Bill Maher Brings Some Hilarity, a Lot of Vulgarity to the Wilbur Theatre

Photo by Flickr user Bryan Levin
Photo by Flickr user Bryan Levin

I have been a fan of political comedian Bill Maher for 5 or 6 years now. In high school I got into his HBO show Real Time With Bill Maher, and I have been watching it ever since. I’ve read two of his books and watched every one of his stand-up specials. His performance on October 23 at the Wilbur Theatre was something I had been looking forward to for months, as I was finally going to see my favorite comedian live.

Although his jokes were mostly new, it was very similar to his past material. He has certain subjects he likes to talk about. Religion, of course, which was the focus of his biting documentary Religulous, is one of them, along with republicans, Sarah Palin, and George W. Bush. Overall, it was like watching an episode of his show.

He had some great one-liners. When talking about how President Obama recently quoted Voltaire in a speech, he quipped “George Bush thinks Voltaire is a Harry Potter character.”

One aspect of Maher’s stand-up performance that was notably different from his TV show was that he was much more vulgar. He made the whole audience gasp when he called out that someone should kick the crap out of a woman heckler, whom he referred to with a vulgar swear that most women are not comfortable saying.

I am glad I finally got to see Bill Maher live. It was great to see a comedian I’ve followed for so long in person. However, I knew what to expect and I got nothing more. I would consider going to see him again, but not for the $50 asking price of this show.

About Deanna Falcone

Deanna Falcone (CAS '11) is a liberal political columnist for the Quad. She is a political science major and is originally from Danbury, Connecticut.

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