Maher and friends deliver on New Year’s Eve
KAT WADE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Bill Maher entertains the crowd at his 6th Annual New Year’s All-star Evening of Comedy.
KAT WADE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Dana Gould performs at Bill Maher’s 6th Annual New Year’s All-star Evening of Comedy.
KAT WADE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Margaret Cho was one of five performers at Bill Maher’s 6th Annual New Year’s All-star Evening of Comedy.
KAT WADE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Musician Eddie Vedder performs at Bill Maher’s 6th Annual New Year’s All-star Evening of Comedy.
KAT WADE / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER
Bill Maher’s 6th Annual New Year’s All-star Evening of Comedy starred Bill Maher, Margaret Cho, Dana Gould and Eddie Vedder.
Bill Maher reinvented his New Year’s-centric visits to the Hawaiian Islands last year by adding a pair of guest comics to the bill for his fifth annual two-date tour. The trip with David Spade and Jeff Ross went so well that he kept his promise to make this a new part of the tradition.
Enter Margaret Cho and Dana Gould for the two sold-out dates this year — New Year’s Eve at Blaisdell Concert Hall and New Year’s Day at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. And when they entered, they did not enter meekly. These veteran comics (each with more than three decades on stage) brought bold material in a raucous show that had the audience of 2,000-plus laughing even through jokes it didn’t quite know what to do with.
Maher kicked off what turned out to be a nearly two-and-a-half-hour show by introducing the surprise guest who is becoming less and less of a surprise. Eddie Vedder, who was recently named to the next Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame class as a member of Pearl Jam, contributed a short set for at least the third time in Maher’s six-year series.
Vedder opened by singing “Here Comes the Sun” while playing ukulele, giving three reasons: Maher’s love of the Beatles, composer George Harrison’s connection to Hawaii and that it offers some hope, which our country is in need of in the wake of the recent presidential election.
Vedder also snuck in a quick (and admittedly rocky) version of the Beatles’ “Her Majesty” as well as a rousing performance of Little Steven’s “I Am a Patriot.”
From that point, comedy became the focus for the next two hours. Maher himself is blatantly liberal, and this year, with a presidential election fresh on everyone’s minds, he brought along two more outspoken left-wingers in Gould and Cho. Surprisingly, after Maher delivered a solid half-hour focused almost entirely on politics, his two guests barely touched on the subject.
Among Maher’s best lines:
>> saying Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by nearly three million votes but that President-elect Donald Trump “had the support where it mattered — in Moscow”
>> calling Vice President-elect Mike Pence preferable to Trump because he’s “within the parameters of normal awful”
>> ribbing Trump’s appointments as a “Cabinet of opposites”
Gould followed with a strong half-hour of his own, opening by hilariously noting that he was born 9 months and 2 days after JFK was assassinated, saying it indicates a lot about how “(his) father processes grief” and proceeding to pantomime his parents preparing to conceive him.
If that sounds like it veers into gross-out territory, well, it got better/worse, with one bit on the very specific way chimpanzees kill humans and another on Trump meaning well that compared him to a bad sexual experience I cannot begin to describe here without fear of losing my job.
The topper might have been a joke about going back in time and finding Hitler as a baby. That’s the part of the joke you are probably familiar with, but Gould built on it by saying he’d kidnap that baby and time-travel again to find Charles Manson as a baby and beat him with the Hitler baby.
That joke summed up Gould pretty well. He started with something well-known and took it someplace new, bold and bordering on taboo, making it funny with great timing and a delivery style honed over his 30-plus-year career.
The audience for Maher’s shows has at times seemed taken aback by humor that pushes boundaries, but this year’s crowd was surprisingly receptive to even Gould’s most out-there bits.
Maher introduced Cho next, saying he had gotten feedback after last year’s show that the bill was too white-male-heavy and that his response was to bring along not just an Asian-American woman, but a bisexual one.
Cho had an extended bit on whitewashing in Hollywood, referencing her recent, very public conflict with actress Tilda Swinton, who plays an originally Tibetan character in the new film “Doctor Strange.” She also touched on David Carradine’s work in the TV show “Kung Fu,” testing the limits with a two-part crack about how he died (again, not safe for publication). Once again, the audience was surprisingly game, as it was for Cho’s very detailed, very scatalogical story about soiling herself while driving, which the crowd just ate up.
Maher took the stage one last time for another half-hour, talking about how Trump’s election confirms once and for all that America’s evangelical Christians are hypocrites and how the Democrats messed up by not giving Bernie Sanders a fair shot. (“Go where the energy is,” Maher said of Sanders’ campaign, joking that Sanders brought out young people by the thousands while Clinton “couldn’t fill the function room at the Olive Garden.
He also brought back a funny bit comparing the Holy Trinity to Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” routine as part of a series of funny jokes about religion.
I’m not sure if adjustments were made intentionally, but the order and length of the sets made for a much smoother show than last year’s. All three performers were at their best, and this year’s audience got a little more Maher after his presence was lacking a bit last year.
On a final note, before the show, promoter Rick Bartalini paid a nice tribute to recently deceased local music legend Tom Moffatt, saying “There will never be another Tom Moffatt. We miss you. Rest in paradise.”
24 responses to “Maher and friends deliver on New Year’s Eve”
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To each his own – I love a down and dirty trump joke but these were stale. I think the real joke is; “what did you pay to attend?”. I’ll take SNL over this guy any day.
Someone or something got to Maher years ago, and it was shortly after that he lost his real edge. He publicly questioned the government’s account of 9/11 until he suddenly dropped any reference to the event, saying simply that planes flew into the buildings and that was the end of the story. He’s been little other than pretense since.
And yet the concert hall was totally sold out last night (I was there with my family) and the entire place was on its feet cheering for him. It was $100 a seat and worth every cent.
What “got to” Bill Maher was the lesson he learned on his old “Politically Incorrect” show, that a comedian will pay dearly if he explicitly tells the U.S. public that “We’re the cowards” for using stand-off high technology weapons against Muslim terrorists. It took him, unjustifiably perhaps, years to redeem himself with the military an its familiy members. Until his last performance or show, he won’t go there again.
If I recall, Maher got into hot water for trying to correct the mindset of the majority who chose to regard the 9/11 terrorists as “cowards.” His point was that flying an airplane into a building takes a lot of cunning, evil, and misled conviction, and that simply seeing them as cowards would not help us fight them. Anyway, that’s in the past now.
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I watched the very broadcast that brought so much grief to him, and my feeling at that moment was that he was going to get in all kinds of trouble with network brass and his show’s sponsors. What Bill said might be the harsh truth, but many people don’t like being compared to cowards because they choose not to do battle with sworn enemies “mano a mano.” Bill’s reference to America’s ability to strike from afar with cruise missiles to bolster his point did not endear him at all to members of the U.S. Navy and Air Force – or their loved ones.
No, he didn’t commit a “Hanoi Jane” level of faux pas, but if pushed, I’d be willing to guess he rephrase his comment if given another chance. As I suggested earlier, he may choose to say the like again, but he’ll wait until just before retirement to do so. Don’t think for a moment that the cancellation of “Politically Incorrect” and the loss of a wider audience is gone from his day-to-day musings.
By the way, I still like the guy all the same. He doesn’t hold my interest like the late George Carlin did, but then, he doesn’t host the same kind of show nor does he sport anywhere near the facility of language George did.
livinginhawaii – It doesn’t sound like you were in the audience. What was stale about the performances last night?
Gee, I’m glad I missed it.
Cho tries too hard and is so unfunny it’s funny. Gould is hilarious. And of course Bill is the man. Too bad i cant go to his shows, i have kids and don’t go out for New Year’s Eve.
Sorry “Kway” but Margaret Cho is a great comedian. You just don’t understand her type of humor which isn’t for everyone including you. When she does the Korean stuff about her mother in the mother’s accent, it’s super funny. It helps if you have parents or other relatives or friends with heavy accents. In that way, you can appreciate what she says.
In my case, my parents had really heavy European accents and most people couldn’t understand most of what they were trying to say. When I became a teen, I learned that a lot of words I thought were English weren’t. To tell the truth, I miss those accents a lot and maybe that’s why so many people, including me, enjoy Margaret so much. It brings back memories even though the languages were different.
Ms. Cho was very good last night. A little too much body function jokes, and not nearly as funny as Dana Gould or Bill Maher, but still good.
Bill Maher is the Man. He goes after the agendas of both the conservatives and the liberals.
If Trump invited them to perform………..would they all say no?
Yes. Guaranteed.
All three of them described Mr. Trump as a historically ill-prepared numbskull. It was hilarious but sadly true.
agree…he is very much a threat to America as we know it
He wouldn’t invite them.
But in the spirit of reconciliation, tolerance and inclusiveness, Vladimir might.
Trump sent out invites. Only confirmation is Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Rockettes, and some game show runner-up. That’s it, just that pathetic, sad, boring. Inauguration should be a real sleeper. LOLOL
You’re right. Real talent is avoiding him like he’s radioactive.
Well, as to the draw and value of “talent,” lots of folks populated Hillary Clinton’s rallies just to view or listen to sterling examples like Jay Z, Katy Perry and Madonna – and look at all the enduring support they secured for her.
Frankly, it strikes me more than a little petty to derive even a small amount of glee over the inauguration entertainment lineup. But, one has to suppose that Clinton diehards have to get their strokes and jollies where they can.
The lineup is a function of Mr. Trump’s disgraceful campaign of racism, bigotry and violence. Thinking people do what they can to avoid people like Mr. Trump.
A commie in disguise !! POS…
Popular and wealthy, and able to fill concert halls everywhere he goes, whenever he wants.
Can you do that?
So much for your opinion.