Depending on the week, Real Time With Bill Maher can feature anyone from Academy Award nominees to business leaders to sitting members of Congress. Sometimes that can make for interesting moments of synergy; at others, audiences get more of a grab bag of guests from different walks of life. The latter was very much the case this week: the second half of the episode had a lot to say about domestic politics, but first, singer and songwriter Paul Anka stopped by the studio.
Anka has a new album out and is the subject of a recent documentary. (Unlike some of his peers, Maher observed, Anka “can still sing.”) And he had plenty to say about the passage of time: “I never thought I’d be on TikTok and I never thought I’d be here talking to you.”
The interview included Anka’s reflections on his long career and his early inspiration. “The gravitas of being the writer kicked in for me,” he said of his early years. Though he also brought up the way that songwriting credits were often spilt between an array of participants; the phrase he used was, “Write a word, get a third.”
Anka also looked back on the process of writing “My Way.” “[Frank] Sinatra was inspiring,” he said, and spoke about the conversations he had had with Sinatra when the singer and actor was making the film Lady in Cement.
Longevity was another running theme of the conversation. (Along with both men getting a few innuendo-laced quips in.) “You take care of yourself and it pays off later in life,” Anka said. Later, he addressed his own approach to getting older: “Don’t live whatever your age is.”
Understandably, Maher’s interview with Anka didn’t really touch on politics. But Anka did bring up some political leaders; he mentioned that he had a penchant for altering the lyrics for “My Way” when performing it for a number of powerful figures, including Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Presumably, there’s a story behind the latter; unfortunately, he did not elaborate on it.
Two sitting politicians from rival parties joined Maher on stage after that: Republican Representative Lauren Boebert and Democratic Texas State Representative James Talarico, the latter of whom is currently seeking his party’s nomination for an upcoming Senate race. Things began on a grim note, with Maher making a comment about trans women that Boebert agreed with.
The conversation turned to tariffs and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on them; not surprisingly, the Republican on stage defended the Trump administration’s record on tariffs and the Democrat on stage was critical of it.
If there was one reason for optimism, it was that Boebert and Talarico — two politicians with a lot of ideological space between them — were civil throughout. And later in the conversation, things took a more interesting turn when Maher brought up the subject of religion. Boebert is, shall we say, not a fan of the idea of separation of church and state, a position about which Maher was skeptical. Talarico brought up his own faith and the idea of loving his neighbor. “Forcing my religion down their throats is not love,” he said. He also argued that the separation of church and state is good for both church and state: “When the church gets too cozy with political power, it loses its prophetic voice, its ability to speak truth to power.”
Boebert did seek common ground when it came to the federal government’s release of the Jeffrey Epstein Files. “I think everyone can agree, the rollout of this was awful, horrendous, damaging,” she said.
In his opening monologue, Maher referenced the president’s criticism of him on social media after last week’s episode. “I found this out last week: you have to know when he’s joking, and it’s not that easy,” Maher said.
“He was very mad at me because I didn’t get his joke about how China is going to make Canada give up hockey,” Maher added..” I didn’t. I think we’re going to have to workshop this one.”
Bill Maher and Jonathan Haidt Discussed Social Media and Addiction
Plus Valentine’s Day musings on a new “Real Time”Maher returned to the subject of presidential business at the end of the night, making the case for the end of the State of the Union address. Maher argued that this added to the president’s sense of being a kind of royalty, which doesn’t help combat executive overreach. He then contrasted what he referred to as “The president’s big Etsy wishlist for America” with the more modest approach taken by heads of state in the first century-plus of the country’s existence. He observed that it was part of a larger trend of the executive branch taking over tasks that should be the responsibility of its legislative counterpart.
Other notable moments from this episode:
- Maher on Meta patenting a feature that lets AI continue posting after users have died: “I miss the innocent days when the phrase ‘the internet is forever’ just meant ‘don’t send pictures of your dick.’”
- Also in this week’s New Rules, Maher asked whether NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang is taking style tips from Arthur Fonzarelli.
- Real Time is off next week; Maher plans to address Trump’s lengthy social media post about him in two weeks.
More Like This
This article appeared in an InsideHook newsletter. Sign up for free to get more on travel, wellness, style, drinking, and culture.