He is compact, tough, definitely cocky and only likeable after you've gotten to appreciate the intelligence behind the loopy logic with which he attacks our knee-jerk responses to the propaganda fed us daily. Defying classification, Bill Maher is equally critical of both political parties. Such is his perspicacity that in one sentence, he lumps them all together. "Arabs are in the oil business like Texans, and Democrats get a lot of money from automobile unions." Using World War II posters as a jumping-off point, he muses, "Hitler had something to work with that Hussein never had: Germans! Germans were good in a war, now they're pussies like the French, but I admire the French because for a long time they stood up to the Bush administration, which is more than I can say for the Democrats."
Maher's show might be subtitled, "The brilliance of our marketing combined with the stupidity of our people." He elucidates: "On 9/11, our country was attacked by a squad of Saudi Arabians working out of Germany, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and by that I mean we were attacked by Iraq -- that is how we morphed bin Laden into Hussein
we cannot tell Arabs apart -- like a casting office in Hollywood. You want bin Laden, you'll settle for Hussein, you get Chemical Ali." What we got is a terrorist old-age home. The last time these guys did anything, Bush was still drinking".. Adding, "If we can't find the weapons of mass destruction, the LAPD is onhand to plant them".
About the coalition, Maher observes: "We had England because Tony Blair is George Bush's (an unprintable reference to unconditional love); we had 200 Australians and a Polish jeep driver named Lars."
It is difficult to avoid quoting Maher directly because, once heard, no paraphrasing can compete. His current "act," performed while on hiatus from his new HBO show, is, thankfully, still primarily political (despite being fired from his infamous "Politically Incorrect" late-night TV show on ABC for an unwise comment).
Maher's take on national politics is just as acerbic as his view of foreign policy. About Bush's election "win" he says, "it wasn't stolen
it fell off a truck
God made him President and sent down a list of countries for him to smite." But he spreads the blame. "Al Gore lost the election all by himself by ending charisma as we know it."Of course, Bush's "team" cannot escape observation: "Cheney's plan to save the economy - move the Whitehouse to the Cayman Islands. John Ashcroft
..nice to have a creepy scary guy in our side. Rumsfeld macho and crude - if we are going to let one guy in our country not be a pussy let it be him." Continuing his attack on the marketing of American policy, he is incensed by the lies fed to our people: JFK was shot by a lone gunman, we are winning the war in Vietnam, we didn't trade guns for hostages, global warming needs more study, Clarence Thomas is the most qualified to be Supreme Court judge." He contrasts that with the one lie people cannot seem get over: Clinton saying he did not have sex with that woman.
It is difficult to select one gem from the glittering array of silver bullets, but a stand out might be the conflicting requirements for daily survival. "It's good to be color blind in racial profiling, but how are you going to tell the color of the Terrorist Threat Advisory chart? When it's yellow I act one way, when it's orange, I take a sweater and get under the AIDS quilt -- it sounds like a weather report: pockets of misinformation tapering off into scattered fear; by morning we should see the anthrax cover break down."
Defensively single ("I didn't want to let someone else `complete me' because they might botch the job"), Maher is quick to report the iniquities of marital status in the workplace. "If Bob has twins in the school play, he can leave. What if I had twins in the Jacuzzi? The male impulse to spread our seed is why we are sitting here now, but do we get thanked? No, we get impeached!". Maher is less secure when he strays from the political. He comes dangerously close to having the audience turn on him when he pushes the envelope on issues of sex and religion, specifically an ill- chosen reference to family relationships in the rural south and, at times, vociferous attacks on Catholicism and God.
Maher entertains questions from the audience after the scripted portion of his evening like a politician at a press conference. He is quick on his feet and able to segue into prepared answers, but he is in safe territory. By virtue of the price of a ticket his audiences are already converted.
Lest anyone think I have given away too much of his act, rest assured this is just a portion. Maher spreads his wit over issues of the environment, pop culture, race relations, cars, fashion, drugs, advertising. The material is copious, and the rat-a-tat pace with which he hurls his barbs makes laughing risky (you might miss a few lines). I sincerely hope there's a recording of this performance somewhere in the future. In the meantime, rush to the Virginia Theater; it's too good to miss!
