Conducted in September of 2015...
As a Stand-up comedy veteran of over 20 years, Bill Burr has long since found his comedic voice. It just happens to be a mostly vexed, occasionally shrill Bostonian voice. His comedy feels kind of like sitting next to a pissed off guy at a bar complaining about his crappy job, but in the most entertaining way possible.
Burr's well-publicized "Philadelphia Incident" is legendary among comedy nerds, and for good reason. It remains one of the best ass kickings a comedian has ever given a rude audience. The fact that he managed to win the crowd over by viciously insulting them is a thing of rare beauty. He's acted in movies, had a well-loved part in Breaking Bad, and solidified his place in the landscape of great American stand-ups. Beyond that, Burr has a weekly podcast, an animated series on Netflix on the way, and a new North American tour.
We spoke with Mr. Burr about political correctness (and how utterly sick he is of talking about it), his new show, and a possible return to the Breaking Bad universe.
By Rory Jones
UPDATE:
Bill Burr will perform three shows at ACL Live at the Moody from October 20-21st.
Do512: Let's get to this question first. How has this current "politically correct" climate affected comedians?
Bill Burr: It hasn't! It has no effect on comedians, it's the biggest non-story I've ever seen in my life. Like, they'll say, "You got a backlash for saying" name me one person. What has happened to any comic? What has happened to any of them for anything they've said? What they're acting like is that forty soccer moms have won Peabody Awards. The level of journalistic integrity that they give it, like it was in Time Magazine, when it's just some jerkoff with a Twitter account. Half the time they don't even get the fucking joke. What annoys me is that people that are journalists, take what these people say and turn it into this clickbait bullshit. They know that it's bullshit. Meanwhile, California's running out of water, we've got a major population problem, people are feeding cows to cows and all kinds of horrific shit, and they go after some comic who tells a dick joke in a strip mall because three soccer moms got pissed off in Rhode Island?!?
Jezebel or Gawker, maybe.
Bill Burr: Not even! If you look at my Twitter account, every day, someone wakes up on the wrong side of the bed and they flip out about something. It is the biggest non-fucking-story I've ever heard. And now every interview I do, somebody says "In this new comedy climate", there's no new comedy climate. This is the deal- most people are adults and understand that when they're listening to a comedian they're listening to a comedian. It's this small group of people that are being turned into Mount Everest because it's an easy, lazy story so journalists jump on it because everyone's trying to figure out how to get eyeballs on their website now.
Obviously it's a vocal minority making it seem more overblown than it is. They make it seem like comedians were afraid to even do things like perform at colleges these days.
Bill Burr: It is overblown. Comedians aren't afraid to go to a college, it's just they're not as fun as they used to be. They used to be fun, man. It used to be, that's where all next level thought and views were going to be. Then it started to feel like you were performing at some Republican fundraiser. It started to feel like "This is a college? I feel like I'm doing a corporate gig for oil men right now".
Why is this even a conversation that people are having right now?
Bill Burr: I'll tell you why, because people in your profession have made a mountain out of a molehill about every goddamn cause out there and now there's this hilarious mindset that if you don't let people say what they're thinking, they won't be thinking it anymore. That if you intimidate people out of saying what is really on their mind that it won't be on their mind anymore. It's insulting to all humanity.
You know, I joked about this on Conan. The head of Nestlé doesn't think that water is a fundamental human right. Privatized water. That right there, to me, that's bigger than ISIS. Every living thing needs water and this guy wants to own it. There's nobody near as fucked up as what this guy is going for, and some comic is going to catch far more shit for doing a Bruce Jenner bit.
Can you tell me a little bit about the Netflix show you're working on?
Bill Burr: Yeah, it's about this family called the Murphy family. It takes place in the 1970's and I think it's gonna be... I think people are definitely going to have a reaction. Put it this way, I think it's hilarious and I hope other people do too.
What are your feelings about Netflix as a platform? It seems like it's been pretty great for comedians.
Bill Burr: It's been awesome for me, and they've been a dream to work for. They've just been great. Sort of the exact opposite of your stereotypical network where most of the time the artist wants to do something and the network says "Wait, a minute- wow wow wow wow". With Netflix you pay for a membership so there's no advertisers. There's really nobody to gum up the works, so it's kinda up to you to not screw up such a great situation. I'm thrilled to be over there.
Without giving too much away, what would you say the main themes of the show are?
Bill Burr: It's just a family that grew up in the 70's, like I did. I'm not a young guy anymore, a lot has changed. I've noticed that at the comedy clubs. This generation of kids that came up, their views. You know, they wore helmets when they rode bicycles and some of them had play dates. They had much more supervision. I'm not saying they're any less crazy than we were, just in a different way. It's just really different now. Kids are in their phones, everyone's in their phones now the way they communicate. The way people share personal information has really changed so this is just going back to a different time. It's a way for me to tell my childhood stories in a way that will work nowadays.
Is it semi-autobiographical, or general stories of less parental supervision?
Bill Burr: More the latter, there's elements of things that happened to me, or something funny somebody said to me that I remember. But the people I'm doing the show with, Michael Price, and all these other guys sort of grew up the same way. So what's cool is, I'm doing the voice of the dad, Frank Murphy, but it's not my dad. It's an amalgam of all our dads. So if my dad sat down and watched an episode he might recognize some things he might have said but it's not like he's going to watch it and say "Oh my god, this is me". I did that on purpose, because I respect the fact that I was dumb enough to get into this business and other people are more private.
On a different note, will your character be returning to the Better Call Saul universe?
Bill Burr: I'd say the best chance is to keep watching. It's a prequel, so the farther along it closer they get to where my character was at. I have no idea either. I learned Kuby's name after the show, while I was watching it with someone else. Uncle Hank, Deans character, said "That carrot top from Boston" and I stood up and realized he was talking about me. Then it made sense me why when we did the train robbery scene, and they dressed me up like a cowboy, and I showed up doing this accent like I was from the south or something. They stopped me and went "No, no no. That's not how you talk", and I said "That's not going to make any sense".
It doesn't seem authentic.
Bill Burr: Yeah, then I realized that makes it even funnier that this Kuby guy who talks like he's from Dorchester or something. It's hilarious that me, as a comedian, I didn't realize the two layers that made the joke funny.
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