From the inside flap
"From the beloved and wildly popular podcast WTF with Marc Maron comes a book of intimate, hilarious and life changing conversations with some of the funniest, and most important people in the world like you’ve never heard them before. Waiting for the Punch features the stories and thoughts of such luminaries as Amy Schumer, Mel Brooks, Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler, Sir Ian McKellen, Lorne Michels, Judd Apatow, Lena Dunham, Jimmy Fallon, RuPaul, Louis CK, David Sedaris, Bruce Springsteen, and President Obama.
"This book is not simply a collection of these interviews, but instead something more wondrous: a running narrative of the world’s most recognizable names working through the problems, doubts, joys, triumphs, and failures we all experience. With each chapter covering a different topic: parenting, childhood, relationships, sexuality, success, failures and others, Punch becomes a sort of everyman’s guide to life. Barack Obama candidly discusses the challenges of the presidency, and the bittersweet moments of seeing your children grow up. Amy Schumer recounts the pain of her parents’ divorce. Molly Shannon uproariously remembers the time she and her best friend hopped a plane from Ohio to New York City when they were twelve on a dare. Amy Poehler dishes on why just because you become a parent doesn’t mean you have to like anybody else’s kids but your own. Bruce Springsteen expounds on the dual nature of desperation to both motivate and devastate.
"Full of stories that are at once laugh-out loud funny, heartbreakingly honest, joyous, tragic and powerful, Waiting for the Punch is a book to be read from cover to cover, but it is also one to return to again and again."
Review
Subtitled Words to live by from the WTF Podcast, this collection of transcripts from Maron’s garage-based Internet show, is laugh-out-loud funny, meaningful and sad in its many interview moments. The guests range from President Barack Obama to Jen Kirkman to Mick Foley to Lena Dunham (and numerous others). The topics include: Childhood, Success, Mental Health, Sex and Failure, and all the accompanying emotions these topics bring about. I did not read all the guest interviews ─ I am not a fan of certain people or otherwise curious about them ─ but I read most of the interviews, and the ones I read this made this a worthwhile, provocative (in a comforting way) book, one worth reading.
