Podcast of the Week: Louis C.K. on WTF

I refuse to apologize for mentioning Marc Maron's WTF so often. In my opinion, it's the best one out there, so I might as well act like it. As good as it is on a regular basis, this week stood out. Maron and Louis C.K. were finally reunited.

You don't have to be a fan of comedy to enjoy this one. Buffy only occasionally finds these things interesting (and even when she kindly listens, I can count on her eventually saying in the middle of an argument "well I had to listen to that [whatever] that you played for me a week ago!" But the several clips I played for her from these interviews, were well-received. Even when she started to roll her eyes at one of the clips that she thought was just going to be silly and crass, she soon realized that it was actually a pretty powerful moment.

Maron And C.K. are friends from way back in the last century. They started together and earned their successful careers together. From those salad days, they both developed and matured. And in the process they grew apart, as many very good friends do. The reunion ended up lasting long enough to provide enough for two episodes.

They go over the rift, their careers, the business, writing, family, anxiety… really pretty much everything. And it's not light and fluffy conversation. Maron is alway good at getting his guests to talk honestly, and this visit goes so far as to get some tears flowing on one topic, which includes a really good line from C.K. about the amazing power of water.

He holds little back, talking about the experience of being a stand-up wanting to create more than stage performances, and the doubts and roadblocks he had to walk around, plow thru, or chisel away. He discusses his time writing for Dana Carvey, and Conan O'Brien, and the frustration of doing a well-regarded, tho not always fully-understood show for HBO, Lucky Louie.

TV sitcoms are written by Harvard graduates who don't like audiences. They don't like people. They're not popular people. And so they hate the idea that audiences can tell them whether something's funny or not. So they've built a system where they shoot on a stage in front of an audience but they ignore the audience. …

Most big sitcoms don't have an audience now. And they have a man called the laugh man and he puts in the laughs. And the laughs are short enough…that the clippy dialogue can continue. Jennifer Aniston never looks aware of the audience when she's perf— She's supposed to be performing in front of an audience on Friends. (That's how old I am.)

But uh, we had to hold for laughs, and uh, it was a mess. But it was supposed to be.

C.K. has now achieved the first levels of an auteur. His work is good enough and reliable enough, and his choices are trusted enough to make his show almost completely his own. A big part of that is because he's a good writer and performer. Maybe an even bigger part of that is because he spent time learning how do his own editing and how to switch the lenses on cameras. Not every comedian will get "The Louis Deal." And very few would know what to do with it.

The last few minutes of the whole visit are about as honest an exchange as Maron has had on his podcast. C.K. begins his closing advice about friendship with "You don't have to put this in the podcast if you don't want to," then he goes on to talk about the value, pain, and challenge of friendship. Especially one with Maron. The best thing about WTF week after week, is that Maron leaves so much of that stuff in.