A documentary crew is interviewing Marc Maron as he eats lunch in his kitchen. He’s humoring existential questions while, clearly, irritated to be engaging in the exercise at all.
“There’s a lot going on in my head. How long does this go on for?”
The director, Steven Feinartz, seems a combination of insecure and confused. “The documentary…?” he asks.
“Just like, my stand up,” Maron responds. “I don’t have any other big plan. I’m just doing it because it’s what I do.”
The exchange is from Are We Good?, a new documentary about how Maron, the prolific comedian and podcaster, is grappling with his grief over the death of his partner, Lynn Shelton, and somewhat tortured feelings about continuing on with his career. The film’s release on Oct. 3 coincides with the end of his pioneering podcast, WTF With Marc Maron.
(You can watch the exclusive clip from Are We Good? above.)
Why step away now? “I realized when I was sitting with [Bill] Hader and [John] Mulaney and Conan [O’Brien]. I’m not playing in that league, dude,” he says in the film. “They seem savvy to the business in a way that I’m still somehow not. But like what difference does it make? What am I gunning for?”
Maron announced the end of his podcast in June, after 16 years of enormous popularity. In a post on the podcast’s website, he summed up the reason rather succinctly: “We’re tired, people. Burnt out.”
In Are We Good?, however, Maron’s friends seem skeptical of his desire to step away.
As comedian Caroline Rhea says in the clip, “[Marc] said the other day, ‘I don’t know, who said we have to do this forever?’ And I was like, we do! We all do. If you’re a real comedian, you have to do it forever. There’s no retiring.”
David Cross was similarly dubious: “He’s like The Who. Didn’t they have like 11 last tours ever?” To wit, the art for Maron’s tour, This May Be the Last Time, flashes on the screen as Cross talks and laughs.
The documentary then cuts to Mulaney, who is in disbelief at that title. “That’s what he called his last tour?” he says. “What an exhausting thing. What? He’s going to get a boat and sail around Corsica or some s–t? As if he’s going to move to Vancouver and just be Marc Maron. That’s an insane idea.”
Are We Good? premiered at the SXSW Film & TV Festival and screened at the Tribeca Festival earlier this year.
In his review for The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, writer Jeff Slate, wrote, “Of course, the film includes plenty of Maron popping off in his typical dark and cutting way, about politically incorrect comedians—‘hacks with an excuse’—as well as Joe Rogan’s bro culture and what he sees as Dave Chappelle punching down in his act. But Feinartz ultimately uses his unfettered access as a way to examine Maron himself, which helps us to understand his present pain, as the comedian in turn opens the darkest, angriest parts of himself to us.”
Are We Good? will be released in New York and Los Angeles Oct. 3, with nationwide theatrical events on Oct. 5 and 8.
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