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Bill Maher
This episode is brought to you by Prime.
Jeff Dunham
What if you had one more chance with the one that got away?
Bill Maher
Sam, you Came Home.
Jeff Dunham
Based on the best selling novel from Carly Fortune.
Bill Maher
Every Year after follows childhood friends Sam
Jeff Dunham
and Percy as they reunite in the dreamy, nostalgic lakeside town of Barry's Bay. Love can be hard to find.
Bill Maher
So if you're lucky enough to find
Jeff Dunham
that person, never let go. A second chance at first love every year after. Streaming June 10th only on Prime.
Bill Maher
Nearly half of hiring managers say enthusiasm is the most important thing in a candidate. There's a reason ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site on G2. Use ZipRecruiter and find enthusiastic talent fast. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now you can try it for free@ziprecruiter.com that's ziprecruiter.com random meet your match on ZipRecruiter.
Jeff Dunham
Morning decisions. How about a creamy mocha frappuccino drink?
Bill Maher
Or sweet vanilla smooth caramel maybe?
Jeff Dunham
Or a white chocolate mocha? Whichever you choose, delicious coffee awaits. Find Starbucks Frappuccino drinks wherever you buy your groceries.
Bill Maher
Breaking news, our merch just got a full revamp with our all new designs and items. So if you want a little more random in your life, head over to clubrandom and check out the store. We've got premium hoodies, including our brand new quad hoodies with the updated logo. Super soft T shirts, super soft for men and women, and even tie dye shirts. All merch is available exclusively@clubrandom.com. while you're there, catch up on recent episodes and grab some swag and bring a little random home. Once again, that's clubrandom.com and it's so great that we went back because it's gonna get us a lot.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, come on. It's fun.
Bill Maher
It's just another thing for rich people. It's a lot of car guys in one industry.
Jeff Dunham
I think you just named a bunch of guys that don't have any real vices.
Bill Maher
So interesting.
Jeff Dunham
Club Random. Jeff. Bill. How are you?
Bill Maher
Good, how are you?
Jeff Dunham
A great place.
Bill Maher
This fascinating boy, see him? You look the same as ever. Really?
Jeff Dunham
The last time I saw you in person was at a comedy festival in like Montreal or something. How long ago that was like, I think before Politically Incorrect.
Bill Maher
Before?
Jeff Dunham
I think it was, yeah.
Bill Maher
What year did you do Carson first?
Jeff Dunham
The first one was 90.
Bill Maher
90? Yep. Mine was 82.
Jeff Dunham
Is that. Oh, geez. Is that. Right. That's great.
Bill Maher
We're probably almost as same Carson age. How old were you when you did it?
Jeff Dunham
I don't know.
Bill Maher
I was. I was 26.
Jeff Dunham
I was 28. Yeah. So, yeah, I just. I just did Walking with Kevin Nealon, by the way. So we chatted about you a little bit.
Bill Maher
Really?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
All good, I hope.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, yeah. And we talked.
Bill Maher
I've never known comedians to talk about each other. They're not feuders and then. And not petty also.
Jeff Dunham
Ever. And so, by the way, has it been revealed who's going to present you with the award?
Bill Maher
Leno.
Jeff Dunham
Is Leno going to do it?
Bill Maher
Yeah.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, that's great. And congratulations.
Bill Maher
Oh, thank you. You're talking about the Mark Twain Award?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
Yeah. Believe me, it's turned into. I mean, I'm very honored. I mean, if it wasn't a big one, I wouldn't have done it. You know, I don't need awards because they never wanted to give me awards. So I was. If it was just anything less, I would have been like, well, please, because it's a lot of work to. You know, you've got eight speakers and the Kennedy center and, you know, it's a show. It's a Netflix special.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
I'm not gonna put on a dull show. So, like, I'm doing my jobs. Not that this is a job, because, you know, I love this. I mean, what a great break in the week when I get to talk to somebody who I never really knew often, like you, but always knew of and was around. You know, that, to me, is so fascinating. Like, let's catch up on the last 40 years. I feel like, you know, it was that night in Montreal. Yeah, right, right. And then, you know, you kind of ghosted me for two score.
Jeff Dunham
Well, I've always been kind of an outsider anyway. I never. I mean, coming over here is amazing. I never make it over the hill.
Bill Maher
The paths just wouldn't cross. First of all, we're both on the road all the time, and the last place either one of us would be is in the same city because we're probably playing the same theater.
Jeff Dunham
Right?
Bill Maher
Although you probably play much bigger. You play stadiums. I mean, arenas.
Jeff Dunham
Arenas. Yeah.
Bill Maher
But, like, what happened at 20,000?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, we average between 8 and 10 now. Something like that. And it's between 5, 8, and 10. Yeah.
Bill Maher
That's one other thing I love about doing this. I like to talk to successful people. And I know you have big numbers on, like, of all time. Like, people come to see you. You are playing on a level above where I ever played, I never played 8,000, 10,000. The highest I got was like 5, 6,000.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, it's a whole different thing. I don't know. Everybody has their niche. Oh, yeah, it is. Yeah. And it is amazing. And it's.
Bill Maher
I'm not saying you're better than me. Please, there's no accounting for taste. No, I mean, you're a great comic and people recognize that, but. Yes. Do I think numbers. Dice Clay used to do 25,000. Do I think he's a better comic than me? I don't. And I love him and he's funny and he's a good actor too, by the way, but, you know, I don't have to. Numbers. Sometimes numbers, they don't mean everything, but I always respect them. I always respect them, like, well, it's
Jeff Dunham
the same thing with McDonald's or Ruth Chris. You know what I mean? It's. McDonald's does billions. Ruth Chris does a few hundred steaks, and it's a completely different thing.
Bill Maher
So Ruth Chris Steakhouse, is that what you're talking about?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, I'm talking about that steakhouse versus McDonald's burgers. You know what I mean? Just because somebody's doing.
Bill Maher
I know that name, it always bothered me, I don't know why. Such a terrible sounding name. And it was like, you know, look, not like I haven't eaten a steak. I'm, I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm not a particularly fan of steak. And like, it just seemed like a place there would be a bunch of meathead. I could be wrong, you know, but
Jeff Dunham
I was trying to find the fanciest steak place I can think of.
Bill Maher
No, that's right, it is. I, I, I just have a. You just triggered me. I'm just a thing with Ruth Chris. I've always, always saw it on the road in Vegas and like, I just, I don't know. I, I'm, I'm, I'm not trying to insult. I would start a feud, you know, comics in there, friends with Ruth Chris takeouts, these bastards where I never was and never treated me bad. But, oh, I burning to get even with them. No, they could be the greatest. I'm sure they're very good because I know they're successful.
Jeff Dunham
Right. Never, never mind.
Bill Maher
Bug me.
Jeff Dunham
Okay. By the way, what, what is what? Here. What is that?
Bill Maher
That's mine. On your own? No.
Jeff Dunham
What is it?
Bill Maher
That's just sparkling water, I think.
Jeff Dunham
And this is the tequila.
Bill Maher
That's tequila. Have some.
Jeff Dunham
I have a tiny bit. That's great.
Bill Maher
Are you a redneck? Where are you from originally?
Jeff Dunham
I grew up in Texas.
Bill Maher
Yeah. Texas. Yeah. I knew it.
Jeff Dunham
But I don't know what that means.
Bill Maher
I don't. You don't really look like you're from Texas.
Jeff Dunham
Well, I, I never really had an accent. My parents didn't have much of an accent, so I, I never really, you know, but yeah, I grew up there and.
Bill Maher
Yeah, whatever.
Jeff Dunham
Can I ask you a question before we talk about me? So before we're halfway through, I don'. I don't know what the word reasonable actually means, but I've just been fascinated watching you in the last couple three years, and it just seems like it's shifted a little bit.
Bill Maher
Where.
Jeff Dunham
What is the definition of reasonable?
Bill Maher
Well, it's more than three or four years. It's longer than that. But there definitely was a shift. I mean, this is the debate I'm always having with my critics who would like to say I've changed. And I have a million ways of saying it to them, but basically I didn't change. I didn't forget what it is to. I didn't become a conservative. You forgot what it was to be a liberal. And we don't have to go through all the ways that the left, the far left has gone off the deep end, but it is what got Trump elected and so forth. So did I change? I didn't. And I wrote a whole book or like took stuff from my show mostly, but weaved it together into a book that basically tried to prove that point. Look at my history. I'm pretty much always the same.
Jeff Dunham
Right. You know, but I will, I will put the reasonable in there because I feel like you listen a little more now, I.
Bill Maher
Well, that could be true. I mean, look, we all who are on TV a lot, I mean, how many specials have you done? 14. What?
Jeff Dunham
There's 13.
Bill Maher
13.
Jeff Dunham
13.
Bill Maher
But they're all big 13 hours.
Jeff Dunham
No, it's more than that. They're we. Yeah. So when I tape a special, I do easily do almost two hours.
Bill Maher
That's a lot. Wow. That's.
Jeff Dunham
But then we edit it down to an hour, so that's a lot of material.
Bill Maher
Yeah. You take out the shit, huh?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, well, sure, you know, of course. But you know, you take it down to the fine points and people don't understand when you. It's so much different doing stand up in person and then you try and put it on television, the timing changes.
Bill Maher
But that's a lot of material.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, it is.
Bill Maher
I mean, I've done 13 HBO specials.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
But you know, over from 1989. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah.
Jeff Dunham
And let me ask you this. Does somebody come to you and tell you a joke and you go, I've heard that somewhere before. And then you realize it was a big part of your act years ago.
Bill Maher
Also, I go through, you know, sort of a meticulous chronicler of. I'm just an anal person, you know, as far as, like taking notes and stuff. So I'm the opposite of Belzer, who never wrote down one word.
Jeff Dunham
Is that right?
Bill Maher
Ever. Wow. You know, and it showed sometimes, you know, not me. So, like, I will go through, like a set list from 1982 and I'll just see, like, the little bullet point I had for it. And I'm like, what does, you know, wet painting mean?
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You know, that was some bit I had.
Jeff Dunham
I know. And then I've done that same thing and I'll go and I'll try and regurgitate it in my mind and go. It killed. I could at least. Right, right. And I'd like to do it again, just one time. And you can't remember it.
Bill Maher
Yep.
Jeff Dunham
And those notes made absolute perfect sense when you made them.
Bill Maher
I looked through them and I realize, I mean, they're voluminous. The files I have of how much I put pen to paper and wrote. Some of it is just raw stuff writing. And I was never the kind of comic who purposely wrote. That was the Seinfeldian way. You get up in the morning, you got the yellow pad. Yes. They Learned it from Dr. Cosby. Whatever happened to him?
Jeff Dunham
Right, right. I've heard of him.
Bill Maher
Yeah. But that was his thing. You just purposely. I said, I can and I could never do that. What? My method was to get high.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, perfect.
Bill Maher
You know, with my friends. And that funny show would just come out and just try to capture what comes out naturally.
Jeff Dunham
And would you like. If you're gonna. When you were getting raised for a special, did you go to a club and work on it?
Bill Maher
Work on it, work on it. I mean, mine are. We never edit any of them because I have so practiced it that when we shoot it, I know it's the right. Basically an hour. So a nice hour. Two or something, but. Or 58 minutes. You can't tell. It changes with crowds, you know, frothy, they can be more tired. They don't laugh as much. That can be 5 minute difference in a show between Saturday when they're rested and they have the energy to actually laugh more. That's our business. So, you know, But I I have. I mean, the last one I did this we taped at the beginning of December 24th in Chicago. And, you know, I stopped after doing that. Stopped the road, which is like where you still are, and I still was. You know, if you're like a few. A decade younger than me or something, that's probably. I totally know exactly where you are.
Jeff Dunham
You're not 74.
Bill Maher
No, I'm 70. Okay, you're 64. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Jeff Dunham
All right.
Bill Maher
So we are only six years closer.
Jeff Dunham
You got on here soon.
Bill Maher
You aged well. Some people at our age, they are unrecognizable.
Jeff Dunham
Well, especially. I don't mean to be mean, but do you look at the women that were in your high school class and go, oh, what happened?
Bill Maher
No, where would I see them? Oh, Facebook. Right. See, the whole world is. It's funny that you say that, and most of the world knows what that means because they're on Facebook. And you don't do any of that stuff. No. Why the fuck would I want to see my old high school people? I mean, it's only got to be depressed.
Jeff Dunham
Well, I. I gotta tell you, I. I don't do either. I get. I. I don't. I kept up with technology for many, many years, and in fact, in the early 90s, you know, when I was doing my own tapes, I learned to edit digitally when that was all brand new, taught myself all that. But that was the end of my technological. You know, I know how to work the phone, but when it comes to social media, I don't mess.
Bill Maher
Do you keep up with, like, everybody you ever met in your life?
Jeff Dunham
No, no, no.
Bill Maher
But isn't that. But you're on Facebook.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. And I am. I am, but I don't do it. I have other people that do it every once in a while.
Bill Maher
That's me too, I'm sure.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I don't know. I have people who know. People who know the answer. That's how removed I am. I love to ask those people, to ask the people who actually do shit. No, I'm sure we do.
Jeff Dunham
I'll post a picture now and then, because I know how to do that. But. And I'll say things and then they'll put it up there for me, but I don't know how to. And Facebook is now, you know, it's all yesterday now. It's all Instagram and TikTok and all that stuff.
Bill Maher
I think it's awesome to just embrace the generation you're in. Not on everything, of course, but look, there is a movement among the younger generation now, to go back to the way we had it, they get it that the phone fucked up their heads. They know they're fucked up. That's one thing about them. They're ignorant. But they're not unsavvy about, like, real life, irl.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
And they know how crazy it is. They have. They know this. Right. They can't seem to stop themselves.
Jeff Dunham
So you don't. You don't have a device that you look on Instagram?
Bill Maher
I have an iPhone.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, but are you. Do you, like, at night go, I'm bored. I'm going to look at this. I'm going to ask the track question. What do you do when you're not doing this? You're not playing golf?
Bill Maher
I'm doing this, but we're not filming it. I'm getting high and drinking. What else is it? No, I wish I could do this every day.
Jeff Dunham
Seriously, I'm. Now I'm really curious. When you have free time, what do you. What do you want to do?
Bill Maher
Well, I mean, up until a year ago, a year and a half ago, I guess now really having a standup act and being on the road, not quite as much as you, I'm sure, but all year long, regularly, like every other weekend.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I would do it very. I had to be here to do the show. And also, I don't want to be away that much. It was perfect. I would fly into one city, I'd get up Saturday, fly to one city, do the show, stay overnight, fly to the second city, and then after that city, fly home private that night. Of course, you have to do it that way.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. Otherwise you can't do it.
Bill Maher
You can't do it that way. And you couldn't even get to these gigs in time. I have to be here all week, so.
Jeff Dunham
And it's theaters, right?
Bill Maher
Theaters and, you know, so like two cities over 30 hours, home in my bed, Sunday night after I leave, Saturday morning. That's not the worst. It was great. But even that, you know, it just became the travel, the hotels, it's wear and tear. It's not great for your health. But, you know, you have to. If you want to have an act, people say, well, just do it sometime. No, you have to keep sharp.
Jeff Dunham
Your pitching arm is crazy. And, you know, during the pandemic, I had never. This sounds crazy, but I started the ventriloquism thing when I was in the third grade, and I realized that since the fourth grade.
Bill Maher
Those are puppets.
Jeff Dunham
What?
Bill Maher
Oh, those are puppets.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, yeah, that.
Bill Maher
I'm sorry.
Jeff Dunham
And what's your name? In your bathtub is great. I felt right at home.
Bill Maher
Whitney.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, Whitney in the bathtub. Everybody said, be careful. You might scare. And I walked in and I went, this is like my house.
Bill Maher
Right.
Jeff Dunham
Still, big mail. I got this. So I made her talk, by the way. She's very happy.
Bill Maher
What's this?
Jeff Dunham
In the bathtub, I made her talk.
Bill Maher
Oh, now, that would be funny. If I could. If she went, if she didn't weigh a ton, I'd drag her out here and put her on my lap. Okay, she weighs a ton.
Jeff Dunham
What was I talking about? I can't remember if I was talking
Bill Maher
about Whitney Houston in the bathroom. Oh. Oh, no. I don't know. What were you talking about?
Jeff Dunham
I don't know.
Bill Maher
I don't know. I'm the one who's smoking pot. You don't smoke pot?
Jeff Dunham
No.
Bill Maher
Don't say it like you're ashamed. Some people like it and some people don't.
Jeff Dunham
I've never ever in my life tried it. I'm one of those guys. I mean.
Bill Maher
Yeah. I mean, look, I don't. If I don't want people to judge me for doing it. Everything is, like, people's personality. I always say this about politics. Everything is political these days, which is kind of good for me. That's what I've always been talking about, so I'm not complaining. But politics really comes out of people's personalities. It comes from, like, what your parents told you. Yep. How they brought you up, where you were brought up. You know, I mean, conservative. It's just. It's a person. I feel like it's a personality trait before it becomes a political party.
Jeff Dunham
I also think I equate it to sports. It's like you. Most people love whatever sports it was that their dad loved, at least for guys.
Bill Maher
Oh, my God. Of course.
Jeff Dunham
Okay, so. And I think the political parties are the same way. And I look at it, and I think I'm in show business. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I would think that I would tend to lean left and I tend to lean right. And that's just the beliefs that my father and my parents and where I grew up. I remember what I was gonna say.
Bill Maher
Doesn't mean you're in the Klan.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You know, this is my problem with the left is like, anything that's not super with us on the far, far end. And then you're a conservative. Do you get this? Like, you're a conservative. I did a rant here one night about Landman never getting any love from the media or the awards. It's awesome show, but it's, like, seen as conservative. Why? Because it's not, you know, taking place in a yurt. You know, there's not a transsexual Sherpa in the show. So it's a. I've been to a
Jeff Dunham
yurt, but I've never used the word yurt in a conversation.
Bill Maher
So I think it'd be a great name for a show. Yurt. Have you been to an actual yurt? His name is Yurt and he also lives in a yurt. That's my idea for the show.
Jeff Dunham
Have you ever been to a yurt?
Bill Maher
No. It's like in Mongolia.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, no, they haven't. There's like one. Oh, I'd have to ask my wife up in. I don't remember where it was. It was in Utah or something. In the dead of winter. You get there, they drive, they take you in a. You're drawn by a horse like Santa Claus in a sleigh. And you show up there and it's this big yurt and you're. It's. And they have an outhouse and it's fantastic.
Bill Maher
So what's the difference for the layman, not like, I don't know between a yurt and a tp, would you say?
Jeff Dunham
I have no freaking clue.
Bill Maher
Well, a yurt is.
Jeff Dunham
Now what are you doing? What's that?
Bill Maher
Oh, I'm roofing you. Jeff, I've always wanted to fuck you. From that first night in Montreal. It was so romantic. People were speaking French. You were younger. You look older now.
Jeff Dunham
Wait a second. I want to know what you're doing. What is it?
Bill Maher
That's. That's. What's Gene Jing, which gives me superhuman strength.
Jeff Dunham
Is it does it. All right, I noticed.
Bill Maher
It's why I can lift this glass. No, you're. Yeah, it's like a teepee, but.
Jeff Dunham
But bigger.
Bill Maher
Well, that's what I'm asking. I don't know, like, if I'm in the market for a yurt, slash, teepee. If I go to Amazon, it's a. You know.
Jeff Dunham
I don't know. I have no idea. All I know is that there was a chef there. It was a four star yurt.
Bill Maher
Really?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, it was amazing.
Bill Maher
Why do you say four stars?
Jeff Dunham
Because it was incredible. The food was there. They had a chef there, a famous chef, and you're in the middle of nowhere. There's Snow Everywhere. It's 10 degrees outside and you're sitting in a coat. But it was fantastic.
Bill Maher
Americans can be hypocritical. About anything. They really can. Just like I dare you Yurts. Oh yeah, I can fuck that up. I can look like an asshole in a yurt. Absolutely. Peace rallies. Oh, I'll be marching for Hamas. How about that for fucking up? They can fuck up anything. It's hysterical.
Jeff Dunham
Okay, so you're talking about the left and the right. So I, I have always said that I truly believe that most of this world is good people. And my, my example, when I was doing one of my specials in 2013, I was in Abu Dhabu. Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabu?
Bill Maher
No, that. That's Yogi Bear.
Jeff Dunham
That's Yogi Bed.
Bill Maher
Abu Dhabu.
Jeff Dunham
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Bill Maher
June 30 terms@ aka mscollegepc apparently, according to CNBC, nearly half of hiring managers say enthusiasm is the most important thing in a candidate. Which makes sense because skills are great, but at some point you also want someone who acts like they want the job. And if you're hiring right now, that's the challenge. Figuring out who actually wants to work for you versus those who just clicked apply all at 2 in the morning. Well, if you need to hire for your business, ZipRecruiter has a new feature that quickly lets you see the most interested qualified candidates first so you meet the right people faster. What's smart is their matching technology doesn't just dump a pile of resumes on your desk and wish you luck. It helps connect you with qualified candidates right away. And candidates can actually explain in their own words why they want the job, which is refreshing. Usually the only explanation you get is seeking new opportunities, which translates to my current workplace is toxic and my boss is unbearable. There's a reason ZipRecruiter is the number one rated hiring site on G2. Use ZipRecruiter and find enthusiastic talent fast. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com random that's ziprecruiter.com random meet your match on ziprecruiter so doing
Jeff Dunham
a show there for 4000 Muslims and all in the front rows were the guys in the white dish stash and the women in the black and a few rows back. And I did the same show with Ahmed, the dead terrorist, and that was their favorite character. Two nights later, I'm in the middle.
Bill Maher
It's mine.
Jeff Dunham
Huh?
Bill Maher
Huh. It's my favorite too.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, well, thanks. Well, two nights later, I'm in the middle of Tel Aviv, Israel, doing the exact Same show for 4,000 Jewish people. Didn't change a word of the show. And they all loved it equally the same. So my big thing is I truly feel this world is filled with good people that all want the same things. We want a house, we want a job, we want security, we want health care for our kids and ourselves and all that. And it takes a handful of idiots to fuck it up for everybody else.
Bill Maher
You know what you should do. And I know I'm getting a reputation with the staff. I'm always telling people career advice, but I think I really would have been a good manager. Okay, but you should do that as a documentary special. The same show in both those cities. Oh, and put stuff in the middle. Little interviews here and there. You can handle that with people from the region and stuff. But show the same material from that character working in both those cities. I think that would be very powerful. A lot of people would watch that. I would definitely watch that.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, that'd be one of our biggest YouTube videos is showing me there in front of them.
Bill Maher
But, yeah, I got a great location scout crew. They're right now in the Strait of Hormuz. That's the one we may not be able to get through. But that's why you get a fixer. You get somebody over there who speaks the language. You know, a little rattling of the cups, as they say. Little bribe here, a little, you know, goes a long way.
Jeff Dunham
That's actually a great idea.
Bill Maher
It actually is a great idea.
Jeff Dunham
Interesting. Yeah, you're right. People would watch it because people watch that thinking, I'm going to be killed. And it was great. But I will tell you, before the show started, my manager comes to me and he goes, we. We got it. Because I was a little bit nervous about being there. I'm like, well, what am I doing here? You know, we've been doing Norway and Sweden and the UK and all that. And I knew it was all great. And even Paris, France was great. They lived in Paris, France. But then they said Abu Dhabi. I'm like, are you kidding? What? Kidding? Well, I mean, but they loved it.
Bill Maher
I'm gonna now put it in Perspective. However, it is great. And you should get a medal of Honor for the balls to do it. Balls means a lot to me. And you have them. I don't mean that in a personal way.
Jeff Dunham
All right, thanks. But there was Montreal anyway.
Bill Maher
That's right now we've created this whole thing where we have a backstory where we fucked in Montreal. It's ridiculous, but. Oh, shit. What was I gonna say? What were you talking about?
Jeff Dunham
Talking about the special. About doing the special?
Bill Maher
Yes, but it was something so important to me. You were doing this special. We should do it as a special.
Jeff Dunham
Oh.
Bill Maher
I'm gonna put it in perspective, which is. It's great that you can do those jokes with that character. Right. But you don't really have freedom until you could do those jokes. And the character was a Muhammad puppet dog. Oh, no, no, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But just know that's where we are.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. What's the deal?
Bill Maher
We are not in free speech country.
Jeff Dunham
No.
Bill Maher
No, it is not. I mean, I know America to the kids is the worst country that ever was because they know nothing about us or any other country, but it doesn't matter. Che Guevara looks great on a T shirt. That's what they know. Che Guevara looks great on a T shirt. Why are you trying to fill my head with facts? But the truth is that we do have. That is there are levels of freedom, and you know that. There's just. You know. And people have different opinions about that, and we don't have to go through them here, but, you know.
Jeff Dunham
So in your current act, is this what you're talking about?
Bill Maher
There is no current act because I did stop touring.
Jeff Dunham
Really?
Bill Maher
Yeah. Yeah. I didn't do anything in 2025. No. I feel like, like I said, you either, like, fully have an actual going all the time. I mean, I was always working on it. It was always a third job, a job I liked more, like, I always said, more like a hobby. I always said it was more like building a ship inside a bottle that people do, because it was always this tinkering with my act. I loved the process of doing my act, and. Oh, okay, that worked great. It would work better if I moved it here. You know, I used to bring on stage a kind of a poor man's teleprompter bullet points, and I could edit that in my computer. And just every time I. It got better and better and sharper and cleaner and fun. I love that process.
Jeff Dunham
And people don't understand that every word and every Pause. And every breath matters.
Bill Maher
Yes, right, Absolutely.
Jeff Dunham
But what I was going to tell you was I forgot is during the pandemic, since the fourth grade, I had never gone more than two weeks without doing a show. I was always working. Always, always, always. Only job I ever had.
Bill Maher
I got withdrawal, too.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. But. So I thought, I'm going to do a special during the pandemic. So I sat down and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote this entire actual. Never having tried one joke in front of anybody. But you talk about the pitching arm and having to do it. I felt like I know what I'm doing here. I think I know where I'm gonna get laughs. And sure enough, after five months of not being on stage, we shot it in somewhere out there outside everybody but Four, tops. You had to be with your own family. Everybody's wearing masks. We had like, I don't know, a couple hundred people.
Bill Maher
You didn't need a rehearsal. You didn't need a run through. I never understood these. Most of my friends, the comics, you know, go to the comedy clubs and work out the shit before they, like. I never did that once I was out of the comedy clubs and I didn't need to. I had been already doing this for 20 fucking years or whatever. I know what's gonna work and what's not gonna work. You know, maybe not as well or maybe better or maybe would go there or go there, but I mean, rarely without ever having to try it out, did I do a joke, you know, in Des Moines or Cincinnati that I'd never done before. And it just got nothing.
Jeff Dunham
Right, Right.
Bill Maher
No, I couldn't have done that after two years in the business or five, or maybe even 10. But after 20, I don't know how you can't.
Jeff Dunham
Right. And your act. I never saw the live act in a theater. Was it the subject matter that we'd all expect it to be? Was it political stuff? Was it.
Bill Maher
Well, then I guess you've never seen the stuff on tape either. But I would say it was a mixture. I would say my view is that everything is sort of political. So there was nothing that was trivial. I put it that way. But I talked about my. I talked about. I mean, I love the last.
Jeff Dunham
No, I've seen the bits. I've seen the bits, and they're great, but I mean, it's like trivial stuff.
Bill Maher
So.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, you and scientists.
Bill Maher
It's not trivial. Like, even if I talked about my sex life, it always was like, with the idea of some sort of issue in the day that was going on like incels, you know, I mean that wasn't a thing when I was a kid. Incels, you know, involuntary celibate. These guys who like have made a virtue out of being unable to get laid. I was an inclined, I just didn't. We didn't have a name for it and we didn't want to fucking brag about it and put it on the Internet. I tried to keep it a secret, you know, I can't get laid. But these guys think it's like a thing to like we're incels and you know, we demand pussy. I mean that's really. This is what they're so like. Am I talking about my personal life? Yes. I'm also talking about something that's really going on in this country. I mean men being lost is a big problem in this country.
Jeff Dunham
I don't understand it. And I hear about like kids these days, the 16 year old boys that don't. They're scared to drive and they don't want to get their driver's license. What the. What happened? What are you talking about? And they're not dating as much.
Bill Maher
You know what I read today? This is going to blow your boomer mind.
Jeff Dunham
Okay. Okay, I'm sorry. That's going to be the clip I use. This is going to blow your boomer mind. I'm keeping that.
Bill Maher
Okay, steady yourself because you're going to want to punch something.
Jeff Dunham
Okay.
Bill Maher
I read that the reason why Gen Z doesn't like capital letters. They're too intense.
Jeff Dunham
No,
Bill Maher
I believe it. I mean, why don't they. You know, they're just, they're different. The brains have evolved, I feel like, because a lot of. Because of the phone. Gen Z is the first post phone generation.
Jeff Dunham
Right?
Bill Maher
That's why they matter. That's why we talk about them so much. That's why they're so different. Is that they are the beginning of what Ray Kurzweil years ago called the singularity, which is he said in 2028 is when man and machine would kind of sort of meld inexorably. And that's what they're talking about now with AI, right?
Jeff Dunham
And it is amazing.
Bill Maher
And isn't that your tour called AI?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. Artificial intelligence. Right.
Bill Maher
Look at me like I'm a real host, you know, Jeff, I don't know about you, but if I.
Jeff Dunham
And wait, before we get to that. I'm serious.
Bill Maher
Oh my God.
Jeff Dunham
So, so I, I've always blamed all these problems on Steve Jobs.
Bill Maher
What are you on ginseng? Look at this Every day. You, Toledo.
Jeff Dunham
Wait, I want. I don't want to lose this thought.
Bill Maher
Penn State College, Detroit, two nights. College, two night. The Fox Theater. See, I played the Fox theater in Detroit. Awesome. Two nights. But of course, you, Mr. Big Shot, two nights. Las Vegas, Planet Hollywood on April 26th. Oh, look at the Davenport, Iowa. Mount Pleasant. Thackerville. I remember Thackerville.
Jeff Dunham
Thackerville's great.
Bill Maher
Only comedians know the name Thackeray. Only comedians and geologists. You know, tornado chasers.
Jeff Dunham
I'm big in tornado Alley.
Bill Maher
Danville, Cherokee, Choctaw. Hollywood, Florida. Oh, yeah, Los Angeles. I heard of it.
Jeff Dunham
What am I not. Wait, where am I?
Bill Maher
I'm the county fair. You play county fair?
Jeff Dunham
Oh, sure, but they're big. They're huge.
Bill Maher
You're out on a racetrack and it's outside, Right.
Jeff Dunham
Of course.
Bill Maher
I don't see me ever having done well at a county fair. I didn't do it. I wasn't asked. It's not like, oh, they snubbed me. I don't remember anybody ever saying, get Bill Maher for the county fair.
Jeff Dunham
So who's your audience now? Like if you were still doing at the county fair eating corn dogs.
Bill Maher
I have the best audience in the world. Are you kidding me? They're so loyal and they're so brilliant. Because they think like me and you don't. I mean, they're the people I've lost on. I mean, you know, you have balls to go to Saudi Arabia. I have balls too. And then I'm not afraid to lose audience. And I have like, the super woke.
Jeff Dunham
Right?
Bill Maher
They left a while ago. Well, when I wouldn't go along with their nonsense. Right. Who's left? Great people. And they're great people who don't, like, get upset about truth. They don't. The studio audience, I used to fight with them all the time. Now they don't boo. They get it. It's.
Jeff Dunham
Well, see, that's what I've always loved about you, is that, you know, so many times I'll be watching and you'll piss me off. And then a week later I'll watch and I'll go, oh, okay. And that's why I don't like the word reasonable.
Bill Maher
What pisses you off?
Jeff Dunham
I don't know.
Bill Maher
I mean, like when I make fun of Jesus. Religion. I mean, you're religious, right?
Jeff Dunham
I was brought up in a Christian home. And my big thing is the same with Degrassi. What's his last name?
Bill Maher
Degrasse Paul Neil Degrasse Tyson.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, that guy. So. And I've Talked about this in the last few days to a few people, because I feel like you guys have. Both of you have backed off a little bit, and I think there's.
Bill Maher
He's a scientist, and we're working in a different.
Jeff Dunham
I get it. But the Charlie Kirk interview with you and him was really interesting.
Bill Maher
Me with him here?
Jeff Dunham
Yes.
Bill Maher
I love it.
Jeff Dunham
Because.
Bill Maher
And by the way, they're doing a documentary, and they asked if I would be in it. They said. The other people, they said, are in it already. All, you know, hard right wingers. I said, yes, I'm giving them five minutes after my taping Friday night because. And I told them, don't expect me to be just saying, you know, hey, geography about Charlie. I liked him as a person. I'm glad I talked to him. I do not think he was a monster. And I. And if you look at.
Jeff Dunham
Sorry. Uh.
Bill Maher
Oh, go ahead, attack.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, sorry. You gotta turn this thing on.
Bill Maher
If you look at his statements. I've read the full statements, of course, because everybody is only interested in getting points for their team. They mischaracterize them. But even when I read the full statement, which were accurately characterized, I still disagreed with.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
But it wasn't what they present. It wasn't what they presented. Again, it's always in the middle. It wasn't as bad as they said, but I still disagree.
Jeff Dunham
Sure. But that's what I loved about the interview, is that you sat there and considered things and listened to him. Let him talk. And it was a really great discussion.
Bill Maher
My little motto here is, everybody's a monster till you talk to them.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Marjorie Taylor Greene came on Real Time. Suddenly everybody loves Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Lauren Boebert. You know, these people who come on Real Time, and it's like, Anna Paulina Luna. Love her.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You know, we had a great time, talked to her after the show. I said, you know, if I'd only known about you, what I read, I would have thought, you know, crazy, Right?
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You're not crazy. Are we gonna agree on everything? No, but not crazy. And certainly, you know, talkable, too. That is my single biggest issue with the left. They won't talk to people, including me. Right. Talk. Like, really? I'm so, so out there. I mean, we voted for the same person, Right. How far out there could I be?
Jeff Dunham
Right?
Bill Maher
But they just won't. And the Republicans, they definitely are better at, like, well, we'll talk.
Jeff Dunham
Right. Well, that's what I do love in having sitting down. Like, okay, bring up another name. Marc Maron. He and I couldn't be further apart. Are comedically, politically, blah, blah, blah.
Bill Maher
You're not gay.
Jeff Dunham
Okay.
Bill Maher
No, I'm, I'm kidding.
Jeff Dunham
But we sat down like this and had a really respectful conversation and both of us surprised each other and we walked away with a, with a, with mutual respect. But we, we respected our differences too.
Bill Maher
And we'll have some of that too.
Jeff Dunham
Right?
Bill Maher
You know, I feel like ours is, I feel like, I mean, look, I like Mark, although he's taken terrible, unfair, stupid shots at me, but that's okay. But I feel like his sympathica with you was probably more on an emotional level, whereas I think you and I, or that's what you were trying to bridge, whereas you and I are kind of like the same kind of boomer guy.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You know, no nonsense.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
None of that. You know, there's, there's no microaggressions in our life and.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You know, like that. Not that microaggressions aren't a real thing if you're black. That's true. Oh, it is true.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
I mean, you know, a microaggression is somebody just looks at you shitty. Right. And yeah, when I know just as a human, when someone looks at me shitty, I feel shitty about it and I don't like them.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
So, you know, there is that, that but.
Jeff Dunham
Well, what I was going to say is I, I. Back to the Steve Jobs thing. I, the cell phone. I said, I said it a second ago that I think most of this is Steve Jobs fault. I, I say that jokingly because phone. Yeah, I, I, in nature, everyone, everyone was not meant to have that loud of a voice or that of effective of a voice. I, I think we were meant to have. Everybody should have a voice. But to be able to say something and the entire world hear and see it instantly, I don't think is healthy in nature.
Bill Maher
We were meant to do what we're doing, looking another human being in the eye in person. There are things that we are reading about each other. I mean, this is what happened in Montreal.
Jeff Dunham
I know, it was very exciting. Yeah.
Bill Maher
No, there are things that you don't even realize consciously that you're reading about another human when you're talking to them in person. You know, it's just their face, it just matters. It's just hugely different. And they don't seem to want to. They, I mean, anyone who's like, okay with living life on a screen, they don't seem to care to acknowledge that very key distinction that we have not evolved past that and maybe we shouldn't.
Jeff Dunham
Why? I think it's fascinating that Trump hate, hate, hate, hate, hate. And then you have these leaders go in a room and three hours later they come out and they've made a deal. It's like the art of the deal behind a door. And he knows how to talk to people and there's something there. You meet the guy in person.
Bill Maher
That's why I had that dinner with them that they all hated. Sure.
Jeff Dunham
I bet you walked out of there and I've heard what you've said and I've seen what you've said, and I bet you walked out of there going, you've said it a million times, that this is not the guy that you thought it was going to be. Is that right?
Bill Maher
Oh, that. I said a crazy person doesn't live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV lives in the White House. And why he chooses to do that or whether that is the real. I just put it in the lap of the audience. You decide. I'm just the reporter. I went into the mine, this is what I saw down there. And you make of it what you will, but of course, we don't live in that world.
Jeff Dunham
Is he a master manipulator or is his skin just that thin?
Bill Maher
Oh, it's totally that thin. I mean, he's really that thin, but not in all that's. What was so interesting was I challenged him on any number of things from the trivial, like why you don't have a dog to the Iran deal. And he never once, never once bristled, like, cut me off, delivered a monologue, stopped looking me in the eye, you know, by the way, I wrote a great joke about the AI Cause I want to ask about why you called it that, but it happened to be. My editorial at the end of the show this week is about AI And I've never really been as aroused about a subject because I do think it's gonna kill all of us. And you know, I had done one earlier about. And now everybody's writing about it how AI is just such an ass kisser. I mean, everything, you know, hey, you know, can I. Great question, Bill. You know, everything is just always. And it's. I'm saying it's seducing us, right? It's gonna fucking kill us. And it's seducing us, including all the people who say Donald Trump, he can't do without a bunch of ass kissers just like you.
Jeff Dunham
Right, right.
Bill Maher
Great question, Ashley.
Jeff Dunham
So I'm curious, is your AI A man or a woman?
Bill Maher
I don't have it.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, you don't talk to him.
Bill Maher
I don't want it in my phone. I don't want it knowing everything about me. You already lost the battle. You just sold your humanity for a bunch of fucking bar tricks that it does. If it had cured cancer by now, I'd be, maybe I'll make that trade off. But it has it. It can make spongebob look like it's getting blown by Stephen Hawking. Great.
Jeff Dunham
But. But you gotta say that it is unbelievably useful in many cases. It's crazy.
Bill Maher
I'm sure it is. I. I seem to be getting along just fine.
Jeff Dunham
Sure.
Bill Maher
Like it wasn't. Like I didn't have Siri and Google, but now I need. I need something even better than them. You know, we get so hooked on convenience that we are willing to sell such bigger things for these slightest little improvements in convenience. Seinfeld used to have a great bit about the, you know, the thing on board games that, you know, you hit the thing and the dice go up in a bubble, right? And he would mimic throwing dice and go, gotta be an easier way.
Jeff Dunham
That's really funny.
Bill Maher
That a great.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, that's really funny. No, I get it. I just enjoy the toy aspect of it all. That's all. I just, I love the type of car guy.
Bill Maher
Right?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, car guy.
Bill Maher
And what is it with comics? I mean, Letterman's a car guy and Leno's a car guy. And you.
Jeff Dunham
Who? Seinfeld.
Bill Maher
Seinfeld. Of course.
Jeff Dunham
I don't know what it is, but you know what it is you just named?
Bill Maher
It's a lot of car guys in one industry.
Jeff Dunham
Well, I think you just named a bunch of guys that don't have any real vices.
Bill Maher
So interesting. So interesting. You're right.
Jeff Dunham
And so maybe this is the thing, right? It's expensive, it takes time, it takes money.
Bill Maher
But that's why I hate cars.
Jeff Dunham
You can't smoke.
Bill Maher
I don't hate them, but they do nothing for me.
Jeff Dunham
You can't smoke a car.
Bill Maher
I get a new car, like every three or four years, and every time I get it, I'm like, okay, this is going to be different this time. I'm going to actually learn all the things about this car because, you know, you have to go through the guidebook and learn what everything is. And I'm like, and it never happened.
Jeff Dunham
So what is your.
Bill Maher
What is your. Two years pass and I go, oh, fuck it. I'm almost to the next car.
Jeff Dunham
So what do you drive.
Bill Maher
I drive electric. And boy, was that a good decision. Mercedes, I used to have the Tesla.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
I did not switch because of Elon's politics. I could separate them. I switched because Mercedes made a like, much better version of the Tesla and charged twice as much.
Jeff Dunham
So you're being serious? It was a good decision. You like it? You love it?
Bill Maher
I don't love cars, No. I fucking hate it, actually. I fucking hate it that the robots are too much in control. Something else I'm putting in the thing Friday night about, I do not like the idea that the robots are in control. And these people who say, you know, the future's gonna be great. The robots will be our slaves doing everything. Bullshit. I already feel like I'm in competition with them. I'm not their slave master. My car tells me when we can go, right? I was stopped once. Stopped? I didn't want to be stopped. I was in the middle of, like, very heavy traffic, right? And apparently my passenger side door was ajar, right?
Jeff Dunham
It wouldn't let you go.
Bill Maher
And though, you know that feeling when everyone behind you is honking, right, and you're like. And it's not like a big thing lit up. It said, close the door.
Jeff Dunham
Right?
Bill Maher
I guess there was somewhere, like a little. Whatever it was, it was typical millennial bullshit, like, hide it from the boomers. What's really going on on this planet.
Jeff Dunham
Well, back when we were in college, it would say, your right door is open. Remember that?
Bill Maher
When I first car, I would just pull over because there was no sign at all. I would just, if my door swung open, I'd pull over. That's what I mean. It tells you, right? I don't like that.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, yeah, it. Worst human. I, I, I get it. I, I do wonder, though, when Elon comes out with the robots that work in the factories, I have a, I have a warehouse with merchandise. And I wonder if I'm going to buy that thing and let it be stacking boxes.
Bill Maher
Of course you will. You're a greedy. What?
Jeff Dunham
No, no, it's just fun.
Bill Maher
What are you worth, like hundreds of millions? I bet you I, I've seen, like, I think I read one that only Seinfeld and Chris Rock made more money on the road.
Jeff Dunham
This is good tequila. I don't know what it is.
Bill Maher
Is that what it is? I thought it was the ketamine. I feel fantastic. I don't know what it is.
Jeff Dunham
I still want to know what jing is. So anyway.
Bill Maher
Oh, I'm sorry. It's just a way to make sparkling water into diet soda without any of the chemicals that are in diet soda.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, all right.
Bill Maher
I feel like I keep.
Jeff Dunham
My wife made you cookies for.
Bill Maher
Your wife made me cookies?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, she did.
Bill Maher
Did.
Jeff Dunham
And. And she's know about Montreal. She does now. Okay, that was before we met.
Bill Maher
So what was that gig in Montreal?
Jeff Dunham
Now I'm curious. It was a comedy festival. I've only been to like two.
Bill Maher
And you say the 80s?
Jeff Dunham
No. Let's see, hold on a second.
Bill Maher
Was it pre tonight show?
Jeff Dunham
Could have been, yeah. It could have been late 80s, early 90s. I don't know. But you were doing a thing and I was.
Bill Maher
But how many people were on the bill? Was it a big extravaganza?
Jeff Dunham
Man, that's tough. No, I swear I go back to theaters now. Like I shot my first special in. What are you laughing at?
Bill Maher
Man, that's tough.
Jeff Dunham
I don't remember because.
Bill Maher
No, but it's just a great way to express what our age is. Cause I get this asked all the time when I'm talking to younger people. And as I often am, I'm a mentor. That's what I live for. That. To help the young people.
Jeff Dunham
Of course.
Bill Maher
But yes, it's like they ask questions about things in 1984. On your life. That's tough. I mean, you're asking a lot like disc full. Like there is a memory. But it's just. No, I mean it is amazing the way your mind, not you consciously, but your mind decides. Your mind is your mom going through your old Playboys or your old soldiers, toy soldiers and just baseball cards and just throwing shit away. And sometimes you want to say to your mind, mom, I wanted that right. And you threw it away.
Jeff Dunham
Well, the worst part is when you forget what it is that you were trying to remember.
Bill Maher
Yeah, well, you. I do it live here every week. I mean, I'm doing it right now.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
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Bill Maher
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Jeff Dunham
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Bill Maher
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Jeff Dunham
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Bill Maher
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Bill Maher
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Bill Maher
Like going back to your old room, huh? Like going back to your old room where you grew up.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bill Maher
And you feel big, right?
Jeff Dunham
And no more. So the thing that we did in Montreal could have been. It could have been three or 400 seats, or it could have been a thousand.
Bill Maher
I don't know. Well, I only obsess on it because Montreal was the site of such a traumatic moment in my life.
Jeff Dunham
What happened?
Bill Maher
I was booked there as a headliner before I was ready to be a headliner.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, so what year was that?
Bill Maher
1980.
Jeff Dunham
Okay. Wow. Yeah. It was long before I moved out to la.
Bill Maher
I had only been doing comedy a year and a half. Oh, wow. And I was not ready to be a headliner and proved it that night. And it was just, you know, the only laugh I got was mispronouncing the name of the local premier, Rene Levesque, who was running to separate Quebec. It was a big issue at the time whether Quebec would become its own country. And there was just something about bombing. Like, sometimes I go to the Comedy Store, like after dinner, we're just like, what am I gonna do? I don't wanna go home. Oh, you know what's great? Cause I don't drink anymore. Really. I mean, just here and I see these people on stage, I mean, it's either really good or painfully bad. Either way, it's not uninteresting.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
And when I see the painfully bad, I mean, I've seen some things that were just. And I'm like, wow. I know that exact feeling. Maybe I didn't lash out that badly, but I. I definitely made things worse, as this comic is doing.
Jeff Dunham
Oh.
Bill Maher
And. But I did it and I couldn't do it now, but.
Jeff Dunham
Well, that's the way I am with the Melrose Improv. And that's why I don't. I don't hang out with comics. I'm like kind of my own lone wolf. I've never been part of that. That, you know. You know, you did the Tonight show with Carson, then you went back to the. The improv and you watched it and everybody.
Bill Maher
Yeah, people snobby cuz.
Jeff Dunham
Of course.
Bill Maher
Really?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, of course. It was like.
Bill Maher
So it really should be another kind of designation for the woke to champion, if you will. You know, I mean, right. Of course. Like in Walk Hard. You never see Walk Hard.
Jeff Dunham
No, I never did.
Bill Maher
Never saw Walk Hard.
Jeff Dunham
Should I.
Bill Maher
What are you, a communist? It's the best. It's so funny. Judd Apatow send up music. The Beatles. Oh, it's amazing.
Jeff Dunham
All right.
Bill Maher
And. But one of them is there's a Dylan character and he champions midgets.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, no, that's great.
Bill Maher
He sings a folks for the little people. You have to just. Even Just look at that clip. It's just too much.
Jeff Dunham
All right. But yeah, so the improv the same way. Because it was. It was. You know, and there's a stigma against anybody who's not a straight monologist. You walk up on stage with anything, a carrot top, you know, he.
Bill Maher
People love him.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, but now we're good friends. You go see his show, and it is in Vegas. It is laugh out loud funny from beginning to end.
Bill Maher
Just because it's a puppet. A puppet is a device.
Jeff Dunham
Well, see, what I like, what I do, the reason I love it is because I can point and counterpoint and I can bring up a subject and a topic. And if the character says something that's not quite right, I can do the opposite side of it. It's a conversation.
Bill Maher
What it is. You know, I have the same jealousy of you that I have of my very, very dear friend Seth MacFarlane. Because, like, what I do is I say as me what I say and So I get a lot more shit than they do. Cause when you're a cartoon, it's amazing. If I said the things that they do as a cartoon, cripples and race, I would be castigated to no end. And you can hide behind the puppets. No, I'm not. I don't mean that as a knock. It's just a device that allows you this distance that gives you a latitude with the audience that I do not enjoy because it is me as me. They know I'm not a character.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
And so you are just much more out front.
Jeff Dunham
Well, and Gutfeld covers it by says something horrible and he goes. A racist would say. He always covers it up that way, which is like, really, to me, really brilliant. He'll say something horrible and then he'll back it up with that. A misogynist would say, yeah.
Bill Maher
So, you know.
Jeff Dunham
But you're right. And it is. But it is fun like that because I can say outrageous things and then. And then correct him. So you're right. I do. I get. I can get away with a lot of stuff and. But I like doing that because people walk away from my show going, I really don't know what he thinks. I'm not sure what his beliefs are because he did both sides, right?
Bill Maher
And that's. I mean, that's from the very beginning. That is always been and should always be. The classic paradigm of the ventriloquist is, you know, just remonstrating the puppet. These are nice people, for God's sakes. What are you saying? You know, you're so out of line. I am the voice of. Don't insult the nice people like that. They're not.
Jeff Dunham
You know, that's every ventriloquist movie in the ever.
Bill Maher
It has to have that scent. Yeah. You know.
Jeff Dunham
So how long have you done this show?
Bill Maher
We started this in 2022. Who was
Jeff Dunham
the absolute best where you went, I think this is gonna be a dud. This is. It would turn out to be a fabulous interview where you might gotta be.
Bill Maher
It's not an interview.
Jeff Dunham
Well, whatever. A discussion.
Bill Maher
I mean, it's.
Jeff Dunham
Who turned into the best discussion that you, like, found.
Bill Maher
Oh, my God. I mean, even if I had an answer to that, I wouldn't then.
Jeff Dunham
Okay, then which one has gotten the most watches that people have left loved?
Bill Maher
I don't know those things either. I. My deal with this was I already have a job. All I'm going to do is walk over here from next door where I live, right. At exactly the time the show starts and leave Right after it ends. And that is the level of my commitment. And I love it that way.
Jeff Dunham
Can I say the size of this?
Bill Maher
I barely know who the guest is.
Jeff Dunham
Right. I used to love what Carson would say, that he'd walk off stage and he'd get home and somebody would say, how was the show? And he wouldn't. Couldn't even remember who it was. He.
Bill Maher
And yeah, well, that certainly when you do an everyday show.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
But even now, if you said, who were the guests on Real Time Friday, like I would. Okay, I could think I could conjure it up. But two weeks ago, no, you know, I mean, that's the nature of this kind of business is it's a little like a sports team. Like, you know, next game. As soon as the one game is over, you're thinking about the next.
Jeff Dunham
So what do you think is going to happen to the midterms?
Bill Maher
Bill Belichick, we're on to Cincinnati.
Jeff Dunham
What's going to happen to the midterms?
Bill Maher
The Democrats are going cannot help but win this. Even they can't blow it.
Jeff Dunham
Really.
Bill Maher
Oh, yeah. Trump is historically unpopular. He's even unpopular. Getting unpopular more so in his own party, his own base. They did not like the war. They think that was. It's funny, me and the base on opposite sides. I did support the idea of taking out the Iranian regime. Now that it didn't quite work. There was no uprising. I'm not for like making this indefinite, but he's already pivoted to blockading, which is better than we're going to bomb you and end your civilization. I mean, once it got to that point, he lost me.
Jeff Dunham
Right. See, that's the point. He says a few of those things where you go, what are you doing?
Bill Maher
A few. More than a few, but. Okay. Right. No, I mean, look, I said during the campaign before he won, I'm not going to pre hate anything. Since he got into office, I've made a list of what I hate and what I don't hate. It's not like there's nothing on the what I don't hate list. There are lots of things I. Right. Or think, you know, he has a knack for, like identifying stuff that has been festering. Even something like, you know, college campuses.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Yes, there has been an insanity festering on college campuses. No amount of voodoo can make me think I didn't see that.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
And the border, you know, he closed it, but he fucked it up by having sucking ice on the American public in a way that was unconstitutional and way too cruel. You know. So. So I don't know. But the Iran war, I thought it's worth a shot. Take a shot, Mav. Take the shot. And we did. And I think we missed our timing. They should have done it in January when there were actual uprisings in the streets. When they were in the streets. When they were in the streets. The Iranian regime killed them all. Now who's left to rise up? You know?
Jeff Dunham
You know.
Bill Maher
So the thing has not been conducted well, but it's still. I'm so glad that he climbed down from we're gonna bomb your civilization to death to we're gonna blockade your blockade. Oh, you think you're the only one Blockade? Okay, I can live with blockades, not we're gonna destroy your civilization.
Jeff Dunham
Is there nobody around him going
Bill Maher
Me? That's why it was so good that I had dinner with him. That's what I'm always trying to tell the crazy left wingers. You need more people like me talking to him, not less. Right? You're always complaining he's surrounded by ass kissers. Yeah, get me in there. Get other people like that. He wants to talk to people. I think. I think he's bored sometimes with the ass kissers. And I don't think he respects anyone who does kiss his ass completely. I don't. I've known people like,
Jeff Dunham
well, does it drive you crazy when there's people around you that you know that they're scared to be around you or you've had employees that are scared to be around you and will say whatever you want that has to drive you crazy, right?
Bill Maher
You talking about me?
Jeff Dunham
You? Yes.
Bill Maher
It's an interesting topic. There are. It's nice, especially when you're 70, when people give you what I believe is the proper respect a person deserves just for reaching that age.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
There is a certain level and everyone used to understand this in America. It's a very ageist society. Many do not. But just for getting there, you should get a little something your ass kissed. No, that's not what I'm saying. Just a kind of baseline respect you got there. You must have done something right. Especially if you got there and you're not like, you know, a message.
Jeff Dunham
Yes, right. But there are 70 year old idiots that used to be. That used to be 30 year old idiots.
Bill Maher
Of course there's no fool like an old fool.
Jeff Dunham
Okay. But what I'm asking is. Cuz this is what drives me crazy sometimes the people that work for me is some. If somebody is scared to death of me and won't say what they're thinking and won't give me their opinion. It drives me nuts. I want somebody who will tell me what they're thinking. And total.
Bill Maher
Okay, yes.
Jeff Dunham
So you've had those people around.
Bill Maher
So to finish the thought, yes. It's nice that people give you the respect you deserve, but when people work for you, it is very hard for it not to tip into something that I bet you 90% of the people out there would love or if they enjoy it, do love. I don't love. Which is a little bit of. I don't know if you really feel that way or you're just saying that because I'm the boss.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I don't like that.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Because I don't need my ass kissed. I'm very happy with who I am. My ego does not need fluffing. I think it's the appropriate size. It's not small. It's not out of control. It's healthy that we need that. But I do not. I value the truth. And that doesn't also mean on the other side to be a contrarian. Just don't say the opposite. That's interesting. Just tell me the actual truth. That's what I'm always trying to get from people, just the actual truth. That's why I love talking to the young people that I mentor, you know, people in their 20s, because they don't know what the right answer is supposed to be. Right. They don't know about Rachel Maddow or Fox News. They don't know about what Tucker Carlson's saying. They don't. They just know what strikes them.
Jeff Dunham
How are your conversations with Bill O'Reilly?
Bill Maher
We don't really have any.
Jeff Dunham
Well, you've been.
Bill Maher
I mean, I've had him on the show. He occasionally emails me, and I always interested to hear what Bill has to say. And sometimes it's complimentary and it's nice and I email back. I would say we have a cordial, good relationship. We always kind of did. I mean, there was always. We're cousins, you know, when Henry Louis Gates did my genealogy on. You know that show where they do your. Has he done you?
Jeff Dunham
No, no, no.
Bill Maher
Oh, you should get it.
Jeff Dunham
I'm adopted, so I don't know anything.
Bill Maher
That would be even better.
Jeff Dunham
I don't know anything.
Bill Maher
Be like a CSI.
Jeff Dunham
I could have married my sister.
Bill Maher
But Bill O'Reilly, which natural mar. Very Irish, you know, O'Reilly. I mean, so way back in Ireland. I don't know. You know, we're all co. At some point, so.
Jeff Dunham
You really are.
Bill Maher
Yes.
Jeff Dunham
That's great.
Bill Maher
I mean, we all are. To a degree.
Jeff Dunham
Of course.
Bill Maher
Even you and I are.
Jeff Dunham
Of course.
Bill Maher
I mean, we all come from Lucy. Yep.
Jeff Dunham
Yep.
Bill Maher
I'm not the one with that thought. Although she was almost as old. I mean, the one.
Jeff Dunham
Wait, where was Lucy found? Where? In Africa?
Bill Maher
Yeah. East Africa. All of it's in East Africa. That's where man developed. Lucy is about 2.5 million years old, about 4 foot tall, female, and stood pretty upright. You know, so 2.5 million years ago, we had an ancestor who was 4 foot tall and stood upright and, you know, was well on her way. I say you go, girl. You know, I mean, I know that's not what is in the Bible. I hope I haven't again.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. I'm Christian and grew up in a Christian home. Home. At the same time. I, you know, I have those beliefs and I. And I appreciate when people respect people that can have faith. And that's what I was saying about you and Degrassi.
Bill Maher
Neil Degrasse Tyson.
Jeff Dunham
Tyson, yeah. Is that I've been interested in, like, I downloaded one of his books the other day, and it just seemed like he'd tempered that a little bit. And, you know, I. I don't know the truth. Nobody knows the truth. Nobody knows it yet.
Bill Maher
I can't speak for him. I can only speak for me when I say I'm always with Richard Dawkins, one of the most famous atheists, when he says on a scale of 1 to 7, 7 being utter certainty that there is no God, I'm a 6.9.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
That's what I. I mean, like, who knows where it all began. I mean, I've been following the.
Jeff Dunham
And see something like that. For me, I'm fine with that. That's your right to believe that. But. And that's what drives me crazy about the left, as you talked about before, they shove it down. And if you don't believe the way we do, then you're an idiot.
Bill Maher
So. No, I'm not saying that, but Bill O'Reilly. Speaking of Bill O'Reilly, once, I don't think this was in a debate with me, but again, it's tough to remember the past. It could have been, but I think it's just something he said when he was contesting people who don't have faith or believe in God. And he said, said the moon. How'd it get there? How'd it get there? Which I thought was like the low end of your kind of argument, if you're going to make that. Because first of all we know how the moon got there. We don't know questions beyond that. The moon. I can answer that one. It's a piece of a planet that maybe ours, that broke off and got smoothed out over the billions of years by the universe, whatever. Okay? And it's so great that we went back, because it's gonna get us a lot, but.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, come on. It's fun.
Bill Maher
It is fun.
Jeff Dunham
It's great.
Bill Maher
It's just another thing for rich people to do.
Jeff Dunham
No, we have to do that.
Bill Maher
But the question, you know, the moon, how did it get there? We can't answer that. What we can't answer is, why is there anything? Right? Why didn't anything ever exist? And if there was no thing with a beginning, would that be something? It's just ridiculous. Your brain is never gonna comprehend this. So some of us just let that go. And we think that people who make up stories about why things are, you know, are just making up stories to make them feel better. But if it does make you feel better, I'm not gonna. You know, I believe in good health, if that makes you feel healthy. If putting your head on the pillow at night, knowing, if I die in my sleep, I'll go to a better place.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I kind of wish I had that.
Jeff Dunham
Well, see, that's a reasonable. All those things you just said is very reasonable. And that's why I appreciate sitting here with you now and talking to you. And 25 years ago.
Bill Maher
25 years ago was all about the sex. You know that.
Jeff Dunham
Well, there were those interviews about you. Yeah.
Bill Maher
So.
Jeff Dunham
And what are you getting ready to smoke?
Bill Maher
Oh, a clove cigarette.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, okay.
Bill Maher
No, I'm kidding. It's pot.
Jeff Dunham
Somebody just laughed.
Bill Maher
Well, okay.
Jeff Dunham
Probably my deal, because they knew.
Bill Maher
I'm ready. I'm just gonna have a taste.
Jeff Dunham
I got it.
Bill Maher
I'm trying to smoke less and eat
Jeff Dunham
more, so I don't know anything.
Bill Maher
So I'm not a health kick.
Jeff Dunham
Is this thing. Is this stuff really more potent now than it used to be?
Bill Maher
Be. I'm really the wrong guy to ask that because I smoked steadily over the years. So, like, my resistance level is probably like Dennis Quaid in that movie where he was the quarterback and he's in the hospital and you got to pump up the volume, doc. I'm a football player. You know, I had a dentist once who told me he had Ozzy Osbourne in the chair once. And, like, you know, Ozzy was like, please, Doc, I'm a. You know, I get it that you think this amount of gas gets people High.
Jeff Dunham
But is that true?
Bill Maher
That's cute. I mean, that's. It's a story I remember. Could I have dreamt it?
Jeff Dunham
Never.
Bill Maher
Could you have told it to me
Jeff Dunham
at a party in Montreal?
Bill Maher
It's possible, but that was my recollection of the dentist telling me that. But, you know, the Beatles got acid from their dentist. That's how they got high for the first time. Did you know that?
Jeff Dunham
No, I didn't know that.
Bill Maher
Oh, you never heard that story about.
Jeff Dunham
Is that what happened?
Bill Maher
Such a boomer. Yeah.
Jeff Dunham
Such a boomer story. And I don't know. What is that?
Bill Maher
We say, well, Beatles, you know.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I mean. Yeah. That their dentist, like, put it in their coffee and they didn't even know it. They. For some reason there was like this dentist of the stars, you know, we have same thing that goes on now, this. Celebrities love doctors.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
And very often, by the way, doctors kill. Killed them.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Elvis, Dr. Nick.
Jeff Dunham
Yep.
Bill Maher
Michael Jackson, Dr. Conrad Murray. Yep. My personal internist now. No, perfect. But. Oh, what were we talking about?
Jeff Dunham
It's tough.
Bill Maher
Doctors and. Oh, doctors kill stars.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Stars definitely like to have doctors around them and. Why would you not? Right. But I know there was a bigger point to it, but we don't care. We don't care.
Jeff Dunham
Where'd the tequila go?
Bill Maher
That one right there.
Jeff Dunham
That one.
Bill Maher
Just pour me a slight amount. Like, imagine I'm a drunk who's really trying to. That's enough.
Jeff Dunham
That's enough.
Bill Maher
Really trying to. A little bit like this, clean up his act and get off the street. Perfect.
Jeff Dunham
But. But my wife did make you cookies and she's so nice.
Bill Maher
How long have you been married?
Jeff Dunham
Audrey and I've been married for almost 14 years. We have twin boys that are 10 years old.
Bill Maher
Wow.
Jeff Dunham
And I also.
Bill Maher
This is your second wife.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. And I have three daughters from first marriage.
Bill Maher
When was your first marriage?
Jeff Dunham
When?
Bill Maher
When? Yeah, 94. 94. And then.
Jeff Dunham
Is that right?
Bill Maher
94 to when?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, 94 to 2006.
Bill Maher
You know Bob Newhart? Did you love Bob Newhart?
Jeff Dunham
Love Bob Newhart.
Bill Maher
He used to do a bit on the. I saw him do it on the Tonight Show. He's like, you know, he said, at some point, the people out here in la, they start measuring everything by their wives. Like Dodger Stadium. Last time I was here, I was married to Helen.
Jeff Dunham
That's true. That's absolutely true. Yep. So anyway, I have three grandsons and my son.
Bill Maher
Grandsons.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, three grandsons.
Bill Maher
Holy. Really?
Jeff Dunham
And. And they're. The oldest one is almost the same age as my Twin boys. So the Christmas cards are very confusing.
Bill Maher
So why do you think the first one didn't take?
Jeff Dunham
She took. Only it wasn't for me. That's why.
Bill Maher
We'll be right back. Yeah, sorry. It kicks in from years ago on abc, so.
Jeff Dunham
Great.
Bill Maher
Yeah.
Jeff Dunham
Did Carson really have on his tombstone. I'll be right back.
Bill Maher
No, he didn't. No.
Jeff Dunham
Are you sure?
Bill Maher
I'm pretty sure. Oh man, that's a. That's a wives tale.
Jeff Dunham
When he said that, he said that he was gonna have put on it.
Bill Maher
Really?
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, I think,
Bill Maher
I don't think so.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, well, it been great.
Bill Maher
I mean, I think he.
Jeff Dunham
Do you still have family?
Bill Maher
Yeah, I have a sister.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. Yeah.
Bill Maher
That's it.
Jeff Dunham
That's it.
Bill Maher
Yeah.
Jeff Dunham
And what does she do?
Bill Maher
She's retired. I mean I'm 70. She's four years older than me. Oh, she was a teacher.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. So do you have nieces and nephews?
Bill Maher
No.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
No, neither one of us got married.
Jeff Dunham
Oh.
Bill Maher
Yeah. The line ends here. What?
Jeff Dunham
All right.
Bill Maher
Many people have said to me, you know, Bill, don't you know your line is going to end, die off? Like what am I, fucking Prince Harry? What do I give a fuck if I lied? And also so, I mean, I just think celebrities having kids, it would be a Nepo baby. I don't want a nepo baby. And it's unavoidable, right? Like even if they're not in your business, it's, you know, it's just. It's almost inevitable. And why wouldn't you? I mean, today's kids of celebrities, it's almost like de rigueur. You're gonna do it?
Jeff Dunham
Well, I've told all my kids, don't count on anything coming from me. I'm spending every bit of it. My father told me that. He said there will be no inheritance. So good luck, keep working. And that's what I've told them all.
Bill Maher
Yeah, but you're a celebrity. If they do something, anything in the public eye, it's much more interesting for the media to cover them than somebody who is not. Who does not have a parent as a celebrity. Because that's the first thing it's like, oh, we can put this bold name in. They know your name. So like, you know, but they gotta work for it. Chloe Dunham.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, I know.
Bill Maher
I'm just making that video up.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, it was okay.
Bill Maher
That's terrible.
Jeff Dunham
Names. Oh, okay.
Bill Maher
So that's good. I didn't want it to be the real kids name, whatever your kids name.
Jeff Dunham
Chloe Dunham.
Bill Maher
Okay. Okay. This is a kid. Maybe you're gonna still have Chloe Dunham, daughter of Jeff Dunham, the famous, you know. Okay. Made more money on the road than Chris Rock and Gary Seinfeld. And she is now, you know, has a new record contract with Gigantic Records. Okay. You know, like, you know, she's got 2 million followers. I mean, a lot of the people who we know are household names. I mean, obviously, the granddaddy of them, the Kardashians, but on down. I mean. Yes, half of them come from the Disney Channel, and they seem to have talent like Zendaya and, you know, they at least have training under Disney. And then half of them just seem to be influencers and Nepo babies and people who were kind of grandfathered into the whole scheme of show business.
Jeff Dunham
And what did your dad do?
Bill Maher
My dad was in radio news.
Jeff Dunham
Where?
Bill Maher
Back in New York.
Jeff Dunham
And what did he do?
Bill Maher
Like, he read the news. Like back in the day when 60s, 70s, when every radio station. I mean, this is before. I mean, there was fm, but it was mostly am. And every radio station would have news at the top of the hour.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
Headline Moscow. Prime Minister Kennedy Howell of the United Kingdom has, you know, do you have tapes of him? Yes, I have some tapes.
Jeff Dunham
And is it a radio voice or.
Bill Maher
Yes, totally, absolutely. Oh, yes. That's so great. Oh, that's what it. Oh, absolutely, right. Yes.
Jeff Dunham
And. And I remember when I first started getting into, you know, auditioning for stuff, I'd be in front of the mic, and they'd be like, don't talk like that. I'd be like, don't talk like what? Talk like yourself. Like that. Like what? And then I. I'd start reading like this, and. No, no, no, no, no.
Bill Maher
You have the accent that I would say at least 80% of the country
Jeff Dunham
has, which is somewhere.
Bill Maher
Well, I mean, it's. It's not yours.
Jeff Dunham
Isn't.
Bill Maher
Is. Isn't pronounced, but it is an American accent. You're an American, right? I love American. So it ain't a knock on you.
Jeff Dunham
And you grew up where in New York?
Bill Maher
New Jersey.
Jeff Dunham
New Jersey. Where in New York?
Bill Maher
Well, right. A suburb of New York. Oregon County, New Jersey.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, sure, absolutely.
Bill Maher
And my father drove across the George Washington Bridge every day, parked in Washington Heights, which is across the river in Harlem, Upper Harlem, and took the train, the subway, down to Rockefeller center or Midtown, where his station was.
Jeff Dunham
And what was the station?
Bill Maher
First it was wor. Wow. Then he worked at NBC. And then, you know, in his later years, he was an editor. He worked with Howard Stern he worked with Don Imus as the news editor. Yeah, he. And you know, in those days they would work and it was a stressful job. You know, my father was an Irishman, not a drunk at all because he never missed a day of work or never affected his family life. But he would get home from work, he needed his three or four martinis. Oh, you know, and dry, meaning just gin.
Jeff Dunham
But he was the morning guy.
Bill Maher
No, the opposite.
Jeff Dunham
The evening guy.
Bill Maher
Yeah. Toward the end they put him on mornings and he fucking hated it. And he used to get up at 3:30 in the morning and drive in the dark and the fog. That wasn't so bad. It was coming home after a night of work where they had stopped off at the Ho Ho, which was the Chinese restaurant at the bottom of Rockefeller center, to have a little Chinese food and you know, he probably had three martinis before he got in the car.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, right.
Bill Maher
But you know, that's what people did in the 70s.
Jeff Dunham
Happily married. They stayed together.
Bill Maher
Yeah. I mean, I think that era people had such different standards and they just. Divorce just wasn't okay.
Jeff Dunham
Different standards. But was the cheating going on and they just stayed together. It has to be it.
Bill Maher
I would be seriously shocked if I found out either one of my parents was cheating.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, that's great.
Bill Maher
What you think yours were?
Jeff Dunham
No, I don't. I, I know there was a time that my father was very unhappy.
Bill Maher
That's called marriage.
Jeff Dunham
No, his was, his was financial problems. He'd made some bad investments. They, you know, they built the house. I was a little kid, things weren't going well and that's the only time I really remember arguing. And I look at the pictures and I go, is that all it was? And I think it, it's all, it's
Bill Maher
not all that it was. I mean, it doesn't help when you're having financial problems.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I mean, financial problems don't help making your dick hard. But. Right. But even if finance is going well.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Time, you know, and familiarity. Yeah. In a marriage is going to work against excitement and red hot monkey love.
Jeff Dunham
You know what?
Bill Maher
And that's just the deal.
Jeff Dunham
Okay? So I'm gonna agree with you. In my first marriage and in my marriage now, it's like I'm telling you, and I hate people that say this, but if it works, it works. And if it's, if the two together are supposed to be together, that stuff can last and keep going. And it's rare, rare, rare, rare. The fact that, and I, again, I hate people to talk about their marriage when it's great because it's like, shut up. But we love being together all the time.
Bill Maher
That's great.
Jeff Dunham
Which is very, very rare. And yeah, when, when, when we first got together and Audrey was on the road with me on the tour bus. We were together side by side for eight years. Never left each other's side and never got tired of each other. And that's so hot. And she, I'm, you know, how many years older. I forgot I'm drinking tequila.
Bill Maher
How many? I'd like to know. Oh, no, because I, I get hit with this all the time.
Jeff Dunham
She was born in 80 and I was born in 62, so. 18 years.
Bill Maher
Oh, please. You're an amateur. 18 years. Please.
Jeff Dunham
Okay. So
Bill Maher
beyond respectable for me, I mean. 18 years, please. But it's, but you know, that is a great feeling. I know that feeling. I don't know if I could ever maintain that feeling 31 days a month. It's just asking a lot. I just don't know how much. And it's not them, it's just. Or her, actually. It's just how much charm do I have? I like the fact that I have enough days to just, just be within myself. Not having to put out any degree of charm to anyone.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Ask my staff. No, I'm kidding. I'm not mean or any way. I just, you know, we only meet once a week anyway. But, you know, I mean, I do my business and I go home.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
Like a dog.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I, I take me out, I do my business.
Jeff Dunham
You're not a tough guy to work for?
Bill Maher
No, I mean, I'm a tough guy. Guy to work for. If you need Michael Scott, if you need some who's like clapping you on the back every week and saying, hey, you're doing a great job. No, I mean, you know, what if I'm not complaining, you're doing a great job.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
I'm that kind of boss. I think that's so much better. When I, when I was an employee. I love that kind of boss. Just don't talk to me at all, right? Like if. Just don't talk to me.
Jeff Dunham
Do, do you shower them with thanks.
Bill Maher
Shower them? I certainly do not.
Jeff Dunham
Okay, here. There's another question. Okay. And I know it's an age old question. Why has it taken this long for anybody to come out and say anything?
Bill Maher
That's, that's amazing. We were having our issues meeting today at the office. That is exactly the question we hit upon.
Jeff Dunham
Okay. And I, you know, you want to believe everybody, but why? How is it Taking this long. Was he really. Was it really all cover up? I have I far. I find that hard to believe. Leave. But why? I'm not obviously not a woman. Don't get it. Scared to death if something like that would happen, if I was a woman.
Bill Maher
Well, it's a subject I've talked upon before, especially with Cassie and P. Diddy. That case, which was very high profile. Boy, do you get a lot of blowback, as usual, Jeff. I will. I will not pull a punch even when I know there's blowback. And my thesis was, of course, we have great empathy for women and what they've had to go through and still go through. MeToo has a lot of work still to do. But also, at some point, women have to take more agency. And when it starts to happen, report it right away. We don't want to hear about 20 years later, you know, I mean, get out right away. If it's abusive, report it right away. That's the only way this is gonna work. Because, yes, you lose credibility when it's like he did this horrible thing and then we started dating or whatever it is. I mean, it's not always that, but sometimes it is that, and it just makes it very murky. And women are stronger than that, and they can do this, and they need to do this. You know, I don't think we are living in an era where the authorities are not sympathetic to this anymore. Right. That is one thing that I think did change with me, too. They're not gonna just say, okay, honey, you know, you were wearing a miniskirt, get out of my office.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You know, you can get into big trouble for that now, as you should.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
So you can, you know, step forward. And so I still think we're living that era where women are adjusting to this new reality, and I'm sympathetic to them because they see a guy like this getting away with this for as long as he has, and it looks like, oh, well, what has changed if he thought he could get away with it? But here's the bottom line. He didn't.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
He didn't.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
It's kind of like the cop thing. For years, I was very critical of the cops because no matter what abuse they did, they. They never, like, held their own accountable. That changed, right? When things change. Yes, I change. There's my theme. I change. Now cops do go to jail, right? You know, the guy who choked George Floyd is in jail. Many cops. That used to never happen, right? And it used to never happen that anybody could do anything to a Woman. I mean, the golden age of movies wasn't a golden age if you were an actress.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
It meant Louis B. Mayer was gonna get blown right before we even start fitting you for the costumes.
Jeff Dunham
Right. Yep. So thing sometimes changes for great.
Bill Maher
What?
Jeff Dunham
Sometimes change is for great.
Bill Maher
Change is, you know, I mean, the thing I object to with younger people is the idea that change just. If it's. Change is automatically better. It's not automatically better just because it's newer. It can be, but some things are not better because they're newer. Right. You know, I mean, we see that with technology. There's just a lot of shit that, you know, I call it reverse improvement.
Jeff Dunham
Right.
Bill Maher
You didn't make it better.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. Oh, it is fascinating to me when you look back at some of the inventions and stuff when they didn't even have electricity and blah, blah, blah. We're no smarter now. We just have better stuff. That's it. And the, you know, the brilliance of the arts and all the stuff that goes back, it's. It.
Bill Maher
It.
Jeff Dunham
I. I feel like we've dumbed ourselves down. Down a lot.
Bill Maher
Well, I hope you and your loyal audience have not felt like you've dumbed anything down.
Jeff Dunham
I feel like I'm not talking about that.
Bill Maher
No, no. But I'm just saying, you know, I think we've dumped.
Jeff Dunham
We've dumbed ourselves down with technology. You were talking about the same thing with the phones and stuff, and everybody's staring at it, and. And the. The new generation understands that we need to somehow go back. And it's that. It's that reversal of. Of progression that I think would help society and help us as human beings.
Bill Maher
No, I just mean your audience wants you to be politically incorrect. Oh, and you should. You know, that's a great thing. You know, they don't, you know, want to be pandered to.
Jeff Dunham
Well, here's the way I've always judged it with my audiences. It's like I feel like If I'm offending 5% of the crowd and I want. They want to walk out, then I've come to that line that I enjoy.
Bill Maher
Right.
Jeff Dunham
And this is the other thing is, like, this is one thing that really has. As I cannot figure out. My job in front of an audience is to entertain that audience. They have paid good money to come see the show. I am not going to push my politics on them. That's not my thing. My thing is to make them laugh. I don't know at what point. And yours is a different thing. Politically incorrect. You're different Character, different thing. But I'm talking about straight standup comics that are supposed to entertain an audience. I always ask an audience, audience. This is what I've done for the past eight years. I ask an audience. I was asking, who's going to vote for Hillary, who's going to vote for Trump? And then in the last, even over in Europe, I would say we have had an election a year ago, this past November. How many people dislike what's going on with that administration? How many people like it? It's crazy. The different countries that give different reactions. Why am I doing that? I'm trying to see who's in that corner proud because I can slightly adjust some of the jokes to entertain a majority of the audience. I'm not going to do my show for me. I'm doing it for them. So I don't know at what point at late night did or in show business, did, did, did celebrities feel that they have to push their political agenda on everybody and they think that they're. Everyone needs to know their politics. My job is to entertain and make people laugh.
Bill Maher
I was just watching It's Carson. I was just watching the Elvis buzz Lurman, you know, he did the Elvis movie and then he did like a second movie on Elvis called Epic. Elvis Presley in concert, Right? And it's Elvis singing his songs. I mean, look, I'm a huge Elvis fan. I was not a huge fan of the, a lot of the songs he chose to do in his stage act. I love his recordings from that period, late 60s, early 70s. Awesome. But he didn't do them on stage. He did shit like CC Ryder. I don't get it. Anyway, Baz Luhrmann did this and he showed, you know, clips of Elvis and there's one where he's doing this press conference. I've seen the clip many times. He's wearing his typical huge collar suit out of beautiful cobalt blue. And somebody asks him and he's looking at his best. He's amazing, amazing. And they're asking him, like, what do you think about the protesters these days? Remember? And he goes like, ma', am, please, I'm an entertainer. You know, I just, I'd rather keep those thoughts to myself. And then she's follow up, you know, what about people, other celebrities who comment on it? I don't even want to comment on that. And I was like, thank you, Elvis.
Jeff Dunham
Right?
Bill Maher
You know, thank you. You know, just sing fucking suspicious more as you do so well.
Jeff Dunham
Right. And again, I'll make fun of both sides. I'll still do Political jokes. But I try and even it out the same way Leno and Carson both did, because I think that's. I think most people can laugh at themselves a little bit if you're not too insulting.
Bill Maher
Yeah, I think there's more politics in your act than you think there is. I mean, just to have a puppet named Dead Terror.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah, I get it. But I get.
Bill Maher
I understand you can't run away from.
Jeff Dunham
I understand that. But I'm not calling the other side an idiot. Idiot.
Bill Maher
Exactly. No, no, no. I, I'm. I'm. I'm with you. I'm for you. I like you. I wouldn't have you here if I did. I. I only have people I like. I don't have to do this. This is my little pleasure. It's my mid weekly pleasure.
Jeff Dunham
This is great. And by the way, can I ask you, what band is that back there?
Bill Maher
That's the Supremes.
Jeff Dunham
Is what that. The, The. The little guys in the band.
Bill Maher
Oh, that's. There's no band. I mean, that's it. That's actually a real classic. I, I bought that from an art collection collector. That moves. I could like, turn that on.
Jeff Dunham
That looks great.
Bill Maher
It's creepy as my. They look like they look. There's something out of the Shining.
Jeff Dunham
I love stuff like that.
Bill Maher
Yeah, I'm sure you do.
Jeff Dunham
I collect toys and stuff, so. Yeah.
Bill Maher
You make puppets? Oh, well, you know, actually make them, don't you?
Jeff Dunham
I do. I build the dummies myself. I even have a workbench on my. On my tour bus.
Bill Maher
Did you ever see the movie the Stepfather?
Jeff Dunham
No.
Bill Maher
You got to catch up on movies.
Jeff Dunham
I do.
Bill Maher
You should see that one.
Jeff Dunham
What was the other one? I just.
Bill Maher
I forgot something good though. But the Stepfather is great. Why they remade it. Well, he kills his whole family.
Jeff Dunham
Oh, perfect. Thanks, Bill.
Bill Maher
Like the first scene you see, he just slaughters his whole family. And then he leaves town, changes his look. And of course this is, you know, the 80s 90s, so you could do this easier without social, you know, I mean, without, you know, surveillance and stuff. So now he's in a new town and of course he's a charmer. He gets with a woman always like in the last family who like, has got kids but no husband and you know, he's like the all American guy he. That's portraying, but he's really down in the basement plotting to kill them. Because that's how I picture you working on the puppets and you're the stepfather.
Jeff Dunham
That's my second thought. And by the way, we have A new show out called Jeff Dunham's the Cars that Make.
Bill Maher
Oh yes, the Cars. The cars. Exactly what I do best. Plug.
Jeff Dunham
So it's on Discovery and. Discovery. Yeah, it's on Discovery and who knows? It's been. It's been doing really well.
Bill Maher
What's it called?
Jeff Dunham
Jeff Dunham's the Cars that Made Us.
Bill Maher
I bet you Leno's on it.
Jeff Dunham
He is he.
Bill Maher
How could he not be?
Jeff Dunham
He was great too.
Bill Maher
And what about Jerry? You got to get him on there. He's a car nut. He.
Jeff Dunham
You know, I don't understand. That's another guy. I am a comedian. I feel think. But he would never have me on the. The Cars and Coffee thing.
Bill Maher
I'll text him.
Jeff Dunham
Thanks. I like Jerry. I've always said I. When I talk about Edgar Bergen, I talk about. I always say that Edgar Bergen was the Jerry Seinfeld of the radio era. Cuz he was a huge radio star. And I always use that comparison. I've always thought Jerry was great, but he never had me on his show. Does he still do the Cars and Coffee? I mean, I'll straighten this feud out. I didn't know Feud. I saw him in an elevator. And his manager. What's his manager's name?
Bill Maher
Well, his manager passed away.
Jeff Dunham
Oh no. What was his name?
Bill Maher
Oops, I don't know. I'm still.
Jeff Dunham
I can't remember either. Yeah, yeah, but I met him in an elevator.
Bill Maher
George Shapiro. George.
Jeff Dunham
George Shapiro. I didn't know George Shapiro died.
Bill Maher
Yes.
Jeff Dunham
Okay. But I met them in the library. They were very nice.
Bill Maher
Oh yeah, the greatest.
Jeff Dunham
I appreciate you having me on, Bill.
Bill Maher
Real pleasure.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah.
Bill Maher
Great to get to know you.
Jeff Dunham
Yeah. This was. This was almost as good as Montreal.
Bill Maher
Because we had sex there.
Jeff Dunham
That's twice.
Bill Maher
Because that's what. Oh, now it's twice. I love the way this story only grows.
Jeff Dunham
Perfect Club Random.
Bill Maher
Random.
Jeff Dunham
I don't know how this ends.
Bill Maher
It's ending.
Jeff Dunham
It's ending.
Bill Maher
I think it's over.
Jeff Dunham
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Bill Maher
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Jeff Dunham
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Bill Maher
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Bill Maher
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In this dynamic, laughter-filled episode of Club Random, Bill Maher welcomes comedian and ventriloquist superstar Jeff Dunham for an unscripted, in-depth conversation. Eschewing politics as usual, the two explore the nature of comedy, generational shifts, the evolution of their careers, personal philosophies, and the business (and joy) of showbiz. The tone is easygoing and irreverent with honest admissions, playful jabs, and the kind of candid wisdom only found among veteran comics.
| Timestamp | Segment & Subject | |-----------|------------------| | 02:29 | Reunion & Montreal Comedy Fest reminiscing | | 03:27 | Mark Twain Award and Leno as presenter | | 05:12 | Comparing sizes/impact of comic audiences | | 07:56 | “Reasonableness” and shifting political identities | | 13:22 | Views on technology/social media avoidance | | 23:10 | Jeff performs “Ahmed the Dead Terrorist” in Muslim and Jewish countries | | 25:58 | Limits of free speech and satire | | 31:22 | Gen Z’s dislike of capital letters | | 39:20 | Human communication in the digital age | | 54:20 | Jeff: Advantages of ventriloquism in edgy comedy | | 66:01 | Bill’s “6.9 atheist” worldview | | 73:21 | Maher on legacy, nepo babies, and the celebrity lineage | | 90:14 | Elvis and the entertainer's role in political silence | | 91:33 | Jeff builds his own puppets on tour | | 92:50 | Jeff's new Discovery show, "The Cars That Made Us" |
The episode is a warm, meandering, but illuminating hangout between two comedy veterans. It delivers rare, candid glimpses into the minds of performers who’ve spent decades navigating fame, creativity, and the evolving American cultural landscape. If you’ve ever wondered what old-school comics talk about when nobody’s watching, this episode is a masterclass in generational wisdom, well-timed sarcasm, and the real mechanics of lasting success.
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