“Everybody fucking relax. Get yourself a sandwich.”

— Bill Burr

This episode of the podcast features Bill Burr (@billburr). Many of you know Bill as a famous standup comedian, and thousands of you have been requesting him for years. Rolling Stone called Bill “the undisputed heavyweight champ of rage-fueled humor,” and when we were finally able to talk, he did not disappoint.

In this wide-ranging conversation we explore:

How Bill found his way into standup comedy

Why he enjoys going for an encore after he’s been booed

The transformation from a “squeaky clean” comedian to offending nearly everyone

How learning can serve as powerful therapy

The importance of enjoying success

And much, much more

This interview comes from my television show Fear(less), where I interview world-class performers on stage about how they’ve overcome doubt, conquered fear, and made their toughest decisions. You can watch the entire first episode with illusionist David Blaine for free at att.net/fearless. (To watch all episodes, please visit DIRECTV NOW).

We recorded three hours of material, and only one hour was used for the TV show. This podcast episode is almost entirely new content that didn’t appear on TV.

Enjoy!

You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.

#265: Bill Burr -- The Comedian's Comedian https://rss.art19.com/episodes/57237382-d25d-4608-a5b8-63afd50fccfd.mp3 Download

Listen to it on iTunes.

Stream by clicking here.

Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as.”

Want to hear another podcast with a comedian, actor, and director? — Listen to my conversation with Vince Vaughn. In this episode, we discuss stories of his early beginnings, how to negotiate, his cold-calling career, and important decisions he’s made as a producer, an artist, and a businessperson (stream below or right-click here to download):

#243: How to Fear Less -- Vince Vaughn https://rss.art19.com/episodes/0429c488-3e5d-43c2-b504-1fe1456ebc37.mp3 Download

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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.

Scroll below for links and show notes…

Selected Links from the Episode

Connect with Bill Burr:

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube

Show Notes

Why Bill always takes the opportunity for an encore if he’s been booed. [06:33]

Childhood in the ’70s (“Back when you could almost kill a kid and it wasn’t a problem”). [09:45]

Was getting into standup comedy Bill’s best anti-bullying, life-fulfillment strategy? [10:39]

Bill goes over his brief career as a dental assistant for his dad. [15:17]

Bill’s conversion from squeaky clean to offending everybody. [18:00]

How does Bill know when a joke or a piece of writing is close and when it’s done? [19:43]

How did Bill recover from his first time bombing on stage? [20:19]

Bill talks about what led to a particularly dark period in his life and how he climbed out of it. [22:15]

How have Bill’s goals changed since beginning in standup comedy? [30:46]

When did Bill finally feel like he’d arrived as a comedian? [34:01]

On the importance of enjoying success in the moment. [35:15]

Does a comedian who goes through therapy, meditates, or tries to cope with life in a healthy way run the risk of losing their “edge?” [37:03]

Why Bill thinks we should have stopped advancing technology circa ’94-’95. [40:01]

What prompted Bill to start his podcast? [42:00]

Formative experiences between beginning comedy specials and “F Is for Family.” [44:32]

Who is alienated by Bill’s humor? [48:44]

Does Bill ever deliberately try to alienate an audience in order to reel them back in? [51:42]

What Bill observed by comparing Rodney Dangerfield’s audience to Eddie Murphy’s. [53:20]

What advice would Bill give his 25-year-old self? What advice does he think his 60-year-old self would tell him now? [56:10]

Most memorable heckles. [101:25]

Is Bill prepared for the apocalypse? [1:04:58]

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The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 500 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.