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Bill Burr
The following program is a podcast one.com.
Steve Austin
Production he started in a small town in Texas, worked his ass off to become one of the most famous wrestlers of all time. We're gonna take care of business tonight. And that's the bottom line. And now he's dominating the world of On Demand Audio. And he's doing it for the working man. This is a damn good outlet for me to spew the off my brain. This is the Steve Austin Show. Unleash. All right, everybody. Welcome to Steve Austin Show. I am coming to you from the mean streets of Los Angeles, California. Today I am sitting here in my office at 316 Gimmick Street. Shit. Sun come up this morning, I busted my ass out of bed, got up, got on my little bicycle in my garage, got 45 minutes of fasted cardio in, cooked me some egg whites and some oatmeal, got in the shower, shaved my damn head and my face got all gussied up because I'm fixing to take a little road trip today. You're probably thinking while you're driving down the road, well, where in the fuck is Steve gonna take a road trip too? I'm headed about 30, 35 miles down the road to the LBC Long Beach, California, home to two of the cats that I'm gonna talk to. First stop, I'm headed down to talk to Gabriel Iglesias. First stop, fluffy guy. Y' all have heard him on podcasts a couple times. Funny as hell. Hopefully I'm going to try to knock down a family friendly podcast to take care of my Tuesday show coming up next week because I'll be down in South Texas visiting my family and my friends and hanging out at the Broken Skull Ranch. After I get finished chopping it up with Fluffy, I'm headed down to the one and only hardcore Iron Addicts gym to talk to the one and only C T Fletcher. You don't know who CT Fletcher is? Get your ass on YouTube and Google CT Fletcher if you want someone to kick your ass and motivate you to get your ass in shape and train heavy. CT Fletcher is your man. I'm going down there to talk to him about his ten commandments of getting big and getting in shape. Also, I was talking to CT Fletcher on the phone the other day. We started talking cars. He's got a couple of his cars out there in the parking lot. Maybe, just maybe, I'll make a couple of offers on CT Fletcher's automobiles. Just like I did at the Goldberg compound with Bill Goldberg. We're going to See what the fuck CT thinks about my car negotiating skills. Yeah. Because I'm gonna get on Truecar and I'm gonna find out what's up before I make my offers. Anyway, I'm looking forward to talking to those guys. But today, folks, here on the podcast, it's the first part of my conversation with comedian Bill Burr. I told you guys on Tuesday how me and my illustrious wife Kristen went to see Bill perform at the Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa beach last Sunday night, and God damn it, we both laughed our asses off. Funny son of a bitch. And the club on was totally packed. But it wasn't always like that for Bill. We're going to talk about that. How he got started in comedy and some of his early gigs where he just bombed. Bill's also a big pro wrestling fan, and believe it or not, there are a lot of parallels between the worlds of comedy and pro wrestling. The travel, paying your dues, getting your chops up, working the crowd. So Bill came over to the crib and we talked for almost two hours. So you're going to get the first half of that conversation today, and then we'll pick it up at Part two next Thursday. Hey, before I move on, I gotta say, take a little bit of time to say thank you guys for listening to the show. I continue to get emails from all over the damn world, worldwide. The Steve Austin show started three years ago. And I remember when I started this podcast, I didn't know the scope of what this thing would become. I didn't know, you know, how big it would be. But God damn it, this motherfucker's everywhere. I get emails. I got an email today from someone in my own state here. Jurupa Valley, California. I got an email today from San Angelo, Texas. I got an email today from someone in Greeley, Colorado. I got an email today from somebody in South Bend, Indiana. I got an email today from Hillsborough, Oregon. The other day I got a damn email from Davenport, Iowa. If I ain't mistaken. I think that's where Seth Rollins is from. It wasn't from Seth, but it was from Davenport, Iowa. Thank you for sending me that email. Got emails from San Mateo, California. Tyler, Texas. The Yellow Rose. Tyler, Texas. Lewisville, Texas. Outside of Dallas, I'm getting emails from Lakeland, Florida. Sandy Springs, Georgia. Norwalk, California. Palm Beach, Florida. College Station, Texas. Home of the Texas A and M Aggies, West Covina, California. That's right down to Tennessee. Waterbury, Connecticut. Pueblo, Colorado. Shit, I'm getting goddamn emails from Manchester, New Hampshire. I'm getting emails from Gresham, Oregon. How do you make this shit up? You don't. That's where these emails are coming from. Temecula, California. Hell, that's home of Dan Hendo. Henderson, Fairfield, California. Clearwater, Florida. Miami. Gardens, Florida. They're coming from everywhere. Lansing, Michigan. Wilmington, North Carolina. Shit, I'm getting emails from Ann Arbor, Michigan. It wasn't coach Jim Harbaugh. E wish those guys a lot of luck coming up this college football season. Big fan. Emails coming in from Beaumont, Texas. Evansville, Indiana. God damn it. That's where we used to get paid when I used to work for the USWA. Vallejo, California. Victorville, California. In the desert about 70 miles from here. Hartford, Connecticut. The insurance place. Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is sending me emails. Topeka, Kansas. Surprise, Arizona. I was surprised to get an email from Surprise, Arizona, but I got one. Thousand Oaks, California. Shit, that's right down the road from me. Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Waco, Texas. Carrollton, Texas. Columbia, South Carolina. Warren, Michigan. Miramar, Florida. The emails just go on and on and on. Rockford, Illinois. Clarksville, Tennessee. Kansas. City, Kansas. Sunnyvale, California. God damn it, people. And here's the thing. You people keep spreading the words, and the words keep spreading and spreading and spreading. It's going from state to state. Shit, I got goddamn email damn near from every state in the United States of America. I don't know where Peoria, Arizona, is, but I damn sure got an email from them. Rancho Cucamonga, from California. I had a competitor from the Broken Skull Challenge. Rancho Cucamonga, just last year. Santa Clarita, California. That's down there in Broken Skull Challenge territory. Tallahassee, Florida. Amarillo, Texas. Getting a lot of them from Texas. Oxnard, California. Stone's throw down the road. Chandler, Arizona. Jersey City, New Jersey. I wonder if that was Enzo Amore behind that one. He's from Jersey. Henderson, Nevada. St. Paul, Minnesota. It goes on and on and on, folks. This is unbelievable. Thank you very much for spreading the words. But here's the thing. I have these things in two separate categories. It's not just from the United States of America. It's from all over the world. Shit, man. I'm getting emails from Medellin, Colombia. Kano, Nigeria. Montreal, Canada. Durban, South Carolina. Just while ago, I read an email from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Changchun, China. Sichuan, China. Mashad, Iran. Casablanca, Morocco. Chittagong, Bangladesh. I hope I. Chittagong, Bangladesh. I don't know how you say it. That's where these damn emails are coming from. Curitiba, Brazil. If you're an MMA fan, you've heard of Curitiba, because that's where a lot of guys and gals are from down there, fighting their way up the ranks to the MMA to get into, you know, the UFC system. Kanpur, India. Zhongshan, China. Hell, I got an email from Tel Aviv, Israel. Can you believe that? Spread the word, people. I appreciate the fact that you're spreading the word. Tokyo, Yokohama, Japan. Delhi, India. Manila. Over in the Philippines. Shanghai, China. Karachi, Pakistan. Here's one. It's from New York City, United States of America. I know where the damn New York City is. How did that one get my foreign cities list? I'm getting them from Mexico City, Mexico. Mumbai, India. Moscow, Russia. That's right, all the way from Moscow, Russia. Vodka. Yeah, you goddamn right. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Tehran, Iran. Istanbul, Turkey. Lagos, Nigeria. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick. Lima, Peru. Chengdu, China. London. Over there in the United Kingdom. Got a big UK fan base over there. Lahore, however you say it, Pakistan. Chennai, India. Bogota, Colombia. Hell, last but not least, I got an email from a Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Folks, if it wasn't for your ass, I wouldn't be able to do this damn show. I'm happy to be able to do this show because you guys keep supporting the podcast. And you know what? If you guys tell two friends and they tell two friends and they tell two more, we'll keep spreading the word. And pretty soon, this podcast, which is heard all around the world, may be heard all over the galaxy. There's got to be another form of life out there other than planet Earth. You keep spreading the word, this motherfucker will go intergalactic. Inter fucking galactic. Anyway, enough with all that shit, folks. Hey, I'm looking forward to getting down to South Texas. I'm looking forward to seeing my family. I'm looking forward to going down to the Broken Skull Ranch and doing a little bit of work and just hanging out a little bit. There's a lot of stuff we need to do out there. I'm gonna get on the tractor, I'm gonna mow that front part out there by that lake, and row some of the mows that Teddy hadn't got to yet. It's gonna be an interesting trip. It's gonna be myself, my wife, Hershey, and Moola. This will be our first trip down to the ranch without Shona. And the interview you about to hear, I conducted with Bill Burr about a day and a half after we put Shona down. I hope this interview lives up to what it could be. I wasn't quite 100% there, and Bill Burr deserved a lot better than what I gave him. He's a cool dude. And it's funny when you talk to a guy that's legitimately one of the funniest guys in the world. It's just amazing to see them sitting across the table from you versus seeing them on a stage where they're just. Man, turned up to level 20. And there's so many parallels, you know, going back to the business of pro wrestling. You know, I was trying to put this all together and break down this conversation after we had it. And, you know, Bill's just a laid back, normal guy, but once he hits that stage, man, he turns it up to 20 and goes off like nobody can. And so it was interesting just talking to him one on one because I expected him to maybe, like, go on a rant or a kick or something like that. But, you know, it's funny because I guess if he had me on his podcast, he wouldn't expect me to start hitting the ropes or act like I was, you know, in front of 20,000 people. So it was an interesting conversation when you talk to a guy. Some of the funniest comedians I've talked to, you know, whether it's Bill Burr, you know, Adam Sandler, who I've got to spend a lot of time with, or like, Fluffy Gabriel Iglesias, man, stand up comedians are just so. They're like the Einsteins of comedy, man. E equals MC squared as far as saying funny stuff, but they're also serious people. And it's a serious conversation about how Bill came up the ranks. And it was a pleasure to finally meet him in person. I've been a fan of his for fucking years. And how I hooked up with him. I got on his Twitter account and I saw that he had a picture with Nature Boy Ric Flair, my favorite pro wrestler of all time. And I figured, man, you know, Bill must be a wrestling fan. So I reached out to him direct message, and we started talking. And he was able to lend me a Saturday afternoon. And he came down here to 316 Gimmick street and we had a conversation. So he's an awesome guy. He's got a show out on Netflix. It's called F is for Family. I watched all the episodes. It's based, you know, a lot of things that Bill's been through, and it's just. It's some good shit. I don't watch a whole lot of animated stuff, but I watched all these episodes to study on Bill. Great writing, funny shit, old school and just about a guy who hit about a guy who reaches middle age. He's going through life and he's got a couple kids and a dog and Bill is Bill. And the characters are great. It's just, it's a fun show. They just got greenlit for season two. So I'm excited for Bill and he's crushing it right now. Once again, I give you guys a heads up. If you're over in the uk, Ireland, Scotland, some of those places like that, Bill's coming over there asap. So man, check your schedules or look around, get on the Internet, go to billburr.com and find out where he's going to be because I'm sure that everybody that's hearing my voice knows about Bill Burr. But if you haven't heard of him, look him up on YouTube because it's one of the funniest guys you will ever see. And if you can see him in person like I did the other day, it's awesome.
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Steve Austin
Yo, man, I'm sitting here with Bill Burr, one of the funniest guys I've ever seen on YouTube. And finally he's here in person at 316 Gimmick Street. The guy was kind enough to drive across Los Angeles in his Toyota Prius on a Saturday afternoon. Welcome to my house. Thank you for coming over.
Bill Burr
Thank you for having me. God, you immediately broke my balls the second I pulled up. I knew I was gonna get shit for that going over to Stone Cold's place, you know, nine year old dented Prius at Least I got it washed before I came here.
Steve Austin
People, people on my show been listening to me knock the Toyota Prius for years. And just because it wasn't really so much the car, because the car is a very unique piece of mechanical engineering. Well, it's badass, you know, the technology behind it. And here's the thing, I'm such a car freak. It's like the Crown Victoria, which is what, you know, you've been in New York City, you're from Boston, you know, basically all the cabs were, you know, Crown Vicks, Crown Vicks, or all of the Lincoln Town Cars, same thing. All those cars, 300,000 miles, 400,000 miles, they last forever, right? And so when I get in these Toyota Priuses, the thing about it, when you get into a cab, those Crown Vicks, the legroom in the back is for shit. All of a sudden, when these Toyota Priuses started coming into vogue and they started putting the taxi signs on them, you get into the back of those things, you've got twice as much room as it done a Crown Vic. So I started loving the Toyota Prius from that aspect. And then the other day I bought this Ford Focus that I showed you out there on my curb, right? I'm gonna make you a sweet deal before this podcast is over.
Bill Burr
You just bought that?
Steve Austin
I just bought that.
Bill Burr
And you're already, and you're already trying to get rid of it. Well, it's because you tried to sell it to me on the phone ride over here. And when I pulled up, you're like, hey, nice to see you, Bill. I want to show you this, this pea soup green.
Steve Austin
It's metallic pee, Bill.
Bill Burr
Oh, sorry.
Steve Austin
I'm going to make you a sweet deal on this car, all right. But I was, I was on my way over to the pick up my Ford Focus at the dealership because I bought it from my mother in law. I figured I was doing the right thing. She decided to sell it. We kind of settled at a price. It was low retail, high trade in, so it was a fair deal for both of us. And then the repair bill came in and the brakes were squeaking all kinds of, you know, put it in the shop and the repair bill cost more than I paid for the son of.
Bill Burr
A. Oh yeah, that's why you don't buy off a relative.
Steve Austin
But so well, anyway, now you're gonna.
Bill Burr
Give her a dirty look during the holidays.
Steve Austin
God damn it. I got taken to clean by my mother in law, Bill. I know the same. As soon as I drove off, she was Just laughing her head and shaking her head at me. I got that big motherfucker. I got him. But I was in. I was in the Prius, going to the Ford dealership. I started talking to the cab driver, dude, how's this thing on repairs? Never needs a repair. It had like 200 something thousand miles on it, still going strong. So I respect the. The Toyota Prius.
Bill Burr
No, it's a Toyota. If you change the oil every couple thousand miles, it's going to last. I mean, technically, every car should never die if it's made, right? I mean, the engine blocks made out of steel. All you got to do is just. Just change all the fluids and not drive like an asshole. I mean, it should last forever, but people don't. They drive around the fluids too low. They beat the shit out of it, you know, and then they. Then they think they need something new. I love it, dude. I'm telling you right now, that car, you know, I just got it washed, so it's looking halfway decent. But when that thing needs to be washed, I could literally leave that car in the middle of a riot running, and no one would take it. They might throw a rock through it or whatever, but I can come out. That's what I love about that car is I can take it anywhere and it always runs and it gets great gas mileage, and I don't give a. When people open their door into it. So I am finally getting a nice car, though. I am. I ordered a. I got a car coming, but it's not getting hit till October. And that's going to kill me when some asshole just opens their door into a.
Steve Austin
That's. That's a new car blues. When you get that new car, you know, it's just got. It's like getting a new pair of tennis shoes issues. You're gonna scuff those things sooner or later.
Bill Burr
Except it cost you 50 grand.
Steve Austin
Yeah.
Bill Burr
A little bit different.
Steve Austin
Yeah. So when you bought the Prius, what was the inspiration behind that? I mean, because what were you. What were your other options?
Bill Burr
This was the. My inspiration was that I was already doing enough damage. I put my own hole in the ozone layer flying every other weekend or whatever. So I was just like, all right. And like, the air quality out here is not great. You can't really go that fast and just. I don't know. And I don't know. I just. I knew it was a Toyota. I don't know why I bought it. I just. I think back then I was really into the whole, let me, let me Try to, you know, do something positive for the environment, which I still try to do. But there's just until they deal with the population program problem, no matter what you do. I even think like these Teslas, what I want to hear is when they get rid of the battery, what does that do? What is that worse for the environment? Now you know that's gonna come out and the gas combustion engine guys are gonna, you know, fund the study for that.
Steve Austin
Right?
Bill Burr
What about that dude who put it on autopilot and got himself killed?
Steve Austin
No, I didn't hear about that.
Bill Burr
Well, these kids were putting up videos. I saw one where they had the self drive option on the thing and they literally took a nap. They're going down the highway and they wake up, they're like, oh, there's like an hour of the trip gone. And I was just like, I would never have the courage to do that. So some poor bastard was making those, those kinds of videos and what happened was whatever, he was asleep or not paying attention, I don't know what was going on. But it, the sun was shining. There was a giant, you know, 18 wheeler that was all white. It didn't read it properly. It read it as a daylight and just, just drove right underneath the thing or something. Now granted, I'm telling you, like 20 people told me this, I've never looked at any video or read anything about it. So I'm just paraphrasing what they say, which is what I do. I'm not a big reader. I don't even like watching videos. Like if whatever you tell me in the hour or whatever, right. I'm going to take his law.
Steve Austin
Yeah, but I'm going to repeat. But here's the thing, Bill, whatever technology is, they've been talking about these cars that drive themselves. And dude, at 51 you're clipping in here. At 48.
Bill Burr
48, just turn. 48, just turn for you.
Steve Austin
So you knew it.
Bill Burr
The odometer just flipped.
Steve Austin
Just flipped. But man, I've been around long enough and you know, I'm pretty skeptical. I dig technology, but I, I used to spend my life on the road. For 15 years I've driven all over the United States of America. We go to foreign countries, we get on buses because the driving laws are all fucked up over and you drive on the wrong road and you don't know where the you're going. But over here, Rick Rude, Ravish and Rick Rude. Are you a wrestling fan?
Bill Burr
Big time.
Steve Austin
So Ravish and Rick Rude, we should say, God damn it, Steve, arrive alive so that's. We always try to get to the places safe and sound and perform in front of the people, put on a goddamn good show, and get on to the next rodeo. So I ain't gonna trust no machine to guide me because I was real picky about who I would let drive the car. Like Mick Foley. Love the guy to death. Don't let him drive Diamond Dallas Page, one of my best friends. Don't let him drive Jersey guy.
Bill Burr
No. Because they drive too aggressively. Or there's two just make.
Steve Austin
And I love. He's one of my best friends.
Bill Burr
But just having said that, just, Just.
Steve Austin
You just don't trust him behind a wheel. I don't know if he was distracted. He's one of the smarter guys in the business. If I was one of the good opinion, I'd go to Mick Foley. Kevin Nash, goodwill man. Badass Billy Gunn, goodwill man. Okay. All of a sudden you got the Tesla. You dial in, hey, here's your destination. I'm gonna trust this GPS system because when I moved to la, I remember I had the Garmin thing they used to put on my windshield. And Garmin, we'd be telling me where to go. So they've advanced whatever the GPS thing is to drive his car. I ain't trusting that motherfucker to get me where I'm going. I got to have the steering wheel in my hands, Bill. Maybe it's a control issue, but like, it's like when you. When you punch in the direction on your iPhone and Siri's telling me where to go and what to turn on, I can dig that. She get me there. But I'm. I got the steering wheel in my.
Bill Burr
Hand, so I had to switch it to a guy's voice.
Steve Austin
Oh, she didn't like the girl telling you what to do?
Bill Burr
Because I thought that was some subversive feminism shit for me to get used to taking orders from a woman. I didn't like it turn. I used to. I used to find myself fighting it, like, skipping streets and everything. Every once in a while, just be like, you know, just to keep it even. So now it's just like a guy's voice. And I. I don't have that. I got major, like, control issues, too, when. When it comes to stuff. And I don't. I don't like. I like. I think technology was fine right up till 1995. Somewhere in the 90s, we had it. Right.
Steve Austin
Right.
Bill Burr
And then that's it. Okay. And, you know, I know there's advances in medical and that type of stuff. Over the last, whatever, 20 years or so. But like, it's not in the long run. Overall, it's not helping everybody. You know, we're just living too long. People got to die. People got to get out of whatever, whatever the magic number is of human beings that can be on the planet. Like, I think we're over it by a good, I don't know, 4 or 5 billion. Yeah, it's got to be.
Steve Austin
Well, you said you don't like to read or you don't read much.
Bill Burr
I'm not good at it. It takes me like an hour to read like five pages because every word reminds me I have add. So I just start thinking about stuff and I'll just go on some journey in my head as I continue, like reading but not retaining anything. And then I'm like, what the just happened? How am I on page 30? That's basically.
Steve Austin
Yeah, because you don't remember the first 29. That's the same thing I do.
Bill Burr
There's some that I like. I, I like to read if it's like, I'm good about autobiographies. Like, you got all this, you know, the Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff, like, I, I, any stuff on him, I would be totally focused, riveted reading that. But if it was like, you know, back in the day, if I had like a book report and they just said, read this book, I'd just be like, yeah, yeah, I, I hated it. Absolutely hated it. So I was good at screwing around in class. And somehow he turned that into a living.
Steve Austin
Hey, did you. God dang. You went to college, right?
Bill Burr
I went to a bunch of colleges.
Steve Austin
But you got a degree? You got a degree in what?
Bill Burr
Communications.
Steve Austin
What do they teach you in communication? Because obviously you're great at it. You're one of the funniest cats that goes around doing stand up.
Bill Burr
I, I don't remember. It was a fun. Like, I finished at Emerson. I went to like two other ones, was accepted to another one, and I just, by the time I was like 22, 23, I was still a freshman. I was going part time. I had to pay for it myself, you know, working my way through colle and stuff.
Steve Austin
And.
Bill Burr
I don't remember I went to that school and I finally just, it was like a performance school and I could do stuff on the radio. But I wanted to ask you, just as far as being a wrestling fan, I mean, you asked me when I was, was I a wrestling fan? I watched it hardcore from like 78 to right up early 90s, right when I started Watch. Started doing stand up and then like I missed everything because when you guys were on, you know, the big stuff, I was, I was out doing standup. So I missed like all of Seinfeld. Like I didn't see any of that until it went into reruns. I missed a bunch of sports in the 90s and all that. And I remember in the late 90s, the late, great Patrice O'. Neill. Yeah, then he's the great him and Mitch Hedberg. To me with it in David, those like, yeah, when people always say, like, man, you like the funniest guy out there, it's like, yeah, because like the top five guys aren't, aren't here anymore. If they were back, you know, I'd be featuring at an improv. So in the late 90s, I was living with another comic, Robert Kelly, and him and Patrice were really into wrestling. And that's when, when you and the Rock brought it back. And like all of what I've always admired about all you guys because I never understood the amount of pain you were going through was how goddamn funny all the characters were. And I mean all the way from like, you know, Captain lou Albano to Mr. Wonderful, you know, Rowdy Piper, all of these guys. I used to watch all of those guys just laugh my ass off watching them. And then when you guys came along, you took, you guys took it to a whole other level. And I always felt you guys were like prolific. Like each week when you thought you had all your guys catchphrases down, you came up with new stuff. And we used to, me and Bobby would watch it and we'd have Patrice on speakerphone. He was living in New Jersey. And me and Bobby were living in like this, this walkthrough bedroom apartment. And we would sit in the living room on his pull out bed. Obviously he, you know, fold the thing up during the day and we'd watch it on this little kitchen TV and just waiting to hear what you guys were gonna say and all the different storylines and stuff. It was great.
Steve Austin
Man, I had so much fun doing that shit. And finally I had to ride off into the sunset with injuries and stuff like that. And so although it's, it is entertainment, it's a rough ride in there, or can be.
Bill Burr
The best thing that happened was once they just said this is sports entertainment, then you guys could actually talk about the, the real pain that, you know, people just look at because what they were thinking, ah, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's worked out. It's fake or whatever. But it's like, dude, that guy still has to take a chair to the head at like whatever 3/4 speed. Do you want to do that? Or jump off a top rope and land or get slammed on your back Like, I couldn't believe I saw Hulk Hogan one time. So first time I saw him was in the airport. And then I saw him when he did the. The Opie and Anthony show. And I remember going like, man, I thought he was tall. I thought he was like 6 foot 7. But like his arms hung way down to like his knees. And he said, I used to be 6 foot 7. But after all those years of his finishing move, jumping up with the leg coming down, he lost three inches of height.
Steve Austin
You know, here's the thing about Hogan, and I always give that guy a ton of respect because he had a tremendous run. You think something so simple as just jumping up and dropping that leg. Here's the great thing about that leg. First of all, it worked. It looked good. He was charismatic as hell, had a great look, but anybody could take that finish. So when you come up with a finish in pro wrestling, you want it to be something that everybody can take. So if there's a bunch of damn, you know, crazy toss around whirligi gigs, you know, and it's acrobatic, right? Not everybody can take that, but anybody can lay there and get a leg dropped on them. But my point is, when you're six, six, you're 320. When you drop that leg for 30 years, man, it's like interest, it compounds daily, especially as you get up on it in the years. So, you know, he's paying the price of that. Just a simple leg drop. And, you know, there was times my finish was a stone cold stunner. So sometimes I'd go to TV on a Monday night Raw. Monday night Raw, Bill was like therapy for me because it was like, okay, yeah, get all my shit out.
Bill Burr
We used to take that night off a stand up. Me, Bobby and Priest, we would take the night off. We'd have him on speaker. I remember one time, I think he actually made the journey all the way in from Jersey just to watch it. And all three of us sitting on that little couch, we ordered like Chinese food. It was. It was the greatest, man.
Steve Austin
But sometimes you go to the building, like, hey, Steve would give you about, you know, six or eight stunners tonight. You know, bam, here's gonna come down to the ring, give him a stunner, give this guy a stunner, give Us and like, God damn, my back's all fucked up. But you're not gonna say, well, Vince, my back's kind of fucked up. I better take a night off.
Bill Burr
Right?
Steve Austin
You're out there ringing up stunners with a fucked up bag. So it catches up to you.
Bill Burr
It seems a lot like pro football where they, their thing is always like, can you go? Is the question. And there's only one answer to that or else you're out the door and someone else is gonna take your job. So I don't know. I remember one night, me and Bobby, we were gonna, we were gonna thank God we didn't go through with it. There was this old comedy club, the Boston Comedy Club. And people used to always joke it looked like an old, like, ski lodge that sort of burned down. I mean, it was a hole. Had this wooden stage, small one too. And we were talking one night and he was going to do the rocks finish and move. What was that? The rock bottom is what it was called? Yeah, he was going to do that to me or I was going to do it to him. And fortunately, I mean, I was already like 30 years old during that time that would have me up. He was somehow going to do it and we were going to get into some phony argument on like a Tuesday night, like with eight people there, and he was going to pick me up and slam me down. We were just to going, wouldn't try to work the whole thing out. And fortunately smarter. We actually just. Because remember when you were a kid and you try to do all the wrestling moves to your friend? The first time, first time I remember doing the polish hammer and you didn't know not to interlock your fingers. You'd slap into your little buddy's chest and all your fingers felt like they broke off. And we didn't understand like all of those things I used. I fortunately had like, you know, three younger brothers, so I could, you know, try out the airplane spin everybody's move. But I remember the first time, one of the first two times, I really up my back. Fourth grade, this kid put me in a figure four leg lock because he was trying to show me how to do it. And he got in, he got me into it and then all the kids started going nuts and he kind of was like into the crowd cheering. He wasn't letting me out of it. So I like, I got up to try to undo the leg and I felt a pull in my lower back. That was fourth grade. And then the first time I messed up my upper back was Tony Atlas inspired. His finishing move was to put you up over the head. And I picked up my brother, who was about four years younger than me, and I went to pick him up over my head. I swear to God, it felt like. It felt like my spine bent, and I got about halfway over my head. I still remember where I was at. I was in the living room. So fortunately, there was a rug because when I had to drop him immediately, he was crying because he fucked up his shoulder. And, you know, so that's the funny thing. So everybody's sitting. They go, yeah, wrestling's fake. Wrestling's fake. It's like, really, when I do it, I still get hurt, so.
Steve Austin
Well, it's funny because on your Twitter account, Ill Burr, there's a picture of you and nature boy Ric Flair, arguably.
Bill Burr
One of the funniest dudes you ever lived.
Steve Austin
Oh, God damn, he's hilarious. And he's my favorite pro wrestler of all time. But my point is, it plays back into your story about being in the figure four, Bill. Next time you get put in a figure four, don't try to unlace your legs. You roll over, you reverse the pressure.
Bill Burr
Which way do I.
Steve Austin
Either way. Whether. All you got to do is go belly down. And it puts the pressure on him, allegedly. That's how it works.
Bill Burr
So just, you know how cool it is 40 years later to hear it from Stone Cold Steve Austin. This is how you get out the figure four. I'm gonna teach. I'm gonna teach my wife how to put me in it, see if it works.
Steve Austin
Get on YouTube, go push it. You put in. Just push. Push off. Flair versus Steamboat. And watch him put Steamboat in that figure four. And all of a sudden, Ricky will get that crowd, and he's getting that crowded. God damn. He's almost got him. And finally turns it over, and the pressure goes to Ric Flair and he goes to the ropes. So now he's selling the legs, just like Steamboat selling the legs. So there's no reason why, you know, kinesiologically or anatomically, why rolling over would reverse the pressure. But that was the story.
Bill Burr
Yeah.
Steve Austin
So tell me about starting off, dude, because you said you got three brothers, right?
Bill Burr
I have four brothers.
Steve Austin
Four brothers, yeah. Okay. So, like, were you the funniest guy in the family? Were you always funny?
Bill Burr
No, I wasn't. No. My older brother was 10 times. Still is. 10 times funnier than me. Everybody in, like. I grew up in, you know, the suburbs of Boston, and I just. Just everybody was funny. I don't. Can't explain It. There's something basically about the New York, Boston all the way down to, like, Jersey area, tri state area and all in there. There's everybody's like a character, but there's something about Boston where it's just like. I don't know if you watch those reality shows more times than not, at least the ones that my wife watches, those survivors and stuff. There's always some Boston lunatic, you know, he's got the crazy accent. They just. Just bunch of characters there. So I just think everybody, you know, was so funny growing up that I just. You just sort of like, absorbent. And there was all big families and stuff and, like, fighting was accepted back then. And drinking and driving. What wasn't, wasn't like. Yeah, no, I used to fight. Yeah. My parents. The rule was don't hit each other in the face. It was like, hit each other from here to here. That was considered working it out amongst yourselves.
Steve Austin
Yeah.
Bill Burr
I remember my mother one time tried to smash a brush over my head because my brother said, I kicked my other brother in the face, which was bullshit. I kicked him in the stomach. I don't know why to this day he said that. So my mother was brushing her hair. She had this big, like the 70s plastic. You know, who's the fairest of them all? Brushes. She turned around and smashed me in the head. And I, like, did that. That. That pussy duck, basically, you put your shoulders up and go. And she caught me right in the middle of the back, right. And the whole. It would have been great for wrestling. The whole thing. The whole brush exploded and. And my mother was like, you know, we had so many. Kids are just so cheap. I just remember she just. She just picked up, like, the brush part, and for like the next 10 years, she was just holding the brush part. And every once in a while, I'd catch her using it. I'd just be like, you know, I would still be pleading my case, going, I kicked him in his. It was his chest. I think that's why my brother had a bad angle. It was like a quick play at the plate or something.
Steve Austin
He had a bad angle.
Bill Burr
He thought I kicked him in the face. I didn't. To this day, I'll go to my grave denying that, dude.
Steve Austin
The thing was, if you popped off to my mom, she happened to be in the kitchen. She had one of those wooden spoons in her hand, and she got you cornered.
Bill Burr
Oh, yeah.
Steve Austin
She was gonna wear your ass out with a wooden spoon, and she'd break them. And my dad just go get more Wooden spoons.
Bill Burr
My grandmother broke.
Steve Austin
Don't talk shit to your mom when she got a wooden spoon. That was my deal. I learned that real fast.
Bill Burr
My grandmother tried to break one over my head, but I got my arm up quick enough and it snapped. She. I kept messing up this rug, which she wasn't looking, a little throw rug. And she kept going like, who keeps messing this up? So it became like this game. And she went in the kitchen and she stopped real quick and looked back out. She caught me messing it up. And cheap dude turned into the devil just came flying at me like it was a hatchet. And I just put my arm up. It was really weird because I only saw her a few times a year. So it was kind of like a stranger coming at me. And it snapped over my forearm and then she just went, wow, that's the end of that spoon. And that was. It went out and bought another one. My other grandfather used it to remember the 70s refrigerators. We had the side by side. He just, he couldn't handle the fact that we just kind of went in there and got something to eat whenever we wanted to. So he jammed the thing in there so we couldn't open it. So we were sitting there so starving. Just an ornery guy just jerry rigged this thing. We couldn't get anything to eat.
Steve Austin
Okay, so we're going back to your, your stand up deal. Because on, you know, and researching it says you started in 92.
Bill Burr
Yeah, but I'm.
Steve Austin
You probably had. You were testing out before then. What makes you decide to just turn pro and start in 92 on the stand up?
Bill Burr
There is no turning pro as a comedian. It's just. You just get through thrown in the deep end. It's not like you can't like try out material. It was just, it was a talent contest. This place, Nick's Comedy Stop, which still exists, which is crazy because I've been doing it for 24 years, that the place that I stepped on stage first still exists. Nick's Comedy Stop had a contest find Boston's funniest comedy student. And it was just basically, you know, a big hype thing to get a bunch of college kids in there drinking, watching their friends go up and bomb. And I just this, I saw it and I just immediately called the number before I chickened out, before I really had to think about it. And I do remember vaguely sitting down trying to write material. And you're just sitting there going like, how do you do this? Like, I've always been funny in class, but how do I But like, funny just happened. You just sort of improv in your whole life. Like, you know, you see something, you make a joke, you make people laugh. He's throwing shit in or whatever. But now I'm going to sit down and artificially create this moment. Like, how do I get to the funny and stuff? And you know, that took. Took a while. Definitely took a while.
Steve Austin
But is that like. I mean, I would imagine it's just like some of the guys I watch History. The Eagles. Were you a big Eagles fan?
Bill Burr
Yeah, I worked in a warehouse, so they played it. It got to the point they played them so much that there was a few groups that I had to take like a decade break from.
Steve Austin
Right.
Bill Burr
They were one of them. Zeppelin. Yeah, the Eagles. Crosby, Stills and Nash. We had like classic hits on. There was. The guys who worked in the warehouse also played in a band. And they played a lot of that classic rock stuff. So they listened to that. WZLX is what it was. And they played that from like nine in the morning till five at night. And it got to the point of like, I. I can't listen to this stuff anymore.
Steve Austin
Yeah, I can get you on the decades off stuff because they hit him so hard for sport so long. I needed a little break myself, but. And listen to how those guys learned how to start writing songs. It was an interesting process. So here you are, you're coming out of communications. You get on the stage, you're gonna write this.
Bill Burr
Your first set. I was not communicating when I got on stage. The communication was not going well.
Steve Austin
Did you win the gig or how long was your first set?
Bill Burr
Was supposed to be five minutes. And I think I did like three. And I bailed. I made fun of the host. And then I just got off my, like my first time doing stand up. And I would say this to anybody who's getting into it, like the first, you know, 10, 20 times you do it has nothing to do with how well good or bad you're doing. All it has to do with is when they call your name. Having the balls to go back up there or go up there the first time. That's all it is. Like, you know, and I just was joking with the Buddy Rogan. I was joking with him, just going like, I AM so glad YouTube did not exist. When I was going through my. Am I the next Bill Hicks phase. You know what I mean? There is a phase that a lot of comics go through, myself included, where you think, hey, am I going to be the guy with the leather jacket smoking the cigarette you know, telling them how it is. You know, it's sort of like, you know, and. And everybody, whether you had the jacket and the cigarette, you know, kind of tried that hat on for a minute, and thank God I know they exist. They exist somewhere. The footage is on a VHS tape somewhere in the back of one of my closets. But it'll never see the light of day, right?
Steve Austin
But when you hit the stage and all of a sudden you start getting booked, I mean, what's the dues paying process? Are you.
Bill Burr
It's a lot. Like, when I read books on, like, you know, I got all. I read all you guys books. Like, my. One of my favorite ones was Ric Flair, to be the man, you got to beat the man. I own that in hardcover. Like, I read all of those things, and what I. The stuff that I related to the most was the dishonest promoters and being in a car with another performer and laughing and joking and having beers afterwards. But obviously, the level of physical pain and the shit that you guys went through is way beyond. Our stuff is more like just absolute humiliation. Just like. You know, there's still sometimes, like, I will think about stuff that happened to me when I was on stage. It always happens when I'm in the shower. I don't know why. And it's just some of the, like, I just got so owned by a crowd and had no comeback and just how embarrassed I was. And there's always friends in the crowd when it happened. Every once in a while when those memories come up, I literally have to, like, shout it out of my brain. Like, I'll just be in the shower. My wife will be down the hall, and she just hear me go, like. And she'll be in the kitchen going, like, are you okay? I'll be like, ah, yeah. So I just, you know, my back and it isn't. It's me thinking about, like, you know. Yeah, I. Oh, man, I took some. I took some bad. It's what's weird. The older I get, they've starting to fade from my memory. But, I mean, there was. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of horrific gigs. Not getting paid, you know, I mean, the first, you just. You're just so happy that you get in any stage time. And that's another big thing. At some point, you got to put a worth on what you're doing because you just come into the business hat in hand, like, I'll do anything. I'll clean the bathrooms, I'll sweep up. Just give me two minutes. I'll drive you know, I was in Massachusetts. I used to drive up to New Hampshire and Maine for five minute sets and I would, you know, I was working with my dad in the dental office, right? And we'd be numbing up people pulling teeth. Why he would be, I just hand him the shit. And then the second the gig, it was over, I'd go out and go do a gig. And my, I was still living at home, so my dad knew I was going all the way up to Maine. And he would book patients at the like seven in the morning. Like my dad was just a lunatic, how hard he worked, like seven to seven. And you know, I would come home, I get home like 3 o' clock in the morning and I would wake up and I wouldn't be worth. And he'd be like chewing me out in front of the patients. Like, Christ, Bill, you're out to lunch. Like right in front of somebody sitting there with their mouth open and shit. But I still remember the first time I got paid, I got paid $5 in gas money and it blew my mind. I just Remember at this 83 Ford range of vinyl seats, piece of shit, just like the anti pussy mobile, right? Just driving this thing. And I just remember just looking at that $5 bill thinking like, I, I got that for doing, telling jokes and just that whole idea of like, can you imagine if I could actually like not have a day job? I remember just, it was very, the dream was very incremental. Imagine if I became a paid comic and I was just the host and then imagine being the feature and then imagine being the headliner. And then I remember just fantasizing about the day I could quit my day job. And I started out also with Dane Cook. And I remember he was working at Blockbuster Video. And I remember the day like he quit. He was telling me he was quitting. Like I vicariously lived through it with him and I was like, I remember like calling him up or seeing him at Nick's like later on, a few days later being like, dude, what's it like? What's it like? He's like, oh, it's awesome. He goes, you wake up whenever you want, you just sit in there. I remember he said this, he goes, I you know what, I'm gonna have some toast. And like that freedom has never, I've never taken that for granted. Like the, the unbelievable freedom that you have once you start, once you're a working comic where it's, you can just, you know, you work when you want to work, you know, I mean, it doesn't happen. I mean, this. When I got to that level, it took, like, 20 years to be like, okay, I can now I have a following. I can. I can work like that. But I still remember how awesome it was. And when I would do the road, I was a big sports fan. So I just, you know, I would just look at, like, you know, if I was at a bunch of college gigs, I would just take out the baseball schedule, football, hockey, whatever the hell it was, and I would just book gigs around there. I would drive out of my way to go see shit. But a lot of that stuff was, unlike you, where it was just me by myself. Those college gigs and shit went to, like, the Mall of America.
Steve Austin
Yeah, but if you. If you're driving down the road by yourself or you sit there thinking, okay, you see a billboard, are you just start thinking about something you trying to think of all the time.
Bill Burr
You know what? I would usually. I was usually listening to music, fantasizing that I knew how to do that. And, like, I have this, like, I just constantly daydreaming of me being a hero, all the. I don't know why that is, but, like, if I listen to a Stevie Ray Vaughan song, right? Stevie, when he's doing something great, which is usually most of the song. But if I listen to, like, Stang Swang, then I'm thinking I'm Chris Layton playing the cool drums in the beginning. And it's just. So I'm. I was. Usually it was music, sports, and making people laugh. That's like my. My, you know, triangle offensive, like, trying to be happy. And so, like, I only. Making people laugh was the only thing I was actually good at. Everything else, I was just like, you know, weekend warrior stuff. But music was a huge thing to me, so I was always listening to all the shit I grew up on, like, AC DC and Guns N Roses. And then when I met Patrice, he got me into, like, you know, Biggie Smalls and Ice Cubes. Cube and all that. I remember I'd always try to buy rap tapes, and he would just look at them and just throw them out the window and then just laugh at me, go, this guy stinks. And then he'd tell me the guy's real. But then he was funny. I. I would, you know, I tell him about Led Zeppelin and all that type of stuff. He got totally into the Beatles and stuff. It was really funny.
Steve Austin
So when you're going out and you're doing your first gigs, I remember when I first started in the business in Dallas, Texas, for two Months that worked two days a week, Friday night and Saturday morning, and the bad guys would come in and just kick the shit out of me with kendo sticks and weightlifting belts. I was paying my dues, and then they shipped me off to Tennessee. And that's when I started working full time. And I show up and I'm gonna have my first match in a territory that I don't know anybody. I'm two months in the business and all I've been doing is getting the shit kicked out of me.
Bill Burr
Right. And so now what's your job tonight? Are you supposed to win or lose?
Steve Austin
I'm gonna win a match, and I'm a baby face. And Ezra, we would call it. And Dutch Mantel says, steve, you're working with what's his name over there. He's wearing a mask. He goes, go out there and give us about eight minutes and you'll beat him. I can't remember how I beat him. All of a sudden he told me eight minutes. I'm thinking to myself, God damn, what the fuck am I going to do for eight minutes? Because you're scared of time. And then as you get a couple more months, a year too, dude, you need 20, 30, 40, right, so how did your routine grow from, you know, your first, you know, five minute gig, which turned in to be three minutes at the college thing.
Bill Burr
That's so crazy, the similarity of this. Yeah, how do I. How'd you get your time up? That's what we call how do you get your time up? Was basically. All right, so you had, like in Boston, it was Nick's Comedy Stop the Comedy Connection and giggles. Those were like the A rooms. So that would be like working for the. Was WWF when I was a kid. Wwe, Right. And then you had all these. Then you had the B rooms and C rooms. So these would be like different. Different wrestling circuits. So it'd be like in A rooms, I would be a host. In B rooms, I could feature. And if it was just some absolute shithole, actually, I never. I never headlined. And I think maybe one time I did before I moved to New York. When I moved to New York, I knew I had 45 minutes at that point, but I had never done 45. So I had 45 minutes. I could talk for 45 minutes if I could remember all of it. And I remember I talked to this guy, Roger Paul, and I had already sent him my tape, and he really liked me. And he was the first guy that headlined me. And he goes, can. He goes, did you headline up in Boston. And I just lied. I said, oh, yeah, yeah, I can handle that. And what would happen was, when you first start headlining, you're used to doing 30 minutes. And what would. What kept happening was, I get to 30, and it would go great. And then there was like, seven minutes of. What the. Yeah. As I'm saving my. Basically, my finishing move was my closing bit, and I'm saving that thing, right? And. And, like, so my sets would. If you were to graph them, would gradually build, build, build, build, build. And then they'd just be this lull. And then I. Then I. Then I would get out on the. On the. On the closing bit, and it'd go back up again, but it wouldn't get to. To the same height as 30 minutes. So it was kind of like, yeah, yeah, that's what it was.
Steve Austin
What are you thinking when you put your set together? Because here's the thing.
Bill Burr
I don't. I don't have a. I have an idea what I'm gonna open with, and I know what I'm gonna close with. Like, I kind of know all the jokes, but then, like, I don't have, like, the set order. Like, it goes much better if I just think about the joke, and then I just do the joke. And sometimes I have callbacks to jokes, but I haven't told it yet. And. But what it does is it gets you to be part of present. Like I am, you know, whatever I am at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles. I'm at the Punchline in San Francisco. Like, I am here right now, as opposed to being up there. Like, I did the whole. Write it all out word by word, memorize it, always say it the same way, do it in the same order. I did that. And I found myself on stage. It was like when I was reading a book, like, my brain would just be going. And then I would start thinking, like, going. Like, I have not thought about this crowd or what the. I've been saying for, like, three minutes, which is a long time. And then I would start thinking, like, why are they even laughing? Like, what is even funny about this? And then the second I. You think that you. For me, I just start bombing. Like, it's like I'm in a plane and it starts losing altitude, and I can't figure out why. And so I have to go. You know, I have to switch it up. What I found works for me is I have to. I. You know, my buddy called me recently, goes, man, he goes, we. You know, we get the third show. He goes, there's only, like, 30 people gonna show up. 30 reservations. And I. From all of those years, I got, like, this jolt that went through me because I did the whole, oh, there's only 30 people up here. So I'm gonna go up and, you know, act like there's 30 people. And then one day I was just like, fuck this. I'm gonna murder these 30 and make them wish that they brought 30 more. Which is not the most original thought, but I don't. I can't remember somebody told me to do that, but I just started approaching it like sports. Like, it's all right, we're down 18 runs, but you're not gonna win by 19. And I want to make this fucking miserable for you. And I'm gonna try to foul off as many pitches, whatever I gotta do. And it's like that athlete, like, mindset of not losing, like, if you apply that to stand up, you know, you always like this. Gotta be luck. There's got to be the talent. But the biggest thing is you have to have that thing where, you know, you're in the middle of Dallas in some shithole, and everybody else is sitting there going, like, do I really want to do this? Should I get married and have kids? And you're out there, just fuck this. Flying across, and you have to kick the shit out of them or it's going to start dipping and they're not going to come back.
Steve Austin
Got to give them bang for the buck.
Bill Burr
You have to.
Steve Austin
They bought a ticket. You got to give.
Bill Burr
Give them everything you have to.
Steve Austin
Going back to one of the points you made a while ago, I think you'll agree with.
Bill Burr
I'll put the.
Steve Austin
The hammer on what you were saying. I was talking with Zach Wild.
Bill Burr
Oh, yeah. He's awesome.
Steve Austin
You know Zach.
Bill Burr
Yeah.
Steve Austin
It's a funny thing. Before I started rolling, before I started rolling the recorder, Bill walks into my house. He meets my wife and my dogs. And we come in here, and I have a guitar on my wall, as most of you people that listen to my show know about my Stevie Ray Vaughan guitar. And he goes, Jesus Christ. He goes, is that real? And he dug the guitar. And so I told Bill, I said, out of 95% of people that come here, nobody ever notices that goddamn guitar. And it's prized possessions.
Bill Burr
I first saw the Stevie Ray picture, and I was just, like, found out.
Steve Austin
We was on Santa Barbara, just. And we was going through an old little file thing, and that's all the Stevie Ray black and white, and had to have that thing. But Zack Wild told me Just speaking of guitar players, I told. I asked Zach one time, I was at Oz Fest somewhere in San Antonio, man, I think we were about to get lit up hammered. And I told him he was in his. In his room just fucking shredding. And I said, God damn, Zach. I said, what are you thinking when you're doing that? How do you play all that?
Bill Burr
Yeah.
Steve Austin
He goes, steve. He goes, bro, he's from Jersey.
Bill Burr
Yeah.
Steve Austin
He goes, steve, if you're thinking you're stinking.
Bill Burr
Yeah. You just flow into the. Flowing to the next.
Steve Austin
Same with pro wrestling, dude. I mean, you got to think, here's the thing, and I want to get your feedback on this because, dude, okay, just say we're at Chicago Rose, Mount Horizon. My favorite building. They renamed it my favorite building to work in because. Because of the acoustics and the people there are just rabid for wrestling. And so 18,000 strong. You go in there and when you're having your match, you're listening to the response of that crowd. Because each time you go, yeah, if I'm working, okay, say I'm working heel. And you're baby face. I'll be the bad guy, you're the good guy. I'm calling the match. Boom. We're working, we're working. Bam. I'm working that crowd. I'm popping them, popping them, popping. Bam. I'm going to bring you down, settle them down. I'm going to piss them off by getting some heat on you, fire them.
Bill Burr
Up, by giving you a little bit of cool.
Steve Austin
And then, boom. We're gonna. We're gonna make them come on this comeback. And then the finish, that's explosion. So my point is, we're listening. That crowd, I can't hear for, but I can hear a crowd. If you've got 18,000 people in there and 17,999 of them are cheering. And one motherfucker up there, and row 100e is going. I can hear him.
Bill Burr
Yeah.
Steve Austin
And so I'm tuned in that crowd. So you've got to be. Like you said, sometimes those three minutes goes by, but you, to me, you read a crowd like a motherfucker.
Bill Burr
It. Well, you do it long enough, you don't. It's. It's a. It's a. It's this big thing. It's this big noise. It's a big noise that you're controlling. Then you got to know when to bring them up, when to bring them down. That took me the longest time to learn. I mean, one time, one of the most times when I was you know, when I just told that guy Roger Paul that I closed rooms, so he put me in some room. I can't even remember where the hell I was at. But this guy in the middle just murdered. Murdered. And I forget what bodily fluid joke he ended on. And they go into the proctologist and he's got his finger up my ass and the fucking place is going nuts. Like, he has him up to 11. So I made the mistake, is I went on stage and tried to start at 11, and I had nowhere to go. I got about 10 minutes into my set and I was literally out of breath from telling jokes, and I was like. And then when I was five, and it's just like. And I. What I lit what I had to do. I. I just started bombing for like five minutes, and then I gradually built it back up again. I remember I got off stage and I had a headache and, you know, now was a baby about it. And I called the comic, you know, talked to an older comic. I'm like, this guy's doing all this bodily fluid stuff. You know, he's screaming. It's. I've seen a million guys do that joke. And he just said, dude. He goes, he goes, don't ever do that. He goes, just go up. He goes, keep it going for that guy. Wasn't he great? And just start slow, start slow and just gradually build it up again. But blah, blah. And I was like, you can do, like, yeah, just. Just do that. And that was like, you know, I mean, so much of the stuff that I learned, I learned by completely failing. And then an older comic told me, you know, how to. How to work that out. But I remember the first time where I was conscious that I was being able to read a crowd. But I was working this place, Harvey's in Portland, Oregon, and the dude who ran it used to. He had like all these telemarketers. You just paper the room. So you do a Tuesday through a Sunday, three shows Saturday, two shows Friday, you know, like, you know, all inclusive, like a 1500 buck thing. So by the end, I think after taxes, you walk with like 300 to do like nine shows or some shit, right? So I come in there Tuesday night and it's just packed. And I was like, holy shit. Like, this is like, I thought I was gonna leave on the mic strung and fuck. So once you establish that you're there, I didn't have to be there like an hour before the show. So come Thursday, I came walking in about 10 minutes before I went on, and I walked in. And I walked in the room, I was in there for, like, literally three seconds. And I looked at the waitress and I said, what happened? And she goes, well, the guy on stage, he kind of told a joke that people thought was, I don't know, kind of sort of sounded racist and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, I just felt the crowd. Like, it wasn't. Like, it wasn't the energy of disguise, but bombing. It wasn't an energy of, like, you know, we're drunk and we don't care and we're rowdy. It was this energy that something happened. Like, did somebody just get thrown out or whatever? And I remember thinking, like. Like, I remember trying to afterwards think about what was that sound? And it isn't a sound. It's just a feeling you get. It's so weird. It become. And it becomes back to that exact thing you're saying, well, if you're thinking, you're stinking, like. So when I. When I tried to, you know, break down the thought of what it is, you can't verbalize it. So that's the same thing. The same thing. Like, that's so fucking cool. You're listening to it, building it up and bringing it down.
Steve Austin
Yeah, but I'm watching you, Sausage.
Bill Burr
That's unreal.
Steve Austin
But here's a story that goes, yeah.
Bill Burr
You guys have beaten the shit out of each other. I'm just up there going, you know, what's up with Obama? You guys are like. You guys are like. I'll tell you one time, like, when. Like, I miss Ric Flair when he came up, because it was back then you had territories, so we were. We were Vince McMahon's WWF.
Steve Austin
Yes.
Bill Burr
And I forget what. What he. He wrote NWA. So I missed all of his stuff, and I just. But you still heard about him.
Steve Austin
Oh, yeah.
Bill Burr
And it wasn't until, you know, like the mid-2000s, when, you know, YouTube came out, everybody posts the clips. And I just went down this rabbit hole one night, and I went from just hearing about the legend of Ric Flair to being like. I mean, like, he had, like, so many times, like, if I would have bad gigs, I would watch your guys clips and stuff, and guys being on the mic and. And his stuff. I mean, still my favorite one ever is when he. When he held up that loafer and he told the guy, shoes cost more than his house. I remember when I was trying to describe that line to my wife, I was literally crying, laughing, and she was going, like, you know, because she's not into the. Like, she. You know, I'm Just telling it secondhand. She goes, was it really that funny? I was like. Like, Nia, you had to see the guy's face. It was probably true. If you looked at the guy he was saying it to, and this guy was standing there. What I love was he was so bought in to the character of Ric Flair. Like, it was so real to him. I loved it. Oh, dude.
Steve Austin
And you're hitting it 100 on the head. He was so convicted. It was a shoot. I mean that in our business, like you said, a shoot match. I mean that when somebody buys in that deep, he's loving it. And it was real to him. Just a parallel to a quick story. I always tell the story all the time, but I give it to you because you've been there. Talking about following that guy who had the bodily fluids. He's like, God damn. How do I follow that? Start out at 11, dude, we used to go over to Japan, and all of a sudden you're in the slot and you're right behind either, like a Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero. I mean, just some of those guys that are cruiserweight, they just go like, crazy. Nobody's business. Just extreme workers, badasses. And all of a sudden, I got my limited move set. You know, I got a right hand, I can kick somebody, and that's about it, right? I got a headlock. But after these guys wouldn't blow the roof off a place, what do you do? How do you follow that?
Bill Burr
What would you do?
Steve Austin
You just go do your shit, right? I can't try to emulate what they did. I've never done it in my life. So now all of a sudden, because they went out there, let the crap, let the fire. So you just go out there and you do your shit and you. You're convicted. Like Ric Flair was on the promo with the shoe. You just do your match, you lay your shit in, and your intent, your intensity is high, and you don't rush it, and so that's how you follow.
Bill Burr
Did you ever have. Did you ever try. You must have. Early on, like, okay, I got to do some moves like that. Even they. Even though they weren't part of. Part of your.
Steve Austin
It was over in Japan, you know, I used to do a top rope splash and. And the dude moved. He was supposed to. And I tore my tricep off my arm. We was in Japan for three weeks. I tore my tricep off on the third night. So I got to wrestle for two and a half weeks with a torn tricep, you know, so that's when I knew that sticking to the ground was going to be, you know, where I was going to make, you know, have a long career. Yeah, where I was going to have a long career. Answer me this question. Because sometimes, dude, we go out there and just say, like you said, sometimes. One time, a long time ago, me and Flying Brian, we were wrestling Shane Douglas and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat and it was a big snowstorm.
Bill Burr
One of the greatest names ever.
Steve Austin
Yeah. And so nobody could get to the building and there were literally 50 or so people there. And man, we went out there just like a story you said a while ago and we lit that place on fire. 30 minutes of bust ass tag team wrestling. We put on a show.
Bill Burr
That's awesome.
Steve Austin
But sometimes when you go out there, whether it's 50 or whether it's 20,000, sometimes you go out there and you've been on the road for a long ass time and you're a pretty good hand. Maybe say at the 5 year mark and then I'll go to the 10 or 12 year mark for me. But sometimes you go out there and you just get a crowd. That ain't buying shit. As over as you are stone cold Steve Austin or as funny as you are at a scientific level, Bill Burr. You ever get a crowd these days that just all of a sudden it just kind of lukewarm to the shop you're doing? Or are those days gone by because you're so good at what you do now?
Bill Burr
It's more once you get known. Once you get known, then like you're a big guy, it becomes easier. Yeah, like I'm not as. You know, if I went up against a crowd like that, I haven't done it in a while. Like I can remember the last time that happened to me. I was, I was going to do Letterman and I needed to get five minutes and I was, you know, I was new out here, so I went to some, this guy had this room out in Glendale and it was just a bar. It was just a bar. And most people came there to watch the Laker game. And he, the, the host goes up, he bombs. The next person goes up, they bomb. And like two, three people in a row are just bombing bad. And I was in the back going like, I'm gonna get him, I'm gonna get him. He's new that kids, blah, blah, blah, blah. Once I get up, Dave, I bet some people are gonna know who I am. You know, I've got a half hour on Comedy Central. I did a little something on hbo And I went up there and nobody knew who I was. And I had to work totally clean and just go through this. This, hey, what's up with this? You know, late night TV show, dude? And I ate my balls. Ate my balls. And then I just abandoned my TV set and I tried to turn it around by giving shit about the Lakers, you know, rather than, you know, going a positive route, which I never go, I should have gone like, hey, man, the late. You guys, like the Lakers, all right, you know, just something to get him in.
Steve Austin
Yeah.
Bill Burr
I was like, yeah, Kobe's overrated. How much free agency help do you like? And they were just like, hater. And then they just turned back around and it was just like, they just ignored me. And I. I'd been in it long enough where I just laugh walking. Well, there you go, you egomaniac. That's what you get for that. You know, you thought you were going to go up there and everyone was going to be, you know, thrilled to see a guy that was on VH1s. I love the 80s, whatever the stupid talking head show credit I had back then and. But, like, you know, I guess, you know, recently I've opened for a few bands, and that can be a difficult thing where they are when a crowd standing up and they're there to see music and then you come out that it's a really, you know, I have major. Like, I don't care how long I've been doing stand up, how big I ever got, there would never be a moment where I wasn't plotting backstage on a gig like that, going like, all right, I need to do this, right? I need to do that. Make sure you don't do this. Because it didn't work the last time. I got to open for Queens of the Stone Age one time, which was killer, man, because, you know, one of my favorite bands ever.
Steve Austin
And.
Bill Burr
And I just knew it. I knew going out there that, man. So I went out there and I was having a good set, and it just. It just always gets to that point, you know, like, they've had enough. They didn't come here to see you. Came here to see rock stars, not some sickly looking Ron Howard jackass, right? So I got like 12 minutes into this, and this. This fat chick just started screaming at me and wouldn't shut up. And so I. I kind of trashed the. The lead singer, Josh said he goes, no, no, it went great. It went great. It's funny, he didn't like his set, and I didn't like my set I ran into him recently. He was like, dude, you were better than us last night. I go, no, I wasn't. I got that fat chick screaming at me. He goes, no, but you handled it perfectly. I was like, I just told her to go fuck herself. I didn't do anything. And then I was just like. I sort of got her to shut up. And then I just kind of gracefully tried to get off the stage. But way back in the day, I used to open for, like, Wynonna Judd, and I did it, like, maybe four or five gigs with her. And those things were either great or they were just like. Like, if it was inside, I had a chance if they were sitting down. But, I mean, I think we did Del Mar one time. We did, like, that outdoor racetrack, and it was like, in the middle of the day, comedy during the day. Outside, sun's out, and I just come walking out like it was, you know. Yeah. So, like, if there's situations like that, then I. I still can't get out of those. I mean, there are impossible situations, so you just have to sit. What I do is just mentally, I just start thinking of all the comics I'm gonna call the second I get off stage to tell them how bad I ate my balls. Just. And then you can laugh about it, you know.
Steve Austin
Yeah. But it always fails to get it off your chest because, I mean, sometimes you go out there and you think you're gonna rock the place. I mean, you get them, but you could have done better. And it's. It's always. You're always hanging. And this is going back years for me. You're currently still doing. I stopped a long time ago, but you just hang on. That last performance, I mean.
Bill Burr
Oh, yeah.
Steve Austin
Rocked them. I mean, fuck, you're on cloud nine all of a sudden. It's kind of like, you know, in your wrestling business, it takes you, like, maybe five years to really get it. And then you go from there to the other levels. But at five years, you should be pretty proficient. So you think, okay, I got this shit. All of a sudden, you go out there and you just lay a big pile of shit in the ring. Nobody gives a fuck. They didn't get with the match and just go to the back. Everybody knows you stunk the joint. God damn, I thought I knew how to do this shit. Yeah, sometimes you do, sometimes you don't.
Bill Burr
Yeah, you walk backstage and everybody's avoiding eye contact. You're just like.
Steve Austin
The next night you. You go out there and your confidence level has got a. Just a little Bit lower. So you're hoping you, you get this crowd to get your confidence back. Dude, if you lose your swagger and it's over, I mean, you ain't got it no more.
Bill Burr
That was me in 99. 99 or 2, 2000. Well, I had failed in LA and I moved back. When did you first come to New York? Like 96.
Steve Austin
How did you fail out here?
Bill Burr
I just was not booking anything and I couldn't get stage time. And once you're the new guy and then nothing happens for you, they just, they're kind of over you. And then there's the next wave, a new. There's always going to be. You know, the thing about it is when you come out here, if you don't have a voice or anything like that, you're just a piece of meat and they threw you up. So I was a piece of meat. They threw me up there. And, you know, it's like, hey, potential, potential, potential. And after a little while when nothing's happening, you know, another three, four waves of young guys come in, you're out. And that's basically what happened. So I moved back to New York. I had a. I had a manager and agent. They dumped me and I had no manager, no agent. And I just remember when I made the decision to go back to New York, it was just like, all right, why did I get into this business? I wanted to become a good comic. So I can't get the stage time out here. I got to go back to New York and I'm just. I remember thinking, I'm going to go back to New York and I'm going to get so funny they have to book me. That was, that was the only game plan I had. I went back to that walk through bedroom. That was when I started living with Bobby Kelly. This is the 90s, you know, rollerblading and all that shit, right? Way back then. And I just did a zillion shows, just a zillion shows. And then one day, I don't know, come out the other side and yeah, you start thinking, how the hell did I get here? It's just like, I just put my head down and did a million shows. And Dave Chappelle and Neal Brennan hooked me up with a couple of episodes of Chappelle's Show. And then that thing blew up and I got to experience, you know, from a safe place where it wasn't me, it was. I was standing near the guy and watched somebody go up like, like the Beatles, you know, and then, you know, and then it Cooled down again for a little while, did a little half hour for HBO. Opie and Anthony. That was a huge year. 2005, Jim Norton got me on the Opie and Anthony show. So those guys with the HBO special coming out, that gave me a little bit of a bump. So I got the, I could sell tickets on the east coast and for whatever reason in San Francisco. I don't know why, but I think that was more the HBO special. But like all the Opie and Anthony territories, I was doing really well and those guys used to let me do promos and shit on the, on their show. Like they, they really helped all of us out. And then I guess maybe Breaking Bad and Netflix. Yeah, those were, those were the big, the big ones where you just gradually kept going up and up and up till I'm sitting here talking to you, which is still blowing my mind.
Steve Austin
All right, everybody give me the Go home. Q. It's time to wrap up his podcast and ride off in the sunset. So let's stop here on that career trajectory note and pick it up next Thursday, Bill Burr hanging out at 316 Gimmick street and we'll continue the unleashed conversation again next Thursday. Hit subscribe at itunes so you don't miss out. And while you wait for that, why don't you check out Bill Burr's comedy special on Netflix. It's called I'm Sorry youy Feel that Way and you will laugh your ass off. And if you don't have Netflix, just get on YouTube and type in Bill Burr. If you don't think this guy is funny as hell, I'll kiss your ass. Bill is also doing some stand up dates in the UK the first week of August. I know I got a lot of listeners who live there. I am not going to kidding you when I tell you go see Bill Burr do stand up. You will hurt yourself laughing. All his dates are@billburr.com he's also on Twitter illbur. All right, couple more plugs while we're doing plugs. You can find all my T shirt designs@brokenskullranch.com Broken Skull IPA from El Segundo Brewing Company in California is at Whole Foods and Total Wines. And you can find a link for them to ship it to you at broken skull ranch.com and you can also find the Steve Austin Broken Skull knife from Cold Steel Knives anytime anywhere@brokenskullranch.com everything Steve Austin you can find there. And I appreciate you guys supporting the podcast and I appreciate all you guys supporting the sponsors of the Steve Austin Podcast. They're the ones who let me do this for you free twice a week. And again, thank you guys named in the beginning of the podcast on the Open for supporting the podcast and spreading the word. Thank you guys. Big ups to ddpyoga.com go to ddpyoga.com Austin to get 20% off anything you purchase for a limited time, including the new collector's edition of the Resurrection of Jake the Snake documentary. Thank you to TrueCar and of course, thank you to Amazon, who've been supporting this podcast since day one. If you use my Amazon links whenever you're doing any online shopping, Amazon will kick back a couple of bucks to the podcast. Doesn't cost you nothing extra. There ain't no hidden fees or charges. You can buy whatever you plan on buying to help out the podcast in the process. That's how we pay our production cost. You can find all my Amazon links by going to podcast1.com click on the killer Deals button in the top right corner of the page and then hitting the Steve Austin show button. I got Amazon links for the usa, UK and Canada. Bookmark it. You can get there in one single click. Don't buy nothing special. Ain't no extra charges, hidden fees. But whatever you plan on buying, Amazon will kick back a small percentage to the show to help cover production costs. Bookmark it. You can find it easier. Hey folks, keep listening. The 62nd AP news headlines are coming up next, and on the Tuesday show, Fluffy Guy Gabriel Iglesias. Until then, my name is Steve Austin and I will catch your ass down the road. Download new episodes of Steve Austin Unleashed every Thursday@podcast1.com that's podcastone.com.
Bill Burr
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Steve Austin
This is the time with movies like Joe dirt, pixels and 51st date. This is awesome.
Bill Burr
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Steve Austin
The fairly odd Parents and Ghosts.
Bill Burr
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In this lively episode of The Steve Austin Show, wrestling legend Steve Austin sits down for an in-depth, freewheeling conversation with stand-up comedy powerhouse Bill Burr. The two worlds of professional wrestling and stand-up comedy collide in a candid discussion about what it takes to make it, the grind of paying dues, and stories from both of their journeyman origins. They reflect on parallels between their crafts—including bombing on stage (and in the ring), crowd work, and career setbacks—all told with their signature humor and no-holds-barred style.
Bill Burr (on his Prius):
“When that thing needs to be washed, I could literally leave that car in the middle of a riot running, and no one would take it.” (17:25)
Steve Austin (on control):
“I got to have the steering wheel in my hands, Bill. Maybe it’s a control issue, but like, it’s like when you punch in the direction on your iPhone and Siri's telling me where to go… I got the steering wheel in my hand.” (22:34)
Bill Burr (on comedy beginnings):
“The first, you know, 10, 20 times you do it has nothing to do with how good or bad you’re doing. All it has to do with is… having the balls to go back up there.” (38:51)
Steve Austin (on paying dues in wrestling):
“For two months I worked two days a week, Friday night and Saturday morning, and the bad guys would come in and just kick the shit out of me with kendo sticks and weightlifting belts. I was paying my dues…” (45:35)
Bill Burr (on crowd dynamics):
“It’s a big noise that you’re controlling. Then you got to know when to bring them up, when to bring them down. That took me the longest time to learn.” (53:14)
Bill Burr (on bombing and resilience):
“My back and it isn’t [physically hurt], it’s me thinking about, like, you know. Yeah, I… I took some bad… [gigs]. It’s weird—the older I get, they've started to fade from my memory, but, I mean, there… yeah, there's definitely a lot of horrific gigs. Not getting paid… you're just so happy you get any stage time.” (41:05)
Steve Austin (on the highs and lows):
“Sometimes you go out there and you just lay a big pile of shit in the ring. Nobody gives a f—. They didn’t get with the match and just go to the back. Everybody knows you stunk the joint. God damn, I thought I knew how to do this shit.” (65:10)
Bill Burr (on the Boston sense of humor):
“There’s something basically about the New York, Boston all the way down to, like, Jersey area… there’s something about Boston where it’s just like… everybody’s a character.” (33:16)
Steve Austin's conversational, unfiltered Texas bravado pairs seamlessly with Bill Burr’s dry, Boston-tinged wit. The tone is forthright, often self-deprecating, owing much to the shared ethos of “paying your dues.” Listeners are treated to industry insights, locker room (and green room) war stories, and a genuine respect between masters of their respective crafts.
Whether you follow wrestling, comedy, or are just a fan of hearing pros break down their trade, this episode is a masterclass in persistence, authenticity, and the brutal, hilarious grind of show business.
Stay tuned for Part Two of the Bill Burr conversation next Thursday!