Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Breaking out with Bill Burr

If any of you have not seen the satirical humour of stand up comedian Bill Burr, I  recommend it.
Just google him on u-tube.
I first saw a reference to him when I was reading one of Steve Braunias's twitter posts.
Steve is also a satirist and is an entertaining speaker and can always make his audience laugh.
It's a rare and special gift to be able to entertain people to laugh like that.

I don't generally go for stand up comedians but Bill is the best I have seen.
I was having breakfast with my husband the other day and I showed him a clip on my I-pad of Bill's and he thought it was hilarious.
He also finds Steve Braunias's 'diary of' columns in the Sunday Star Times, extremely funny.

Bill is an American of Catholic /Irish descent.
 He no longer goes to church but he still believes in a higher power.
He has a long time Afro /American girlfriend who he very recently married while he was travelling through Italy. She attends church regularly.
He always refers to her as the lovely Mia, which is romantic.

Bill does a weekly Monday morning podcast where he talks about what is happening in his life.
He frequently sounds grumpy and angry during these podcasts, which makes him a bit scary but probably quite representative of a lot of aggrieved males, especially the so called blue collared class.

I think you could describe him as damaged and maybe  from a dysfunctional family, but it is often people like this, (Roald Dahl comes to mind) who are the very creative.
You could never describe him as boring or pedestrian.
 His hilarious mimicking of women's and  Southern American, red necked, men's accents will have you falling off the couch. His piece about marriage and nagging girlfriends is hilarious.

Men often write in to Bill and ask him questions about their relationships with women and Bill hands out blunt but helpful advice.
His chief attribute is that he voices in public, things that most people are too afraid to say or admit  due to a prevalent climate of political correctness.
In doing so he also sends himself up which is where the irony lies

Why is it that Irish Catholic people often have such well developed senses of humour, I often wonder?
Perhaps it's the oppression, perhaps it's the alcohol.

If you are a devout Catholic, extreme left wing Feminist, or a person who is offended by profanity you may feel outraged by some of his humour; especially his attitude towards his so called gold digging women and priests.
But that's the point of satire, it's not supposed to be taken seriously.

In some  ways I wish my writing was more like Bill and Steve because it's obvious they don't worry about offending people.

 My writing is not like theirs but it doesn't mean I don't have similar views about some chauvinistic men, mean women, narrow minded, racist people or authority figures who try to box me in.
I don't write about it because that's not the attitude  I want to broadcast.
 I don't feel that angry towards the world and I have the belief that you get back what you give out.
 I would never refer to women as the w word and I don't  agree with using the c word in public.

I believe in Bill's right to free speech and the fact that he brings so much joy to so many people, surely should assure him lashings of good karma.

Bill is brave and brash, but also articulate and topical. Some may say he's a bully
The public love him, he appeals to women and men in equal numbers. I wouldn't recommend him to children.

Give him a go but don't blame me if you are offended by him.



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