arts & life

Standup

Seeker

Complex comedian

Marc Maron

explores his Jewish

roots and more.

Sara Eaker
Special to the Jewish News

I

'm a Jew, but I am not a Jew,"
Marc Maron writes in his
"spiritual" memoir, Jerusalem

Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant
Messiah. In it, the standup comic,
writer, producer and actor writes:
"The only things I remember actually
learning about Judaism and Hebrew
prior to my bar mitzvah were that
kelev meant dog ... mezuzahs have
a rolled-up piece of paper in them
... Golda Meir and the
guy with the eye patch
were important in Israel
... [and we have] a
long, draining meal on
Passover with symbolic
crackers and questions
during which we let the
door open for a ghost
who would come in and
get drunk."
Maron, 51, is a force
of nature in any medi-
um his comedy touches.
He has guest-starred on shows
including Louie, with comedian
Louis C.K. (who also has Jewish ties),
while perfecting his craft at standup
performing to packed audiences for
decades.
His latest project is his hit series
on the Independent Film Channel
(IFC), The Marc Maron Show, which

"I have a hard time describing
what I do or what I am up there on
stage," Maron says. "I've been called
neurotic, a storyteller, brilliant — and
a problem."

Comedian Marc Maron
will perform at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 18, at
the Royal Oak Music
Theatre. $29.50-$35.
(248) 399-2980;
royaloakmusictheatre.com .

Celebrity Jews

Nate Bloom

Special to the Jewish News

BERNSTEIN, BAUMBACH
AND SPARKS
Opening this week: Seymour:
An Introduction is a documen-
tary about virtuoso classical
pianist and teacher Seymour
Bernstein, 87 (the title refer-
ences a famous J.D. Salinger
story). Filmmaker Ethan
Hawke met Bernstein at a din-
ner party several years ago
while he was pondering his

46 April 9 • 201E

own career direction and was
struck by Bernstein's decision
to give up a strong performing
career at age 50 and turn to
teaching and mentoring young
music students. Much of the
film shows Bernstein work-
ing with students — and he

has a lot of interesting things
to say about education and
discipline. Bernstein's gentle
but effective teaching style
proves that one doesn't have
to be a harsh taskmaster to
succeed with pupils.
Director and writer Noah
Baumbach, 45, has explored
the lives of
sophisticated
urbanites
in generally
well-received
films, start-
ing with The

Baumbach

Squid and
the Whale

he writes, produces and stars in. The
show mirrors his own life as a neu-
rotic, Jewish, hyper-intelligent comic,
twice-divorced and dating in Los
Angeles while hosting his podcast,
WTF, from his garage.
On that series, which can be down-
loaded from its website, wtfpodcast.
corn, Maron has interviewed many of
the greats in his industry, including
Ben Stiller, Judd Apatow and Sarah
Silverman. "Since I was 11, being a
standup comic is all I ever wanted to
be. I actually thought it was a noble
profession," the New Jersey-born
Maron says on one episode.
"I remember being a kid and
watching Rickles and Hackett on
the tube, reading the "My Favorite
Jokes" column at the back of Parade
magazine every Sunday, listening to
Carlin, Pryor, and Cheech and Chong
records with my little brother, going
to Woody Allen movies and staying
up late on Saturdays to see the first
season of SNL.
"To me, being a comic meant to
be autonomous, angry, truthful and
funny," Maron says. "It meant being
alive and present in the moment. It
meant having the freedom to figure
out and then be who I am in the pur-
est way and to do it shamelessly in
front of people, impose it on them
and try to blow some minds in the
process. It meant avoiding the soul
death of the day job. Being a comic
entitled me to live like a ... gypsy
until something clicked, and if it
didn't, who knows?
"I've been fortunate to have a few
dispersed clicks throughout what I
guess has been a show-biz career of
relative obscurity, but with a freedom
from the bondage of mediocrity."

❑

(2005). Critics are saying
that his new film, While We're
Young, is his most fully real-
ized and satisfying work to
date. Ben Stiller, 49 (who
starred in Baumbach's 2010
film, Greenberg), plays Josh,
a Brooklynite who can never
seem to finish his documen-
tary. His wife, Cornelia (Naomi
Watts), is the daughter of a
legendary documentary film-
maker (Charles Grodin, 79).
Cornelia and Josh, who can't
have children, drift away from
their best friends, a couple
their age who've just had a
baby, and become friends with

an energetic couple who are
20 years younger (Amanda
Seyfried and Adam Driver
of Girls fame). The contrast
in styles and world view of
these two age-disparate
couples is often amusing
and usually thought provok-
ing. Appearing in supporting
roles are Beastie Boy Adam
Horovitz, 48, as the male half
of Josh's "old couple" friends,
and Peter Yarrow, 76 (Peter,
Paul, and Mary) as a left-wing
intellectual.
The Longest Ride is based
on a 2013 novel of the same
name by Nicholas Sparks