Conan O’Brien gets a lesson in podcasting from Marc Maron

Conan O’Brien sat down to get some tips and tricks from the godfather of podcasts Marc Maron.

It wasn’t too long ago that not everyone had his or her own podcast. But the medium has certainly taken off in recent years and found audiences for everything from sports to politics to true crime. In comedy podcasting, a lot of credit goes to Marc Maron and his WTF podcast. Thanks to Maron, Conan O’Brien has given us Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend.

WTF with Marc Maron began back in 2009. Maron had been doing standup comedy at that point since 1987. The podcast slowly grew an audience over time thanks to Maron’s own unique brand of self-deprecating comedy as well as some notable guests inside and outside of comedy. People like Louis C.K, President Barack Obama, and Lorne Michaels have all been featured on the podcast.

Maron is frequently cited by comedians as an influence and trailblazer when it comes to podcasting. It’s safe to say his podcast allowed Conan O’Brien to develop his own podcast Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. Since debuting a few months ago, O’Brien has already interviewed podcasts hosts/comedians Bill Burr and Dax Shepard.

So when Maron was a guest of O’Brien’s podcast, the late night host made sure to try to pick up as many tips as he could from the stand-up comedian. In the end it was clear that while the two have some similarities in terms of personality and psychology, their approaches to podcasting are a bit different.

Maron and O’Brien do both have a “me first” attitude when it comes to hosting their respective podcasts. This is meant in the best possible way. Maron needs to find a way to personally relate to his guests. O’Brien needs to find out how he can be friends with his guests. There are certainly different levels of sincerity to each but both result in some entertaining and funny conversations.

This episode was another one in which listeners can get a behind-the-scenes look at both Conan’s show and Maron’s podcast. We find out a bit about the thought process behind Maron’s talk show appearances as well as what goes into interviewing less than enthusiastic guests.

It’s worth sticking around for the entire episode for a couple of reasons. One, we get to hear Conan O’Brien reference the Tonight Show debacle with Jay Leno. No matter how much time passes, O’Brien will still take his chance to throw a few digs in and he has every right to do so. Two, O’Brien’s view of himself as a peer of Freddie Mercury was a hilarious end to another solid episode. Keep checking Last Night On for more updates on everything from Conan O’Brien.