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Bo Burnham
Burnham performing at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, March 19, 2009 (2009-03-19).
Background information
Birth name	Robert Burnham
Born	(1990-08-21) August 21, 1990 (age 22)
Origin	Hamilton, Massachusetts, USA
Genres	Comedy, Satire[1]
Occupations	Singer–songwriter, actor, rapper, comedian[2]
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, electric piano, ukulele[3]
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Comedy Central Records
Website	BoBurnham.com

Robert "Bo" Burnham (born August 21, 1990 (1990-08-21))^[4][5] is an American comedian, singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and Internet celebrity. Writing comedic and satirical songs with a politically incorrect slant, he achieved fame when his YouTube videos took off and received more than 70 million views by October 2010.^[2] Comedy Central Records released his first EP (Bo Fo Sho, June 2008) and his first two full-length albums (Bo Burnham in March 2009 and Words Words Words in October 2010). On January 29, 2011, it was announced that Burnham finished #1 overall in voting in 2011's Comedy Central Stand-up Showdown.^[6]

Personal life [edit]

Bo Burnham was born the youngest of three on August 21, 1990, to Patricia and Scott Burnham.^[1][7]

In February 2008, Patricia was a staff nurse at Burnham's school, and Scott owned a North Shore, Massachusetts construction company. Their two older children, Pete and Samm, were concurrently enrolled in their third and second years at Cornell University and Suffolk Law School, respectively.^[1]

Burnham attended the all-boys Catholic high school, St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, Massachusetts, where he was on the school honor roll and was involved in theatre and the campus ministry program. The school's assistant principal, Wendy Olson, remarked in a February 2008 interview that while "[t]he Bo on YouTube is not the Bo we see around here, [...] no one at St. John's is surprised at his creativity or that he's pursuing his dream, which is to make a name for himself." Burnham graduated from St. John's in the Spring of 2008.^[1][7]

Burnham applied to New York University (NYU), University of Southern California (USC), and Yale University,^[1] and was accepted to NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.^[8] Although expected to begin attending in Autumn 2008,^[9] he deferred his enrollment for a year to focus on his burgeoning media career.^[4][10] Burnham later related that his first year on tour while friends had gone to college made him "[want] to fucking die. I'd be on the road, in South Dakota, looking on Facebook at all my friends at parties."^[11]

As of August 2010^[update], Burnham was reported to be dating a girl from "a nearby suburban town".^[12] Subsequently, in an interview conducted at the 2011 Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny, Burnham revealed that he had had a "girlfriend for five years".^[13]

Home-grown music [edit]

As detailed by Burnham himself, 2006 was the beginning of what would become his musical comedy career. Rehearsing a play at St. John's that summer, Burnham began writing songs about teenage angst and debuting them to his fellow high school thespians. He then videotaped himself performing two songs and posted them to the video-sharing website YouTube in December 2006,^[9] so that his older brother Pete could enjoy them from college. While response to his videos on YouTube ("My Whole Family... " and "My 'little' secret...") was initially unexceptional, when they were copied to Break.com they became an overnight sensation, with traffic to his videos multiplying over 111 times.^[1]

Accompanying himself on guitar or electric piano, Burnham continued to release self-described "pubescent musical comedy"^[9] songs and videos online as his fame and recognition grew. Described by The Boston Globe's Joseph P. Kahn as "simultaneously wholesome and disturbing, intimate in a folksy-creepy sort of way," Burnham wrote and released songs about white supremacy, Helen Keller's disabilities, homosexuality, and more.^[1] All of Burnham's home-released videos were self-recorded in and around his family's home in Hamilton, Massachusetts, most in his bedroom. Occasionally jokingly addressing his audience in his videos, ("Hello, Internet pedophiles,") Burnham rarely changes expression or camera angle while performing—simply setting the video camera on a stack of books.^[1][7] Speaking with The A.V. Club in 2009, Burnham expressed his intent to give his productions a "do-it-yourself [feel], almost like voyeurism".^[14]

Career [edit]

Represented by Douglas Edley, Burnham recorded a performance in London for Comedy Central's The World Stands Up in January 2008 (aired June 30, 2008 (2008-06-30)),^[1][15] and signed a four-record deal with Comedy Central Records.^[16] Comedy Central Records released Burnham's first EP, the six-song Bo Fo Sho, as an online release-only album on June 17, 2008 (2008-06-17).^[8][9] Burnham's first full album, the self-titled Bo Burnham, was released by Comedy Central Records on March 10, 2009 (2009-03-10).^[17]

Burnham has performed his music in the United States, including Cobb's Comedy Club, YouTube Live in San Francisco,^[10] Caroline's Comedy Club in New York City,^[8] and internationally in London and Montreal. In August 2010, Burnham was nominated for "Best Comedy Show" at the 2010 Edinburgh Comedy Awards—"the world’s most prestigious comedy prize" with a £10,000 cash prize—after his inaugural performance (of Bo Burnham: Words, Words, Words) at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.^[18] He was instead awarded the "Panel Prize"—carrying a £5,000 prize—for "the show or act who has most captured the comedy spirit of the 2010 Fringe." ^[19][20]

Compared to Ben Folds, Eminem, and Andrew Dice Clay, Burnham's music and performances tackle such taboo subjects as race, gender, human sexuality, and sex.^[21] Burnham describes his on-stage persona as a "more arrogant, stuck-up version [of] himself."^[22] When speaking with The Detroit News about his rapping, he expressed his intent to honor and respect the perspective and culture of hip-hop music.^[2]

Uphill [edit]

As Burnham progressed through his initial popularity to more mainstream audiences and venues, he received pushback from fellow comics who viewed his ascension via YouTube popularity as illegitimate.^[11]

Burnham's first experience with controversy regarding his music came on March 3, 2009 (2009-03-03), when fifteen Westminster College students (members of the campus' Gay-Straight Alliance, Black Students Association, International Club, and Cultural Diversity Organization) protested his concert there that evening. Of the controversy, he said, "It's so ironic because gay bashers were the ones labeling me in high school, [...] I try and write satire that’s well-intentioned. But those intentions have to be hidden. It can't be completely clear and that’s what makes it comedy." The Columbia Daily Tribune related that at the end of his Westminster performance, Burnham was approached by a paraplegic fan. While Burnham was plainly uncomfortable and nervous, given that his music mocks the handicapped, the young fan instead related a blonde joke to the teenaged musician. Despite the college's admission that they had booked Burnham while ignorant of his content, dean of students John Comerford praised the opportunities for discourse the controversy brought the school.^[21][23]

Tours [edit]

• Fake I.D. – Autumn 2009^[24][25]
• Bo Burnham and (No) Friends – Autumn 2010^[26]
• Bo Burnham Live (UK/US Tour) – June 2011-July 2012^[27]
• Bo Burnham: What. Tour- Summer 2013

Film [edit]

While performing at the Montreal Just for Laughs festival in 2008,^[8] Burnham met with the award-winning director and producer Judd Apatow. That September, Burnham negotiated with Universal Pictures to write and create the music for an Apatow-produced comedy film which he describes as the "anti-High School Musical",^[7][28] although Burnham insists the script isn't a parody of the Disney musicals, but an attempt to emulate the high school he attended. Hoping to star in the film he's writing, Burnham told Wired magazine that he's naming the star "Bo" in a "not-so-subtle hint [he] want[s] to be in it".^[29] In a March 2009 (2009-03) interview with Boston's Weekly Dig, Burnham elaborated on his work with the film. When he isn't performing, Burnham spends eight hours a day writing the music, and his nights writing the script, of which he's finished the first draft.^[30] Co-writing the screenplay with Burnham is his high school friend Luke Liacos.^[12] Burnham explained the script-writing opportunity is a boon to his comedy career, as the comedian had been having complications with censors and learning that his material wasn't well-suited to television. "It would work much better in a 90-minute format."^[29] In August 2010, Burnham told The Guardian that his script had been submitted.^[11] In an October 2010 interview with MTV, Burnham admitted that he doesn't know anything about the future of the project, and that it's all effectively up in the air as far as he knew.^[31]

In May 2009 (2009-05), viral marketing began appearing for Funny People, in which Burnham stars in a NBC sitcom called Yo Teach!. In the "promo", Burnham stars opposite Jason Schwartzman, as a student in the latter's English class.^[32]

On May 21, 2010, Burnham taped his first one-hour stand-up special entitled Words Words Words for Comedy Central from the House of Blues in Boston as part of the network's new "House of Comedy" series of stand-up specials.^[33][34] The special aired on Comedy Central on October 16, 2010. It was released on October 18, 2010.^[35][36]

Television [edit]

On September 7, 2010, Variety magazine reported that MTV had ordered a half-hour long television "put pilot", from Burnham "about a kid fresh out of high school who's pursing [sic] the new American dream of being a celebrity without having any talent." Burnham will write and executive produce "Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous"^{[citation needed]} alongside Dan Lagana, Luke Liacos, and Dave Becky.^[37][38] On March 13, 2013, Bo announced via his Facebook that 'Zach Stone' would be premiering on Thursday, May 2, 2013 on MTV.^[39]

Awards [edit]

At the 2010 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, he was nominated for the main Edinburgh Comedy Award and won both the Edinburgh Comedy Awards' panel prize and the Malcolm Hardee 'Act Most Likely to Make a Million Quid' Award.^[40]

Performance credits [edit]

Discography [edit]

• Bo Fo Sho (2008), Comedy Central Records – Released as an online-only EP^[8][9]
• Bo Burnham (2009), Comedy Central Records – Double-disc set containing the Compact Disc album, and a DVD with his Comedy Central Presents special, all of his YouTube videos, and other performances^[17]
• Words Words Words (2010), Comedy Central Records – A live performance paralleling the one-hour special of the same name, also includes two studio tracks, "Words Words Words" and "Oh Bo"^[41]
• what. (2013), Comedy Central Records – Newest album by Bo which was first announced on his facebook page.

Filmography [edit]

• Comedy Central Presents (March 27, 2009 (2009-03-27)), Himself^[21] – As of July 2009^[update], Burnham is the youngest comedian to be featured thereon^[42]
• American Virgin (2009)^[43]
• Funny People (2009) – Yo Teach! Cast Member^[43]
• Bo Burnham: Words, Words, Words (2010) – Himself^[33]
• Hall Pass (2011) – Bartender^[44]
• Sin Bin (2012) – Villainous student liaison^[45]
• Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous (2013) – Zach Stone

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bo Burnham

• Official website
• Bo Burnham at Comedy Central
• Bo Burnham's channel on YouTube
• Bo Burnham at the Internet Movie Database