Friday, July 25, 2008

Bill Maher's Milwaukee Show Review

Professional Tim Cuprisin of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote a review of Bill Maher's show at the Riverside.

He's a Maher fan so the review was positive overall. However, Cuprisin did complain slightly about the material being too familiar. I think that was tossed in to give the impression that Cuprisin was being unbiased.

Didn't work.

Cuprisin writes:

Bill Maher was preaching to the choir at the Riverside Theater on Thursday night with an hour and 45 minutes of material that sounded pretty familiar:

John McCain is old, really old.

Monogamy is bad, really bad.

Pharmaceutical companies are evil, really evil.

And, religion — well, that’s just ridiculous, in Maher’s estimation.

His weekly HBO show “Real Time” is on hiatus until the end of August, and some of the political material actually sounded a bit dated, focusing on the presidential primary campaigns that now seem like ancient history.

Eventually, he focused on the race between Republican McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, contrasting their campaign slogans. He started with Obama’s “Yes, we can.”

And moved on to his take on McCain’s:

“Go toward the light.”

He noted that McCain claims to be “ready on day one” to be president.

“He needs a vice president who’s gonna be ready on day two,” cracked Maher.

A few things--

Isn't it odd to say that a comedian is "preaching to the choir"?

Was this an evening of entertainment and comedy or an agenda-driven political rally?

I think it's interesting that Cuprisin chose to relay a number of Maher's "jokes" but completely avoided any relating to religion.

We know that Maher said religion is ridiculous, but Cuprisin didn't give his readers any specifics.

Considering the fact that Maher's anti-Catholic, anti-Pope Benedict rants have been the source of so much controversy, I expected Cuprisin to write at least a bit more on that aspect of Maher's show.

I'm sure Maher spent a good deal of time on religion, especially since he has a movie coming out in October called Religulous. I'd be surprised if he didn't plug it by blasting people of faith.

Did Maher repeat the Pope Benedict rant that was the source of so much uproar for "the choir"?

Cuprisin doesn't say. He does a poor job informing his readers.

Maybe a paying member of the audience will post a review online and we'll get a more thorough review of Maher's performance.

4 comments:

pathickey said...

I would be ever so happy to bring Bill Maher to my neighborhood watering hole - Keegan's Pub 10618 S. Western on the south side of Chicago.

Folks would line-up for hours to fist bump his smile!

http://hickeysite.blogspot.com/2008/07/john-mccain-is-paris-burning-hold-phone.html

Mary said...

I don't think Maher spends much time outside Hollywood, lib elite circles.

I doubt he could handle stepping outside his bubble.

SteveofReno said...

Mary,
Seems to me that you're preaching to the choir on this website
I would say, before you make a commentary on something, check it out yourself. That way you can speak about it with authority.

Pat,
You seem like a very thoughtful young man

Mary said...

Steve, perhaps you aren't familiar with the controversy regarding Maher's Milwaukee appearance, and the sponsors of the performance.

Cuprisin weighed in on that.

Of course I can speak with authority about the review. As a reader, I can critique aspects of what Cuprisin offers his audience.