So I made a point of watching Bill Mahar tonight since I read Andrew Sullivan was going to be on. I wanted to see this blogger rock star in person (the only I guy I'd be more interested in seeing is Glenn Reynolds). I expected a young, small guy, real quick, snappy, cogent and not obviously homosexual dude. Don't ask me why, it's just what I expected, from his writing.

Instead, I was suprized to see a middle aged, rather stocky, bearded man, clearly possessing the homosexual gene (ie not a phoney homo -- you meet a lot of these in California - guys who really aren't gay, they just rock the gay lifestyle for whatever reason, can't get girls, like to party, need some love, etc, etc.) He had the full on homo lisp, which affects how his argument sounds vs. how he writes. Also picked up on a Britishness (unrelated to the homo lisp...okay, bad joke) in his voice, checked andrewsullivan.com and confirmed that he is, in fact, British.

By end of the show, I though he did well. At the beginning, he seemed rather uncomfortable and not all that cool. He was dressed very averagely, didn't appear done up compared to the other guests...Rob Schnider and Carol Mosley Braun...and especially not as much as Mahar. But that's LA and Washington vs. journalists/academics, I guess. TV programs and audiences still have these leftover expectations of smooth, effortless performances, of people laughing it up, comfortable as can be, not taking things seriously, which still pervades programming. Mahar has it nailed down. Sullivan does not. Sullivan looked a little angry, a little perturbed, a little uncool. Those things work well for him writing - his writing is exciting, opinionated, curt, and to the point. These things don't look as good on TV, I guess. Irreverence and jokiness play better.

It's interesting, Sullivan knows his shit. If I had to read a paragraph on practically anything in the world from Mahar, Schnider, Mosley Braun, or Sullivan, I'd read Sullivan in a heartbeat - I'd probably read Sullivan's four times rather than read his + the other three. But you ask me to watch TV and Mahar is a whole lot more fun to see up there spouting his mouth off....it's smooth, and funny, and digestable.

It just goes to show we need people of all shapes, sizes, and talents to help teach and inform each other, to smooth out the voices of each other, to make our positions appealing, and to find common ground. The end of the show was great, I saw Rob S leaning over, really digging on Sullivan talking about gay marriage. Sullivan was cracking up at Mahar's top 10 things Democrat's say to their wives. It was cool to see.