Photo Credit: Marcus Price
Hannibal Buress has been performing in Milwaukee since 2005, when he would take a $15 Greyhound bus from his hometown of Chicago to host standup shows at Comedy Café. Just as that Comedy Café has been torn down and replaced with a retro arcade bar, Buress’ career has undergone a transformation in the ensuing years. He has sold out theaters across the country, landed his first starring role in a Hollywood film and performed the joke that helped bring down Bill Cosby, an experience he now refuses to speak about.
This year has brought another, more personal, change. Buress, who is now 35-years-old, decided at the beginning of the year to stop drinking. Alcohol had been a familiar subject in Buress’ comedy routines. “My vice of choice is drinking,” he says on the 2014 album Live From Chicago. The album also references his love for New Orleans—because you can get drinks to go—and getting into drunken fights. But Buress is sure that his sobriety will not affect his personal style of storytelling. “There were stories that involved drinking, but they weren’t funny because I was drinking,” he said. “They were funny because I’m funny. Boring people drink too, and there are sober boring people. The activity isn’t what makes it. The person makes it.”
We spoke with Buress ahead of his Saturday, Sept. 22, show about his new material, his starring role in Tag and his verse on Jean Grae and Quelle Chris’ latest album.
What can you tell me about the new material?
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The new stuff is just me talking about what I’m doing and what I’m thinking about, which is what has happened in the past specials. I stopped drinking since the beginning of the year. I cover that. I went to Thailand all of July. I haven’t been able to talk about it much on stage yet, so hopefully I will get those jokes together and they will be good. Just, you know, being 35.
One thing I’ve noticed is that you rarely, if ever, bring up current events or politics in your set, which is so popular to do now. Is that a conscious decision?
I haven’t done it much on recorded works, that’s true. But I have talked about it. I don’t dive deep. Yeah, I haven’t really gotten into it. In my mind, it doesn’t age well. Not to say that me doing a Lil Wayne joke is timeless, or that I think that through on every single piece of material like, [starts speaking triumphantly] “Will this stand the test of time? Will people watch this 40 years from now? Will pickle juice still be relevant?” I don’t think about it like that, but I’d rather just talk about other stuff for the most part. I get into it a little bit, but also there are other people that are way better at that. It just doesn’t move me that much.
Your fame has really amped up over the last few years, how have you been dealing with that?
It’s been a couple of years since I’ve been doing bigger rooms. I guess three or four years or so. It’s nice to have that progression, but it’s a gig. It’s cool that people really appreciate what I do, but, you know, you still have to do the job. I just try and improve constantly and try to be better at my work and just try and help others that I work with be better at theirs.
Even beyond standup, you just came off of doing Tag, which is your first starring role in a film, right?
Yeah, that’s the most on-camera time that I’ve had. It was a new experience to be on set that long and we had a lot of room to improvise. I had done several movies before, but when you’re the lead, the promotional process and everything is a different level of responsibility and intensity. All of that was fresh and new. Tag did ok at the box office, but now it’s in its second life. That DVD, video-on-demand, hotel room, airplane world. That’s where you get the people at! That casual viewing! That, “Let me check this out. Oh yeah, I remember this. I didn’t want to see it in the theater, but I’ll watch this now.” Then they enjoy it. Because I think a lot of people really enjoyed the movie.
How did you end up with a verse on Jean Grae’s latest album?
Well I’ve known Jean for a while. Just through New York, she would come to a lot of comedy shows and perform at comedy shows. I’ve been a fan of hers since college. I would listen to her and she’s just one of the greatest rappers. She’s amazing. We became friends and had done shows together. Then she asked me to do the song and I said sure. She said it was just a song with no theme really, just to rap on it. So, I get to her and Quelle Chris’ place, and I hadn’t worked on my verse ahead of time. I should’ve wrote something or wrote down some ideas. I kind of came there with nothing. I had to write my verse and come up with it there. It made me nervous, because Jean Grae is a really dope rapper and now I’m coming up with my verse at their home studio and I was feeling a lot of pressure and nerves. I was still drinking at the time and I don’t know if the drinks were helping the nerves or hurting the nerves, but we got it done. It was fun to do. Maybe we’ll do it live at some point.
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Was Jean impressed with the verse?
She said she liked it. I had to make sure she wasn’t just trying to gas me by saying it was dope. I feel like it was a solid verse. It’s not the most lyrical, but it’s one of those that has good energy and vibes. (Starts rapping) I ain’t got a fur coat / But I got a bookbag full of Merlot / I’m lying, I ain’t got no fuckin’ Merlot / I drink whiskey / But I do want a fur coat / This shit is trippy. That’s alright!
Hannibal Buress will perform on Saturday, Sept. 22, at the Riverside Theater. You can purchase tickets here.
