I’ve been spending a ridiculous amount of time with my imaginary friend lately.
Well, the friend isn’t imaginary as much as the friendship is. His name is Marc Maron and he is dominating my entire life.
To be clear, I have never met Marc Maron, though we did once exchange emails. (I asked about a live show he was doing. He replied. I responded with a joke. He did not continue the correspondence. It was not a good joke.) Our one way relationship began when I started listening to his WTF podcast a couple of years ago. WTF is such a personal show, and he exposes so much of himself, that you honestly feel like its a three way conversation between Maron, his guest and you.
From there, I started following him on Twitter, looking for him on talk shows and, eventually, listening to other podcasts on which he appeared as a guest.
Recently, though, things have gotten out of hand. The show, Maron, debuted on IFC and Marc’s book, “Attempting Normal,” came out with a few days of each other. That meant he did the rounds on tv and radio to promote both projects. In the past few weeks I have watched Maron on Jimmy Fallon, Conan, and Leno, listened to a great hour long sit down with Howard Stern (That one was amazing. It felt like the greatest pop culture interviewer in history was giving his seal of approval to the first real potential successor to his throne,) and downloaded podcast appearances with Chris Hardwick and the Sklar Brothers. All of this, while also listening to 3 episodes of WTF a week, watching “Maron” on IFC and reading the book.
It came to a head Friday evening. I listened to WTF on the way home from work, (an interview about life and career and death with TV vet Sam Simon, who’s dealing with terminal cancer.) At 10pm, I watched “Maron” (episode 3 of the series. I think, in order of quality so far, I go episode 2 then episode 3 then episode 1.) After the show was over I got into bed and read a book for a couple of hours. That book was “Attempting Normal.” In all, I spent 3 and a half hours with Marc Maron Friday night and he didn’t even know about it.
Is that weird?
Are we good?
Sports Illustrated: May 20th, 2013

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