The war shtick

Marc Maron, like many Americans, has found all sorts of new worries to add to his list of old worries.

“I was way ahead of everybody in being paralyzed with fear on a day-to-day basis,” said Maron, during his stand-up at the Improv on Melrose over the weekend. “I was like that before there were any terrorist activities whatsoever. It’s just that now there all these fears that I don’t know what to do with. I don’t know what to do with the fear of spores. Why do they tell us? Give me something I can run from. A guy with a gun. I can run from that. Missiles. I’ve got an hour. I’ve got a car. I can try. But spores. They’re here! Where? It’s over.”

Maron, whose timely, neurotic comedy is similar to, but a few shades darker than, Richard Lewis’ and Woody Allen’s, headlined an evening with an Armageddon-themed act about spores, duct tape and Bush. And the audience loved it.

Life was easier for those on the stand-up circuit with Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, and some haven’t completely gotten over that era (they still do Clinton jokes!). Nevertheless, a couple of nights of canvassing the local comedy club scene make it clear that while times are still tricky, shock and awe and embedded correspondents are providing plenty of material.

At the Improv’s Friday night late show, many of the evening’s early performers stuck with the usual gay jokes and routines about their ex-girlfriends. The first to mention the war was Craig Anton, who had printed up a bunch of bumper stickers such as “Jesus Loves War” and “War Saves Lives,” though none was quite as funny as the altered bumper sticker seen around town on the back of a pickup truck: “War is the Answer.”

But it was Maron who pushed the limits.

“Bush is the right president to oversee the end of the world,” began Maron. “I think he will do it quickly, efficiently and with a resolve that makes me uncomfortable. Don’t get me wrong. I am very excited to have a religious fanatic as leader of the free world. George Bush has that nice mixture of born-again Christian and stupid, which some mistake for courage and focus.”

Maron’s apocalyptic shtick was a big hit with the crowd.

At the Groundlings’ “City of the Future” show on Friday, it appeared that most of the skits were conceived before the war began and only one was related: “Mr. Munroe Explains It All,” in which a teacher breaks into song to help a confused student understand everything from jihad to Hans Blix, all to the tune of R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine).”

On Saturday, practically everyone in the lineup for the Laugh Factory’s early show chimed in about the war. Comic Freddy Charles, a Christian Arab American wearing a turban, pointed out that “nobody is talking about the Korean missiles, because Korean missiles, please. I’ve driven a Hyundai. Halfway there, it’s leaking oil. Pretty soon, it will be pulled over with its blinkers flashing.”

Comic Elon Gold, 33, said his generation was too lazy for war and when the army arrived at his door to draft him, his response would be “I’m eating. E-mail me or something. I’ve got to see which chick the bachelor picks, OK?”

Whether the jokes were about spores or Korean missiles, they went over pretty well. Nobody booed.

In fact, most people seemed relieved to be able to laugh for at least a while.

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Mobilizing comics

Hollywood Improv: 8162 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood. (323) 651-2583.

Groundlings Theater: 7307 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 934-9700.

The Laugh Factory: 8001 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles. (323) 656-1336.