Bill Maher took a summer break from his “Real Time” HBO show from July 19 to Aug. 23, missing some big news, notably Joe Biden dropping out of the presidential race and being replaced by Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. But he did a steady spate of stand-up shows.
“I’ve had to rewrite my act like four times since we went off the air,” he said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before his show at Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre Sept. 7. (Tickets available at ticketmaster.com starting at $44.50.)
“After Trump got shot, it looked like he was going to walk away with the election,” Maher said. “They were measuring the drapes after the bullet whizzed by his ear. Then Biden stepped aside for Kamala. The Democrats united behind her. Now she’s ahead in the polls. A lot has happened in a short time.”
He said the shorter election window for Harris benefits her. “She’s running a smart campaign by not getting too specific,” he said. “She’s been riding the vibe thing. Americans tend to like the optimistic one over the dour one.”
Maher properly predicted in both 2016 and 2020 that Trump would never concede if he lost. And when Trump did lose in 2020, he did not concede. Maher expects the same denials from Trump if he loses again come November.
“It’s not in his nature to do that,” Maher said. “To me, this is the ultimate issue we are facing. I talk to my Republican friends who go on and on about the craziness of the left. I don’t argue with them. The far left is crazy. I often get an ideologically mixed crowd. Liberals laugh at the woke nonsense. Republicans laugh at Trump jokes. We can sit together and laugh together. We are way too often stuck in our silos and bubbles and don’t hear anything we didn’t already know.”
Maher prides himself on puncturing the echo chamber, bringing a wide variety of guests on his show, from Ann Coulter to Robert Kennedy Jr. to Cornel West.
“You have to reflect the country,” he said. “If the Democrats win, what do you think the other half of the country that voted the other way is going to do? Self deport? They’ll still be here. And the same if the Republicans win. We have to get along at some point.”
The writers strike last year forced Maher off the air for several months, but it also gave him time to review 20 years full of comedic editorials he would do at the end of each “Real Time” called “New Rules,” summarize them and turn them into a book.
In a nod to leading — but popular — headlines, it’s titled “What This Comedian Said Will Shock You,” and his fans bought the book in droves. It hit the top of The New York Times nonfiction bestseller list in early June and lasted nine weeks in the top 15.
Of all aspects of his show, Maher said he puts the most work into that concluding essay. “I don’t break news,” he said. “I try to break new ways of looking at stories.”
The book is in essence a 360-page summary of Maher’s broad range of opinions he spouts regularly on his HBO show.
For instance, he notes in the book that he’s “the only live-action television figure who consistently puts religion ‘under attack,’ and I’ll be damned if the credit’s going to go to the entire Left when I’ve been doing all the heavy lifting.” He admits he flies private planes for the convenience, knowing he is not being a good environmentalist but mocks celebrities and politicians who refuse to acknowledge the hypocrisy. He inveighs against “stupid wokeness” defined as “getting offended for people who themselves would not be offended.”
Some critics have accused Maher of going too hard on liberals. But he said he hasn’t changed: “If you do something goofy, I will call you out on it no matter where you are on the spectrum. I don’t hold my tongue for anybody. I know how counterproductive identity politics are and how victim culture, cancel culture and virtue signaling are pointless. Five years ago, I never imagined college kids marching for Hamas, a terrorist group.”
But he is not a Republican by any stretch.
“Republicans are too religious, they’re fiscal hypocrites who hate spending unless they’re in office. Their denial about racism is still a thing. They think climate change is a hoax. They always blame the underprivileged when they should be blaming the overprivileged,” he said. “Then add in the fact they don’t believe in democracy anymore.”
When Maher comes to Atlanta for shows, he always tries to hang out with hip-hop star and Atlanta history guru Killer Mike, a regular guest on “Real Time.”
“I just love him,” Maher said. “He’s one of the brightest people I’ve ever met. As a talk-show host, you don’t have to do a lot of work with that guy on. I just throw the ball and he will catch it and run with it. ”
Last time Maher came to town in 2021, Killer Mike took him to the Blue Flame strip club. “It’s not a strip club I’d normally go to myself,” he said. “If I had gone by myself, I don’t think I would have come back out.”
Killer Mike, in an interview with the AJC, said Maher is “a true friend. That’s my man, 100 grand. We don’t have to agree on everything. We argue and laugh and smoke a joint. He’s incredibly kind to my family. He has a great rapport with my wife like a lot of my homeboys. He’s one of my homies, even as an old white guy.”
IF YOU GO
Bill Maher
8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 7. $44.50-$124.50, Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, 800 Cobb Galleria Parkway, Atlanta. ticketmaster.com
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