Bill Burr: ‘I Didn’t Want to Be the Angry Guy’

B ill Burr would like to make one thing crystal clear: He never wanted to be “the angry guy.”

Oh, the legendary stand-up knows that he has a reputation as someone who can rage with the best of them. His unparalleled ability to vent his spleen onstage and on his twice-weekly Monday Morning Podcast, which Burr started way back in 2007, has long fueled his popularity. “Believe me, dude,” the 58-year-old comedian says, “I can blow my top like anybody. I can still lose my shit. I’ve got 50-something years of practice of that. ”

But Burr has been working on himself a lot over the past few years. And while there is no shortage of things that still make him mad — social media, tech billionaires, your everyday displays of blatant hypocrisy, the whole left-versus-right thing — he has finally mastered the art of anger management, as well as letting go of a lot of the pain behind it. Part of this change was spurred by a mind-blowing mushroom trip Burr took in the early 2020s, which he memorialized in his seventh comedy special, Live at Red Rocks. Part of it was the result of therapy, which Burr has credited with saving his life. Part of it involves his loved ones and realizing that he had accidentally become the very person he vowed to never be.

And part of it, as Burr will confess during our hour-plus conversation, was an unexpected moment of clarity that happened when he was preparing for his role in The Social Reckoning, writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s return to the world of Facebook, some 16 years after he helped give the world The Social Network. Burr’s character, a composite of several longtime investors, is worried that Mark Zuckerberg (played with characteristic intensity by Jeremy Strong) isn’t taking a whistleblower and a series of Wall Street Journal exposés seriously enough. Coming on the heels of his turn in the all-star Broadway revival of Glengarry Glen Ross last year, it’s a great example of both Burr’s facility as an ensemble player and his ability to parlay his comic persona into a legitimate acting career. But there was an added benefit: A spontaneous crying jag while rehearsing lines prompted Burr to finally address decades’ worth of issues and become a much happier version of himself. Editor’s picks The 250 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century So Far The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century

Yes, Burr still blows gaskets — but on a scale of one to 10, he’s no longer “coming in at an eight because someone got my dinner order wrong.” Yes, Burr is still hilarious — probably more than he’s ever been, both in his own estimation and gauging by the dozens of record-breaking, sold-out shows he’s played everywhere from Boston to London to Greece. No, he hasn’t lost his edge, even if he knows he’s lost some fans who expect him to be a misanthrope 24/7. But as he’s been touring his latest stand-up hour around the U.S., he’s now dedicated to countering the divisiveness he believes is tearing this country apart. Enough with the angry guy. “I want to be the meet-in-the-middle guy,” Burr says.

The Social Reckoning is not a follow-up to The Social Network, exactly.