Comedian, best-selling author, podcast host and rabble-rouser, Marc Maron will headline two live comedy shows during the 14th Annual Nevada City Film Festival, Friday, September 5, at the Miners Foundry Cultural Center. For over twenty years, Maron has been writing and performing raw, honest and thought-provoking comedy for print, stage, radio, web and television. A legend in the stand-up community, Maron has appeared on Louie, Letterman, Leno, Craig Ferguson, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Real Time with Bill Maher, John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up, and The Green Room.
Maron is best known for his interview podcast “WTF with Marc Maron” and his IFC series, “Maron,” now in its second season. WTF has become a worldwide phenomenon, just this month WTF celebrated its 500th episode and 100 million downloads. Along with Howard Stern, Maron is
probably one of the best celebrity interviewers alive. He specializes in interviews with comics and has a gift for penetrating into the psyches of his subjects, often revealing the dark, lonely places that inform our most famous and beloved jesters.
“Marc is an exceptional storyteller, and for us at the film festival, storytelling is the most exciting and important aspect of independent cinema,” says Festival Director, Jesse Locks. “Between the laughter, there is also this vulnerability and bitter sweetness about Marc that many people can relate to.”
Maron’s particular brand of stand-up is bitter and utterly hilarious. His jokes walk the line between tragic and funny, touching on self-hatred, addiction, love, failure, and, famously, his love for feral cats.
Guests on Maron’s podcast are coaxed into the same kind of emotional rawness. Stars like Robin Williams, Zach Galifianakis, Chris Rock, Louis CK, and Judd Apatow have done surprisingly vulnerable interviews with Maron, which Apatow explained by saying that between Maron’s unassuming persona and the bare-bones equipment, “You kind of feel like he might lose the tape on the way home.” Following news that Williams has passed away last week, Maron reposted his WTF episode with the legendary comedian. As Maron says in a new, very affecting intro, “That conversation is what defined this show from that point on and what defined my life in a lot of ways.”
“We started the Live Comedy Show in 2009 as a film festival after party; a way for us to share some laughs and have fun with the visiting filmmakers and festival attendees,” explains Locks. “It has taken on a life of its own now where people will travel far and wide to see comedians such as Nick Kroll, Natasha Leggero, Brett Gelman and Neil Hamburger in an intimate setting like the Miners Foundry. I can’t even begin to tell you how many calls I’ve fielded from folks all over Northern California excited to see Marc perform live.”
Seattle comic Nick Thune opens both shows. Anchored by Thune’s strong absurdist tendencies, his style veers from rattling off a series of non-sequitur jokes à la Demetri Martin and Steven Wright, to longer storytelling bits told while playing an acoustic guitar. He also looks like a long lost Avett Brother. Thune has been a guest on The Tonight Show, Conan, Chelsea Lately, and Jimmy Fallon, as well as appearing on Happy Endings, Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23, and Garfunkel and Oates.
Seating is limited and advance tickets are highly recommended.
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