Marc Maron is finally owning up to what really fueled his longtime tension with Jon Stewart — his own insecurity.
The WTF podcast host, 62, got candid about his past rivalry with Stewart in a recent interview as “petty” and “completely rooted in jealousy.”
“Jon never did anything to me,” Maron told Esquire. “I was just jealous.”
He admitted that early in their careers, Stewart represented everything he thought he wasn’t. “He was this smart, cute Jewish guy who just had it together. 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 he felt out of control as a young comic, especially after taking over Stewart’s old Comedy Central gig on Short Attention Span Theater, 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 his resentment out directly on Stewart. “I’d just s*** on him, to his face. Like, ‘Who the f*** do you think you are?’” Maron recalled. “It was all envy. I thought, ‘If I could just get my s*** together, maybe I could be that guy.’”
But in hindsight, Maron realised he never actually wanted what Stewart had. “I didn’t get into comedy to be an entertainer or host a talk show,” he said. “I got into it to speak my mind. Comedy felt noble... like the only rule was to be funny, and beyond that, you could do whatever you wanted.”
Still, he admitted Stewart’s confidence hit a nerve. “He was himself in a way I wasn’t. And I was annoying to him,” Maron said. “Eventually he was like, ‘I don’t need to take this s*** from you.’ And honestly, fair.”
When asked if he ever tried to make peace, Maron said he did reach out when launching WTF. “I called him from Portland and said, ‘Hey, I’m making amends with people.’ And he goes, ‘Yeah, there’s no love here,’” Maron said. “Then he added, ‘Maybe we could get coffee sometime, but I’m not doing your podcast. I’m sure it’s very creative. Good luck with it.’”
Maron laughed at the irony of it now. “And now he’s doing a podcast,” he said. “So yeah — full circle.”