Barry Levinson | Club Random with Bill Maher
Club Random with Bill Maher
Levinson on avoiding polemics in film
Barry explains his preference for narrative mechanics over preachy polemics, using Wag the Dog as example.
Bill Maher sits down with Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson for a fast and funny masterclass in storytelling. Levinson revisits the Diner years and the “controlled chaos” of getting real performances – why loose, actor-driven rhythm can beat perfect dialogue, and how ensemble films changed the game. From there, it’s a hop through Hollywood history: Robert De Niro’s work ethic and the behind-the-scenes realities of building Rain Man during a writers strike. Maher and Levinson also go big-picture – why comedy ages faster than music, what’s been lost in today’s committee-driven studios, and a darkly hilarious debate about AI, jobs, and why machines still can’t do human funny.
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ABOUT CLUB RANDOM
Bill Maher rewrites the rules of podcasting the way he did in television in this series of one on one, hour long conversations with a wide variety of unexpected guests in the undisclosed location called Club Random. There’s a whole big world out there that isn’t about politics and Bill and his guests—from Bill Burr and Jerry Seinfeld to Jordan Peterson, Quentin Tarantino and Neil DeGrasse Tyson—talk about all of it.
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ABOUT BILL MAHER
Bill Maher was the host of “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC) from 1993-2002, and for the last fourteen years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 40 Emmy nominations. Maher won his first Emmy in 2014 as executive producer for the HBO series, “VICE.” In October of 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous.”
Maher has written five bestsellers: “True Story,” “Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? Politically Incorrect’s Greatest Hits,” “When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden,” “New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer,” and most recently, “The New New Rules: A Funny Look at How Everybody But Me Has Their Head Up Their Ass.”
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