Bill Maher told guest Patton Oswalt on the latest episode of the “Club Random” podcast that he is no longer interested in hitting the road for stand-up comedy shows given the country’s intense political divide. The often-outspoken Maher regularly stirs up backlash from both sides of the political aisle on his HBO talk show “Real Time.”
“I don’t want to be out there in this country, in this political atmosphere. I could get shot by the left or the right,” Maher said (via The Daily Beast). “It’s a good time to not be out there.”
Maher also acknowledged that he is “tired of the travel” and “tired of being twice as funny as people who were selling twice as many tickets as me.” He noted that “because I’m on TV every week” it gives fans less incentive to buy tickets to his stand-up shows.
“Not that I didn’t sell a lot of tickets and do great theaters—but I didn’t sell arenas,” Maher added. “And some people did, who, frankly, are not that great. But, you know, when the audience is 35 to 45, they don’t wanna see somebody 70… I just did my 13th HBO special. I feel like that’s a good body of work… I felt they all, they basically got better as it went along. I feel like the last one was the best one, which is a good way to get off.”
Maher has upset the left in recent months by attacking “crazies” in the democratic party who have gone too “woke,” while he drew backlash from the right for speaking out against ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel last month. Maher made headlines in March when he said he was partial to “some of the things” Donald Trump is doing in his second administration as U.S. president, which drew scorn from fellow comedians like Marc Maron.
After the shooting death of Charlie Kirk in September, Maher told viewers that it’s pointless to debate whether or not Democrats or Republicans are worse because “both sides” are guilty of rampant toxicity.
“It’s a very ugly week in America with violence of all kinds: political violence, regular violence, a lot of people talking about a civil war. And then today in Congress, because Charlie Kirk got assassinated, [Colorado Representative] Lauren Boebert stood up and said, ‘We need to have a prayer.’ So they started to have a silent prayer. And then she started screaming, ‘No! Silent prayers get silent results.’ As if praying out loud gets big results,” Maher added.. “Then the Democrats started screaming at her that there was a school shooting in her state. I tell you, so far, the civil war is not very civil.”
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Watch Maher’s full conversation with Oswalt on the “Club Random” podcast in the video below.
From Variety US