Bill Maher performs Saturday at the Palms

Bill Maher is the HBO star who makes fun of many conservatives, some liberals, all religions — and magic? Yes, Maher is not Vegas magicians’ No. 1 fan.

Whenever I talk to him, we’ll be talking about President Barack Obama, or weed, or Woody Harrelson, and then he will slip in a side joke that pokes fun at illusionists. Maher mocks magicians mercilessly.

So, because Maher performs Saturday at the Palms (competing for ticket sales against Vegas magicians), I was on the phone with him again, laughing at a joke he cracked at their expense, and I finally asked: What’s the deal with magicians?

Maher said he and Jerry Seinfeld were just talking about this very subject the other day, while filming Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.”

“When we started back in the old days, before the iWatch, practically before answering machines, in New York, no matter how good you were, you could never do better in the small clubs than the magician guy or a guy with puppets,” Maher said.

“The audience went nuts (for magicians). And there we were thinking, ‘We work so hard trying to write these jokes and be original, and this guy goes to the novelty shop and buys an act they’ve been doing for 500 years, and the crowd goes nuts,’ ” Maher said.

Oh. So it’s because magicians have an easier time buying over crowds, compared with comedians?

“You can’t go to a novelty shop and buy what we’re looking for. You actually have to make it come out of your brain,” Maher said.

Correct. There is no joke store for comics to go to. Although, plenty of comics have bought jokes from other comics over the years, which is kind of like buying tricks from a magic store, I think.

Maher said he really likes Penn Jillette and Penn & Teller. But he once helped Penn & Teller do a TV trick, and he couldn’t believe the simplicity.

“The trick was called ‘Blood From a Stone.’ They made blood come from a stone. And when I saw the trick up close, I remember thinking: Oh for (expletive expletive) sake, this is all there is to it?”

Ha-ha, now that’s funny. I remember thinking the same thing when I saw Siegfried & Roy for the first time. However, I loved that show that night because my expectations were low, and I had two cocktails, so it was all pretty hilarious to me. Lights! Tigers! “Wires!”

But let’s get back to Maher’s experience doing magic that one time:

“Up close it was so phony and obvious. But I guess for the young man in the 22nd row, it was just amazing and blew people’s minds. And that’s why we hate magic,” he said.

I asked him if all comedians feel this way.

“I think all monologists have this feeling about magic. They might not be as honest as I am,” Maher said.

And then, Maher served me another funny round of why he thinks magicians suck:

“A lot of them would use it as a cheap way to hit on pretty girls in the audience: ‘Hey, there’s a pretty girl! Would you help us out with this trick?’

“They would get laid after the show, so we all hated them for that,” Maher said, laughing. “We thought that wasn’t fair to have it in your arsenal to do that — sort of like the cop who pulls over a pretty girl, and what’s she going to do when he asks her out on a date?”

I thought about calling Penn or another magician for a rebuttal. But Maher’s funny routine boils down to this self-aware appraisal: I don’t like magicians because they get easy applause and women. I kind of feel like Maher’s bit on this matter, which he delivered in a lighthearted tone, can stand on its own without the usual overreaction people have to Maher.

And just to reiterate, Maher pointed out Penn & Teller aren’t the typical magicians he is talking about.

“I like Penn. And they’re kind of hip. They’re not the traditional magic act.”

Maher is a very big fan of Las Vegas and the Palms, which is another thing he consistently tells me.

“I love it. I’d play there two weekends a month if I could,” he said.

He says fans at shows often say they’re locals. What does that say about his Vegas crowds?

“I think they’re kind of hip people who are obviously interested in what’s going on in the world and not just fluff entertainment,” he said.

“And I think the people who live and work in Vegas are savvy, seen-it-all types,” he said.

“There’s something intellectually nutritious to the show. I’m not Carrot Top. Not that there’s anything wrong with Carrot Top. It’s just not pure escapism, like Cirque du Soleil’s tribute to Neil Diamond.”

That’s a good joke. Cirque doesn’t have a Neil Diamond show. But they could, couldn’t they?

“They must be having meetings over there at the Paris about, ‘OK, we’ve done the Beatles, we’ve done one on water, we’ve done the Elvis one, and Michael Jackson,’ ” Maher kidded Cirque.

“They’re running out of things to tumble over.”

Doug Elfman’s column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Email him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. Find him on Twitter: @VegasAnonymous