On Sat., March 30, Dennis Miller’s tour brings him to Tampa Bay. He will perform standup — silly and socially satirical but always tongue-in-cheek — at the Mahaffey in St. Pete.

Miller made his entry to entertainment as the anchor of “Weekend Update” on Saturday Night Live. He is known for his dry, sarcastic rants riddled with obscure references to esoteric miscellany that’s by turns trivial, sophomoric, and intellectual.

He is in his sixth year as a radio host with The Dennis Miller Show syndicated nationwide, and he has a Q&A YouTube series called “The Bathrobe Sessions.” He has also been an outspoken conservative, appearing regularly on The O’Reilly Factor.

My discussion with the comic/pundit ranged from prioritizing his junk over wearing fashionable materials to feeling disenfranchised by Obama. I felt Miller was actually speaking with me, as evidenced by his final line when I asked him for bathrobe recommendations:

“Flannel. Flannel," he responded. "I find that the rayon abrades the genitalia. The plaid certainly denotes the … Scottish clan that you come from, but I’m not as worried about being ID’d vis-à-vis the castle of my ancestors. I am worried about my penis head getting all roughed up. [beat] There’s your lead!”

Miller was obviously enjoying himself — he only laughed a couple times, but you could hear the delight in his voice and what sounded like a pre-laugh that he’s trained himself to subdue as he gave The View a racier moniker, drew the White House press corps closer to Kevin Bacon, and especially as he talked about a favorite Al Pacino scene.

I thought it would be fun to ask Miller how he would present himself in two hypothetical scenarios: performing at the White House Correspondents Dinner and alone on a rowboat with Obama in a post-Apocalyptic world.

On the White House Correspondents Dinner: “I wouldn’t do that. Those crowds are so uptight. … If you say anything that used to be just deemed … flat-out funny, they have to shoot it through some fuckin’ decoder ring now to see if they’re allowed to laugh at it, or they’ll lose their job … It’s like workin’ for the town elders from Footloose.”

Then there's President Obama and Miller on a rowboat during the apocalypse — “‘You gonna pick up one of these fuckin’ oars eventually, pal?’ I know I’d be pullin’, and he’d tell me how he was using me pullin’ to save the ocean. That’s what Obama will do. He’ll always talk about how you, in the name of fairness, should pull both oars a little faster.”

Miller is a fan of Glengarry Glen Ross, using the steak knives line as an opening for his radio show for a period of time. I asked him what made the show so memorable to him.

“To me the genius of Glengarry Glen Ross is summed up at the moment when Al Pacino is sitting at the bar in the Chinese restaurant, and he’s going off on some mad, crazy, demented, Joycean rant about the horrific nature of life on a daily basis. And just when you think he’s about to lean in for the ‘Aha’ moment, he says, ‘I have something to show you.’ And you’re thinking, ‘What is this going to be? His deepest secrets? His psyche? His heart? His soul?’ And he reaches in and pulls out a brochure for a condo!”

The tone grew serious when Miller commented on right-left polarization. I asked him whether the divide is too deep, or if we are in a culture where we can have meaningful political conversations.

“No we’re not. I blame Obama for that. I think he’s a divisive cat … He’s in charge. He should lay off people he disagrees with. … I can tell you I don’t feel like the guy really digs me — I don’t mean just me, I mean people like me. I think he thinks we’re the problem. So how am I supposed to react at that point? Like any human being, somebody doesn’t like you, you don’t like them. You’ve got to lighten up.”

The mood lightened again when Miller discussed the importance of speaking one’s mind. Agree or disagree with Miller’s message, humorous free expression is central to him.

“I don’t care how much they flaunt over him. To me he’s an inept civil servant. I don’t look at him as a God amongst men who’s come here to change the template. I look at him as the guy at the DMV. I’m tryin’ to get my eye test, and he can’t find the box top from the cereal box for me to cover my one eye with.”

This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2013.