Marc Maron
Encyclopedia
Marc Maron is an American stand-up comedian and podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

 host.

He has been host of The Marc Maron Show
The Marc Maron Show
The Marc Maron Show was a late night radio show produced in affiliation with the Air America Radio network and hosted by comedian Marc Maron. The show originated from KTLK 1150 AM in Los Angeles, California. The show was less politically focused and more comedic than the other weekday programs on...

, and co-host of both Morning Sedition
Morning Sedition
Morning Sedition was a three-hour radio program that premiered April 1, 2004 and ran until December 16, 2005, in the United States. It was hosted by comedian Marc Maron and New York radio veteran Mark Riley. Prior to June 2004, the show was also hosted by radio and television journalist Sue...

, and Breakroom Live, all politically-oriented shows, produced under the auspices of Air America Media. He was also the host of Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....

's Short Attention Span Theater
Short Attention Span Theater
Short Attention Span Theater, which ran on Comedy Central from 1989–1994, was a pastiche of various comedians and clips from movies airing on HBO and Cinemax that month along with entertainment news and commentary from the show's host. Various celebrity guests also appeared on occasion....

 for a year, replacing Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...

. Maron has been a frequent guest on the Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...

 and made 44 appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...

, more than any other stand-up performer. He was also a regular guest on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn
Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn is a comedic talk show that aired on Comedy Central. The show featured roundtable discussions, inviting various guests of many views, mixing mostly comics/entertainers expressing themselves with journalists and political figures. Quinn's regular guests consisted mainly...

 and hosted the short-lived American version of the British game show Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks
Never Mind the Buzzcocks is a comedy panel game television show with a pop music theme, currently without a permanent presenter. It stars Phill Jupitus and Noel Fielding as team captains. The show is produced by Talkback Thames for the BBC, and is usually aired on BBC Two...

 on VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...

.

In September 2009, Maron began hosting a twice-weekly podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

 titled WTF with Marc Maron
WTF with Marc Maron
WTF with Marc Maron is a twice-weekly podcast hosted by stand up comedian Marc Maron. The show launched in September 2009. The program primarily consists of interviews with comedians and comedy writers, as well as others in the entertainment and radio communities...

, in which he interviews fellow comedians and celebrities.

Career

After graduating from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

, Maron started his comedy career in the New York Alternative Comedy scene. He auditioned for the 1995 Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

 cast overhaul, but attributes being passed over to an awkward personal meeting with show creator and producer Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels
Lorne Michaels, CM is a Canadian-American television producer, writer, and comedian best known for creating and producing Saturday Night Live and producing the various film and TV projects that spun off from it.-Early life:...

.

Continuing to be a stand-up performer, Maron's voice was used in episodes of Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist is an American animated series that originally ran on Comedy Central from May 28, 1995 to December 24, 1999,–with a final set of three shelved episodes airing in 2002–starring Jonathan Katz, Jon Benjamin, and Laura Silverman...

 and hosted Short Attention Span Theater
Short Attention Span Theater
Short Attention Span Theater, which ran on Comedy Central from 1989–1994, was a pastiche of various comedians and clips from movies airing on HBO and Cinemax that month along with entertainment news and commentary from the show's host. Various celebrity guests also appeared on occasion....

 for a time. He also recorded half-hour specials for HBO and Comedy Central Presents
Comedy Central Presents
Comedy Central Presents is a half-hour long stand-up show that features various stand-up comedians in each episode.-DVDs:Starting in 2008, Comedy Central started releasing "Best of" compilation DVDs, with uncensored audio...

, as well as comedy showcases like the Cam Neely Foundation fundraiser, which also featured performers like Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart
Jon Stewart is an American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian...

, Denis Leary
Denis Leary
Denis Colin Leary is an Irish-American actor, comedian, writer and director. Leary is known for his biting, fast paced comedic style and chain smoking...

 and Steven Wright
Steven Wright
Steven Alexander Wright is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes and one-liners with contrived situations.-Early life and career:Wright was born in Mount Auburn...

.

Maron frequently appeared in the live alternative stand up series he'd organized with Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo
Janeane Garofalo is an American stand-up comedian, actress, political activist and writer. She is the former co-host on the now defunct Air America Radio's The Majority Report. Garofalo continues to circulate regularly within New York City's local comedy and performance art scene.-Early...

 called "Eating It," which used the rock bar Luna Lounge
Luna Lounge
Luna Lounge was a bar at 171 Ludlow Street, on the west side of Ludlow Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side. It opened in 1995, and was a popular venue for local bands and stand-up comics...

 in New York's Lower East Side
Lower East Side
The Lower East Side, LES, is a neighborhood in the southeastern part of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is roughly bounded by Allen Street, East Houston Street, Essex Street, Canal Street, Eldridge Street, East Broadway, and Grand Street....

 as its venue from the 1990s until the building was razed in 2005.

His only major film credit to date is a small part–credited as "angry promoter"–in the 2000 Cameron Crowe
Cameron Crowe
Cameron Bruce Crowe is an American screenwriter and film director. Before moving into the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine, for which he still frequently writes....

 film Almost Famous
Almost Famous
Almost Famous is a 2000 musical comedy-drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and telling the fictional story of a teenage journalist writing for Rolling Stone magazine while covering the fictitious rock band Stillwater , and his efforts to get his first cover story published...

 wherein he is seen first fighting with Noah Taylor
Noah Taylor
Noah George Taylor is an English-born Australian actor.-Early life:Taylor, elder of two boys, was born in London, England, the son of Maggie, a journalist and book editor, and Paul Taylor, a copywriter and journalist. Taylor's Australian parents returned to Australia when he was five, and he grew...

's character, then yelling at and chasing after the main characters as they drive away on a bus.

His first one-man show, Jerusalem Syndrome
Jerusalem syndrome
The Jerusalem syndrome is a group of mental phenomena involving the presence of either religiously themed obsessive ideas, delusions or other psychosis-like experiences that are triggered by a visit to the city of Jerusalem...

, had an extended off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...

 run in 2000 and was released in book form in 2001. In 2009 he began workshopping another one-man show, Scorching The Earth. According to Maron (in Scorching The Earth) these two shows "bookend" his relationship with his second wife, comic Mishna Wolff
Mishna Wolff
Mishna Wolff is an American writer and humorist.- Biography :Wolff grew up in Seattle, Washington. When her parents divorced she found herself a white girl in a black neighborhood with a white father who expected her to integrate into the black community the way he had...

, which ended in a bitter divorce.

In May 2008, he toured with Eugene Mirman
Eugene Mirman
Eugene Boris Mirman is a Russian-born American comedian, writer, and filmmaker. Mirman currently plays Yvgeny Mirminsky on Delocated, and voices Gene Belcher for the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.-Early life:Mirman was born in Russia to Jewish parents...

 and Andy Kindler
Andy Kindler
Andy Kindler is an American stand-up comedian from New York City who now resides in Los Angeles.-Stand up:His material often covers the comedy industry itself, criticizing other comedians for being too predictable. One of his more notable criticisms was that of Dane Cook where he compared the...

 in Stand Uppity: "Comedy That Makes You Feel Better About Yourself and Superior to Others."

In January 2009, a collaboration with Sam Seder
Sam Seder
Samuel Lincoln "Sam" Seder is a comedian, writer, actor, film director, television producer-director, and talk radio host...

 which had begun in September 2007 as a weekly hour-long video webcast became Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder
Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder
Formerly an online webcast, Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder was an hourlong webcast that aired weekdays at 3PM Eastern. Marc Maron and Sam Seder hosted the show from the actual break room at Air America Media in New York; the show was evocative of past shows done by Maron and Seder on the network...

, produced by Air America. Until its cancellation in July 2009 the show was webcast live, weekdays at 3PM Eastern, with episodes archived for later viewing as well. In its final incarnation, the show was quite informal, taking place in the (actual) break room of Air America Media, with the cafeteria vending machines just off-camera. This meant occasional distractions when Air America staff and management alike would occasionally come in for food and drink. Maron and Seder also held court in an online "post-show chat" with viewers, in an even less formal continuation of each webcast, after the credits had rolled.

Radio

From almost the first day of the progressive talk radio
Progressive talk radio
Progressive talk radio is a talk radio format devoted to expressing liberal or progressive viewpoints of issues, as opposed to conservative talk radio...

 network Air America's broadcasts in 2004, Maron co-hosted Morning Sedition
Morning Sedition
Morning Sedition was a three-hour radio program that premiered April 1, 2004 and ran until December 16, 2005, in the United States. It was hosted by comedian Marc Maron and New York radio veteran Mark Riley. Prior to June 2004, the show was also hosted by radio and television journalist Sue...

, a three-hour early-morning radio show with Mark Riley, which aired weekdays from 6am-9am Eastern time. The show was unique in the Air America lineup, in its heavy reliance on both live and pre-produced sketch comedy, utilizing the talents of staff writers, as well as the on-air hosts. The format was a left-leaning
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...

 near-satire of typical morning "Buddy" radio programs, including recurring characters, interviews and listener call-in segments, and it attracted a loyal fan base.

As 2005 waned, it became known that Maron's contract would not be renewed on its December 1, 2005 end date due to problems with then Air America executive Danny Goldberg. Goldberg reportedly did not "get" the comedy or agree with the satiric and often angry tone set by Maron and other writers (Jim Earl
Jim Earl
Jim Earl is a stage and radio comedian, comedy writer, musician and cartoonist from California.Earl received a degree in Art History from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984, and then he began his comedy career in the stand-up comedy team of "Lank and Earl" with his high school friend...

 and Kent Jones
Kent Jones
Thomas Kenton "Kent" Jones is a writer and performer on MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, airing live M-F at 9 p.m. Eastern time...

) for a morning-drive time show. Removal of Maron constituted the disassembling of Morning Sedition causing many fans to circulate online petitions to the management of Air America Radio.

On November 28, 2005 it was officially announced that Maron's contract had indeed not been renewed. His last Morning Sedition broadcast was on December 16, 2005, and the show was discontinued shortly thereafter.

On February 28, 2006, Maron began hosting a nighttime radio program with Jim Earl as sidekick for KTLK Progressive Talk 1150AM in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 called The Marc Maron Show
The Marc Maron Show
The Marc Maron Show was a late night radio show produced in affiliation with the Air America Radio network and hosted by comedian Marc Maron. The show originated from KTLK 1150 AM in Los Angeles, California. The show was less politically focused and more comedic than the other weekday programs on...

 from 10:00PM PST until midnight PST. The program was frequently delayed (sometimes for over an hour) due to KTLK's contractual agreement to broadcast local sports events–which would often go into overtime. The Marc Maron Show was never nationally syndicated by Air America despite reported contractual clauses promising so. The show was streamed online live, but the show was not publicized, and the existence of the stream was not well promoted.

On July 5, it was announced that The Marc Maron Shows final episode would be July 14. A few days before that date, Maron bluntly discussed his long struggle with Air America Radio's executives on-air.

In 2008, Marc and Sam Seder
Sam Seder
Samuel Lincoln "Sam" Seder is a comedian, writer, actor, film director, television producer-director, and talk radio host...

 expanded their prior collaboration on a weekly hour-long video webcast (streamed at The Sam Seder Show website) into a daily show (and "post-show chat") produced by Air America Media called Maron v. Seder. The show became Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder
Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder
Formerly an online webcast, Breakroom Live with Maron & Seder was an hourlong webcast that aired weekdays at 3PM Eastern. Marc Maron and Sam Seder hosted the show from the actual break room at Air America Media in New York; the show was evocative of past shows done by Maron and Seder on the network...

 starting in 2009, and could be viewed on Air America Media's website. On July 15, 2009, after less than one year, Air America Media canceled Breakroom Live.

According to the show's hosts, the cancellation was for financial reasons. Ironically, the day before the cancellation, the show got some of the first real publicity it had received when MaximumFun.org posted its podcast of an interview with Maron on The Sound of Young America
The Sound of Young America
The Sound of Young America is a public radio program and podcast based in Los Angeles, California and distributed by Public Radio International...

.

On the final Breakroom Live webcast, Maron said that this marked the third time since 2005 he'd been told by an executive at the network that his services would not be required in the immediate future. Co-host Sam Seder pointed out that this would be the end of his fourth show at Air America since the troubled network's inception.

Podcast

On September 1, 2009 Maron began a twice-a-week podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...

 called WTF with Marc Maron
WTF with Marc Maron
WTF with Marc Maron is a twice-weekly podcast hosted by stand up comedian Marc Maron. The show launched in September 2009. The program primarily consists of interviews with comedians and comedy writers, as well as others in the entertainment and radio communities...

. Released Mondays and Thursdays, the show features interviews with fellow comedians, both old friends and acquaintances. In a free-form discussion, Maron and his guests touch on topics like the arc of the interviewees' careers, shared past experiences, and stories from the road. The show was originally produced after hours in the Air America offices, to which Maron and his producer still had keys. Around the 20th episode Maron temporarily moved to Los Angeles, before announcing the move would be permanent in the 22nd. WTF is currently recorded in his garage, with the bulk of the guests meeting him there, though he does have a mobile set up to take to guests. WTF has reached #1 on iTunes comedy section numerous times. Though it is a free podcast, it has a number of rotating sponsors and accepts donations.

On May 17, 2011, it was announced that a version of WTF with Marc Maron is now available for non-commercial broadcast via Public Radio Exchange
Public Radio Exchange
The Public Radio Exchange is a nonprofit web-based platform for digital distribution, review, and licensing of radio programs. The organization claims to be the largest on-demand catalog of public radio programs available for broadcast and Internet use.-Mission:According to PRX's site, its mission...

. The initial offering is ten episodes edited from previous podcasts, designed, according to co-producer of the broadcast package Jesse Thorn
Jesse Thorn
Jesse Thorn is an American public radio show host/creator. He is the host and producer of the radio show and podcast The Sound of Young America, which is distributed by Public Radio International to 25 public terrestrial radio stations in 13 states and is also broadcast weekly on XM Radio's "XM...

, "to capture what makes WTF special and communicate it to folks who aren't comedy nerds–or even necessarily comedy fans." Initial station pickups include WBEZ Chicago and the Public Radio Remix service on SiriusXM.

Personal life

Maron was born into a Jewish family in Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City, New Jersey
Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

, but lived in Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne is a Township in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, located less than from midtown Manhattan. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township had a total population of 54,069....

 and Pompton Lakes, New Jersey
Pompton Lakes, New Jersey
Pompton Lakes is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 11,097....

 until he was six. Maron's father then joined the US Air Force for two years, and Maron and his family lived in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. When his father left the Air Force, he moved his family to Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...

 and started a medical practice.

Maron lived in an apartment in Astoria, Queens
Astoria, Queens
Astoria is a neighborhood in the northwestern corner of the borough of Queens in New York City. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Sunnyside , and Woodside...

, but announced on the 22nd edition of WTF that he was moving back to his Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 home, and did so in the fall of 2009. He has been married twice, to Kimberly Reiss and Mishna Wolff
Mishna Wolff
Mishna Wolff is an American writer and humorist.- Biography :Wolff grew up in Seattle, Washington. When her parents divorced she found herself a white girl in a black neighborhood with a white father who expected her to integrate into the black community the way he had...

 (a former stand-up comedian). Both relationships have been a large part of his act at various times. At his August 21, 2007 appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe
Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world’s largest arts festival. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place annually in Scotland's capital, in the month of August...

 festival, Maron riffed on his separation and divorce from his second wife, Mishna Wolff.

Maron has also spoken openly, both in his act and on his podcast, about his past alcohol and drug use, from which he is over twelve years sober.

CDs

  • Not Sold Out (2002)
  • Tickets Still Available (2006)
  • Final Engagement (2009)
  • This Has to Be Funny (2011)

See also

  • The Marc Maron Show
    The Marc Maron Show
    The Marc Maron Show was a late night radio show produced in affiliation with the Air America Radio network and hosted by comedian Marc Maron. The show originated from KTLK 1150 AM in Los Angeles, California. The show was less politically focused and more comedic than the other weekday programs on...

  • Morning Sedition
    Morning Sedition
    Morning Sedition was a three-hour radio program that premiered April 1, 2004 and ran until December 16, 2005, in the United States. It was hosted by comedian Marc Maron and New York radio veteran Mark Riley. Prior to June 2004, the show was also hosted by radio and television journalist Sue...

  • Marc Maron and the Temple of Doom
    Marc Maron and the Temple of Doom
    Marc Maron and the Temple of Doom is a radio drama that was played on the liberal radio talk show Morning Sedition, hosted by Marc Maron and Mark Riley.It is played similar to radio dramas of the 1930s and 40's...


External links

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