Q+A: DENNIS MILLER

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 | 7:20 a.m.

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS MORRIS

Who: Dennis Miller

When: 8 p.m. Friday-Sunday

Where: The Orleans Showroom

Tickets: $39.95; 365-7075

Comedian Dennis Miller has packed his sharp tongue, rapier wit and keen political humor and is moving to The Orleans.

For several years his Vegas base has been the MGM, but beginning Friday he moves off the Strip.

"When I'm onstage I don't see traffic. I just want a nice room and nice people who treat me like a pro," he says. "I do know this. My act - which I've been doing more of in the last two months than I have done in years - my act is in lean, mean fighting shape so audiences are not going to see me phoning in a soft show. I've been back in the gym, on the road, hitting the speed bag pretty good. So, I can't wait to get in there with a good PA system in a good room and kick a little ass."

The former cast member of "Saturday Night Live" from the '80s has moved on to make films, perform stand-up and host talk shows on HBO, on CNBC and in syndication.

His latest medium is radio. Last week he began airing a three-hour talk show heard on stations across the country - but none in Las Vegas.

Miller recently talked to the Sun by phone from his home in Los Angeles.

Q: What have you been up to lately?

I've got a radio show now, started March 26. Westwood One offered me a syndicated thing, in 80 markets right now.

A talk show, I would assume. Politics mostly?

Most of these things are strung around the events of the day. I have interests in movies and sports. I'm going to try to bat it around a little bit, but obviously you have to focus on the headlines of the day for the most part. I'll take some calls. Do some interviews. Maybe do a little mime, although that's not awesome on the radio - but keeping in mind Edgar Bergen did make himself famous doing a puppet show on radio.

Who were your first guests?

Rudy Giuliani called in. Dana Carvey. David Horowitz, not the consumer advocate but the preeminent political thinker, I think, in the country. And another guy, Mike Murphy, who ran John McCain's campaign last time.

Are these the kind of guests you will have each day?

Hey, I'm going to call my friends and rely on my booker. Certain friends I don't bug, but other friends - I called John McEnroe. Jon Lovitz is coming on. John Bolton, former U.N. ambassador.

When did the idea for the radio show come up?

The last couple of months. I kind of like the fact that it's an extrapolative art form. I think my politics are not easily condensed down, now, to bumper stickers. I like the fact that it gives me three hours a day.

You've never done radio before?

No. I did TV talk shows, but they're different creatures.

At least you don't have to dress up for radio.

No, but I'm going to. I'm going to wear a dress.

Your first guest was Giuliani. Isn't he your favorite presidential candidate?

Yeah, yeah. I like Giuliani. But hey, all I'm looking for in a candidate now is somebody who wants to preemptively kill radical fundamentalist terrorists. I know I'm in the minority in this country on that but it appears to me this war is on and I want a guy who understands they will kill us if we don't kill them.

Since you had Giuliani on, does that mean you have to have Hillary Clinton and the other candidates on as well?

I would love to have Hillary on. I'm not sure if she would appear, but she's always welcome to come.

I went to this alternative rock festival in Austin last month. My sons wanted to go, so my wife and I took them and a friend, five of us. We went to the South by Southwest Music Festival. I'm staying in the Four Seasons in downtown Austin and I notice that the room next to me has a bodyguard outside of it. A little later I come back from lunch and notice there are two bodyguards. I think there must be a big rap star or someone staying here. A little later I'm going into my son's room, which is right next door to me on the other side, and I hear all this hubbub down the hall and there's a gaggle of 12 to 15 people coming down the hall. Right smack dab in the middle of it is Hillary Clinton. She's staying in the room next to me. I go on into my son's room. Hillary doesn't see me. I remember laying there that night thinking, "Wow. Hillary Clinton is sleeping right on the other side of this wall," which was kind of good for me because I've made such fun of her husband over the years I knew there was no chance of me bumping into him there.

I assume you got a good night's sleep. You weren't kept awake by the noise.

What a difference a Clinton makes. It was very, very quiet. She was a very nice next door neighbor. I heard nothing. If it had been Bill there would have been plaster flying off the wall, the headboard slammed into the wall against my headboard.

With the presidential races on the horizon, we're entering a fertile time period for comedians. What do you think of the slate of candidates this year?

I'm 53. That's why I want Giuliani. I think you get pragmatic later in life. If I was a kid right now - remember back to your idealistic days, 18 to 20? - I'd probably be supporting Barack Obama if I was a kid, just because he's got that sort of optimism. He's such a great speaker. If I was a kid I'd vote for him but I'm not a kid. I'm 53 and I think I understand the vagaries of the world a little more and that's why I'm for Rudy.

Do you see any real losers among the candidates or do we have a pretty good selection this time?

I think (Ohio Congressman) Dennis Kucinich is an idiot. I shouldn't say idiot. I got in trouble for calling (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi a moron so I should probably ease back on the throttle of name-calling. But I look at Dennis Kucinich and I think of him as sort of childlike. "Let's start a Department of Peace instead of a Department of Defense." I think if we start a Department of Peace, you know the first thing al- Qaida would blow up? The Department of Peace.

Some guys run for president just to get out of the house. Like Howard Dean. He was having a hell of a time till the first day they told him he might win. Remember how panicked he got? He didn't want that job. He likes second-guessing. Bush is a first-guesser, give him that. Howard Dean never shuts up. Occasionally we have to hood him like a falcon so we can all sleep.

So you're still a Bush fan. How would you assess his tenure?

I'm enamored of him. I think most politicians, if not 99.99 percent of the ones I've viewed in my adult life, see everything through the prism of approval ratings and I think Bush realizes we are at a pivotal point in history and he made a decision that he is willing to be hated for by a majority of his fellow Americans, probably for the rest of his life. I find that admirable. I still think going into Iraq was the right thing to do. I know people don't agree with me. I don't know why things have gotten so rancorous in this country if you disagree, but I think it was important for us to look formidable in the world again and not have the sort of noose like the Hussein regime hanging over our head. So I thought we did the right thing. He is probably hated for that and he seems to care less. He's going to do what he thinks is right until the next president gets in. At least give him that. He at least has the courage of his convictions.

This country seems to have a short attention span. If we don't win quickly, people want out.

He was effective in keeping us safe for six years - six years in September. But by some bizarre, inverted corollary, by keeping us safe we are getting further from the actual disaster and people tend to revile him now.

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