Maron looks for honesty in troubling times
Frank and honest podcast king heeds his calling in the divided states of America
It was nearly eight years ago that Montreal audiences were first introduced to Marc Maron at the Just for Laughs festival.
He was in quasi-misery mode at Théâtre Sainte-Catherine, performing his one-man show Scorching the Earth, a brutally frank yet darkly humorous account of the disintegration of his first marriage and the subsequent messy divorce. It was a tour de force that resonated with audiences unaccustomed to hearing comics open up so candidly on affairs of the heart and soul.
Maron, 45 at the time, had already been in the comedy business for more than 10 years. But while he was a comic’s comic, so admired by his peers, few could have foreseen notoriety back then. The melancholia seemed to dominate, as the titles of his acclaimed discs — Not Sold Out, Tickets Still Available and Final Engagement — certainly indicated.
Then the strangest thing happened. Not long after that visit here, Maron broke new ground with his WTF podcast, recorded in the garage of his L.A. home. And Maron morphed into a postmodern Johnny Carson, interviewing a who’s who of political and cultural icons in his inimitable manner. As Jackie Mason would put it, Maron was a hit.
Maron’s famed chat with Barack Obama two years ago cemented his status as podcast king. WTF continues to top the iTunes charts, averaging 6.5 million downloads a month, and has had a staggering 300 million total downloads.
Maron has also enjoyed success on the standup circuit and the tube. His hit series Maron wrapped last year after a fourseason run, and he will appear in the coming shows GLOW and Easy.
A serial visitor to Just for Laughs, Maron heads back to Montreal Saturday, bringing his Too Real Tour to the Olympia. He will doubtless prove again that he is among the most droll, deadpan and self-deprecating wits in the world.
Maron hasn’t forgotten his darker days, and still recalls performing Scorching the Earth here.
“I was not in a good way then,” he says in a phone interview. “I didn’t know if anything was going to work out at the time. But then things started to work out and now my country is starting to fall apart. Clearly, timing is not my strong suit.”
Perhaps it could be. But would
Maron be open to schmoozing with President Trump on his podcast?
“I would probably have to offer him the opportunity to do something Obama didn’t do.”
Which is vetting the questions and OKing the final edit — something Maron would not be inclined to do.
The secret to Maron’s podcasting success is a unique point of view.
“I made a conscious decision years ago to pull away from politics and pop culture and to focus on the challenges of just dealing with ourselves and our minds, our pain and our creativity.
“But if you listen to the first 100 or so podcasts, I was at that time bitter and broken-hearted, cynical and operating outside my community. It was really me inviting famous people over to talk about my problems.
“But then over time I learned how to listen and to re-engage myself in the broader community. I learned how to make space for people to have candid conversations, and the podcast medium really lends itself to that.”
Being curious and emotionally interested in others “also helped my standup a lot,” he says. “A kind of human evolution of me — with a lot of fluff.”
Maron is dead serious when he talks about his country falling apart.
“It’s terrifying. I don’t think a lot of us really know how to deal with this,” he says. “A good portion of the country is excited, enthusiastic and motivated about what’s happening. And then the other half of the country feels it has to fight for what it believes democracy has to be. But this president is not a uniting force. He is creating a festering polarization that he seems to enjoy. It’s about winners and losers, not about the United States of America.
“I think many are wondering how we can take care of each other and how we can stand up for what we believe in. For such fundamental things as climate, compassion, diversity and mercy.”
Maron has done almost 800 episodes of WTF. In the early stages, the onus was on him to reach out to potential guests. Now they are seeking him out.
“The podcast seems to grow in popularity and still seems to mean something to people,” says Maron, who has his ever-expanding clowder of cats to care for and to keep him grounded.
“But when one lives in a time where things are just so upended and exhausting, I ask myself if I’m doing enough. I would say a majority of Americans are upset, nervous, scared and wondering where they stand.
“I hope it’s enough to have honest, real conversations about any number of human things that are enriching to people. I’m grateful that is still happening. I kind of had it in my mind that I would like to ease out and try to see the world and enjoy life. But now I feel duty calls, that I have to stay engaged for the people who listen to the show. It’s exciting, but it’s really hard to see where happiness happens again.”