Bill Burr Interview

Bill, thanks for taking the time to do an interview with Born Standing Up.

Have you read Born Standing Up?

Yes, I read Born Standing Up. I got it for Christmas, that and the, “Slash” autobiography.What stuck out to you?

There were countless things that stuck out. Here’s a quick list. The story Martin told about moving out and not calling home because he didn’t know he was suppose to. The loneliness of being on the road. The fact that he already had a writing job, but had the nerve to walk away and try and make it as a comic. I was also unaware of how many tickets he sold. He sold out Nassau Coliseum three times! I’m old enough to remember seeing Eddie Murphy on the Raw tour so I was aware of the big venues he played. But I was completely unaware of how big Steve Martin was. It made me wonder if they compared arena tour memories on the set of “Bowfinger.”
“You ever play the Kingdom?”
“Yeah, 4 shows. Good gig but sound was fucked up.”
“I know, I couldn’t hear myself.”

How old were you when you started comedy?

I was 23 years old when I did my first open mic night at Nick’s Comedy Stop in Boston.

How long did it take you before you felt like you were funny onstage?

Well that depends on what kind of funny you mean. As far as funny in a “getting the job done” for a 10 minute guest set: That took about two years. To become a solid middle act in hell rooms was another two years. Seven years to be a decent B room closer. And I don’t think I began to find my voice until year number 12. (I just hit year 16 last month).

What is the best advice you ever received?

That’s a tough one. I’ve gotten a lot of great advice from other comics over the years. I think the best stand up advice I’ve gotten is to say what you think is funny. I always found it weird when a comic would say something hysterical and then every comic would go, “You should do that on stage.” And nine times out of ten the response would be, “Nah...I can’t get away with that. That joke isn’t me.” How can that joke not be you? You just thought it and then you said it. People always talk about finding their voice on stage. You don’t have to find it. You just have to listen to it.

Who do you think is funny?

Too many to list. Everyone from Foster Brooks and Don Rickles to guys I saw when I first came to NYC like Dave Attel, Louie CK, Dave Chappelle, Tracy Morgan. Somebody recently showed me a clip on youtube called Derek and Clive -The Prince of Whales. I’m ashamed to say that I had never heard of Peter Cook and I was blown away by the guy. Also it was great to see Dudley Moore being that evil. I heard when he began doing movies that he was worried that the Derek and Clive stuff would surface ruin his career.What advice do you have for up and coming comics?
Get on stage as much as possible and challenge yourself to find new levels in confidence and performance so you continue to grow.

If you ever had a bad set, how did you deal with that?

Any time I have a bad set I think about killing myself until the next time I get on stage and have a good set. Actually now that I’ve done stand up for as long as I have, I only hate myself for about an hour after a bad set.

What are your future aspirations?

Try and get better as a comic.

What is the difference between a good comic and a great comic?

When I watch a great comic, I don’t feel like a comedian in that moment. I feel like a member of the audience. When I watch a good comic, I’m just thinking, “How much time is he doing?”

Describe your writing process?

When I started out I wrote everything down. But as you continue to perform you get more and more comfortable on stage. So eventually you stop writing and switch over to riffing. Since I switched to that style, I find that I rarely listen to tapes of my set anymore. I have a lot of stuff that is hit or miss, but for some reason (laziness) I can’t seem to get the discipline to sit down and work it out. My writing process as of today is: When I see something funny, I turn my watch around backward. Then later on in the day, when I look down at my watch and I see it’s backwards, it reminds me to talk about the funny thing that I saw or thought earlier. When I’m in a comedy club and I think of something, I’ll write the subject down on a cocktail napkin and take it up on stage. Then at some point during the set I’ll see the napkin and start talking about whatever I wrote down. Hence, there is a lot of bombing.

Who do you see as a new and up coming comic?

I like Joe DeRosa, Kevin Shea, Jay Oakerson, Kurt Metzker (Don’t know about the spelling on those last two names.

Do you have any good stories from being on the road that you would like to share?

Last weekend during a show at Giggles in Seattle, a hefty woman fell down one step and dumped a full beer right on her crotch, before the show even started. By the time I got on stage, she was hammered. As I told my jokes, she wouldn't laugh. She would just yell “Whoooooooooooooooo!!!!” like she was on a roller coaster or something. So after 20 minutes of this, I say in a very nice way to stop going “Whoooooooooooo!!!!” after every joke. I tell her if something is funny: laugh. If it isn't, just sit there.I thought I said it in a nice way, but next thing I know she's just sort of staring at me while simultaneously giving me the finger. She held it close to her chest so no one else could see what she was doing. Thus it felt much more intimate and hurtful. It was like she was whispering "Fuck you" at me, as the rest of the crowd was listening to me tell the next joke.So for some stupid reason I felt like I had to address it. We ended up having a little back and forth discussion and then people in the back started telling her to "Shut the Fuck up."So she told all of them to "Shut the Fuck up." and it started to get ugly.I finished out my set and as I was standing up at the bar she got in my face and demanded her 20 dollars back. I told her I didn't have the power to make that happen. She then told me that she WAS a big fan of mine but NOW she wasn't.At that point somebody else yelled at her: "Why don't you shut up! Nobody likes you!"Then she flipped out and shrieked, "PEOPLE LIKE ME! I'M A GOOD PERSON!!!!"Then it was just fuckin' weird. She eventually stormed out of the club and proceeded to get into a hair pulling, earring flying cat fight in front of the club.And the best part was that I know she woke up the next day and at no point did she think: "Wow. The comedian said I was annoying. Twenty six people in the crowd said I was annoying. I spilled a full beer right on my twat and then I got into a fight in front of the club. I really need to calm down and figure out what I'm doing with my life."I'll bet any amount of she called her friends up and her first statement was: "Can you believe those people?"