Bill Maher, Comedian and Host of Real Time on HBO to Appear in Fresno, California for the First Time

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June 22, 2011

Bill Maher, Comedian and Host of Real Time on HBO to Appear in

Fresno, California for the First Time

Maher Will Perform at the William Saroyan Theatre

October 30, 2011 at 8:00 P.M.

(Sonoma County, CALIF)  – Rick Bartalini Presents announced today that Bill Maher, Comedian and Host of Real Time on HBO will perform for the first time in Fresno, California. Bill Maher is scheduled to perform October 30, 2011 at the William Saroyan Theatre. Tickets go on-sale this Friday, June 24 at 10:00 A.M. at www.RBPconcerts.com

For the last fifteen years, Bill Maher has set the boundaries of where funny, political talk can go on American television. First on “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC, 1993-2002), and for the last seven years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 21 Emmy nominations. In October 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous,” directed by Larry Charles (“Borat”). The documentary has gone on to become the seventh highest grossing documentary ever.

With Maher’s politically incorrect brand of humor, his stand-up debut in Fresno will make for a thought provoking evening. The majority of registered voters in both the city and the county of Fresno are Republicans. Nevertheless, Democrat Barack Obama carried the county by 50.2% in the 2008 presidential election. With a population of 502,303, Fresno is the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation. Fresno is located in the center of the wide San Joaquin Valley of Central California.

Tickets for Bill Maher at William Saroyan Theatre are $49.50 and $69.50 and go on-sale at 10:00 A.M. on Friday, June 24, 2011. To purchase go to www.RBPconcerts.com.

THIS FALL JACKSON BROWNE WILL APPEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

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JACKSON BROWNE ADDS NEW FALL DATES TO 2011 SOLO ACOUSTIC TOUR

LOS ANGELES, CA, June 1, 2011: Singer-songwriter Jackson Browne has extended his 2011 Solo Acoustic Tour with an additional string of U.S. dates this fall, adding dates at the Flint Center in Cupertino and at the Marin Center in San Rafael. Tickets go on-sale July 15 at 11:00 A.M. for San Rafael and August 12 for Cupertino at www.RBPconcerts.com.

Jackson Browne’s 2011 Solo Acoustic Tour began in February.  Playing guitar and piano, he plays songs spanning his entire body of work, with varying set lists each night.  One of the many guitars Jackson has brought on the road this time out is the just-released Gibson Acoustic Jackson Browne Signature acoustic guitar.  The handmade instrument, inspired by Gibson’s legendary 1930s-era Roy Smeck model, is the first guitar to bear Jackson Browne’s name.

The intimacy of Jackson’s solo performances has been captured on two live albums—the GRAMMY®-nominated Jackson Browne—Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1 (2005), and Jackson Browne—Solo Acoustic, Vol. 2 (2008), both released on Inside Recordings.  In Rolling Stone’s four-star review of Vol. 2, Anthony DeCurtis wrote, “Between songs, Browne speaks about his life and music with moving candor…This is Browne at his best, engaging his audience, his own experiences and the world around him, all in songs that will not lose their resonance any time soon.”

In 2009 and 2010, Jackson’s tours served as proto types to Bandit Lites, using 100% LED rigs, which helped the development of the new GRNLite technology.  Using GRNLite technology, the Bandit Lites’ rigs greatly reduce energy consumption.

Jackson’s tours strive to be plastic-free both onstage and backstage.   It’s estimated that since 2008—through approximately 150 band shows and 100 solo acoustic dates—his tours have saved more than 53,438 plastic bottles from landfills and ocean gyres.  In 2010, Jackson joined with Brita’s FilterForGood movement, making Brita Hydration Stations available to dispense filtered water, free-of-charge, to concert attendees.  Jackson is a member of the Plastic Pollution Coalition (www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org), a global alliance of individuals, organizations and businesses working to stop single use plastic and its toxic impacts on humans, animals and the environment.

For more information:  www.jacksonbrowne.com

Jackson Browne 2011 Solo Acoustic Tour Dates:

DATE                   CITY                                VENUE

8/21/11                Lyons, CO                         Planet Bluegrass Folks Festival

9/23/11                Interlochen, MI               Interlochen Center for the Arts

9/24/11                East Lansing, MI             Wharton Center

9/26/11                Akron, OH                         EJ Thomas Performing Arts Hall

9/27/11                Columbus, OH                   Palace Theatre

9/29/11                Pittsburgh, PA                   Heinz Hall

9/30/11                Rochester, NY                   Auditorium Theatre

10/2/11                Utica, NY                            Stanley Center for the Performing Arts

10/3/11                Albany, NY                         Palace Theatre

10/5/11                Portland, ME                      Merrill Auditorium at City Hall

10/6/11                Worcester, MA                   Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts

10/8/11                Waterbury, CT                   Palace Theater

10/9/11                York, PA                              Strand Capitol Performing Arts Center

10/11/11              Reading, PA                         Sovereign Performing Arts Center

10/12/11              Westbury, NY                     Theatre at Westbury

10/14/11              Westhampton Beach, NY  Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center

10/15/11              Montclair, NJ                       Wellmont Theatre

10/17/11              Morristown, NJ                    Community Theatre at Mayo Center for the Performing Arts

10/18/11              Red Bank, NJ                       Count Basie Theatre

10/20/11              Wilmington, DE                    The Grand Opera House

10/21/11              Baltimore, MD                      Lyric Opera House

10/23/11              Washington, DC                    Warner Theatre

11/3/11                Chico, CA                                Laxson Auditorium

11/4/11                Redding, CA                            The Cascade Theatre

11/6/11                Arcata, CA                               Van Duzer Theatre

11/8/11                Cupertino, CA                        Flint Center

11/9/11                San Rafael, CA                        Marin Center

11/11/11              Turlock, CA                              Turlock Community Theatre

11/12/11              Hanford, CA                             Fox Theatre

11/17/11              Gaviota, CA                              Benefit for Vista de las Cruces School

Bill Maher, Comedian and Host of HBO’s Real Time will return to Sacramento for the First Time in Five years

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April 26, 2011

Bill Maher, Comedian and Host of Real Time on HBO Returns to
Sacramento for the First Time in Five years

Maher Will Perform at the Sacramento Community Center Theater
August 19, 2011

(Sonoma County, CALIF) – Rick Bartalini Presents announced today that Bill Maher, Comedian and Host of Real Time on HBO will return to Sacramento for the first time in over five years. Bill Maher is scheduled to perform August 19, 2011 at Sacramento Community Center Theater. Tickets go on-sale this Friday, April 29 at 10:00 A.M. at www.RBPconcerts.com

For the last fifteen years, Bill Maher has set the boundaries of where funny, political talk can go on American television. First on “Politically Incorrect” (Comedy Central, ABC, 1993-2002), and for the last seven years on HBO’s “Real Time,” Maher’s combination of unflinching honesty and big laughs have garnered him 21 Emmy nominations. In October 2008, this same combination was on display in Maher’s uproarious and unprecedented swipe at organized religion, “Religulous,” directed by Larry Charles (“Borat”). The documentary has gone on to become the seventh highest grossing documentary ever.

Throughout his career, Rick Bartalini, Founder of Rick Bartalini Presents, has built relationships with the highest-level professionals in show business, brought HBO to the Bay Area for a series of hit comedy specials and presented artists such as Johnny Mathis, Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, George Lopez, Carole King, Steely Dan, Juan Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, Diana Krall, Ellen DeGeneres and Keith Urban. Audiences and entertainers experience his tradition of the finest artists, aggressive marketing and warm hospitality.

Rick Bartalini Presents is also currently presenting the Moody Blues on May 24 at the Marin Center in San Rafael, An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt on June 9 also at the Marin Center in San Rafael (tickets for both shows on sale now). Bartalini will also co-produce the 2011 Lewis Black Comedy Cruise.

Tickets for Bill Maher at Sacramento Community Center Theater are $49.50 and $69.50 and go on-sale at 10:00 A.M. on Friday, April 29, 2011. To purchase go to www.RBPconcerts.com.

# # #

Diana Ross to Make First Marin County Appearance

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Diana Ross to Make First Napa Valley and Marin County Appearances
“Rick Bartalini Presents” Continues To Deliver Unparalleled Entertainment

(Napa, CALIF.) — Diana Ross is set to appear this September and for the first time at a small venue in Northern California. Produced by Rick Bartalini Presents the concert by the superstar will take place on Saturday, September 17 at the Marin Center in San Rafael.

On Friday, April 29 at 11 a.m. tickets go on sale for the first-ever appearance by Ross at the venue. The concert will be intimate and unlike any other performances of Ross’ career. The Marin Center seats 2,000 patrons.

Diana Ross, her music and her voice are legendary. The concerts, a full theatrical experience, will include breathtaking costumes and stage design, along with a live string and horn section. Ross has sold over 100 million records and recorded 18 number one hits. Her music became the sound of young America in the ‘60s soon after she signed with Motown Records in 1961 with The Supremes. She embarked on her extraordinary solo career in 1970, and has not stopped since.

Ross has had a profound influence on American popular culture, ultimately becoming an entertainment industry icon. She is an Academy Award-nominated actress for her role as Billie Holiday in “Lady Sings The Blues,” as well as a Tony and Golden Globe winner, bestselling author, winner of 8 American Music Awards and a recipient of The Kennedy Center Honor. As a woman of great style and beauty she has been featured on covers of hundreds of magazines.

Throughout his career, Rick Bartalini, Founder of Rick Bartalini Presents, has built relationships with the highest-level professionals in show business, brought HBO to the Bay Area for a series of hit comedy specials and presented artists such as Johnny Mathis, Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, George Lopez, Carole King, Steely Dan, Juan Gabriel, Sheryl Crow, Diana Krall, Ellen DeGeneres and Keith Urban. Audiences and entertainers experience his tradition of the finest artists, aggressive marketing and warm hospitality.

Rick Bartalini Presents is also currently presenting the Moody Blues on May 24 at the Marin Center in San Rafael, An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt on June 9 also at the Marin Center in San Rafael (tickets for both shows on sale now), as well as Bill Maher at the Sacramento Community Center Theater on August 19 (tickets for Bill Maher go on sale Friday, April 29 at 10 a.m.). For more information visit www.rbpconcerts.com.

Tickets for Diana Ross shows, which are $75/$100/$150 for the Marin Center in San Rafael, go on sale at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 29, 2011. To purchase go to www.rbpconcerts.com.

# # #

Rick Bartalini Presents:
Web: www.rbpconcerts.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rbpconcerts
Twitter: http://twitter.com/rbpconcerts

An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt “Two Songwriting Giants” (Popmatters) Team Up for June Tour

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For Immediate Release
April 6, 2011

An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt
“Two Songwriting Giants” (Popmatters) Team Up for June Tour

Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt are teaming up this spring for a series of intimate acoustic shows that will feature both artists performing side-by-side, alternating songs from their respective careers. Utilizing their dynamic chemistry to mix witty banter with finely crafted country, swing, folk, and blues, Lovett and Hiatt have been touring together in one fashion or another since 1989.

Regarding a Lovett/Hiatt performance, Toronto Star wrote “the concert was filled with camaraderie, with heart-warming displays of mutual respect, formidable musicianship and the highest level of song craft.” Tampa Tribune added, “the two hour plus performance was rocking and soulful, touching and hilarious,” while Portland Press Herald proclaimed, “they accompanied each other on several songs, and finished off the show with a spine-chilling duet.”

Four-time Grammy Award winner Lyle Lovett has created his own style of Americana music in a career that spans 14 albums and more than four million records sold. Since his self-titled debut in 1986, Texas-based Lovett defies convention by fusing an array of genres with a unique gift for storytelling, as evidenced by such well-known songs as “If I Had a Boat,” “She’s No Lady,” and “My Baby Don’t Tolerate.” Recorded with his Large Band, Lovett’s latest album, Natural Forces (Curb/Lost Highway), combines original songs with those by fellow Texas songwriters he admires.
Known for his extraordinary songwriting talent, John Hiatt was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter’s Hall of Fame in 2008 and also was honored that year with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting from The Americana Music Association. Named “…one of rock’s most astute singer-songwriters of the last 40 years,” by the Los Angeles Times, Hiatt has 19 studio albums to date including his latest The Open Road. He has written songs covered by artists in a wide variety of genres such as Bob Dylan, Rosanne Cash, Willie Nelson, Jewel and Bonnie Raitt, who most famously recorded “Thing Called Love.”
Lovett and Hiatt, each with more than a dozen albums to their credit, swap stories and songs, setting aside respective bands for the opportunity of delivering one of the most compelling “unplugged” concerts on the road.

June 9, 2011
Marin Center, San Rafael, CA 8:00pm
Tickets available at www.RBPconcerts.com

An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt Coming to Marin Center

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An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt Comes to the Marin Center in San Rafael, CA. Tickets go on-sale this Saturday, April 2 at 11am PT

The concert marks the singer/songwriters first-ever performance at the Marin County theater

(Santa Rosa, CALIF.) —Rick Bartalini Presents announced today that Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt will perform for the first time at the Marin Center in San Rafael, CA on June 9, 2011 at 8:00pm.
The two veteran singer/songwriters are teaming up for an intimate “unplugged” show that features both artists performing side-by-side, alternating songs from throughout their careers, mixing wry banter with finely crafted country, swing, folk, R&B and rock ‘n’ roll. Lovett told National Public Radio that he likes the stripped- down, casual, spontaneous presentation — “the two of us sit on stage together by ourselves, no band, no accompaniment, and we take turns playing songs….(Hiatt) plays a song, and then I play a song, and we talk, and visit about it, and we talk to the audience a little bit, and really just have a great time. The show is different from night to night,” he continued. “It’s something that I’ve gotten to do over the years with John many times….I am very excited to see him, and spend time with him, and do these shows with him.”

Tickets for An Acoustic Evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt at the Marin Center in San Rafael, California, June 9 at 8:00pm go on-sale Saturday, April 2 at 11am PT. Tickets are: $49.75/$69.75/$89.75.
Tickets are available at the Box Office or on-line at www.rbpconcerts.com

Also coming soon to the Marin Center in San Rafael, The Moody Blues, May 24 at 8:00pm. Tickets are $89.75/$69.75/$49.75. Tickets are on-sale now at www.rbpconcerts.com

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Comedian Bill Maher coming live to Marin, Napa

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Comedian Bill Maher coming live to Marin, Napa

By MICHAEL SHAPIRO
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Friday, December 31, 2010 at 3:00 a.m.

Millions of people hate Bill Maher. During the past decade he’s scathingly criticized religion, said the 9/11 terrorists “were not cowardly” and even taken on Oprah Winfrey.

Here’s an excerpt from his Christmas message in a video on BillMaher.com, which shows Oprah’s audience members leaping and hollering over gifts:

“Oprah’s show purports to be a lot about spirituality. If it was then wouldn’t she tell her worshipping flock to sit down and stop losing it over material stuff?

“I don’t know what spirituality means,” Maher says in the video, “but I know that if you’re weeping over a sweater, then you don’t either.”

So Maher’s not always the most popular guy in the room. But he’s often the most insightful. There’s a common thread to his myriad targets: hypocrisy. He can’t stand BS.

In Maher’s 2008 anti-religion film “Religulous,” he sits down with Dr. Jeremiah Cummings, an Orlando, Florida evangelist and former Muslim who sang with Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes during the 1970s.

Maher remarks on the preacher’s expensive suit. Cummings counters that Jesus wore “fine linen” and that he gets his suits at a discount.

“So you’re a Christian,” Maher says to Cummings in the film, “who used to be a Muslim and when you get your clothes, you buy them like a Jew.”

But Maher himself isn’t always entirely revealing. In a 2008 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Maher was asked how he got people to agree to on-camera interviews for “Religulous.”

“It was simple,” he said. “We never, ever used my name. We never told anybody it was me who was going to do the interviews. We even had a fake title for the film. We called it ‘A Spiritual Journey.’ ”

Maher performs on New Year’s Eve at the Marin Center and Saturday at Yountville’s Lincoln Theater. Both shows, which are expected to be about 90 minutes long, are sold out.

A talk-show host and comedian, Maher built a small but avid following with his TV show “Politically Incorrect” during the 1990s, first on Comedy Central and then on ABC.

Maher became Talk Show Enemy No. 1 when, just after the 9/11 attacks, he said Americans should think about why people would want to harm this country and agreed with a conservative pundit who said the terrorists weren’t cowardly.

“We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That’s cowardly,” Maher said. “Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it’s not cowardly.”

Advertisers, including Sears and FedEx, pulled their ads from the show and many outraged people called for “Politically Incorrect” to be yanked off the air. It wasn’t, but when it came up for renewal the following year, ABC passed.

In 2003 Maher found a home on HBO, where his “Real Time with Bill Maher” has flourished. He also appears in comedy specials for the network, such as this year’s “But I’m Not Wrong.”

The title neatly captures what some might call his arrogance. In “But I’m Not Wrong,” taped in front of an audience in Raleigh, N.C., Maher aims his laser wit at everyone from the rich to politicians.

Speaking to those wondering where President Obama’s birth certificate is, Maher quips: “I’ll show you Barack Obama’s birth certificate when you show me Sarah Palin’s high school diploma.”

Next he takes on the “Support Our Troops” crowd, a highwire act in Raleigh.

“We love the troops like Michael Vick loves dogs,” he barks. “You know how I’d feel supported if I were the troops? If Americans were clamoring to get me home from these pointless wars.”

An avowed bachelor, Maher says on BillMaher.com, “I’m the last of my guy friends to have never gotten married, and their wives — they don’t want them playing with me. I’m like the escaped slave; I bring news of freedom.”

Maher has earned 22 Emmy nominations but has yet to win one. In “Not Wrong” he saves some of his fiercest jabs for the Republicans: “It’s OK to have ideological differences, but the Republicans have become the anti-intellectual party.”

Noting that Obama filled stadiums during the 2008 presidential campaign, Maher says Republicans can fill stadiums, too: “They filled the Superdome after (Hurricane) Katrina.”

Michael Shapiro writes about entertainment for The Press Democrat. Contact him at [email protected]

Bill Maher is no believer, but he loves Christmas

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Bill Maher is no believer, but he loves Christmas

Monday, December 27, 2010

Bill Maher is one of the most notorious non-believers on the planet, but that doesn’t mean he despises the holidays. The host of the documentary “Religulous” says you can pull his Robert Goulet Christmas album out of his cold, dead hand.

“I’m an atheist, but you know what? I have too many good Christmas memories,” Maher says, during a phone interview last week. “It has nothing to do with Jesus and the myth. It has to do with my family, who I don’t have much of anymore. They’re not going to take that away from me.”

Maher, a regular at Cobb’s Comedy Club and other local spots in the 1980s and early 1990s, returns to the Bay Area this week for two sold-out shows – on New Year’s Eve at the Marin Center and on New Year’s Day at the Lincoln Theater in Napa Valley.

Maher hosts the HBO talk show “Real Time With Bill Maher” and has continued to tour as a stand-up. He’s also enjoying continued buzz from “Religulous,” Maher’s deconstruction of organized religion and defense of atheism. The 2008 documentary made a respectable $13 million in theaters, and has enjoyed an unusually long second life on DVD.

“Larry Charles, the director, and I always talk about the fact that it doesn’t seem to go away like most movies do,” Maher says. “I think it’s one of those movies that gets talked about after people see it. And then they pass it on or recommend it. Both of us get as many people saying things to us now as when it first came out.”

Maher says the success of “Religulous” doesn’t make him want to do another movie.

“It makes me want to do another less. I never really wanted to be a filmmaker. I just thought this was the one subject that I should do, and nobody else was going to do,” he says. “What topic could possibly follow that? Health care? It would seem so trivial. And I really don’t want to get up in the morning every day and put on makeup and be in movies. It’s just not my thing.”

“Real Time With Bill Maher” returns for its ninth season on Jan 14. Maher will have a hard time topping the eighth season. It was one of Maher’s most high-profile years as a TV personality, after he aired a sound bite – controversial Delaware Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell’s comments on Maher’s old show “Politically Incorrect,” suggesting that she once “dabbled in witchcraft” – that turned into a talking point and running joke during the 2010 election season.

Maher says the “witchcraft” controversy started out as a lark, after O’Donnell repeatedly declined to come on “Real Time.”

“So I just went out there and said, as a joke, “Christine, you better come on the show, or I’m going to start showing tapes. It’s going to be like a hostage crisis – I’m going to throw out a body every week,'” Maher remembers. “I was just kind of bull-. And then we did it.”

Pretty soon he was looking through all of his “Politically Incorrect” videos where O’Donnell appeared. Miraculously, he appeared to be the only one who consistently recorded the show.

Maher admits he didn’t mind the attention. But he’s never been tempted to give up joke-telling in favor of some kind of political pundit role. After talking about election coverage for five minutes, he seems to perk up when the questions become more frivolous.

Here’s Maher on the strangest residual check he’s received lately: ” ‘DC Cab’ sometimes plays in Japan, and you get $2 for that. ‘Murder She Wrote’ is a handsome $5 or $10 stipend. The ‘Roseanne’ episode I did in 1991. Yep, that’s rolling in …”

As for the Christmas album, Maher says his mother was “crazy for Robert Goulet, as I think all suburban housewives were in the 1960s.”

“He did have a heroic voice that was perfect for Christmas records. That was basically the record we wore out,” Maher says. “I’m not giving up my Robert Goulet Christmas album. … I have great memories.”

Bill Maher plays at the Marin Center at 8 p.m. Friday and the Lincoln Theater in Napa Valley at 8 p.m. Saturday. Both shows are sold out. Maher’s shows are the first from veteran concert promoter Rick Bartalini’s new firm, Rick Bartalini Presents.

E-mail Peter Hartlaub at [email protected].

This article appeared on page E – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
On line at:

Peter Hartlaub, Chronicle Pop Culture Critic
San Francisco Chronicle December 27, 2010 04:00 AM Copyright San Francisco Chronicle. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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