Marc Maron is finally acknowledging what really fueled his long-standing tension with Jon Stewart: his own insecurity.
He WTF The podcast host, 62, opened up about his past rivalry with Stewart in a recent interview as “petty” and “completely rooted in jealousy.”
“Jon never did anything to me,” Maron said. gift. “I was just jealous.”
He admitted that early in their careers, Stewart represented everything he thought he wasn't. “He was a smart, cute Jewish guy who just had it all. Those people who understand their talent, know how to use it and build 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 former Comedy Central gig at Short Attention Span Theatre, only for it to be canceled soon 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 confessed to taking out his resentment directly on Stewart. “I would just shit all over him, in his face. Like, 'Who the fuck do you think you are?'” Maron recalled. “It was all envy. I thought, 'If I could get my shit together, maybe I could be that guy.'”
But in retrospect, Maron realized he never really wanted what Stewart had. “I didn't get into comedy to be an entertainer or a talk show host,” he said. “I got into this to say what I think. 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 annoying to him,” Maron said. “In the end he said, ‘I don’t need to take this shit.’ And, honestly, fair.”
When asked if he ever tried to make peace, Maron said he came close when he released WTF. “I called him from Portland and said, ‘Hey, I'm making peace with people.’ And he says, ‘Yeah, there's no love here,'” Maron said. “Then he added, 'Maybe we could grab coffee sometime, but I won't be doing your podcast. I'm sure it's very creative. Good luck with it.'”
Maron laughed at the irony of that now. “And now he's doing a podcast,” he said. “So yeah, it comes full circle.”
