MUSIC I STAND-UP COMEDY
When I Feel Down, I Watch Bo Burnham Sing
Sarcasm is a healthy distraction
When I discovered Bo a few years ago, I thought he is like a modern NSYNC-member, the Justin Timberlake of comedy. He’s super tall, funny, and sings and plays on several instruments. He’s a pussy magnet, I get it. Overhyped, over appreciated, and unreasonably popular, I thought. Then I watched his standup special what.
When you first see him perform, it’s a weird experience. He’s like a kangaroo high on speed preparing a line of cocaine while telling, singing, and rapping jokes. Gimmick after gimmick. Not a traditional comedian telling stories about his drunken nights out or how he slept with women since he blew up on Youtube when he was sixteen years old.
He’s been criticized for making a performance about performing, and how his gimmicks are cheap distractions and attention-seeking attempts to make people laugh. Then he put that criticism into his shows and addressed it overtly with great wit from a meta-perspective, and it worked.
But that’s not the only reason why his comedy is so unique and sharp. He speaks to a younger generation in a deeply personal way that no comedian has before. He addresses social media, mental health, and generational issues because he lived through most of them. In 2013, his personal anxiety reached a point where he started having panic attacks before shows, then later onstage as well.
He said, “It’s a feeling of riding your nervous system like a bull, and then being in the real world with anxiety feels like you’re riding a bull and everyone else is an equestrian.”
So, even though he comes off sometimes as an egotistic narcissist high on his own success, that’s never the case. Maybe he’s not as insecure as once was being a teenager, but the sudden fame had taken a toll on him, too.
His gigs are SHOWS in the most entertaining and sensational way of the word. He’s a one-man circus, using every tool he’s able put his hands on to guarantee that you’ll never forget the day you’ve seen him on stage.
I watched all of his specials, and I regularly return to his songs on Youtube just to wind myself up every now and then when life kicks my butt way too hard. Watching him sing and act foolish is a healthy distraction.
People and critics can hate him all they want, but the effort, dedication, and hard work he puts into his sequences are immeasurable. If you don’t believe me, just watch one of his specials on Netflix or listen to his songs on Youtube. Here, start with this one.
See? I told you.