In what is commonly referred to as the best podcast episode of WTF with Marc Maron, Maron sits down with his old friend Louis C.K. for the 111th episode (there are currently over 500 episodes). I've only recently begun to listen to WTF so I easily could have gone straight to the top episode, but I preferred to first listen to several other episodes in order to get a general gauge for the temperament of the show. I was glad I did because right away I was able to tell episode #111 has a much bigger pay off than the rest of the series.
The conversation feels more like two guys catching up than a typical interviewer/interviewee dialog. In the beginning, C.K. describes Maron as a young, angry coke riddled comic who genuinely bothered and frightened him until he was able to see Maron's more vulnerable side, that of a hardworking dishwasher. Likewise, Maron describes knowing Louis at a very early period in his life when C.K. was "building his brain," but in which he was also a manic and disheveled comic who would even scrawl on the walls of his own apartment. There are several incidents in which the two men seem to remember each other better than how they can even remember themselves.
One theme I appreciated from the episode was that of Louis' artistic work ethic. Maron remembers an incident at Blockbuster in which C.K. buys a copy of the movie Putney Swope, and Louis recalls he was unable to distinguish between the plastic wrapped VHS final product and his own ambitious dreams. Even if mistaken, C.K. believed he'd eventually be able to make a movie equally as absurd. Later, Louis also cites being inspired by Francis Ford Coppola's philosophy on making movies, (taken from a Heart of Darkness documentary) that if Coppola wanted to make a movie, he simply did it. Coppola refused to let logistics or resources stand in his way before going into production, and this type of mentality left a mark on C.K.
I won't do a play-by-play on the entire podcast (it's almost two hours long), but personally my favorite story was one in which C.K. tells about the time he happened to buy a trumpet. Not having any prior experience playing the instrument, he proceeds to empty his entire bank account from a nearby ATM in order to purchase the nicest one in the store, a $1,500 nickel plated edition. Walking down the street with complete buyer's remorse, C.K. then randomly steps into an old fashioned peepshow. After "finishing" on his brand new trumpet case, he has the epiphany he would have never bought the trumpet in the first place had he already purged himself prior to visiting the store (cue Maron's maniacal laughter).
There are plenty of other gems like that one, check it out.