Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark

Marc Maron is not a yuck-yuck comedian. He is not an icing-on-the-cake comedian. He's not there to bring light to the end of your tunnel. Not in the way you'd expect. Ever had some darkness inside and bottled it with distractions and denials, but really wanted to own it for a while? Maron is the father and godfather of that. He covers heavy topics in a way that allows you to think and talk about them yourself, without having that grip on your throat. Darkness becomes easy. It becomes light. There is room to think and speak and laugh, even through the most heavy and difficult topics.

Maron is known as the person behind introspective podcasting, be-real-about-your-world podcasting. This is also his style of comedy and way of being. The new norm where men can be open about their fear, their broken childhoods, and irreparable hearts. Where you can be shameless about your mistakes. Admit to them openly, often, learn how to say sorry. Get over your own broken self. That started with Maron.

That cultural wave began over a decade ago when a lone man, sitting inside a studio he just got fired from, decided to make that space a confessional, and those that listened became an audience of followers and forgivers. It was his style of comedy, journalism, and way of being that opened doors to the inner-self for so many. If you've had a tough journey and want to make sense of it, laugh at the absurdity that is this life, and learn how to speak like an adult instead of a broken meme, Maron is the human for you.

This special takes a walk with you down some broken bends in the road, like parents getting older, and losing your partner in the midst of a world losing its mind. He manages to ask the hard questions and come up with answers that are both harder and lighter, and tinted with love. In true Maron-form, when he comes to another fork in the road, he does not say, where do we go from here, but affirms, he will see you at the next one. He does, and will, see You.

Well. I didn't like his last special and I am not thrilled with this one. Seems that Maron YELLS his punch line to make sure when I should think that he's being funny.

The fact is, I know he's funny, when he's just sitting around interviewing people for his pod cast. He's not funny when he's trying to be - on a stage with a bunch of people in front of him - who have paid a lot of money to see him!

He had a couple good points that caught my attention and made me smile in spite of myself, but ....

I like Maron as an actor. I know that when he has a part in a movie, no matter how small, we're going to get the best of him.

Too bad it doesn't translate to his stand up.

Simply put, this stand-up special makes some people who are conformists uncomfortable, and that's too bad for them. Those of us who appreciate thoughtful, sardonic wit have nothing but admiration for everything Marc Maron's been through and come out the other side with honesty about the state of today's world. He hasn't changed his style so much as honed it to ridicule people who try to tell him how to live his life. Watching this again after knowing what to expect only made me appreciate it more. If you've got a thin skin or are narrow-minded comedically, you might not enjoy it. I laughed so hard it hurt, in a good way.

I saw Marc Maron perform at a comedy club way back in the late 80s. I liked him, but didn't follow his career, listen to his podcast, or know much about him. I tuned into his HBO special From Bleak to Dark because I read that in this show he talks about the death of his girlfriend Lynn Shelton from leukemia in 2020 during the pandemic. Having experienced devastating losses in my own life, I had a sense this show would speak to me, and I was right; I found it deeply moving, honest, and relatable. In fact, I thought it was so perceptive and masterful that I watched it twice.

Maron opens the show pacing the stage proclaiming, "I don't want to be negative but... I don't think anything is ever going to get better ever again. I don't want to bum anybody out, but I think this is pretty much the way it's going to be for however long it takes us to polish this planet off. And don't misunderstand me, I have no hope. I think if you have hope, what are you f---ing seven?." Right away I sensed that this is a man who has come through a terrible tragedy and has the courage to now take it to the stage. I trusted him as a storyteller from his first line.

While talking about Lynn's death he said, "I realized no one really talks about grief. No one talks about PTSD. No one knows how to process this stuff. Everybody has it. It's just, you know, locked into us. And there's not really a cultural conversation about it." While being incredibly funny, he explains that it doesn't take much to show up for someone in grief. Ask "how are you doing," wait till they stop crying, and say "okay." He met his neighbor while he was grieving during Covid. His neighbor stood across the street, distancing, while Marc cried. This mattered.

The Joan Didion book and mystical hummingbird bits are brilliant. One of my favorite lines, "When you're f---ing sad, you'll go mystical." He riffs off this in such a real way. Marc nailed so many topics from the experience of grief, loss, loneliness and the need for contact and kindness, to anti-Jewish sentiments, the softenng of vulnerable, elderly parents, and having or not having children.

The piece on children is remarkably funny and spot on. Basically, if you have love in your heart to share, go for it, but don't pass on your void. "You can now track your void on 23andMe. My void started in the chest of a tailor's wife in Belarus in the 1850s in the Pale of Settlement." Well, some of my ancestors were Jewish tailors from Belarus during that time too, so after the show ended, I immediately looked up the surname Maron, location Belarus, on my Ancestry and found dozens of DNA cousins with that name, so hmm... cousin? Probably. We're all related.

It takes a seasoned, sensitive performer and writer to create a comedy show that makes me laugh, cry, and continue thinking about it afterwards. Excellent job by Marc.

Maron was early to the podcast space and lauded by many I trust, but those just did not connect with me.

And that's sort of how this special felt, a bit of a disconnection.

One thing I cannot quite tell if it's coming from me or Maron, is a sort of George Carlin replacement wish. Carlin as he got older definitely leaned hard into the Bleak and Dark. His observations for outrage and set-ups for human failure just resonated more with me. Oh well, all "art" (and Dave Chappelle is right, stand up is an art) is going to be subjective.

That said, boosting my review up from 5 to 6 based on some of the negative reviewers here wearing their preconceptions on their sleeves. Instead of reacting when he pushes your obvious button, maybe explore why you have that button. I definitely have a button both for a) alzheimers - ouch isn't aging enough of an indignity b) people who "still" blame their parents

He addresses these and I get where he's coming from. His takes didn't move me much from my positions, but I liked being challenge on my presuppositions.

Ultimately, this special made me appreciate not just Carlin (the lengthy Apatow documentary on George is worth it for fellow fans of his), but also Kate Berlant's recent stand-up special "Cinnamon in the Wind" which sort of nails the confessional/therapy/teachable formula for many such specials.

Maron's quick one-man show vignettes were pretty funny, and the discussion of grief over his wife's death was definitely moving, and uniquely him.

In the end, I felt like the neighbor across the Covid street.