Comedy Central Presents: Bill Burr

Bill Burr is 34, sporting a full head of hair, but carrying the exact same short-fuse agitation that would define his later arena tours. He paces the stage, already exasperated by the basic friction of existing in a world where MTV Cribs makes regular guys feel like complete failures.\n\nFilmed in 2002 at the Hudson Theatre in New York City and broadcast on February 14, 2003, this half-hour showcase caught Burr at a pivotal juncture. He had spent a decade on the club circuit but was still a year away from his breakthrough as a regular player on Chappelle’s Show. On stage, he channels a distinct East Coast cynicism, picking apart the absolute stupidity of newly rich rappers who buy 20-room houses with only one hit album instead of acting like a sensible, cheaply dressed billionaire like Bill Gates.\n\nWhile the presentation is straightforward, typical of the early-2000s Comedy Central formula, Burr’s timing is already fully realized. His exasperated breakdown of witnessing a bizarre subway encounter and his declaration of being entirely unfit for normal office work show the early blueprints of his trade. There is also a notable bit of comedy trivia tucked into the set: Burr’s MTV Cribs riff famously coincided with a nearly identical joke from Greg Giraldo during the very same season of the show, a case of parallel thinking that both comedians later laughed off on the road.