A Review by PR Contributor VRW

“Bill Maher: I’m Swiss” live on HBO from the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon, rocked the packed house of mostly middle-aged, 98 percent white folks, July 30. Maher walked right up to the outrageous edge, kicking clods of muck and mire into the faces of the right, religious, married, parents, obese, beer drinkers, and THE ADMINISTRATION. He blessed only fellow pot smokers, homosexuals, and atheists.

While Bill doesn’t mince words, he avoids scatology. With unerring accuracy he nails his subject on a cross of wit. His funniest bit was his classical interpretation of the lyrics of several rap songs which he translated from bling-bling ebonics into ‘white’ because, he explained, while their kids could get it, the audience would never understand the lyrics as written by the likes of Mr. Snoop-Dog, et al.

Another broad topic was the food Americans eat, which he complains is killing us faster than smoking ever did. He says, ‘we feed cows too sick to stand up to people too fat to walk.’ He also claims he wouldn’t ‘eat a hot dog unless it had a condom on it.’

As for religion, in his opinion, ‘Believing in Jesus is like having an imaginery friend’ and ‘Flying planes into buildings is a faith-based initiative.’ His
conclusion on religion is that it stops people from thinking.

Regarding the President, he said, ‘this guy is so retarded he could be on death row in Texas.’ That was after his big opening on Mr. Bush’s seven minute time-out in that Texas classroom on 9/11. He concluded that any other President would, at least, have gotten up to find out what was going on, having just been told America was under attack. Including even Ronald Reagan and Martin Van Buren.

Maher is a funny man. More than that he is an accomplished, polished satirist who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Mort Sahl and George Carlin. He worked hard Saturday night, and the sweat moons under his arm proved it. Still and yet, Bill Maher is cool.

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