Real Time With Bill Maher

I watch Bill Maher every week.

He's smart and funny and I like both of those things. His show makes you think.

In case you don't watch he starts with a monologue (this past week was very funny), then Bill does a sit down interview (Columnist Bret Stephens, very good) and then he walks over to sit with and talk to the panel for that week.

This week it was Fran Lebowitz from Vanity Fair and author Salmon Rushdie.

I gotta tell you it was divine.

It reminded me of dinner parties I went to in New York. Special ones. People would stand up around the table and give toasts to the person of the night and those toasts turned into interesting speeches. I'd never seen anything like that before.

Here the witty repartee was worth the price of admission.

Such great conversation, such great insight, it was like eating chocolate for me. And I love chocolate.
They bantered about everything--politics (don't forget it is a political show), Russia, the Midwest, Facebook, America's future. Those are just some of the things they talked about.

But wait, it gets even better.

Bill always has a special guest and this week it was designer Tim Gunn.

Project Runway anyone?

Love me some Mr. Gunn and he did not disappoint. One of the things that Bill brought up was the weight of everyday women vs. the size of models and how designers didn't make clothes for these women. He mentioned that retailers were missing out on billions of dollars.

Tim Gunn agreed.

And Tim went a step further. He said this season on his show he worked with plus size women for the first time and loved every second of it. He also said that we need to show more diversity in the size and shape of the women we show and said, "For want of a better term, Big is Beautiful."

I sat up when I heard all this and I'll tell you why.

For years I couldn't find designer suits in my size, it seemed they were always made for someone thinner than me. I wasn't obese obese but I was always bigger than most. I knew too well the words 'Sears Husky.'

Then a good friend named Michael Klenfner told me about a store called Rochester Big and Tall. He said they were in San Francisco but were opening one in Manhattan.

I went there and all of a sudden I could find designer suits in my size. Designer shirts, jackets, sweaters, wind breakers. I was in heaven and also a snappy dresser on TV. I was part of an untapped market that was untapped no more.

Thank you Michael and thank you Rochester Big and Tall.

I spent bazillions of dollars there and was happy to do so.

That's what Tim Gunn was alluding to for bigger women, who can't find what smaller women find everywhere. How does that saying go, "If you build it they will come?"

You build it they'll come all right.

In droves.

It's like that on this show all the time. How did Arsenio Hall put it? Things that make you go hmmm.

And the panel and guests are top notch. One week it's Ice Cube. One week Al Gore. One week someone from The Right. One week someone from The Left. Many times those last two are on at the same time.

Differing views great conversation.

Real Time with Bill Maher is on Friday nights at ten on HBO.

For me it's must see TV.



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