Marc Maron finally acknowledges what really fueled his long-standing tension with Jon Stewart: his own insecurity.
THE WTF The podcast host, 62, spoke candidly about his past rivalry with Stewart in a recent interview, calling it “petty” and “completely rooted in jealousy.”
“Jon never did anything to me,” Maron said Squire. “I was just jealous.”
He admitted that early in their career, Stewart was everything he thought he wasn’t. “He was this smart, cute Jewish guy who got along. These people who understand their talent, know how to use it and build their careers on their own terms. That wasn’t me,” he said.
Maron admitted that he felt out of control as a young comic, especially after taking over Stewart’s old Comedy Central gig at the Short Attention Span Theater, only to have it canceled shortly after.
“I was desperate for a place in comedy,” he said. “Meanwhile, Jon was everywhere: MTV, talk shows, magazines. I couldn’t go a week without seeing his face. It drove me crazy.”
He even admitted to expressing his resentment directly at Stewart. “I was shitting on him, to his face. Like, ‘Who do you think you are?'” Maron recalls. “It was envy. I thought, ‘If only I could pull myself together, maybe I could be that guy.'”
But looking back, Maron realized he never really wanted what Stewart had. “I didn’t get into comedy to be a performer or host a talk show,” he said. “I set out to speak my mind. Comedy seemed noble to me… as if the only rule was to be funny, and beyond that you could do whatever you wanted.”
Still, he admitted that Stewart’s confidence struck a chord. “He was himself in a way that I wasn’t. And I was boring with him,” Maron said. “Finally he said to me, ‘I don’t need to take this shit from you.’ And honestly, just.
When asked if he had ever tried to make peace, Maron said he had reached out during the launch WTF. “I called him from Portland and said, ‘Hey, I’m making amends with people.’ And he says, ‘Yeah, there’s no love here,'” Maron said. “Then he added, ‘Maybe we could have coffee sometime, but I don’t do your podcast. I’m sure it’s very creative. Good luck.'”
Maron was now laughing at the irony of the situation. “And now he’s doing a podcast,” he said. “So yes, it’s come full circle.”
