SAN FRANCISCO COMEDY BLOG

by Amir Malekpour

Marc Maron (Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O’Brien) is headlining at the Punch Line Comedy Club in San Francisco November 8th-10th. Marc was kind enough to talk to SF Standup for not just one, but two interviews. (You can read the first one here.)

When did you first start doing comedy and what was the initial experience like?

I guess when I first started doing comedy was probably 1983 in college. The initial experience, I remember it being horrifying and exhilarating and I remember putting together a set. Me and another kid were in a team briefly in college and that was ok. It was kind of good. But the first few times I really started doing it at comedy clubs, it was back in the time when they had real open mikes and you had to wait all night to get on. You’d go up for 4 or 5 people at 12:30 in the morning. It just was like desperate, horrifying, and weird, but there was something about getting through to people that was very satisfying and obviously like crack to some degree. I just find that if you don’t get addicted to it, why the fuck would you put yourself through it after so many years?

That’s interesting because nowadays, open mikes don’t really go up to 1 o’clock.

Well that was the way it was. There were no alternative comedy places, no comedian-produced shows. If you wanted to do stand-up you had to go to a comedy club and hang around. There were all different versions of how that open mike situation worked. You know, some places you would come down and sign-up and see if you got picked. Sometimes you’d get picked to get on a list, but then you’d get bumped all night. And sometimes you’d wait all night and not go on. Sometimes there was a guy who would make decisions sporadically on who’d go on. But all of them seemed to be designed for torture.

I really love and admire your writing about politics and controversial topics- was there a point in your career that you consciously made an effort to write about what you believe in, or did you start that way from the beginning?

If I look back at my career, even back to my first bit on “Evening at the Improv” in ‘89, it seemed that I always was doing what I do, just not as confidently or as eloquently perhaps, but there was always the agenda. It was always what it is. So there wasn’t a point where I would say, “hey I am too goofy, let me take this clown nose off and talk about something real.” It was always that.

Has there ever been a time when you came up with a bit but decided not to go with it?

Yeah yeah, sure. There are jokes that I write that are too goofy. Sometimes I like jokes that are just jokes, but if I don’t feel like they are conversational to me, sometimes I find it hard to do them. There is some stuff I have written that I didn’t use either because they were too easy or didn’t quite fit into what I was doing. Sometimes I give them away.

You just give them away?

Well, you know, I’ll see someone else talking about something and I will say, “you know I’ve got this idea if you want it.” But I write constantly and so much shit disappears, I don’t know where it goes.

What is your writing process? Do you usually set a certain time or do you just go by inspiration?

Yeah I usually go that way. I go through periods when things are really cooking up there and I write a bunch of ideas down. Usually they are just philosophical sort of ideas or little bits of observation that provoke thought in my head. Most of the writing takes place on stage. I can’t ever explain how it happens. I don’t really write jokes. I usually write a lot of ideas down and then I go up and I talk about the ideas and see where the laughs are. Then I usually make a list of the topics, and kind of see how they evolve from there.

So, when do you give up on the bit?

I don’t know, it usually just happens. Out of boredom or I just forget. I mean there are some bits I get rid of because they don’t get laughs, but there are some I keep doing because I know that they are funny in a way that might not require laughter. So I keep doing it.

What do you mean by “funny in a way that doesn’t require laughter”?

Some jokes are heavy; they are more a nod of acknowledgement than a laugh. You just got to let it happen and assume it’s happening and follow it up with something funny.

In your book The Jerusalem Syndrome, you mention your grandfather’s great laugh. How much has your family influenced your comedy?

I think a lot of sense of humor is fairly defensive and a way of disarming situations to make them seem manageable. Harry Shearer once said that comedians try to control why people laugh at them. [laughter] I think, in terms of influence of my family… My father has depression problems and was a fairly difficult person. With or without depression my method of dealing with him was to just make him laugh at himself and mock him to his face and keep my edge up so he wouldn’t fuck with me. And I think the chaos I grew up with sort of defined my sense of humor in the sense that, it’s really the only way to get some sort of foothold in reality- especially if you’re a guy that doesn’t fit in or struggles to engage socially early on. It’s also a way to protect yourself. That’s a pretty good trick.

How supportive of your comedy was your family?

My dad is a big fan. You know, doesn’t mean he’s not an asshole. He’s always been a big fan. They’ve both been supportive. I think that most parents are concerned about your well being and your security. Their fear ultimately is that it’s just a ridiculous line of work or perhaps not a very safe bet. So most of their fear is not around whether I am good. I think usually they are just afraid it’s not going to work out- and it might not. You’ve got to know that when you commit yourself to this life. As time goes on it’s almost better if you just either be a tremendous success, which you don’t have much control over, so you can at least stash your money enough to ride you through your life, or I think it’s almost as good to fail miserably before you can get any traction at all so you don’t have to dilute yourself throughout 20 years. I think the gray area is the most problematic, cause it’s hard to decide whether or not you’re winning or losing. What I am saying is that you better be enjoying the process.

In your album “Not Sold Out,” (listen in iTunes) you talk about not mentioning being Jewish onstage until later on in your career. Was this a conscious effort?

Well, I just didn’t know how to do it the way it wasn’t stereotyping or hackney. Because so much of comedy from the 30’s forward was Jewish or worded in some sort of Jewish idea or Jewish reflection and I just thought that it had been done to death. I didn’t like boring Jewish stereotypes myself and it was more so a product of not quite knowing how to approach it in a way that hadn’t been done before. So I just didn’t do it.

In terms of writing a bit, what is your research process?

I don’t know. Like today I looked up the work “trudge” because I thought of a line in which I had not been using the right word. In terms of research, I am not a big reference guy, but if I am going to be referencing something I want to be sure it’s right. Cause sometimes I’ll do something intuitively and it will be wrong. Like I am doing a bit about the word “fine.” I wanted to make sure it was an adjective and adverb. I should know grammar, but a lot of these things fade as you get older. I am not so caught up on speaking properly, but if I am going to claim something I need it to be right.

What do you think about San Francisco comedy? Who are some of the people you like?

I am not up there too often. But I see Louis Katz down here [in L.A.], I am a big Al Madrigal fan, I just had lunch with [Greg] Proops.

When you’re in San Francisco, where do you like to go to eat or whatever?

I like to go to Chutney to get Indian food. I think it’s over on Geary or Jones. I like to go down to the Mission and walk around a bit cause I used to live down there. What I like to do is take a ride up the 1 to Point Reyes and park up there by the Headlands. I like to get a Congo Bar and some water from the bakery in Point Reyes Station and go on a 3 hour hike. Then I stop by outside of Salinas where the seals like to take a nap and I watch them nap- I also like to be made uncomfortable by the creepy old hippies that give you the stink eye.

Aside from comedy what do you like to do for fun?

I like to think, and I do a lot of thinking about things. I like to play the guitar; I listen to a lot of music. I like to read different things, I like to go see a lot of art, hang out with my friends and talk to different kinds of people. I like seeing new stuff of any kind. I like seeing anybody who is doing anything creative with some authenticity and some feeling. I like seeing things done by artists who have paid their dues and know what their vision is.

Were you a philosophy major?

No, English. I minored in film studies. I went to Boston University.

Do you have any pets?

Yeah, I seem to be managing a small cat ranch right now. I saved a bunch of cats in New York and I brought two here with me. I’ve got four cats. Three of them are feral; one of them is a fat needy domestic cat, just a little slut. One of them is an outside cat and I feed him outside which means I have two raccoons, two possums, and two other cats that come to me. I have got a lot of animals around.

Wow, you’re like, St. Valentine.

St. Francis.

Oh, right, St. Francis.

My wife left me and now I am a bitter St. Francis, feeding them, begrudging their ability to have mates. [laughs]

Marc Maron will be appearing at the HBO Comedy Festival in Las Vegas on November 17th. Watch a clip of Marc performing stand-up comedy:

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