While driving in L.A. traffic, Maron commented on the congestion, his off-beat train of thought giving one a glimpse of the myriad of thoughts going on in his head. “I’m driving in my car but it should be fine,” Maron said. “Nothing moves that fast in L.A. so it’s not that dangerous right now. How anyone can doubt global warming is a mystery to me. Never ending traffic and you just realize this is never going to stop. It’s never going to get better. I understand road rage. I also understand why postal employees snap. The letters just keep coming.”

Richard Jeni was originally scheduled for Maron’s time slots at The Improv, but Maron is hardly daunted by the task of taking Jeni’s place. “Rich and I are fairly different but we’re both funny men. I will talk about a lot of different things,” Maron said. “I don’t know how many of his people will keep their tickets, but I’m not that worried about it. What’s the worst that can happen? I disappoint some Richard Jeni fans? That’s the worst that can happen…Maybe I’ll get some new recruits, some new converts.”

Maron hasn’t been to Chicago in quite some time, but seems to be looking forward to the culture the city has to offer. “[I haven’t been there] in years. Not for work,” Maron said. “but I’m looking forward to it. I’ve always liked it. I never really got a sense of the city but I know it’s big. I know a lot of it has to do with baseball and sausage. Kielbasa, right?” Apparently, Maron isn’t afraid to wonder the city looking for places of interest. “I just remember one time I went out of my way to go to a Ukrainian restaurant, is that possible?” Maron laughed. “I was there for like two days. I was doing a theater gig. I read about this diner that had really great Ukrainian food. I like to try to find places that are unique and not mollified in any way and I found this place and it was great…I’m a Jew and there’s a very fine line between Jews and Ukrainians. A lot of the old Eastern European stuff is the same, but just not the pork.”

Maron’s show promises to be as diverse as his thought process. “Generally I talk a lot about politics, about entering one’s forties,” Maron said of his material. “I talk about relationships, drugs, the gym. I really run the gamut. Marginally neurotic but fairly cerebral and funny stuff… When you say “Air America” or you say political, it may put [fans] off and I want people to make sure that they understand that if I do put them off, it will be in the funniest way possible.”

Maron has so far hosted two shows on Air America radio, both in the morning and the evening, and there’s a rumor going around that he may be in talks for a third. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen yet,” Maron said. “They’re trying to get me to go back, but when you’ve been in a difficult relationship it’s hard to keep going back. We’ll see what happens but I certainly miss doing that. I miss getting up in the morning and doing all kinds of funny stuff and breaking news and yelling…I miss doing the morning show. You guys used to get it [in Chicago], but I don’t remember what station. I’ve done two shows for them. I’ve done an evening show and a morning show and they want me to come back and I’m still talking to them about it. I just got back from the Aspen Comedy Festival in Colorado and I’ve enjoyed not being a cave dweller. When you do radio you’re up in the middle of the night and you’re in a box for three hours a day. I kind of like being back on the stage and talking to people face to face. [In radio] you develop a little crew and no one’s really up at your hours and it’s a very intense job and I enjoyed doing it, but it’s nice sleeping like a normal person…maybe if I do another radio show I could do it out of my garage and I’d never have to leave my house.”

There are a few things coming up on Maron’s schedule for people to watch out for, although if you’re a regular viewer of the Conan O’Brien show, chances are you’ve already seen him. He’s been on it thirty-five times. “I’m on Conan a lot,” he said. “So that’s always coming up. I just did a Comedy Central Presents, which I believe should air again soon. I just did a Letterman about a month ago. You can go to www.MarcMaron.com and there’s a history of what I’ve done.” Much of Maron’s material was removed from YouTube when the website purged most of the material that had to do with Comedy Central or other possible copyright infringing pieces. “Yeah, they took all my stuff down,” Maron said of the purge,” But if you go to www.myspace.com/marcmaron, there’s stuff up there and in terms of old stuff, my website has everything.” Even though Maron has a MySpace site, he’s not a big fan of the website. “I hope eventually one day MySpace will become passé and it will become this digital graveyard filled with …ghosts and after we’ve extinct-ed ourselves off this planet, aliens will land, they’ll find our hard drives, and they’ll look at each other and say ‘this is amazing. Every member of this species thought they were important and every woman lived till 100 and showed no signs of aging,” Maron said. “It’s an amazing example of how incredibly narcissistic and how self-centered American culture is and how desperately people think everyone’s going to be famous for a couple of minutes.”

On the political end of the scope, Maron is a huge fan of Al Gore. “I hope to hell he runs for President,” Maron said. “He’s my guy. And I just hope that he decides to run, that someone convinces him…Theoretically he IS president. I think he’s the only viable guy…I saw Obama in Austin and I just think that he’s got a lot of work to do and I’m a little troubled by his new campaign slogan, which is “Barak Obama 2008: He’s just black enough.” All joking aside, or maybe not, Maron himself doesn’t want to run for President, despite his strong political views. “I talk about Al Gore on stage and stuff and I’m all for it. I would run for President except that if you’re in that gig too long, the amount that you have to compromise your idealism to accommodate morons, really I don’ t think you can get out of it without becoming morally bankrupt, so it’s not my bag. I’m trying to go the integrity route.”

Photos courtesy of www.marcmaron.com.

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