Lorne Michaels Gives Marc Maron Closure on WTF Podcast

Hamptonite and Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels sat with comedian Marc Maron for a much-anticipated interview on his WTF with Marc Maron Podcast this week. The lead up to Monday’s episode became a point of much excitement for WTF fans, thanks to a less-than-flattering story Maron often shares about his botched meeting with Michaels to discuss a role on the 1995 season of SNL.

“It’s a big day, people,” Maron says to fans as the podcast begins. “This is a cathartic thing for me. As you know, if you listen to the show, I’ve been hung up on this meeting I had with Lorne Michaels for the 95 season for decades,” Maron said, explaining that the meeting, which went badly, left him angry at Michaels, though many of his comedian friends spoke highly about the SNL creator. “I liked keeping Lorne Michaels this evil wizard who somehow shunned me and exiled me from a possibly much different career in show business.”

As often happens with Maron’s in-depth interviews, the conversation with Michaels gave him closure and proved that Michaels isn’t such a terrible person after all. Maron has had similarly cathartic interviews with then-estranged pal Louis CK, now of Shelter Island, and The State‘s Michael Ian Black, among others. He’s since gone on to interview legends such as President Barack Obama, Keith Richards and the queen of interviews, Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross.

In the two-hour Michaels interview, the two discuss the famous 1995 meeting, but then move on to Michaels’ career, comedy, attitudes toward critics and viewers, and his path to and with Saturday Night Live.

It’s currently available for free on iTunes or wtfpod.libsyn.com (look for WTF Episode 653).