Hey, I am not one on the Marc Maron bandwagon. I know of his name and acknowledge him to be a comedian. I had no idea he was also an author and podcaster. He even had an HBO COMEDY HALF-HOUR in 1995 and added voices to characters in HBO’s THE LIFE & TIMES OF TIM and ANIMALS. He also played a character in two episodes of GIRLS, however, I didn’t even recollect he was an actor, let alone one in these HBO programs. So, truth be told, this comedy special is my first dose of Marc Maron.
He explores such universal topics as getting older, antisemitism and faith, and the superiority of having cats over children – especially during the pandemic. The comedian also opens up about the loss of his girlfriend Lynn Shelton in 2020 and reestablishing his complicated relationship with his father who suffers from dementia. He does so over this 1 hour, 4-minute special.
And, in dealing with those topics, my first big takeaway, perhaps my only takeaway from it, was the man tries hard to purposely find humor in the dark, depressing issues of life. His mindset must be that if he can find lightness & laughter in the bad & sad times then the rest of life must be an easy laugh riot. While he’s at it, he might as well do it in a beautiful stage setting in NYC. I mean it is not like other comedians don’t talk about dark matters, but this guy seems to capitalize on it. Some performers talk out their dark moments and angst as a way of therapy in their routines, but this guy just seems to like to wallow in it 
because it just is this grumbly, prickly sort of guy. Now I understand that I could be reading this guy all wrong, he is human he has deep feelings. He wouldn’t have talked about the sudden loss of his girlfriend as comedy fodder if he wasn’t alright with delving into it in front of an audience, would he? I don’t know, but thankfully, he captures your attention while doing it nevertheless. And that’s not all, he brings up, climate change, abortion, and even the Holocaust and his Jewish faith as well.
In the end, I wasn’t totally getting what he was preaching, but he made me think and from what I sensed from this, my first impression of Marc Maron, he’d appreciate it more that it did make me think more than it made me laugh. But what do I know?
