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Aug 23, 2023

Can you take a joke from Bill Maher? Abrasive comedian comes to Columbia this month

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COLUMBIA — It takes a certain audience to take a joke from Bill Maher. He says you can't have a stick up your... well, you know.

Apparently, Columbia's got that audience — a crowd that is left-of-center and isn't too uptight or sensitive, in Maher's opinion.

"They're not terribly conservative, but they don't have a stick up their (expletive) about political correctness," Maher said.

The comedian and political commentator chatted with me over the phone ahead of his comedy tour. He had some time on his hands to chat as his HBO series, "Real Time with Bill Maher," has been off air since April due to the ongoing Writer's Guild of America strike, which recently hit its 100-day mark.

Maher will perform at Columbia's Township Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Aug. 20, after a show in Charlotte the day prior.

He said his new stand-up act is "funnier than ever," adding that he'll make the crowd belly laugh so hard they'll go home with your stomach hurting.

When asked if today's so-called "cancel culture" has affected his comedy routine, he gave a hard "no."

Bill Maher is performing at Columbia's Township Auditorium at 8 p.m. on Aug. 20.

Maher has been doing stand-up since 1979. He said he's been gotten backlash from both the right- and the left-wings of American politics.

"I don't care what any of them say, I do what I do, and that's my bond with the audience," he said.

In his opinion, the "woke" culture, which he described as the very-far left, has gone off the deep end. He called the extreme-far left "mean girls" who intimidate.

"You can say anything, no matter how crazy, like 'men can get pregnant,'" Maher said. "People, even though they know it's crazy, won't oppose you because they're afraid of being cancelled."

Maher said he would never shift based on intimidation.

While the left and right are split, Maher said there's one thing that brings people together.

"Marijuana is one of the few things that unite both sides of our terribly partisan divide in this country," Maher said.

But the self-proclaimed "pothead" of four decades was surprised when he heard cannabis is still illegal and criminalized in South Carolina.

"Not even medical?" Maher asked.

Nope.

"That's embarrassing because it's just so behind the times," Maher said. "Not even medically... I mean, come on man."

He even gets high on his podcast "Club Random with Bill Maher," where he has an off-the-cuff conversation with a guest as they have a drink on his lounge-like sit.

"I do everything better on pot," Maher said. "I'm not smoking pot everyday. I save it for those few times during the week where I really be want to be at my best and it's usually for either writing or the podcast."

During Maher's night in Columbia, one thing is certain, he won't be smoking pot.

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