Q&A with Bill Maher

Comedian Bill Maher is scheduled to perform Saturday, August 16th at the Murat Theatre, 502 N. New Jersey St. (Photo provided by Home Box Office)
Maher's an equal-opportunity offender
If you don't already vehemently dislike outspoken pundit Bill Maher, you might want to check out imdb.com's trivia section. If it's true that he's good friends with Ann Coulter and Arianna Huffington, then I'm not even sure we should print an interview with the guy.

But such self-censorship would play right into the hands of a man who clearly relishes his chosen role as a confounding contrarian.

Maher is a political commentator, an actor, an author and a television show host, but he's also a stand-up comedian, and he's bringing his new act to the Murat Theatre on Saturday. Basically, he's in town to make you laugh.

But if you don't think you'll get a giggle out of his show, you can always reflect on another nugget from his imdb file, namely his list of movie credits, which includes -- I kid you not -- "Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death."

Maher was gracious enough to give Go! a call last week, so here he is, Bill Maher in real time, for real:

Question: What can Indy expect from your show?

They'll laugh their (butts) off. I take it very seriously, this job of stand-up comedy. There's a lot of new stuff. I would never come to your town and do my last HBO special. I try to cover the whole waterfront. Of course, it's a lot of politics. But it's kind of nice, now that my act is not Bush-centric anymore. We're in a time of hope. We're onto McCain now, and Obama and Hillary, sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll, you name it.

Around this time two years ago, Steve Irwin died, and that same year you wore a Halloween costume of the Crocodile Hunter with a bloody stingray barb in your chest, angering plenty of people. How do you feel about that now?

I can tell by your accent you were one of them. But... ah... unapologetic. Absolutely. If an animal kills you in the wild, there's a real good chance you were doing something with that animal you shouldn't have been doing.

What does it mean to you to be a libertarian?

I think that's sort of an old term. I said that so many years ago. I still think that everybody in America, which, if it's a free country -- which it's not -- would mean people could do whatever they want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else, and we certainly don't have that in this country.

You famously copped a lot of flak in 2001 for saying the 9/11 terrorists weren't cowards, in response to those who said they were. Would you choose your words more carefully if you had the moment over?

A week after 9/11? Perhaps. Just because the country was on tenterhooks and this is a panicky country. And I think we proved that. Panic comes from being ignorant. When you're ignorant, you're in the dark. And when you're in the dark, everything scares you. But I'm not wrong, and I wasn't wrong, and it only took a couple of months for people to start to realize that.

Is there anything you would take back, in terms of public utterances? Are there many remarks you regret?

Oh, sure. I never understand these people that say "I have no regrets." No regrets? I have regrets every day! Are they human? The night I have a lot of trouble sleeping is Friday night, because Friday night is the night we tape our show. I feel at first like we did a good show, and then stuff starts coming back into my head, little things, and I wind up staying awake till 8 in the morning. It's the one night I wish I took pharmaceuticals.

I saw Christopher Hitchens come on your show once and give the audience the finger. Who's been the most difficult guest you've ever had?

I love Chris, but he's difficult. That's why he's entertaining. Sometimes the difficult ones are the most interesting. I think the most difficult -- truly difficult -- are the ones who won't talk or won't give. And the worst ones are the ones who say great things in the green room before the show or after the show, but have something against saying it on camera.

You seem like a fit fellow. What's your exercise regimen -- got a workout secret?

I have a batting cage. It only needs to be about 60 feet long and 10 feet wide. There's nothing more fun than hitting baseballs. If I don't feel like working out, I hit baseballs, and that gets me moving and sweating, and then I'm ready to work out. There's always something great about hitting things, especially on a bad day.