Name: Bill Burr - How 'Monday Morning Podcast' Came To Life
Uploaded: 2020-05-22T17:59:28.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr - How 'Monday Morning Podcast' Came To Life' from Comedy University on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-05-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr - How 'Monday Morning Podcast' Came To Life' from Comedy University on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-05-22. Transcript available.

It's bright and early. Are you a morning person in general?
Oh, you know what's weird? In my life, when I was a kid, I was a morning person
because I had a paper route.
It was back when they let kids still have that job.
Back when there were papers?
Well, pre-to-catch-a-predator is what killed that fuck. Oops, that's what
killed that job.
Am I allowed to curse on this?
Yes, you are.
Okay. And then when I became a comedian, you know, obviously was not getting
the prime spots,
so I was working late nights, food spots and all that.
Then I became a night person, so I can kind of do both.
Yeah, most comedians, I find, are not morning people.
Oh, I like getting up in the morning.
Yeah.
I do. I actually feel like you get a jump in the day.
I feel like if I ever sleep past, like, 9 o'clock, I feel like lazy loser. I
wasted the day.
Yeah. Well, you have the Monday Morning Podcast, so that has morning right in
the title there.
Yes, it does. Yes, it does.
But it means that I record it in the morning. People think that means it comes
out in the morning,
so there was a little confusion. If I could have renamed it, I would have said
the Monday
Morning Recording of my podcast, so people wouldn't be, you know.
Yeah, you've had the podcast for quite a while now, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah.
2007, I think is when I first started doing it. I did it, got into it
accidentally. I was hanging out with this comedian, Robert Kelly, and I was
over his podcast, or his house, sorry.
And he, it was still MySpace days. And he goes, dude, you should do this. It's
called like a podcast. I'm like, what's that?
He goes, it's another way to connect with your fans. So I would just do like,
that back then you just called in a service on like my flip phone.
And I would call in and just talk for five minutes, joke around, and then
mention where my gigs were going to be.
And then it just, five minutes became six, became eight. It was almost like
building an act.
And then I was like, you guys write some questions in, you know, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah.
And then they started writing questions. I was able to expand it more. We had
the overrated, underrated, and just kind of built from there.
And then everybody else descended on it and just ran with it and had these
amazing like this studios and stuff.
I still do mine the way I did it. I probably should have expanded.
I'm like that old lady that made pies and never sold the recipe. Everybody else
franchised.
Kind of missed the boat. But it's fun.
Yeah. I mean, what do you, what do you like about, what do you kind of get out
of doing the podcast that you, you know, as opposed to stand up?
Because they're very different.
It's a great way to connect with the fans. It's a great way to make people
laugh.
I also remember having a, you know, a number of day jobs that I hated and
Monday sucked.
So that's why I wanted to put it out on Monday to give somebody something to
laugh at when they were driving to work.
And even though looking back, Tuesday was always the worst day. Tuesday dragged
the most.
I remember on Monday, you were still shaking off whatever you did on the
weekend.
So it kind of flew to lunchtime, but it sucked knowing that you were back.
But then Tuesday you came in. I was like, oh man, this is real. I work here.
Well, this show comes out on Tuesday. So that's, oh, there you go. So you give
people some entertainment on a Tuesday.
Yeah. There wasn't nearly the level of entertainment, I guess, options that you
had when I was coming up.
So that was, it's good and bad.
You have a really incredible ability to just talk into a mic by yourself for a
long time, which I think is a pretty unique skill.
And different from stand-up too, don't you think? Because you don't have an
audience that you're kind of bouncing off of.
So how did you kind of learn to do that? Or was it easy from the start?
From years of talking to myself like a crazy person.
No, I would say, no, it wasn't easy at first. I would run out of things to say.
So it was just like being a comedian. So I was comfortable doing five minutes
and I became comfortable doing six and then seven.
And, you know, I just kind of have the idea what I want to start with.
And then I just kind of go and there's people like that that don't necessarily
do like a podcast that can really, you know, do stuff like that.
So I don't know. I don't really, I didn't really think about it that much.
I didn't know that they were going to grow into what they grew into.
I never, in my, like the whole thing was people listen, you know, it'll make
more people show up with whatever funny bone I was playing at.
Like I never, I never saw it. Like, it's funny that they call them podcasts.
I mean, it's basically, it's a radio show on the internet. It's the same thing.
So that's why it's always funny when these older guys on radio, I don't get it.
Like what, what is a podcast? It's like, well, what you're doing.
It's the same.
Yeah. I mean, not at their pro level, because you got to respect that those
guys probably actually went to like broadcasting school.
I actually, didn't you study radio?
Yeah, but only because I was such an introvert and nervous to get in front of
people that I chose radio because it was being on the microphone, talking to
people, but I couldn't see them.
So it was my baby step way. I had never had any intentions of doing radio.
It was all to overcome mic fright and talking in front of people and being, you
know, painfully shy in really most situations.
It was weird. Like when I was with people I was comfortable with, I'm kind of
like the guy I am now, but in 90% of other social situations, I would just
completely shut down and be quiet until I got like comfortable, like six months
into the situation.
And then all of a sudden people would say, Jesus Christ, what happened to you?