Bill Maher: Not sorry to be unapologetic
It seems Bill Maher will say just about anything to get a laugh or provoke a reaction. Tracy Smith has our Sunday Profile:
"Real Time with Bill Maher," HBO's weekly news wrap-up, is broadcast live, unedited, and unapologetic.
"If you didn't see the debate, let me just cut to the chase for you: None of them got suddenly smart."
Smith asked Maher, "Are there some topics that are off-limits?"
"Not that I could think of," he replied. "They're boring or not newsworthy."
Not much boring here. Maher's show is a frequent stop for A-list celebrities and politicians from both sides of the aisle, who -- without network censors -- can say whatever they want.
Maher is an outspoken liberal atheist, and if you've never heard him say something you might find offensive, just give him time.
"Does it bother you," Smith asked, "that there's a large chunk of America that doesn't like you?"
"Well, it's funny that you say that. I'm so aware of that, but it's a little like being the president. Everywhere the president goes, he's in the presidential bubble, and mostly what he sees are people who are breathlessly excited to see him. You don't see the hate on a day-to-day basis, and I don't either.
"In all the years I've been doing this, the number of times anyone has come up to me and stuck their finger in my face and said, 'You so-and-so, you're so wrong about this,' maybe twice. Now, in the age of social media, they do it anonymously. So, if I chose to read my Twitter feed every day, I could be very depressed!"
Instead he seems to be enjoying life as a confirmed bachelor. "When you're single, you just have to consult with yourself, and I'm always agreeing with me! 'What do you want to now, Bill?' 'I want to watch TV.' And maybe after 10 minutes I'll get bored with that and I'll start reading and I'll go back to TV. Maybe I'm just too spoiled in my autonomy. But that's how I was drawn."
For the record, William Maher Jr. was drawn in 1956 in New York. His mom was Jewish, but he was raised Catholic, like his dad.
So what was going to church like for him? "Horrible," he said. "Catholics go to catechism, which was religious training, and that's where the nuns taught me all about love by beating it into us."
By the time he was a student at Cornell University, he'd stopped going to church, and started doing standup gig at local clubs. His family never knew.
"I really didn't want to tell anybody until I was established. But of course, you can't do that, because you have to pay your dues."
"Because you were scared that people would say, 'Oh, come on'?"
"Right, and they did!" said Maher. "I remember hearing my aunt, I guess the rumor was going around the Christmas party what I was doing, and she said, 'Did you hear? Billy's trying to be a comedian!'
"And that word, 'trying,' you know, just hit me like, wow. But she was right, I WAS trying."
And he kept trying.
In an early appearance on "The Tonight Show," his turned his Catholic and Jewish upbringing into a punch line: "We used to go to confession and I would bring a lawyer in with me. 'Bless me, Father, for I have sinned -- I think you know Mr. Cohen ..."
Maher was on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" more than 25 times. "So you must have thought I'm doing something right?" said Smith.
"Yeah, I knew I was a standup that was well thought of, but that was a different era," he said. "Comedy became a thing, right when I started, and everybody wanted to be a comic, and so it was very hard to stand out from the crowd, unless you started doing your own show."
Which is what ended up happening to him, with "Politically Incorrect." "Comedy Central was new, they needed product, they asked me if I had any ideas for a show. Get four people from different walks of life, with different ideologies, different levels of intellectual quotient, and put it together as a delightful trainwreck."
"Politically Incorrect" premiered in 1993. Then, as now, his guest list was stunning: Jay came on. So did George and Jerry.
The show, which moved to ABC in 1997, was doing well, until 2001, when in the week after 9/11 Maher refuted the notion that the terrorists were cowards:
Maher: "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."
Smith asked: "Do you regret saying it?"
"Absolutely not. It was true then, it was true on September 10th, it was September 12th. And it had nothing to do with criticizing America. But, you know, this was six days after 9/11."
Affiliates dropped the show. Advertisers ran for cover. And in May 2002, ABC pulled the plug.
But by February of '03 he was back, this time on HBO, live on Friday nights.
He rehearses from noon Thursday until airtime Friday night.
"If Russia winds up shooting down one of our planes, it could start World War III which would go nuclear, and then we will never get to the bottom of what's in Hillary's emails!"
Every joke is tested the day before air in front of a live crowd, like this translation of Vladimir Putin's U.N. speech:
"They say Russia is a fake democracy, but it's not like our two candidates are Stalin's wife and Lenin's little brother, Jeb."
After the run-through, Maher is seldom satisfied. "I'm doing a specific show for a specific audience. It expects a certain, I think, level of quality. It's not just a laugh, it's the type of laugh."
The week we were there, the Putin gag made the cut, as did this additional translation:
"You are a nation of fat people in workout clothes; the irony amuses me!"
Smith asked Maher, if he's ever regretted anything he's said.
"Oh, I regret something I say every week. I don't have any major ideological regrets. I can't think of things that I've said that I really want to take back. Mostly what I regret when I drive home Friday night is, 'Oh, you know, I should have let that person talk more on that,' or, 'I shouldn't have cut them off there.'"
"Do you chew on that?"
"Yeah, I do. I have a hard time sleeping Friday night. But that's just the perfectionist in me."
For Maher, being a perfectionist has paid off. His L.A. home has its own basketball court, and he's also a minority owner of the New York Mets, who just happen to be int eh World Series this year -- a sound investment.
"As far as investments go, sports teams, especially New York sports teams? They're not making any more!"
He also gave a million dollars to help re-elect President Obama in 2012.
The secret to his wealth: clean living.
"I don't have stupid hobbies like other dumb-ass celebrities," he said. "I don't have a hundred cars. I don't collect art, or go to hookers or do cocaine, buy yachts."
Alimony? "I don't have any of that.
"So the money piled up and I'm glad it did, because that's what I spent it on. I remember saying to somebody who was like, 'Wow, you spent a million dollars on Obama's PAC?' And I was like, 'Not even the most expensive thing I bought this month!'"
Thirteen years in, "Real Time" is still going strong. Clearly, the man who's become a hero to the left has to be doing something right.
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