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By Martin Chaddock
I
love live comedy and the art of stand up and as such
as a fan of it I am, I learned who is who by being such
a fan and by spending a lot of time comedy clubs, the
world famous Comedy Store in particular. What I like
about “the store” as
it is known, is that just about every comedian I watched
growing up made an appearance there at some time or another
through their careers. I remember watching Rodney Dangerfield’s
HBO special in 1987 “Nothing Goes Right” which
brought us Barry Sobel, Lenny Clarke, Dom Irrera, Carol
Leifer, Andrew “Dice” Clay and the departed
Bill Hicks and Robert Schimmel. As a result of spending
so much time at the store, I had the pleasure of watching
Barry Sobel, Dom Irrera and Dice work out their material
and I had the opportunity of watching other legendary established
and up and coming comics as well. One in particular stuck
out and his name is Marc Maron who I never heard of and
I never really had the opportunity of hearing his act even
though I saw him at the store on a few occasions. I knew
he was somebody when I saw his name on the marquee one
night and than I caught his special on Comedy Central and
I thought he was great, but I never knew much about him.
I am not a tech guy nor do I aspire to be one, but about a
year ago I got an iPhone and started to browse iTunes and came
across podcasts which up until that point I was unfamiliar
with any type of podcast and I stumbled upon the podcast for
WTF with Marc Maron and I immediately downloaded it. I saw
that Dice was on the podcast and I have always been a huge
fan of Andrew. I listened to that podcast and laughed so hard,
but in addition to the laughter I really felt that something
was there. I went back into the previous podcasts and saw that
Marc has most of the legends of comedy on his show as well
as the guys who were up comers when I hung out at the store
and I immediately became a huge fan. |
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Forget the fact that he is interviewing
comics, but he interviews them straight on and does it with
class and doesn’t hold
back about anything and it keeps the podcast real. He doesn’t
make himself out to be anything other than what he is and what
he has been through all throughout the years including his demons.
My favorite episode was his interview with Jimmy Shubert and
I have listened to that podcast over 5 times because these were
2 guys that started out around the same time and had some great
stories and did not hold back about anything. Another great interview
that I listened to a few times was with Steven Wright and Bobcat
Golthwait.
You also learn a lot about the comedy scenes
that I heard so much about like the Ding Ho in Boston, San
Francisco, New York and of course L.A. During his interview
with Jimmy Shubert he mentions a promoter in Albuquerque that
ran a show out of a Chinese restaurant and I was taken aback
because I had spent the summer of 1985 in Albuquerque with
my father and he had taken me to that Chinese restaurant for
a show! It was called the New Chinatown Inn and that’s
all I remember other than I had a great time.
Another thing I like about WTF is Marc’s
relationships with other comics like the late Sam Kinison which
I find to be fascinating and Marc’s extensive knowledge
of just about every other comedian that has crossed his path
whether famous or not, whether living or dead, he really brings
the fans of stand up comedy and school and resource center and
I thank you for that. Check it out for yourself at www.wtfpod.com
Martin Chaddock will be appearing at The New York Comedy Club
on Wednesday June 6th in the 9pm show. For details www.nationwidecomedy.com
Long Island born Martin Chaddock has been writing and performing
stand up comedy for over 16 years. He has performed in venues
from New York to Los Angeles and produced several successful
comedy & music events. He was most recently directed by actor
Frank Vincent in a comedy short that was based on Mr. Vincent’s
character “Billy Batts” from the Academy Award winning
film “Goodfellas”. He resides in New York City
where he performs on a regular basis.
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