Marc Maron Pays Homage To Comic Bill Hicks In His Netflix Special, "End Times Fun"
After taking a break from stand-up, comedian Marc Maron explains why his latest Netflix special, "End Times Fun," is a culmination of his entire life's work.
Video Transcript
RICKY CAMILLERI: Mark, as I said before we even started, I love the special so much. In some ways, it feels like the kind of special-- all your specials are great, but like you've been working towards this in some way--
MARC MARON: Yeah.
RICKY CAMILLERI: --or maybe your personality or dynamic with material has changed. Do you feel like that as well? Does it feel different, in terms of--
MARC MARON: Yeah, yeah. It feels like-- it does feel like everything I've been working towards, you know, my entire career, really, on all levels-- on the writing level, the sort of stagecraft level, on my emotional and psychological disposition level. It was really the best thing I've ever done. But I can also see all of me in it, and I can see all of my influences in it, and I can see all of my philosophical and emotional and psychological, intellectual trains of thought that I've been sort of engaged with for, you know, 35 years in it, having some closure, kind of landing somewhere.
RICKY CAMILLERI: The riff-- the final riff, which, I mean, you probably-- it's probably so embedded in you at this point, as someone who loved him, but the final riff at the end where Pence is going down on Jesus Christ reminded me of the sort of classic Bill Hicks riff about--
MARC MARON: Yeah.
RICKY CAMILLERI: --Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan and-- I don't remember who else is in the bathtub with them.
MARC MARON: Yeah, it was definitely from that era of my thinking sort of more Hicksy influence one. He was definitely, you know, in my mind when I was constructing that because I haven't really done that style in a while. But I wanted something big and something over-the-top and something filthy. I don't remember that bit as much as I remember-- like, he used to do-- metaphorically, he-- the one thing I knew about this special was that he would sort of use going down on Satan as a metaphor for people who sold out.
RICKY CAMILLERI: Right, I remember that.
MARC MARON: And then when I started to work on that part of the thing, I realized that I'm doing it literally. Like, Mike Pence is-- I don't want to spoil anything for anybody--
RICKY CAMILLERI: Sure.
MARC MARON: --but it's not a metaphor. And-- but I definitely-- you know, he definitely informed that piece, no doubt.
RICKY CAMILLERI: The going down on Satan in the Bill Hicks one, that's the one where he's doing the impression of Jay Leno interviewing Joey Lawrence, right? If I remember correctly.
MARC MARON: Well, he used it a lot. You know, for Jay Leno, I think he used it for Vanilla Ice. Just the idea-- the idea of selling out was, you know, sucking Satan's-- yeah, I mean-- yeah, I mean, there was a time in my life where I think Hicks had a bit of an influence on me. And I knew him a little bit, but I was aware that, you know, that piece was sort of an homage to the guy. Like, you know, there was that-- you know, you don't see that kind of shit anymore. You don't see that kind of comedy anymore.
I used to do that kind of comedy at a different point in my life, so it was, like, in the tool chest. And it kind of grew. It didn't start out that way. It was a fairly simple joke that, you know, ended, you know, far before everything. And then, you know, Iron Man got involved. I mean, there was a lot of things that, you know, all build up through the special to this epiphany, this operatic rabelaisian closer.
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