Bill Burr

Explicit content warning

11/06/13 • 84 min

2 Listeners

Tom Rhodes Smart Camp

Sometimes with my podcast I like to imagine it as if I were teaching a university course on stand up comedy. That is why it was an absolute joy for me to sit down with Bill Burr and pick his brain about comedy and his thoughts on the importance of turning over a new hour show every year or two.

Personally, for me Bill is one of the most exciting comedians working today. Onstage he is a tempest. He is like watching a major storm develop and then crash down with a fury each new idea he presents. Presently, he is one of the hottest comedians in the world. Touring theaters, giving birth to new hour specials, he even had a recurring role on the critically acclaimed series 'Breaking Bad'. He is a true comedy bad ass.

His 'Monday morning podcast' is one of the most downloaded podcasts in the world right now and I'm very proud that my podcast is a part of the All Things Comedy network that Bill started with Al Madrigal. It is my pleasure to present to you now, the rock solid thrower of comedy thunderbolts that is Bill Burr.

Previous Episode

Ari Shaffir

The more I get to know Ari Shaffir the more I like him. He is one of the most pleasant human beings walking this earth. Every time I see him he puts a smile on my face. I have never seen him with a dark cloud of emotions hanging over him.

Several years ago he started doing story telling shows and now that concept of his is being produced by Comedy Central digital in a series called 'This can't be happening'.

A few weeks ago I caught up with Ari in San Francisco while he was co-headlining at Cobb's with Joey CoCo Diaz. I watched Ari's fans shower him with gifts of joints and marijuana nuggets after his show and the next afternoon we sat down to have this conversation.

We talk about many great things but most importantly we both agree that "Comedy is a dark room where adults go to hear the truth about uncomfortable subjects."

Next Episode

Des Bishop

This episode was recorded in Beijing, China.

I first met Des Bishop many years ago in London when we both performed on a show together. He has had a very unique life story and an amazing career trajectory.

Des is originally from New York but has deep family roots in Ireland. He started his stand up comedy career in Dublin and has gone on to have a brilliant television career in Ireland. For the past year he has been living in Beijing because he wants to learn Mandarin Chinese and perform stand up comedy in Chinese.

On the night I arrived after I dropped my luggage at the hotel I took a taxi to the local Chinese comedian open mic night that Des puts on. I couldn't believe it when I saw it but here was my friend standing there performing to a room full of Chinese people getting laughs in Chinese! I was absolutely blown away by this feat.

In this episode we talk about Des' television highlights in Ireland and how he came to fall in love with China to make a life here. He also explains everything you need to know about modern life in China, the current stand up comedy scene here and the three taboo topics a performer can never mention while performing in China.

It should be noted that Des heard I was booked to do shows in Hong Kong and Shanghai and he put up his own money to bring me to Beijing to headline shows he would host. The sold out shows this past week were at a cool book store with a full service bar in the center called 'The Bookworm.' The shows were billed as 'Tom Rhodes in the humor section.'

I would like to give a special thanks to Papa Razzi who created the song 'Tom Rhodes is a globe trotting comedian' that plays at the end of this episode.