We’re Calling It Now: Marc Maron Is A National Treasure

Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with Nicolas Cage.

Don’t worry, this has nothing to do with Nicolas Cage.

Photo Courtesy of Katrina Marcinowski / IFC

As we prepare for the inevitable, inescapable and utterly wonderful ubiquity of Marc Maron — which is going to start any day now — you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. Marc Maron may well have progressed faster than anyone from also-ran to national treasure – three years by our count.  The erstwhile crabby stand-up-cum-comedy therapist extraordinaire has carved out a niche in the comedy world, where he stands as archivist, arbiter and expert. Expert because his stand-up is funnier than ever. Arbiter because landing and an hour on his WTF podcast is the 21st Century equivalent of five minutes on Carson. And archivist because, hell, where else are you going to get to listen to to Mel Brooks, Shelley Berman, Jonathan Winters, Carl Reiner or (today’s guest) Dick Van Dyke, wax nostalgic on the world of comedy from it’s birth.

Maron, who’s been kicking around since manning the door of the Comedy Store a quarter century ago, may well be our best interviewer. Period. No one gets more out of his subjects than Maron, not Charlie Rose, not David Frost, certainly not the Jay Lenos of the world. We’d urge every Maxim reader to go back and listen to his heart-to-heart/head-to-head/hand-to-hand tête-à-têtes with Louis CK, Todd Glass, Dane Cook, and so many others. But the dude is spreading his wings – it’s Springtime for Maron! His collection of essays,Attempting Normal, is out April 30th, and his IFC comedy series, Marondebuts May 3 on IFC.

Both are great. Episode 2 of Maron is one of the funnier half hours (okay, 22 minutes) we’ve seen in ages. And on the page, Maron has no qualms utterly humiliating himself in hilarious fashion. But he’s still best onstage or filtered through your headphones/speakers. So if you haven’t jumped on the Maron bandwagon yet, hop on now. Because before you know it, it may well be going too fast to get on at all.

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