Bill Maher Says He’s Ready to Quit Stand-Up Comedy After Newest Special

Bill Maher says he’s ready to drop the mic and walk away from stand-up comedy for good — and it’s because he says he wants to pursue other ventures … including more podcasting.

The ‘Real Time’ host was recently chopping it up with Jerry Seinfeld on his ‘Club Random‘ podcast — and they started discussing the possibility of Bill hanging it up on the stage … namely, him giving up telling jokes in front of a crowd under a spotlight.

As Bill explains … he loves the craft and has been doing it for years — but, like with anything, you gotta stay in practice to be good … and it sounds like BM’s a little tired.

He says he’s got one more comedy special dropping on HBO at the end of this year … and after that, he goes on to mull the idea of calling it quits … something you can see Jerry is somewhat dismayed to learn as he reacts in shock.

Not only is the dedication and time requisite part of Bill’s decision … but he says he simply wants to do other stuff — like putting on a live podcast show in front of an audience, which has become a popular phenomenon these days.

Doesn’t sound like he’s going anywhere when it comes to his TV job — he ain’t giving that up anytime soon — but when it comes to just doing straight material at a club somewhere … Bill says he might just leave it behind. That’d be big … he’s been in the game for decades now.

On the flip side … Bill says he reserves the right to change his mind and dive right back into it if he wants. He says it might be like cutting off a limb — basically, ya realize you miss it when it’s gone … so this is all just hypothetical for now.