Bill Burr was the first comedian to perform stand-up on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. A couple of things stuck out: First, obviously, the studio is so much bigger that they hadn't nailed down the time it takes for the band to play the comedian to the microphone (!), and secondly, most TV audiences are so hyped up that they hand out applause breaks like beads at Mardi Gras, but here, they took a while to get onboard the funny train (and it took Burr mentioning a stripper to do so). Watch the whole set, which is edgy (in a good way) compared to what the Tonight Show audiences probably were used to. Jokes about racism. And suicide? This week? Only Bill Burr, my friends. Only Bill Burr.
Ready for the weekend? Me, too. But first, a few things to mention and link to that people are reading and talking about in comedy circles...
I would have put the animated GIF version of Conan's Tonight Show backdrop (shown above as stills) on the site, but I didn't want your minds to explode all Nintendo-like. Click on Serious Lunch, if you dare.
Speaking of Tonight Show matters, I have learned exclusively (exclusively? really? everyone knew about it when I put it on my Twitter yesterday) that Bill Burr will be the first stand-up comedian to perform on Conan's Tonight Show on Monday, June 8, 2009. Trivia! Anthony Jeselnik, a writer for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, has a joke about how he was the first stand-up to perform on Fallon's show -- and if that's not a big deal to you, then it should be. I'm trying to think of who the other first stand-ups were on Leno, Letterman and the biggie, Carson. Johnny Carson. Who was thinking I meant Carson Daly?! Google is not helping.
The Television Critics Association (TCA) announced their nominations for best in TV shows yesterday, and all of you yahoos who don't think Saturday Night Live hasn't been funny in years will find yourselves in stark contrast to TV critics: They think SNL was one of the best overall shows of the year. In the comedy bracket, they narrowed the field to 30 Rock, The Big Bang Theory, The Daily Show, How I Met Your Mother and The Office. For individual achievement in comedy, they liked Alec Baldwin, Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Neil Patrick Harris and Jim Parsons. They also liked United States of Tara as one of the best new shows. Chelsea Handler will open the awards show Aug. 1 in Pasadena.
Bill Burr may get worked up onstage when he's on a comedic roll, and his everyman take on the world that's rumbling and crumbling all around us has picked up steam -- as well as a slew of new fans of his stand-up comedy. Thank repeated airings of his 2008 special, Why Do I Do This?, on Comedy Central, for helping to spread the word of Burr. When he last headlined Carolines in New York City, fans made special trips to the Big Apple from as far away as Montana and Florida, just to see him perform live and meet him in person.
Burr recorded a pilot for Comedy Central in the past year. It made the network's short list for final consideration, and when they passed, he admitted it was a tough blow; but at the same time, also inspiring. He realized he could and did want to do more. That's one of the reasons he moved from New York City to Los Angeles last year. After having the run of the Big Apple's biggest clubs and touring the country as a headliner, what would the next step be?
When I met Bill Burr for lunch a couple of weeks ago, he said he was just catching up on a few things in New York City between gigs. Other than getting laundry done and talking to comedy bloggers, the only thing he had scheduled were tickets to the Rangers game. Of course, Burr is a Boston Bruins fan, but his hockey love is legit, so much so that you can tell he's serious about it in his new blog following the Bruins playoff run for the NHL. We joked about how few people seem to care about hockey anymore, and Burr said the better for the sport, because things can get crazy and old-school again and maybe become the sport that many of us fell in love with before. I've got an interview with him coming up later this month, but thought I could share with you this bonus footage I shot with Burr as we rode in a taxicab from lunch to a comedy club. In it, Burr explains how he goes about his weekly podcasts, as well as his feelings about MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Enjoy (some language is NSFW):
People think that the funny guy in the office would make a great stand-up comedian, but that humor does not always translate from the workplace to the stage. Ditch Films has produced a series of online shorts that puts a reverse spin on this, taking stand-up comedians and having them do their act in an unnatural setting for stand-up. I'm not sure if it's funnier this way, but it certainly makes for an interesting piece of film. The most recent features Chris Laker in an office cubicle (note: contains NSFW language).
After the jump, videos from Pat Dixon, Nate Bargatze, Jim Norton, Dustin Chafin, Matty Goldberg, Jason Rouse, Tomi Walamies, Mark Demayo and Bill Burr.
Apple did not tell me how it came up with its list of Best of Comedy 2008 in iTunes, so I cannot tell you if this lineup is based on sales, judged rankings or something else entirely. But I can tell you who made the iTunes cut in 2008 (I've reviewed half of these CDs, which means I still have some work to do). Whom do you think they overlooked?
Robert Kelly, Just the Tip
Steve Byrne, Happy Hour
Gabriel Iglesias, Hot and Fluffy
Josh Sneed, Unacceptable Lisa Landry, Put Your Keys in the Keybowl Pablo Francisco, Ouch! (Live from San Jose) Jimmy Dore, Citizen Jimmy Dov Davidoff, The Point Is Bill Burr, Why Do I Do This? Jeffrey Ross: No Offense, Live from New Jersey
Bill Burr got introduced to the stage last night at Carolines as "one of the top five comics working today," and even though Burr bristled at that notion, he did nothing to dispel it over the course of the next hour. Thirteen months ago, Burr taped his DVD (and Comedy Central special) here in New York City, and since its release earlier this year, he seems to have been rewarded for his efforts with fans willing to welcome him with a standing ovation -- and last night's late show included fans who came from as far as Montana and Miami just to see him live.
He told me after the show that while he'd love to follow the late George Carlin's plan of putting a new hour on tape every year or two, he'd rather wait until his current set is ready for recording. If there's a theme to what he's saying these days, it's all about trying to suppress his anger issues and become more sensitive to others feelings. Although plenty still upsets him, including the fact that humans seem to be the only species who help and the weakest, and rewarding people such as The Biggest Loser and drug addicts. Burr also loves a good conspiracy theory, and it fuels his political leanings. He bemoans the lack of customer service in contemporary society. And he has an idea for why old men have a look of horror on their faces.
Burr's radio partner on XM's Uninformed, Joe DeRosa, took the feature spot last night and delivered a new 25 minutes that you wouldn't think would cheer anyone up -- Joe talks about how he's drinking more than he ever has, cannot get sex on the road or here in NYC, suffers from depression, is angry about a multitude of things, and wants to tell you about the worst gig he ever took just because he needs the money. Of course, it's all pretty darned funny.
If you're in NYC this weekend, try to catch Burr at Carolines. Otherwise, you may have to wait until 2009.
Bill Burr has a new CD out this summer, Why Do I Do This?, and the live video recording of Burr's performance gets its broadcast debut Aug. 31 on Comedy Central, with the DVD available Sept. 16.
On the DVD, loaded with more than 80 minutes of extras, we see Burr engage in a drumming battle with his XM Radio co-host on Uninformed, Joe DeRosa. Burr also gives us a tour of the Skirball Center for Performing Arts at NYU where he taped the special, with backstage asides, and then a walkabout of the city and some of his past haunts, because, as he says on the DVD: "I don't know how to tap-dance." So he sits down at Gotham Comedy Club, stands outside the old Boston Comedy Club (then Comedy Village before it closed), a club "that kicked my ass" when he first moved down from Boston. He exorcises demons at Dangerfield's.He recalls the first time he sold out at Carolines. The DVD also includes the fan recording of his 2006 performance in Philadelphia on the Opie & Anthony Traveling Virus tour. But back to the actual show.
I saw this special live and loved it. You can read about Bill Burr's DVD taping here. Before we get to our most recent chat, here is a clip from his June 2007 apperance on The Late Show with David Letterman, which includes a medley of bits you'll see in a much longer, different form on the new special:
First, Bill Burr wants you to know he has new jokes for you after watching this DVD.
"I already have a new hour of stuff," Burr told me. "I want to do that. See, when Carlin passed away, I knew he had an incredible volume of work, but when they did the retrospective and showed he had 14 HBO specials, and it was all 'A' material...He never burned out. That was really inspiring." Burr mentions Chris Rock and Louis CK as contemporaries who also inspire him with their ability to write new material year after year. "That's the road I want to go. So I've got my next hour," he said.
And that means planning for the next special, which he learned especially from this past experience. "How far ahead you have to plan," he said. "Theaters get booked up. Theaters are union, some are non-union. All of this stuff, you have to plan."
One thing he doesn't have to plan or worry about is having his jokes remain timely.
"I don't do too much topical stuff," Burr said. "I still listen to old Pryors and when he talks about Ali, I
don't think, oh, he was champion 30 years ago?! No, if it's a funny joke it's
funny."
I meant to tell him before the taping that his joke about Hollywood's fascination with movies on African-Americans overcoming all types of racism had extended to school debate teams. Not that it changes the joke. "It's literally a genre now!" Burr said. "The funny thing about the swimming movie is I never even saw it. I just saw the trailer. It's already bad enough to know that people wanted to go swimming and they got s@&# for it. But then to make it cartoonish. There's no sense of reality...it's just done from a very, this is right, and this is wrong and every character is either 100 percent right or 100 percent wrong...Eddie Murphy did something about AIDS, and 25 years later, some group got pissed about it and was talking about it and came after him, and I thought that was unbelievably unfair. If he said something and someone didn't like it...to play Monday morning quarterback 25 years later is pretty ridiculous." Burr said the same holds true for those critics who brought up old footage of Arnold Schwarzenegger "grabbing ass in Brazil in the 1970s" after he ran for governor of California some three decades later.
Burr tends to talk about race in America in a really honest and funny way that few other comedians seem to even try it. Why is that? "It's not like it scares them," he said. "There are a lot of comics who say, well 'I can't get away with that.' I hate that expression. Because it implies that
you mean something malicious and the crowd is too stupid to realize it."
"You can talk about what you want to talk about as long as
it's funny. It all comes down to your intent. The funny thing is,…comedians in
general are pretty stubborn people...It's more like white people don't hang out
with other kinds of people, so they haven't had any sort of interaction. Once
you're dealing with a demographic like that that's isolated in that way, they
start thinking in columns. This group is like that. And that group is like
this. I remember one time I was in a barbershop." He said a woman wanted Burr to talk to one man from a group of three. Two of the guys were white. One was black. But the woman didn't want to identify the guy by race. "She whispered black as if she meant something bad. You're dealing with a herd mentality. If you're doing stand-up and a group is dealing with herd mentality,
you tell a joke and it causes them to relax. For the most part, people are
decent people."
"A lot of the jokes I do, I deliberately am walking along a
path…Is he going to say something f&*@ed up? It's a way of keeping peoples
attention."
And yet, there was a guy in my row (almost front and center) who managed to fall asleep during the taping. You waited until you had taped enough for the special to lay into him, and it was hysterical. But it's not on the rough cut of my DVD. Why not?
Opie and Anthony have provided a great service to stand-up comedy by having comedians appear as regular guests on their FM and satellite radio programs over the years, but their efforts to translate that partnership into a live comedy tour, aka the Traveling Virus, has failed. Because their "fans" known as "pests" have booed too many of the comedians, and even the radio hosts themselves. The last straw came earlier this month in New Jersey with the only Traveling Virus show of 2008, when the crowd turned on Mike Birbiglia during his very first joke. On the following Monday's program, "Anthony points out that comics who've flown to IRAQ, risking both life
and limb to entertain our troops, were afraid to subject themselves to
a group of booing O&A psychopaths." Here is video from the Birbiglia boobirds:
O&A fans on the message boards have a 19-page discussion about the incident. But this has been an ongoing problem, from the horrible crowd in Philadelphia two years ago for Bill Burr, to the more recent Animation Festival where Dan Naturman got heckled, and even the non-Virus shows I've seen that featured a heavy O&A (or even Howard Stern, as in Artie Lange) comedy lineup. I have friends who love listening to either O&A and/or Stern and are loyal listeners. But there is a larger audience of these knucklehead radio listeners who have gotten it into their knuckleheads that it's supposed to be fun to yell and heckle and boo the comedians. Perhaps they think, like most hecklers, that they're helping. They're not. Or perhaps they listen to the morning radio and hear these comedians busting on each other, and think that if they can roast one another on the air, then it must be acceptable for an audience member to join in the roasting. Which doesn't make any sense, because that's not how you're supposed to act at a live comedy show. Especially when the radio hosts, who you supposedly love, beg and plead with you not to boo. Which is exactly the position Opie and Anthony found themselves in this month. They can continue to support stand-up by having comedians on the air, but I think it's for the best that they finally decided to put a halt to their pests and not allow them to continue ruining the live comedy experience for actual fans.
A lot of comedy records and DVDs out this week, and Bill Burr's CD version of "Why Do I Do This?" is among them. It's great. Explicit. Brutal. Honest. I was there for the taping, and for that reason (plus having watched the DVD extras), I can also tell you that you'll also want to buy the DVD, which comes out Sept. 16, after an Aug. 23 broadcast date on Comedy Central. But if you cannot wait that long, order the CD now and listen to it and picture Burr on the big theater stage.
This is an early review! HBO just taped four episodes of a new stand-up showcase, Down and Dirty with Jim Norton. It'll air this fall (update! debut is midnight Oct. 4, with other episodes premiering Oct. 11, 18, and 25) They taped two episodes last night and two tonight at the BergenPAC in Englewood, New Jersey. At last night's tapings, things got, well, down and dirty.
Al Jackson, who I'm watching on Last Comic Standing as I type this, deserves special honors for his work warming up these rowdy crowds. He got some serious laughs and comedy points during the intermission between shows (an intermission that didn't allow the crowd to move) with material about being a teacher and a story involving his first trip to Starbucks.
Fans literally lined up around the block in this suburban Jersey town for the shows, which Norton promoted on his MySpace and via the Opie & Anthony show. Did I mention the crowds were rowdy? Alrighty then. I still haven't gotten full confirmation from HBO on this, but the first night's shows sure seemed like a suburban, white, rock version of Def Comedy Jam. Norton hosts all four shows and does about five to six minutes upfront, and there's a special podium set up for Lemmy from the band Motorhead, who introduces Norton and contributed the theme song. The fans clearly were on board with Norton from the get-go, welcoming him with a standing ovation.
In the first show, Norton opened with a funny bit about our past and present New York governors and their sexual tendencies. Russ Meneve came out first, and when some guy in the audience shouted out during Meneve's first bit, I got more than a bit worried that this crowd wouldn't know how to behave at a TV taping. They settled down, though. And they laughed and laughed. They gave Meneve an applause break when he joked that his last four girlfriends had died in sailing accidents. They continued laughing throughout the night. Joe DeRosa, whom I first encountered opening for a rowdy audience waiting for Dave Chappelle, certainly held his own with an opening bit about what life really is like for comedians on the road. Ari Shaffir went next, though, and attempted to steal the show when he ended his set with a joke about being ready for a blowjob anytime, demonstrating such by dropping his pants and his underpants for a full frontal moment. A moment that continued when he stood like that, then walked away with his pants still down. Hours later, Shaffir told me he didn't warn the HBO folks about his Full Monty moment, because he figured a warning might only result in HBO telling him not to do it. Then again, it is HBO. Moreover, he didn't really give them any chance to edit around his penis. So to speak. Let's see Carlos Mencia try to steal that bit. Norton's retort? "He looks like me, if I was taller and had a clit." Jim Jeffries got introduced as a special guest and had a funny opener about getting a ride home from an audition, followed by his story about coming down with a case of penis cancer. Audience naturally loved him. But they gave a standing ovation welcome to the first show's headliner, Andrew Dice Clay. Yep. He had his leather jacket, giant belt buckle, sunglasses and cigarette. No nursery rhymes. Instead, some different ancient premises that boiled down to dick jokes, black dick jokes (Siegfried and LeRoy???) that resulted in his philosophical outlook on how black men are ruining us. Or something like that.
The second show last night couldn't help but seem tamer. Norton opened that show with a few quick jokes about breaking up with his girlfriend (somehow Facebook alerted this to me first?!) before launching into his extensive breakdown of a video that I have seen (thank you, Joe Rogan?) of a man dying in Washington state a few years ago after allowing a horse to have sex with him. Indeed. I did say this show seemed tamer, though, and that was because the first few acts weren't quite as aggressive, even if they were still raunchy. Louis Katz introduced his own sex move, the Vengeful Louis, and closed with reasons why premature ejaculation is not necessarily a bad thing. Kevin Shea, introduced as Korean-born, also informed the crowd that he was college roommates with one of the YouTube founders-turned-billionaires. Jason Rouse, Canadian, living in England, started with a topic DeRosa had covered earlier but took it in a different direction. Rouse's jokes weren't just filthy but also somewhat misguided. After one joke, Rouse even said, "I know I'm going to Hell for that joke. But f#@k it, it's warm, and I'll know people there." Patrice Oneal closed out the second show with 15 minutes about how he's gotten creepy as he's gotten older. It's funny because it's true. But also because he's really not that creepy.
In a blog post today, Bill Burr thoughtfully and thoroughly describes his transition from a "clean" comedian to a "blue" one, and how he found his comedic voice as a stand-up. Among the morals of his story, that after 16 years, he's enjoying himself more today than ever: "The reason I'm having the fun I'm having, is because I took the time to figure out what works for me on stage."
Hundreds of thousands of people have seen the YouTube video of Bill Burr telling off a booing crowd in Philadelphia during last summer's Opie and Anthony comedy tour. It's certainly a sight to behold. But you really should make time to catch Burr onstage in a regular stand-up gig.
He has come a long way since Emotionally Unavailable, his CD of material that dates back to 2002 and only recently became available last month in stores via What Are Records.
Last weekend, he taped his first DVD special at the Skirball center at NYU and tore the roof off the place. I saw him steal the show last fall in Boston at an Emerson College gala that included performances by Steven Wright, Denis Leary, Tom Shillue, Anthony Clark and Eddie Brill. Here, alone, he proved that there are few working stand-ups who can steal the show from him. Why? Burr, like Louis CK, has reached a level of honesty and depth that makes his punchlines so much more potent than most observational comics. Take his opening bit on pedophiles, for instance. You can find plenty of stand-ups in any city right now making a "To Catch a Predator" reference. Burr, however, cuts to the emotional core and reveals how much differently we all relate to children because of it. He similarly takes a joke about the relentlessness of women and turns it around on himself. And he's one of very few comedians, black or white, to honestly dissect racial relations without falling into that trap of "white people do this, while black people do that." About 45 minutes into his act, Burr tripped over his words on a bit about Hitler and broke into a hilarious tangent about a guy in my row who kept nodding off. "Any other show, I'd say something right off the bat, but tonight, I just kept thinking, 'I'm taping! I'm taping!'" Burr told the audience, then addressed the guy for the next several minutes before getting back to his regularly scheduled routine. He had everyone howling. In fact, the hourlong set will be interesting to see and hear on DVD, because in person, the audience's applause and laughter was so loud so often that at times, at least from the front rows, you couldn't hear Burr's next punchline. And if that's his biggest concern, then Burr shouldn't have to worry about finding a network to air his special.
As they say in France, que sera sera, je ne sais quoi -- which translates into not one but two cliches. As for French Canada and Montreal, what better way to close out the 25th anniversary of Just For Laughs than with a gala hosted by native son William Shatner. What's that? You didn't know the Shatner came from Montreal? Neither did I, my dear readers. Neither did I. The fest's grand finale (though the festival continues with a couple of shows on Sunday, Saturday night represented the blow-out of blow-out spectacular shows across the board) had the city's streets teeming with comedy fans, and other people, too. Let me share a few salient points and thoughts from Saturday night...
Is there a stage past post-ironic to describe the public persona of William Shatner, especially when he "sings" Canada's rock hits? Or is that simply called ironic? Where is Alanis when you need her?
Zach Galifianakis doesn't need a piano to be funny, although it certainly adds a little something something (perhaps that je ne sais quoi?) to observations such as: "At what age do you tell a highway it was adopted?"
I now have very mixed feelings about Canadian stand-up Gerry Dee. Why? Dee rocked the televised gala audience with his set Saturday night, but I had the strange sense that I had seen and heard it all before -- mostly because I had seen and heard it all before, as his 6-7 minute set virtually echoed the televised sets he had performed this year for both Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" and NBC's "Last Comic Standing." Most stand-ups understand that any set they've done on national TV gets "burned" (aka retired), so what does this say (or what should I take it to mean) about the rest of Dee's material? Like I wrote, mixed feelings.
Bill Burr deserves a development deal, or a big break. I saw him crush both at the Shatner gala and much much later, past 2 a.m. Sunday, as the final comic in the "state of the fest" showcase, devoted to (as the program says) "this year's breakout acts and must-see talent." He actually closed both shows, for good reason. He literally is sincerely funny and brutally honest onstage.
What are the odds that out of several hundred patrons, the most drunken and annoying one gets seated front and center? Most comedy club customers will say they may fear sitting there for fear of getting picked on by the comedian. But the same is true for the performers, as the New Faces 2 showcase demonstrated Saturday night at Kola Note, with a guy talking to (and sometimes blurting out and yelling at) each of the comedians, publicly apologizing each time until he got kicked out of the show. As host Tom Papa discovered, every square inch of that customer's table was occupied by empty beer bottles. "Two hundred beers and a sailor with low self-esteem equals chaos!" Papa said.
The name "LaQuisha" always seems to get a laugh (New Face comedian Geoff Keith proved that again). Must be the "qu" sound. At least that's what the comedy textbooks say.
New York stand-up Kurt Metzger politely informed the Canadians "why America is like, the best country": We own the moon. "Where is the weird Quebec separatist flag on the moon?" Eh? Metzger also made a somewhat compelling case for why God could be a woman. I shan't dare repeat it here and now.
As New York stand-up Matt McCarthy (no relation, well, not to me, anyhow) and I decided, Montreal is like the French Texas of Canada. Just a little bit different. Acts like it's its own country. And as the other McCarthy said during his New Face showcase, "I have never seen so many churches and strip clubs in my life. Make up your minds!"
Speaking of Texas, New Face stand-up Lucas Molandes showed yet again that Austin breeds very smart and clever comedians. His closing bit on the war in Iraq involved a sexual conundrum between a raccoon and a cat, but he apologized by saying, "Sorry folks, I just read 'Animal Farm.'" A couple of his other touchy observations: Native Americans made the dreamcatcher, "but the one dream they couldn't catch was the American Dream." And reading Anne Frank's diary "taught me you can't hide from your problems." Yikes! Still quite funny, though.
Also quite funny: Tommy Johnagin. His performance could be used as evidence that "Last Comic Standing" does indeed find and put promising comedians on TV.
Andy Kindler really is the comedian's comedian.
Joey Kola's and Bobby Kelly's impersonations of a female voice sound oddly similar to an impersonation of Joe Pesci. I don't mean that as a funny like a clown way, either. Just funny. And that's a wrap for now. Time to catch a plane back to JFK.
Opie & Anthony prepared to return from yet another radio exile, right on the eve of launching their second annual summer comedy tour. Good timing, eh? XM satellite radio's month-long suspension ended this morning, and the K-Rock jocks get to celebrate tomorrow when the second annual
"Opie & Anthony's Traveling Virus" tour kicks off at Jones Beach.
"The timing is
interesting," Gregg (Opie) Hughes told me. "So yeah, they
might be excited to see us."
Fans will hear plenty of free
speech, too, from comedians Louis CK, Frank Caliendo, Robert Kelly, Stephen
Lynch, Otto & George, Patrice Oneal, Bob Saget, Rich Vos and O&A
sidekick Jim Norton (7 p.m. tomorrow, $26-$70 via Ticketmaster). The seven-city
tour visits Mohegan Sun later this month and Holmdel, N.J., in August.
"I think they're going to be
very festive because they can see everyone in a free atmosphere," Oneal
said. "Plus, it's the first live thing after all the bull-, so people can
just take a breath and enjoy themselves."
The showcase also features an
Ozzfest-style village of merchants, artists and crazies to go along with the
comedy.
"And that doesn't count the
tailgating that happens before," Hughes said.
Last year, the jocks weren't sure
what to expect on tour. "We didn't know if fans would have the patience to
sit through eight to nine comics," Hughes said. "But there were times
when you could hear a pin drop because the audience was waiting to hear the
next joke."
Some crowds, though, got a little
too into the act. In Philadelphia, the audience booed Bill Burr so relentlessly
that he turned on the crowd with a hilarious rant against that city's heroes, a
performance which became a YouTube hit in comedy circles. Burr, who appears on
"Letterman" tonight, is passing up this tour, saying, "I earned
my Purple Heart" the last go-round.
"There's nothing better than
killing in front of that audience and nothing more frightening than bombing in
front of them," Norton said. "They're loyal fans, but they're
barbarians."
Kelly said the fans may be rowdy,
but they do know comedy. "They're familiar with all of us, too, from the
show, which helps."
The lineup has longstanding
relationships with the Opie and Anthony program - something the jocks have
fostered over the years, by inviting comics on a regular basis to hang out,
share their lives and join the airtime shenanigans.
"It's not just a radio show putting on a comedy show," Cumia
said. "The audience has a vested interest in every comic who is part of
the show. Their crises, their addictions, their vices - the audience knows
these people."
Note: Parts of this report originally appeared in the New York Daily News. More from Patrice Oneal, Robert Kelly and Jim Norton after the jump.
Bill Burr deserves to break big. He absolutely destroyed last night at the “30 Years of Emerson Comedy” show at the Cutler Majestic. Several times during his 11-minute set, audience members around me were saying things like, “This guy is AMAZING!” Tore the roof off the joint. Anyhow. Like I said, more on the show as a whole later.
Got to talk to Burr briefly after the show. Two young fans already were asking him something about the Opie & Anthony Traveling Virus comedy tour, and the Philadelphia fans who booed Burr and many others. Burr told the fans to look it up on YouTube. Here is a 10-minute clip from that set, which includes lots of cursing, which makes it NSFW:
“It was great,” he told me last night. Burr said he’d always wanted to have an opportunity like that to completely tear apart an audience, and last night, said Denis Leary (fellow Emerson alum on the bill last night) recalled the time Lenny Clarke found a crowd so hostile and unworthy that he actually decided to clip his toenails onstage, giving play-by-play of the clipping instead of his usual jokes. As for the O&A tour, Burr said Philly was the only tough crowd he encountered, but he figured that one of the cities on the tour would go screwy. Why? “They’re animals,” he said of O&A fans.
So I posed the question: Should stand-up comedy even make a tour of arenas for O&A fans? Burr paused. “I don’t know.” But then he talked about how Opie comes up with all sorts of crazy ideas and tries to make them work, regardless of how crazy the idea is.
Bill Burr recently had his own HBO half-hour special, and I wanted to know what he meant in a MySpace blog posting about moving 20 minutes from the end of his set to the front.
"Early in my career, joke order was really important, because you had no idea what you were doing...I knew you had to get 'em quick. You wanted to start off, Vinny Favorito told me this, you want to start with your second-best joke and end with your best joke...(in between)...I feel there has to be a flow to your ideas where you go from one to the other and it becomes this seemless thing. I know what I'm talking about upfront and I know what I'm ending with. If I do an hour, from 12 minutes in to 40 minutes is up in the air with what I'm going to talk about...if it's even going to be prepared, if I'm going to be screwing around...that's what made the HBO special so much fun...I 70 percent knew what I was going to talk about in the middle."
"I've written a whole new hour since I did the HBO thing last year. That's something I'm really proud of. always want to stay ahead of people who saw me on TV. They think they want to see what you said on TV, but there's always something about a joke, the second time you hear it -- there's a surprise in it, but if you always know where it's going...even if it's live, I think it's a lot better to hit people on the head with new stuff."
Burr was part of an explosion of Boston comedians who all came up and seemed to move to New York and onto bigger and better things at the same time.
"My guys, we were all so prolific. I came up with Dane Cook, Patrice Oneal, Bob Marley and Robert Kelly, and we all pushed each other along. It was a nice healthy competitiveness when we came along. I'm real thankful that I started out with them...these are a real motivated group of guys that I started out with."
He left Boston for NYC in 1995 (and recently moved to L.A. in 2007). Going back home was odd.
"I knew I did the Kowloon one time in the late '90s. I went in there and expected to see Dane, Patrice and all the guys in the back and there was nobody...there's always that feeling of going back to your high school or going to your elementary school and thinking, 'I used to fit in that chair?'"
