Support for NPR and the following message come from the Walton Family Foundation, working to create access to opportunity for people and communities by tackling tough social and environmental problems.

More information is at walton family foundation.org.

This is fresh air. I'm Terry Gross. If you were to describe comic and actor Mark Merrin's vibe,

it might be something like this. My brain's just going all the time and people say, well,

you have to rest your mind. And I'm like, I don't even understand what you just said. I don't

even know what that means. If my brain rests for even three seconds, some other part of my brain

goes, you want me to open the worry folder?

Got a big list here. Let's do it. What do you want to think about all day long?

That's Mark Marin from his new HBO comedy special Panicked. In one story from the special he describes an incident last summer when so much of L.A. was on fire and he lives in L.A.

It was looking like his home was safe until the day when a cloud of black smoke started covering the neighborhood. He panicked,

understandably, threw together a go bag, grabbed all the cash in his house, and wrangled his three

cats, getting one in a carrier, one in a hamper, and one in an Amazon box. He taped shut the box,

punctured breathing holes, and got all the cats in the car. So I say goodbye to my house. I get into my car.

I have no plan. I'm just going to drive away from the smoke, and within five minutes, every cat

evacuated its bowels and emptied its bladder into their respective containers.

So now my car smells like a poorly run shelter.

And my only thought is,

I'm gonna have to throw this car away.

Because whatever is leaking out of Buster's box is never going to come out of that seat.

So I don't really know where I'm going and I decide, well, maybe you should get some real carriers for the other two cats.

You know, and I was going to go to Petco and, you know, get the stuff.

And I thought Petco opened at 9, but it opened it to 10.

...