Thursday, March 5, 2009
More about Bo yo!
Age: 18
Hometown: Hamilton, MA
Style: Hyper teen performing songs in bedroom
Background: Taught himself guitar and keyboard and began churning out YouTube videos — "I'm just a giddy teenager who would like to break into show business anyway I can," Burnham says.
Signature bit: Rhapsodic ode to Helen Keller ("I could walk around the house naked/She wouldn't even know")
Reminiscent of: Adam Sandler
Tough gig: Followed Judd Apatow onstage at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival in 2008
Watch: boburnham.com
Hometown: Hamilton, MA
Style: Hyper teen performing songs in bedroom
Background: Taught himself guitar and keyboard and began churning out YouTube videos — "I'm just a giddy teenager who would like to break into show business anyway I can," Burnham says.
Signature bit: Rhapsodic ode to Helen Keller ("I could walk around the house naked/She wouldn't even know")
Reminiscent of: Adam Sandler
Tough gig: Followed Judd Apatow onstage at Montreal's Just for Laughs festival in 2008
Watch: boburnham.com
More about Bo!
Young comedian Bo Burnham is heading up charts
Saturday, July 26th 2008, 4:00 AM
Bo Burnham
He's only 17 years old and looking forward to entering NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in the fall. But if college doesn't pan out for Bo Burnham, he can always fall back on a career in standup - in just 18 months, Burnham has gone from an accidental YouTube phenomenon to a buzzed-about comedian poised to hit the big time.
His debut digital-only EP on the Comedy Central label, "Bo Fo Sho," hit No. 1 on the iTunes comedy album chart and No. 6 on the overall iTunes album chart, alongside the likes of Coldplay.
"All my fans saw me as some little kid who can't even afford new jeans in his room, so they'll support me," says Burnham. "That'll work until I become a success."
He already is: Burnham made his NYC debut at Carolines Comedy Club last week, has already been to London to appear on TV, has performed at the prestigious Montreal Just for Laughs festival and has late-night talk-show bookers vying to be the first to put him on American TV.
Offering a gangly cross between the verbal wordplay of George Carlin, the drollness of Steve Martin and a self-deprecation all his own, the Hamilton, Mass., native's explosive success began when he sat in his bedroom and videotaped a performance of an original song called "My Whole Family (Thinks I'm Gay)" and then posted it on YouTube just so his older brother at college could have a laugh.
"I like to joke about being gay because it's something teenagers would never joke about," says Burnham, who also has fun in his videos by awkwardly pretending he has just had lots of sex with beautiful women. "Uncharted territory is a good place to be in," he adds.
A Web site championed the video and in the blink of an eye it scored more than a million views. That's usually the beginning and the end of most online viral phenomena.
But he soon posted three more videos, all with jokey themes like Helen Keller being the perfect woman or a "Harold and Maude"-like ode to dating a senior citizen. They too became smash online hits, in no small part thanks to Burnham's witty banter. ("Hello world ... and Internet pedophiles," he winks at the beginning of one tune.)
Now he has had 15 million views of his baker's dozen worth of videos featuring hilarious tunes like "New Math" and "I'm Bo Yo," songs packed with so many vulgar puns and clever one-liners you have to listen to them repeatedly to catch all the jokes.
Saturday, July 26th 2008, 4:00 AM
Bo Burnham
He's only 17 years old and looking forward to entering NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in the fall. But if college doesn't pan out for Bo Burnham, he can always fall back on a career in standup - in just 18 months, Burnham has gone from an accidental YouTube phenomenon to a buzzed-about comedian poised to hit the big time.
His debut digital-only EP on the Comedy Central label, "Bo Fo Sho," hit No. 1 on the iTunes comedy album chart and No. 6 on the overall iTunes album chart, alongside the likes of Coldplay.
"All my fans saw me as some little kid who can't even afford new jeans in his room, so they'll support me," says Burnham. "That'll work until I become a success."
He already is: Burnham made his NYC debut at Carolines Comedy Club last week, has already been to London to appear on TV, has performed at the prestigious Montreal Just for Laughs festival and has late-night talk-show bookers vying to be the first to put him on American TV.
Offering a gangly cross between the verbal wordplay of George Carlin, the drollness of Steve Martin and a self-deprecation all his own, the Hamilton, Mass., native's explosive success began when he sat in his bedroom and videotaped a performance of an original song called "My Whole Family (Thinks I'm Gay)" and then posted it on YouTube just so his older brother at college could have a laugh.
"I like to joke about being gay because it's something teenagers would never joke about," says Burnham, who also has fun in his videos by awkwardly pretending he has just had lots of sex with beautiful women. "Uncharted territory is a good place to be in," he adds.
A Web site championed the video and in the blink of an eye it scored more than a million views. That's usually the beginning and the end of most online viral phenomena.
But he soon posted three more videos, all with jokey themes like Helen Keller being the perfect woman or a "Harold and Maude"-like ode to dating a senior citizen. They too became smash online hits, in no small part thanks to Burnham's witty banter. ("Hello world ... and Internet pedophiles," he winks at the beginning of one tune.)
Now he has had 15 million views of his baker's dozen worth of videos featuring hilarious tunes like "New Math" and "I'm Bo Yo," songs packed with so many vulgar puns and clever one-liners you have to listen to them repeatedly to catch all the jokes.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
About Bo
Ever since his first temper tantrum, Bo knew he wanted to perform. After an awkward “athletic” phase, he started dedicating his time to school theatre. He continued to nurture his love for performance, receiving rave reviews from countless relatives. Bo chose to attend an all-boys catholic high school, thus giving his nickname “theatre queer” some additional validity. During the fall of his junior year in high school, Bo started teaching himself how to play piano and guitar. Soon after, he wrote and composed autobiographical songs, such as “My Whole Family Thinks I’m Gay,” as non-fictional jokes between him and his friends. On December 28th 2006, Bo recorded two of his songs as videos, and posted them on YouTube. Eight months and seven songs later, Bo’s videos have been seen over ten million times worldwide, generating literally hundreds of thousands of laughs. The songs, recorded in Bo’s bedroom with a camera resting on a stack of books (couldn’t afford a stand), have been remixed, rated, and reviewed thousands of times. Now amongst such elites as “The Chocolate Rain” guy and Chris Crocker, Bo hopes to capitalize on his “success” and share his stories with the world. Oh, and he also likes to rap…awkward
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