MiddleChild: Nothing much. Everything good with you?
Maronzio: Oh yea. I’m good.
MiddleChild: That’s cool. So tell me how you got your start in comedy.
Maronzio: I started when I was like fifteen. I went to a comedy show with one of my girlfriends. It was like one of those prom things. You know you go to the comedy club after the prom so you won’t drink or whatever. Went on stage and told some jokes or whatever and it hit me from there.
MiddleChild: Okay. What’s harder to do. Improv or like scripted comedy. Because I’m like if you practice being funny you won’t be funny. How does your comedy come to you?
Maronzio: You know it’s like the stereotypical comedian. I was always the class clown. Most comics…we get our start by playing the dozens or joking on one another. That came about from being the comic relief and acting goofy in the classroom or whatever and it hit me one day to go up there and do it. So I did some stand up and it was all improv. I didn’t write any jokes or anything. I had watched like Bill Cosby. The first comedy stand up I ever watched was Bill Cosby when he was in the brown chair and he had the brown suit on in Toronto in front of all these people and I thought it was the funniest thing I ever watched. I was young, but I was getting the jokes. I was getting it. So there was something about it told me I might end up doing this one day.
MiddleChild: Okay. And one of your punch lines is that you don’t look at old as you are. You’re thirty-one.
Maronzio: Yea.
MiddleChild: How does that kind of work to your advantage?
Maronzio: In the beginning it was a disadvantage because my material didn’t match the way I looked. People would think because I was young looking that I was going to come on stage and talk about I guess what they perceived young people would talk about. I was talking about politics. I would do religion jokes. I would talk about dating and relationships and they would be looking like “What the hell is going on? He look like he got homework. Why is he talking about that? He may be talking about a science project or trying to find a date for the prom or something?” So I had to start acknowledging that I’m older than what I look like when I go on stage and then it transitions. Now the way I used to do it “I’m really 28, 29 years old I just look young” but I didn’t wanna make that my Achilles heel or my whole stand up routine. I just address it and I keep it moving. That was I can establish I am an adult and I can talk about this.
MiddleChild: Okay. And you’re a dad too. So how does that affect your comedy and style?
Maronzio: It helps it because I got an eight year old daughter and I can talk about what we go through. Like in my act I talk about how I can’t take her in the car with me when I drive because everything that has Spongebob, I have to buy it. Spongebob has really hit my pockets really hard these past couple years. Like when I talk about advertising, they target the kids. They sell products they know they shouldn’t be selling. I put all that into my act. Like I look like I shouldn’t have a child. I don’t look like I should have a child. I look like I just got out of school, so it’s funny to people when they find out I have a child. It’s like he looks like a baby, but he has a baby.
MiddleChild: Comedians have this weird thing about them like something is not quite right because they see things the average person may not see. What would you say is the hardest part about being a comedian and the easiest part about being a comedian?
Maronzio: The hardest part about being a comedian, if you’re a true comic, is once you get started you can never stop because your mind and the way you think is always gonna be in the frame of mine of comedy. You’re going to find the funny in any and everything. You’re always going to try and find a way to make a joke. You can never go back. Like once you accept that gift of being able to tell a joke and make people laugh, like I said a true comedian, your mindframe is always there. You can never get out of it and that’s a good thing a bad thing. Sometimes you just wanna chill, but you can’t because you’re like “Oh God that’s funny. I gotta make that into a joke”. You’re always working. Your mind is always working. And the upside to that is, if you do say something messed up or out of line you can always blame it on “Oh hey, I’m a comic. I was just trying to make a funny out of it.” Everything has some type of funny to it. You can make a joke out of anything. Anything is up for grabs when you’re a comedian. It doesn’t matter. From 9/11 to abortion. People do all types of jokes, so nothing is sacred. Nothing. So I enjoy it. I think it’s hard for people to take you serious once they find out you’re a comedian because the first thing out of there mouth is “Ooh, tell me something funny.”
MiddleChild: Exactly. You’re never off.
Maronzio: “Tell me something funny”. Like I don’t like to tell people I’m a comedian when I first meet them because that instantly means dance for me. Make me laugh and I’m not that guy. When you meet a lawyer you don’t go “Oh, you’re a lawyer. Well cross examine somebody right now”. It don’t go down like that. You gotta be in that environment.
MiddleChild: Definitely. Now who would you say you admire. Not necessarily pattern yourself after, but what comedians do you enjoy?
Maronzio: When I first started out, there was this HBO special and I woke up late one night and I was watching this guy named Steven Wright. When I say this guy… and at that age I should not have been able to comprehend what he was talking about, but I did. Like I understood what he was saying. I understood where his jokes were coming from. It was dry humor. It was really dry humor, but I was getting it. I had to have been no more than ten years old. I had to be no more than ten. And I was dying laughing. So Steven Wright influenced me. The late Mitch Hedberg. He died like two years ago I believe. He was funny. He was brilliant. Chris Rock is one of my favorites. Dave Chapelle. Bill Cosby’s storytelling is phenomenal, if not the best of all time as far as storytelling goes. Richard Pryor is like a combination of everything that a comedian wants to be. He can tell a story, he can tell a joke. He can act it out. He goes into character. He is like the Michael Jordan of basketball. He rebounds, he dribbles, he shoots, he assists, he jumps, he scores…he does it all. Like if you want to build a franchise around somebody, you build it around young Jordon. If you want to build a show, you build it around Richard Pryor. He had the name. He was brilliant. Bob Newhart. I love Bob Newhart. Jerry Seinfield is one of my favorites. I think Ellen Degeneres regardless of if she is a female, Some people are like “oh she’s a funny female comedian”. Ellen Degeneres is a comedian regardless at the end of the day and she’s funnier than some male comics. So Ellen Degeneres and Wanda Sykes are like hilarious to me.
MiddleChild: So what would you say your ultimate goal is? Would you like to have a television show one day?
Maronzio: I’m into stand up right now. I may want to have a television show one day, but at the end of the day I’m always going to be a comic. Right now the industry is at a stand still right now because the writers are all on strike. So what that has done is pretty much stopped progress for all television shows. There are no new shows being shot right now because there is no one to write for them. But that doesn’t stop me as a comic because the comedy clubs are always going to be open. I’m going to always work regardless. I love doing stand up though. I like to see what life has and make it funny. The things we take for granted everyday or overlook. I mean I went to school for theater so if the opportunity came about I’m not going to say that I wouldn’t. I would love to do television. I would love to do movies. Host award shows. I got a book I’ve been writing on for the longest. So I’ll like to get these books out to the world. Chris Rock always said “once you make it that’s when the real work starts.” Know what I’m saying? Because now you have to prove to the people that you belong there.
MiddleChild: I hear you on that. So Maronzio, are you a music fan?
Maronzio: I’m love music man. I’m a hip-hop fan. I’m a true hip-hop fan.
MiddleChild: Cool. So what are your top three albums of the moment?
Maronzio: “Graduation” is my number one album right now. Kanye West “Graduation” is the number one album in heavy rotation right now. Believe it or not I’m playing “American Gangster”, but I’m not loving “American Gangster”. I like it, but I don’t love it. I like it. It’s good, but it’s not great Jay Z. “Blue Print” was great Jay Z. “Reasonable Doubt” was great Jay Z. “The Black Album” is great Jay Z. “Volume II” is great Jay Z. I think he just does it because he is still the best at it and with all due respect he is, but it’s like he feels like he has no competition. Like there is no one that can compete with him. Like that rivalry he had with Nas, that reignited a fire under both of their asses because they both were lackadaisical, but when they had beef with one another that changed everything. That made hip-hop funny. That made it enjoyable. So I would have to say “Graduation” is in heavy heavy heavy rotation. And I play Philistines album. That last album he dropped before Morpheous. I’m really on East Coast hip-hip. New York, old school. So The Runners album is in heavy rotation for me. Even though I am from the south and I get flack about it all the time, I don’t really listen to down south rap. I think the furthest south I go is Young Jeezy. I’ll take Young Jeezy because he has a different kind of flow from most down south rappers. I mean I like Outkast. Goodie Mob, when they were together, they were hot. Luda every now and then. He ain’t really saying anything, but every now and then I’ll be like that’s hot. But for the most part Kanye and Jay Z, Ghostface are in my rotation.
MiddleChild: That’s what it do playa. Well I will be sure to let people know they can check out your tour dates and shows on your myspace page.
Maronzio: Yea. And let people know that I travel with Paul Mooney. A lot of people may not know who Paul Mooney is, but Paul Mooney played on Dave Chapelle’s show as Negrodamus and Angry Black Dude. He invented Homie The Clown. He wrote for Sanford and Son. He wrote for Roseanne. He discovered Roseanne. He discovered Robin Williams. He discovered Sandra Bernherdt. And he’s most known for being the voice and writing for Richard Pryor for most of his career. So I’m on tour with him. He’s taken me up under his wing which is like history within itself because I’m working with the man who worked for the man. Know what I mean? Like this guy wrote jokes for Richard Pryor for most of his career. So I’m working with this man now. Like he goes on tour and I open up for him on the road and what I’ve done is since I tried to talk him into doing a tour and he’s not really big on doing it, so what I’ve done is I created my own tour within traveling with him and I call it “The Opening Act Tour”. This means I’m Paul Mooney’s opening act and I’m on tour as his opening act and I blog everything. All the stuff I go through while I’m on the road and the people I meet and how I’m treated and how the shows go and the experiences I go through and I’m going to put it in a book once the year is out.
MiddleChild: Well that’s what’s up. And I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for you because like I said before once I saw you on Comics Unleashed, I had to find some clips and once I found the one clip I was on a search for more. Then I came across the one of you on Jamie Foxx’s Laffapalooza and I was like “I seen this” and I did remember falling out laughing at you.
Maronzio: (laughs) That’s what’s up. I got that coming up. Well that already came out. I also got Showtime At The Apollo. I taped it this year so it was supposed to air already, but I don’t know if that aired or not because I can’t watch it myself on TV when it first come on because I get kind of freaked out when it first airs. I’m doing this thing for NBC called “Stand Up For Diversity” and what it does is take all of the best comics from across the country other than white comics and let them showcase and try and get a development deal with NBC for a television show. I got that coming up too. So hopefully something good comes out of that and I can get my own tour and not have to open up for anybody else.
MiddleChild: That’s definitely a good look. Well if you need anything from me for whatever, just holla at ya boy and I got ya back, aight?
Maronzio: No problem man.
MiddleChild: Stay up.
Maronzio: Thanks a lot man. You have a good one.
MiddleChild: You too.
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