Comedian Bill Burr coming to Canton. Talks cancel culture, 'Old Dads' movie, football

Chatting with star comedian Bill Burr echoes the pace and varied content of his Netflix specials.

The 55-year-old funnyman hopscotched from subject to subject, while occasionally detouring into other topics on his own.

Parenting young children. Drawing stand-up material from his own life. Facing blowback for turning hot-button topics into humor. Cancel culture. Artificial intelligence in the entertainment business.

With his rapid-fire cadence, relatable musings and self-deprecating style, Burr covered the gamut in his Massachusetts accent in advance of his Oct. 7 performance at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium at Hall of Fame Village.

His Canton show is sure to be peppered with societal observations, bewilderment over a changing world, and plenty of humor gleaned from his own home life.

"I don't do (rehearsed) stand-up as much as you would think," Burr said of prepping material for his stage shows. "It's more so I go out and live a life, and then I have stuff to talk about. It took me forever to learn that."

"I'm always the butt of the (family) jokes except with my wife," he said. "And she can take it."

Tickets, $39 to $209, are available at https://www.hofvillage.com/ and https://www.ticketmaster.com/. Use of cellphones will not be permitted in the performance space. Yondr pouches will be available to secure phones at the 7:30 p.m. event.

"What's great is you're going to hear a bunch of stuff that maybe you don't want to hear," Burr said of his stand-up act. "And maybe you can experience something different and laugh and learn something ... or not like something, and then like the next thing."

In addition to his comedy tour, Burr's acting credits include a role in the 2020 movie, "The King of Staten Island" and on the television shows "Breaking Bad" and "The Mandalorian," a "Star Wars" spin-off on Disney+. Nextflix comedy specials include "Bill Burr: Paper Tiger" (2019), "Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks" (2022) and "Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill" (2022).

Burr expressed awe over headlining large venues such as Fenway Park, Madison Square Garden and Tom Benson Stadium.

"It's unbelievable," the Grammy-nominated comedian said. "It doesn't make any sense. You definitely have imposter syndrome before you go out there. At least I did before I started playing bigger venues. As crazy as it sounds, I've kind of gotten used to it. I approach it the same way as when I was playing half-filled comedy clubs."

Burr also talked about his football fandom, attracting controversy, his upcoming movie "Old Dads," and what he learned from notable comedians like Joe Rogan. Highlights and excerpts of the interview have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Football-loving comedian

During a recent episode of his "Monday Morning" podcast, Burr perked up when announcing his tour stop at Tom Benson Stadium next to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

"I was probably one of the biggest (football fans) you ever could have been," the New England Patriots fan said of his youth. "I collected football cards right through my freshman year in high school until someone made fun of me, and I wish I never would have stopped."

Burr memorized the information listed on the back of the trading cards about individual players.

"From 1976 to 1985, maybe like a nine-year period is where I know like all the guys, where they still stick in my head," he said. "I'll look up like Horace Ivory; he played for the Patriots, and I'll think, 'How old is he now?'"

Hot-button topics and controversy

Like most high-profile comedians, Burr has upset, offended and ticked off plenty of folks, as evidenced by criticisms posted on social media and entertainment journalists.

"At the end of the day ... I've just been doing this stuff a long time, and I know in my heart, I'm not being malicious," he said. "I'm being funny. I'm being absurd ... and I have the right to do it."

The former "Saturday Night Live" host said he believes that extreme sensitivity and negative reactions exist in New York and Los Angeles "and maybe some extreme college campuses."

But "I would say like 95% of people don't give a (crap) and aren't offended."

Artificial intelligence vs. human creativity

Premiering Oct. 20 on Netflix, Burr stars and makes his directorial debut in the movie "Old Dads," which focuses on three friends who, after selling their company to a millennial, find themselves out of step and behind the times as they hilariously struggle to navigate a changing world of culture, career and fatherhood.

The film "was an idea that I came up with, and never would have completed had I not pitched it to my writing partner Ben Tischler," said Burr, an Emmy-nominated actor. "He is like the engine (who suggested it be turned into a script).

"And the next thing I know, I have an office in my garage, and he was coming over five days a week … and we were just working on it and working on it and working on it.

"... You can't pay those writers enough (for) the amount of work that writing is," he said. "And it's literally the skeletal system of the business, and as much as they have AI (artificial intelligence) and say writing the voice of a person or writing the voice of that person ... as long as you keep growing (as a writer and creator), AI will never catch up to you. All AI can do is imitate what's already been done."

But "as much as AI will take out some jobs and stuff, I don't think there's ever going to be that magic" of human creativity and achieving breakthroughs in music, television and movies.

Cancel culture or blacklisting?

"The whole idea of cancel culture is like you were canceled," Burr said. "You weren't really canceled, you were blacklisted. If you had a television show or a movie career, all of a sudden you didn't have one."

Burr was referring to actors and entertainers who have drawn protests, boycotts and backlash for controversial social media posts, public comments or actions, including those occurring long ago in their past.

"It did affect some areas, but it's not sustainable," Burr said of the movement. Comparing it to a "hardcore dictatorship" seen in some other countries, he said "there's only so long the general population stands for that stuff before there's some kind of revolt."

Rogan, Stanhope, Hedberg inspired Burr

Recalling his club days and starting out in the comedy business, Burr mentioned numerous influences, including Rogan, the late Bill Hicks, Doug Stanhope and the late Mitch Hedberg.

"They created their own path and that was a really fun period in my career when I was trying to get into comedy clubs," he said.

"... I felt like those were the comics for me," Burr added. "They were all like around my age or maybe a year older or something, and I felt like none of them were trying to get a sitcom deal. They weren't wanting to be movie stars, they just wanted to be comedians, ... (and) they were going up there and just talking about what they wanted to talk about, and it was awesome to watch."

Reach Ed at ebalint@gannett.com and on X (formerly Twitter) @ebalintREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Comedian Bill Burr says AI only imitates 'what's already been done'