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The Chicago Comedy Examiner interviews Marc Maron about 'Scorching The Earth'
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Marc Maron... like an "Iggy Pop Woody Allen"
PunchlineMagazine.com is presenting 'Marc Maron: Scorching The Earth' at The Lakeshore Theater. It will be in house September 24th thought 26th. I will be there.
I had the opportunity to speak with Marc over the phone about this show, and his life, and comedy... and I may have fallen in love. Honestly, I was super nervous to talk to him.
Every Tuesday, for about 6 years now, some of the most elite women in Chicago comedy meet at an undisclosed location for a ladies night. I only knew Marc as the guy who was fired from Air America (He has his own podcast now, WTF, from which he can't be fired) and my theories as to how you get fired from such a liberal bastion were just theories. So... I figured who better to ask then this amazing gathering of female producers, directors, and performers. "What do you guys know about Marc Maron?" I posed. I NEVER expected the response. The room blew up. "He's so smart!" "He's Sexy!" "He had a show in the actual break room at Air America!" "He was on Comedy Central!" "He wrote a book!" "He's been on Conan like a million times." "I think he's Married!" "I think he's divorced." "He's on his second divorce!" "He's so dark/intelligent/real/FUNNY!" "You'll love him, Mason!" I felt like a jerk for not knowing his complete bio and was now a super serious bundle of nerves about having to interview him.
I decided to do my research (Marc's official website is marcmaron.com) and discovered that my lady friends were right. He's a very smart and very funny man but he also proved to be very thoughtful and dare I say sensitive too. I was amazed at how open he was to talking about his divorce, it is his second divorce, even though it's the topic for his current show 'Scorching The Earth'. This show is about emotional hypocrisy, Maron says, and bout taking responsibility for the devastating mistakes he made in his relationships. One in two, HALF of all marriages, end in divorce making his topic incredibly accessible to any audience. He hopes that, "people come to this show with open hearts and minds and find some relief and insight." I can't imagine that they won't.
I saw connections right away between Marc and Lenny Bruce. Lenny read his trial transcripts after his famous arrest for obscenity here in Chicago and Marc attacked social hypocrisy post Air America firing with The Jerusalem Syndrome. Marc was reluctant to draw any comparisons beyond the gift of swearing bestowed upon him by the ground breaking Bruce and maybe the honest, improvisational, stream of consciousness style they both share.
He talked a lot about standup and how its changed and how working has changed since the old days. He talked about alternative rooms, like the UCB (The Upright Citizens Brigade) space he used to workshop this show, about how becoming a headliner has changed, about women in comedy (He loves Maria Bamford), about truth in comedy. I suggested to him that todays comedians are de facto philosophers. He reluctantly agreed. I suggested that the media uses comedy to deliver information in the from of news. He replied that any one who gets their news from 'The Colbert Report' or 'The Daily Show' is possibly retarded... but that folks like Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman use comedy to temper their personalities to make them accessible enough to deliver news. I agreed.
I wanted to talk with him for hours about the media, politics, life, and comedy. Turns out he knows a lot about Chicago style improv and Del Close and The Harold. He mentioned that he shared a space in Toronto at The Just For Laughs Festival with The Improvised Shakespeare Company and expressed admiration for them and long form improv. I giggled an offered him a personal tour of Second City.
Actually, I did a lot of giggling during the interview. Download my complete interview to hear me sigh and coo and generally try not to make an ass out of myself. He says at the end of our conversation that he's a "fixer upper" and you can be sure that I will have a lovely lady in tow for him at the show... seeing as how I am very married and incredibly pregnant (two things I some how did not mention to him at all).
FYI, a scorched earth policy is a military strategy which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area. Sounds hilarious.
Show dates and times are:
Sep. 24th :: 8:00 PM
$20.00
Sep. 25th :: 7:30 PM
$20.00
Sep. 26th :: 7:30 PM
$20.00
Sep. 26th :: 10:30 PM
$20.00
For more info on tickets: check The Lakeshore Theater
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