Emmy- and Grammy-nominated comedian Bill Burr filmed his 2017 Netflix special Walk Your Way Out at Nashville’s beloved Ryman Auditorium, and in 2022 he made history as the first comedian to headline (and sell out) Boston’s Fenway Park. In 2023, he was also the first stand-up comedian to perform at the ancient Roman amphitheater Odeon of Herodes Atticus in Athens, Greece. (Yes, it’s a Roman amphitheater in Greece — something Burr calls a “very, very special experience.”)
On Friday, Burr will bring his stand-up to thousands of fans gathered at Bridgestone Arena. He recently spoke to the Scene by phone — while making bacon and eggs for his growing family — about touring in the South, the end of “cancel culture” and appreciating the fans fueling his booming career, which has evolved beyond just stand-up. He’s earned acting credits in prestige TV shows like Breaking Bad and The Mandalorian and films like 2020’s Pete Davidson vehicle The King of Staten Island, plus he wrote and voiced the lead character in the animated Netflix series F Is for Family, and has hosted Monday Morning Podcast since 2007. Last year, Burr made his directorial debut with the short film “Soda” and feature film Old Dads.
Burr has been performing throughout the South for years, and notes his love for 1970s and ’80s stock car racing, wrestling and Southern rock. He also acknowledges the “progressive Southerner.”
“I love going through the South and, like, I deliberately act like I don’t understand you guys,” Burr jokes.
While regional stereotypes are still standard comedic fodder, the ribbing goes both ways for the Massachusetts native — he insists his dad wasn’t a lobster fisherman, and says he didn’t grow up in a lighthouse.
“If I go to a red state, I make fun of red state stuff,” he says. “I’m not going to just tell them what they want to hear. And when I go to blue states, you know, I make fun of Hillary and all of that type of stuff.”
“I think the South gets a really bad rap,” he says. “White people like to act like all the racism, all the racist white people, are just in the South, and it’s been my experience that they’re everywhere. It’s kind of like how people like to act like all the pedophiles are in Hollywood. It’s like, ‘You don’t remember To Catch a Predator? They did a bunch of seasons of that show, and they never had to go to Hollywood to find one.’”
Like any good comedian, Burr has been an outspoken critic while both on and off the stage. One topic he isn’t afraid to weigh in on is “cancel culture” and its impact on comedy — something he estimates has reached its peak and is dying down in absurdity. When asked if he thinks live audiences in 2024 have a renewed appetite for laughing at and exploring uncomfortable truths onstage, Burr has an easy answer: That appetite never really went away to begin with.
“It was almost like a political campaign — like Say No to Drugs, or Leave No Child Behind,” he says. “It was this thing, and it wasn’t even liberals — it was extreme liberals, which are no different than the religious nuts that are way on the right.”
Burr says he believes what has now been reduced to “cancel culture” began as a movement with good intentions, like addressing incidents of sexual violence. But he’s joined other public figures in pushing back against the current state of the social movement.
“It really got out of control, and it died under its own weight because you couldn’t get enough people behind it,” he says. “And now, what’s funny is the people that were doing it are now trying to walk away from it and trying to say, ‘Nobody got canceled, it wasn’t that bad,’ which is classic toxic behavior — you do it, and then years later, when you get called on it, you act like it never happened.”
The phrase “comedian’s comedian” often comes up in interviews with and conversations about Burr, but it’s clear he’s also a comedian of the people — something he doesn’t take for granted.
“I’m always blown away that anybody ever comes out to see me,” he says.
“I felt like I made it way back in 2010, 2011, when I was able to buy a house telling jokes, so I love doing it. It’s the thing that makes me the happiest, and I don’t take people coming to my show lightly. I know that they, you know, take time off from work, they got a babysitter, they spent money to come out here.
“My job is to make them laugh their ass off, and I think I’m really good at it,” he continues. “I also feel like I’m just starting to hit my stride, and I have a lot left in the tank.”
