Marc Maron, "Final Engagement" CD One

Marc Maron's stand up comedy CDs (a two-CD set) are great CDs, but make for a tough review.

The main reason for that is that Marc Maron's comedy is that of a (self-described) "angry Jew." Disc 1 opens with Marc addressing the crowd as "need machines" and thundering to the non-capacity crowd that he can't fill a room.  I dig angry humor, but this direction (and heavily leaning on the shouted use of the word "fuck!") made for a wobbly start for this listener. I quickly got the impression that "What the fuck?!" was an acceptable punchline all by itself.

The material on CD 1 is conversational and personal, but was missing some element, and had an awkwardness to it that kept it from really hitting home.  While certainly clever, Maron's conversational approach to the material required something extra that bordered on the magical, and I found it lacking.

On the other hand, after playing CD 1 a few times, when the stun from the aggressive, F-bomb-laden start wore off, I was more easily able to appreciate the humor, much like repeatedly watching a movie with layered meaning.  Maron is skillful at relating topics like unrealistic fantasies of escaping to the wilderness, avoiding your gym membership and homicidal frustration with traffic.

"Marc Maron, "Final Engagement" CD Two

I'm happy to say that the second CD in the set immediately eased into the right gear, mixing Maron's gift for communicating bitterness and spite and regret with self-effacement and empathy, producing a flow that was approachable and easy to embrace.   Maron hits his stride throughout this second disc.

Crashing fearlessly into and through such subjects as race, his ex-wife and politics, Marc Maron puts fears, frustration and difficulty in the spotlight.  He does it with a sharpness, an empathy and a transcendent quality that is comedy at its most natural and comfortable. If you can't easily imagine how he makes a story about his four cats into a non-hacky diatribe including "Satan's lesser demons," you've got to avail yourself of this CD.