Name: Bill Burr Reveals the Best Advice he Ever Received from Dave Chappelle
Uploaded: 2023-07-22T16:00:27.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr Reveals the Best Advice he Ever Received from Dave Chappelle' from Fans of Bill Burr on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-07-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Bill Burr Reveals the Best Advice he Ever Received from Dave Chappelle' from Fans of Bill Burr on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-07-22. Transcript available.

What is the best comedy advice you've ever been given?
"I don't know what you're doing, but keep doing it" was the first great advice
I got because it made me feel like I was on the right path and I could trust
whatever
it was that I was thinking at that time and that was Michael McDonald, the one
from Boston
not the guy from Canada, he gave me that advice and the long gone Stitches
Comedy Club and
then Dave Chappelle, I remember in like 1998, he said to me, he was sitting on
the stairs
waiting to go on, I was on stage at the cellar, you know the stairs you come
down, he was sitting
there and just waiting to go on, heard some of the stuff I was doing and he
told me, he
basically said, you know, the road that you're going, he goes, it's going to
take you longer,
but when you hit, you're going to hit hard because, you know, basically saying
it was a solid foundation
and that, like him just taking three seconds to say that to me, like sustained
me for like
four years on the road, you know, those years, those years I call, you know,
when you're good
enough to be doing shit, but nobody knows you, I call it like the killing in
obscurity years,
you're just in the middle of fucking nowhere going up there every night, just
going up, there's like
third full, half full, they've given away the show and nobody gives a fuck and
just that first 12 minutes of just trying to get them on board that you're
worthy of listening to and then getting off stage,
and then having those people coming up going, wow, you're one of the funniest
guys they've had out here and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, what are you doing
here?
What are you doing here?
And then, and rather than being like, yeah, what the fuck am I doing here and
getting depressed, you, you, you look at that as like, you know, when those
explorers would start to see tree branches in the water,
you're like, okay, I'm getting the land, I just kind of keep going in this
fucking direction.
So, stuff like that and then like I remember the first time somebody came out,
a college booker came out when I was still in Boston and everybody did their
sets and afterwards everyone was going up and schmoozing with the agent or
whatever and I said to this guy, Tony V, I said, oh man, I go, I'm so bad at
that, I'm really bad at schmoozing or whatever and he was just sitting there, I
remember he was just sitting there relaxed.
I forget, I think he was, I always picture him smoking a cigar because we
always smoke cigars and he was just like, I was like, yeah, man, I'm so bad at
it and he goes, oh yeah, he goes, well, he goes, get good at it and then he
kind of went back to whatever he was doing and I remember it was really
profound moment where I was just like, all right, so this is a skill and I can't
improve on it and evidently it's really important because the way he said it
was really fatherly.
There was no quarter, he just fucking said it straight out and I was like, I
need to come out of my shell because I was really like, I was completely
withdrawn when I first started doing stand-up.
That's half the reason I did stand-up. Stand-up was basically, I'm going to get
on stage, show people that I'm funny and I'm a good shit and then everybody's
going to stop fucking with me.
Like that was the formula. Of course that didn't happen. I went up there and
immediately got heckled and it was just, you know, the more of the same thing,
but I don't know, but it was like moments like that that I guess kind of pushed
me along.
What is the worst comedy advice you've ever been given?
No. You know what sticks out of my head? This guy had a showcase to do half
hour comedies on Showtime at the comedy store and I was living in New York at
the time and to do the showcase I had to fly myself out. Right there I should
have said no.
I should have had the confidence to be like, you know what, someday I'm going
to be good enough where, you know, this is going to be, I'm obviously not at a
place to get a half hour comedy if I have to fly my way out there.
But instead, like a fucking asshole, I'm like, okay, show business. And I put
the, you know, it didn't have, you know, I don't have the fucking money to fly
out there, you know, just to do it.
But I invested in myself, so I did it. And I went out there. I show up for the
showcase. It's at the comedy store in the original room. And I am the first guy
on the showcase. And, you know, people, there's three people in the crowd.
There was three people in the crowd. And it, or maybe there was three and two.
I remember the three was a black guy with these two white women on either side
of them, middle-aged. And then I think there was one other person.
And they, of course, were talking. And this is, you know, my dream has always
been to do, at this point, to do a special.
So I go up there to do my shit. And, you know, there's three people and they're
talking. So I had to talk to them.
And I made fun of the fact that I flew all the way out there for this showcase.
And there's three people in the room and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And I, and then I would do a few jokes. And there was barely any laughter and yada,
yada, you know, so whatever.
So I get off stage and the guy who booked the thing comes up to me and he just,
he walks up to me and he goes, seven times, seven times in a 10 minute set, you
brought up that there was nobody there at the showcase.
Okay. We know the jokes. We can hear if the material's there. You know, you
stand on stage and you just keep going like, you know, there's nobody here.
The crowd starts thinking, yeah, well, what am I doing here? It's like, dude,
there's no fucking crowd here. And I, dude, I've never been so fucking mad in
my, well, of course I have, but I was fucking livid at that guy.
I walked away and immediately it was a waste of time. I want to be like, dude,
I've paid my way out here to do your fucking special and you at your showcase
and you assholes didn't do any fucking work to put anybody in the crowd.
And I had to showcase in front of three people and, and just the way he was
coming at me, like, cause he went, no, no, you're still in the running. That's
what pissed me off. You're still in the running.
I want to be like, dude, I'm going to fucking make it whether you pick me or
not. I'm not sitting here waiting for you to tap me with your magic wand. You
can make it now.
You either want me or not, but that fucking shithole in there is your
responsibility. This is your fucking showcase. Okay. So this is what I wanted
to say, but I was too scared to fucking say it.
This is what I said to the windshield of my rented car as I fucking drove away.
And it was like, and the advice he was giving me was don't address the
situation, which is one of the first things that you learn as a comedian.
The first time you walk up on stage and there's a fist fight in the crowd or
somebody just threw up and you make the decision to just go into your act.
We've all done that. Yeah. And you're literally in a comedy vacuum. It's like
they're showing a video of you in a comedy club where a crowd's actually paying
attention in front of this crowd that isn't listening.
And that's one of the first things that I noticed. Like, look, if the room was
full and nobody was laughing, then that is on me and I shouldn't shit on the
crowd and I should be a professional because maybe the next guy is going to
come up and get him.
Okay. But if I go up in this fucking, you know, three people and two people
over there and three of them are talking, you know, when the waitstaff out
numbers the people in the crowd, like, I mean, I have to do what I have to do.
And like, just the way it was, there was that other, that, that thing. Once
again, the way he, it was the way he came at me. Now, once again, what he said
to me was then went into my ears and was cut with my childhood.
So maybe, maybe I was wrong, but that's one. And there's a lot of times I look
back on some shit where I go, I owe that person an apology. I was wrong. I know
I get it now or I've cooled off now, but that's one that to this day that I
look back on, you know, you have your classic half dozen.
You know, that teacher, I had a teacher called me the dumbest kid in the room
and I still fucking think about that to this day. And I was not wrong in that
situation. And, um, but that, that was one that I still, I still look back on
that. That was like, Jesus Christ. That was probably 10, 10 years ago. And, uh,
you know, and I've seen that person since and I never brought it up and I got
along with them and everything like that. And that's been like a big thing in
this business where, uh, I've never done that.
We're like, someday, someday I'm going to be here and then I'm going to walk in
and be like, yeah, you motherfucker. Fuck you. And I just, I, I, I think that
shit, but when the moment comes, it's just like, I don't give a shit.
You really need to rise above in show business. Like, it's not even rise above.
I don't even give a shit.
Right. But, uh, you need to get over shit and let it go. Right. In show
business. It seems. I think in life in general, like, uh, no, because then what
they do.
That's the mistake I'm making. I'm not applying your show business principles
to the life principles.
Well, the thing is, is if you do that, then you've allowed somebody to take the
joy. It stops being like, I'm, I'm not doing standup anymore because this is
the funnest job for the way I'm wired that I could possibly have.
Is it funnest a word? Most fun job I could have. And it now becomes, I'm doing
this to tell this guy to go fuck himself.
And then you just, it's just, it's just like poison leaking into your soul
every time you're going up there and you will become the bitter guy.
You'll become.