The Bar Gig Files with Guest Comedian, Ed Burroughs

Comedian road warrior Ed Burroughs joins The Bar Gig Files with insight on how he turns the dark side of life into a great comedy show.  

• Bar vs Club: Why bar gigs force you to fight for attention
• Millennial retirement plan joke — silence or uproar
• Find out if you're an asshole—take it on stage

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:25

You're back, and let me tell you this episode of the Bar Gig Files. Thank you to the fake studio audience for the round of applause on that one. In this edition of the Bar Gig Files, it's gonna be awesome because if there ever were to be established the Bar Gig Hall of Fame, this next guest should definitely be one of the inductees. Now let's have our virtual round of applause for Ed Burrows. Hey, what's going on? Taking a break from remodeling and doing a bunch of self-contractor work. How privileged are we today to have Eddie B on as a guest? Buddy, I gotta tell you, man, that's not any BS either. About you should be in the bar gig Hall of Fame. If there ever was.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Oh yeah. Um so the difference between the comedy club and the bar gig, the comedy club, they are there to laugh. They bought tickets knowing that they're gonna sit still and and pay attention to a professional, make them laugh. Um, whereas the bar, there's this attitude like, well, if he was any good, he wouldn't be here. You know, like, and so you gotta almost fight for their attention. And uh when I first first started doing comedy, even before I hooked up with you and like Bill and Tom, and you guys all started taking me on the road, um, I was doing these open mics and and showcases in these bars where I called it gorilla comedy, where they wouldn't even advertise a comedy show. They would just some guy would just find a bar that's packed on a Friday night and be like, we'll do comedy for free, and just set up in the corner, and these people don't even know there's comedy going on, like they don't want to they came here to let loose and listen to music, they don't want to listen to me go on about my coat hanger abortion joke, you know what I mean? Like they just they they like and so uh the difference between the club and the bar is like you have to fight for their attention, but once you get it, they are so much more wild and so much more rowdy, and like I've grown to love it, actually. Like I I love a rowdy crowd.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Um you really do, and it's kind of weird when you oh go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

But no, I I love a rowdy crowd. Um, so for me, like the guy in the wheelchair, it it's hard to get crowd work out of people. For me, like it seems like nobody wants to heckle the guy in the wheelchair. They they're uh it's hard to get a response out of people, especially at a club where you know they're told if they're if they heckle, they'll they'll be removed or whatever. Um, and so a rowdier crowd that'll actually talk to me and like actually respond or give me something to play off of, like it you I almost only find that in the bar gigs, and and it's it's one thing about the bar gigs that I've definitely grown to love.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, it's a good point you bring up. Nobody wants to heckle the guy in the wheelchair, and I I tell you, man, that's one of the things that made you such a great feature act back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Right, because I would I would kind of like it would settle the crowd down. Yep, yep, and it's like this is and you know, I I would do a good job and and everything, but like, yeah, I made it clear like, hey, you're here to pay attention and listen, you know. Um, sometimes I would have to fight a little bit to get that attention, but once they were like, oh, the cripple guy's funny, okay, I'll shut up for a second, you know. Um, and yeah, right, like, and it it it um you still get still get that sometimes, but man, when they do, it's so much for more fun to dog pile on them, you know.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

But oh yeah, absolutely. I can imagine. Now after after years on the road and doing the the bar shows and the pub and grub comedy tour and the gorilla comedy that you described earlier. It's kind of it's like you know, when the blues brothers just show up to that country bar, they're not even booked at all. They're like, Yeah, we're the band, and they're like, Oh, okay, yes, go on stage.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yes, yes, that is the best analogy. That is it right there. Like, yep, yep, yeah, we're the good old boys, we're here to play, you know, like that is the best analogy ever. Oh my god, how have I never put that together? Like, it and that's what it felt like, man. I would get go ahead. Yeah, what were you gonna say?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Oh no, you keep going, you keep going.

SPEAKER_01 6:43

Oh, like it just felt it just felt like uh just these guys would call me and be like, hey, I'm doing this show at this bar. I would I would love for you to headline or I'd love for you to feature, whatever. And I show up and I realize like there's no posters, like this wasn't advertised, like nobody's paying attention. Some poor kid, like uh a local kid, the soft-spoken guy that really hasn't had his voice yet, nobody pays attention to him, you know, like maybe one or two people or the the three friends that he brought, you know, are whooping it up for him. Um, and then like you I you realize like you have to get their attention and you have to keep it. And for me, being like, I I don't do jokes, like I tell people I couldn't write a joke to save my life. Um, I tell stories, and so like I need you to pay attention to the beginning of the story because if you don't, you're not gonna get the ending, and you're gonna be like, Well, that guy sucks. It's like, well, no, you suck at paying attention, you know. Um, and and so like you gotta throw in like um Tom told me taught me like Tom Garland, like he was the one like when it's a crowd like that, loud noises and sound effects and and fireworks, you know, keep get their attention, keep their and so it taught me how to slip in funny into the boring parts of the story to be able to to keep their attention, you know, like that this is leading somewhere, just bear with me, you know. Um and and the the bar comedy, man, it really is. It's it's like gorilla warfare comedy. But man, it's like sharpening your your nails on concrete, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:40

It is, it's like the fight club of comedy, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Right, yeah. Well, that's the open mic scene because all we're there, all we're all just there fighting each other for you know, the the four available spots that weekend.

SPEAKER_00 8:56

Yeah, no shirt, no belt, no shoes. Yeah, if it's your first night fight, let's fight. Yes, you have to fight, right? Comedy, I think it's it's not for yeah, there's you gotta be scrappy to do this. If yeah, oh for sure. You could take the rules of fight club and just put comedy on them, and it's the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

It is the exact same thing. Oh my goodness. I actually have that poster on my wall over there. Yup, yo. Um, you you really could are you able to tell?

SPEAKER_00 9:40

Like, you've done so many of these bar shows and you're so good at them. You I was able to walk in and with a certain amount of time sort of be able to gauge whether this is going to be great, whether it's going to be terrible, or whether it's just gonna be completely insane and chaotic.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Instantly. As soon as you roll into the place, like as soon as you roll in and you meet the person, like by the time you shake hands with the the person, like whoever your contact is at the bar, you know what kind of night that's gonna be. Like within the first 30 seconds of of showing up. Um, there's now there's been a few times that have shocked me, you know, um, or I've gotten there a little too early and it was empty, and then all of a sudden everybody poured in in the last few minutes. Um, and and of course, and for me, um, these bar gigs, they're like they're kind of on my end, I'm guaranteed the pay, whether it's a huge blowout, sellout, sale, you know, like everybody and the their dog is there, or 10 people, I get paid the same, it's the same amount of driving, there's still no hotel, I'm going back tonight, whatever. So whether there's 10 people there or a hundred people there, for me, it's really no different. What matters to me is are they are they there for it and are they into it? And as long as as long as I have as long as you're there for it and into it, you will have a good time. Um, it's when you got the the 10 people that want to be there and then 90 people that could give a shit less and don't give it a chance and are just loud and obnoxious. And at that point, you just gotta go into TV mode, you know, and just like, all right, here's my material, the best I can perform it without a reaction, you know.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

And without the reaction, it just uh performing it with television cameras.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yep, yep, it's it's real difficult. Um, I I actually find it like I I struggle with it doing um like radio stuff or like these podcasts or whatever. Um, I have a really hard time with it because like there's no reaction. Like, is this funny? Like it or am I just going down some rabbit hole of nonsense? Because I definitely do that too.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Oh, for sure. You know, and we we all do, it but it's the rabbit hole of nonsense that actually gets you to the funniest stuff. If you try to just go straight for a one-liner or the obvious joke, you're really not much different than the humorous guy at the office that cracks a one-liner or smart ass cracks a water cooler. As comedians, we have to be willing to go down that dark road, aka the rabbit's hole, be comfortable with the unknown, and then somehow alchemize all that into comedy gold. I mean, and you're you're great at that because you have such a unique story to tell anyway. Do you and you I would say that you're you're like almost brutally self-aware.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Yes. Um, it I got a lot of yeah. When I first started, I actually I was very self-deprecating. Um, because like so, and and I've always been that way. That was kind of a defense mechanism growing up. So I was a little brother. Um, my older brother was like five years older, almost six years older than me. And somehow I always got dragged around with him, so I always hung out with older guys. Um, and then school, you know, that's always brutal. And I learned like if I can make fun of myself better than anyone else can, nobody can make fun of me.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Like I you know, like someone tries to to insult me and I come back, not insulting them, but but insulting myself even worse, it totally disarms them. And then it's like, all right, now we can get started on you, buddy. You know, like it just Yeah, yeah. It it and so I learned that along, and then so when I first got started doing comedy, that was one of my first notes. My my two most common notes when I first started was slow the hell down because I would just talk so fast, I would step on my own laps, and and just I felt like every every moment had to be filled with with sound, you know. Um, and then my other one was like, dude, you are so hard on yourself. And so I kind of had to lighten that up a little bit because I mean, after going through the the wreck, you know, and like um I've had a lot of death in my family, um, and almost all of it was uh he either directly or indirectly self-inflicted, just bad decisions, you know. Um and and so the way I've gotten through all of that was comedy, you know, is being able to make fun of it all. Because like it, you know, if you can make fun of death, it uh it loses a little bit of its power, doesn't it? You know, um, and and not a lot of people are always comfortable with that, but I don't know, it's how I've gotten through it.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Well, I hear you, Ed, because when you do dark comedy and you do it well, like you do, it actually makes the subject matter not quite so dark anymore.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

And and more easy and more likely to be discussed because a lot of it needs to be discussed, yeah. Like, like that, I feel like I hate how so the the whole um podcast bros sphere, how it it like has the power to influence elections, you know. Um, comics aren't you're not supposed to get your opinion from a comic, you're not supposed to get your information from a comic. A comic is just supposed to point at something and say, look at this, isn't that funny? And draw attention to an issue, and then the actual experts can figure out what the fuck is going on. Because, like, I'm Chuckles the clown here. Like, I I mean, don't don't take anything I have to say as like uh uh life lessons or or a way to live by, but I have an interesting perspective, and I've done a lot of shit wrong, and I can tell you how not to do it, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, and that is what I like about your show. It's you are not necessarily there to indoctrinate anybody. You you give them what they want, which is actually escape from all of that stuff, and comedians, the best comedy that I personally like is when you're watching someone who feels as passionate about something completely trivial, that it almost sounds like they are advocating for a political cause, but what they're really doing is just talking about how crazy dryer lint makes them, right? And if they're right, something totally trivial.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

I I I love watching any ex so like I I'm like I almost cursed by being interested in like everything. As long as you are knowledgeable in a subject, I will sit there and listen to you talk about that subject for as long as you want to talk. Um like it just uh I nerd it out. One friend of mine is a locksmith, and and I just nerd out on that guy talking about it, you know, the different types of locks and how they function, and how you can bypass this one and how this one is a flaw, but this it just and and why they were made this way, and and just go down another guy. Um, security cameras were said and said, and he he built me out a whole thing for my property that'll never be able to afford, but like, goddamn, it it'd be awesome, you know, like and it explained it all out for me. Um and and uh you know, another neighbor over across the way. Um, I call him the the mad mechanic because this guy people will build cars and then bring them to him for like the final tuning. And so this guy's over here like dinoing 2,000 horsepower uh eight-second drag cars and shit. And so I'll just go over there and I'll just sit in his his in his garage and just watch him nerd out on this shit, you know. And it just I've just always been, and so I I've I've never really been an expert at anything, I've just kind of love observing everything, and so I've picked up a few little things here and there, and every once in a while you start to make connections between those things, and you realize how not different all of it is. All of us are, you know, with there's plenty to share, and and there's plenty to point at and be like, isn't that funny?

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Yeah, and then that's what connects everybody, even if they're not versed in the subject or even know exactly what you're talking about when you can make that funny, then they go along with a ride, even though they might have zero clue what you're actually talking about.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Have you and have when you okay? Have you ever uh have you have you gone when you're talking about doing dark humor? Have you found where there if there's like a line between what keeps them entertained and laughing and just making them uncomfortable?

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Um, okay, so there's been one I uh I've been kind of playing around with lately that it's definitely a weather gauge for how dark this crowd will be. And I joke about uh my my retirement plan. And uh because I'm I'm a stay-at-home son. I joke about being a stay-at-home son, and uh, there's not a lot of room for advancement, you know, and and but hey, one day it'll all be mine. Um, I started looking into retirement plans. Turns out the only one I could afford is from Smith and Wesson. Yeah, and I just kind of stopped. And my they call it the Millennial Retirement Plan. It's the only thing for sure, and so it it is either dead silence or uproarious laughter. Yeah, okay every time, and it and it and there's really no in-between with that one, and it I was at a family, and well, and and my what so I was at a family gathering not too long ago, and that one kind of slipped out because like I'm never, I don't know, like I I don't really perform on stage when I'm on stage. That's just my truest self up there. Um, I I I don't I'm not creative enough to create a character to take on stage. Um, so like I I kind of one of those people who just like never really turn off. And and my goal is always to just make people laugh any opportunity, or if if they're whatever. And that joke slipped out at a family gathering not too long ago to my pastor, uncle, and his wife, and there's a history of that exit strategy in our family, and it took me like 25 minutes to be like, it's a joke. I'm so no, I don't need therapy. Um, it's a joke. Like, no, no, I okay, I'll take your therapist card, I'll give them fine, I'll give him a call. Like, I just and I'll spend $150 an hour explaining to him. It's it's a goddamn joke.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

Like, yeah, yeah. Uh I mean, however you cut it, comedy is still cheaper than therapy.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

Uh dude, it's my therapy for sure, especially as a performer. Like, my goodness. If you want to know if you're the asshole or not, take it on stage.

SPEAKER_00 23:08

And life lessons from Ed Burroughs, dude. I love it. Let's I don't know how we could top that one. If you want to, if you want to find out if you're an asshole or not, take it on stage. That's a great line to end with. But we gotta come back. I hope you can do some more of these because there's so much there's so much further down that rabbit hole you and I could go. And we've been on the road together so much. I think our own road stories going back and forth could fill lots of episodes of the bar kick files.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

I just found some clips. Do you remember up in it was like I don't know, I can think it was south or north, it's one of the Dakotas when we just randomly ended up getting scheduled together, and the next day we found that skate park, and you film me dropping in on the skate park or on the half-pipe. I just found that. Yep, I just found those videos. I need to post those.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Like, yeah, uh definitely do hell yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Yep, yep. Um, but yeah, no, there's there's definitely anytime, anytime. I would love to to just bullshit because there's there's gold in these here hills for sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Absolutely. All right, guys. Ed, thank you so much for doing this. We appreciate it. And we'll we'll talk to you again soon. Virtual round of applause, Ed Burrows.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

All right, buddy. We'll see you soon.