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''Can we smoke in cyberspace?'' funny grrrl Janeane Garofalo asks host Marc Maron during a live cybercast of This Is Not a Test, the Microsoft Network's weekly interactive gabfest-slash-comedy hour. ''We can smoke, we can dance,'' says Maron. ''We can do whatever the f--- we want.'' Test keenly blends Maron's sardonic stand-up shtick with humorous online games (Dennis Rodman's clickable diary) and audience polls (''Sex is boring if...'').
''There's an opportunity to be more lyrical and thorough with a topic online [than on TV],'' says a postshow Maron, 33, a veteran of cable's Comedy Central. ''I get to stay with one topic and chase it down.''
Performed before a live audience at the New York City comedy spot Catch a Rising Star, the show has recently featured such well-risen stars as Conan O'Brien and Jon Stewart, not to mention the irascible, chain-smoking Garofalo.
Mouse potatoes can post questions (fielded by ''chat chick'' Amanda Stern) during the live, streaming-audio program while Maron applies his subversive slant to such stand-up staples as the mediocrity of suburbia and the love/marriage conundrum. ''It's really amazing the amount of electricity generated when people know that they are part of a live event,'' says the comic. ''Once the ball starts rolling, there's no turning back.''
