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Bill Maher will perform at the BJCC in Birmingham at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15. Real Time with Bill Maher returns to HBO Jan. 21. Find tickets on Ticketmaster.

AL.com spoke to Maher about why he actually loves performing in red states like Alabama, why political correctness is the enemy of comedy, how liberals and conservatives can get along and why American democracy is in big trouble.

(Note: This interview took place Jan 6.)

Youre hitting a lot of Southern cities on this tour: Birmingham, New Orleans, Chattanooga, Jacksonville. Youve said, during COVID, its harder to sell tickets in blue states, that liberal media are scaring people with their coverage, but In red states, its all good to go and people there are maybe more open to edgier humor. What do you like about performing in the South, and if anything, what surprises you about Southern audiences?

Bill Maher: I think you kinda just did my act for me there, all the things you mentioned. I attract mostly a liberal crowd, but liberal is different than woke. To me, woke, if we want to use that broad term, is something that is not an extension of liberalism. Its very often the opposite of what an old school liberal like me believes. Ive never been someone who was part of any specific party, per se. I usually vote Democratic, but it depends on the person. Certainly in the age of Trump, theyre never going to get me there with the Republicans. But there are many Republicans who are not Trump Republicans. And they have a good point, that there is that faction of the left that we will call woke whos gone of the deep end. I was in Nashville three or four months ago, I think the audience there was almost 50-50 between conservatives and liberals, which is quite a trick, I must say, in this era of a lack of bipartisanship, where everything is binary. Gender may not be binary, but politics sure is right now. It was great to see where there were people who dont agree politically who can get in the same room. There were a few groans from the right when I said something bad about them, and some from the left when that happened. But basically everyone laughed together. And we have to get back to that.

This country is falling apart at the seams. Half the people are not going to self-deport. You see these tweets and memes about owning and destroying the other side. Get over it. Youre not owning or destroying anybody. No ones going anywhere. We have to learn to live together again. So I find more of that spirit is possible in a place like the cities you mentioned, whereas San Francisco, thats going to be a little problematic for me. Theyre a little too politically correct. Theres going to be a lot of groaning at some of the things I say, and thats not what a comedy show is supposed to be. Political correctness has always been the enemy of comedy. Thats been my banner from the beginning.

Last summer, you started performing for the first time since February 2020. Nikki Glaser said on your HBO show she stopped performing because she didnt feel it was her type of crowd coming to see her, and you said it was sad that there is an ideological component to that. When you perform, whether youre on tour or doing your HBO show, do you still sense that comedy is partisan, or will most everyone laugh if the joke or idea is funny?

Its very partisan now. I mean, you look at late night shows, it used to be Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, even David Letterman -- you couldnt even tell me what their politics was. They played it down the middle. That was the playbook. But now, I think almost all shows cater to a liberal audience. And you have to basically echo the mantra of the left, whatever it is, on any certain topic -- I always call it the one true opinion -- you have to conform to the one true opinion on whatever the topic is. And that has superseded getting laughs. Thats not where comedy should be. Thats not the game I play, certainly. As people who watch my show over the years know, I often will confront my own audience who will often groan or somehow react negatively to something I say, and I dont apologize for it. Ill tell them I think theyre wrong. And slowly, its kind of nice, over the years now, I feel like Ive gotten much more of a crowd that is open-minded. Theyre not the usual late night crowd who just wants to hear what they already believe told back to them. First of all, thats boring. Its not funny. And it doesnt enlighten us. Thats not what Im interested in. And I feel like the crowd we get now is much more on that page from the get-go.

Youve talked about how its dangerous when we see people on the other side literally as the enemy, that were living in a partisan hell where trying to convince people to believe what you believe doesnt work. When you were a kid, the adults never talked politics. It was considered impolite. But these days, when its oft-discussed and gets very impolite, how do you think we can tone it down the tribalism and ugliness?

Youre right. That is a theme Ive hit many times, that we shouldnt talk about it all the time. Facebook is the great example of that. Facebook, when it started was not political. It was just about sharing your photographs and talking about who got fat from high school days. It was your high school yearbook come to life. It was humble brags and cat pictures. Then it became arguing with some kid you were in chem lab with about ivermectin or the Supreme Court, or whatever. And this idea that we have to constantly be arguing politics with everybody -- thats what has to stop. Because when you take the politics out of the discussion -- and this is coming from a person who made his living talking politics -- you find that people are just people, and you cant hate them. I constantly say it, you can hate Trump. You cant hate all the people who like him -- its half the country. And you cant set yourself up as some sort of superior moral paragon, because this is your political belief, and somebody else has another one. There are obviously areas where, yes, if somebodys advocating cannibalism, I think you can claim the moral high ground if youre anti. I feel like thats the Achilles heel of the left right now. They identify issues mostly by what they can feel superior to another person for.

COVID is a great example. If Im for more safety, Im a better person than you. Well, we can take that to the nth degree and never leave our houses. I believe we tried that in 2020: The great medical advancement of hiding. It doesnt make you a better person if youre wearing three masks or if you want 10 booster shots. But that is the subtext to all of that, I think. First of all, its not true. It doesnt make you a better person. And medical matters are completely debatable. This idea that the medical establishment should be able to say, Just do what we say. When have we ever been wrong? A lot would be my answer to that. Youve been wrong a lot. You told us that the vaccines would get us out of this. Well they didnt. What they do is they stop death. But you said they would stop transmission of the disease. They dont stop you from getting it, and they dont stop you from transmitting it. What they do is stop you from dying if you do get it. Well thats very different than what you said a year ago. So dont just stand there in your white coat saying We have all the answers. You dont. And just to throw in with Dr. Fauci doesnt mean youre a morally superior person. That attitude is what annoys people, I think, mostly about the left.

Ive also heard you talk about liking people you didnt think you were going to like, conservatives like Ann Coulter, how you cant help but like them. And youve had polarizing figures on your show...

Exactly. Thats been from the very beginning. Ive always gotten along with the conservatives who did the show. First of all, its a debate show. Unlike other shows which dont allow the other voices on, I welcome. I want the people I dont necessarily agree with politically. Maybe theyll say something that surprises me and enlightens me and makes me see something a different way. Even better. But even if they dont, theyre allowed to have their opinion if its different than mine. It doesnt mean I have to hate them for it, and Ive never hated them for it. Ive always gotten along with the conservatives. They tend to be happy warriors. They tend to be the kind of people who smile even though they may be saying something I dont think is really the way this country should go. Even the Trumpers who, again like I say, you can hate him, but you cant hate all of them. There are too many of them.

We have to find a way, or else we are going to devolve into some civil war. Theres a frightening number of people who already think it would be a fine idea to have some sort of second Civil War or some secessionist movement or break apart. Its just not possible. The first Civil War, the country was geographically divided. Were not like that anymore. Were all marbled in together. California has 4 million Trump voters. What are we going to do with them if California becomes its own state or part of the new liberal America? Its ridiculous. We have to get along. The way to get along is to understand that its a big country with lots of people who dont think the way you do. I dont know why people cant do that. They do it in relationships. Does your wife or husband think about things exactly the same you do? No. The three most important words are not I love you. Theyre let it go. You cant make everyone agree with you on everything. We have to stop trying.

Marjorie Taylor Greene was recently and permanently suspended by Twitter after violating the companys misinformation policy. Youve spoken in the past about how refreshing it is for people when someone is politically incorrect in their rhetoric, obviously depending on the substance of what they are saying. Even in her case and obviously Donald Trump, when a company like Twitter with the platform it has removes someone altogether, how do you feel about it?

I think the answer to bad speech is more speech. Im certainly not the first one to say that. You can find that from esteemed people on the Supreme Court over the years, mostly liberals. That is the answer to bad speech. Its not to stop it. And Twitter doesnt have any real calling to do that. Theyre a private company. Obviously I understand that they can. But they, for example, shut down debate on the lab leak theory and had to walk that back, so did Facebook. Now theres no political dimension to how the virus started. It should not be a political issue at all. It is outrageous that they said you cant even talk about the idea that this virus may have started in a lab. Why? It may have. It was always a possibility. Everyone now agrees that could be the origin of the virus. So just put that up as your lodestar. This is the company that said you cant even talk about that. Thats dangerous. I dont want that company making the rules about what we can and cant hear. If Marjorie Taylor Greene said something nutty, then let people swarm her on Twitter and point out how nutty it is. And lets let a thousand flowers bloom. But Im never going to be the one who lines up with censorship, no matter who it is.

Finally, tomorrow is January 6th. You said recently youre concerned about the next election, you asked, What happens on January 20th, 2025, when Trump shows up despite election results that say otherwise? Youve also asked, What do you do when there are people in our government who do not believe in our form of government? Do you feel any better or worse about this one year later? Do you think democracy is really in trouble?

Very much so. I hoped the bell I was ringing when I did that editorial about Trump and whats going to happen in the next election. First of all, he is definitely going to run. Hes definitely going to get the nomination. And hes definitely not going to concede. He hasnt conceded this election. The difference with the next one is he will have people in place who will back him up. Thats what he didnt have in 2020. He thought he did. He thought anyone who had an R by their name would be on his side. He didnt count on the fact that there were Republicans with integrity, who told him Im sorry, sir. We looked and we looked and we looked, and you did not win this election. Hes replacing those people. Thats what theyre doing. Thats what I was trying to tell people, and of course other people have made the point to, that behind the scenes they are working right now to put people in place so that next time when he gets on the phone with the secretary of state whose job it is to count the votes and says, as he did in Georgia, I need you to find 11,000 votes, they will say, Were on it, sir. You know what? Good news, we found 12,000. Thats what I worry about. Hes not going to go away as easily as he did in 2020 next time. And thats why January 2025 is going to be where the rubber hits the road in this country. Weve been heading towards this cliff for a very long time, and we always think were the country where it cant happen. Well, we thought that about terrorism. We thought that about everything. Were not exempt. We are the country where it can happen. And when you have two claimants to the throne, I dont know what happens. I dont know what happens in January 2025. But I know if you want to pick a time to take a vacation out of the country, that would be a good time to do it.

Bill Maher will perform at the BJCC in Birmingham at 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15. Real Time with Bill Maher returns to HBO for season 20 on Jan. 21.

Originally posted here:
Bill Maher on why he actually loves red states, and why democracy is in big trouble - AL.com