Spending Some 'Real Time' With Bill Maher
Nov. 15, 2006 -- It has been said that comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.
For Bill Maher, comedy is tragedy that happens to people in power.
Maher has been skewering Washington on stand-up stages and talk-show sets for decades, but he is enjoying fresh acclaim in an era when political satire --- a genre of which Maher says he is "The Godfather"-- is often preferred instead of political news.
Maher has a best-selling book, sold-out stand-up routines, and a hit HBO show, "Real Time With Bill Maher," which, when added together, help him live up to his "Godfather" claim.
And with last week's shift in power in Congress, he has something else: vindication.
President Bush, whom Maher recently called "a retarded child emperor," is without a doubt the biggest target of his wrath.
"He definitely should be impeached," Maher said. "The high crimes and misdemeanors he's done in office. … Yeah, I think he's done some terrible things. But I don't think it [an impeachment] would serve the country."
That statement might make it easy for those unfamiliar with Maher to tag him as a frothing Democrat.
But he said that he had voted for both Bob Dole and Ralph Nader in recent years, and that he had equal disdain for what he views as the Democrats' weakness. And he believes that his dislike for political labels puts him in line with the majority of Americans.
"I could cherry-pick issues and do a whole show," he said. "And if the conservatives only watched that one show, they would go, 'Bill Maher is a great guy. He doesn't like unions. He's for the death penalty. He's for a strong military.'"
"I could certainly do a lot of shows where the liberals would go, 'Boy, he's great on gay marriage,'" Maher said.
"And I think the American people are with me on this. … They are over these kind of ideological labels, and a lot of them are over [the concept of a political] party. There's an awful lot of independents in numbers we never saw before, and they are the ones who controlled this election."
A Controversial Past
The idea that Maher could be in lock step with the American majority is surprising, considering that five years ago he was a national pariah.
At the time, Maher was the host of "Politically Incorrect" on ABC, a part-news, part-comedy hybrid that once followed "Nightline."
Less than a week after Sept. 11, 2001, he infamously said, "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly. Stupid maybe, but not cowardly."
Within days, sponsors like Sears and FedEx had pulled their ads, affiliates had dropped the show, and even then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer weighed in, saying, "They're [the comments] reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do."
Nine months later, the show was canceled.
Maher's staff jokingly refers to the comment as "the tragic events of 9/17."
Maher himself says it was like being "in a football stadium full of people, and there's this super white hot light that is going around and it stops on you. And then everybody boos. The whole country was … like a nationwide state of cuckoo."
And yet Maher is happy with how things eventually turned out, as he landed on HBO with "Real Time."
"I'd been doing that show ['Politically Incorrect'] for nine years, and it was time for a change," he said. "I'm much happier doing the show now. It's much more the show I should be doing now."
Pushing the Envelope
Maher has pulled no punches since his firing from ABC, honing his act to hammer President Bush on everything from his handling of the Katrina crisis to the lack of planning for postwar Iraq.
"I don't think we should fool around anymore," Maher said. "We should first of all admit it was an idea we tried and didn't work. The idea of democracy in Iraq is as dead as those flag-draped coffins that are coming back. And it's immoral to ask one more man or woman to give their life for this."
Maher makes no secret of his disdain for the Christian right, calling religion "stupid and dangerous, especially in the world of atomic weapons."
No one is safe with Maher.
In October, he attended several Halloween parties as Steve Irwin, the late "Crocodile Hunter," complete with a bloody stingray poking from his chest.
"My view is that if you're killed by an animal, you're probably doing something to it you shouldn't have been," he said.
Living the Dream
Maher's confrontational style has earned him a luxurious lifestyle. There is a batting cage next to the basketball court in his lush Beverly Hills backyard -- both built by former owner Ben Affleck -- and a stripper's pole in his game room.
He is among Hollywood's legendary bachelors, a regular at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion, but swears it's not as interesting as it sounds.
"If there's orgies going on, they're not inviting me," Maher said. "I mean, I wouldn't get in that grotto on a bet. There must be diseases in that thing that Columbus brought over."
Though Maher doesn't rule marriage out, he doesn't plan on it either.
"I've found Mrs. Right many times. It's not the fault of the women," he said. "Women are sincere, wonderful people. I could have gotten married a number of times. It's me. It [marriage] doesn't fit me very well. I don't know how anybody does it, I really don't. First of all, if you're a very honest person, it's very hard to be married, I think. I think you gotta lie a lot, and I don't like to lie."
Maher has made disliking kids a centerpiece of his stand-up act.
"I would have to become a real different person to want kids," he said. " Everyone says to me, 'You don't like kids, but when it's yours, you will.' I think I would be the first guy to look into the crib when it's mine, and go, 'Still nothin'. … Call me when he's 18 and I can talk to him.'"
Ultimately it is conversation that stimulates Maher most -- preferably about politics.
"I just hope the American people have realized that it takes someone who is interested in government to do government," he said. "You know the George Bushes, the Ronald Reagans, that idea of 'I'm a big-idea guy. I don't do detail. I delegate.' Yeah, that's how you wind up with Katrina disasters. Because you don't get involved," he said.
Maher believes former President Clinton would have handled the Hurricane Katrina disaster better -- but he added his own comedic twist.
"Bill Clinton? Are you kidding? If he had been president when Katrina hit, he would have been down there before the storm hit. He would not have slept for a week," he said. "He probably would have been getting some action and having some excellent etouffee. I mean you can't combine Slick Willie and the Big Easy and expect nothing to happen, but he was a multitasker. You know Republicans always run on the idea of 'government doesn't work.' Well, not the way you do it. But it could work."