Bill Burr
Emotionally Unavailable
What are Records? has picked up Bill Burr’s previously self-released CD and added almost 20 minutes of fresh material from the comic. The new stuff was recorded in an obviously less-intimate room (no more cash register in the background); if your sense of humor has been trained by laugh-bludgeoning sitcoms, everything suddenly sounds less funny. Try to move beyond that.
Among the best parts of the disc is Burr on race. Both his early and later sets contain gems on the subject. The first features Burr opening up about his grandmother being rude to his black girlfriend; the latter, descriptions of the body pains he develops getting directions from said girlfriend to her Harlem apartment. Any wonder the guy killed on Chappelle’s Show? –Todd Jackson
With Marc Maron and Dana Gould. November 17, Palace Ballroom, 8 p.m.
Nick Swardson
Party
Swardson straddles some of the biggest fault lines in comedy today, but the balancing act makes him someone Dane Cook’s bros and comedy snobs alike can agree on: Swardson’s funny. On Party, he’s your best bud, but with a surreal take on topics like drug dealers as car salesmen and his future kid being British.
Swardson is also incredibly self-aware, occasionally deconstructing his act in the middle of a joke, offering alternative punchlines and demonstrating that there’s not always truth in comedy. The disc is also bookended by two sketches. The first brilliantly has Swardson piecing together last night’s events from phone messages. The second is a not-so-bad excuse for Swardson and guest David Spade to make fart noises. –Todd Jackson
With Jamie Kennedy. November 16, Augustus Ballroom, 10:30 p.m.