Podcast superstar Marc Maron prepares for TV: “We should call the show ‘Not Louie’”

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

His face may not be familiar, but the newest IFC star's voice -- reedy and insistent -- is among the most notorious in comedy.

Marc Maron has become one of the most successful among the vanguard of podcasters; his show "WTF," in which he interviews comics and entertainers including Amy Poehler, Conan O'Brien and Fiona Apple, has built Maron an enviable public persona since the show's launch in 2009. He was even named one of Salon's "Sexiest Men" in 2011.

The show averages 230,000 listeners per episode, according to online syndicator PRX, but has the power to move the culture, as when comic Todd Glass came out in a meandering, compelling fashion or when Louis C.K. talked about his tense, rivalrous friendship with the host.

Julie Klausner dated horrible men so that you don’t have to

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000

Julie Klausner is very funny, and although it’s possible to escape into the things she’s made (her work writing for high cotton venues such as the New York Times and McSweeney’s, her work for television and the stage, and, notably, her “How Was Your Week?” podcast), there’s no need to check your brain at the door. Every comic inflation, every easy sex joke, every wry understatement is animated by a restless intelligence and a writerly instinct that wrings new life from the old tropes.

As a straight married man who has never spent any time as a straight single woman looking for love, I approached “I Don’t Care About Your Band,” Klausner’s darkly comic memoir of dating, as a kind of dispatch from a secret and enticing land.

Among the things I learned while listening:

Salon.com > podcasts

Podcast superstar Marc Maron prepares for TV: “We should call the show ‘Not Louie’”

Julie Klausner dated horrible men so that you don’t have to