Bill Burr in Winnipeg

I had the good fortune to see Bill Burr perform last night at the Burton Cummings Theatre. He's one of, if not the best, currently-working stand-up comedian. It was an inspiring show, one that has my mind deep into stand-up in the hours since.

Bill's opener was Paul Virzi, who was hilarious. They'd been in Canada for ten days already, so of course they had some spot-on observations and jokes about Canada and Canadians, but the pandering was minimal.

I listen to Bill's Monday Morning Podcast occasionally, but I avoided his material for the months leading up to the show so I could get a full, fresh dose of what's on his mind, and it was a treat.

Shout out to Just For Laughs for producing the tour. It's Bill's first Canadian tour and he claims he'll be coming back.



I'm not going to step on his material. It's magic to watch him work, stabbing deep into the heart of the subjects on his mind with a few perfectly-chosen words.

I lost track of time completely during the show, but when the standing ovation was over, Bill had played for 90+ minutes. There had been a moment, it must have been around the 75-minute mark, where Bill seemed to be winding down, mentioning the DVD he had for sale (and how he had a garage full of outdated technology he was trying to unload to appease his wife). After that he sort of just kept going.

I don't think he did more than six or seven chunks. It flew by.

Bill was hilarious from minute one, but his energy definitely started on the low end. There were a couple lulls where the attentive audience wasn't crying in their seats, and that seemed to motivate Bill to crank up his energy. He poured it on and the room was filled with outrageous laughter.

It was just a great time. I went with a couple of my CreComm buddies and we had a great time. As good as he is, even Bill's joke about how terrible poutine is didn't stop me from visiting Smoke's afterwards.