Maher challenges conventions with ‘Real Time’

NEW YORK — When did Bill Maher hatch the idea for special “Real Time” broadcasts during the political conventions?

“Maybe when Donald Trump began talking about riots,” Maher replies with a puckish grin.

That was way back in March, when the GOP presidential nominee warned of riots at the convention if any efforts arose to snatch the nomination from him.

Riots notwithstanding, last week’s Republican convention in Cleveland and this week’s adelphia still promised Tto be “crazier and more outrageous and more interesting than ever,” says Maher. No wonder he has supplemented his weekly “Real Time” hour (Fridays at 10 p.m. on HBO) with half-hour popups for a rapid response to each night’s goings-on. Also available to non-HBO subscribers by live- streaming on the “Real Time” YouTube channel, each edition has included a monologue as well as Maher’s signature “New Rules” commentary and, in between, discourse led by Maher with his in-studio guests. Each program is scheduled to air live at 11 p.m. EDT — that is, unless significant stuff is still happening: “You can’t interrupt a riot,” Maher cracks. or out of politics is a laughing matter. But that doesn’t stop Maher from trying. Indeed, he says he’s pondering a piece for the future dealing with what he calls “issue fatigue.” “A while back I started writing down all the issues I was reading about that concerned me, and the list just got longer and longer: the polar ice caps are melting; antibiotics aren’t working anymore; the coral reefs are disappearing; and on and on.” He sighs. “And then a couple of weeks ago, I read how we are running out of sand . Sand! Really?! And I thought, ‘This almost makes me not care about ANYTHING!’ “When you consider the list, it’s so NOT funny, it’s funny. I’m going to do something funny with this, if it kills

V’s l ongest- reigning comic, Maher, 60, has been finding the funny as a busy stand-up since the late 1970s, and from 1993 to 2002 he upped his game by hosting “Politically Incorrect” on Comedy Central and then ABC, followed with “Real Time,” which HBO launched in 2003.

“I’ve always made jokes about the issues,” he says, “but on my show we’re also talking about issues seriously.” And, though a self-declared liberal, “I’ll always tell a liberal when they have spinach in their teeth.