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COMIC RELIEF
Laughing off Bush and company
BY DEIRDRE FULTON

If the end of the week has you mired in the post-inaugural blues, maybe Marc Maron, stand-up comic, writer, and co-host of Air America’s Morning Sedition, can cheer you up. He’ll be doing his political and cultural commentary in Somerville this weekend, right down the street from the house where he lived after graduating from Boston University. ("I just remember sitting there and smoking cigarettes for two years," he recalls.)

In a phone interview after his Tuesday-morning broadcast, Maron offered some sharp thoughts on comedy, politics, and the real world.

Q: Do you get any ideas for your stand-up act from guests you have on the show?

A: I don’t know. You know, honestly, my stand-up was easier to generate when I was less informed. When I was scrambling around irresponsibly in the wilderness of my own mind. And you know, just pulling from things I knew a little about, making broad strokes. Now, I know things in more detail than I ever did before.

Q: Why did the Air America gig appeal to you?

A: I wanted to do the morning show, I wanted to have a shot at that market. We’ve been able to put on a good show. I find it incredibly engaging, even though I no longer function in the real world in terms of the hours of my life.

And also, the reason I wanted to get involved initially was to dethrone the emperor, of course. That was what I really wanted, to be part of that political momentum. And we tried.

Q: Speaking of that effort, how are you feeling about this week’s inauguration ceremony?

A: We’re gonna ignore it. I mean, I feel bad. There’s nothing we can do to stop it except pray for the worst.

We’re dealing with the issues on a day-to-day basis now. We’re going to continue to attack [Bush’s] policy proposals. We’re going to continue to respond to and report on the war in Iraq, the Social Security proposal, the tort-reform issue — or as we call it, restricting victims’ rights — we’re going to just deal with the stuff through guests, through comedy, and through reporting on a day-to-day basis, in terms of creating some other dialogue and having a reaction against them. That’s what we can do now.

We get depressed, we get out of focus, we don’t feel like there’s this core holding us all together — yeah, you get a little lonely and hopeless. But, you know, the comedy on the show has never been tighter, and it has a certain effect. It provides moments of hope, of reactionary thinking, and it also illuminates a little truth here and there. It’s very exciting to use comedy as a political statement, as a weapon, and also a relief.

Q: Is this how comedy and politics intersect?

A: Any time — on our network, or on stage — you just shamelessly mock what is becoming a very oppressive regime, it’s very liberating. So just on the basic level of us existing on the airwaves, and giving relief to some of that marginalizing, I think it has a tremendous effect on unifying who we are. It certainly can keep people going on a day-to-day basis, and feel like they’re not alone.

On January 21 and 22, Marc Maron will perform "Comedian Marc Maron: The Issues and His Issues" at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway Theater, in Davis Square, Somerville. Call (617) 591-1616.


Issue Date: January 21 - 27, 2005
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