Miller’s jokes, if not politics, hit mark

Fri, Jun 10, 2005 (8:37 a.m.)

In interviews he describes himself as a Libertarian, but his political posturing during his comic monologues tend to put him in the camp of the more conservative wing of the Republican Party.

Thus, Miller and I are politically polarized.

I disagreed with many of his observations, diatribes and sarcastic skewering of liberals during his 60-minute stand-up show at the MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre.

Miller's blunt commentaries on former President Clinton's sexual misconduct, his belittling of the American Civil Liberties Union, his whitewashing of President Bush's failings, his sucking up to Vice President Cheney -- Miller has become the poster boy for the plutocracy.

So why was I laughing?

Because he is funny.

Miller may be right of center in his politics and social philosophies, but when it comes to comedy he hits the bull's eye.

Miller's observations might be wrong, at least in my opinion, but his delivery is superb. He is a smooth comedian with great timing who does not become flustered by sudden comments from the audience.

As he stood at the microphone, delivering a particularly funny bit about Branson, Mo. ("Las Vegas for people with no teeth"), someone yelled "I'm from Branson!"

George Carlin recently went ballistic over fans making comments during his performance, but Miller simply sidestepped it.

"It's just a joke -- all these are jokes," Miller said to the fan and smiled. "I'm sure Branson is great."

And then he went on with his act, which covered an plethora of topics, from a woman in Paraguay who recently gave birth to her 23rd child ("For Christ's sake lady, it's a vagina, not a clown car") to Vegas ("Years ago I had relatives who lived here and worked in the sequine mines").

Miller's monologue is intelligent, sometimes profound and sometimes profane. He seems to take delight in using arcane words that make you wish you had brought your pocket dictionary.

The comedian rose to national prominence in 1985 after joining the cast of "Saturday Night Live," where he was in the "Weekend Update" sketch, an appropriate spot for him as much of his material is taken from current headlines.

"I don't know if Michael Jackson is a pedophile," Miller said. "But he needs his ass kicked."

He spent a few minutes spotlight issues of the Catholic church and Wal-Mart.

Of Pope Benedict XVI, Miller said: "He's 78 for Christ's sake. They pick them old, don't they? Why is that?

"I think it's like Wal-Mart -- they hire them old because they know they're going to croak soon and they won't have to pay for benefits."

Miller observed that the pope appears to be a decent person, "But I must admit when you get a German, a balcony and an adoring throng together I'm not too happy about it."

He dwelt on gay issues.

"The big story out of Mississippi is that the ACLU is helping Mississippi homosexuals overturn the state law that prohibits homosexuals from adopting childrent," Miller said. "I'm not an expert, but if you're gay and you've set up shop in Mississippi, I don't think you're qualified to raise children."

He hates the French.

"I went to Paris to visit a sick friend," Miller said. "I stayed in a tough neighborhood -- on a street called Rue the Day. The French hate our guts. I can't believe they gave us the Statue of Liberty.

"They must have been throwing it out, anyway -- at least we had the good taste to chisel the arm pit hair off the statue."

He doesn't think much of North Korea, either.

"North Korea is thinking of having a nuclear bomb test," Miller said. "I'm thinking we may have to go in there and drop a nuclear bomb on their nuclear bomb test."

Miller managed to avoid politics through the first half of his show, but he couldn't stay way from it the entire evening.

When he did, he assailed Clinton and defended Bush.

His criticism of Clinton was not that he received oral sex from Monica Lewinsky in the White House, but that afterward Clinton trashed her -- then Miller proceded to trash Lewinsky himself.

He also didn't like Clinton because Clinton didn't come clean about smoking marijauna ("...I didn't inhale.") -- but Miller said nothing about Bush's refusal to respond to allegations about his past drinking problems and allegations that he used cocaine.

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