Comedian Hannibal Buress came to Madison. We saw. He conquered. Buress, who many will recognize from “The Eric Andre Show” and Comedy Central’s new hit show “Broad City,” absolutely dominated the Barrymore Theater Friday night. Performing about 90 minutes of mostly new material, Buress solidified why he is quickly becoming one of the most dependably hilarious, must-see touring comics around.
One thing that immediately sets Buress apart from other comedians is his commanding stage presence. When he coolly walked on stage after the opener, the atmosphere of the audience became electric, which is funny, considering how his opening bit was a very casual conversation with the audience about how Madison doesn’t really have any “must-do” or “need-to-see” things to do while you’re here. (It was all in good fun, no hard feelings.) But from that moment on, the crowd was under his control.
Another aspect that set Buress’ show apart from a typical comedy performance is that he came on with a DJ, who was underutilized for the first half of the show. At first, he only seemed to be there to play Hannibal’s entrance song and sync up a gunshot sound-effect at the punch line of one of his jokes (a gimmick that worked very well). However, during the second half, Hannibal was using the DJ more thoroughly to familiarize the audience with certain songs or clips specific to the bit he was doing. For example, one of the biggest laughs of the night came when Hannibal described his experience at a Young Jeezy show. During the show, Jeezy started playing a song that wasn’t his (Buress had his DJ play that song, for reference), only to tell the audience that this is a dope song. Shortly after that, Buress started talking about another rap show he saw where the rapper would play his song and only occasionally say some of the lyrics, letting the track do most of the work. He then went on to complain that he couldn’t do that for any of his shows, like play one of his bits over the speakers and occasionally say two words of the bit. The DJ then went on to play Hannibal’s “pickle-juice” bits, one of his more well-known jokes, and Buress walked around stage, occasionally saying a word or two of the bit.
Admittedly, there were a few moments that didn’t play right with the crowd. There was a string of sports-related bits that dragged a bit. Although they were still funny, compared to the rest of his material that night, it appeared he was still working the kinks out of those bits.
Perhaps the most interesting takeaway from Buress’ show was how he used a DJ and prerecorded media in his act. Although he is not the first to play with the traditional conventions of stand up comedy, Buress’ use of a DJ to play sound effects, songs and clips made me think about where stand-up and live performances are headed in a world where literally anything is a few keystrokes away from being at your fingertips. Are more comedians going to start using and blending technology in their act? What new kinds of comedy and performances derived from technology can audiences expect to see in the coming years? Who knew that seeing Hannibal Burress perform on a cold February night could lead to these questions? If and when Hannibal goes on another tour of the Midwest, he is without a doubt, a must-see act. After seeing him twice, I can honestly say I have never consistently laughed harder at anything in my life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5gJLujeCKk
