Review: Bo Burnham at Variety Playhouse
I remember when a good friend of mine introduced me to Steve Martin’s “Let’s Get Small.” As he handed me the CD, he said, “I’m jealous of you, because you get to hear this for the first time.”
That’s how I felt watching Bo Burnham’s latest show, “what.,” at Variety Playhouse Wednesday night. If he were in town for eight more nights, I’d buy tickets to every show, but each time I’d pine for the surprise and delight of seeing it new. This is a guy at the top of his game–and he’s only 22.
P.S. The above shot is not from the Variety show. I didn’t have great seats (or great timing), so here’s the first-class photo I snapped:
Individually, the elements of Burnham’s show have all been done before: catchy novelty songs, pun-based one-liners, funny poems, self-deprecating throwaways, ironic meta jokes and an abundance of NSFW vulgarity.
But somehow Burnham pulls it all together into a meticulously timed, expertly polished piece that feels entirely fresh. You can’t even call it a routine, because that would undersell the experience. And it’s equally incomplete to label Burnham a comedian. He’s a force of pure talent whose presence commands the room, and it’s the most fun I’ve had at a comedy show–heck, any theatrical production–in a long time.
It’s difficult to explain Burnham’s style, so it might be easiest for you to check out his appearance on Conan last year, featuring a selection of bits that appear in “what.”
In the full show, Burnham’s material is similarly playful and at times puzzling in its range. Here’s a guy who can go from a detailed mime of masturbation (punchline: “Don’t you hate when that happens?”) to a surprisingly poignant ballad about atheism written from the perspective of God to a sharp satirical song about the calculated marketing of Justin Bieber-esque pop idols to a punchline that references the Dewey Decimal System.
Through it all, Burnham manages to go beyond the obvious, and he projects an underlying earnestness that keeps even his most obscene jokes from ever coming off as caustic or mean-spirited.
Most impressive is how Burnham uses the medium of theater to feed the energy of his material. Sudden music breaks, creative lighting and disembodied voice-overs get your attention from the opening beat. Everything comes together to particularly strong effect during a piece in which Burnham portrays his left brain and right brain fighting with each other. Through competing monologues, they ultimately decide comedy is the best way they can work together, and the only way to keep from destroying Burnham’s psyche.
There are no other comedians I’ve seen who create the sense of spontaneity and originality onstage that Burnham does. My husband even went so far as to call him the next Steve Martin, and I think that’s a fair comparison. Like Martin, Burnham is a gifted actor and musician, and the depth of writing he’s shown on MTV’s Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous bodes well for future works.
I don’t know what kind of money Burnham is making at this stage of his career, but he’s got plenty more of mine coming his way. In fact, if he offered some kind of lifetime season pass where I could pre-buy tickets to all of his future projects, I would. He’s that good, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.