Don’t Party With Bill Maher

It’s been a while since I watched Bill Maher’s show on HBO, Real Time. There were times when many of Maher’s opinions and views coincided with mine; while at others we were totally opposite. Which is fine with me. Maher’s television personality is very strong: a comedian who enjoys making people laugh and generating controversy and being proud of it, like when Donald Trump sued him for $5 million because Maher made a joke that had to do with the possibility of Trump being the son of an orangutan. On the show, it doesn’t matter the guest or the panel, the most important voice is that of old Bill. And that exhausted and bored me. But when over  a year ago he announced that he would do a podcast, well, I got curious and so I began to see this surreal world called Club Random every single week.

Why? Because I wanted to prove something the only way possible: I once heard someone say that you only knew someone when they were drunk… and after watching many episodes of Club Random, I can say that I know Bill Maher and he is a complete idiot.

As Random as High

A few months ago, in June, I read an article published in Men’s Journal (obviously, Venezuelans’ favorite magazine) that said: “Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did on television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random.” And I was like: this couldn’t be for real. I later understood that it was part of an advertising campaign between Men’s Journal and Bill Maher. But it doesn’t matter.  I am going to deconstruct and destroy this announcement.

The problem with Club Random is that no matter who’s the guest, it’s always the same. It doesn’t matter if it’s Carrot Top or the man who knows everything about anything you ask him and if he doesn’t know it, he invents it (Jordan Peterson). The tone of the show and even the topics, conversations, always end up pointing to the same things.And this happens because by the time the podcast filming begins, Bill Maher is already high and nearly drunk. Meaning it’s almost impossible for any guest to express their ideas without Bill interrupting them.

Even a talking machine like Quentin Tarantino couldn’t handle Maher’s boring, goofy interruptions. So forget about Real Time’s sharp Bill Maher. From the first minute of Club Random, Bill Maher is wasted. And there’s no way he’s sharp, funny, or shows a higher level of intelligence than…Bingo! An orangutan. And right from scratch, everything goes downhill.

Now let’s go with what Men’s Journal claims:

1. “Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did on television.” I didn’t know there were rules in podcasts because precisely the idea of ​​making a podcast is not to have rules and to speak and do whatever you want. And when it comes to television, I have never seen something like: “And if you want to make a television show you must apply the following rules created by the great Bill Maher.”

2. “Hour-long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests.” True, the podcast lasts an hour or a little more. “unexpected guests?” Here I think it’s hard to believe Richard Dreyfuss or Ice Cube will appear out of nowhere, without warning. and Bill reacts: Oh, I didn’t expect you, but welcome to this hour when I won’t let you talk but instead will enjoy smoking and drinking and laughing at my own jokes!

3. “Undisclosed location called Club Random.” Well, I don’t know if the Men’s Journal reporter had ever seen an episode of Club Random, but he doesn’t know that in each of the episodes, Bill takes pride in Club Random being the basement bar of his obscenely huge property. So about the secret location thing…whatever.

Bill Maher has been effusive and passionate about the legalization of marijuana and glorifies himself by announcing that he is a great pothead. So I also wanted to see how big Maher was while he was high. Let’s just say: this guy should never smoke even a chocolate cigarette ever again in his life. Why? He turns disrespectful, egomaniacal, slow, confused and lacking topics of conversation that have nothing to do with Screw the Woke and the COVID vaccine. He couldn’t be more random and lost than this. He’s a far cry from Tommy Chong’s supe powers when it comes to weed. And unfortunately the chance of what could have been great conversations with very interesting people has been lost.

Of course, there are always funny moments, like the episode with Woody Harrelson that I stopped watching because neither of them simply understood what the other was saying. But if I recommend any episode, it’s the one with Bella Thorne, who actually has her own brand of weed. And I recommend this episode for the following: here we see Maher trying to make sexual comments, which he does every time he interviews a young woman, but in front of a Bella who puts him in his place by making him look like a slimy old man. And what I find most important and valuable: Bella showed him to his face that she is the true pothead champion: funny, articulate, shameless but always smart. Bravo to Bella, who wrote a real new rule: never try to beat me by smoking weed, Bill Maher!