Bo Burnham: Inside

[octophone]

Having been a bit put off by some of his early material, I only watched his previous special, 'Make Happy' about a week before this came out (after hearing James Acaster commenting on being compared to him). It was pretty great but spoiled by some language choices and an air of "yes, I'm making money out of you by dunking on everything you enjoy, aren't I clever?" - something only just circumvented by the fact that he actually is very clever indeed.

Anyway, "Inside" is magnificent. He has obviously matured and has shed that air of smugness. It's quite remarkable to think he wrote, performed, shot and edited the whole thing himself. It gets very dark indeed to the point where the above song is almost a spoiler because the first half is mostly just high quality Burnham (especially "How The World Works" which had me in absolute stitches, as did "Sexting") before it slides into something much more intense. As a whole, it's actually a lot but I found it genuinely funny, insightful, sad, upsetting and ultimately highly rewarding.

 

[jivafox]

A friend of mine “forced” me to watch it a couple of weeks ago whilst we were having drinks and catching up.

I wouldn’t have bothered otherwise, which would have been my loss as I thought it was brilliant. The way he weaves the comedy and the darkness so it becomes a bit of a gut punch is pretty genius, and even if some of the lighter songs are bit silly and don’t hit the mark humour wise, the technical aspect is such an achievement and really lifts them higher.

 

[dUbrodošli]

Loved it! Watched it in two parts though as it was a bit heavy to get through in one go. The songs are great on their own merits too. A+

 

[octophone]

Loved it! Watched it in two parts though as it was a bit heavy to get through in one go. The songs are great on their own merits too. A+

Yeah, it is a LOT, even over 90 minutes. I usually take a pause around the "Intermission".

 

[octophone]

The way he weaves the comedy and the darkness so it becomes a bit of a gut punch is pretty genius

Yes, this. I really don't know how he does it so effectively.

 

[jivafox]

Yes, this. I really don't know how he does it so effectively.

That moment three quarters of the way into “White Woman’s Instagram” about the photo of the mum…whew. The way the smile slowly dripped off my face

 

[C’est la VoR]

Maybe I'm a bit dead inside but I was turned off when he got all heavy at the end.

I get that COVID is a great equaliser and he's as justified in feeling shitty and unmoored about it as anybody else, but a rich white guy crying because he has to wait out the lockdown in his Hollywood mansion didn't really sit well with me.

I've seen a lot of comments from other people online about how powerful and relatable they found it though, so it's very possible I was taking the wrong things from it.

 

[octophone]

Given how open he'd been about his mental health previously and the panic attacks that stopped his touring, it made sense. He knows he has a strange relationship with attention, fame, praise etc and I think it would have been almost disingenuous not to cover that.