Watch Marc Maron of WTF on Morgan Spurlock's A Day in the Life

See What Comedian Marc Maron Does All Day

See What Comedian Marc Maron Does All Day

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Slate's Culture Blog
March 12 2012 4:19 PM

Watch a Day in the Life of Comedian Marc Maron

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Marc Maron in a still from A Day in the Life

The first episode of the second season of A Day in the Life, the documentary series created by Morgan Spurlock (of Super Size Me fame) that airs on Hulu, features comedian Marc Maron (of WTF fame). And while the first 15 minutes or so may be mostly for Maron fanatics (like me) and Spurlock completists (you, maybe? someone you know?), the episode has a poignancy that sneaks up on you around the 20-minute mark.

What happens then is that, after a long day of drinking coffee (when Spurlock asks how many cups he has a day, Maron tells him, “I don’t think in terms of cups”) and talking to Mindy Kaling (the guest on the latest WTF podcast), Maron goes to do a set at the Comedy Store (the one on Sunset Boulevard), and it becomes clear just how much the venue haunts him. It’s dark both outside and inside, fittingly, as Maron describes how even now, after selling out rooms all across the country, he is still freaked out by the place. After getting his start in Boston, Maron moved to the heart of show business, and tried to establish himself as a stand-up, in the long shadow cast by his quasi-mentor Sam Kinison. (Spurlock asks Maron what Kinison taught him about stand-up. “Nothing,” Maron says, laughing.)

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In the last few minutes of the episode, you get to watch a few minutes of Maron doing stand-up in the room that, somehow, continues to scare him, more than two decades into his career as a comic. He appears to do quite well.

You can watch the whole thing below.

David Haglund is the literary editor of NewYorker.com.