Marc Maron: From Bleak To Dark ((FREE))

The pitch: Many people use comedy as a means of survival, a way of relating the absurdity of life to help keep from falling prey to despair. There's been a lot to despair about the past few years, from a pandemic to rising antisemitism, transphobia, and racial violence, and the ever-present threat of climate change, but comedian Marc Maron has the answers. He doesn't want to sell you anything (for that, he recommends fellow podcast host Joe Rogan), and he doesn't really ask for much, just a bit of critical thinking, basic empathy, and the ability to laugh at some seriously dark jokes. Maron's humor has always been pretty dark (his Netflix special, "End Times Fun," has an extended joke at the expense of the California wildfires) but "From Bleak to Dark" takes him to new heights (or depths, I suppose).

Marc Maron: From Bleak to Dark

"[After Shelton's death] would I ever be able to be funny about things? [...] humor that comes from real darkness is really the best because it disarms it. It's elevating to the spirit. It's why I got into comedy because I would watch comics and they would take things that were complicated or horrifying and simplify them and sort of make you see them in a different way and have a laugh."

I'll tell you because it's a funny story. I was developing a show for FX with Sam Lipsyte, the novelist, and my good friend. We sold this show and we'd written one script for them, and they wanted another script. So we outlined a story through the second script and we turned it in to FX and we had a notes call. Nick Grad, the head of FX, is at the top of this Zoom pyramid, and there's FX people and my people and me and Sam. [Grad] says, "Look guys, it's great, great story, loved it, really great writing. Have no specific notes, but is there any way we can get it from bleak to dark?" And I thought, "Yeah, that's what I do." That's my whole life. 041b061a72