Marc Maron played a set of shows this weekend down at Picwick & Frolic, and like any comedian making his way through town, he was shuffled off for promo slots on local morning drive-time radio. It’s the sort of venue when comedians are their best — early morning, egged on by the antics of shock jocks.
Maron’s stop at Rover’s Morning Glory was predictable and then some. Let’s let Maron tell it in his own words (as he relayed via his newsletter):
I did have one experience that I will remember for a long time. I’ve been in show business half my life. I was barely in it for most of that time but it is the life I have chosen. I witnessed something in Cleveland that had profound meaning to me. It was a signifier of everything wrong in the world of entertainment and maybe the world itself. It was incredibly creative but profoundly stupid. It happened on morning radio. Obviously. I was taken to a radio show by the guy who works for the comedy club. When we arrived there were men in their underwear running around the hallway in a panic with buckets. A producer of the show came out to give me a breakdown of what was going on. I have done a lot of morning radio. I have been in weird porn situations, racist situations, degrading contest situations. I know the terrain. For some reason what the producer of this particular show told me was an end of something for me. He said that they were getting ready to fire the vomit cannon. The entire studio had been covered in plastic and some guys had rigged a leaf blower with some kind of funnel apparatus and from what I gleaned one dude drank a gallon of milk so he could puke, dump it in the funnel and spray it into the mouth and all over another dude. I’m not a pompous guy. I am 50 years old, though. I’m a grown ass man and I wanted to get the fuck out there. It wasn’t even about following that garbage which it did become about eventually. It was just that who the fuck wants to be part of that shit after a certain point.
When they finally shot the cannon it backfired puke all over the ceiling of the studio, the on place they didn’t cover in plastic, and the entire hallway smelled like vomit. I was livid and ready to bolt. They scrambled around trying to clean up like the tragic man-children that they are and they set me up in a different studio where the host interviewed me. It was actually a great interview. He’s a great radio guy. I asked him why they did the puke cannon. What was the point? He said that if I picture being younger wouldn’t it be something I’d think of doing. Not in a million fucking years. It’s not shocking anymore. It’s not really funny. It’s just desperate and stupid. Which is fine but who cares.
We love Marc Maron.
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2014.
This guy sounds awesome. I like the way he thinks, so many great one-liners in what he said.
More merry misadventures of the desperate Howard tern wannabes.
So RMG rocks. The stupid antics (which I find ridiculously hilarious) is about 1-2% of the show. So much better than the stupid morning zoo shows talking about what happened the DWTS the night before. Never heard about this D-Bag comedian, but he sounds way too serious to be in comedy.
@Roc Listener, congratulations on never having heard of Marc Maron. If you took two seconds to Google him, you’d find a guy who has contributed a great deal to comedy and whose podcast is required listening for anyone who values the art of the interview and a greater understanding of some of the most compelling entertainment figures of our time. He’s also a really funny comedian. But it’s great that you’re so intuitive you can label him a D-bag while singing the praises of the puke cannon. I thank you. And I’m sure he would as well.
Rover? Another fucking douchebag that makes the rest of the world laugh at Cleveland like they would laugh at the drunken hillbilly cousin who vomits all over the tree at the family Christmas party…or the frat boy who pukes on the train after a ballgame.
Only thing is, they’re not laughing WITH him, they’re laughing AT him. And feeling sorrow and pity for the poor shmuck.
Fuck morning radio. Fuck Rover and all those like him. I haven’t turned my radio on in the AM in years. All those human voices trying…and failing…to be “funny” are not music to my ears. Music is, though…and that’s what I listen to because I’m not a morning person and I KNOW I’m not missing a damn thing by avoiding these unfunny asswipes.
Rover needs to drink the milk and it should “backfire” in his mouth and he should choke on his own vomit and go like Jimi Hendrix went. Only difference is this: When Hendrix died, we actually lost something.
Chuckles the Clown
@Chuckles, I don’t want Rover to die, but I at least agree with you that he isn’t funny. I haven’t turned on my AM or FM radio to listen to morning talk shows in years. It’s just not funny or entertaining at all.