When Jonas PR asked if I'd like to interview Dennis Miller, I said sure. I mean, I loved him when he was on SNL and I loved him on HBO every week. But, as most of his 1990s-era fans know, his political views seemed to change and, well, it was like the man disappeared. Nevertheless, I still wanted to interview him, but right wing or left, he's an intelligent man and I was… daunted. So I asked a group of folks many of you may know: Jim Wright's Stonekettle Station. They had plenty of suggestions. I picked a few (they've all been edited, so please know these are not verbatim), then talked to Miller.
A few quick things about this interview: We've had to edit it for length, he's a nice guy in person, and this interview was, at times, awkward. Listen to the entire interview on SoundCloud, but here 'tis, scrubbed of the "ums" and "ahs" and all the hiccups.
When I was a kid watching SNL, you seemed so far to the left of me that I thought you were a socialist. You seemed sincere, which was why you were so funny. Now you seem so far to the right of me that I can’t believe I remember you making jokes that somehow took down Reagan, motorcycle helmets and… everything else in the same sentence. We all know that 9/11 caused that shift for you. You've been very clear about that. But what one of our readers is wondering is how have you had to change your stand-up and delivery for your humor knowing that you're going to get more conservative people in your audience. —Nathan Cook and Charles J. Cohen
It's easier with conservatives because they're better laughers. You can see on a college campus right now with progressives like Jerry Seinfeld, who said he won't even go on a college campus anymore. One, it's a lot easier if you do have more conservative people coming because they're more prone to laugh at themselves and get a little easier. You know? You can see that there's a lot of hectoring going on on the left right now. Secondly, I go back and look at those old shows when I was sort of the same pragmatist I am now. When you get on Saturday Night Live, whoever the president is, when I was there, you made fun of. I know that's changed a little. I think I saw one night three girls on Saturday Night Live — I saw a clip of them singing "To Sir With Love" to Barack Obama's photo when he was stepping down.
And I thought, "This is going to be a great joke," and it was no joke. That was the end of it. But when I was there, whoever was the president, you made fun of. Reagan was the president, I made fun of [him]. But I look at some of the old stand-up specials — it seems to me I was always socially liberal. Gay marriage… I'm happy for gay people if they want to get married. Abortion… I think some of them are wrong but not my business; I'm pro-choice — I just would like to keep half my money. I guess that makes me a pig in the times we live in, but in Florida, it's easier for people down there to say that 'cause I'm in California. And, uh, the 9/11 thing you're referring to is after that I did… yeah, I don't trust radical Islam.
A lot of our readers … do remember you on Saturday Night Live. One of our readers wants to know personally what's your best memory about being on Saturday Night Live looking back? What do you think was the best time you had there? What's the best thing that happened that you even witnessed? —Cate Bramble
That it was hard and that everybody couldn't do it. I kinda like that. I talked to Carvey about that once in a while. He's probably who I stay closest to. We like the fact that it was a really strict meritocracy. It wasn't predicated on anything except whether you were good and got laughs and that because I'm not sure everything's like that anyone.
Some of your references are kind of out there. Murray J. Anderson wants to know, do you freeform them as you go, do you mainline a lot of media to be so hyper-aware, or do you have a staff who researches for you? —Murray J. Anderson
I have a staffer who mainlines. His name is Murray J. Anderson.
Please tell me you're kidding.
Yes, that is a joke.
Well, I'm a liberal, I can't laugh, right?
I didn't say "can't"… but I think if you were to be fair as a liberal right now you might look around the country and say that between political correctness and college campuses, which I think anybody would grant are very liberal, that there are a lot of things that one can't say right now as per the liberal political correctness… maybe you don't see that, but I'm telling you it's out there.
What would you rant about today? Is it political correctness? —Nick Sanders
Yeah, social media, political correctness, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump. …Probably about half the show, three-quarters of the show is about day-to-day life. I don't think you can go out there anymore and talk about politics for 60 minutes because nobody's going to budge, quite frankly, on anything. But I must say I do think, 'Where am I going?' 'Can you do a joke about this or that?' And there are some cities now I would say just pull that because the effect of the evening is supposed to be fun. I just know when I'm in certain cities where there are jokes that people won't react well. Like Jerry said, it's probably best not to go on a college campus right now. I think it's wise to use your head when you're in certain cities about what you do jokes about because certain people are more receptive to "jokes" and other people are… It's a highly monitored situation.
I guess what you're saying is you're probably not going to be at Berkeley anytime soon…
Well, you know that's pretty dangerous there. I think you saw that footage that night, right? [He's referring to violent protests when former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopolous was scheduled to speak at Berkeley in early 2017, and no, I had to admit I hadn't seen the video. #WinningAtInterviews.] I think it would be fair to say if you were there as a guest columnist and they were throwing chairs and tables through the window, lighting guys' cars on fire, you would say, "I don't think I want to be at Berkeley either."
There are a lot of places I wouldn’t want to be… What did you want to be when you were 10 years old, what career did you think you would end up with, and what would 10-year-old Dennis Miller think of Dennis Miller today? —Kate Weizel Hahn
I wanted to be a fireman. I think he would think he was a decent man.
[The picture of you in the advertising for your show] doesn't look like you've aged. It sounds ridiculous to ask, but why do you look like you haven't aged? What do you do? What kind of work… a special beauty routine, a portrait in the closet aging for you? —Sabrina Dalessandro
I think the picture's probably from 20 years ago. I'm 64; I'm aging appropriately.
Who fills the void left by George Carlin? No one really can, but who tries best? —Becky Roth Racioppo
I would say Brian Regan is the best comedian in the world. Observationally he reminds me of George a little; obviously a little less edgy than George, by choice, but I just think he's brilliant and he speaks to everyone.
What do you miss about Monday Night Football? —Dave Rehnblom
Being with Al and Dan… But the two years of flying in on Saturday and discussing football and then getting home Tuesday and going back out on Saturday began to wear thin after two years. I enjoyed the guys' company. There’s a nice esprit de corps there.
Sidney Poitier wrote a book titled The Measure of a Man, about his personal trials and tribulations concerning some of life's most marked and poignant moments and how he persevered through the most challenging of times. Could you briefly talk about your measure? What defines you? What has been your strongest ambitions? And how have you persevered through the most challenging of times? —Jeffrey Richards
I always like to read Everest books, and putting one foot in front of the other is good plan.
Hey, do you want to see some vintage Dennis Miller? Check out our compilation of videos we love.
Cathy Salustri is the arts + entertainment editor. Contact her here.
This article appears in Mar 15-22, 2018.