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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Not Sold Out

Marc Maron

Stand Up! Records · Album · 2005 · 59 min

Neurotic post-9/11 comedy from a pre-podcast Marc Maron.

Long before finding a comfortable groove in his podcast garage, Marc Maron was a furious, neurotic stage comic venting to half-empty rooms. Recorded at Stand Up NY in January 2002, a mere four months after 9/11, Not Sold Out catches the comedian at a tense moment in American history. The album, self-released that year and remastered for a wider release by Stand Up! Records in 2005, shows Maron working out his anxieties in real time before a New York audience still nursing a collective hangover.

At this point in his career, Maron was transitioning into a political-radio personality on Air America, and his stage material reflects that shift into overt social commentary. He tackles post-tragedy paranoia with a manic, conspiratorial style, arguing that the 2001 film Pearl Harbor was arguably worse than the actual invasion. He also lays out a bizarre plan to dismantle Al-Qaeda by deploying heroin addicts as an elite task force.

The hour also targets the comedian’s personal demons, laying the groundwork for the confessional style that would define his later career. He riffs on his obsessive-compulsive tendencies, a newly minted sobriety, and the grim reality of emotional struggles, noting that the only difference between disappointment and depression is your level of commitment.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Ridding the world of Al-Qaeda using heroin addicts and ingenuity

    Maron outlines a divinely inspired plan to eliminate terrorist networks by deploying a task force of heroin addicts.

  2. Drug-pushers and porn-peddlers

    Explores the realization that neither drug dealers nor porn distributors have their customers' best interests at heart.

  3. Heartlanders at the Marriott and anthrax spores

    Reflects on post-9/11 paranoia, fear, and fight-or-flight instincts in New York City.

  4. Sobriety, disappointment, and suicide

    Draws dark, dirty humor from personal neuroses, personal struggles, and cold sores.

How it plays

Tone
Dark, satirical, cynical, raw, and self-deprecating.
On stage
An angry, neurotic, and indignant intellectual with a head full of graphic images, moving between righteous indignation, flat-out rage, and defeatist internal fuming.
Pace
A sustained, boisterous, and effective rant that feels like an intense internal argument.
About
Sobriety, disappointment, and suicide, Obsessive-compulsive disorder and neurosis, September 11 and the War on Terror, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Pornography and drug pushers, Aging and decay management

What the critics said

Praised for effectively and consistently channeling anger and self-deprecation into political idealism and dark humor while keeping audiences laughing at absurdity.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: allmusic.com, search.worldcat.org, music.apple.com, standuprecords.com, reference.org, amazon.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, sfstandup.com.

Backstory

Recorded in New York City on January 22, 2002, in the immediate aftermath of September 11, the War on Terror, and anthrax scares, following the end of his first marriage.

Details

Released
Taped
2002, Stand Up New York
Runtime
59 min
Where
Stand Up! Records (album)
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (1998)
After
Comedy Central Presents (2007)

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