A few years back, when I have seen/heard Marc Maron speak outside of his comedic persona, I have found him to be whiny. Honestly, a bit boring, a real tattered mess of a person, riddled with issues and an unbearable underlying narcissism. Me this, me that, explicit or implicit. Unfunny as getting a prostate exam and a root canal all on the same day, maybe even at the same time. So when I got around to seeing his comedy, I expected it to be boring AF. But that's not at all the case!!!
Don't get me wrong, when I see him do comedy, I see the exact same person, but he's really, really, funny. Marc weaves it all into his rambling, meandering flow that seems so effortless, so off the cuff, it puts me in a thrall. I half can't believe this is the same guy. It's really something to see. I was talking with a latina friend of mine about Pablo Neruda one day and a bit later in our conversation we got to talking about Marc, because his name came up when I was saying something I'd heard in one of his specials. She said, "I've never seen his comedy, what's he like?" I said, "He's not like anyone who's hot in comedy today, so comparison is hard. He's not easy to describe, he just starts talking and the thread goes every which way, but he keeps you laughing if you just hang in there with him." Then I said, "He's kind like Neruda, in a sense. You know how Neruda can just look in a room and focus on anything, a cutting board, some onions, a pair of slippers, and ta-da, reel off a poem that is captivating even if deceptively simple and with no apparent effort. Marc's comedy is something like that. Pablo finds poetry practically anywhere and Marc finds laughs." She goes, "Wow. He should get to write a review or something for him."