Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks review: Veteran comic returns to Netflix in familiar shades, but with profound catharsis

3/5

Story:

Who doesn't love to watch standup comic Bill Burr fly off the handle in front of a massive crowd? As one of the most celebrated provocateurs, Burr has never made any bones about expressing his disdain and frustrations with respect to the American culture, the thick insulation around it called political correctness and most important of all, feminism. In his latest Netflix special Bill Burr: Live at Red Rocks, the comic brings out his most familiar side with gusto but also manages to surprise everyone by presenting his more vulnerable and tender side. With anecdotes from his childhood and his recent experiences with psychotropic drugs, the new special brims with fascinating moments.

Review:

“I don’t know if you guys noticed, I have a bit of a temper,” says Bill Burr around the halfway stage of his most recent Netflix act. The veteran comic returns to the big stage for the fifth time with the streaming giant, feeling edgy and effervescent as ever, and gets into his element right off the bat. There is a sense of familiarity in Burr’s rant which, in the garb of comedy, often exposes his dislike of political correctness and lack of due justice in the post-MeToo era. It isn’t the first time that the 54-year-old comic has gone off about things he abhors passionately, especially the cultural shift his home country has experienced over the past few years, but one would reckon that despite the repetitiveness of his standup material, it is always nice to hear from Bill Burr. A polarizing name in many regards, Burr built his image over the years through his cavalier attitude towards hot topics like feminism and gender dynamics, but always carefully treading the line separating the asinine and scholarly to his own benefit.  

However, the latest Netflix special Live at Red Rocks comes across as a touch different. For starters, Burr seems to have let his guard down and the fact that he walks out wearing a comfy-looking sweatshirt enunciates just that. There’s a sense of submission in the comic, a strange profoundness he began to acquire ever since the pandemic struck and the 82-minute-long special feels split into two halves to highlight this inward growth/shift in him. Catharsis is the operative word, perhaps, but Burr is way too experienced a comedian to spell it out for us and instead, he lets us into his childhood and shares little stories that, as he believes, may help explain the angry man in him. While the first half of the special tackles his usual distrust and hatred for hypocrisy, the second half is a much more tender and personal take on the man he was and the one he has been trying to be. In many ways, Live at Red Rocks can be seen as Bill Burr’s subversive and parodic take on his own hugely popular stance toward society and gender politics, albeit still told with utmost disdain for himself and those around.

“I mean, what about Coco Chanel? Widely considered a feminist icon and I can’t imagine the sexism she had to deal with – an amazing accomplishment and hats off to her. However, she was also a Nazi sympathizer. Yeah, that’s like half her f**king Wikipedia page, just sitting there, waiting for someone to read it”.

That said, Bill Burr is also found shy of committing himself completely to this task. Around the semblances of this catharsis, the comedian sometimes tends to withdraw a bit too soon from revealing his softer side in its entirety and instead, returns to his comfort zone which outrightly disses anything sanct around him. It is in these moments that one realizes the lost potential in the act and the new special never transcends expectations except in those few poignant bits. Burr carries the special mostly on the back of his vast experience, navigating through the difficult parts with great finesse, but it is possible for one to be left wanting a bit more, especially in terms of the subtextual quality of the material. Unlike his idol and comedy legend George Carlin, a provocateur and fellow nihilist, Bill Burr doesn’t make the necessary strides to justify his belief system with an improved perspective and instead, remains as detached as ever from the things that bug him the most.

Verdict:

Live at Red Rocks isn’t a path-breaking standup hour by Bill Burr, nor is it the most rewarding for his regular patrons. However, the fact that the celebrated comic comes with his guard down allows for a few genuine moments to take space and make this an interesting experience, nevertheless. Red Rocks features every bit of his many trademarks – the disbelief and the distrust in modern society, the vigor and the conviction, and those resounding break-into-laughter follow-ups to his own jokes. Inadvertently, Bill Burr hints at wanting to try something new and despite the many ebbs and flows, the 1-hour-22-minute long special is a comforting watch.