Radio host Stephanie Miller is in the vanguard of cutting edge comedy. Her attacks are political; her weapons: humor, satire and mockery. Miller proclaims, “Now every comedian is pressed into service. Whether it’s SNL’s Kate McKinnon, Stephen Colbert or Samantha Bee, comedians really are leading the resistance, because they’re speaking truth to power.”
During her Sexy Liberal Blue Wave Tour live shows pre-midterms, the hilarious Miller was unchained with her acid-dipped quips and antics lampooning the current administration. Referring to the Special Counsel’s Russia probe, Miller gleefully announced, “It’s almost Mueller time!” Referencing Stormy Daniels, she belittled Trump for his “portobello mushroom penis.” When she wasn’t introducing her political and Hollywood guests or (im)moderating a panel with them, Miller alternated between romping around, lying down on the stage and trying to unzip comedian John Fugelsang’s pants in front of thousands of guffawing fans.
It’s hard to believe that this comedic combo of policy wonk and wag is actually the daughter of Republican royalty. Stephanie’s father, William E. Miller, was a seven-term congressman and Republican Party chairman. In 1964 William ran for Vice President on the GOP ticket with Arizona’s conservative stalwart Senator Barry Goldwater. Today Stephanie is as left as her father was right. Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan’s 1992 anti-gay “Culture Wars” speech at the Republican Convention reportedly prompted Miller to become vocal about politics, and in 2010, during the Proposition 8 anti-same sex marriage controversy in California, she openly came out as a lesbian. In 2008 she and Barry’s granddaughter, CC Goldwater, teamed up for a gag Presidential race—“Family name, no skills, just like W.,” Miller jested, adding, “We’re thinking of doing it again in 2020 because clearly anyone can become President now.”
Miller grew up near Buffalo and majored in theater across the continent at the University of Southern California. She embarked on a show biz career, working at comedy clubs, then hosting a radio talk show on Los Angeles’s KFI in 1994. The witty provocateur’s on-the-air mixture of political and comedic shtick has had various permutations, including short-lived stints on TV, but today her early morning The Stephanie Miller Show is heard daily “at stupid o’clock,” as she calls 6 a.m. PT—on various terrestrial radio stations, SiriusXM Progress and via Progressive Voices on TuneIn. In addition, she hosts a weekly iTunes “Happy Hour” podcast, simulcast on Free Speech TV and periodically presents versions of her Sexy Liberal live shows with various guests. In this off-the-chain, candid conversation, Stephanie Miller discusses the importance of storming the barricades with humor.
HUSTLER: Did the midterm elections result in a blue wave?
STEPHANIE MILLER: It’s a tsunami; that’s what I think, no matter how they try to spin it. The Democrats won so many House seats. There’s not one Republican in Orange County, California, now. Let me just say that Adam Schiff getting subpoena power is the sexiest thing I ever heard.
