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WTF with Marc Maron Podcast
Feb 6, 2012 8

Matt Graham has quite an amazing history. He and Marc crossed paths in the Boston comedy scene and Matt went on to be a respected comedy writer, a professional Scrabble player, a professional poker player, and an almost-college basketball player at the age of 40. But that only scratches the surface. This episode is sponsored by Stamps.com. Click on the radio mic and enter WTF for a special offer.

8 Comments
  • 3 months ago
    Bill
    Just finished listening to the interview, and I agree with Matt 100%. The narcissistic/antisocial personality disorder and lack of insight into his self-destructive behavior (from drugs to religion) deserve our sympathy, and he should seek professional help for these.

    The misogyny is a different matter. Using the C word in the 21st century?!? Really!?
  • 3 months ago
    Jenn
    ...wow. :-/
  • 3 months ago
    Matt
    Although harshly put, I agree with Simon's opinion. Graham sounds like someone who displaces blame in order to survive and make sense of what he sees as his (mostly) unsatisfactory life. He constantly brings up destiny, fate, and makes sweeping generalizations in order to support his misguided opinions. My favorite was that all women are apparently 'soul-sucking cunts'(paraphrasing here) because he has been rejected innumerable times. Right.

    I think he uses God as a scape goat to place blame on in order to not hold himself responsible for his own actions. Before it was alcohol and drugs, now it's religion and some ridiculous sense of being cursed with bad luck, instead of his own aggressively anti-social tendencies, which are clearly evident in the second half of this interview. He's so passive aggressive in his attitude towards Marcs apparent lack of gumption in directly addressing his suicide attempt that it'd be funny if it weren't so frustrating.

    He claims that he is simply being 'honest', but as Marc tried to say in the interview, there is such a thing as selective honesty. It's not a matter of what he's saying, it's that he says it all at once, and it's simply overwhelming for most people, which is reasonable. But the conclusion that Graham makes from this is that "all people are full of shit, and I'm not" (that ones essentially a direct quote). And of course, all women are out to make men debase themselves for their own sick pleasure. Ridiculous.

    His sobriety is certainly a step in the right direction, but he's only trading one vice for another. The first (alcoholism) was material, this one's ideological. He uses both as a way to make himself out to be persecuted by a world that is out to get him. While he may no longer be having hallucinations, he is delusional. Graham clearly still has a long ways to go, and needs some mental help.
  • 4 months ago
    patch
    WTF has earned a reputation over the course of it's run as being very "confessional". In fact, if you excised all the talk about depression, substance abuse and masturbation you could probably absorb the entirety of the series in a couple hours. But this episode I think managed to cross a line I've not heard crossed before in any forum: a grown man telling us that he routinely turns down social and career opportunities in order to stay home and care for his ailing cat. Somehow I don't see this eliciting the outpouring of positive responses that greeted Todd Glass a few weeks back, so I feel obligated to say: "Hey man...been there."

    I for one found Matt easy to like and unfortunately pretty easy to identify with.
  • 4 months ago
    Schad
    It's always someone else's fault.

  • 4 months ago
    susan
    Wow. Amen to both earlier comments. I feel there is more to say on the subject of that interview, but I do not have the background in psycho-therapy to even come close to that conversation. Wow.
  • 4 months ago
    Jay
    Matt isn't any easy guy to like.
  • 4 months ago
    simon
    matt's an absolute nut job...should be institutionalised