Tickets Still Available is a misnomer. This stand-up comedy CD by Marc Maron sounds like it was recorded in an SRO room that got its money’s worth.
Those people came to hear a dark, witty, blue, edgy, fairly aggressive comic and that is what they heard. Tickets Still Available, much like Maron’s other comedy CD Not Sold Out, is not the laughter is the best medicine kind of stand-up but if you are mentally balanced you can take it.
Marc Maron asks “where’s the comedy CD that makes people uncomfortable and sad?” and then works very hard at making you squirm a bit. I am not sure about Maron delivers on the sad part because he is very funny but there is a darkness to his material that makes this release very unusual. If I was to compare Maron, I would say he is a funny Richard Lewis. This stand-up comic is very good at covering a lot of ground without you noticing the change. The opening track alone covers emotional vampires, retarded people and a very adept dig at the middle class.
Tickets Still Available was recorded in Seattle, home of Starbucks and other such creatures, so Maron has a bit on that that neatly segues into other forms of drugs, food, and the all you can eat society. If you want a hint at how weird this comedian can be he’s got a very Freudian bit on dreaming about his mother and Hitler. This routine is brilliant and something someone from a dysfunctional family will certainly enjoy -and perhaps send anonymously to his father. Dad / Depression also has a couple of really smart yet terrible puns.
Marc Maron takes a stab, literally, at American politics and all I’ve got to say is the guy’s got a point on those five tracks. Religion is next and Bitter Jesus has to be the nastiest bit on that Jewish dude ever as Maron makes the case why Jews should be thanked for killing Jesus. He gets more biographical in his comedy in the next few tracks and if Maron spares no one he also does not spare himself. Fair is fair.
There seems to be a rule that a set or stand-up comedy CD should end on a high note. Maron decided to get even darker: there is such a thing as nihilist comedy and this guy is its poster boy.
Tickets Still Available by Marc Maron: for those whose downer prescription expired yet need a good laugh.
Stand Up Records has a lof of great comedy downloads and CD click here for our dedicated page
Tickets Still Available
Marc Maron
Stand-up Comedy CD
Stand up! Records
67 minutes
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