Hannibal Buress is Doing Alright For Himself

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Photo by Constance Kostrevski

Over the last couple of years Hannibal Buress has stolen scenes as Ilana Glazer’s affable, sort-of boyfriend on Comedy Central’s “Broad City,” endeared himself to late-night audiences as the co-host of “The Eric Andre Show” and, most famously, delivered the viral stand-up routine that reignited the rape allegations against Bill Cosby. Buress was overdue for a show of his own, and this summer he got it: “Why? with Hannibal Buress,” which wrapped up its first season on Comedy Central last month. Ahead of his performance at the Riverside Theater on Saturday, Sept. 19, Buress spoke to the Shepherd about “Why?,” his stand-up and his recent acting roles.

You’re spread across so many different mediums these days. Do you still consider yourself primarily a stand-up comic?

I love doing stand-up and that’s what got me into the other mediums that you’re talking about, but I also act and I also do voiceover work and the whole TV show, so it’s just different jobs. They all stem from stand-up, but you never know how people know you. There are people who just know my face but don’t know my real name. I remember being outside of a spot last year in L.A. that I was doing stand-up at, and me and a couple comics were out there talking and this woman came up and said, “Oh my god, he’s from ‘Broad City!’” And I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, I’m from ‘Broad City,’ nice to meet you.” And she’s like, “What are you doing here?” And I said I was doing a show. And she was like, “What type of show?” I’m like, “Stand-up!” [Laughs] So I enjoy stand-up obviously, and it’s what I started doing. It’s the one thing I have the most control over. I can go do stand-up any time, you know what I mean? Like yesterday, I just got back to New York, doing three shows, and I’m doing five sets tonight. You can’t just pop up and be like, “OK, I’m going to do a TV show right now.” And at the last minute you can’t be like, “OK, I’m going to do a narrative movie about these six people, and I’m doing it tonight!” So you know, movies and television take an incredible amount of prep work and other people involved.

Was acting something you long aspired to do, or an opportunity that just starting coming up?

They just started coming up, man. It’s something where people see you do something and figure out how to fit you into what they’re doing. That’s what happened with Eric Andre’s show and with “Broad City.” People wrote me into their projects and that’s how it happened. It’s cool, man. I audition for stuff all the time and I usually don’t get it—like the stuff that I got was stuff where people said, “You’d be good in this,” or, “We wrote this for you.” That’s how a lot of things work sometimes in comedy.

What are some of the roles you’ve auditioned for but didn’t get?

All kinds of shit. Comedic stuff; some action movies and things like that. That’s just the nature of acting period—you’re not going to get a lot of stuff, but you take the experience and you get better and maybe they think of you when something else comes up. A lot of the people I’ve cast in different pieces for my show in the last few episodes were people that auditioned for something else. They didn’t get it, but I just remembered them and thought, “OK, that person would be good for this.” So it was just easier than having a whole other casting. That’s what auditioning is for. It might not be that job, there. It might be something else.

I’m surprised to hear you are that hands on with the show that you are casting people. I always assumed that would have been handled by a different department.

Oh, any E.P. [executive producer] is involved in casting. Like the casting department will get the people together, then you tell them what type of look you want, what type of character you need, what age you need. But if I’m going to be on camera with somebody, I need to approve that. So any E.P. or director is definitely involved in the casting, especially in a comedy. In “Broad City,” they do all their cast. There’s a casting director that brings the people together, but they make the call on it. Eric Andre, same thing. He’s making a call, conferring with the other producers and directors, but he’s definitely making a call on that.

This is the most hands on you’ve ever been on a show. Is that a big change for you? Have you acclimated to it?

Yeah. I acclimated to it. We’re done already, so I’m back in relax mode. But it was a lot of shit to do constantly. Like I said, there’s casting, there’s being in the pieces, writing, editing, figuring out costumes stuff. And then there’s also selling the show and promoting it and doing interviews and all of that. So it’s a lot of stuff. It’s cool and there was no time over the past few months where I was like, “Man, I’m bored!” [Laughs] There was always something to do. So it was really cool, but it’s nice now after that few months to be like, “I’m chilling.” Like I did “Broad City” earlier today and it was just simple, because I’ve just got my character and that’s it. I don’t got to deal with nothing else on the production side. So it was nice, especially since they happen so close to each other. I finished the show Tuesday and taped “Broad City” yesterday, so it was a nice shift.

Which way do you prefer to work; super hands on or…

Both, man! It’s nice, man. I really enjoy the acting more these past couple of days just because of the contrast of it. I like doing my own show, because it’s seeing something going from initial idea to writing it up to re-writing it to figuring out who’s in it, and it can happen real fast, too. An idea can go from a news story on Monday, writing it Monday to casting it Monday evening, taping it on Tuesday, then it’s on TV on Wednesday. That kind of turnover is a fun thing, but acting it cool, too.

The show was interesting, because so much of it responded to current events. I don’t think most people associated you with that kind of comedy before.

Yeah, I mean, I’d done it. I haven’t really done it in any of my specials, because it doesn’t hold up, you know what I mean? But I definitely have done it in live shows. If there’s a story or something, I’ll talk about that because it’s fresh in people’s minds. But it was a fun thing to do, and a different feel, but it was cool. We talked about weird stories, too. It wasn’t just the typical stuff. A lot of those stories got cut, but we did a story that was about a dude who got his dick ripped off, and now he has a bionic dick. We talked about that. All types of weird stories. We cut a lot of stuff out sometimes.

Even something like your segment about the Drake/Meek Mill beef, that’s comedy that can really only work right away. A few months later it’s not going to make much sense.

Yeah. I was like, “We gotta go talk to people about this! Let’s do this!” But yeah, I can’t talk about that in my standup special. I mean, well, maybe I can if it’s done in the right way. You can, but 10 years later, does it still work for a general audience? Who knows. There’s topical stuff other people have done in their specials that still holds up, but ultimately you want it to be as evergreen as you can make it.

For a comedian, is having your Comedy Central show considered one of the biggest badges of honor?

[Long pause] No. [Laughs heartily.]

It seems like it’s a prestigious accomplishment.

No, it is cool. But the biggest badge of honor? I guess a network show, or selling out Madison Square Garden, or having a huge comedy movie or selling out arenas a bunch...that’s not to diminish it at all; it’s a cool thing. And it’s a great thing, and I’m happy that was able to do it, and I hope I can continue to do it. It is great to have your own show in any way. But then what after that, you know what I’m saying? Even if you have a show, you can’t in my mind…even if I did five or six seasons or whatever, you’d still want to do something more, you know?

How come you haven’t had a starring movie vehicle yet? That seems like something you’d be in line for.

A starring role in a movie? I haven’t even done a major character part in a movie! [Laughs] On an independent level, for me to star in a movie right now I would have to write my own movie. I would definitely have to start with a side character, or maybe go up to a third lead or something. But as far as being a star lead, it would have to be written by me. Like Amy Schumer is the star lead in a movie, because she wrote that shit. Like Seth Rogen wrote a lot of his own shit where he was the star. Those kinds of things you have to make on your own a lot of the time. In comedy definitely. It’s not the rule, but it helps.

Do you think that’s something you could do?

Yeah, I could. It takes a lot of focus, but I could write a movie.

Was there a point in your career when you realized you’d really arrived, or has it felt like more of a gradual climb?

It’s growing man. And it’s still in a growing phase. But there’s just certain levels. In Chicago, at home, people were really supporting what I was doing. In Chicago four years ago, summer of 2011, I did two weeks at Zanies comedy club, some stupid amount of shows, like 17 or 18 shows or something. Nobody does two weeks at the comedy club. You do one week and then you’re done, but we did two weeks. That was a cool thing. And then stuff just builds. You start to see more people come out on the road. This past year doing the theater tour and having it be sold out in these venues I’d never done and selling out 1,100 seats twice in D.C., the tour was real cool, man. I had my own tour bus. That was fun. I hadn’t had a tour bus before, and me and my friends hit the road and drank and played video games on it.

You make touring sound like a lot of fun. A lot of comedians speak about touring as something they have to do but dread.

Yeah, that’s an early on thing. Comedians around my level enjoy the road [Laughs]. If you don’t enjoy the road like this, then you don’t enjoy stand-up, I don’t think. I understand if you got a family or something and you don’t want to be away from them, but if you’re playing theaters it’s a pretty fun situation.

Once you’ve reached this level of stardom, is it easier to perform because the audience is primed to like you, or is it harder because the expectations are higher?

It depends. It depends on the crowd. I forget who said this, but I think Seinfeld talked about how if you’re dropping in on a set, you’ve got like five minutes where the crowd likes you the first five and you can get away with a lot of stuff, but after that it wears off and you gotta tell some jokes. I mean, they might laugh at some stuff they wouldn’t laugh at if somebody else said it—you know, that kind of good will you’ve build up from saying funny shit.

I want to finish by talking about one of the movies you have coming up. What’s your role in the Angry Birds movie?

I play a bird.

[Laughs] I figured.

Hey, I could play a pig, so don’t laugh! [Laughs]

Oh, that’s true.

See, don’t be snarky, dog! [Laughs] But I play… my bird is named… I forget my bird’s name! But he’s angry at this bird played by Jason Sudeikis. Jason Sudeikis is late with a delivery on my son’s birthday, or hatch date, and I kind of give it to him. And that’s pretty much all I remember. It’s tough with animated stuff, because it’s just you in a booth by yourself, saying stuff, you know what I mean. So it’s not as much of a connection to the material if you haven’t seen the movie. It’s not like “Broad City,” where I could tell you what happened in each scene. I mean, I sort of know what happened, but I didn’t do anything but just talk. So it’s like, “Uh, I think I’m mad at him? Then I tell him off?” So it’s vague [Laughs].

Hannibal Buress plays the Riverside Theater on Saturday, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m.