Marc Maron Podcasting Super Star

Article first published as Marc Maron Podcasting Super Star on Technorati.

Cerebral comic Marc Maron, out with a new stand-up album, This Has to Be Funny, is riding a new wave of popularity as a result of all things a podcast. His twice weekly show, WTF With Marc Maron, soon to go over its 200^th episode begins with a ten or fifteen minute rant about Maron's state of mind, and then features one or more long form interviews, usually although not always with fellow comedians. Guests have included some major celebrities like Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Fallon, and some lesser known—Steve Hughes and Simon Munnery. There are old timers like Jonathan Winters, and newer stars like Ed Helm.

As interview shows go, what makes Maron's podcast stand out is a knack for getting his guests to talk about things other than whatever they are interested in plugging at the moment. You can hear Jimmy Fallon talking about his father in the navy singing doo wop. Australian comic Greg Fleet talks about his habit of borrowing money from all his friends. Bobcat Goldthwait riffs on his brother's taste for shooting animals. Sometimes they are funny, sometimes they are dead serious.

And it is in those dead serious moments that the show is even more compelling. There are the times when his guests are more than willing to talk about some of their darkest moments. Maron, of course is known for his own darkness, a depression he has made a career of sharing with his audiences, so it may not be odd that a guest would be willing to share his melancholy with a fellow sufferer. Whatever the reason, Maron can sure get them comfortable enough to talk.

Check out Episode 190 with Todd Hanson, a long time writer for The Onion. The first of two interviews broadcast together, unlike most of the episodes which are recorded in Maron's garage, is held in a Brooklyn hotel. They talk about Hanson's skill as a dishwasher. They talk about his career at The Onion. They talk about his depression as a younger man. There seems to be something he wants to talk about, but can't quite bring himself to do it. The interview ends, but then some weeks later, now ready to talk about it, he does a second interview. Turns out the hotel has a special significance for Hanson; turns out that not that long ago he attempted suicide in that very hotel—not the kind of stuff you get on The Tonight Show.

DVD Review: Cedar Rapids

Article first published as DVD Review: Cedar Rapids on Blogcritics.

Cedar Rapids, Ed Helms' first effort after the success of The Hangover, is now available on DVD in what is advertized as a "The Super Awesome Edition." And while "Super Awesome" may be a bit of a stretch, "Awesome" doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility. If it didn't get the same kind of box office success as The Hangover, Cedar Rapids is certainly a pleasant enough comic romp with a stellar cast, and there are laughs aplenty for an hour and a half in front of the small screen.

Helms, in a part made for him, the kind that he could probably mail in with his eyes closed, plays Tim Lippe, a small town insurance agent who is delegated to attend a business convention in Cedar Rapids as a replacement for his agency's hot shot agent who has died under embarrassing circumstances. Lippe is a good natured innocent. He may be having an affair with an older woman played by Sigourney Weaver who it happens was his teacher when he was twelve, but he is truly in love. She, on the other hand, is only interested in playing around. In his naiveté, he is clueless and clueless defines his character throughout the film. He arrives at the motel in Cedar Rapids and runs into a prostitute (Alia Shawkat) who he takes for ordinary young girl. He doesn't drink; he carries his money in money belt under his clothes, and (to make sure his character is absolutely clear) he wears "tighty whities." Cedar Rapids may not be the den of inequity that Las Vegas is, but for the likes of Lippe it will do just fine.

In Cedar Rapids he is joined as roommates by Dean Ziegler a loud, hard drinking cynic played with panache by John C. Reilly and Ron Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) an upright gentleman and the first Afro-American Lippe has ever met. Anne Heche rounds out what seems to be the requisite quartet of characters in these kinds of films as a foxy married insurance agent out for some extra marital fun at the convention conveniently named Joan Ostrowski-Fox. Wilkes, if not the naïve innocent that Lippe is, is perhaps the one character in the film portrayed as an honorable person. Ziegler and Fox, while not exactly models of virtue, at least demonstrate that not all immoral behavior is equal. They may be engaged in sinful behavior, but they are good natured and true to their friends. This in contrast to characters like the president of the insurance association and the owner of Lippe's agency, played respectively by Kurtwood Smith and Stephen Root who are shown to be hypocritical babblers and dishonest to boot. Cedar Rapids paints a world in which a prostitute or an adulterous may well turn out to be more admirable as a human being than a pious pretender.

The plot which centers on Lippe's need to win the prestigious two diamonds award for his agency is less important than the set pieces he and the rest of the crew run through as he learns what the world is really like. There is a trip to a raunchy meth party where Rob Corddry shows up as a tattooed thug and Lippe gets his first taste of drugs. There is a bit of clothed and unclothed dipping in the motel pool. There is an assortment of convention activities: breakfasts, talent shows, scavenger hunts. There is, of course, a scene with Helms interrupted on the commode complete with appropriate aromatic references. All of these give Helms the opportunity to trot out his cute duck out of water persona, a persona he plays with masterful strokes, while the others wink and nod at his innocence.

"The Super Awesome Edition" includes deleted scenes and a gag reel. There are also short interview segments about the meth party scene featuring Corddry, a scene where the quartet joins in with a Lesbian wedding party which features the film's writer Phil Johnston, and a look at Mike Pyle rehearsing for an Irish clog dancing routine he does at the convention talent show. Finally there is one hell of a funny insurance company advertisement parody, "Top Notch Commercial." All is all, Cedar Rapids makes for a nice evening's entertainment.