Fantastic 250th episode of the Marc Maron What the Fuck podcast, recorded live in Boston. I grew up near that city and witnessed a few fireworks worth of the Bostoncomedy boom of the ‘70s and ’80s. So hearing Maron (who began his career in Boston, during his college days) reminiscing with such local legends as Tony V, Jimmy Tingle, Frank Santorelli, Mike Donovan and Kenny Rogerson is… well, it’s like sitting down the bar from guys like that, eavesdropping on them, at places like the Ding Ho or Nick’s Comedy Stop, back in the day.
Oh, the stories! Boston has some of the best tales of killing, dying, corpsing and coming-of-age from any comedy scene anywhere.
Funnily enough, many of those storied adventures happened in Connecticut. Our fair state was literally a rite of passage for Boston comics whose careers had developed to the point where they drive to nearby states and play at remote clubs for total strangers. Connecticut is continually derided and misunderstood in the memories of these comics—how happy are your memories of your first job?—but we can take solace in that Maine fares far worse in the recollections of commuting comics.
Tuning in the 250th WTF show, we can listen knowingly to Maron’s own memory of a tedious car trip with a fellow comic who complained non-stop for the whole hours-long ride about how a performer of his stature deserved better gigs than this. (Later in the Maron show, it’s revealed that this comedian’s surname became shorthand among other comics when describing that manner of kvetching.) The club in question? One which Maron describes as having “the front end of an old car as a DJ booth.” That image transports Connecticut clubgoers instantly back to the Bopper’s clubs which rode a ‘50s/’60s nostalgia wave back in the ‘80s and ‘90s. And to a kindler, simpler era of messed-up stand-up comics blathering on about the hazards of car trips.