Why isn’t Bill Maher touring anymore? Veteran comedian opens up about life on the road and state of politics

Bill Maher is tapping out of the tour circuit, at least for now.

In the latest episode of the Club Random podcast, the comedian told his guest, Patton Oswalt, that he is not touring for stand-up comedy shows indefinitely, due to the country's current political landscape. He said:

"I don’t want to be out there in this country, in this political atmosphere. I could get shot by the left or the right. It’s a good time to not be out there."

Given Bill Maher's often blunt and contentious remarks, he usually receives flak from HBO's Real Time talk show and the political aisle. In fact, just last Nov. 14, he lambasted Donald Trump's distraction strategy regarding the Jeffrey Epstein emails and files. He quipped:

"Now that that’s over, we can get back to the important business of government: reading a dead pervert’s emails. We’re doing this again? Again, Epstein?"

Meanwhile, on the podcast, Bill Maher also cited feeling "tired" as the reason he decided not to hit the road anytime soon. He said he is:

"tired of being twice as funny as people who were selling twice as many tickets as me."

Maher also noted that he's "on TV every week," explaining:

"Not that I didn’t sell a lot of tickets and do great theaters—but I didn’t sell arenas. And some people did, who, frankly, are not that great. But, you know, when the audience is 35 to 45, they don’t wanna see somebody 70… I just did my 13th HBO special. I feel like that’s a good body of work… I felt they all, they basically got better as it went along. I feel like the last one was the best one, which is a good way to get off."

Bill Maher comments on Charlie Kirk's death

Bill Maher's announcement follows after the backlash he had received in recent months from the left.

However, at the time of Charlie Kirk's passing in September, Maher commented that it was pointless to debate which between the Republicans and Democrats is worse, explaining that both sides are toxic.

"It’s a very ugly week in America with violence of all kinds: political violence, regular violence, a lot of people talking about a civil war. And then today in Congress, because Charlie Kirk got assassinated, [Colorado Representative] Lauren Boebert stood up and said, 'We need to have a prayer.' So they started to have a silent prayer."

The comedian continued:

"And then she started screaming, 'No! Silent prayers get silent results.' As if praying out loud gets big results. Then the Democrats started screaming at her that there was a school shooting in her state. I tell you, so far, the civil war is not very civil."

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Watch the full episode of Bill Maher's Club Random podcast chat with Patton Oswalt below.

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