John Russo
Bill Maher performs at MGM Grand
Monday, Sept. 11, 2023 | 2 a.m.
Bill Maher is best known for producing and hosting ground-breaking TV talk shows “Politically Incorrect” and “Real Time,” sometimes controversial programs that have elevated the 67-year-old entertainer to the position of one of the most recognizable political commentators in media.
But years before he stepped into that universe, he was a stand-up comic, and he still is one today. Maher has been performing consistently on Las Vegas stages for decades, most recently at the Mirage Theatre before relocating this year to the David Copperfield Theater at MGM Grand. He returns for two shows September 15 and 16 at 9 p.m. and tickets are available at mgmgrand.mgmresorts.com.
Since he gets so much attention for his TV gig, we asked Maher if that part of his life wields a heavy influence over his stand-up comedy. “I think it’s the other way around. I think stand-up informs the show,” he said. “I feel like I have a much better understanding of the country than a lot of people who are just commentators on TV, sitting in a studio in New York or D.C. They don’t see the country. They live in bubbles.
“Traveling the country makes a big difference. I was in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it was Pride weekend, and the whole city lit up in rainbow colors and everyone was out walking around, in this southern city, unabashedly celebrating Pride weekend. Things have changed a lot. If you really look at America, it’s a very different place than a lot of people like to characterize it these days.”
Maher said Las Vegas has changed a lot during the time he’s been visiting, which began in the 1980s. “I was a 26-year-old comedian opening for Diana Ross at Caesars Palace back when Vegas was way less fun than it is now,” he said. “And the crowd was not as hip. When you draw a hip crowd in Vegas, it’s hipper than anywhere else, and I get a lot of locals. It’s always a favorite place to play.”
Maher shifted to MGM Grand after Hard Rock International acquired the Mirage and made some changes to the comedy lineup at that theater, with the programming now known as Center Stage Comedy. It’s unknown how entertainment at that resort could change as the Mirage transforms into a new Hard Rock Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.
Meanwhile at the Copperfield Theater, where Maher will come back for another weekender in November, he’s making audiences laugh in a slightly more intimate space just off the casino floor. The easy-access room could help bring even more locals to his shows, but he’s confident his audience will continue to be a mixed crowd, politically and culturally diverse.
“I want everybody, because we have to learn to sit together with people we don’t agree with,” Maher said. “The best part of my act these days is that the crowd is so politically mixed. Conservatives can laugh at Trump jokes and liberals can laugh when we make fun of ‘woke’ nonsense. That’s a model of what our country has to be, because it’s way too partisan. I don’t have a team and I don’t want a team.”
