Burr talks with Terry Gross about processing his abusive childhood, a therapeutic mushroom trip, and why he's angry at liberals. "You can get canceled as a comedian for doing a friggin' Caitlyn Jenner joke, but this a**hole [Elon Musk] can 'Seig heil' and nothing. Where are all the liberals?" His new Hulu stand-up special is called Bill Burr: Drop Dead Years. This is the extended version of the interview, which we couldn't fit in our broadcast. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Chapter 1: Who is Bill Burr and what is his new special about?
This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Bill Burr was recently described by New York Times comedy columnist Jason Zinnemann as one of the greatest living stand-up comics. In Rolling Stone, Burr was described as the undisputed heavyweight champ of rage-fueled humor. Bill Burr has a new comedy special on Hulu called Drop Dead Years. It starts streaming Friday, March 14th. Here's an excerpt.
He's talking about driving on the freeway in L.A. where he lives when he's caught in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Meanwhile, there's hardly any cars in the HOV lane, the high-occupancy vehicle lane, which is reserved for vehicles with at least two people. He's tempted to get into that lane even though there's no one else in his car, but he knows the HOV rules are strictly enforced.
I could go in there by myself, okay? But if there's a cop there, I'm going to get pulled over. I'm going to get yelled at. I get a ticket and my insurance goes up. I am not allowed to do that. However, I can still join the Klan.
I could join the Ku Klux Klan and not get in trouble. I don't get yelled at. I don't get a ticket. No insurance goes up. I could drive down the highway in my Klan outfit as long as I had the mud flap up. I could say Grand Dragon on the front of the sheet. I could have a white power bumper sticker. I could have a Hitler bobblehead right on the dashboard just sitting there going like that.
I would not get pulled over unless I went into the HOV lane, right? And then I wouldn't get pulled over because I joined a terrorist organization. I would get pulled over because I didn't have another terrorist with me. That's what the problem would be. And the cop will be coming up like, well, well, well, aren't we in a hurry to get to the cross burning this evening, huh?
Who the hell do you think you are, buddy? I'll tell you right now, you better have a black guy in the trunk or you, sir, are in a lot of trouble. Get your license up.
Okay, that's Bill Burr from his new comedy special. He's also one of the stars of the new Broadway revival of the David Mamet play, Glengarry Glen Ross. The revival has an incredible cast, Burr, Kieran Culkin, Bob Odenkirk, and Michael McKean. Burr co-starred in the film King of Staten Island, which was loosely based on the life of the film's star, Pete Davidson.
Bercow created, co-wrote, and starred in the animated series F is for Family. Although he's known for comedy that's often contrarian and angry, the new comedy special, Drop Dead Years, opens like this.
It's kind of a weird thing to be over 50, really starting to realize how f***ed you are.
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Chapter 2: What are Bill Burr's thoughts on anger and vulnerability?
Bill Burr, welcome to Fresh Air. It's a pleasure to have you on the show.
What's going on? How are you?
Good. It seems unusual for you to start on a note of vulnerability like you do in this new special. Does this mark a change in your public or private self?
Something I've kind of been going towards. But also, I don't think, you know, like most people that get on a stage, they just sort of watch what you do and then think that this little sliver of you is what you are or whatever. Like that Rolling Stone thing saying that I was the king of rage. Comedy, you know, and it's in Rolling Stones. Everybody listens to it.
So then they just think I'm walking around just furious all the time. It's two dimensional. So and then there's also a part of me that really hates the fact that I have been. so angry and had this temper and stuff. It was something I never wanted to be. It's something I grew up with. And, you know, you think to yourself, like, I'm not doing that.
I'm not going to be like this person because they're making me feel bad as a kid. And then you grow up and you end up... It's the weird thing. In order to not be it, I think a lot of times you have to be it for a while. And it's weird. It takes somebody else in your life to let you know that that's how you're being. Because a lot of times you just dialed it down a little bit.
And to you, that means you've leveled off. Like where your normal is is not where normal people's normal is. So you're like, what? You know, I didn't throw a chair across the room. I'm an easygoing.
I let stuff roll off my back. Yeah. So who was the person who told you?
Was it your wife, your therapist?
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Chapter 3: How does Bill Burr view cancel culture and its effects?
I want to back up a little because when you were describing your anger and trying to change, you said you realized you'd been abusive. Do you mean verbally or physically?
Oh, no, no, verbally.
Good. I just wanted to clarify that.
OK, I'll give you a classic example of that was I my thing was I grew up and I saw men calling women all the time and I saw the looks on their faces and I saw it. So I made this rule in my head. I was never going to do that. And I never did it. I've never done that. And never done that to anybody. Buddy, I don't think – I've never done it in a relationship. I might have done it driving in a car.
I'm sure I have.
Well, that's one of the things you've talked about is that you had real road rage sometimes.
I don't even think that's fair of me to say I have road rage. I have rage and now I'm in a car, so now it's on the road. I have road rage. I have kitchen rage. I have why do I have to check myself out at a CVS rage? I know I don't work here. You know what I mean? I love when they like giving you like a rough time, like you got to insert the chip.
It's like, I'm sorry, I missed training day when I wasn't working here, getting paid. Or when they try to get all your information and then they go, you know, we don't share this with anybody. And you want to be like, you don't. You don't. But now it's going into the thing that's like that clear thing at the frigging airport. I already gave you my retina in a stool sample.
Now you want my cell phone? They go, it's a one-time thing. It's like, well, how many times you got to put it in the computer before you have it? You can share it with everybody. This is my thing with politicians.
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Chapter 4: What is Bill Burr's experience with acting and Broadway?
ever fully... I don't know if you ever can undo things that were done to you. Well, that's a really good question. I know. They make you believe it on TV with these therapy shows, you know, like the Dr. Phil's. He's like, you need to stop doing heroin. And then you just go to commercial. Oh, there you go. That fixes all of that. So... No, I feel my whole life is going to be like this.
It's going to be me trying to not be who I am. Me trying to say something, not saying it the right way. Me then feeling that I was misunderstood and then looking back years later and being like, ah, they were kind of right. Like that is my existence. Day to day. Week to week. Month to month. It's just what it is. But it makes for good comedy.
You've never been on Broadway before. Was this an ambition? Were you one of the guys who really wanted to be on Broadway? Or were you just surprised to be there?
All of that. I sort of got into acting after stand-up. Stand-up kind of led to acting. And then I met a few people, comedians, that got breaks because of how funny they were. But they never took an acting class. So then when they got their break to be in something... They weren't prepared. And then, you know, when you're back in the day, you know, you couldn't really reinvent yourself.
When you got put on the bench, you were there for like five years and it could be a crucial five years. And then that could have been it. And it wasn't like you could have a social media platform and just sort of keep moving on or whatever the kids are doing these days. But yeah, I just sort of got into acting and I liked it, but I never liked it as much as standup.
And then somewhere along the line, I started to love it as much as doing stand-up. And I think the first time I felt that was, I mean, I always saw movies and I liked movies and everything, but I saw True West with John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman in like 99, 2000, somewhere. It was a Sam Shepard play. Yeah, and... All of a sudden, Broadway wasn't cats anymore.
You know, we've been talking about, you know, anger and also channeling that into your work as an actor and a comic. I watched a clip of you on The Moth. The Moth is a storytelling podcast that is also a public radio program. And you're so different in that. You're sitting on a stool, not kind of pacing back and forth on the stage. You hadn't shaved your head yet, so you have red hair.
You hadn't gone bald yet. It was almost like you were 20 years younger. Yeah. You had a fresh face. Yeah, that one was recorded about 20 years ago. You had no dad bod. You were a single man dealing with the altitude.
But you're sitting on a stool telling a story that has a few laughs in it.
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Chapter 5: How did Bill Burr's childhood influence his comedy?
It must be great to see yourself through their eyes. They probably have a different picture of you than you think other people have. They don't have this vision of you as like the angry guy on stage.
Yeah, but Terry, do I really do anything to help you not see me that way? I mean, I literally start the thing going, you know, it's only a part of me. And then two seconds later, I'm flipping out about this stupid thing. I mean, that's literally like what you literally saw in this interview is a day of being me. It's like me starting the day. I'm not going to flip out. I am going to be as happy.
And then before 11 a.m., flipping out. And then I'm sorry about that. And then the other person is a little upset with me. And then... by three in the afternoon, some of the, I guess he's all right. I think I'll sign up for another day with it. This is basically, um, I can't, this is just where I am right now. And I'm, I'm trying to make it to, to 12 noon without flipping out or whatever.
I just sort of baby step, um, My way is through this, but being a dad's the greatest job I've ever had. And I just love encouraging them. I love exposing them to new things and then just seeing what they gravitate towards and then just supporting that. And I don't know, just I'm building them up. To be strong people is what I'm trying to do.
And the way that that was done when I was a kid was you ripped them down to toughen them up. So, you know, it was that boy named Sue mentality. You know, that Johnny Cash song is, yeah, the dad wanted his kid to be tough, so he gave him a girl's name so he'd get beat up at school. I mean, that right there.
So you're a father of two. And one of your series that I think you co-created, Old Dads, right? Yeah.
It was a movie. I co-wrote it with Ben Tischler. And we actually just co-wrote something else that we're going to be shooting later on this year.
Well, one of the things in Old Dads is that the older fathers, which includes you, don't relate to some of the younger parents and how they're parenting their kids. Did you find that with yourself, you know, being a father?
That's what happened. I went to the school and it started off with little things. And it was like, oh, hey, yeah, look at you. You guys are on the jungle gym. And it's like, it's called The Structure. And then I got all nervous, like, oh, my God, jungle, monkeys. Did I just say something racist? Is that why you can't say that anymore? Like, I don't know what it was.
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