Multi-talented comedian Bo Burnham performed at Graham Chapel on Wednesday night, bringing his brand of hyper-literate, self-referential jokes and songs to a capacity crowd. After the show, Student Life talked to Burnham about his work and thoughts on pop culture.

Skyler Kessler | Student Life

Bo Burnham entertained a crowd of students at Graham Chapel on Wednesday evening as part of Social Programming board’s fall comedy show. Bo, at age 18, became the youngest person to record a Comedy Central special.

Student Life: How close is this material to what you’re going to film [for your next special] in the coming months?

Bo Burnham: Pretty close, I would say almost indistinguishable for most people. I want to polish it up, and I have things I know I want to insert. My hope is that the added element of it being filmed will change it a lot.

SL: How so?

BB: Just in terms of kinetics. I think a lot of stand up specials are filmed pretty boringly and look kind of boring.

SL: I noticed the pace of this set was a little slower than [your previous special] “what.” Is that something you’re going to try and recreate when you film the new material?

BB: There’s definitely fat in here that’s going to be trimmed. Performing for cameras is slightly different. Here, I’ll vibe with the audience; I’m a little looser. I also think I’m older, and I think [back] then I was stiff. It should feel pretty fast-paced. And I think I’m just a little more comfortable on stage than I was then.

SL: Towards the end of your “what.” tour, you indicated that you didn’t have any ideas for what would become of this material. Was it particularly difficult to bring this set together?

BB: It wasn’t, necessarily. There’s a lot of similarities between this one and the last one. But for me, [the new jokes are] just better versions of it. I felt like with that last special, I stumbled onto a bunch of stuff for me, where I was like, “Oh man! Backing tracks, and dancing and miming!” And “what.” for me was me figuring that stuff out, and I still am figuring it out. I just think this is more competent than [“what.”].

SL: Do you plan on giving this special away for free, like you did with “what.”?

BB: Probably not. I struck a deal with Netflix then: I had to pay for it out of my pocket, but they basically, over the course of a few years, gave me my money back for the thing. Then it got a bunch of views online, and they would not give that me deal again. It’s very expensive to film a special, and I can’t just sink that. And it’s really just about people seeing it; that’s all I worried about. It wasn’t this big gesture; I just wanted people to see it as much as possible. And back then, I didn’t feel like enough people had Netflix. Now, I feel like everyone has access to it. I was worried if I just put it on Netflix, there’ll be a bunch of people that can’t see it. Now, I’m not so worried about that.

SL: As someone who gained a large following at a young age, was it difficult growing up under a spotlight?

BB: There really was not a spotlight. I was just a kid living at home, travelling and doing weird things in a bubble, but there was no spotlight.

SL: Even being the youngest person to have a Comedy Central special?

BB: It’s way more your idea of yourself than what affects you in real life. I’m not being stopped in the street. The idea of dealing with your own idea of yourself, that’s a whole other thing, and that’s tough. Am I peaking too early? Am I a loser? Am I overexposed? I kind of just made a thing to just keep my head down and do my stuff. I just like actually doing the stuff.

SL: So you don’t really struggle with your perception of yourself?

BB: Oh totally, I did. But I talk about it. For a lot of people, I think it’s this secret thing that they don’t talk about. The fact that like, “Man, I get on stage and I feel really good. And I kind of feel better than everyone in the crowd structurally, because I’m eight feet above them and they’re all staring at me.” That, to me, was what was missing a little from the comedy I saw. These people are apparently observationalists, and no one’s talking about the elephant in the room, which is that, “You’re all facing this way and I’m facing this way. And I’m presenting myself as an everyman to you?” For me, that seemed funny.

SL: You’ve talked about how Louis C.K.’s ascendance has made it more difficult for alternative stand-up comedians in recent years.

BB: I wouldn’t say difficult. It’s not that he made it difficult. When [opener Whitmer Thomas and I] were young fans of comedy in 2005 and 2006, it was like “Flight of the Conchords” and Zach Galifianakis. That was the cool comedy. When Patton Oswalt was just starting out, it was like, “Oh, alternative comedy’s the new thing. Comedy’s gonna be so unrecognizable in 10 years.” And then, I think rightfully so, Louis became the biggest comedian because he was the best, and arguably, the second best is probably Bill Burr right now.

This is not what I thought it would look like. I thought it would be weird. I didn’t think I’d look so weird. I really thought when I was 18, I was like, “Man, I better get my weirdness in, because soon, everyone’s going to be doing weird,” and they’re not.

SL: Do you see any younger American comedians doing similar things as you?

BB: There are, and it’s not that I don’t think stand-up without [props and lighting] can’t be radical and weird and totally alternative…The new generation hasn’t announced itself yet. I think I was this weird, fluke person who got through in this strange way, but I’m excited to see what it’s like. I think when we hit 30, the world will be like, “Okay, we’ll see you now.” I have to constantly make fun of the fact that I’m a 25-year-old who thinks he can get on stage, and that’s tough—that’s a tough little trap to be in. It’s difficult.

SL: What have you learned from working in different media?

BB: I really do think of myself as just a writer, and a writer-performer, I guess. In the entertainment industry, people are obsessed with hyphens—there’s no f—ing chef that goes like, “I’m a slicer slash roaster slash…” For me, I write, and I perform things.

SL: For each project, do you set out to work in a particular medium? Or do you assess which medium would be best for the project?

BB: Oh, definitely the first part, which is what gets me excited. Performing is very strange for me. I have to like, black out and get myself psyched up to do it, because I’m not a center-of-attention person. I don’t love that feeling. But I like performing stuff I’ve written, I guess. Probably the best moments of this show are in my little stupid shed figuring this stuff out, and going to perform it and seeing it. You just try to make things that make you feel less f—ing sad and lonely. And you try to cheer yourself up, I guess. That might be the ivory tower version. I haven’t really had to worry about being hungry or paying rent. I just think if you’re in this position, you just got to try to do what you like. I think, very strangely, you’re doing people a disservice if you try to gear yourself to them. If you try to make the thing you think they’ll like, you’re actually not giving them…I’d rather have 10 percent of people go like, “Whoa! This is totally me!” and 90 percent of people go like, “Eh, that kind of sucks,” than 100 percent of people go like, “Meh, that was pretty good.”

SL: A lot of the artists I love…like Kanye, he’s very much been the template for that, where he’s like, “I’m gonna give you an R&B record even though no one in hip-hop does that yet.”

BB: Well, the thing about Kanye that not a lot of people understand is that, everyone says he’s annoying, but the arena in which he’s annoying is pointless. The idea of the person as a guy who says s— in interviews, that is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the stuff that they give you. And he gives you good stuff. So he is infinitely more valuable than someone that makes s— and is smiling on Jimmy Fallon. Who gives a f— what these people are? I mean, John Lennon beat his f—ing wife. He was probably a pretty bad dude. And, the music is great; he shouldn’t be absolved of that, but what’s really strange to me is that actors and musicians and everything, their main role is them as themselves, that celebrities do movies as this side project to maintain the real role that’s making them money, which is them as themselves. I think Hollywood has really slickly encouraged bullying culture in order to deflect hatred away from themselves.

SL: How so?

BB: The Internet is angry. The commenters are angry, because culture sucks. That’s why they’re angry, because they get s—. And celebrities have no privacy because they sold their privacy for money. They go to a club that’s paying them 12 grand to show up. You’re worried that there are cameras in your face? Don’t live in Los Angeles, California. I swear to God they will not follow you to Poughkeepsie. It’s really, really b—-ing, and that’s a huge part of my show. I think my show can seem a little frivolous, because it’s like, “Country songs are like this,” but for me, it’s like, they’re failing you. I’m not saying I’m doing better, but I want people to leave and go like, “Yeah, s— kinda sucks. We should want our performers to be better.” That’s my hope. That’s what I’m trying to poke holes in, a little bit. Pop culture sucks, and I wish it was frivolous, but it isn’t. It’s at the center of all of our lives.”

SL: And do you think it’s much worse now than it has been in the past?

BB: Oh hugely, yeah, with social media and everything. Because celebrity now exists on a spectrum, which starts at your Instagram account. Before it was like this whole other thing, and now it’s like if you’re hot enough, you’ll go right there. It’s like minor league baseball. And it’s self-objectifying, it really is about people performing and living their lives as a performance, judging themselves by the way other people see them.

SL: Are you working on any new, non-stand up projects?

BB: Yeah, I’ve just been writing stuff.

SL: Can you elaborate on that?

BB: Just writing scripts and stuff. Not for myself, just, I love to be able to just be a writer.

SL: Any production deals in place?

BB: No, the thing is, I really enjoy writing scripts, and I’ll finish a script and be like, “I got all I needed out of that.” I actually really enjoy the medium of that.