Comedian Marc Maron not afraid of meaningful material in podcasts

Comedian Marc Maron has earned phenomenal press this year (The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly) for conducting incredible interviews with other comics on his podcast, which runs on some public radio stations.

Robin Williams talked to Maron about comedic joke theft. Gallagher walked out on Maron. Aubrey Plaza of "Parks and Recreation" revealed she suffered a stroke by age 20.

Maron -- who performs stand-up tonight at the Palms, promoting a new CD, "This Has To Be Funny" -- benefits from comedians being more compelling than actors, musicians and other famous people.

As he puts it, they're usually sensitive, intuitive and deep thinkers with a lot of time on their hands to contemplate life.

It's even telling when a comedian, such as Dane Cook, wouldn't let his guard down around Maron.

"Dane Cook is a very organized and deliberate personality," Maron says. "I believe, even when he's showing his private self, he's very aware of its public impact. But there are very few people who are that collected.

"The I'm-gonna-look-you-in-the-eye conversation is really fortifying to the soul and to the mind. That doesn't take place anywhere -- not on TV, not on radio, not anywhere."

If you're a liberal, you may be more familiar with Maron from when he used to co-host political shows on Air America, the defunct liberal answer to conservative AM radio.

Maron now doesn't think there could be an AM leftist answer to conservative AM radio.

Instead, podcasts like his are a sort of humanistic answer to conservative AM, even though "WTF" isn't overtly political.

That is, Maron interjects politics only on occasion. He is more a behavioral liberal -- talking with other people in conversational tones about compassion, emotionality, therapy and similar hallmarks of liberalism.

"One of the things I set out to do fairly intentionally was to get away from politics and start talking about being a person and those struggles," Maron says.

"Our fear of feelings twist and bend our minds when they are influenced by outside things, whether it's politics, religion or bad relationships."

He's been blown away by feedback from listeners. Some say they're moved by certain interviews; or they relate to dark tales but "just can't talk about it" with anyone; or they say, "I never looked at my relationship that way" before.

Such deep thoughts run against the grain of pop culture. He has said on the podcast he'd rather make listeners feel less alone than make them laugh.

"Really the most rebellious and provocative thing you can do right now is be honest and show your feelings, because so many people are so caught up in getting by without losing their minds in their job, in their relationships, on the highway," Maron says.

"We've become disengaged from those feelings, and we've become really vulnerable to being misled" by politics and pop culture, he says.

It's ever-fascinating to me that Maron's podcasts (as well as comedian Greg Proops' podcasts) can be fun and funny yet devastatingly thought-provoking.

In one podcast last week, Maron explored his destructive nature in failed marriages.

At other times, it's almost as if Maron, 47, wants to teach, by example, younger listeners to open up in long-form conversations. He does believe the youngest adult generations lack the same "language of reflection, and frailty, and fear."

"The language of whatever is left of the '60s and '70s -- around self-awareness and struggle on a psychological level -- is really shifting," he says.

"This is getting deep, huh?"

It always does with Marc Maron, comedian.

Doug Elfman's column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Contact him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.