David Mamet and Bill Maher cover a lot of ground this spirted conversation, discussing Mamet’s recent film Henry Johnson, his upcoming projects including a novel on education and a film about Abraham Lincoln, the 2020 election, media bias, foreign interference in U.S. elections, Trump’s leadership style, gender policies in sports, the state of California governance, conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination, the Zapruder film controversy, UFO sightings, AI and technology’s impact on society, parenting and discipline in education, the decline of common sense, streaming platforms and the film industry. Go to https://www.ffrf.us/freedom or text "CLUB" to 511511 and become a member today Go to https://www.RadioactiveMedia.com or text RANDOM at 511511 to save up to 50%, today! Upgrade your wardrobe and save on @trueclassic at https://www.trueclassic.com/random! #trueclassicpod #ad Follow Club Random on IG: @ClubRandomPodcast Follow Bill on IG: @BillMaher Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast for free wherever you're listening or by using this link: https://bit.ly/ClubRandom Watch Club Random on YouTube: https://bit.ly/ClubRandomYouTube Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is David Mamet's new film about?
Can I use the topic of prison to seg into a plug of your movie?
Oh, yeah.
If you must. I loved it. Henry Johnson. Thank you. Yeah, well, of course, the first thing I thought was, you know, you have said, I think, now don't throw another 10 grand at me if I get the quote wrong, but I think you were even here maybe talking about it, that movies almost don't need dialogue. Yeah, do that one. And yet, this movie is all dialogue. Well, what am I going to do, you know?
As John Wayne said when he was playing Coriolanus, listen, I didn't write this shit, right? But I did write that shit.
But I thought it was delicious. It's three scenes, really, and Henry Johnson is in all of them, and he's with a different person in each of the other ones. I don't want to give too much away. The first is someone at a firm he was working out with, and then he's in prison. And that's the one with Shia LaBeouf, who has never been better than in that role. He's amazing. And then the prison guard.
And, you know, to me, the through line, not just through there, but a lot of your work is you do feel like people are always conning people. I mean, a lot of your work is about con artists and different ways of conning. Aren't we? Yeah. Yes, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm saying that to me is like the through line.
If I had to think of like so many of the David Mamet stuff that I love is like you just getting into that subject of people conning each other in all the different ways we do it. I mean, some of them are direct cons, the Spanish prisoner and things that are like classic cons that are people actually doing as a con. Those are fun. And then it's just the more subtle ways.
I mean, Shia's whole speech is really about that, is it not?
Yeah. I mean, it's... I'm not quite sure what the play's about, what the movie's about, but I think it's about a guy who is so accommodating that he not only gets taken advantage of by everybody he meets, but causes havoc around him constantly by his goodwill. Somebody said that there are... Old fools and young fools, happy fools and sad fools, but there never was a fool who wasn't cruel.
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Chapter 2: How does Mamet view the state of American politics?
you think most of the foreigners didn't know some because they're coming to america for the same reason many of them have always come to america because it's a beacon of hope and it's a place where you can study and where you can learn and where the labs are good and that's why we have kicked ass in the world with four percent of the population because we stole ideas and good people and good brains from all over the world because they wanted to come here and he is fucking with that
People are not going to want to come here and already have stopped coming here. And we don't want to have a brain drain out of the country, which is also happening. We want to have a good... We're here. What? We're here. We're here because we're too old to leave. We want to have a place that attracts the best brains. That was always one of our big secrets.
Here's the thing. I don't want my tax dollars to go to give an endowment to Harvard.
I don't either.
Okay, so Trump says, wait a second, you have to do away with the anti-Semitism. They say, fuck you. They say, wait, no, no, no, you really have to. It's against the law. It's against the Civil Rights Act. You have to stop.
They made some concessions.
What were they?
Do I have it written down?
Exactly so. They said they were going to make some concessions. I don't know if they made any. But here's the thing. If it were blacks or gays or women, you wouldn't say... Absolutely. They made some concessions. Oh, my God. So Trump says, you have to fucking stop it. And they say, I'm not going to. So they say... So he says, okay, guess what? I'm going to have to raise you back.
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