Name: Bill Burr - Comedians In China
Uploaded: 2015-01-26T21:55:12.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr - Comedians In China' from Bill Burr Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-01-26. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr - Comedians In China' from Bill Burr Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2015-01-26. Transcript available.

I got my first show tomorrow night here in Perth. I'm really looking forward to
it, man.
I'm going to put my hour together out here and looking forward to all the
people that I'm going to see and comics that I'm going to meet and that type of
shit.
And it's going to be insane. It's already going to be insane going through
Australia and into New Zealand.
But when I go into Southeast Asia, experiencing those cultures, it's just going
to be unreal.
Like in China, I had this great interview with a guy for the Hong Kong gig and
he was mentioning how Hong Kong, you know, that they're basically their own
deal.
They have their own constitution and shit. But in mainland China, as he called
it, like, do you know, he said recently they banned puns.
They banned puns and wordplay in the media, which I know everybody else is
probably going to laugh like, oh, that's silly.
You can't make a pun. But, you know, humor is a great way to take the piss out
of the fucking people that are in power.
And it's a clever way to do it where you can't quite get busted for it.
And unless you got a psycho, which maybe they do, but whatever.
But it's a way to kind of make your point and stay out of jail and start a
movement or whatever.
So they've banned that type of thing.
And I guess the comedians in China are pushing the boundaries of what is
allowed on stage.
And what is amazing to me over there is that in China, the standups over there,
that art form, which I think eventually it will go global.
It's really weird that that art form has not.
The fact that music, you know, acting and all these film, all the pictures,
painting, all the other arts are worldwide.
But standup, one of the great arts I feel that there is, is not worldwide.
And it's like brand new, essentially, in China.
And what's so fascinating, mainland China, what's so fascinating to me is that
they are actually pre-Lenny Bruce over there.
You know what I mean?
Like, I look at these other places where they can actually talk and I'm like,
it's exciting to me because it's like, all right, they're going to have their
Richard Pryor.
They're going to have their George Carlin, their Sam Kinison or whatever.
And, you know, these guys are actually in China are like they're waiting for
their Lenny Bruce to come along, which is pretty amazing to me.
And, um, I also can't imagine living in that type of oppression, how that would
affect the comedy, um, on just like a whole other level.
Like just listening to like Richard Pryor and what he ended up talking about
because of what he went through.
I can't imagine over there.
I don't know.
It's just like a different thing.
Like there's that whole fucking experience living in a fucking country where
there's like, what is that?
Three, four billion fucking people or something like that?
Or a billion people they got over there.
I just can't imagine how you would try to stand out over there.
And then you got this oppressive fucking thing where people got to stand in
front of tanks and shit.
I know that was like 25 years ago, but, um, I don't know.
Um, I think it's going to be really interesting too.
I'm hoping that some comics, when I go to Hong Kong, some Chinese comics will
come out and I'll get to talk to them and find out about that.
Cause the guy was actually going, would you actually do a gig on main in
mainland China?
And I was like, no, I wouldn't because I don't know how to fucking, I've been a
free man.
So I wouldn't know how to reign that in.
I mean, I've done corporate gigs and try to tone it down, but I wouldn't trust
myself to not blurt out something that would then end.
I'd end up, God knows what.
Haven't have somebody call a fucking embassy over a shit show.
I mean, I don't, I couldn't handle that because the guy was going, do you have
any advice for those kids over there?
And I was like, no, I don't.
Cause I, I, I had a, uh, a privileged standup career where all those walls were
already broken down.
I actually said what I would rather, I would like to talk to them, you know,
and hear what they're going through.
But, uh, hopefully, you know, things open up over there.
Cause I really don't think that any government, if you fucking oppress the
people, it's just, it's like, this, it can only last for so fucking long before
people have had it.
Um, so hopefully, uh, you know, Jesus Christ.
I mean, you need government and you need fucking rules and that type of shit,
but you don't got to be taking it to that level.
Banning puns and fucking wordplay.
Give me a break.
Anyway, so that's the type of shit I'm going to be countering here on this trip.