Russell Brand | Club Random with Bill Maher

love random what do you got there see gosh would you like one no a cigar is a cigarette without any manners an Englishman said that Churchill no I don't know which one I just assume it must have been of course it's in English it's witty and it's an erudite exactly what do you think an American would come up with that no be bludgeoned with it I believe the English race was created just to give us American something to quote from that's our whole function is to give you a back story yes you're a lexicon with a with a nice green thank you very much so so you're cutting a cigar yeah now you can also use that for circumcision you know I I actually botched one before I came in I thought I'd trim the foreskin out of respect for your country and it's preferred here not that I imagined that our fallacies would necessarily be involved in the conversation but I gave it a trim and it's not been a complete success I'll never with you is that the correct plural of phallus falai you reckon well I mean when you say fallacies it sounds like fallacies the word so like are you saying it that your penis is a fraud yes you'd be saying that our penis is a fraud it's certainly take him in some peculiar Direction I bet you your penis succeeds of things I mean what just why are you wincing it's something to be proud of that you're you're one of the few like rock star comedians did you see me that way I still see you look out you're dressed look how you look you played a rock star twice in movies I think right that's right and you married a rock star and you just and you were on heroin I mean you're a rockstar you know and you have the look you have the look when you say like you can't buy that it sounds fantastic if you could buy it I would have done it by now the thing is Bill is that whilst that sounds like a tremendous set of experiences I was of course there while they were happening they were mostly rather Bleak I find that hard to believe people say that all the time when they describe this life that the rest of us could only dream of you know with the women drugs and the guns and adulation the partying and I'm like why can't you people just enjoy this I feel I certainly would possibly there's a difference between epicureanism Hedonism and what I think I have which is addiction and I suppose addiction means that you're trying to remedy a spiritual or possibly from a secular perspective psychic condition through sort of external means and rather than oh I'm a joyous practical sort of sex Buccaneer for me I was just on like a kind of I'm unhappy and also I'm like by the way sex Buccaneer is is the greatest name for a band yeah if you ever start one and if you ever wanted to make a Portman 2 out of those [ __ ] ear seems so available right portmanteau another great word yeah well uh I'm sorry you didn't have a better time having a better time yeah than the rest of us look actually I'm not seeking uh any sympathy from it I'm just sort of a remarking bill that like when I hear my life described I think oh my God that sounds so cool and indeed was everything I aspired to as a young man trying I think to somehow mitigate feelings of unease and emptiness probably in common with many comics and entertainers and when I did it it just did not work and has left me one of the few areas where I imagine we're somewhat at odds uh only with a kind of spirituality as my last room remaining why do we have to drag all this depressing psychological stuff into it when it just would be great to get a lot of drugs let's see I don't understand why we have to overthink it and complicate it and it's just like we're not really your position it is and I will stand by it I'm a one issue candidate drugs and [ __ ] and not overthinking it I mean not not [ __ ] but like you know yes I mean just rock star sex I mean is there a man alive who doesn't um you know at some point in his youth aspire to that there certainly wasn't when I was 13 years old what would you be if you could have anything a rock star the girls throw themselves at you right just that just that just girls throw themselves at you you had me absolutely and certainly it's what I aspire to but even in your description of it it was an adolescent fantasy and the problem with adolescent fantasy is is that you grow up I grew up and I found myself inhabiting something that didn't endure for me um you describe me as an idealist and I am an idealist and I feel like what what is that idealism I suppose is the the suggests that there's a Telos that there's an object that I'm moving towards and for me that's a sort of a I don't know is it self-actualization is it Redemption is it love is it to live a worthwhile life I mean what are all of the principles that we're discussing when we're having a conversation around politics what's undergirding it if we don't have any ideals I mean if it is just the sort of sort of brutal pragmatism of who gets what you know and I know those the sort of Highly consequential con conversations but surely whether or not you believe in God or if you believe in America or whatever values you hold we're sort of saying there's something we're aspiring to there's some meaning so so to to just wrap up what I feel about the Hedonism is I now now know that what I sought out was the fantasy of a boy and it doesn't work it didn't work not to say that they were they worked for you it worked splendidly for Rod Stewart so so you know let's not let's none lump we we're all different people and and from you know again I'm sort of being facetious about this but the idea that because you went to this different model of marriage and children whatever that is that people do that means you grew up and I didn't I must reject that because again and I think you're projecting I I it's not that I haven't grown up of course I've grown up and I'm just as mature as some other immature people in lots of ways but no I'm not I don't feel like I'm immature because I never wanted to go into that model which I have seen fail so much more than I have seen at work and and so like do I feel the need to like spawn to be labeled a grown-up I don't I'm not suggesting that the only route to maturation is to have a family or to procreate or even enter into sort of social norms around matrimony I'm not suggesting that at all the distinction I'm making is that for me when I lived hedonistically it didn't work and I recognize that isn't even I reckon I'm talking particularly as an addict can I ask you in percentage-wise like what percentage didn't work certainly there must have been a little percentage that was fun and then there was like like a hangover it's like if you asked me after I've had too much to drink when I have a hanger would you trade no I would I would love to trade yes I would love to go back to last night and not be drinking I would give that fun up because this is just too painful but I didn't see it coming that bad is it like that or where there was there was no joy in Mudville there was no joy uh before the pain they a common Trope around addiction is it was fun then it was fun with consequences then it was consequences and no and uh for me it was quite concentrated even now as I've I was 20 years I'm 20 years clean from substance misuse now drinking drugs and still now I can feel in me the uh palette of emotions and yearning that leads to overuse for example of substances it was so clear that what it was in me was a sort of a psychic or spiritual yearning a sense that this is not enough the world you know and I'm talking now about the world I inhabit it as a boy as a child that this isn't going to fulfill me I need something else I need what is it values is it Community is it connection is it meaning purpose what is it and you know and I feel denied that the one things that concerns me I suppose about the secular framing of the ideological sphere is that once you extract a sort of a shared purpose that for me has to have a a sort of a if not a sprinkling of the Divine he says it's actually a Divine Crucible unless they're like what is pleasure alluding to that's why I'm saying I suppose like when I'm like sort of if you're in love with someone or if you're making love with someone or if you're high what is it that you're touching what is this ulterior thing so I mean who said art for art itself was it Oscar Wilde isn't that the same thing as pleasure for pleasure yourself why does that to allude to anything it is the end sometimes the journey is over some people I think just like to stay on the road I like to be home and home is like if you you know are not every day is Happy of course but a day when you're like feeling good you have things to look forward to you feel like you're doing something useful and uh you also have pleasure in your life excitement with other people and conversation sex I I don't I I don't like I don't want to go further like that's like as long as I'm on earth now maybe we don't know maybe in the next World if there is one um there is some other dimension but on this Earth I'm not going to get to that dimension or or you say you can through meditation and and just that kind of some people kind of cannot live without that Dimension I wonder even taking something as um broad yet particular is the opioid crisis in your country that it can't we can't allow it to be lost on us that there's a significant for a portion of the population that are in so much pain that they need to obliviate it somehow what is the source of this pain now when you say pleasure you know it needn't lead anywhere from an evolutionary perspective we are aware that it is entirely perfunctory we're aware that eating food feels good in order to mandate that behavior that sex and feels good in order to encourage that behavior so there is at least a facility in him I wonder sometimes but I Ponder the unanswerable I wonder what is the function of pleasure and as someone that is I suppose gotten myself into I want to say it's not worked for me very well you know and that is a distinct we're obviously different men and like one of the things I've been blessed with is I'm pretty non-judgmental actually about the way other people live I don't so it's not that I don't care but I recognize I don't know that you're just passionate about what you believe yeah and and we are different in the sense that you said it like you Ponder the unponderable I go well that's not quadruple why am I wasting my time trying to agree when I could be partying this is wasteful pondering no I feel like you know was it Freud who said you know it's based this work and love those are the two things that we have and I I don't go much beyond that like that spiritual Dimension I don't you know I'm you mentioned Larry Charles before in religion listen religious is a not a mean-spirited movie at all that's why I think it did pretty good because people didn't see it as an attack on religion they just said you know here's here's the reality of this and we're not hating on anybody but it says it the the message of the movie is I say I'm I'm from the Church of I don't know I'm not definitive about there is not a God who the [ __ ] knows I can't answer the questions that are unanswerable the difference to me with a between a religious person and a non-religious person is we both admit there's these questions I don't make up stories to answer them because I know they're stories that are made up so like can I tell you how the universe began I cannot and neither can you so when you give me your story I'm just saying I did I know people with a faith think that that makes them sound some sort of so Sublime and all I'm thinking is well plainly you heard this story and now you're repeating it and that's really all there is to it and those things that are Beyond us to know while we're on Earth I just feel like why am I masochistically torture yourself trying to figure something that you can't in this life it's like I picture somebody who's there's there's a wall they're standing in front of and they feel like if I could just get a little higher I could get there and look over the wall when they don't realize the wall is a million miles high they're not even close to doing that and yet they're thinking if I could just see a little more you can't so you know I think that makes it easy to be not a troubled soul yeah because I don't have one that's pretty great I mean I really admire that and I I certainly agree but when we contrast what is known with what is unknown it we have to accept that we are dealing with a negligible amount of data even with the wonders of cosmology and the quantum world the little that we understand amounts to zero I suppose my you need something can I have that circumcision thing yeah absolutely I thought you'd never ask do you mean for your penis no for my cigar they always put a big [ __ ] thing on the end of it are these clove cigarettes is that what that is exactly it's a simple cigarette a simple man enjoying a clove cigarette and you say it every week Clubhouse I do not know what they're putting in these clubs because is it having a positive effect it's so fantastic yeah it's been 20 years for you huh mate yeah 20 years and you never uh you never won just one day out of the blue you never just go boy it would be good to just smoke one joint and be hot you know just just pot I mean you know that's a pretty benign you must have had some good times on pot before it all went sour well I do actually remember feeling quite I don't know where I put myself I'd like Mary Poppins hey rooting around in my little carpet bag um you don't believe it on your dick did you no I lost my I lost my nerve halfway through um like but you are circumcised right not actually not like a lot of English people we really are very unwilling to give up any any part of that aspect I'm Clinging On to every millimeter but it's so gross I always said it looks like something that lives in the ocean so so you didn't don't you enjoy well the thing is you're denying yourself variety because when you retain the foreskin there's times where it entirely retracts and Retreats this Advertiser it pops out to say hello you'd see like a glimpse of it yeah it gives you it's a surprise every time I look at mine sorry about this is just messing with you and I'd like to help people yeah I mean we just I love the opportunity to help I live to help it's it's hysterical sorry about that no no I think it's a delightful version of this show this is really a show but it's on a very special episode Russell Brand searches endlessly it's sort of a metaphor for what we were talking about right you're a Searcher I'm a Seeker I won't stop seeking yes exactly isn't that interesting the way that happened do you think that's some kind of cosmic yeah you do I do I think that continually we're being granted is that a show do you think so confidential it was kind of show do you think this is [ __ ] it well I've never had a guy blow me but if I had to have one you'd I'd pick you that's a really very lovely compliment and I'm gonna be watching out for your media appearances to see if you make good on this pledge they all forget and move on how often do you come to come to America or if I was in a bar do you come to America often oh infrequently um no not frequently not no not these days I've not been for a while because I don't know if you noticed there was a there was a pandemic before recently right slowed people down if you still like your store yeah glove America I've got green cards as a matter of fact so oh really doesn't mean I am American no no I love it that you uh you know what I always say when you're a sports fan I have found it is it I don't know what's the oil that's the name of the people that do circumcision in the judaic faith and you know something want to hear something gross of course I am bill okay so sometimes the Moyle gives the baby herpes oh that's not right is it no they should do that it's definitely not right but because like this has happened many times like because they have herpes and then they bite there's a part of it where they bite the penis or or something where the penis goes in the mouth and you know I'm all for uh people doing whatever they want I mean again when I preached against religion it's I was certainly was never saying well you shouldn't be able to no of course you could think any crazy [ __ ] you want but when it bleeds into bleeding yeah and and child abuse you know you I mean I would even say it's child abuse that uh when they seek the the Buddhist you know supposedly the we're not religious we're better than you actual religious people we're more spiritual okay and yet when the when the Llama dies they snatch a child who they have divined to be The Reincarnation of the recently dead llama and I've seen a documentary on this and the mother is weeping of course because they're taking her two-year-old away and the child is weeping because he's being separated from his mother and he gets to go to some you know Monastery where they because he's the reincarnated llama and we're going to examine his poop or whatever they do to you know on what amounts to let's face it a hunk of a hunch this is a Dalai Lama a hundred best you first of all I mean you have to believe in reincarnation now maybe you do do you yeah I mean what I feel like is that it once we start to frame the unknowable within the ordinary using quotidian language to describe the ephemeral we're in danger of saying stuff that's kind of stupid and yet we need ceremony and yet we need ritual I just say would say that if the ritual does involve biting off a baby's dick or snatching a child from his mother absolutely sure there's no other motive what are you sure about that yes because well I mean well said because religion certainly is known as the biggest [ __ ] scam ever I mean everybody's got one cops will pull over a pretty girl and you know that's a big thing with cops and girl I don't know any pretty girl who doesn't have a story about a Cop who tried to [ __ ] him pull the hey you need a ride or you know you know escort whatever their [ __ ] is everybody's got the scam and but boy religion their scam is a lot of it is I'm the prophet and God told me to [ __ ] all the chicks in the compound like yeah and also they're not and the Catholics with the little boys that's right they're not particular about the genitalia like they're sort of equal opportunities uh you're right about that many a good cult has been ruined I'm gonna cut off my fingers do you hold do you hold it there do you want me to help with this because I don't want to look at how you uh how operate this thing yeah what are we taking so we're taking off the top end of that yeah it's like a guillotine right like that Bloody aristocracy holding us back robespier that improved just like that and what is this thing called this this I know I guess isn't it still going to be called a cigar Car Pro like you know in your country I bought a mini mile a minim oil [Music] herpes not included or a portable yeah I mean it's a a mini Moyle yeah if you live long enough you do everything and now I can say I used a mini mole and I have no idea to use it again I'll stick with the scissors someone asked me recently if I wasn't a comedian political talk show host or a podcaster what business would I start I don't know maybe open an animal rescue shelter or a dog friendly strip club or are weed trucks legal yet whether you're starting into a business or a growing one if you wanted to be successful you need the most talented people on your team that's where ZipRecruiter comes in and right now you can try it for free at ziprecruiter.com random ziprecruiter's powerful matching technology finds highly qualified candidates for a wide range of roles if you see someone you like who would be perfect for your job ZipRecruiter lets you send them a personal invite so they're more likely to apply and they use all kinds of keywords to entice the right candidates you've heard of quiet quitting this is more like loud hiring let ZipRecruiter fill all your roles with the right candidates four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day see for yourself go to the exclusive web address to try ZipRecruiter for free ziprecruiter.com random again that's ziprecruiter.com random ZipRecruiter the smartest way to hire did you know HBO Max had podcasts now go even deeper inside your favorite shows with audio companions to some of the most groundbreaking and award-winning shows on television succession is an original series from HBO and it's back for a fourth season every week you can join journalists and host Cara Swisher as she unpacks real world events that Echo The Saga unfolding on screen guests include top journalists writers psychologists as well as some of the people involved in making the TV show stream succession on HBO Max and check out HBO succession podcast on HBO Max and wherever you get your podcasts now you were talking about reincarnation you were talking about oh yeah a lot of the sort of more Rococo aspects yes so yeah because it is quite austere and stringent and we're not saying that there's a God necessarily and all of this stuff but we are yeah following a a flume of smoke a bloom of smoke to a Divine whether or not this child was a llama and I wouldn't disparage anybody's uh religion is it does it's Unbecoming I suppose yeah I suppose what my spiritual beliefs amount to is a kind of benign intent towards one another and the potential for an ulterior realm I.E that all apparent separateness emerged at some point from unity and that is underwritten by the most rudimentary explanation of the Big Bang all of the matter and phenomena was held within us you know what do you think about the Big Bang well as Terence McKenna says give us one free miracle and we'll explain the rest you know like what precedes this I mean it's glorious and obviously demonstrable matter but it doesn't solve a lot it doesn't solve the problem for the Tuesday before the Big Bang is of course but I mean also and I look people who I really think are way smarter than me I know they are about this subject which I am very limited in astrophysics okay that's just not my area let's get into this I know that I know the basics but just the real Basics but you know I I fully believe Neil deGrasse Tyson knows this stuff on a level that I cannot understand so I really uh my point is as someone who's not religious I'm also just taking this on faith because when you go into what the big bang is that everything in the universe fit into something yeah that as as that could fit into your mini moil that's right we could snip it up maybe that's what caused it and let's go into how what what is fitting into something the size of a quarter okay imagine the Earth being so compacted that it could fit into a quarter now if I just said the whole earth could fit in you'd be like that is so ridiculous okay now let's add all the other planets and our sun and say they could fit in there oh wow now you're really stretching it okay but it's not just our planets and our sun it's all the planets and all the Sun so we're talking about trillions of stars maybe trillions of galaxies certainly hundreds of billions of galaxies all fitting in something that small now that does sound as ridiculous as God said to his child son I'm going to uh go send you down to earth and I've knocked up this Palestinian woman she's going to have you know and then you're going to die and come back to life now I don't believe that happened but the other one about the Big Bang is almost as silly unless you're an astrophysicist similarly they require a curtailing of inquiry at some point you have to stop investigating or you go well that doesn't make sense what all reality what is the nature of Consciousness how does Consciousness emerge from biochemical processes why is Newtonian physics falling apart in the quantum realm everything that we understood why is Mata mostly space and what I'm saying is that in the end through brinkmanship you find yourself at the point of miracle and the reason that I I embraced spirituality is because it suggests a sense of Ethics not that I know many great atheists and again both Comics like Ricky Gervais and yes Brian Cox and like you know in my country and stuff um and I we mostly agree be moral love one another be of service all of those things and so why focus on the the points of Distinction really when you agree on what appear to be the most fundamental aspects of it but but for me the idea that what we are honoring is non-separateness the glory of diversity and individuality they're kind of the sort of ever expanding fractal nature of our reality all of this Wonder all of this ore and somehow is it is it relevant to the way we organize our systems of of power or not what are we gonna do because it because once you extract the possibility of unity once you extract the possibility that love has some value some resonance and impacts is and is perhaps in fact the felt experience of Oneness are you pouring out about knowing what it is yeah I I I want to get not good that doesn't matter continue I'm listening to what you're saying I don't want to hear it it's that urine tell me finish this thought it's just yes I forgot that this was the soda all right then as long as you stopped I'd like to make this point about I feel like when religion is ethical it's coincidental I'm not saying it's not religion can't be but it stumbles upon it like almost um haphazardly the Bible I mean the Ten Commandments most of them have nothing to do with what we would call ethics or morality the top four just about God being jealous actually uh well here I would differ I really got an interesting perspective once on the Ten Commandments if if you consider them instead of edicts you know and I know that the name commandment suggests this I've just commanded that you do that but if you ignore that how I like to look at it is if you consider when you are enlightened you will not steal you will not kill and as for the point of uh worship no other gods than me all of us engage in idolatry well I believe the point that is being made is if you do not find God if you do not find your own God which could be love which could be America which could be nature which could be an abundant and Limitless things if you do not find that then everything is potentially God your lust suddenly is God your desire for entertainment is your god greed is your god you shall worship no other gods than me and this God is see submission for me Bill is not just about supplication so that you can be organized into a lovely little flock it's about if you it's the first system that you need to conquer is their self their self if I can't overcome my ego then I will live that is my God that's how I take it I get that you're right I do it's quite a complicated your new American parent no this is my new American character but uh you're being very charitable to the author of The Ten Commandments who lived in the Bronze Age and did not have your flowery interpretation it's nice that you can uh put that on it I mean yes that's that's a lovely way to interpret it it's not what he meant what he meant is there's a man in the sky it's difficult isn't it for us to discern as it tried as it went through Aramaic to Greek to King James did you think like that back then they were they they didn't know what germs or atoms why they were scared they believed in Gods in a very real I've studied the Bible I took a course on it at Cornell the Bible that they definitely were not making them this was not metaphorical it was not uh I think that you will I think that if you look at that book as literal then I feel that its value is limited and I think most articles of Faith bear the inflection of the culture that they were produced by it necessarily and understandably but what I would say about my obviously limited understanding of hermeneutics is that people appear in the in the desert faiths to be aspiring to some kind of unity now I know there's stuff in there there's some water odds with our our modern take on reality but I also would pull you up on you know it is only a couple of thousand years ago 10 000 years ago we were basically the same pre-agriculturally for hundreds of thousands of years we lived in little tribal societies organized around manageable relationships our nearest ancestors the pro I mean like the primates when they hit communities of 70 80 they split and I feel there's so much to be learned from the values that preceded civilization as we understood it particularly in a time like this of fracture and nihilism so I'm not dismissive of any of that documentation not least because these how do these myths survive who do they serve now you can make somewhat cynical arguments about like protestantism succeeded in northern Europe because it deified what the work ethic so it was like a good way of getting people into the grind useful for agriculture useful even when the Industrial Revolution it took place but just because of the the of utility I don't feel that we can be dismissive of it and also Bill the challenge that's left for me is once we exclude the spiritual path we are left with post Enlightenment rationalism and what that it seems to lead to is the reverence for the individual celebration only of the the Primal urges and the Primal desires and that which can be measured and right and believing excessively in spirituality and things of a beyond the realm of Earth mode leads to flying planes into buildings and lots of other horrible things but don't you think there's a counter argument to all of that that really those things are about dominion and territory once you once you let the balloon off the ground once you take off those blocks and and let your mind just go completely free up in the air with nothing to tether it then it's very easy to go from I love my God to you know you have a different God I really should kill you but because it's not true in the post-westphalian treaty age of nation I love my nation so therefore I don't like your nation I mean what is the distinction between a religious ideology and nationalistic ideology when when it comes to the boots on the ground and the drones in the sky you know we're killing you rationally at a distance sorry about that wedding we bombed you know and this and then you are going to bring in the Treaty of Westphalia which failures on the table bill I believe it was 1648. I believe it was that and I believe it 12 minutes before five I believe it followed the defenestration of Prague where they threw him out the window where we get the word defenestration well the window at Chicago and it's it's that word has now come back into Vogue not just because Putin does it literally but it's a word that people use when they're talking about someone being canceled he was defenstrated which is great because it's from French the financial window so to to throw someone out yeah but I want to know who is this guy hermeneutics [Laughter] I don't know that word hermeneutics means a literary set of uh books around a particular Fife the hermeneutics the Canon the Canon of a particular religious set of like the Quran plus the uh Islamic hermeneutics Christian hermeneutics the set of documents that underwrite a particular Faith have you studied these like like in their original I mean you seem so learned on this you must read a lot not any well I I try yeah I try to read but this is um that's what a third grader says of course no but with all of the squiggles like how many how much do you say would you read a day and do you read books like actual books because that's gone out of style um but I'm gonna stick up for books yeah yeah yeah I do I do and I sort of have a I suppose what I have like most Auto didacts is a sort of shallow knowledge in a variety of areas I've not been educated so I cocktail party knowledge would you say that's what I got accepted that's what I feel like I have except for when I've had to legitimize my solipsism there I have studied like you know when it comes to why am I like this why do I feel this way what of other people felt like don't and don't you think that politics is an extension usually just of a personality we're born with I feel like being I mean you're arguing with John on the show and like it's so funny that people they have a lot of trouble like um you know following your politics because that doesn't follow the neatly cleaved divisions that we're in yeah like you'll you'll go after MSNBC uh and it's it's not because you're a fan of Fox News no no I mean it's it's kind of like to the left of that so or it's not in anywhere that you could say oh that's left or right it's just how you see it I feel like I do the exact same thing and people they don't like it when someone doesn't have a team or a lot of people don't the people who do like it they like us a lot but a lot of people just can't get there because we don't have a team and you can't predict what our take on something is going to be that's right and that is you know I know it sounds like we're clapping ourselves on the back but I mean it's also just true that is so lacking I think it's been great what you've done having the chats with the people on the convention all right if we're not going to have these conversations what the hell's gonna happen these people are not self-deporting it's half the country you have to talk you know what I mean that when you look at the internet and all that kind of [ __ ] it's always this uh we own them or we're going to own them or like somebody said did something that they don't it's not stupid or not up to par oh they got oh they got destroyed it's like all this language that Keys people up to think that they can that the answer to the the thing when you don't agree with somebody and I you know there's all these people I don't agree with of course is to destroy them yes uh especially when you know I'm 67 years old like their big thing is with they don't like something I say it's just they don't attack the argument itself it's just you're old as if that's an argument it's like yeah exactly that's why I know some [ __ ] and you're making a dumb argument or not even finding an argument I will say even on this point that when we're talking about anthropology and how societies might organize how families and tribes might organize the annihilation of the category of the Elder is in error when you're chatting to Bernie Sanders on the show I'm thinking these guys they've been around longer than me they know stuff I don't know I I I've asked array of things and now maybe I will learn something if I shut up for a minute perhaps you notice that I talked a little less in that moment and like what and I I have a regard and reverence for that and both a part of a um because of my personal practice of how how I might learn more and how I or treat people but also because in other areas where it might be easier to enter into conflagration and conflict I feel it's vital like I saw the other day after the release of the Capital Hill Jan six stuff to Fox News in particular attacker Carlson in a British newspaper the guardian like he said like I just I was reading it I can't imagine what led me to do it and I regret that I did and it sort of said like um you know he he they released documents uh you know Kevin McCarthy to the far right you know it used to be like even in Europe but like country like that you know you'd have people in your family that are Republican and libertarian and people that are lefties and whatever we'd all just crack on and chat at Thanksgiving not like like far right I think if far right that means that that's a haircut that's boots you know you can't like just be far right because you're a traditional conservative person I don't know if you saw this but when the Italian Prime Minister Maloney was elected okay so we never really got to it on OSHA I wanted to I guess we ran out of time but like the the papers were like they were apoplectic fascism has come back to yeah and they uh could not stand this and like my position was I don't follow Italian politics that much I've read some of her statements it doesn't sound like fascism to me it sounds like things that we've heard people in this country on the right you know it's a lot about we need to like not forget our roots and traditional stuff like fan family and you know I understand why there's a backlash to some of the [ __ ] that's going on it wasn't particularly it was like I'm a mother and I'm proud to be a mother okay that's not that's that fighting words so and also I wanted to make the point because they kept saying well she her party has fascist Roots so did the Democrats they were the party of slavery okay and Jim Crow the Democrat then they outgrew it it so to like to put that on her that you know the roots yes all our parties of roots we we all grow from from corrupt places and now she's I see she's invited to the White House and again I don't know I don't know who this broad is I'm not defending her I'm just saying the the the the immediate like hair trigger oh my God the world has ended Italy has elected of Fashions it's just the kind of thing that makes me go I don't trust you in the media I just don't trust you there's some truth in that but it's your narrative I think they call it um something like uh I don't know some kind of Journalism now where it's like advocacy journalism where it's like we're not even trying we're not even proposing that we're neutral on this and just going to tell you what happened and give you the fact we're going to inject our advocacy into the front page where we used to reserve it for the opinion page bill I feel that the terrifying truth might be that the liberal establishment has been co-opted by the very interest that in the bush Cheney era we've understood to be Republican it's been co-opted by military industrial complex interests it's been co-opted by pharmaceutical interest it's been co-opted by Financial interests and they are simply unable to have the conversation about why there is not a political party that represents the interests of ordinary Americans the when basant of Hussein on your show that it's you know like who who is the affiliate party of ordinary work in Americans now like more people say the problems a comparable thing is happening in our country it seems that there's been a sort of a professionalization if I offer such a term of both the media class and punditry and politics more generally and there's a kind of distaste for working people I was trying to get out with the brexit argument they don't like Ordinary People and the only way to mask that is I think by rightly honoring important issues around identity and excluded cultural groups those are conversations that need to be had and I think they know that those conversations need to be had but I think they're only willing to have those conversations because they recognize that you cannot bring to the table anymore an agenda that will affect the interests of the powerful like he said like but he said they were bought out by the same financial interest that they're we'd conventionally Associated and we're seeing it in the advocacy for war that you can't talk about peace you can't talk about diplomacy that you have to vilify and reduce every narrative the zielinsky's a hero and Putin's a monster that's not the world that I live in wait a second zielinski is a hero in Putin is a monster well the Panama papers like a lot of Ukrainian politicians has some interesting business dealings agreement and there was a peace deal on the table and the West lobbied zelinsky not to take that peace deal so said the former uh Israel's country got invaded illegally I mean you know I I I can't I don't know why you're well I would say bill because of the ever since the fall of the Berlin War there's been encroachment on former Soviet territory that there was a NATO inspired coup in 2014 and that there are significant profits being made it's the same in a sense look I would offer this I'd feel a lot more comfortable about two in 2014. the the 2014 coup in Ukraine that was by U.S interest why would we back a cool that gave Crimea to Putin they lost Crimea in 2014 Ukraine the ongoing I think right Bill to ex to say that this is that this is a humanitarian war that is as an inadvertent side effect and created all this opportunity for profiting for the military industrial complex is as naive as suggesting that the pharmaceutical industry would keep good on their pledge to not profit from the pandemic I'm not entering into the territory like geopolitics is bloody complicated poo in is clearly a former KGB hardcore dictator style quality but like I think that when we extract American you the American unipolar agenda the idea that there can be a global hegemony that America do that want America want to destabilize Russia like I think if you extra if you don't include that in the conversation that what you get is a limited conversation we don't want to destabilize Russia we want to we were hoping after the Berlin Wall fell and then two years later Russia the Soviet Union fell we were hoping Russia would uh become um you know one of the nations of the world that joined the family of Western democracies there was no reason why they couldn't have democracy they sort of gave it a go but it was you know obviously the past was so corrupted that the future was not going to be untainted either and when we did make mistakes I would agree with this which you probably I'm thinking in the direction you're going in I don't think we should have uh kept rolling Nate first of all why NATO if there's no Soviet Union yeah like I'm not saying we should have necessarily disbanded NATO but instead of getting more oh strong NATO more countries it should have been like okay we're saying that the Cold War is Over so why do we need an organization that's against you yeah that was a terrible message to send and I think that set things off it may have gone to [ __ ] anyway I mean Russia is a tough place and the people you know have been brutalized by communism which is horrible for the soul not to mention the pocketbook but um yeah bill can I give you a bunch of facts because like then you can Riff on them because I'd love to see your take on these facts that come from our content on our show like that you know our research gleaned from some great journalists and it's mostly okay to say this kind of mad journalism re-accumulate facts we only use anything that's not been in those the mainstream media let me hit you up with some of this stuff and because I genuinely want to hear your take but let me give you the whole thing as an overview and then you can as Bill Maher because let's face it no one else can do this you knock yourself out okay so former Israeli Prime Minister naftali Bennett said recently a Russia Ukraine peace deal was blocked by Western Powers we know that Boris Johnson visited Ukraine and the council to zielinski against taking the peace dealers on table that's just one thing let me hit you with all this stuff so let's give his vowed to retake Crimea but Russia said that's the red line that will spark nuclear war we know that all right Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said in December 2022 the most basic reasons for continuing to help Ukraine degrade and defeat the Russian Invaders are cold hard practical and practical American interests and then they're just widen this out a little the Pentagon spent 14 trillion dollars after 9 11 55 percent of it went to a for-profit defense contractors the average American taxpayer contributed two thousand dollars to the military last year more than 900 of that went to corporate military contractors at least 15 politicians who shape U.S defense policy have investments in military contractors military contractors split their checks more or less evenly between Democrat and Republican candidates last year and Biden appointed a black rock of a former BlackRock MD to the cabinet in particular to sort out this the post Ukrainian reconstruction these are all these are good facts Bill these are facts possibly I don't have I don't have a fact Checker here I don't doubt it you're not going to need one wait wait but that's it's so far from the point I I mean I feel like your antenna for conspiracy theories I mean you have a good antenna and then sometimes uh it does not serve you well because like even if all this stuff is true yeah it's just more complicated than that both things can be true it can be something that is a worthy Endeavor to stop Russia from invading another country uh and and it also could be the case it is the case of course people in the defense industry are looking to to keep having reasons to make weapons and so forth there are people who absolutely have a vested interest in war those were your facts are saying it doesn't mean even if all that is true and I would agree because there are people who have a vested interest in warga that doesn't mean logically it doesn't mean that every war is because of that I would also be for another reason and then these people go online that's called the shock Doctrine when you take advantage when you take advantage of a crisis yes it's going on but it also could be the case that the war is a valiant Endeavor I I'm not excluding they bomb Ukraine to nothing I mean yeah it's a very valid question now to ask what I'm saying is do you think it's a coincidence that the mainstream media only reports on one aspect of this conflict it only gives you one narrative I'm not like I am obviously not in a look at my glittery trousers I'm not in an opinion position to offer a definitive opinion on this but what I will say is sometimes when you talk about my antenna right this is what I think is like either this war in Ukraine is motivated by a genuine and legitimate need to rightly and correctly support Ukrainian people who are under attack and suffering because of a war because I've seen when I've been looking at life I notice how often humanitarianism is the motivation of the military industrial complex so you're always like how can we help now who can we help now and wouldn't it be great if we had a system it's like oh just to make sure that there is no other no other motivation there can be no profit extracted from this conflict that like you've made your point and I've made mine and now I think we're repeating ourselves because like I'm just going to say again and I I it sounds like you didn't hear me like both things can be true it's just no no yes it is a hero and I'm like well hang on what about this this how how long do you think he's going to get supported with the mic throwing your hands together like oh on the one hand yeah Putin is a murderer who pushes people out of Windows and starts Wars and and all these crimes against humanity and this guy has some shady business dealings he's Ukrainian he was born with a shady business dealing I mean that's what the country was known for before this but okay let's uh I what we're parked lots of those shots I just want to know does that look like more than a shot I'd say that's a generous shot that's but it's a shot glass so why are they yeah what else can I say trying to get me drunk I'm just gonna have a little but I I suddenly realize I'm trying to think it was in my mind why what is his accent that I It amuses me so much I just your accent is exactly the accent that Eric idle uses in Monty Python when he's playing the dumb guy boy which one like a reg yeah one of the Romans of it do like uh well oh I mean even though there's an insult in that no well I'll say that it's more no it's a compliment because because that's the contrast of how bright you are with with that character who is not I know but you sound alike it's because I'm from Essex which is the New Jersey of my country this is the the dirty voice that he does yeah of course I do but what I would say I would offer you as a Monty Python Aficionado and devotees it's more like holy grail where it's like Oh Come and witness the oppression of the system with Michael Palin that could not look at how they impression me who made you King I didn't vote for you we're in a narcosyndicalist that's uh that movie yeah they're great I could watch it every year like The Wizard of Oz it's just it's just first of all so funny yeah like just funny funny yeah and then the points they were making they're they're so prescient there's a there's one where he remember he's he wants to be a woman I want to be known as Loretta reg what's the point in finding if you're right to have babies when he can't have babies gonna just like You're Gonna Keep It In A Box I mean that's like something so I'm gonna root for a sketch last year because of all that kind of stuff that's going on this is I suppose why my true ideology my true religion is comedy because this the the ability to continually refer to isn't this bloody ridiculous none of us know anything we're all sitting on a show for God's sake tries everybody it's a mess my life's a mess I don't know my own life I don't know how you're going to solve the conflict right Ukraine I don't know what you're going to do about the influence of Corporations on American government I don't know the truth is I don't know and it's bloody ridiculous and you know like having records and I think this is why we are seeing do you agree the emergence of comedic commentary in the political space I suppose maybe it began with you John Stewart that kind of and what's different yes I mean there was always some of that what's different is that what I was doing when we started was something that they said could never work which is having the host also render an opinion the other guys like Johnny Carson never did that it was like no you'll alienate half the audience and my theory was no they can like you if they just if they don't agree with you in the 30 years since I started that's almost completely switched yeah because now to survive like in the late night American talk show you have to just be preaching to that liberal audience which is you know mostly what I would agree with too but it's like it's so indoctrinated and it's so like all we all have agreed that this is the premise like Maloney's a fascist that's a perfect example we all read it New York Times and now that's what we're or somebody read it for us yeah and told us and now we're the Italians are taken over by the fascists and like no attempt to like look under the surface or a differing point of view or just and so just stuff that will make people clap in the audience because this is what my team believes this is you know Ivermectin is horse medicine or whatever it is you know I think you brought that up today and like that was a really good example I mean they absolutely did like just it's I perfected it's a drug it's not a politician how you could like the way they in this country like can just just knee-jerkingly take a very obstinate side of an issue that's just that what are you talking about either it works or it doesn't doctors prescribe it to humans it's not it's maybe it helps and maybe it doesn't maybe like some drugs it helps some people and not others what it seems that to me is like the most insane thing that this becomes like you you are a witch because you believe in it or you are you know a genius uh it's it's not that dramatic that I found most helpful on this subject as was written by a former CIA analyst called ma in Guri he wrote a book called The Revolt of the public he had a political role within the CIA that's how he describes it as a data analysis uh he says that in 2000 in 2001 this is presumably a fact as much information was public but published that year as in all human history up to that point and in 2002 because the Advent of the internet and then in 2002 the amount of information doubled again and then every year since the amount of information published has doubled he said that when you looked at it on a on a graph it looked like a tidal wave and it had the kind of impact that a tidal wave will have information is being generated and created you can't generate a central narrative and not have it challenged in the same way that you could 50 years ago now a single journalist or individual with a phone can create content that can be seen by millions and millions of people as soon as a narrative emerges there's a counter narrative there's a Counterpoint you know like wow discussion there about Ukraine again I'm not like you know these are not nailed on facts for me these are discussion points but also be included in the mix when you're talking about something is potentially in Century has nuclear Armageddon you want to make sure that you've considered all of the facts and that you have a media that isn't so beholden to centralized interests that it's not including all the other facts he said mind Guri that what he but you know he says that he goes I believe in Liberal democracy that's what I believe in this guy is not a radical but what he's saying is is that we said we saw it first with Napster then the Arab Spring then the Occupy Movement that the potential for disruption became so uh as it became some sort of ravenous and potent that they had a choice to make either we're going to have to alter the way that power operates we accept that there are numerous publics numerous fears numerous perspectives that people hold very dearly or we're gonna have to double down on authoritarianism how is it that the Democrat Party The Shrine of liberalism social liberalism open-mindedness investigation became the party of authoritarian ISM the argument of course Bernie Sanders made all the economic arguments but he says more broadly and and Beyond these political the distinctions between the two parties is you now have to double down and it even taken in your late night talk show thing is like that's over now they've got their audience the Republican right I've got their audience the Democrat left have got their audience play to your audience count the money has changed for a proper perspective I hope you would concede the the greatest threat and come out of America as far as falling into authoritarianism came from Trump claiming that he did not lose an election he plainly lost and getting a giant chunk of his party to go along with that that is the threat to authoritarianism other threats do exist including some from the left they are not nearly on that level I say don't you think it's a greater fret that whoever wins an election the changes as we discussed on your show are not going to be significant enough for most people but that's the real threat phrase you know the reason that most of the lobbying money is split 50 50 is because they're perfectly fine with either party getting in I've been hearing this for for I don't know since I was a teenager right no I haven't told you yet I'm happy to hearing let me tell you first don't jump your cue I've been hearing since I was a kid that one why don't people get in the streets things are so horrible and it's like I finally realized because for like probably a majority but certainly a great preponderance of people in America life just isn't this unremitting nightmare and so yes do as a liberal do I believe for the people who life is a nightmare we should constantly be working harder to make it so it's not for them yes I do am I willing to give a big chunk of my money and I do to alleviate that misery that we're all kind of in this together and it's not not just not cool if some people are really suffering yes I do but the reason why Bernie's Bernie's don't get elected and there isn't people in the streets all the time because most people it's like on a very basic level they get it that maybe America is actually still better than most places we could be and I'm not really doing that bad no one's actually starving we have lots of problems and there are homeless on the streets and lots of [ __ ] but you know I get up every day I [ __ ] do what I want I have material Goods the toilets work yes it's a mess in a lot of ways but you know am I going in the streets no I've got a meeting tomorrow for for something for my business because this is still a country where I can start a business and and like I can reinvent myself that's a lot of what people like about America that is that face you're giving me because of the smoke or you because of what I'm saying I guess it's what I'm saying it's not such a bad face it was like a it was like a I smell a fart face it was just awful and especially since I'm so right none it's because like I think it's because of despondency and despair and a kind of castration of the spirit that's what I think is that people by and large don't believe and I think that the phenomena of trump could be regarded differently I'm not talking about the sort of the contested elections because my personal perspective is it doesn't actually matter who gets in for a significant number of people and I'm sure you're right when you're talking about like the professional cars or Coastal folk or most people that enjoy the affluence that I've been afforded over my lucky little life but I I also believe that I read a good book by a man called Mark Fisher God Rest his soul though he was an atheist and won't thank me for saying that he wrote a book called capitalist realism he said that what had he believes that the great Triumph of capitalism has been that we can no longer envisage a system Beyond it he said and famously it's easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism people aren't even willing to imagine that there's a possible there's a possibility of divorcing corporate and state interest because capitalism works I'm not talking about a great deal of people that's why it's popular the same way like stereo became popular like it could have stuck with mono but we were like you know what this is actually better it kind of works it doesn't lose something I guess that's why they keep putting albums back out in mono and I'm like I don't know why don't you just put them back on on 78s for [ __ ] sake why are we going backwards or the kids they like vital like you know I have my old vinyl it's like please uh enjoy listening to shitty sounding records that are scratchy I would say in a way people are on the streets people have been on the streets not an enormous numbers protesting and like before an end to current conflicts the black lives matter protests and obviously the movements uh around that's Donald Trump and the movement around Mars and the trucker protest and all of the Agricultural protests in Germany and Sri Lanka and Holland all around the world people are protesting do you know a lot of people who have been in at protest are in the streets because I don't know anybody well I mean it's just like it's just like people were sympathetic maybe it's because I'm older and my people my age don't get go out and do anything let alone go in the [ __ ] Street and go to a restaurant it's amazing amazing how ageless this country is but what I mean to say is that there there are significant protest movements but I think what there is is a clear lack of a real Vision that probably since Clinton and Blair onwards no one is suggesting anything other than the management of decline kind of intimate bureaucracies where we biometrically measure and manage our own health no one's saying we could do something fantastic with America rhetorically of course great claims are made by either side but no one's suggesting that we could reorganize Society no one's anticipating what the AI Revolution is about to behold the loss of jobs the disparate despondency and the the that is likely to engender and with a sort of seeing a return to feudalism yeah in that beautiful film the house I live in uh the great writer of that show the why I said um you know when it comes to the opioid crisis and the addiction crisis in your country he said why don't we just admit that in a post manufacturer in America we've got no need for 20 of the population they're redundant now they're defunct we can lose them and sometimes I think it comes down to simple demographics that this nation can carry a good many deeply dissatisfied and unhappy people and by God it looks like it is because if this ain't nothing all of this conflagration that's going on in this country mostly it seemingly housed around the culture world where I think they're quite happy for people to quibble and quarrel and Roar because ultimately that doesn't affect the interests of the kind of the the elite establishment interest that I'm interested in addressing and that Bernie has tried to address and I would offer you this because it seems as uh during the conversations that I have had with some like former Democrat Party presidential candidates that that party almost consciously deliberately and explicitly decided they would rather have Trump win than win the themselves with Bernie I'd like to put that to you because that for me if that is I will answer that but I will enter it in first in this way can I just take this conversation same topic but a little more toward The Pedestrian diurnal I mean I know you intellectuals I just told you I'm from the New Jersey you do think like an intellectual I mean it's it's uh because that's exactly what I'm saying like let's go let's go to daily life and see if daily life matches with your theory of life because like as you go through your day now maybe I live in a Charmed world of course you do of course I do I don't think I live in such a Charmed world where I go to an office you know I see people who work they're not all like uh making giant salaries one person at that show is I'm not gonna say who but this HBO is very generous it's a good job but it's just a job we all do it I have to say I'm the same as them like oh there are days like oh God I know what I'm I'm tired of it but I got to keep working and we work we all do our best and and I don't think they're unhappy and then if I go out and get coffee somewhere and you know even or a waiter or like even the guy who's like the valet guy they don't seem miserable like oh my God I'm gonna pray they like you know they're living their life like when I was in my 20s I was poor it was I got it like you know I'm working my way up and and there is opportunity and there's stumbles along the way and there's lots of problems and we should keep working on them but it's like I don't know if it's Gonna Get Better by being massively uh rewriting human nature which is impossible or the way the world is constructed I think people are selfish I think you have to always factor that in anytime you're developing any kind of economic system people are selfish and they will go toward what makes their life better hopefully not at the cost of somebody too much but sometimes you know you believe in inline and self-interest but also I don't figure you for a misanthrope you don't I don't feel that at the heart of your belief these people are bad because at the heart at the core of my ideology is a a a a not even a begrudging but an optimistic love of humanity and my belief bill is that if we enshrine Elevate celebrate and then possibly even legislate the higher principles about nature compassion kindness service Unity a willingness to sacrifice and this is where it does get personal because I have to ask myself what are you willing to give up Russell Brand in order to live in a federal world and I'm not just talking about taxation Because by the way affluent like sort of mean a millionaire entertainers ain't the issue we're talking about billionaire I feel offshore corporations with unprecedented power that make the carnegies and the Rockefellers look like sort of quaint little guys with Jackson dimes but I feel my guess is that you live a very nice life and my opinion of that is you should you're talented you worked your way up and but you can't like enjoy it without having some I think inappropriate guilt or like it shouldn't be this way it's the world is only what it is we're always trying to better it but there's you know just enjoy and no you shouldn't trade places with someone who's like not doing well we should lift that person up that doesn't mean we have to like uh put ourselves down lift lift up the people who need lifting I agree with this entirely oh good we're I mean absolute agreement there I prefer even the part where you're making yourself crazy for no reason maybe really I'm open to that I'm open to that I'm open to the fact that something can I absolve you of that God please there's no reason okay am I doing all right absolutely and your life hasn't been a picnic either you've had some really trying times and all that addiction and you know bad press wasn't easy I mean just you know but uh you know you how old do you know 47 47 you're like right here perfectly where you should be I mean and by the way there's nothing you couldn't do in Show Business I don't know you must just not want you must not want to but you like doing what you're doing I mean you're a crusader you don't have time to like get in the Spandex and do it but you would be such an awesome you know you're perfect for like the Marvel Universe I mean you could be the villain you could be the erudite man you could be like something I have a calling and I'm you know like we discussed and joked about remember it seems like an eternity ago when I was a rifling through my rucksack in search of the mini mile that that you mentioned that that I am a seeker and what when you say something like we should lift people up that I feel that there is no chance of that happening with the kind of entrenched systemic interests that we have now because as they say in the circles I move in it's not a bug it's a feature there is a requirement for endemic profit poverty there is a requirement for an abandoned and suffering class of people there's a requirement to distract us with conversations that whilst important will not alter the trajectory of ordinary people's lives and you know what I agree with you help it I wish I could like mean I don't mean I can't help the situation I'm sure I can make some small contribution what I mean to say is that this appears to be the most organic expression of the drive that I've always felt I mean you know you became like a you're ultimately with two stand-up comedians that have had breaks in various ways and for me the stand-up comedy it seemed like oh my God this is the purest form I can just get up there and I can say whatever I want and like you I'm sure I did it for nothing in clubs for a long long time open mic spots and paid gigs I did it I did it I got bottled on stage I got dragged off stage tough tough time and I'm so glad isn't it great that it's over it's so great people when people ask me and I say how do you do it stand up I always tell them if you really want to know the truth you know you that you have this idea that so much pain sad clowns said there is a tall a shitload of pain but it's all like in the first few years then there's things that are not perfect but it's that beginning where you're learning to be funny in front of people when you're not funny I mean you probably were a hit right away because you just have a natural a gift of the gab that and I mean the fact that you don't like um I mean I would love to see you live and you don't you don't play in America do you yeah I did a show I do I've not been here for a while but like I do do I do live gigs I'm not like uh when I talk to a Rogan he says like you know you you should like it's a duty to do the clubs and stuff unlike but like Stanhope says you know like I work hard to get that audience and now I'm gonna play to him I'm gonna play other people that love me that come to see me because they want to hear what I've got to say rather than that that Agony of persuading these [ __ ] that's so funny I mean I I have the highest regard for Joe Rogan I really do um I wish I could do a show more I did it last year yeah I know I watched but um that is such a Joe Rogan thing to say about like he has that he's that kind of comic I've known that comic since I started there's a kind of comic who's like it's almost like we're in the army army of comics and they're just very uh you know they're just very I get it I mean I love comedy too I just don't have that like you know um you know you gotta when I started there was a lot of rules like um well you got to have six clean Tonight Show shots before you move to California you know we had this like template wow yeah and then yes you get clean so that's like 30 minutes of very clean material so you can do it on The Tonight Show and then you'll get a sitcom you know that was the thing we all wanted to be in a sitcom yeah that was the pathway that was the route for the the for the elite achieving comic I I like I sometimes feel guilty again that I don't do that I'm like yeah get out there and do them clubs suffer a little bit go out there and win them over and get make sure that you're opening five is good and it is dutiful like because like I love like the innocent like like I feel like Bill Burr he would play anywhere and he would make it work and Louis would play anywhere like make it make it work you know like I a Chappelle like you know I I Adore those you know Contemporary American Comics at the top rock all of them guys um and but I suppose or aware of like for me and I'd love to hear more about like your contemporaries and how you came up and stuff I feel like um you know like for me there's been okay there's there's Shamanism in stand-up comedy there's a real ability to create beautiful feeling in their room to explode stuff to explore incredible ideas and I sort of when I but I've had like you know the reason I did movies and all that stuff is because it's just hard not to if people offer you those things you feel like oh my god I've got to do it but yeah for me it's a world away from what I actually want to do you're very lucky to have a lucky and of course a diligent and fastidious to have carved out for yourself this position where you can operate in what seems to me to be the you're a perfect environment you know that that's amazing and it doesn't happen for very many comics and of course there are reasons I mean HBO has been a great place I mean we survived for a while on ABC for six years even but like HBO really gets me and I do well for them you know so it's like that rare marriage where and they're genuinely nice people you know they're like people you could deal with they're not they're not seeing yeah I mean they they caught it they sort of for a long time had it to themselves this mode of operation which was to hire people to do shows and then completely leave them alone and be like we trust you just do your thing and we don't interfere a lot and for a long time they had that to themselves other networks were too stupid to do that they wanted a their Network Executives to always make notes and just too much meddling and finally the other one's got the hint that the real talent is always going to migrate to the place where there can be they can be free and and HBO has had some uh bombs because they let somebody they trusted we don't all add a thousand you know we don't all get it and that's okay that's what art is and sometimes it's failing and when it's failing it's thank God only failing for 13 weeks yeah I had my shot at that I did a show on FX where they gave me probably a little too much Freedom you know like and I I misused it and Miss spent it like that's their loss really and when you should be on American TV every night well with the show I have now I've did this deal with Rumble exactly yeah it's amazing TVs like TVs like kids don't even have TVs no yeah it's an old media moving towards obsolescence presumably other than in some like particular there's some manageable spaces I would assume and that what I have now doing a show five days a week streaming live uncensored tackling the idea of appealing to an audience that I know are ultimately more open to sort of a right-wing politics but doing my best to uh convey ideas beyond that that ultimately this what is Rumble now I'm sorry media um stupid it's essentially a competitor to YouTube which has made its raison d'etre non-censorship that has been taken up initially by a lot of right like you you'd have to say a right wing voices but is doesn't have any skin in the game with regard to like all the kind of content that is put out except for that you continue to own your content and you know you can say what you want you can talk about what you want and like for me like freedom of speech doesn't mean freedom of speech to condemn and criticize people it means freedom of speech to attack establishment and look for ways to bring people together I'm interested in I suppose a re-emergent populism and I feel that this space like a left-wing populism as it was initially intended to be it was assumed there will be an accompaniment to the Trade union movement a true popularity the empowerment of people as much democracy as possible as much control over Community as possible or a real ability to confront establishment power and even state power the the two the the the two heads of the Hydra being an overempowered State and an over empowered corporate world and now that we have those things essentially combined but this is in absolute symbiosis you know there isn't it is Dave the Dave Rubin Dave rubin's on there yeah I know what they've been on it's at his company though right but they've owned I believe locals which is the sort of membership aspect of Rumble which is essentially like YouTube he's been here love love I love him yeah he's a great guy yeah and we don't agree politically no but but we laugh about it it's it's it's yeah and the here's the problem with Where We Are media wise as especially at Free Speech you know as Comics we adore free speech I it's it's my life blood I couldn't be there I'm so grateful to the people who came before me who were Martyrs for free speech in a way I mean Lenny Bruce had nine trials I think you know trials actual trials yeah not like oh my trials no I mean we're actually putting you on trial but so free speech I mean when I was younger I mean there was no doubt in my mind who the champions of free speech were and and also the threat and the threat was all on the right yeah and the Champions were on the left and that's not how I feel now so when people say like oh why are you harder on the left well that's one of the big reasons because I certainly appreciate the threat of free speed from the right I mean Trump said if anyone took him seriously like if he was a normal president where you didn't just hear something crazy again today and then write it off people would have been very alarmed because he would say things like you know now the midi is the enemy of the people I mean this is like Hitler talk you know and uh maybe we should look into the New York Times or MSN maybe they should lose their life you know just stuff that's really threatening so I get it there is threat on the right but the left is much more in my face much more constant much more a daily problem just you just they just want to catch you and find people that go canceling they're just a mean girl attitude to it and it just squatches and puts fear in people so people don't speak their mind when when people are making cringy apologies I always want to say you know what maybe the woke people should apologize to me and people like me for all the things they robbed us of never hearing jokes that were never told because someone was just too scared to say something you know letters emails things that were never written thoughts that were never expressed because it was just easier to go along so when I hear about a free speech platform unfortunately now that to a lot of people and including me my antenna goes up like is this actually a right-wing platform because because the right it's funny because the right actually I think once this kind of free speech that's what like I know a lot of doctors who uh were reasonable people who should have been heard on covid yeah but MSNBC wouldn't put them on oh we should have brought that up today yeah ah yeah I was moving into I was going to do so the only place they could go was Fox News so then they get branded a conservative because they're on Fox News and they're saying I'm not they're just the only ones who would put me on there were people that invented vaccines that were being called Auntie faxes the whole thing became he became hysterical I mean that's the problem with so like when I hear about this organ I'm like is it really a bunch of Just Right Wingers or is it really free speech so tell me well I believe that those categories are certainly not just a right winger no I'm not I mean like this is how I approach this like people should be able to believe politically what they want to believe it it seems to me that if you're on the libertarian right that you would believe in people's right for freedom of expression right on what is currently regarded as the far left whether you know if you want to be left alone you be left alone to be who you want to be and in fact some kind of truce around traditionalism and progressivism seems to be the the a necessary one at this point look you be as Progressive as you want to be you be as traditional as you want to be this leave each other alone and kill each other over this stuff we've got bigger fish to fry right lizard you know and so the way that Rumble is regarded and I spoke to Rogan about this is you know it's being portrayed as a right-wing space and there's no doubt that there have been right-wing contributors that have con that have accelerated it's Ascent as a platform but the reason I'm there I've got no interest in condemning people or criticizing people because of their lifetime choices because of their culture I believe I do believe in Freedom I do believe in freedom but I feel that you cannot have that freedom without an open dialogue and an open discourse around all of these subjects and the ability to make mistakes and the ability to be wrong and to resolve these issues collegiately and collectively with in good faith not be looking for ways to find easy sort of the tag it back to Trump or to tag it to listen to me and they'd like to there has to be some good faith arguments bill I don't need to pee quite bad I gotta we have to wrap this up I could talk to you all night is that is this a wrap up Shuffle there yeah what's going just what what were you just talking about yeah you were like quite High because I'm completely in the same mood what were you just saying it was something I was saying that we need to we've got bigger fish to fryer then and we have to have a truce between traditionalism and progressivism you get the ideas the same stuff I'm always saying pretty good are you gonna let me do a pig because I'm actually in some distress it doesn't take me long right no that's just this was like uh we're gonna wrap it up on the page I think so because like I worked all day yeah probably I don't wanna I feel like I'm taking advantage of you but I know what I was going to say uh you know I admire you for for so much because you're so passionate about these things but I just because I just mentioned Lenny Bruce so I'm going to say that that's a sign from the universe and by the way Dave rubin's always trying to convince me about the universe which I find amusing but um I'm gonna pretend there's such a thing is the universe and say that uh Lenny Bruce you know he forgot to like be an Entertainer because he was so passionate right I don't want that to happen to you I don't think it will it never has you proved that like not just here but on real time today it was just like you know you bring them in and just uh that's you know I don't know why I'm anointing myself as the person to give you advice you probably don't need please you're just such a great Entertainer please don't like just you know I know the uh the world is falling apart and it's certainly mostly your fault you know that old saying don't pity the Martyr he likes his job thank you [Music] no I'm so sorry oh God

Channel: Club Random Podcast

Views: 1,278,031

Keywords: club random podcast, club random, podcast, bill maher, bill, maher, club random with bill maher, real time, real time with bill maher, Russell Brand, russell brand news, russell brand video, russell brand politics, russell brand interview, russell brand msnbc, russell brand bill maher, russel brand, brand russell, russell brand podcast, russell brand joe rogan, russell, brand, russel, news, brandthe, politics, russell brand bill maher full, russell brand bill maher full episode

Id: kKg7vzl32KY

Length: 86min 0sec (5160 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 03 2023