Bill Burr says internet killed music and saved comedy; then says a lot more

Bill Burr is currently everywhere – streaming on Netflix (his animated series “F is for Family”), racking up numbers on iTunes (“Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast”), making movies (director Jason Reitman’s “The Front Runner”) and doing two standup shows in Cincinnati on Saturday night.

Producing that much content requires a prolific mind, and Burr’s head is full of thoughts. A couple questions over the phone, and he was off and running.

Question: You played the same room in Cincinnati the last time I talked to you, but this time you’re doing two shows instead of one. What has happened in the last three years to increase your draw?

Answer: I’ve always been a slow burn. I’m a 26-year overnight success. I kind of feel like I keep writing and each time I come through, a few more people know who I am, hopefully. I don’t know. This is like the type of stuff that I never think about. All I ever wanted to do was be a comedian, so to get to this level … When I started out, there was Cosby, Carlin, a handful of people that were doing those size venues, before this explosion of streaming and all of this stuff. There are American comics selling tickets around the world. It was unheard of back in the day.

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Q: Why has comedy exploded?

A: It’s because the music business fell apart. As much as the internet killed music, comedy was perfect for it. Because people, their attention spans … they either want to see somebody do something awesome, or they want to see somebody fail at something, or they just want to laugh at a joke. Standup fits perfectly in there. So much has changed, too. When I was growing up, you didn’t know who the newscaster voted for. Now, when Hillary lost, a person on CNN was literally crying. The whole thing has changed, and fortunately, it changed in a way that was beneficial for me. There’s a lot of boats I’ve missed in my career, but Netflix, I was one of the earlier comedians to get my stuff on Netflix.

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Q: How do partisan political newscasts relate to the consumption of comedy? Are you just making the larger point that things change?

A: Because comedians are the same way now. I’m old enough to remember Johnny Carson. People would try to guess his politics. Now, one of these talk shows I did, and the host went out and his whole monolog was just trashing Donald Trump, and I remember just standing there thinking, “Wow, this whole thing has changed.” Trashing him, and the whole crowd is going nuts. Obviously, he’s doing that enough that he then attracts that.

I don’t know. I’m feeling old. I don’t feel old, but this whole thing has changed so much. Now people have cell phones, and they can videotape you doing something and then do the exact (expletive) thing that I hate that CNN and Fox do. They take the clip that proves the point they want to make, rather than showing you what happened, and the people in the crowd can become these little CNN and Fox News liars and create some sort of hissy fit about absolutely nothing.

It seemed like that sort of died down, comedians getting in trouble, but that was such a pathetic time in this country. I just think news organizations jumped on that because it was easy, and they leave all these other problems alone, because the people who create those problems also advertise on their network, so they completely ignore all this big (stuff), and all the sudden you’re in a strip mall, and you do a Caitlyn Jenner joke, and you’re like the thing that’s bringing down the country, because they ignore a nationwide heroin epidemic and where that came from.

I don’t even know what the (heck) I’m talking about at this point. I’m really looking forward to coming to Cincinnati. All of the things I just talked about, none of that is in my act, so don’t think I’m going to be up there preaching all of this crap. I’m not. In fact, the word I avoid most in my act is the word “we.” That’s always been a major turnoff for me when I watched somebody – “Do we do that? Do we want a world where we …” And I immediately go, “Dude, don’t (expletive) talk for me. Say what you think, but don’t grab my hand and skip down the street with your point.”

If you go

What: Bill Burr

When: 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. Saturday, April 7

Where: Taft Theatre, 317 E. Fifth St., Downtown; 513-232-6220

Tickets: $48