Bill Maher - A Million Laughs, then a Million Bucks

Last night, I had the pleasure of experiencing a full hour of Bill Maher--in person. I had seen him before on TV when he'd open with a monologue and then sit down with guests to hash out the latest stories from the headlines. But live and in person works great for the 56-year-old comedian and social commentarian.

If you were brought up to be a nice boy or girl, your parents probably told you that to avoid trouble, don't bring up sex, politics or religion in the conversation. Well, Bill revels in talking about all three--sometimes at the same time.

It's natural that he'd go after the current trio of Republican presidential hopefuls, and he skewers Romney, Gingrich and Santorum with brilliant flair. In fact, it may have been the entire first half of his hour that was dedicated to tearing them apart, as only he can do it.

For religion, there's nothing like pointing out the documented weaknesses of the Catholic Church, in which the professed atheist Maher was brought up. Sex? Well, plenty of hilarious references to male and female sexual organs and things done with and to them. When he discusses old Catholic bishops' statements on a woman's reproductive rights (mixing sex, religion and politics in one topic!) he talks about "70-year-old virgins who wear dresses to work." Nice (big laugh, too).

If you're a liberal Democrat and not religious, like this crowd, Maher is your man, and he was in his element here in Silicon Valley, California. What was not expected, however, was his surprise announcement of a $1,000,000 donation to the president's political action committee. Maher first warned about not taking Obama's re-election for granted, despite what he sees as a crop of crazy men on the Republican side. Then he had two young women carry out one of those giant checks (see photo) and told of his support. He said, "I'm not a multi-millionaire, and this hurts," he said, but said he hoped that wealthy liberal Democrat donors would pitch in too, based on his example. Surely some smaller donations will be made today by those in the audience who are also worried about a Romney, Gingrich or Santorum presidency.

His CrazyStupidPolitics performance was streamed online as a debut of the Yahoo Screen Live Comedy Series, but being there in person was great fun and went all too quickly. When you're doing it live, when the show's over, it's over. No retakes.

Music and Comedy - Two Shows in One Day

I got to watch two ladies in my life perform yesterday. One was my nearly three-year-old granddaughter, who made her stage debut in a production of Alice in Wonderland as a singing flower. Always a free spirit, she left the stage for a while, but returned to complete the number with a flourish.

The company featured some entertaining performances by older children and some teenagers, who kept the story and music flowing. I hadn't seen children's theatre in as long as I could remember, so it was a little nostalgic and the unevennesses were just part of the experience.

Any time spent with a grandchild is a treat. She had her parents and two of her three sets of grandparents there to witness it, so it was a real family event, too.

After this, my wife and I headed back to our neighborhood and took in a comedy show at the Englander in San Leandro that included my very funny friend Barbara Garber. She has been generating laughs since I met her many years ago, and has a way of taking her experiences and transforming them into hilarity. Her own laugh is funny in itself and helps set the mood.

Barbara has been working seriously on spending more time onstage--which I encourage for anyone who has been around awhile and wants to pursue their passion. I think she has what it takes to really make something of this.

As for my granddaughter, there's no way to know if she will develop an interest in musical theatre, but she has made the first step.