockey who became a promotion man in February , opening an office at Argyle Avenue in the heart of what would quickly become known as LA's record row, an area roughly bordered by Selma Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, Argyle and Vine Street.

Noted for his clarion call 'Promotion In Motion', Zucker carried a battery operated mini deck on which he played new releases to deejays he'd ambushed on the street, in coffee houses or even in lifts. Between them, Jay and Zucker bore witness to the changes that would shape the future of LA's music scene. One can imagine the scene as Newman and Bedell first sat at their desks in the spring of It's post -Chinatown LA with its black sedans, boxy suits and preponderance of Art Deco architecture, but not quite yet Space Age Hollywood with its rocket-shaped tailfins and the beginnings of high-rise architecture.

No one beyond the South has heard of Elvis Presley. Media attention is focused exclusively on the fading facade of the old Hollywood studio system and its glitzy cavalcade of internationally renowned movie stars. A new label being launched from a rented room on a Hollywood side street wasn't high on anyone's news agenda. Vying for attention, Newman and Bedell kicked off with a schlocky album disarmingly titled "Sounds of The Boudoir", an eye opener featuring 'the sounds of a lady awakening and retiring'. Despite their best efforts to promote it with a live window display featuring lingerie models at Wallach's Music City LA's first record superstore a few doors down on Vine Street, the album barely made a ripple.

They signed up singer-actor Bert Convy and released a single of an early Leiber-Stoller song titled 'Blueberries'. Only 25, with film star looks, Bregman was embarking on a career that entailed producing jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald for Verve Records where he also produced Ricky Nelson's first two hits , film scores, and even a spell in swinging 60s London producing and directing programmes for BBC TV and ITV. A true renaissance man, it was Bregman who brought Era its first successes: This was Gogi Grant. She had made some records under another name but no hits.

RCA had let her go, so we signed her to Era. For the Era sapling standing in the shadows of the tall trees of Capitol, Decca and RCA these hits were an unprecedented triumph. All that time, it was lying in a drawer. It was written in the first person for a guy to sing, so Herb changed it around. We'd gone in to cut the follow-up to 'Suddenly There's A Valley'. It was done at the end of the session, and when I heard the playback, I knew something was missing.

So I brought Vince De Rosa back in on the French horn to answer every phrase she sang - and that's what made it a hit. The frequently recorded song would provide both men with a lifelong annuity. That same month, the fast-rising Dot label, its coffers flush from sales of Pat Boone and Hilltoppers records, moved into a much larger adjacent building formerly occupied by Capitol , symbolising the rapid changes taking place in the music biz on the coast.

LA was not yet a rock 'n' roll town though Era did sign a few artists in that vein including the ineffectual 'female Elvis' Alis Lesley for one record only, mainly as a favour to a local deejay who managed her and 14 year-old Ben Joe Zeppa again for one release but these artists made little impact. In fact, was a slower year for Era which scored just once in January with 'Cinco Robles Five Oaks , by actor-singer Russell Arms - the first of a string of Era one-hit-wonders. There was also an acrimonious lawsuit involving Gogi Grant who broke her Era contract claiming she was being pressured into recording company copyrights, and went back to her former label, RCA.

Caught napping by rock 'n' roll, Newman and Bedell vowed to play catch-up and began Signing younger artists. They invested a lot of faith - five singles worth - in a sweet-voiced country rockabilly singer named Don Deal who would come in with songs that sounded like hits but never quite were. His first Era single, 'Unfaithful Diane', picked up a fair amount of local airplay and solid regional sales.

Hank and Coe played in Deal's band and he in turn introduced them to Bedell and Newman. It opened a few doors for Coe who co-wrote some of Deal's Era material with Hank Cochran who also made a pop 45 for Dore 'Goofin' Around' just before he moved to Nashville in pursuit of greater glories in the songwriting field. Coe would later work with other Dore artists. February saw Era signing local rockabilly singer Glen Glenn whose career was almost immediately scuppered by conscription, His first 45, 'Everybody's Movin", is a rockabilly classic that has since been recorded by, among others, Neil Young and Bob Dylan, He says, "I knew I was about to get drafted when Era signed me but I didn't tell Lew because I didn't think he'd sign me if he knew I was going to be out of the picture so soon.

He said we're going to change your name on the label to Glen Glenn, I wanted to be known by my real name but I was so keen to get a record out, they could have called me Dirty Harry. Written and produced by Wayne Shanklin writer of the 50s standard 'Jezebel' , the song would long outlast the Todds, who would never chart again, Bedell told Jim Dawson in Goldmine magazine: The singers were this guy and wife from Rhode Island who were playing hotel lounges in town, I knew it was a hit.

Dede met Lew in through Cara Williams, an actress who was married to Dede's brother, the ill-starred John Drew Barrymore father of Drew Barrymore perhaps best known for his portrayal of the beatnik teacher lecturing his class in hipster patois in the movie, High School Confidential. Dore Lewis Bedell, born on 9 March , and Stephanie Mae Bedell, born , "It was a happy, sublime marriage," she insists, Dore was named after Lew's maternal grandmother, Dora, Though unusual, the name was not entirely unknown.

Lew had occasionally crossed paths with an obscure comedy trio named Nicco, Grace and Dore which may have brought it to mind, while the name of Dore Isidore Schary, the high profile head of MGM films, would certainly have been on Lew's radar. Newman and Bedell's involvement was an open secret on record row and the obvious conflict of interest led Jaybird to be quickly sold-off to another distributor, Al Sherman, in January To help Jaybird achieve lift-off, Era guaranteed Jay an exclusive line, in the form of a new label that would serve as a test bed for untried rock 'n' roll material without sullying the good name of Era, something that concerned the nervy Newman more than Bedell.

They named it Dore, after Lew's year-old son. Dore's opening shots were a mixed bag. If 'After School Rock' sounded like middle-aged vision of rock 'n' roll, that's because it was conceived by men with ties to the past struggling to keep pace with the fast moving trends of the late s. The crude, indistinct recording quality suggests the songs may have been publisher's song demos issued as masters. We have included the version by the Darlings, recorded and issued several years later, in The fact that Dore's first and only million-seller by the Teddy Bears was an entirely amateur affair performed by kids who had literally walked in off the street, served to reinforce Bedell's philosophy that record production in the rock 'n' roll era was an intuitive lottery founded on factors so uncertain as to be beyond manipulation or control.

Whereas Herb Newman might have hired a full studio orchestra to lend a record an air of legitimacy, Bedell liked to keep things simpler and less polished - though no less commercial. Many Dore releases would be the result of 'walk-ins', that is, masters purchased from impecunious indie producers peddling their wares, or artists looking to get recorded. Dore releases were more honest and tapped into the teenage zeitgeist at a street level more directly than those of bigger labels - as this compilation attests. This placed him at odds with Newman who favoured a more calculated approach based on the roster-building principles of the pre-rock age when the best available material was recorded by established artists in formal studio conditions.

These differences in outlook and personality led to a rift between the two men and in May the music trade reported that Newman and Bedell were amicably dissolving their partnership and apportioning the assets: Newman would assume full ownership of Era and move to new premises in the Stanley-Warner Building on Hollywood Boulevard while Bedell would stay on at Vine Street to run Dore alone.

Herb Newman's father-in-law, Jack Eisenrod, took over as Era's comptroller from Max Newman, who bowed out of the business at this point. It wasn't his idea at all - it was his wife's. Her name was Leila and she was sort of running his end of the company. She would make the suggestions and she was steering his part of the ship which, to be honest, I resented.

That was in In today's money, that would be a couple of million. We decided to sell them to him, which we did, then Herb and I parted ways. Remember Uncle Max was the one who raised me and I loved him like a father. Herb was his son and I always respected that part and the fact that it was because of Herb that I got into the record business to start with, so I'm beholden to him to this day, and that 'tap on the shoulder'.

Also, I was getting into rock 'n' roll. Herb didn't want to foul up the label with rock 'n' roll She was quite unaware that Lew had started a subsidiary label, DeeDee, named after her, until told in One day they came in and told me they had just been to see Randy Wood, President of Dot Records around the corner. According to what they told me, he liked this particular record, but they didn't like the deal he offered.

So I said, 'Let me hear it. I said, 'Is that the one Dot likes? Herb had made the arrangements for the four studio musicians and they sat down with earphones on and listened to our original track and just played along with it. Good as they were, they had a hell of a time playing along with our garage tape. They were used to making an instrumental tape, then having the artist sing along with their track, until they got it.

But we did the vocals first and they had to match us! When we'd done our vocals, we didn't have a drummer or a metronome to check our time. To our laymen's ears, it didn't sound like there was any radical change in the tempo. To these guys, our track was uneven in tempo - radical changes in meter. Eventually, after eight or nine takes they learned where the places were that we changed tempo and they sped up or slowed down with us.

Dore promo copies ran to 2: Initial British pressings on the London label ran to an unedited cold ending at 2: He attended University of Southern Caliifornia while doubling as a recording artist for Dore on the Side. I got quite friendly with the manager there, Bob Zipkin, and one day he asked me if I had heard a song from a movie called Circus of Horrors. This song was titled 'Look For A Star' and he said kids were coming directly from the movie asking him for a record of it.

Then I spoke to my dear friend Ernie Freeman, a genius arranger, and explained what George had done and how I'd like him to emulate it as closely as possible. Ernie said, 'Get the studio next door to you, Harmony Recorders, for I'm working in Hollywood with my band on Friday till midnight. After I finish my gig, I'll bring in my band and let's see if we can beat everybody to the punch and get it out quickly as there are sure to be covers.

Ernie and his band got there on time. He listened to the tape George had made from the movie and within half an hour, he had it arranged. It took less than an hour to record. Within three days that record was being mailed to all the radio stations. I was home studying for the finals [exams] - and that never happens! I was never home Friday night. I was always out partying. So I get a call, and I drive down and we start recording about one o'clock in the morning!

Ernie Freeman was there, and the Blossoms did the background voices, and the next morning it was on the radio! I went on tour, back to Philly, of course, because you always went on the Dick Clark Show. I did all the cities around the East Coast with all the deejays and so forth, and when I came back to LA, it was 2 [locally]. Lew himself sometimes put in an appearance, most notably on the Zanies' 'The Mad Scientist' from , a record whose hit potential was stymied by its subject matter: They never smiled, never said a word, When it was over, they gave the record back and she said, 'That's the most horrible thing I've heard in my life'," Ten months later, Herb Newman issued a shortened version of 'Mr Custer' after hearing the master quite by chance in the hallway of a recording studio.

It made 1 in the summer of By normal industry standards, Bedell was relatively unpressured as there was substantial publishing income from his share of songs such as 'The Wayward Wind', 'To Know Him Is To Love Him' and 'Chanson D'Amour', His mindset was inherently more upbeat than that of some poor schmuck festering in a music row backroom with boxloads of unsold records, "Lew was a control freak who adored being his own boss," Dede Bedell reflects, "He loved to take charge, We'd go into a restaurant and he'd tap the side of his glass and say 'Who's the captain of this table?

Never one to ponder the muse, win or lose, Bedell was at his happiest taking down orders from distributors for a record that may have cost him a only few hundred bucks to get on the table, though, to be fair, in later years when Dore got into its stride as a soul label, the productions became progressively expansive - and expensive. In this climate of spontaneous deal making and ad-hoc recording, Bedell was regularly approached by would-be's and wanna-be's, some of whom may have had something on the ball. The prolific Cooper also produced other material for Bedell including a doo wop ballad by the Brentwoods.

Gary Usher, who co-wrote a couple of early Beach Boys hits with Brian Wilson in , took his first tentative steps in the studio with Bedell after leaving the army in , though nothing came of it. Usher told Stephen J McParland: Back in the late 50s and early 60s, all along Hollywood Boulevard, and up and down Sunset and Vine, there were all these little offices of independent labels, all basically surviving on the high rate of 'street traffic' at the time. There were only a handful of major labels in Los Angeles, so there was plenty of room for these independents to operate.

Because of the sheer number of masters they were listening to off the street, they were also experiencing quite a deal of success before they were finally squeezed out or bought up by the majors.

WTF w/Marc Maron

There was a young excitement in the business, and there were always little games being played. There was a naivete that is no longer the case. Evidently, he was independently wealthy and did very much as he wanted to. He played a lot of golf and wore outlandish clothes, suits with big shoulder pads and wide lapels. He also wore these incredibly bright coloured pants with outrageous shoes. He really dressed like an eccentric. George Jay's office was a mere quarter of a mile away. Best of all, Bedell only had to pop next door to get lacquers or dubs cut at Harmony Recorders, a small facility at Vine Street which also housed a music copying service and a small demo studio on the first floor where, with a little ingenuity, it was possible to produce a master.

Because Dore threw open its doors to anyone who might have something on the ball - and it was usually a song or a particular nuance that persuaded Bedell to take it further - many unknowns passed through without volunteering much in the way of their background, especially as Bedell rarely bothered with publicity, even in the event of a hit, believing this to be responsibility of the artist or their management.

The parents of under-age artists were usually asked to come to the office to sign contracts on their offspring's behalf but beyond noting the artist's birth date and ID number, Lew would rarely get involved. He might meet an artist once or, at most, twice. Nor did he advertise in the trade press except in rare instances Dore was competing sales with rival versions a particular song such 'Come Softly To Me' Ronnie and 'Reach For A Star' Hawley and even then, the ads only caught eye if one looked hard enough - with a magnifier. An inveterate gambler, Lew probably blew more cash at the racetrack than he ever did in the studio.

Duddy Kicks the Buddy! ... and He Talks Junk?? (Face Cam All Items Tried Gameplay)

In later years, he had box seats at the Hollywood Park racetrack where he'd pick daily doubles while Dede would sit and read a book; he also attended Santa Anita racetrack in Arcadia. That was before he got the golfing bug that would take over his life to the point of obsession after he joined the exclusive Riviera country club in Pacific Palisades and "played golf almost every day with Dean Martin for nine years Dean would drive a different car almost every day. He used to tell me that he loved to see my car parked there because he knew we were going to have a good time and fun that day When someone started talking about his cars, he'd say, 'I also have two Porsches at home - a front Porsche and a back Porsche'.

That was his joke, folks, not mine Artists would readily be given their release and royalty queries relating to records that hadn't recouped their costs, batted away. In , Bedell took a chance on a Hispanic kid named Joe Romero who'd been brought to him by a manager named Joe Paskel. Lew shot back "Please be advised he did make a recording for us. A very few of his records were ordered and to date we do not know how many of them have sold It is highly improbable that Mr Romero will receive any monies from this recording as, per his contract, the costs involved in recording him would exceed any sales made to date on this particular record.

He'd lived his life based on a simple credo he referred to wistfully as 'the tap on the shoulder', that is, the timely intervention of benevolent fate at various moments in his life. He was very much a family man. His children, being far too young at the time, have only the vaguest memories of Lew in his pomp. Quite boring for us after several takes. My sister remembers falling asleep in the chairs.

I got the impression it was a feast or famine lifestyle and that he said we lived off the 'Percolator' money for ten years. He was always positive, no matter what. The song he was working on was going to be a hit, no matter if the last five had flopped. He was also very spiritual and would always say 'God will provide'.

Dore was getting ready to start school, so the time was right.

The Dore Story, Volume 1

We found this house about a mile and a half from Beverly Hills in an area called Beverlywood. I fell in love with the yard. I mean the house was big but the swimming pool was bigger, about 20' by 40'. It had apricot trees that were yielding a lot of fruit; it had a plum tree and a couple of almond trees. There was also a huge patio with a big overhang.

That's where I finally put my pool table when I got one. Dore's fourth birthday was coming up and for his present, I bought him a pedigree Collie. Hal was a pretty lucky guy. The nice part about the house is that we only lived about a block from Castle Heights Grammar School, where three of my kids went. It was just the right move for us. I guess that little tap on my shoulder must have come at the right time. Originally from New York, where Judy was born in and John in , their lives changed dramatically after the family moved to California in Cute and precocious, John became a child actor landing occasional bit parts on TV, most notably in the sitcom Hello Mom starring Betty Grable which ran for one season in As John began to outgrow kiddie roles, Regina and her husband, John Sr, encouraged their two children to form a singing act and by late , John and Judy were playing country fairs and community dances, a pair of safe, goody two-shoes kids who'd throw in some rock 'n' roll tunes to add a little danger to their family-friendly performances.

A year passed before the brother-sister duo made their next record. Their father drove them into town to meet Bedell shortly after he'd left Era to go out on his own. Keen to expand his teen roster after the split from Newman, Bedell signed the siblings on 9 August , partly on the strength of John's teen idol looks. Co-signing on their behalf, Regina Maus gave their address as West Buckthorn Street, Inglewood, California - scene of the now legendary practice sessions with neighbourhood kids Carl Wilson and David Marks who'd go on to co-found the Beach Boys.

It's heard here with Don Blake's studio chat tagged onto the ending. Then, in November , playing on the fact they all looked alike, they became the Walker Family.