Bo Burnham stands up with ASP

After performing at Student Against Cancer’s comedy show for Relay For Life, Bo Burnham chatted with the Albany Student Press. He discussed his controversial and offensive jokes, his love of Shakespeare, and his view of Albany as a boring city.

Albany Student Press: What did you think of tonight’s show?

   Bo Burnham: It was good, it was good.

   ASP: Have you ever had a really bad show?

   BB: Oh yeah. Tons of bad shows. More than I can count. This wasn’t one of them, which is good.

   ASP: You kind of revealed yourself as a poetry nerd tonight.

   BB: Yeah, I’m a big Shakespeare nerd, I’m not a big poetry nerd. I think poetry takes itself too seriously. People read into it way too much.  Some guy will be like, “He slipped on his shoes,” and they’ll  be like, “See the uses of S’s show that like, he has a curvy spine.”  It’s like, no. So I don’t like people analyzing poetry. But I like poetry, I like haikus, and I really love Shakespeare … even though I made fun of it tonight. It was supposed to be like, what kids might think and how kids view Shakespeare, you know, incorrectly.

   ASP: Now, a lot of the stuff you put on YouTube can be pretty controversial, and you started posting videos when you were 16. What did your parents think?

   BB: Well the first time, the first one was about them thinking I was gay and my mom came in and is like “we do not think that,” and made me take it down. But then, you know, I convinced them, and they’ve got a good sense of humor. But yeah, they’re cool, they’re cool. It is ridiculous, and stupid, and they know that.

  ASP: Do you ever get in trouble for joking about a certain subject that is just too taboo?

  BB: No, I got protested once at a show but that’s just because the kids were idiots. They literally had signs that said misquoted lyrics on them. I had a line that had something about “a liter of literates, a bunch of Moby Dicks,” which is just a joke about Moby Dick, not even a good one. They held signs and said “the hood is not illiterate!” Well maybe it is, if you’re making that sign.

   ASP: Many of your jokes could be offensive to several different groups of people. Do you ever feel any guilt at all for that?

   BB: No because I went through school and I went through the rigor on the internet of every one of my flaws being picked apart thousands of times. So I don’t understand offended, and I don’t understand getting generally offended. It gets weird, and the problem when people like Larry the Cable Guy do it, even though Larry the Cable Guy’s not racist, you might be like, “Is his audience though actually laughing at this because they think that?” But it’s very clear, I think it’s clear, that when I post all that stuff, that I’m actually not like that, and neither is the audience. So the joke is, I like to say the joke is making fun of the fact that everyone takes it so seriously.  And that fact that some people are like “Oh no!” Who cares? I don’t.

   ASP: So it’s like mock racism?

   BB: Yeah, yeah, it is. Sarah Silverman does it really well.

   ASP: So you were in Funny People with Adam Sandler, how was working with him?

   BB: It was like a day. I met him really quickly. He just blew me away with how humble he is. All those guys are like, so down to earth and stuff so it made me feel very at ease. I was very nervous.

   ASP: And you have an upcoming film project with Judd Apatow?

   BB: Yes. Still writing it, it’s not necessarily going to be made. It’s been a long process writing it, we’re like on the fourth draft. So yeah, it’s still a long ways from being something. It’s coming along.

   ASP: So can you tell us anything about that?

   BB: It’s a musical, it’s an R-rated “High School Musical.” It’s not a spoof though, it’s not a parody. I hate parodies. But yeah, it’s just like a real one.

   ASP: Have you ever been to the Albany area?

   BB: Yes, I did a show at The Egg in the fall.

   ASP: Have you ever experienced anything around here?

   BB: No, and it’s sad, I go in and out of cities and I don’t get to understand them or experience them. But when I went to The Egg, there was like nobody on the street. It’s like a Saturday night, and I’ve never seen such a ghost town. So I respect that. I respect your boring city.

   ASP: So Albany’s a ghost town.

   BB: Well, I come from a ghost town. So I enjoy that. Because the city city’s not really great anyway.  I don’t know, why wouldn’t it have been busier on a Saturday?
 

   ASP: What time was it?

   BB: It was like 8, or 7. It was probably a weird part of town.

   ASP: Yeah, I guess no one really goes out that early. Now, you mentioned a special you’re doing in April?

   BB: I’m taping it in April at the House of Blues in Boston and it’ll air in the fall. It’ll be like a new CD, it’s called “Words Words Words.”