I love Marc Maron’s delivery. Near the beginning he says
he didn’t prepare for the special, and maybe that’s true, at least to a certain
extent, because the whole performance gives you the feel of being involved in a
cool, very funny conversation in which you never actually get to speak
yourself. Although then toward the end
he does actually ask the audience a question, like seeking advice, and folks do
respond.
The anecdotes are quite personal, and he talks to the
audience at times as if they’re old friends, or at least acquaintances – and
before long you feel that you do know him. He takes the audience through his
process of writing, including necessarily illegible penmanship, then trying to
decode it later (something I can personally relate to). He also tells a story
from his childhood, regarding a life-changing incident on the baseball field.
By the way, from that anecdote comes the special’s title.
About drug use, he has this to say: “There is something to be said about doing a lot of drugs at some point
in your life. I personally don’t have a lot of respect for people that don’t
have the courage to lose complete control of their life for a few years.”
And then he takes on the voice of someone who has just come out of that period:
“I’d like to think I did some good
writing but there’s no real evidence of it. Random pieces of paper.” That
leads directly to an incident involving Chinese food.
I absolutely love all of his material on music, and in
particular the stuff on Captain Beefheart. I also appreciate the tangents, such
as off-hand remarks about his girlfriend that are completely fucking hilarious:
“Because I don’t really know if someone
loves me if I can’t make them cry.”
Like most comedians, he uses his relationships for
material. He urges folks to try Viagra at least once, saying, “When you’re fucking on Viagra, there is like
a moment where you look down at your cock and you think, ‘It doesn’t even need
me.’” And about dating younger women he says, “I actually thought about having business cards printed up that just
said, ‘Marc Maron: A Phase You’re Going Through.’” When talking about his
current relationship, the material doesn’t feel like a routine at all, but
rather him opening up, which is interesting, and different from the standard
stand-up fare. He says, About his current relationship: “I don’t think I could get rid of this one if I had to. She’s fucking
terrifying.” And this line totally cracked me up: “She should appreciate just how much I’m not making her cry right now.”
At 94 minutes, this performance is longer than most
stand-up specials. There is a little bit of backstage footage at end. The DVD
contains no special features.
Thinky Pain was
released on January 21, 2014 through New Wave Dynamics.
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