Brownstein: Success hasn’t softened Bill Burr’s edge

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Bill Burr has been doing it his way for over 20 years. No compromises. No political correctness. No prisoners.

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However, the proud barker from Boston has still catapulted himself to the top of the humor heap.

There are few funnier than Burr, and even fewer more successful. It’s everywhere: stand-up shows, movies, TV series, Netflix specials, podcasts.

Burr was virtually unknown in Montreal when he first arrived in a small room at Just for Laughs 18 years ago. Half a dozen visits later, he’s become a huge fan favorite, despite the fact that he’s not only a die-hard Bruin fan, but he goes out of his way to make fun of the Habs.

Now he’s back for JFL’s 40th birthday to play the city’s biggest venue, the Bell Centre, on July 30 as part of their Slight Return tour. He was originally scheduled to play there in 2020, but the show was postponed due to the pandemic.

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“When I was starting out, the festival gave me one of my biggest opportunities,” Burr says in a phone interview while on tour in Portland, Oregon. “It was very simple: if you killed at the festival, you had a deal.

“The festival has always been the ultimate validation for comedians. It was the credit you needed to get ahead. You are so nervous at first. It is a great opportunity. You have to make sure you deliver. And if he hadn’t, he would have ruined it. New York would know. Then I would get that reputation that I couldn’t deliver.”

But he complied. And she hasn’t looked back.

At 54, Burr is as irritated as ever, about everything from COVID to Kyle Rittenhouse. He invariably gets away with it because anger is mostly defused with a smile. Okay, maybe more like a smile.

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And he’s not afraid to offend and take a beating onstage, a la Chris Rock at the Oscars or Dave Chappelle.

“Comedians have always been beaten. We’ve all had people take the stage. I know a guy who got hit in the head with a chair. Jim Jefferies was brutally attacked on stage. A woman was chasing me around the stage when she was doing Dangerfield’s in New York. You are in a bar in front of a group of drunks… anything can happen. They throw shit at you on stage. They wait for you outside.

“But now social media latches onto this and then it becomes a copy,” he adds. “I thought it was funny that the Oscars had the same level of security as your average comedy club. Every time I kicked a guy out of a club, he was right back in. They always come back in.”

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No matter, Burr won’t alter his act to avoid confrontation.

“But I’m not being malicious. I’m not going to come up with the idea of ​​irritating people. I only go up to make people laugh. My style is my style. And I’ve stayed like this.”

And that means he hasn’t stopped shooting the Habs.

“Why would there be? We’re rivals. You have those 18 Stanley Cups, back when the cup was the size of a shot glass, that you won in a fucking pond in the early 20th century,” he scoffs. but it’s about 30 years that your fans have had to wait for a 25th cup. … All I can say is I really miss the Expos.”

Burr played a little hockey as a kid, “but the problem is you have to have parents who want to get up at 4:30 in the morning, and I don’t.” He started playing again about 12 years ago with other comedians, but he had to give it up five years later, “because he had problems with his sciatic nerve and he had children.”

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No wonder Burr’s hockey hero is Bruins bad boy Brad Marchand.

Burr pauses our conversation to order a turkey and cheese croissant and a double espresso. Really? This man doesn’t seem to need caffeine. His body probably produces a lot on its own.

On the other hand, he is constantly on the move and cannot get much sleep. Aside from his North American tour, he has just released his seventh Netflix special, Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill; finished the first season of the anthology series Bill Burr Presents: Immoral Compass; has continued with his hugely popular Monday morning Podcast; he appeared in the Judd Apatow film The King of Staten Island and appeared in The Mandalorian. And somehow he’s finding time to direct the movie comedy Old Dads, which he co-wrote and stars in alongside Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine.

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What worlds do you have left to conquer?

“I haven’t won anything. To conquer is to impose your will. It is a dictatorship. I am ad-k, not a dictator,” she reflects. “I’m really a quiet guy, and I just do the things I like to do. And it seems to have worked.”

So what makes Bill Burr laugh?

Without a moment’s hesitation, let go:

“Men crying. That’s just funny.”

TAKE A LOOK

bill burr performs Saturday, July 30 at 8 pm at the Bell Center as part of the Just for Laughs festival. Tickets start at $85.35 and are available at evenko.ca.

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