It’s not my intention to beat a dead horse, but I just can’t stop re-listening to the Marc Maron – Gallagher interview. Yes, the one wherein the latter comedian storms out of Maron’s Portland hotel room where the interview was being recorded.
Now, as I’ve written before, in the name of remaining completely transparent, Punchline is a sponsor of Maron’s podcast; and I’m personally a longtime fan of his work. So, yeah, this isn’t coming from an unbiased place. That said, the more I listen to the interview, the more I believe Maron really didn’t push him so far to warrant him storming out.
Clearly, Gallagher was not at all familiar with podcasts or how Maron conducts interviews— which is to say, opposite of the way FM radio morning DJs conduct business. And I can go on about the philosophical and psychological arguments that this interaction brings up. But, really what I want to do – and what I’ve already done – is isolate the moment in the interview where Marc exclaims “Aww…C’mon, Gallagher” as Gallagher exits the hotel room.
[audio:http://www.punchlinemagazine.com/audio/gallagher(2).mp3]
It’s the funniest three-second audio I think I’ve ever heard. It sums up the entire interview perfectly: Maron sincerely didn’t want Gallagher to leave and was sincerely frustrated with how the interview had gone. And for us, the listeners, the pure surrealism of that moment – below the mainstream radar, well-respected Marc Maron earnestly pleading with the king of hack to return to his hotel room – could never be duplicated.
You know how Oprah has made herself the originator of the “A-Ha!” moment– a brief flash wherein you learn something life-changing about yourself? Well, let me propose the “Aw, C’mon, Gallagher” moment. We can loosely define it as a brief flash wherein you realize you’re pleading for something you never really wanted in the first place; or maybe it’s just the part of your day when you realize all hope is lost. Or maybe it’s when a terrible comedian storms out on you.
So, go ahead and replay it again, and again. Then, repeat.
