Bo (Burnham) don't know
HARK!
I hear laughter …
After a year of chaos, confusion, panic and grief - we not only desire, we need to exercise our God-given right to bear lungs! A call to chuckles, chortles, giggles, audible smirks and bellows various!
Before getting into the HARK Valley local scene, a word or two about a “national guy,” Bo Burnham. Actually, three words: Bo don't know.
The YouTuber-gone-big’s “Inside” was absolutely devoured by critics, who formed a human pyramid for Bo to stand on. The New York Times’ Jason Zinoman said Bo’s special “feels as if he has created something entirely new and unlikely, both sweepingly cinematic and claustrophobically intimate, a Zeitgeist-chasing musical comedy made alone to an audience of no one. It’s a feat, the work of a gifted experimentalist whose craft has caught up to his talent.”
Rachel Syme, in the New Yorker, said it “Captures, with a frenzied and dextrous clarity, the unmoored, wired, euphoric, listless feeling of being very online during the pandemic. .... ‘Inside’ is a virtuosic one-man musical extravaganza, and also an experimental film about cracking up via Wi-Fi connection while trying to make said one-man musical extravaganza.”
I say: “F that!”
As I once heard a teenager footnote: “I’m not complainin’ - I’m just bitchin’.”
I’m not complainin’ about Bo’s epic -- but I’m bitchin’ about the over-the-top response.
Sure, this guy is funny, talented, visionary, brilliant, blah blah blah. But he also likes to be a little too cute, for my taste.
My biggest bitch: The timing.
If he would have shot-and-released this on, say, May 30, 2020 -- yeah, count me in on the Bo-will-save-us train.
THAT is when we needed this satire-meets-memoir on the isolation of the pandemic. Facetime with tech-challenged Mom, writing stupid songs to kill time, video gaming and feeling like you’re trapped inside a video game …
My one and only heckle:
“Dude, that’s so pandemic!”
And, maybe, a little pathetic.
Really, who needs to be reminded about last year -- this year?!
Burnham blew it; he could have streamed this shit live, or done some fast-edit versions and YouTubed.
But, no, he had to go into Spiderman-editor mode, do all kinds of fancy jazz-hands moves … and, of course, negotiate with Netflix on the $$$$ and release date.
To me, it’s not the “too soon! Too soon!” a la Gilbert Godfrey ...but “too late! Too late!”
Not as offensive as Godfrey’s 9/11 joke, surely.
Neither as risky.
Bo Burnham is about as edgy as a balloon ….
Enough Bo-bitchin’, on to the local scene:
HARK Valley comedy clubs are more than ready, now that doors are open and people are starting to dip their toes into a concept that was terrifying, this time last year: “Going out.”
Phoenix Stand Up Live has comedy just about every night in July: https://phoenix.standuplive.com/calendar?month=7&year=2021
Lots of touring acts breeze through here -- and HARK Valley comedy superstar David Spade did a two-night stand here in June.
Ditto for Rick Bronson’s House of Comedy with “The World Series of Comedy” https://az.houseofcomedy.net/shows-tickets/?event_calendar=07-2021
Over in Glendale (don’t laugh -- but laugh), the small-but-might Stir Crazy has an open mic -- sort of -- July 7.
“Part open mic, part booked show. You'll see new talent as well as seasoned comics working on new material. Interested in being on the show? Want to see if you have what it takes to make a room full of strangers laugh? Now's your chance! There are 8 "Sign-Up" spots. Sign ups for these will be posted online at NOON on the Monday of that week's show at stircrazycomedyclub.com/open-mic-sign-up. These spots are 5 minutes each.”
The rest of the month at the mall club features rising-stars and veterans like Laurie Kilmartin, July 9-10. Her 2016 comedy special, “45 Jokes About My Dead Dad,” mined cancer, hospice, death, grieving and funerals for laughs. Kilmartin was also a 'Top Ten' finalist in season 7 of NBC's Last Comic Standing.