The Tapes Archive

Bill Maher: Hello.

Marc Allan: Hi, this Bill?

Bill Maher: Yep.

Marc Allan: It’s Marc Allan.

Bill Maher: Yes.

Marc Allan: Ah, you’re expecting me?

Bill Maher: Uh I am, let me get rid of all these people, hold on.

Marc Allan: Okay. Hi, how you doin’?

Bill Maher: Oh we’re a little swamped.

Marc Allan: Yeah, okay, well I promised the outfit. They said 20 minutes.

Bill Maher: no, no, I’m good. I’m not givin’ ya the bum’s rush.

Marc Allan: Okay.

Bill Maher: I’m just sayin’ you know we go on the air Monday with our new season, so. So it’s like crunch week.

Marc Allan: Well I’m glad you’re not giving me the bum’s rush ’cause I’ve spent enough time watching this show that you owe me some time here, okay. We’ll start out by asking you, the personality that we see of you on the show, is that pretty much you? I mean or are you, just sometimes you go a little further to gauge or to get a reaction out of the guest?

Bill Maher: Why I think anytime anybody’s a performer, when you’re on camera, you probably heighten everything a little bit. I mean if you’re not, if you don’t get up for a show, then you shouldn’t be in the business. But yeah, I mean basically, I mean you know when you’re on television that much you can’t hide. So it’s silly to present yourself as something you’re not. I mean I never for example, take a position or any opinion is a true opinion of mine. I mean any, I mean I’m not acting, it’s not a spoof of a talk show or–

Marc Allan: No, I recognize that.

Bill Maher: No, I know. But some people ask me that and, no, I would say it’s pretty much me just you know probably a little more animated ’cause we’re on. But pretty much that’s, I think you’re smart in the business if you graft your so-called TV personality onto your real personality instead of trying to do it the other way around.

Marc Allan: Okay, I just wondered if you were ever like the devil’s advocate and just went a little further on your opinion just to elicit a response.

Bill Maher: Yeah I suppose, yeah. But I think I do that in life too. I think I enjoy being a provocateur.

Marc Allan: Well I’ve been watching the show since I moved to a place that gets Comedy Central in February. And let me, this is the little profile of you, this is the way I would describe you. You tell me if I’m hitting it right, okay. You’re a disillusioned democrat, you like Perot’s ideas but you knew he could never get them carried out, so you probably held your nose and voted for Clinton. You think government is too intrusive. You think people are too dependent on government. You think people have gotten fat, lazy and unwilling to accept responsibility. And sometimes you feel like your father for saying that. And you feel the same way every time you mention that rap has no melody. How’s that?

Bill Maher: That’s pretty damn good.

Marc Allan: Good, okay.

Bill Maher: The only thing I would change is that I didn’t feel like I had to hold my nose to vote for Clinton. I like him.

Marc Allan: Sure, well that’s a bit of a surprise. ‘Cause I think in, sometimes I think you’re fairly hard on him. But that, which is fine.

Bill Maher: Sometimes he needs to be hard on.

Marc Allan: Yeah.

Bill Maher: And sometimes he has a hard on, but he, you know my take on Clinton is that he is like, are you a baseball fan?

Marc Allan: Yes.

Bill Maher: Okay, he’s like a shortstop that gets to more balls and so he makes more errors.

Marc Allan: Um, hmm.

Bill Maher: You know, it’s like, Ozzie Smith usually has more errors than lesser shortstop but that’s ’cause he has a much wider range. If you don’t get to a ball, you’re not ever gonna make an error on it. And you know I just think he tries a lot. I mean the headline in the New York Times yesterday was “Healthcare, President’s Greatest Goal, Dead.” It just made it look like down in defeat, President’s highest order, dead, down, gone. Well, yes of course, I mean that’s what happened. But I think the way the political system works is that you almost had to accept that the first try was gonna go down in defeat. But that’s why it’s a first try. And I think before his term is out, he’ll get a healthcare reform bill. But you know, yeah, he got an error on that one. And did he handle it the right way? No, I don’t think he did. I don’t think he handled it very well. But there’s a learning curve in every job. I mean you could imagine what the learning curve in that job must be. At least he’s I think smart enough to probably learn from the mistakes and do it better next time. I mean he shoulda gotten more bi-partisan support and he shouldn’t a tried to do it a lot of the ways he did it. But, you know he did and he’ll come back and he does come back, you gotta give him that.

Marc Allan: Yeah, absolutely. And I’m glad that you compared him to a shortstop as opposed to a box of chocolate because if I hear a box of chocolates joke.

Bill Maher: Why what is that?

Marc Allan: Oh from Forrest Gump, you know.

Bill Maher: Oh right.

Marc Allan: Life is like a box of chocolates.

Bill Maher: Exactly.

Marc Allan: It’s like eww man, I don’t wanna hear that.

Bill Maher: Right.

Marc Allan: You know it’s interesting to me in watching the show and I wonder if you have the same reaction that republican’s seem to, or the conservatives and the republicans who are on the show seem to be completely aligned behind their people. And the Democrats seem to be willing to take more shots at a guy like Clinton.

Bill Maher: Yeah, I mean that’s always, I mean you know that’s Will Rogers great line, “I don’t belong to any organized party, I’m a democrat.” Yeah it also seems there that there are so much more, they have so much more of a unified agenda. We did an issue the first season about how the democrats just have like an issue de jour. And I mean that’s just the nature of the party. I mean that’s why the republicans with a registration of way less than what the democrats have. I mean the democratic party is, the registered democrats in this country have always been overwhelming. At some times as much as two-to-one over republicans, but the republicans were able to capture the White House so many times because of one of the rules of party politics which is a small but rabid and well-organized group can defeat a less organized larger group. I mean you even see that in the party. I mean the republican party has now the problem of being hijacked by the far right wing because they are the most organized, and most fervid, the most rabid. The other thing you said in that little description about a disillusioned democrat reminded me the thing I always say is, I’d love to be a republican if only they would. You know, and what I mean by that is if they, if their platform is as they say, of getting the deficit under control, well then explain to me Ronald Reagan. Because he’s the one that really jacked up this deficit.

Bill Maher: Right. So don’t give me that bullshit. And if the republican party is the party that says get the government off the backs of the people, but in a woman’s uterus, that’s an okay place for taking ’em off their back? You know I mean, how can you be off the people’s backs but making decisions about what goes on inside their bodies? It’s those kind of contradictions.

Marc Allan: Well both political parties I think wanna be in your pants. The democrats wanna be in your wallet and the republicans wanna be in your zipper. And that’s why I’ve always chosen to be democrat. I can give up the money. Going to the new format for an hour, did you feel like it was a matter of needing more time to explore issues?

Bill Maher: Actually we’re not on for an hour. But we are on a lot more. We are gonna be on every night at 10 o’clock.

Marc Allan: Well I thought it said that it was going for an hour.

Bill Maher: That might be a false thing that sometimes–

Marc Allan: Oh no, okay, I have misread this then okay. Sorry, so good okay, well it’s still at the half hour. Good, okay.

Bill Maher: Yeah half hour but we will have you know four new shows every week. Whereas last year we only had one new show a week, Tuesday through Friday a new show.

Marc Allan: Oh that would be great news.

Bill Maher: Yeah it will be. It will give us a chance to do a lot of things that we weren’t able to do before.

Marc Allan: Such as?

Bill Maher: Well I mean little comedy bits as opposed to just last year we did, yeah it was very often we did what we call a modest proposal at the end.

Marc Allan: Right.

Bill Maher: Which we’ll still do that. But we’re able to, we can do a few other things. We’ll just have more time each week.

Marc Allan: All right, so forget the hour thing. Now let’s talk about some of the guests have really surprised me in their weirdness sometimes and–

Bill Maher: You mean the pairing?

Marc Allan: Yeah, well no not the pairings, just the personalities. Because you never get to see people talk like that.

Bill Maher: Right.

Marc Allan: And it’s you really have no idea what they’re like. I mean Ed Asner, I always thought had a reputation for being a very smart, very liberal guy. And when he did that show with Tim Allen and I forget who else was on it,

Bill Maher: Right, Quentin Tarantino?

Marc Allan: Was that the same show? Okay.

Bill Maher: Yeah, that was in L.A. when Quentin was on with us in L.A. I remember, but…

Marc Allan: I just thought boy, Ed Asner did not come across very well. And I don’t know if it’s, I don’t know what that is. So I’m curious about your reaction to some of these people and guests who surprise you politically or who do better than you thought, or do worse than you thought.

Bill Maher: Well I mean that part of the pleasure is just that, it’s the surprise. I mean, for us the pleasure is the mixing. I mean a Quentin Tarantino was on, as a matter of fact was not on that show, ’cause I remember he was on with Dick Clark which is exactly the kind of pairing that just makes us giggle. Because it’s just so wrong.

Marc Allan: Right.

Bill Maher: You know I mean to put Dick Clark on with Quentin Tarantino. We had on John Waters with Senator Arlen Specter. That just can’t be right. You know we had on G. Gordon Liddy with Harvey Fierstein, I mean that’s the first joke is that who these pairings are. After that yes, some times people absolutely do surprise you that like you say, you think they’re more liberal and they’re conservative or they the other way around. We purposely don’t pre-interview anybody. I mean we purposely do not run this like any other talk show. Because it’s not, you know, it’s not like any other show, it’s not an interview. We’re not plugging anything. We’re actually having people just talk about stuff. So, I don’t really wanna know too much before we go out there. I don’t wanna lose that spontaneity. And I just want it to be just like, I mean the idea is that it’s a cocktail party and you certainly wouldn’t pre-interview to go to a cocktail party.

Marc Allan: Right, do the–

Bill Maher: If you do, you’re life is a little over-produced.

Marc Allan: Yeah. Do the guests know in advance what the topics are gonna be? Excuse me.

Bill Maher: Very vaguely.

Marc Allan: Oh, okay.

Bill Maher: If they want to know, we will tell them.

Marc Allan: So you’re, so when you’re bringing up the topic, they’re hearing it basically for the first time?

Bill Maher: They’re hearing, they’re certainly hearing anything detailed about it, and if I have a position on it, they’re certainly hearing that for the first time. If they wanna know what we’re gonna be talking about on Monday’s show, we’ll tell them O.J. Simpson, but that’s it. We won’t tell them anything more about what the specific questions are, or the baseball strike, or you know stuff, I mean just really very vague sort of general stuff. And if it’s a topic that’s a little more abstruse, we will actually send them an article on it. I remember Rita Rudner was on one show and I walked into makeup and she said, “I haven’t had this much homework “since I was in sixth grade.”

Bill Maher: I guess we had to know what the topics were but I guess we sent her a bunch of articles. And you know Rita is of course so meticulous, that she of course had to read everything.

Marc Allan: Yeah, what did you think of Quentin Tarantino? Did you know him before?

Bill Maher: No, but he’s a very big fan of the show. So, I mean that made me love him already. And I was a huge fan of his work. He was great. I mean we thought he would be and he was.

Marc Allan: He’s really out of control.

Bill Maher: Now he is, so. I mean we wanted him for the first week here and he wanted to do it, but he’s just, I mean he is just too much in demand. He’s out plugging his movie and a million other things and I don’t think he’s gonna make it the first week. But I know he will whenever he can.

Marc Allan: And I don’t think anybody every talks to Roseanne the way you talk to her. Is that ’cause you know her real well?

Bill Maher: I do know her real well.

Marc Allan: I remember you being on the show, being the photographer on her show, that episode.

Bill Maher: Oh, right, right, right, I did. That was just, I mean she just called me ’cause she, I guess she wanted someone around that week to play with. And I was around. But yeah, I mean, you know Roseanne is not a, I mean she’s a lot of nutty things but she’s not a prima dona. I mean she, you know you don’t have to walk on eggshells with her. She enjoys a frank exchange on stage and off.

Marc Allan: Well it just seems like everything else you read about her is about people being afraid of her and you talk to her just you know.

Bill Maher: I don’t blame people being afraid of her. I mean she asked me years ago if I wanted to write for her sitcom and I said Roseanne, we both know if I did that we wouldn’t be friends for long. So let’s shelve that idea right now.

Marc Allan: And actually one of the guests I think comes off best on the panels all the time is Larry Miller.

Bill Maher: I love Larry, well Larry and I really go back a long way.

Marc Allan: Yeah, who does just a great, who is really smart as well as being funny above all things.

Bill Maher: Yeah exactly. I mean he’s exactly what we love on this show. I mean he’s, first of all there is a chemistry that you have with old friends that you just can’t have with people who are not old friends. I mean that’s not to say that you can’t have a wonderful chemistry with someone you just met, and sometimes that can be just as good and just as interesting. But it’s just not, I mean there’s no replacement for that kind of feel that you have for someone that you’ve known for 15 years and have been clowning around with like that for 15 years, who you have been sparring with verbally for 15 years. It’s just a sort of a, it’s like a band, it’s like the Rolling Stones. I mean they’ve been playing together this long. That’s why they’re this good. I mean they just know where each other what is going just by intuition or something. Whatever it is I don’t know. But you know, that’s why I love to have the Seinfeld’s and the Miller’s and the people like that who are my old cronies. That to me is the most fun.

Marc Allan: Are there people you wanna have on that won’t come on?

Bill Maher: Oh yeah, I’ve done millions.

Marc Allan: Okay. I just wondered if there was anybody in particular who you’ve really pursued?

Bill Maher: Oh I’m sure there’s, I mean there’s lists and lists and lists. I don’t have them in front of me. The thing is that the lists are always shrinking because now as opposed to like when we first went on, it was really hard booking because everyone was like what, what kind of show is this? I mean they had no idea what was going on. I mean now, not only is our show on, but there’s a bunch of rip-off shows either on or coming on. So I mean, people have gotten the idea that this is a, and also everybody knows this show now. I mean we have plenty of people calling us up and saying hey, can I get on which is great. And you don’t have to explain the show. And if by chance there’s someone who hasn’t seen the show, which we don’t find very often, we can send them tapes. We can send them, whoever it is, we can say, I mean if we wanna get a senator, and he says well I don’t know. We’ll send him a tape of Senator Specter. I mean you know, you can’t get much more establishment figure than that. And the other thing is like Michael Moore who did TV Nation had a quote in Newsday a few weeks ago saying that when he went down to Washington, he said we were able to get any politician we wanted ’cause they all thought that our show was like politically correct and they all do this show. And they all thought this was the way to sort of look to their constituents like they had a sense of humor. Once we established that we were not any sort of a gotcha show which we are not and never will be. Then the politicians were more willing to come on. Now, you know is Teddy Kennedy ever gonna come on? I doubt it, I doubt if Teddy Kennedy ever wants to appear on anything called Comedy Central because he just is obviously gun shy. He’s such an easy target. I mean what he doesn’t know and maybe somebody will explain it to him at some point, is that I would never ever make fun of him. I sat there with Marion Barry in January in Washington and he’s three time, he was talking about how we need to have a new morality and a moral re-invigoration, and I never said, excuse me Mr. Mayor, but weren’t you the guy smoking crack in a hotel room? Somebody else on the panel may have said that, but I will never. I mean I’m always, the show should be a lot of heated funny debate but it should never be in my view, cheap or less than gracious.

Marc Allan: What kind of mail do you get for this show?

Bill Maher: I’m amazed at the mail I get for the show. First of all, the sheer volume of it. Must be like everybody who ever watches the show wrote me a letter, which I love, which is great. I answer, you know I read every piece of mail and I write a little note at the bottom of the, I mean we do have a form letter, but then I always write something at the bottom. And I mean some of it is just, a lot of it is just make the show an hour. That’s a very very common one I get. It’s too short, make it an hour. A lot of it is just hey keep up the good work. Occasionally there’s a, you fascist pig or you liberal asshole. And a lot of times there’s a lot of people who just wanna take one issue. You know I have a special file for the one’s that start out, “Bill I thought you were a smart guy.” I used to think you were a smart guy, but you know. I mean ’cause you’re always gonna say something that somebody thinks is crazy. But generally, it’s very very positive.

Marc Allan: That’s good. I think the best part of the show, the modest proposals. I mean, I enjoy that bit. I always think, you know you really do some great provocative things in there. And I thought, and there was one, I think it was a modest proposal, where you said there should be a warning on the Bible not to be taken internally. Man I thought, oh, with the mail he’s gonna get for this should really be unbelievable.

Bill Maher: Yeah, you know I didn’t get too much on that. I’ve gotten much more on things like gun control. I mean you really learn what the hot-button issues are. Guns is a real big one. People in this country just love their guns.

Marc Allan: Yeah, which it’s true, and I live in a very conservative state. So I get more of that than most people do.

Bill Maher: Yeah, I mean, you just say anything and I wasn’t even, I mean it was really such a tongue-in-cheek thing we did, I mean as most of those modest proposals are, that the bit was just you were saying, you can have a gun but since the Second Amendment was written in 1776, it should be a musket.

Marc Allan: That’s right.

Bill Maher: But there are people who are upset about it.

Marc Allan: Okay, now let’s talk about the book for a bit. It’s funny, there are some real funny parts. I’m about halfway through it right now and at times also reading it and thinking, this is like trying to relate a funny stoned experience to somebody who wasn’t there.

Bill Maher: Huh.

Marc Allan: So, I don’t know, what kind of reaction have you gotten? And talk a bit about what you were trying to accomplish.

Bill Maher: Well I mean the reaction has been great. It sounds immodest, but I haven’t had anything but good notices and the people who, just different categories, is people who I know who have read the book and call me. There are people who stop me on the street and have read the book and tell me what they think. And then there’s reviews. I mean my goals with it were one, a book that would be certainly as funny as any novel anybody’d ever read. And two, to for once, accurately portray this life of the comedian that I don’t think anybody had ever sort of accurately portrayed for the world at large. I mean I think it’s a subject people are really curious about.

Marc Allan: So you think comics are horny, irresponsible, smarter than average people?

Bill Maher: Basically yeah.

Marc Allan: Yeah, okay.

Bill Maher: I mean I think that’s only part of it. I mean I think there’s a lot more to it. I think that there’s also a great, I mean there’s a lot of positive things that they do that it’s easy to read it and only you know, in any book, I mean the juicy parts are the things that are probably more negative. But I mean I hope I capture the comradery too, the fact that these guys, they stick together. I mean they, I mean they don’t at some times, but they certainly have the urge to. I mean there’s certainly a love among them that I, I mean I remember, that unfortunately a lot of us from the old days, we’re all sort of have gotten our wish, which is to have nice flourishing careers, but for that reason we never see each other, or rarely see each other. I mean there was a time when we all were every night hanging out in that diner, and every night hanging out in the clubs. And it was just really a lot of fun. And now our lives I guess are better. But I don’t know if they’re more fun than that. I mean those days certainly seemed like they were, there was certainly less pressure. And I mean if you could hang out in a night club all night and just hang out all day and go to movies. We really, we thought we had the world by the balls, even though we were only making $50 a night.

Marc Allan: Right. Do the other four people in this book know who they are?

Bill Maher: Well, I mean they’re really, I mean all the characters are composite of different people. And I guess it would be a better answer that would sell more books if I were to say, you know wink, wink, this guy is Jerry Seinfeld and this guy. But it’s not, I mean it’s just not. They’re really based on comic personas more than just specific people.

Marc Allan: So a little bit more about the show, do people stick around and continue talking after the show ever?

Bill Maher: They talk during the commercials too and I have to shut them up because I mean, it’s like I always say hey shut up, shut up, especially if we’re onto a topic that is going to have to be continued after the break, but they get so going about it that just because we went to commercial, they wanna keep making their point. And I have to like say, please, please, please if you have to talk to each other, talk about the weather until we’re back on the air. And yes, very often they do after the show, continue talking or some people have forged friendships. Mayor Barry and Liddy got to know each other from being on the show together. And wound up taking a walk through the ghetto that they had planned and they bonded over being in the same prison. And it’s awfully nice when you can bring ex-felons together like that.

Marc Allan: Makes you feel so much better about your life. Now have people gotten really pissed off at each other. I mean ever come to fisticuffs or anything like that?

Bill Maher: No, no

Marc Allan: Okay Well you know, it’s the ’90’s you would think that would happen.

Bill Maher: Now I’m hoping.

Marc Allan: That would be great. It would make nice footage for Talk Soup or whatever.

Bill Maher: Yeah.

Marc Allan: There seem to be some doubt or question of whether you’d come back and do it again. Was there a question about this season?

Bill Maher: Well I mean, I think the network always wanted it. And I wanted to continue to do this show. The truth is that other networks are not ready for this show. Everybody knows it would be better if we were on a network that got into every single home in America. But, the truth is that you have to make decisions in this world. And it’s much better for me anyway, it’s much better to do the show I want on a smaller network, than to do a show I don’t want an a bigger network.

Marc Allan: Did people propose a different version of the show for you? You know maybe with singing and dancing or something like that?

Bill Maher: Yeah, from day one, this network has let me do exactly the show I wanted and never ever once said one word to me about how to do it. And that, for that I will always be immensely grateful. And I realize how rare that is, how lucky I am. And so, I really don’t wanna blow a good thing.

Marc Allan: Okay, and just a couple, one or two other things personally. Are you married?

Bill Maher: Not to my knowledge.

Marc Allan: No, okay. Yeah well, they re-ran the Valentine’s Day one yesterday and my wife and I were getting a big kick out of the modest proposal of bachelor day.

Bill Maher: Bachelor day.

Marc Allan: It wasn’t going over big in our house but .

Bill Maher: I know, I have a feeling that that’s probably a common–

Marc Allan: Other than comedy and the TV, do you do things, you said you were a baseball fan I guess. Are there other things that you do hobby-wise, entertainment-wise that would, that get you away from comedy?

Bill Maher: Since I’ve started to do, I mean since I’ve been doing this show, I have not had time really for much of a life. Also this year, I’ve also had sort of a moonlighting job as Jay Leno’s remote correspondent which sort of like added just enough work so that I really never got out. It’s funny, this business is like that. I mean either you’re too idle, or you’re too busy. There’s no middle speed to show business.

Marc Allan: Doing the Leno stuff that you do, does that preclude you from doing any Letterman things?

Bill Maher: Pretty much, I have a contract with NBC.

Marc Allan: Oh, okay, that’s that.

Bill Maher: They would probably take a dim view if I did Letterman. I think it would be a bit of a slap in the face.

Marc Allan: Yeah, are you watching Letterman at all?

Bill Maher: I mean, yeah, I mean at 11:30 if I’m home I’ll take a look at, what those, everybody’s doing.

Marc Allan: And how do you like the new show compared with Late Night? I don’t mean Conan O’Brien Show, I mean how Letterman has changed since going over to CBS.

Bill Maher: I don’t think he’s changed that much. I think the show that’s changed in the last six months is Jay’s show the last year. I mean I think Jay is just doing a lot better. I mean I think Jay is really finding himself. I’ve really been happy to be a big part of that show this year because I sensed it was a show that was growing and finding itself. And it was also nice to be with him and be a part of that. I mean I’ve known him a long time and I know he’s experienced some tough times there. I mean there was a while when they were, in that press conference where he said, hey, you know what’s everybody cheering about I just didn’t get fired, that’s all. You know I mean when Letterman, you know, when they wanted to get Letterman back and then there was like, I mean this whole year has been like Letterman, Letterman. I mean the Olympics and the whole fucking thing. It was just Dave’s year. And Jay just sat there and weathered it. And you know in ratings, he wasn’t exactly getting killed. He wasn’t winning, but finally last week he won a week. And I’m sure he’s thrilled about that because the truth is that the show has come a long way and it’s a good show now. And people who were snobby about, oh, no, I never see that I watch Letterman. Well you know, I always say to them, really, watch Jay one night, give it a chance, see what you think.

Marc Allan: All right, I will.

Bill Maher: Yeah, okay.

Marc Allan: I must, I watch Letterman ’cause I like the edge of Letterman. I mean Jay, I’ve talked to a few times and just seems like a very nice guy and I’d always thought he was a very funny standup comedy. But the niceness just went over the top for me to watch the Tonight Show.

Bill Maher: Right, well I think that’s, see that’s one thing that I think you’ll find has changed a little bit. I think he’s a little more of the real Jay which is more of an edge. Listen, I gotta go to a meeting.

Marc Allan: All right, that’s great. I appreciate your time.

Bill Maher: My pleasure.

Marc Allan: Thank you very much.

Bill Maher: Thank you.

Marc Allan: Take care, bye, bye.