Maron Opens Garage Studio to Public, Requires Every Caller to Recount Their Worst Decade on Air

Marc Maron has opened his Los Angeles garage studio to the public seven days a week, and every visitor must now sit across from him for a full recorded interview before leaving the building. The studio, which hosted a former president in 2015, now runs a permanent sign-up line that stretches past the neighbouring recycling bins, with residents bringing folding chairs and thermoses to wait their turn.

Under the new rule, guests are first required to name the people they have hurt, then call each of them on the studio's landline to hear their perspective. Maron's producer, Brendan McDonald, has built a second booth beside the water heater to handle the overflow of calls, which the studio logs in a green ledger kept on the workbench. Callers who decline the phone call are asked to sit in silence for an hour while Maron reviews their file.

Neighbours say the street has changed. The corner shop now stocks only decaf and tissues, and a local dog walker has been hired to escort guests from the bus stop to the garage door. Maron told reporters outside the studio that the arrangement was simply the logical extension of his method. "Everybody comes in with a story, and everybody has to hear what the other person remembers," he said. "That is the whole show, and I am not going to make an exception for the mailman."

The studio has begun drawing interest from other cities. Two radio stations in Ohio have asked for a copy of the garage layout, and a comedy club in Chicago has ordered a set of identical folding chairs. Maron said the next phase would move the line onto the sidewalk, where, he confirmed, the studio plans to install a microphone at each lamppost so that listeners waiting in line can begin their confessions before reaching the door.

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