Buress an unrepentant comedic repeat offender
Jay-walking offence good comic material
When he came to Montreal last year, Hannibal Buress played five solid nights at Just for Laughs, killed Snoop Dogg’s Ain’t No Fun at HipHop Karaoke and got a jaywalking ticket.
The three-police-officer intervention resulted in a $37 fine and a priceless bit in his stand-up routine. After being stopped for what he felt was an absurd infraction, Buress decided to have some fun with the officers, even asking one of them how much money he made.
But Buress, who’s coming back to Montreal for his new show, Still Saying Stuff, part of the Just For Laughs festival, is unrepentant.
“I’m going to do my shows. See my friends. Drink,” he says, on the phone from his hometown of Chicago.
“And I’m still going to jaywalk.”
The chronically laid-back Buress, 29, who has been described by Chris Rock as the love child of Steven Wright, Mos Def and Dave Chappelle, seems to relish uncomfortable moments in real life and on stage.
Last year, I took my 11-yearold nephew, who is a fan, to see Buress at Theatre Ste. Catherine. I tweeted about it before we went and we sat in the front row.
In the middle of a particularly profane riff, Buress stopped cold and said, “Somebody said they were going to bring an 11-year-old to my show tonight. I’m not gonna tone it down for no 11-yearold.” The audience laughed and he flashed my nephew a knowing smile. It made his year.
So, what did Buress want to be when he grew up?
“As a kid, I watched a lot of Fresh Prince of Bel Air. And then, Howard Stern had a show on the E network. I was like, ‘Yo, Howard Stern seems cool. I want to be the black version of that.’ ”
It wasn’t until he was in col-lege and comedians including Bill Burr and Kevin Hart vis- ited campus, that Buress first started getting into stand-up.
Do you remember your first open-mic? I ask.
“Yeah,” Buress replies. Then, silence. Like, a lot of silence.
Then, he laughs. Slightly evilly.
“I like doing that to jour- nalists sometimes. See what they do. Just giving them one-word answers and just leaving that air there. I like doing that to y’all sometimes just to see what happens because I know y’all want more.”
His first open-mic was a relatively uneventful “lowpressure situation” and after starting out in Chicago, Buress moved to New York in 2008. There he came up the ranks with fellow comedians Pete Holmes, who will also be at Just for Laughs this year, Kumail Nanjiani and Kyle Kinane.
It was after Buress did a set on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that he was invited to write for Saturday Night Live. “They called me in for a meeting,” Buress recalls. “Well, they didn’t just give it to me. Me and Seth (Myers) played poker for the job. I got a writing job and Seth Myers lost 10 Gs. It was a good day for me.”
After a short stint on the show, Buress left to write for the sitcom 30 Rock, where he was also credited for several onscreen appearances as a “homeless man” and a “bum.”
In addition to touring with his stand-up act, Buress hosts a Sunday-night comedy show at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn featuring familiar comedians, as well as up-andcomers.
He currently plays the sidekick on Adult Swim’s The Eric André Show, a late-night talk show that is kind of not a talk show. He’s touring with actor-comedian André doing live performances of the show in the U.S.
And his new stand-up special, Animal Furnace (the title rhymes with Hannibal Buress, much like last year’s Just for Laughs show, The Hannibal Montanabal Experience), premieres on the Comedy Network this Saturday.
As for what to expect during his Montreal shows, Buress has a few words of caution: “If you’re going to be sitting in the front row, be sure to bring your poncho. It’s going to get weird.”
Of course it is. amalik@montrealgazette.com Twitter: @asmaam Hannibal Buress: Still Saying Stuff, July 24-27 at 7:30 p.m. at L’Astral, 305 Ste. Catherine St. W. Tickets cost $35. Buress also appears at the Bill Hader gala on July 24, at 10 p.m. at Place des Arts, Salle
Wilfrid-Pelletier, 175 Ste. Catherine St. W. Tickets range
from $40 to $61. Call 514845-2322 or visit hahaha.com