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CITY NEWSPAPER'S PREVIEW OF THE 2013 ROCHESTER FRINGE FESTIVAL
SERIOUSLY FUNNY
INTERVIEW | BY RON NETSKY
MARC
MARON
Comedian Marc Maron has sometimes had trouble fitting in over the course of his twodecade career. He’s had problems with drugs and alcohol, two failed marriages, and a radio show that got cancelled. But for a Fringe festival, Maron may be the perfect fit. A few years ago, with no prospects on traditional media and few comedy gigs on his calendar, he started a podcast. All he needed was a Mac computer with GarageBand and a recording studio --- his Los Angeles garage. He called it, appropriately enough, “WTF” (“What The Fuck”) and, from the outer margins of the media world, he built it into a successful business. In the meantime his bookings increased, he landed a sitcom (“Maron,” which will return for a second season on the Independent Film Channel next year), and he recently published a memoir, “Attempting Normal.” “WTF” has a simple format: 10 or 15 minutes of Maron’s monologue, which could be about a near-death experience or about going to the bathroom, and 45 minutes to an hour of conversation with his featured guest. Over the course of more than 400 podcasts he’s interviewed almost every comedian on the face of the earth
and a host of filmmakers, actors, writers, and rock stars. The conversations go deep. Carlos Mencia defends himself against accusations of joke-stealing. Robin Williams explores a bout with alcoholism. Louis C.K. and Maron get into an emotional exchange about their past relationships and C.K.’s failed marriage that brings C.K. to tears. A biography on Maron’s website quotes a fan who told him: “You’re like an Iggy Pop Woody Allen.” That about nails it. He’s cerebral and philosophical but in a raw, primal-scream kind of way. His book and podcast can make you literally laugh out loud or make you wonder about the paths you’ve chosen in life. Maron and I crossed paths in the late 1970’s when, as a teenager, he attended Lighthouse Art and Music Camp in Pennsylvania. I was teaching art and he was studying guitar with my brother, Steve. He remembers it well. “That had a profound effect on me the two years I went there,” said Maron. “It was a mind-blowing place for kids that were into the art thing. I don’t even know if a camp like that could exist now. Jesus, they let us smoke there. It was crazy.”
PERFORMING AS PART OF THE FIRST NIAGARA ROCHESTER FRINGE FESTIVAL • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21 KODAK HALL AT EASTMAN THEATRE, 60 GIBBS ST. 8 P.M. | $20-$55 | ROCHESTERFRINGE.COM
22 CITY SEPTEMBER 11-17, 2013
Comedian Marc Maron, one of the headliners of the 2013 Rochester Fringe Festival, averages nearly 3 million downloads per month for his podcast, “WTF.” On it he has interviewed comedy legends as wide-ranging as Mel Brooks and Louis C.K. PHOTO BY LEIGH RIGHTON
When I reached Maron by phone we talked about how he got into comedy and some of the comedians he admired. But we mostly spoke about the psychological stresses of comedy and why it’s so important to him. The following is an edited version of our conversation. CITY: What was your childhood like? Marc Maron: My parents were very
young when they had me and they were
both from New Jersey. What was that old joke I had? They belonged to the first generation of Jews to move as far away from their parents as possible for reasons other than fleeing a country. Somehow or another we ended up in New Mexico. We were dramatically displaced East Coast Jews growing up in Northern New Mexico. They were both fundamentally selfish people but I think they meant well.