The sign language interpreters at Popejoy Hall earned their keep Tuesday night.
As soon as comedian and TV host Bill Maher took the stage to a standing ovation from the packed house, he began a playful banter with the woman stage left assigned to repeat his jokes and rants to the deaf.
He asked if she was aware he is known to use a specific lewd word or two, which she promptly translated to a roar of approval from the crowd. Maher appeared under a banner for the men's magazine FHM's Comedyfest and ASUNM's Student Special Events.
With the mood for the next two hours established, Maher launched into a series of riffs on the election - the issues that divided the voters this year - and more familiar topics for Maher like marijuana use and religion bashing in the tradition of George Carlin.
The largest target, and the most battered by the end of the night, was President Bush. A crowd favorite late in the show: "If Bush was any more retarded, he'd be on death row in Texas."
Maher, host of HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher" and author of When You Ride Alone, You Ride With Bin Laden, also commented on his old job as host of ABC's "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher," which ended shortly after controversial remarks comparing the bravery of the hijackers to that of soldiers firing cruise missiles.
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"The only person in the United States to get fired over 9-11 was me?" he said.
In a stand-up act that touched on nearly every controversial topic of the day, Maher roasted conservatives for wanting to put "a fetus next to Ronald Reagan on the dollar bill" while swiping at democrats for being "weasels" on gay marriage. He also fantasized about a presidential race between "the best warriors of their tribes," Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, or, as he termed it, "Alien vs. Predator."
Gay marriage, an issue widely credited with bringing out conservative Christians for Bush in the presidential election, was a particularly potent subject for Maher's wit.
"In red America, if one man wants to put something in another man, it'd better be a bullet," he said.
Other highlights of the event included a translation of rap lyrics into "white" that Maher called "Master P's Theatre" and an exchange with an audience member in the balcony who screamed about "voting machines" when Maher was dissecting election results.
"The people who make slot machines should be the same people who make voting machines," he said.
