Marc Maron sat down for a WTF interview with President Obama today, and not long afterward, Maron spoke with The New York Times about the experience ahead of the commercial-free episode’s release on Monday – everything from how he prepared for it to its timing after the Charleston shooting to the comedians Obama finds funny. Obama told Maron his favorite comedians are Richard Pryor and Dick Gregory not to mention some modern-day comics: “He mentioned Seinfeld and said he likes Louis [C.K.],†Maron revealed. “He thinks Louis is a good-hearted guy, despite some of the subject matter.†Here’s an excerpt from the interview about all the prep that went into Obama’s big visit to Maron’s garage today:
So the motorcade pulled up in front of your house earlier today and he came into the garage? Dude. Yes. It was no simple process. Secret Service checked the parameters. Yesterday, they put a tent up that ran the length of my driveway, all the way behind my house to the garage. Today they came and put a tent over where the car was going to pull in. There were like 40 Secret Service people here. There were snipers on my neighbor’s roof. A sniper on my garage roof. They had L.A.P.D. all around the perimeter of the house. They have a protocol that occurs. And it was occurring in my house. Now everyone in the world knows where I live, O.K. And apparently the streets were lined with people for the motorcade. I was focusing on just dealing with the situation at hand and trying to have a personal conversation with the president in the midst of this. Were you given any guidelines or restrictions about what you could discuss with him? None. No guidelines, no restrictions, and we had final edit.
Check out the rest over at The New York Times.