Show Business is Not Your Parents: Lessons for Creatives from Marc Maron

Listening to Marc Maron’s WTF pod-cast with Andrea Martin this morning, I was struck by one of his statements about the relationship between comics and the industry: “Show business is not your parents.” Hollywood (or whatever industry you’re trying to enter) is not going to just tell you you’re great and give you whatever you want.

Maron, who was described by Rolling Stone as “One of the darkest, funniest, most influential figures in comedy today,” has delivered this message before. In 2011, Maron presented the Keynote Address at the Just For Laughs Comedy Conference in Montreal and gave young comics advice, including,

Show business is not your parents. When you get to Hollywood you should have something more than, “Hey! I’m here! When do we go on the rides?”