![]() His biggest inspiration was Chris Rock, who was only four years older but already a star breaking into Hollywood. Back then, Burr was working clean (i.e., no swearing) because he was afraid of offending the crowd and fretted about getting heckled. He tried a few odd jobs (assisting at a dentist’s office, construction, warehouse work), but stand-up “felt right.” The Boston comedy scene’s aggressive fastball delivery style influenced his own, and two years after first hitting the stage, he moved to New York City. I was onstage with the mindset of a 6-year-old from 23 to about 37.” “But I became a comedian because by the time I was 23, I was so walled-off and fucked-up that doing stand-up was the easiest way to go into a room full of strangers and make them like me so that no one would hurt me. “I thought I became a comedian because I loved comedy and I liked making people laugh,” Burr says. The Massachusetts-born son of a nurse and a dentist grew up in what he calls “the safe suburbs.” Yet Burr’s sense of safety didn’t extend to his home life, where he says he was emotionally abused by his volatile father. Burr’s nightmare is that he makes a different choice. His friend says that their own jokes are funnier, and suggests they attempt stand-up sometime. Frank Mullen/FilmMagicīurr has said he’s had nightmares about this moment: He’s a student majoring in radio at Emerson College and watching stand-up comedy on TV with a friend. How are you going to figure out who I am in a joke?”īill Burr during Laffapalooza on October 29, 2005, at Earthlink in Atlanta. “It took me 50 years to figure out who I am, and I’ve been with me for 50 fucking years. “You can’t take one incident or one quote and say, ‘That’s who you are,'” he says. The media have been making assumptions about him based on his stand-up for decades. I made it my private goal to relax Burr enough to uncross his arms, and occasionally he would - then he’d cross them right back again. He looks skeptical and, every so often, is a tad combative. On the eve of the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival, where Burr is one of the headliners, the comic sat down to chat. Old Dads will mark his first role as a leading man. Meanwhile, he continues adding to his acting credits, which include playing Pete Davidson’s would-be father figure in 2020’s The King of Staten Island. His upcoming Netflix special, Live at Red Rocks, will mark his fifth for the streamer. This fall, he’ll become the first comic ever to play Fenway Park. At 53, he is one of the few comics who can sell out arenas like Madison Square Garden and London’s Royal Albert Hall. These days, if he would accept it, Burr could bask in adulation from his fans and colleagues. 'School for Good and Evil' Trailer Teases Best Friends Battling It Out as Heroes and Villains in Paul Feig-Directed Fantasy Film
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