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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Emotionally Unavailable

Bill Burr

Self-released · Album · 2003 · 51 min

Bill Burr’s early, combative stand-up album recorded in Philadelphia.

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Before Bill Burr was selling out arenas, he was on stage at the Laff House on South Street in Philadelphia, dealing with a club crowd that did not hand out polite applause. Released in 2003, this audio-only stand-up album captures Burr in his early club-comic phase. Instead of the long, conversational stories that would define his later theater specials, this set is packed with tight, rapid-fire setups and punchlines. He riffs on MTV Cribs, the dominance of Venus and Serena Williams, and the dread of a grandmother coming to visit.\n\nAt this point in his career, Burr was mostly known as a radio regular on the Opie and Anthony show, still a year away from his breakout appearances on Chappelle’s Show. The Philadelphia crowd provides a tough room, and some of the best moments on the record come when Burr abandons his written material to spar with hecklers. His joke about writing a relationship book for women is an early glimpse of the battle-of-the-sexes material he would eventually build his career on. The album was originally self-released on CD before receiving an expanded reissue in 2007.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Burr's grandmother meeting his Black girlfriend

    Burr opens up about his grandmother being rude to his Black girlfriend.

  2. Visiting his Black girlfriend's Harlem apartment

    Burr recounts the growing fear and body pains he develops as the street numbers go higher getting directions to Harlem.

  3. The uselessness of the digital age and survival skills

    Burr contrasts wanting to learn how to hunt and start a fire without matches against the uselessness of future operating systems like Windows 2020.

  4. Closing Shit Jokes

    A routine of quick jokes wrapping up the recorded set.

How it plays

Tone
Sardonic, acerbic, and irreverent
On stage
Acerbic, whiny wit known for confrontational observational humor
About
race, relationships, politics, pop culture, technology

What the critics said

Praised particularly for Burr's sharp and fearless material addressing race and relationships.

In the room: An intimate club setting with ambient club noise, including an audible cash register in the background.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: discogs.com, soundcloud.com, clevescene.com, last.fm, lasvegasweekly.com, dead-frog.com, allmusic.com, mocomedy.blogspot.com, vulture.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Details

Released
Runtime
51 min
Where
Self-released (album)
Topics
After
Comedy Central Presents (2003)

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