Quentin Tarantino | Club Random w/Bill Maher

Bill and Quentin Tarantino randomly riff on movies that make no sense, the developmental stages of babies, Quentin’s love of Politically Incorrect, the Once Upon a Time in America bromance, and that time Quentin visited Bill backstage in Austin. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What a disappointing turnaround from episode one.

I have a love/hate relationship with Maher's main gig, Real Time with Bill Maher, on HBO. The program can be terrifically entertaining and informative but the host has an extremely irritating habit of talking over his guests, ofttimes driving them off point for a silly punch line that might or might not land. But at least on Real Time, Maher doesn't drink or smoke (at least, not while on the air), and it turns out that weed and whiskey amplify that quality to truly obnoxious levels, as is on display in this episode. If you are dying to hear 20 minutes of Maher try to give Rhett Butler's monologue from Gone With the Wind while the guest gamely plays along then, by all means, listen on. Tarentino tries *so* hard here, and there are times when it certainly seems he's getting annoyed with Maher's shtick whilst trying to talk. For this reason, I've bumped it up to two stars, but it really only deserves one. I know this podcast is supposed to be about "nothing," but it should at the very least still be entertaining. Instead, it's just frustrating as Tarentino tries to talk, and Maher keeps interrupting (frequently losing his own train of thought, by the way. Also, at one point, he even does a spit take. Really, who does that in real life?).

Look, the first episode is wonderful, and I'll keep listening (and reviews on the others make me think this is a one-time misstep), so I'm not trying to crap all over the guy, because he's at least making content, and I'm not. That said, I'm sure his skin is thick enough to take it (not to mention his wallet). All he needed was a good editor to cut this down to a tight sixty minutes, and this could have been a four-star episode. It's just something to think about the next time the "clove cigarettes" and whiskey get a little too heavy.