Real time...with Bill Maher.

I understand that there's a level of expectation that comes with being funny on TV. Everyone wants you to be funny or touch them on some intellectual level if you're a star and meet them in person. Last night, Bill Maher hosted an event in town for the esteemed Michigan Ave magazine and was suprisingly nihilistic on the red carpet. I overheard the following interview :

Chick with microphone: "So what do you think of Chicago?"

I'll interrupt right here. This is just the easiest question in the book. Say something about the local color, the architecture, maybe about Daley. I hung with anticipation as Maher fielded the question...

Maher: "I don't. I don't care about Chicago." (Something like that)

Rattled Reporter: "Well, what about New York?"

Maher: "I don't live in New York."

Ouch. Way to give great press.

Apparently, even though the candidate he supports for the Presidency hails from here, he didn't seem to care that so many people came to see him in our fair suburb strip mall we call the WINDY CITY.

I was really hoping for more of a rock star attitude. Instead we got a bored old man keeping his comedy morsels close to the chest. So when I got him cornered in the kitchen, I did the high contrast portrait you see above to capture that duplicity. I should know that when I expect Superman to come through, it usually ends up being Clark Kent...

Real Time with Bill Maher returns to HBO on August 29th.

Jimmy Olsen out.