Late Bloomer

With a critically acclaimed role on GLOW, MARC MARON is quickly becoming more than the KING OF PODCASTS. But as he tells ADAM GRANT, it was a long, long road to now.

- Adam Grant

For most of his life, Marc Maron was a struggling stand-up comedian. Then, in 2009, he began experimenting with podcasting in his garage in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The show, WTF with Marc Maron, has become a cornerstone of the medium—he’s recorded more than nine hundred episodes, and guests have included everyone from Sharon Stone to Keith Richards to President Obama. (He’s since moved to a new, bigger house but still records in his garage.) More recently, Maron turned to acting, costarring on Netflix’s GLOW as Sam Sylvia, a B-movie director who coaches an all-female wrestling league— season 2 airs on June 29. We talked to him about his battles and what success finally feels like.

Adam Grant: How do you get into character for GLOW?

Marc Maron: I put on those pants, I put on those glasses, get the hair going, then I look in the mirror and I’m like, “I’m that guy.” This is the first time I’ve really done a show where I’m not fundamentally playing me.

AG: You’ve talked about how, until recently, you didn’t feel like you were successful. How did you deal with the false starts in your career? I know there were these sort of “almost” moments earlier where you hosted Short Attention Span Theater after Jon Stewart, you auditioned for SNL.