THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.54 - BILL BURR

Episode Date: October 26, 2017

Adam talks American stand up comedian Bill Burr about YouTube fail videos, on line critics and hecklers, conspiracy theories, family life and other important stuff.Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and Matt Lamont for additional editing.Music & jingles by Adam BuxtonBILL BURR NY TIMES INTERVIEWhttp://www.vulture.com/2018/05/bill-burr-in-conversation.html?utm_source=tw&utm_campaign=nym&utm_medium=s1 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening I took my microphone and found some human folk Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke My name is Adam Buxton, I'm a man I want you to enjoy this, that's the plan. Hey, how you doing listeners? Adam Buxton here. I am staring at what appears to be a magic trick.

Here, by the side of this track, out by a field where I'm walking with Rosie, a small wriggling pupa, this little brown thing wriggling away, suspended in mid-air. And of course, what's happening is that it is at the end of a spider's thread and the breeze on this beautiful balmy afternoon is blowing this thing gently so that it looks as if it's just hovering in midair it's crazy i wonder if i should set it free no buckles don't interfere with nature there's been too much interference already any more could spell disaster for the delicate balance. Oh, I've trodden on it. Just kidding. He's fine. She's fine. It's fine. Anyway, how are you doing, listeners? Welcome to podcast number 54, which features a conversation between

myself and a man considered by many to be one of the very best stand-up comedians around today, Bill Burr. If you're not up for more introductory rambling from myself and you just want to get straight to the conversation, it begins around the 10 minute 30 mark. For the rest of you who choose wisely to stick with my scintillating intro, let me contextualise Bill for you a little bit. Now, if you're not familiar with Bill Burr's stuff, I would recommend any of his five stand-up specials that he's made to date. The latest is called Walk Your Way Out, which you can see on Netflix. And that's where you can also find F is for Family, an animated sitcom, not for the children, that Bill created with Simpsons writer Michael Price. That is set in

the 70s. And as you'll hear in my conversation with Bill, it features tales of a fairly dysfunctional family that were inspired, at least in part, by Bill's own upbringing. And it exploits the attitudes and prejudices that prevailed in the 70s to poke a little fun at the current climate of political correctness. Who doesn't like a bit of enjoyable fun poking? I'd also recommend Bill's podcast, which is called Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast. It's just a monologue, really. I don't think he has guests on there. Maybe he does occasionally. But he goes on about what he's up to and what's going on in the world, and he reads out messages and criticism and abuse, etc. And the podcast, I suppose like some of Bill's stand-up material can often be a little jarring at least to my relatively liberal snowflake ears but the thing that really drew me in with

Bill Burr a few years ago when I started getting into his stuff was the delivery and to me it has a similar spirit to bands like The Fall and Sleaford Mods a kind of angry intensity rage almost that is offset by a very funny way of looking at the world so you've got these two quite distinct qualities that combine pleasingly in his stuff. Angry Bill, a conservative figure with a low tolerance for whiny liberals and the more ridiculous extremes of PC culture. And then there's liberal Bill, who despairs at where the world is heading and believes in treating everybody with tolerance and respect. By way of illustration, here's a clip of Bill in 2012 at Comedy Central's Night of Too Many Stars, talking about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who had died the year previously,

and Apple's legendary Think Different advertising campaign from 1997. That whole advertising, the way they aligned themselves with some of the greatest people of all time. Jesus, Gandhi, me. Remember that? Muhammad Ali, John Lennon, this guy. How the fuck was that dude like any of them? Gandhi didn't have a sweatshop. Nah, he didn't have people leaping to their deaths only to catch a net and get ricocheted back through the window to have to put together yet another iPad. John Lennon didn't have children in his basement

pressing those fucking albums. I know, I know. New phone can't fit the old charger. This is your hero? This is the guy? This is what all the silence is about? New phone can't fit the old charger, so then you got to throw it out,

ends up in the ocean around some octopus's neck bill burr from 2012 and you can see more of that routine on youtube just search for bill burr steve jobs you should find it my conversation with bill was recorded at the comedy store in los angeles in a basement storage room slash podcasting studio. And we talked about the process of Bill becoming one of America's most successful comedians, YouTube fail videos, Bill's blue collar or working class, as we would say, origins, conspiracy theories, family life, Bill became a father for the first time this year, and other important stuff. So travel with me now to Los Angeles earlier this year as I waited nervously to meet Bill Burr. It is the 17th of March 2017 and I am stood on the corner of a street just off Sunset

Boulevard in Los Angeles which is in America and if you've heard of America it's the land of the free they've heard it up all the free people and imprisoned them there it's ironic so I've been trying to track Bill down. Anyway, my friend Mike Clapham... Oh, shut up. My friend Mike Clapham, who's a gig promoter in the UK, promoted a series of shows once for Bill Burr when he came over to the UK

and when I was talking to Mike the other day I said to him oh yeah I'm going out to LA I'm hoping to do some podcasts Mike said oh well maybe I can drop Bill Burr a text and see if he's up for it and I was like really okay about two hours later I get a text from Mike saying Bill says he'd love to do it anyway long story short there's a lot of nudging of Mike But two hours later, I get a text from Mike saying, Bill says he'd love to do it. Anyway, long story short, there's a lot of nudging of Mike, who then nudges Bill,

and the occasional two- or three-word response from Bill, the last one of which I received a couple of hours ago, and it just said, Come to the Comedy Store at 8pm.m. text me when you get there so that's what I'm gonna do he's doing a show tonight he's on a bill with Tom Green and a few other stand-up men that I had not heard of I've got no conception of what the scene is going to be I've never been in the Comedy Store I'm aware that it's a place where pretty much any American legend of comedy has played, but it's not my natural environment. And I'm quite intimidated by the whole thing and nervous that it's just going to be cringey.

Just texting Bill now. Hi, Bill. I'm in the bar out front. I'm waiting till it's exactly 8 o'clock until I press send. 1959. 1959. 1959. 1959. There you go. Sent. Delivered. Bill has just texted back to say, running a little late.

I feel like I've been set up on a date with a person that is way out of my league. What's up? Hello. Can I just get a Diet Coke, please? Diet Coke? Yeah. How are you doing? I'm Adam.

Nice to meet you. Thanks for doing this, man. No worries. No worries. This is going to be fun. Can I get you a drink? You know what? I'm just going to grab a water. I've got a clip mic.

I see. You're already wired up. Yeah. And one for to grab a water. I've got a clip mic. I see. You're already wired up. Yeah. And one for you as well, if that's okay. Okay, that's perfect. Close this here. Ramble Chat. Let's have a Ramble Chat.

We'll focus first on this, then concentrate on that. Come on, let's chew the fat and have a ramble chat. Put on your conversation coat and find your talking hat. Yes, yes, yes. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la Is this all right? Yeah, it's all good. It's recording right now? Yeah. Oh, okay.

Jesus Christ, that's not too creepy, huh? Just being in a comedy club makes me nervous. I mean, I'm in the comedy world myself, but in a different... I've never done straight-ahead stand-up and never in places like this. You know, I've done the Nerd Melt before. Okay, that's a fun place. That's my natural environment. Right.

But usually I've got, like, a laptop and I do stuff with a projector and all that sort of stuff. Oh, okay. Usually I've got like a laptop and I do stuff with a projector and all that sort of stuff. OK. Standing there just with a mic and a potentially hostile crowd is. You settle into it. I mean, I've heard that the comedy store in London is rough. You know. Yeah.

I heard that's rough. I mean, over here, this one, the comedy store out here in L.A. has gone through like a number of periods where there was the bitter phase. When I first came out here there was just I don't know what was going on it was these guys that were like famous to sort of famous and they would just go on stage for like two hours three hours just burning the light because they could like this show of how much power they had you know and it taught all these young kids that oh someday when i get big enough i'm gonna fuck over all the new comics waiting to get on say it was such a terrible lesson

so eventually they left because now they're all like 80 or something right um and then the period of nobody being here and then i've been here now where it's like the place to be so and all of those times for whatever reason it's been a nervous place. Like right now, it's it's nervous to be here because you shouldn't have a difficult time. Yeah. So I actually found the the period when it was going through a lull, an easier place to perform, you know, because the expectations were there's no expectation. But the depression level was higher because you're just like, I am in a corner of the business where where I exist. Nobody cares. How am I going in a corner of the business where I exist. Nobody cares. How am I going to crawl out of this hole? But you had goodwill, though, didn't you?

I mean, people were up for seeing your stuff. Not for the first 15 years. Really? You reckon? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Why would they? I mean, I wasn't on anything. Nobody knew who I was.

I did the random spot here or there. But, I mean, it took me to about, started in 92. It took me, the first time I started selling tickets, like, like locally, you know what I mean? Like where I was on the East coast and maybe a little bit in San Francisco was in 2005. So that would be 13 years in, I got a half hour on HBO and then I was doing the Opie and Anthony radio show. And what that got me was like Boston New York Cleveland and San Francisco and I think DC and Philly I had that so like when I would go there I'd actually sell some tickets oh wow okay but then I would go down south I'd go out in the Midwest and it was just a barren way it's like I

had never done anything yeah so um it probably took to about yeah about 2009 and when i put out my second hour after why do i do this then let it go came out and then i could actually go through the country yeah and you know not have disappointed promoters where i had to make it right at the end of the weekend like takes a while yeah it's a lot of stuff depends you know if you're the hot chick the fat guy you got the catchphrase you have the look yeah you can get there quicker but then you can fall real fast too you just look like the average run-of-the-mill jackass like me it's like a good 17 year trudge up the hill and every time you get up there you don't even i mean you're happy but it's like all this shit that you wanted to do it's like you don't give a fuck it's just like i just want to get a house you know decent bed

shit you know and then you have to deal with people accusing you of selling out of course once you've put out two specials it starts oh i like the other one better he was he was way better i saw him before but then it becomes like this competition amongst you know people who like to shit on stuff of who saw the person first and when they were good. Like all of that shit. Well, it's like bands, isn't it? Totally. So, yeah, they're original fans when they will, you know, and then the band all of a sudden like like the U2 has that.

Oh, I saw them at the Paradise in Boston or I saw them on the boy tour or the fucking whatever the one came. I'm not a big U2 guy. Whatever came out after that. But around joshua tree yeah too many people liked them and then their early fans were just like you know that happened to the police that happened all all those bands yes phil collins probably the worst phil right well he's still bitter about it i mean he's someone that complains what i don't get is how he doesn't understand it at all it's like dude you were in this prog rock band and then within 10 years of that you were you were doing a cover of you can't hurry love where there was three of you in the video i don't think he understood that

or oversaturation yeah yeah but dude that guy one of the best fucking drummers right ever but i feel like you know enough time's gone by that if he just embraced all that shit that people had the backlash to. I mean, I love the backlash to it. Everybody walks away like they weren't doing it. Like in my country, rollerblades were huge in the 90s. And then all of a sudden there was one homophobic joke about them and everybody just walked away from them. And then everybody makes fun of them. It's just like, I always say, you rollerbladed, didn't you?

I know you did. You're my age. We all did did and it was a great time and it was a great workout and all of that and then somewhere along the line somebody made one fucking joke probably whoever it was that sells skateboards they put that out there and it just completely killed them yeah is that what superseded rollerblades and skateboards skateboards has had like i don't know i'm not big in that that world but it started out i remember in the 70s was the first time i saw them and that's when your feet hung over like two inches on the blade they're those little those little ones and one pebble would send you flying that's the ones that i remember and then um i feel like it resurfaced

again when they started doing like the x games as As far as my knowledge of it, I missed all the Tony Hawk shit. Like that was a whole like subculture that was going on. Skateboarding is classic though. It's like vinyl. It's just resists fashion, you know, ebbs and flows. I like the X Games. I like the motocross guys when they do those flips on the bikes. Like I don't understand how.

Like I'm going to go over a jump and I'm going to go upside down and then land on it i mean i know they go into the foam like that's how they learn to land it but the first time you're actually doing that do you watch a lot of those um extreme biking videos on youtube oh yeah i watch everything i watch those i watch fail videos i watch stuff, people running from cops, people crashing. I get worried about the fail videos, though. I feel like they're too much of a guilty pleasure. I'd like to know that the people got up and walked away. Or are you not fussed?

Well, YouTube's pretty good about not showing people that actually died. You reckon? It's totally unregulated, isn't it? No, if you put up something a little too crazy they'll they'll eventually someone flags it and then they take it down so the thing about the failed videos is you have to not watch them for a year yeah because then you can sit down and watch a good 20 minutes because there's like 50 people doing them and they all have the same 100 videos yeah they chop them all up and it's the same ones over and over maybe

you'll get one or another and and it starts to get annoying. Yeah. Do you like the Russian car cam videos? Because it seems like everyone in Russia has a dash cam. Yeah, and their level of emotion is someone sliding towards them in the snow, and they just kind of just watch it, and then the tiller hits it. Yes. You just hit like.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah. That's it. It either sounds like that or they're playing, like,, no, no, no, no! Yeah, yeah. That's it. It either sounds like that or they're playing... Like when they have the devil lyrics, like it's playing backwards, that sort of sound. Yabba, shh. I don't know.

After a while, I think I'm kind of numb to people getting knocked out or hitting the balls or falling off for shit. It's kind of cliched at this point. So I watch a lot of drum videos. I play drums as a hobby. Right, point so i watch a lot of drum videos i play drums as a hobby right yeah i watch a lot of that shit so um but we were you ever into a sort of extreme i know you're a big sports guy but you were you into football and kind of physical extreme sports at any point uh yeah i mean but i played organized in like third grade which is about you're like eight or

nine years old and my dad saw it for what it was like. Our football players over here, like what they do to their brains. Because what happened was the helmet, it made you do shit you wouldn't do if you weren't wearing a helmet. And your brain's sitting in that fluid. And what happens is all the helmet does is protect you from getting a cut or denting your skull. But your brain, it's like a car accident every time. And, you know, I've met a few of those those guys one guy i know was smart enough to retire early and he goes well so far i don't have brain damage but like you know he's gonna do my podcast he kept saying just keep

texting me because he goes it's not that i forget that i had to do something that day i just forget what it was i was just like wow and he's only like in his 30s so sometimes that stuff takes a while so that's what i was funny to me when i go over to europe and they talk about how american football it's a bunch of pussies because of the pads and shit it's just like all right well you might want to read up on that a little bit yeah you know and how is it for you going over to europe and playing shows it's been amazing just to see that part of the world and then the fact that people uh actually come out has been amazing. And, you know, it was just like anything.

It took a certain period of time for me to get comfortable. So everything that I was saying, I wouldn't be questioning. Like, are they going to get this? Are they going to get that? And it's when I finally just said, well, fuck it. They either get it or they don't. And I'm just going to do my act like I was over here in the States. If they don't get it, I'll just make fun of myself for not knowing that they wouldn't understand that

and I'm the stupid American who went over there thinking you knew, I don't know, about whatever the fuck I was talking about. And then I just adjust as I go. But the first time I went to England, I was so, every bit I was doing, I was like, are they going to get this? Are they going to get that? And then that caused me to pull back and then the crowd pulls back and then it just becomes this staring contest. So, but what you know, the connection that I have with people around the world is I like working class, blue collar, eating shitty food, getting drunk, going to a sporting event.

Like that's what I grew up with, even though my parents were professionals. You know, we kind of had a little money issue that caused us to grow up in a duplex. What's a duplex for a Brit? Okay, it's basically, you know, somebody owns the house and they cut it in half and there's a family that lives on one side. Oh, yeah, we call that a semi. A semi, yeah. So from the time I was like eight to the time I was 16, I lived there.

So that's a really important chunk of your life. And then when we did get a house, we still stayed in the same town because it was a great town. And the people there were great. And blue collar people were funny. They were storytellers. You know, they're always busting chops and stuff.

Well, that's the world you're drawing on for F is for Family, right? Yeah, yeah. But like F is for Family is like, that's just, it's a staff of like 10 writers who all, we all basically grew up in the same era. So it's sort of an amalgam of all our stories. Cause so when I wanted to do the show and one of my family be able to watch it and not be mortified and be like, Oh my God, you put all our dirty laundry out there. So there's, there's

portions of it that are directly from my family other times it's just touching on it and then most of the time it's somebody else's story or we're just following the road that we've grabbed for the season and when you do mine anecdotes that really happened in your childhood do you clear it with them do you say oh i'm thinking of telling that story and no no but they're not like uh if you ever see frank walking around in his underwear it's that i'll put you through that fucking wall it's like this little just a little boom just that it's just that they're not specific stories you know of stuff that happens but definitely my brothers you know the people in my family who have actually watched it like my

parents have yet to see it i don't think they can figure out how to get on Netflix. Okay, yeah. So is that character, is the Frank character more you or more your dad, do you think? It's me, my dad, Mike Price from The Simpsons. It's a little bit of his dad. It's a guy, Dave Richardson, it's part of his dad. Like all these guys that are in there, Vince Vaughn, it's some of his dad.

Like when we were fleshing it out, what we're really trying to do is not have a specific guy. We wanted to have somebody that was representative of what dads were like in that era. That shut down, closed off, fly off the handle over nothing. And the same thing with his wife, Susan. She's kind of the homemaker,

but she's just as bright as he is or whatever if not smarter yet you know he's kind of out in the world right at that tipping point where women will kind of like well you know I have ideas I have dreams and I want to sit here washing dishes all the time looking at kids everybody in the modern time they got to get themselves a podcast. I will do yours and you'll do mine. We're sorting out the problems of the world so fast.

And now that you're a father, are you just going to sort of carry on as normal? Or are you thinking certain things that I've been used to doing that are no longer going to fly? Well, yeah, I'm not going to come home and have a couple of drinks, like a couple of drinks on buzz. But then all of a sudden the baby cries.

I got to pick up a baby like legally drunk. Like, I don't think I want that on my resume. Yeah. But there's my daughter. Look at her. She's beautiful. Oh, man, she's lovely. When was she born?

About two months ago. Two months? Tomorrow. This is your first, is it? Yep. Oh, mate. How's she behaving? She's awesome, man.

Yeah. She's awesome. It's all the cliches that everybody talks about. Yeah. And it is, it's true. It took me a little, you know, I was a little freaked out for the first day or so, just having an outer body experience before I was able to sort of settle in, because it's kind of a big deal.

It took more like 12 hours. It was just so, like, I kind of do that when something big emotionally is coming up. In order to be able to perform, I just sort of detach. I downplay. I do whatever I can to keep, I think it's just something I learned out of years of doing stand-up. I just naturally go like, oh, I just won't feel feelings

until this event is over and then I'll look back on it and decide what I think about it. How do you switch it off, though? What's the technique? I'm a psycho. Yeah, good one. You're mining your inner psycho.

I'm only two months into this, so I'm still adjusting, but I haven't minded any of the adjustments. And it's really like what they say. It's like until you have a kid, you don't understand that. It's like fascinating at the very least. Yeah. You know, watching your kid like discovering that it has hands

and all the little things that it does is it slowly stops becoming this little person that you're carrying around and starts to assert itself and all that. Of course, a lot of that's still down the road, but just like every day. It took me ages, though. After my first child was born, it took me about five years to gradually adjust to a different lifestyle and a different set of priorities. But I think that's something that happens to a lot of men. Like, there's this pressure to be like, oh my god, the second I saw my daughter or my son, the whole world changed and I cried and I did this and I did that. And it's just like, women just, you know, connect from the first time they feel a move or whatever

it is that makes them what they are yeah exactly you're the person that's being introduced it's like oh this is uh yeah very good friend of mine i think you're gonna get on yeah i've spent nine months with this yeah here you go it's actually technically 10 months i guess yeah so um and uh one thing i suppose that characterizes a lot of your stage stuff is is is a kind of... Screaming and cursing. There you go. That's because I don't know how to write a joke.

Well, that's not true. But that sort of sense of frustration and pent-up rage that a lot of people can relate to. Right. Men and women. And even if you can, it's funny to watch somebody lose their shit. I think it is. Yeah. But how do you get on in confrontations generally?

Like, is your temper sort of more or less under control or does it explode? Like mine, like I'm fairly buttoned down, but I get into confrontations regularly with sort of public officials and things like that, you know. You mean cops? No, not cops, although it has happened. But danger zones for me are airports, train stations, places like that. Do you have a problem with authority? Maybe, yeah, a little bit. Like, I don't mind being governed, but I just, like, I hate when a security person goes, excuse me, sir, I'm going to need you, too.

Right. I'm going to need you, too. And it just immediately, it just gets to that, like, you need me to what? I don't fucking work. Like, I admit it. One of my favorite street jokes I heard, Jackie the Joke Man, Jackie Martin, I'm not going to do as good a job. I can't tell a good street joke.

It was basically a guy goes into a job interview, and the job interviewer goes, so tell me, what would you say your biggest weakness is? The guy goes, my biggest weakness? Well, yeah, no i i guess i i guess i'd have to say it's my honesty and then the interviewer goes your honesty well i don't think you're being honest around here's gonna be a problem the guy goes hey i don't give a fuck what you think that's one of those things like beyond laughing at that like i so relate like

to me the funny thing about that joke is not the obvious. To me, it's that guy feeling himself in a few moments when he gets his job. He has to fucking listen to this guy. I don't think you being honest is going to be a problem around here. Oh, you're going to give me a fucking cookie? I give a fuck what you think. Like, I wish more people were like that. I actually think the world would be a better place if more people were like that. I actually think the world would be a better place if more people were like that.

If more people didn't give a fuck what other people thought. Yeah. I mean, I think it's healthy in a relationship. I agree. For a wife to not give a fuck. You want to have their respect and all that, but you can't be like, I find myself with like my wife just going like, you see, I didn't lose my temper there. Right. I'm a good boy. Right. And then she'll be like, yeah, yeah.

You know, and then that's what I don't really say. I'm a good boy, but that's what I feel like I'm saying. And then I hate myself afterwards going like, dude, you're 48. When are you going to be fucking man enough to just be comfortable with yourself? Well, because you're because it's always a trade off, isn't it? When you're in a relationship? And it's important to keep score. Yeah. It's important to say, listen, you might want to just look at the balance sheet.

No, this is what you have to do with women, though. This is what's so hard as a guy, is you've got to play like a mind game. And women are way better at the mind game. So already it's an away game. It's a hostile crowd. You're probably going to lose this but what you have to do is you have to improve and never fucking bring it up and that's what gets them on their heels that's what scares them is if you're actually improving and becoming a better person and you're not once see me keep going to my wife looking for the approval she still feels a sense of power like

okay he still needs me he still needs me okay but if you just are improving they see you marching this positive direction and you're not looking over your shoulder me like right i'm going the right direction right all of a sudden you start acting like that then they'll scurry up like what's going on with you it kind of freaks them out i don't know saying that out loud i don't know why you'd want to do that to the person you're with. But that gets back to the, I don't give a fuck what you think. Because I think my insecurity is I do. I agree with you that it would be better if everything was out there like that.

And if you were able to have kind of casual confrontations at that pitch, it would be funny. And it would also get stuff out there and people wouldn't get all uptight about it. Because I think it's when people sit on things and internalize things that that's when the toxicity starts and the damage gets done. I would hire that guy. If he said that, I would burst out laughing

and be like, this guy's a hot shit. Let's hire him. The problem is that not everybody's good at that and I think you know as a Brit as well and as a fairly classically button-down Brit that's not part of the culture and people who are like that a sort of but that's all if life that's only a segment of your culture though yeah I'm not saying everyone in the UK is like that. Because that's like, because our view of you guys

is it's either that buttoned down thing or it's like the hoodlums from the 80s, the soccer hoodlums. So there's like no, it's either like

some neo-Nazi eating the fish and chips with the newspaper ink all wrapped around it or it's somebody who knows the Queen of England. Yeah.

Which I, you know, you know you guys think you know we're all fat fucks over here that own guns and ride four-wheelers going whatever that's true though isn't it well i mean if you want to think that i don't care you have nice teeth i mean you know it's all the stereotypes are not true thank you i'm not showing my bottom there bottom ones don't count that's extra all right um i was on a train the other day and there were some businessmen sat in front of me they were from the u.s and they were chatting away and it was like a joke about what brits think americans are like so they were just talking about how much they bench press this was like they were sort of 45 year old guys you know they were pretty out of shape to look at

as well how much do you bench press and how's your diet they were saying uh you're going hiking a lot yeah i'm going hiking and then it was a lot about sport i'm not really a sport guy so it went over my head and then they concluded by comparing notes on their guns, on their handguns. There you go. Well, yeah. Those people do exist. Yeah, they do exist. At least they weren't shitting on your country.

One of my big things, a lot of Europeans come over here and they openly shit on this country while they're in it. And to me, it's just like, who raised you? Yeah. I could go to the worst fucking country ever and I would just be just like like who raised you yeah I could go to the worst fucking country ever and I would just be like I know you guys got good soup it's just a classless thing to do it's like every country has their problems every country has their issues or whatever plus America is so massive obviously that proportionally there's gonna be that many more of whichever

type you're thinking of you know yeah but you know i will tell you as far as like you know our food supply you might want to be careful over here it's for the most part i think yeah i don't really no one really seems to know what's in it and all i know is that when we try to ship our food to other countries like france and india and all that they're like no you're not bringing that shit over here or if are, you're going to actually label what's in it. And they are fighting it tooth and nail. And none of that is covered over here, really, because the amount of money that the food industry has and all of that.

So that's the funny thing. Now, this whole attack on fake news is the funniest thing ever. It's like it's all fake. CNN's bullshit. Fox News is bullshit. you know who they voted for they totally have a dog in the fight that's not reporting that's like so many documentaries it's like this is not a documentary this is an op-ed piece this is your opinion on this subject and you're trying to make up my mind for me so so what they're doing now is that the government

is trying to i think restrict the internet a little bit more so they can control fake news. Basically, they want to be in charge of, you know, like our fake news is what you read, not everybody else's, which will really be a sad day because one of the things I do love is reading a complete moron's idea of what's really happening, you know? Like, I love conspiracy theory. I love it love it yeah do you buy into any of them yeah yeah absolutely genuinely absolutely but i mean the the ones about shapeshifters and lizard people no yeah but to sit there and act like there's not a small group of people that would like to try to control as much as they could yeah absolutely well there's of course there's always a grain of truth on both sides isn't there yeah but i also and i also but

things like not landing on the moon there's not any truth in that well here's my question about that here's my question yeah if i was working at nasa all right after the umpteenth idiot said that you know we didn't land on the moon i would why don't they just take a fucking picture of the car that they left up there or the flag that they planted. I mean, the shit should still be there, right? Well, maybe there's been some sort of... They have, haven't they? I'm sure they have. No, they haven't. Isn't that funny?

Come on. You're like, I'm sure they have, haven't they? No. That's my thing. You left some shit up there, just take a picture of it. I don't get how they restarted the engine and came back. I don't get the whole... I don't understand any of it it. I don't get how they restarted the engine and came back. I don't get the whole... I don't understand any of it. So I don't

know what happened. If I found out that it never happened, I would not even in the least be upset or be surprised. It's very advanced science. They always say history

is like whoever wins tells the story. Yeah. That's it. And then the heroes become the heroes. The villains become the villains. So the whole fucking, I wouldn't be surprised if Jesus never existed. I wouldn't be surprised about any of it. Wait.

But you believe that they went into low Earth orbit? Like space rockets went up. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So you're happy with that you're happy with i am fully willing to believe that they went to the moon yeah but if they didn't i'm not my mind is not gonna be like you they lied yeah i mean they always do I really love talking to you so much.

Your stuff's weird because it seems to appeal to people on both sides of all kinds of divides these days. And the world's becoming, it seems, progressively polarized in all sorts of ways. And people are looking... That's just because I never claim to know what I'm talking about. Yeah, you're right. The problem with so much of what's going on, I think, is that everybody is just taking their opinion, rolling it up in a ball and trying to jam it down your throat. I don't think anybody, I mean, I don't probably superimpose myself. I don't think anybody is sitting there wanting people to tell them what they think. Look, there's definitely morons out there, but I've traveled quite a bit. And for the most part, people are smart. I mean, to truly meet a stupid person every once in a while,

you know when you're doing it, and it's actually, you want to walk away, but it's also like fascinating, so you kind of linger. People are smart, but then they behave in strange ways, and you can see it online so much, and you can see it on social media so much you know that perfectly reasonable normal people are able to just show a very strange side of themselves yeah but those are the people that get attention for the most part i think most people are just sort of looking at all of that shit and they're not leaving comments like i never leave any comments no exactly you know and i actually like trolls because i feel like if i was gonna leave a comment that's what i would do it'd be like let me see how much I can do something mad and funny. Yeah, just make it.

Oh, these people really like flowers. Hey, you know, flowers are overrated. You know, just see if you just see how upset you can make. Somebody always takes the bait. You don't like flowers. Why don't you get the fuck out of here? They actually get like upset. I don't know.

But do you how do you deal with criticism? Do you ever get upset by stuff online? I mean, I've heard you a couple of times on your podcast, reading out messages that are critical, but you're mainly laughing at them. But I'm always wondering if like, is any part of them getting through to you and making you angry? It used to. It must rile you a little bit if you're even reading it out. No, when I read them on the podcast, people love listening to people trashing me. Right. So I read it. So that's just more of like a, it's, that's one of those things where I'm just sort of outside myself, even though they're trashing me. I'm more thinking about the podcast going like, all right, this would be funny to read this. Once you just settle into the facts that not

everybody's going to like you, I think you're all right. Yeah, absolutely. It made me laugh. The message from the guy who was upset or frustrated that you were rescheduling live dates when acting roles came up and he signed off by saying, you're a real cunt. Fuck you and everything you do. He signed off by saying, you're a real cunt. Fuck you and everything you do. I love that. Fuck you and everything you do. I like that because he just, it was all encompassing.

He didn't just go with the standard. Fuck you. And that can roll off your shoulder. Fuck you and everything that you do. He just poured salt in the field. Yeah. Now, see, that's something I could easily just go off on. It's just like, what am I supposed to say?

I'm not at a level where I can turn this stuff down. I just book my year like I'm not going to book any acting work, and then when the acting work comes, I just adjust it. But I always make up the shows. And what I love about that is that's why you can never get into people saying that they love you as a performer because that's the level of the love. The love is I love you as long as you do

what I want you to do. Okay? And the second you don't fuck you and everything that you do. That's it. That is 100% it. My job is to make you laugh for an hour. And if I do that, then you air quote love me. If I suck,

then it's fuck you in everything that you do. And I, it is what it is, but there's something hilarious about that. Once again, it's you watching somebody losing their shit, so it's just funny.

Yeah. Do you ever get that at live shows though? I mean, are there times when live shows just get totally out of control when people... Yep. Yeah. Do you ever get that at live shows though? I mean, are there times when live shows just get totally out of control when people... Yep.

Yeah, still? First thing I thought of there was a lesbian that came out to one of my shows and she was just absolutely blind drunk and I think she thought

that she liked me or that we were like... How do you know she was a lesbian? Huh? You just look, you tell. She had the Katie Lang haircut, you know what i mean yeah lumberjack shirt like 14 sports bras so that the boobs are

non-existent i mean okay perfect world you know be politically correct i maybe she was you know what i mean how do you know somebody's a frat boy how do you know somebody came from money you can do all that with white guys but the the groups that are oppressed, you're supposed to be like, gee, I don't know what she preferred. Let me go up there and hit on her. Let's see how I do. You know what I mean? I think that she initially came to the show because she felt she related to my rage or whatever. And then but then when I started talking about women in the wage gap that's when she just i

don't know what she and she wouldn't shut up and she kept spreading her legs and acting like she was stroking her non-existent dick and i knew that that was like supposed to gross me out and shock me because i knew she was judging me like oh this is a straight guy he's not going to be comfortable with this image coming from a woman and i very rarely have anybody kicked out i didn't have her kicked out but the only thing that was frustrating was i know that she would wake up the next day and not think any of her behavior was unacceptable and she would feel that she was wrong but like you know did i know she was a lesbian no but like if there was a gun to my head and everything that i cared about was on the line i would be pretty pretty fucking confident. There's not that many

people that do wake up the next day after any kind of confrontation these days and think, hmm, maybe I need to think about where I'm at in the world. You know what I mean? People seem so absolutely sure of their firmly held opinions and beliefs and their condemnation of other people especially. Empathy is hard. Yeah. It's a level of maturity I'm still trying to get to. Right. But if you can get to that level

where you can see your 50% of it, or even 40, just take a couple of steps towards the other person, your life's going to be a lot easier. And your opportunity to try to improve a lot easier like in in your opportunity to try to improve yourself a bit i'm speaking from personal experience the few times that i've done that like i do it a lot in my relationship with my wife well come back and say listen okay this is why i did that this is why i said that and but i know like the way i grew up

it was more fuck you fuck you and then you don't talk for three, four days. And then you just sort of just not looking at each other, just start talking again, usually about sports. Right. And then all that resentment and all that shit is not worked out. It's still there. And then the next time you have a fight, it's what you're fighting about plus all that leftover shit. And it just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And then it becomes a physical confrontation.

Yes. Because you do talk about that in your shows. And I always think, God, that sounds like it was probably painful. I remember one thing you did about recreating conversations between your dad and your mom, your dad getting into a rage and saying terrible things to your mom. Oh, yeah. And sort of screaming and shouting. And I remember thinking, like, fucking hell, that must have been weird for you as a child.

Were you not upset? It was, I mean, it was definitely upsetting, but that was my only experience. So it wasn't until, you know, getting older than looking back on it. But then I also just don't look back on it and this black and white thing going, you know, my dad said this to my mom and he shouldn't have said that.

I more look at, like, what happened to him when he was a kid. Because me being a dad, it's like, okay, when I look back on my childhood, it's like, I'm going to keep that. I'm going to do that. Not going to do that. Going to do this. Do more of that.

Less of this. It's like a mixing board. It's like you're in the studio and you're going to try your mix. And there's no way I'm going to raise a kid and she's not going to have problems with some of the stuff that I've done. But what I've learned from my childhood is a bunch of great things to do. And then I learned some things not to do. But those things not to do is where the comedy is.

And it was always funny. A lot of my friends when I was growing up came from broken households, like divorce and stuff. And they used to look at my house going like you know your parents are still there and then their idea of what went on in my house was hilarious to me it used to make me upset when i was younger like but now when i was older i look back it's just so like because they thought it was idyllic they thought it was like a cereal commercial i come down and there's a little piece of toast with the square piece of butter glass of water and juice, the perfect eggs and all of that. And the reality was it was not that.

It was my house, my relatives, everybody. They were very loving but volatile people. It was like they were characters. I would never roll the dice and try to see if I could have better parents than my parents because I think they're great. I think they're great. I am good, but not great. Oh, shut up, Siri.

Fucking hell. Are you an Apple product user? Yep. Not happy about it, but I am. I liked them at first. I thought they were cool. And then like this whole fucking hostile thing where you just have to use their shit

and fuck everybody else. The closed garden. Yeah. Your phone crashes and then you lose all your music and then there's no one to talk to and that was all on you like i mean i bought the same freaking albums i don't know how many goddamn times and i think they do it on purpose because they don't because back in the day if you bought a record you listen to it a lot it got all scratched up you buy another one cds the same thing the tapes and it's just like this goddamn digital stuff that lasts forever they found a way they found a way for guys like me who aren't going to take the time to get a fucking hard drive and then do download it on that and refresh it every i don't know and now

they've got the cloud which that's too intrusive introduces another level of complexity because then you're the thing that's happening to me now is that I had to set up accounts for my children at a certain point so I could manage their online life. See, that's the stuff. I don't know how I'm going to navigate that. There's this thing where it's like, you've got to have the kids in front of the computers. That's the future, man. They've got to blah, blah, blah, blah.

It's like, well, there were no computers really that I had access to when I was a kid and I was able to adjust. What I like about my childhood was I was able to have one. And I just think nowadays, I mean, you can't. I mean, I watched a guy get mauled to death by a tiger the other day. That guy would jump the wall in China. He was going to the zoo. You shouldn't know what that looks like. And I was like, I wanted to see it.

I don't know why. and i usually don't look at shit like that like all those fucking horrible videos of people getting their heads sawed off and shit like i never look at i don't look at death videos at all but there was something about like you know what is i'm fascinated by the strength of the toughest and of most you know lions tigers gorillas and all that shit and i used to do a bit about that. There's no real way to gauge how strong they are when a tiger's fighting another tiger. But when they grab another human being, then you start to, like,

oh, that much stronger than us. Oh, now I get it. Like, to this day, like, I always wish you could just get a gorilla to just go to the gym, speaking of bench press. Maybe this is an American thing. I want to see what they could put up. Because they said that they could bench, like, easy i mean it's just fucking insane it's fucking insane how jacked a gorilla is oh like tigers i know lions get all the king of the beast thing

but i i put my money on a tiger aren't the bears supposed to be stronger than all of them i don't know but like isn't that why you know what they should have? They should have an animal UFC. Yeah. Like, you know the early days of MMA where it was just like, if you were a judo guy, that's all you knew. And then you'd fight a boxer, and the number one that would fight a guy

who just knew a keto. Like, you know, I actually, I think there are... I'm joking about this for all you fucking animal lovers out there before you freak out, because they've done that, like, in Asia. They was having mongoose versus the fucking cobra and then they've they've had there's old black and white videos of like tigers and lions fight and it's it's not what

you think it's depressing it's two beautiful animals uh destroying one another well that's why i suppose people enjoyed the revenant so much because it was only leonardo dicaprio being mauled oh by the bear yeah i never got past that point in the movie did you not no why not uh because i was at home and there's like 9 000 devices and i probably watched it and then with my add i started i went down some sort of grizzly bear rabbit hole and then i looked when i looked up the credits were rolling my wife was like that was great i was like oh yeah it was awesome um do you like writing do you sit down and write your stand-up stuff or no but i i you know i really enjoy writing scripts and in dialogue and stuff i just don't do it because i can't handle the process of it which is then

handing it to somebody else and they're like well what if this happened we need to raise the stakes make somebody an alcoholic then i just go like uh i just don't have the fight in me yeah you know what i mean and plus also then that just becomes eating up more of my time and i i feel like uh know, my time here on Earth is limited, and I have what everybody wants. I have a ridiculous amount of free time, and I don't want to fuck with that just so I can, I don't know. Get another credit on a TV show. Yeah, try to become a mogul.

Uh-huh. Where does your bit about nerds, I was looking at the other day, and you go off on one about Apple and Steve jobs. What did he ever do? You're saying, and then you talk about it. I just hate it. Oh, you always walked out there and it's stupid. I hate it. We always wore the same shit and everybody just fucking just fell all over. He didn't just fucking do this himself. He should have been up there with like a thousand other fucking people. He didn't just fucking do this himself. He should have been up there with like a thousand other fucking people. You described him as wandering around eating some pretentious fruit like a pear.

Yeah. I came up with that one night and it was funny. Not everybody laughed at it, but there was always a few people that just thought that was so that image was so funny to them. And that always kept me doing it. Yeah. Pear is very pretentious. Just eat eat a fucking apple like the rest of us because that's what i don't like about it's not a bold step yeah yeah just slightly just being like i'm just a bit above you but i you know it's it's implied i don't like i don't like what a pear implies and do you ever come off stage and i mean what makes for a bad show as far as you're concerned are there times when the set's gone perfectly fine and everyone's been laughing and stuff but you still come off stage and you're like, fuck.

Yeah, that would be if I got the job done but I wasn't free and I didn't feel like I was present and I didn't feel that I had fun. Right. Because presumably you're at the stage now where you don't ever spectacularly fuck up. I mean, you don't do a show where people... No. No, but then that's what makes you... I was probably a stronger comic before then. It's just one of the things,

once you get a following, it's up to you to fuck it up when you walk out there. So do you deliberately try and throw a few spanners in the works? On nights like tonight. Like, this is the fun ones. Like when I walk out there, it's like not everybody's going to know who I am,

which is great. So then they're not going to give a fuck. So they'll have the old attitude, which is who the hell is this guy? Make me laugh, which is the only thing I miss about not having a following. But I would never trade what I have now to go back to being a little bit better of a comedian because I had to win him over because there's only so long you can live like a fucking 18-year-old.

So what sort of stuff are you doing tonight then? Is this new material or do you mix it? No, no, it's all new. It's all new, so you don't sort of lean on stuff that's tried and tested for a certain once it's on tv i just assume the entire world has seen it and if i ever repeat any of it the entire world will say fuck you and everything that you do and i'll go back to having to sleep on a futon. Wait, this is an advert for Squarespace.

Every time I visit your website, I see success. Yes, success. The way that you look at the world makes the world want to say yes. It looks very professional. I love browsing your videos and pics and I don't want to stop. And I'd like to access your members area and spend in your shop. These are the kinds of comments people will say about your website if you build it with Squarespace. Just visit squarespace.com slash buxton for a free trial.

And when you're ready to launch, because you will want to launch, use the offer code BUXTON to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. So put the smile of success on your face with Squarespace. Yes. Continue. How dare you! Hey, welcome back listeners. Hope you enjoyed that conversation between myself and Bill Burr. It was a great pleasure to meet him and he was very charming and accommodating and polite,

as is usually the case, much less fearsome and intimidating than I expected him to be. But still, I found it very hard to relax. I was really nervous. I don't know that many people like that who are sort of manly men, you know what I'm saying? And just like, you know, fucking guys. Guys, I mean, that's a very crude characterization of what he's like. But still, there's a level of testosterone-heavy confidence that I don't have. And I felt it quite acutely there, especially towards the end of our conversation when Joe Rogan came into the room. Joe Rogan, an American comedian as well, host of the hugely popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast, in which he talks to all sorts of interesting people.

Well, some more interesting than others in my book. Louis Theroux's been on that show a few times, and so has John Ronson, people like that. A lot of conspiracy theory chat on that particular podcast, and it gets fairly heated and intense. It didn't get heated when Joe came in, but it was intense immediately. He and Bill immediately started chatting about skullduggery

in the Catholic Church and all sorts of things that I didn't have that much to contribute to. So I said my thank yous and my goodbyes and got back on my bike and cycled to my Airbnb for a nice weedy man sleepy sleep. And if you're going to use the phrase weedy man sleepy sleep, you probably shouldn't be allowed in the comedy store anyway, really. So I was lucky to get out of there unscathed, I suppose. Anyway, thanks to Bill and thanks to my friend Mike Clapham as well.

thanks to Bill and thanks to my friend Mike Clapham as well currently a member of the fall still I mentioned the fall earlier on with reference to the the spirit of what Bill does I don't know if that's a particularly good comparison but that's what it reminds me of that kind of maverick voice anyway Mike Clapham plays keyboards for the Fall now and then. Mark Smith hasn't been very well recently. So one or two of the gigs have been quite eccentric. They played earlier this year at the 100 Club and Mark Smith didn't come out of the dressing room. at the 100 Club and Mark Smith didn't come out of the dressing room. He just stayed in the dressing room with a radio mic and delivered his performance from there with the rest of the band on stage.

I wish Mark a speedy recovery and I wish Mike all the best with the fall and with his comedy promoting duties which he continues to do. Thanks again to him for all his help in setting up this episode of the podcast. Now, what else can I crap on about inconsequentially? Went to the movies the other day. Went to see Blade Runner 2049. Yeah, it was fine.

Actually, for the first hour or so, I was really enjoying it. So spectacular and cinematic. Went to see it at the IMAX in Norwich and thought it was gorgeous. Loved all the stuff with the hologram AI in his flat and the way that they did all that, just from a technical point of view. I read some criticism about the female characters in the movie, and I could sort of see where a lot of that was coming from, I guess, which was a bit of a shame. And then, you know, it just carried on for another two hours. Oh, you know, at no point was I really in pain. But what's wrong with like a two hour running time? I don't think there's anything wrong with it. It just didn't seem

as if there was any real justification for having it last most of my life. And the other thing was, you know, I just love the original so much and there isn't that much to the original, is there? Really, story-wise. But you're so enjoyably immersed in this world that has been completely realised down to the tiniest detail and you believe in it totally. And there's so many charismatic performances in it.

And there's a, you know, there's several in the new one as well. But not quite the same, you know. There's no one quite as good as... There's no one quite like Grandpa... Sorry. There's no one quite as good as Daryl Hannah. Or Rutger Hauer. Or Sean Young. there's no one quite as good as um daryl hanna or rutger hauer or sean young or the guy that plays jf sebastian william sanderson you know there was they're so well drawn those characters

i think and they're not rubbish in in the new one but they're just not they're not as memorable but maybe that's just because I saw it when I was 13 and it made such a huge impression but the other thing with the new one was that the music I don't think did the same job as that original Vangelis score and I haven't read too many reviews of the new one so I don't know if I'm just parroting stuff that all the reviewers have said or not. But I really missed the Vangelis music. That's just one of the best scores ever, really. It's like a whole character.

I think in the original movie, that score enables Ridley Scott to get away with so much. score enables Ridley Scott to get away with so much because the atmosphere it creates is completely irresistible when the opening shot of Los Angeles all dark and infernal plumes of flame in the distance that beautiful model skyline that they created so brilliantly and then you hear that main title theme that Vangelis theme those sweeps of synthesizer that resolve into this very stirring quite simple theme this tune I call it up on my phone here. Ah, Vangelis. Main titles.

Skip through to this bit. so so I'm having a weepy moment. It's so incredible. That music. What is it? Am I too old now to connect so strongly with something new? Is it just my lost youth that's making me all emotional when I hear that? I don't think so. There's something in there that I don't hear in the Hans Zimmer score. What you get in the new movie are strange sounds that are a blend of like engines,

futuristic engines with a slightly tuneful quality to them and they're quite cool but you don't really get any actual tunes i know it's an old fart man thing to say but i'm an old fart man okay that's enough crapping on this week. Rosie, here she comes. Rosie, come here. Her hairy bullet's dawdling a little bit today. She's loping towards me with her tongue out. What? What do you want? I was just going to say, I think it's time we headed home.

How are you, dog? Isn't it a lovely day? Have you finished crying about vangelis i think i have yes all right let's go home good deal i love you off you go thank you very much to seamus murphy mitchell for production support on this episode and to Matt Lamont for additional editing. Thank you so much for listening right the way through to the end. You're a kind of genius. Well done. You might think, oh dear, no, what's going on with my life? I'm listening right to the end of this podcast. Wrong, wrong. It's all going perfectly. You're one of the winners. Well done. Take care. I love you. Bye! Bye.次は、ステップ3のトレーニングを行います。 Thank you.