Bill Burr talks music, improv, and 'Breaking Bad'

• KOURY ANGELO

For more than 20 years, comedian Bill Burr has done his time in the trenches, building an impressive resume that includes roles on Comedy Central's "Chappelle's Show" and AMC's "Breaking Bad." He's also a fixture on the late-night TV circuit - Letterman, Conan, Jimmy Fallon, et al. But live, on stage, and in the moment is where Burr's talents truly shine. The Massachusetts native's devil-may-care attitude and Bostonian "Whatever?!" conversational pace make him a distinctly hilarious, no-nonsense philosopher of the times. Inner-relationship absurdity, sports, race, and socially taboo subjects of every stripe are fair game. When Burr takes the stage, no one is spared his exacerbated wit.

Chad Radford: Most of your performances on this tour that sweep through the South are at larger theaters this time around. Have you fully graduated from the club circuit?
Bill Burr: No, When I go to write a new hour, I go to clubs, and then once I've got the material together I take it to theaters. So every other year I do clubs, and every other year I do theaters. You can never stop doing clubs because that's like going to the gym. That's what gets you in shape, and I'm dong the theaters now, which means I've got my hour down.

You have an hour down, but your performances tend to feel pretty spontaneous. Does improv figure into your set?
It absolutely plays a role, and I'm very conscious of ... When I did the "Night Of Too Many Stars" I burned the Steve Jobs bit. It's a topical bit. I'm not doing another special until 2014, so what, am I going to do the "Hey, Steve Jobs died!" bit in 2014? No. So what I did was I waited for the right opportunity to put it out there. And then it's just out there - the fact that it's on "Night Of Too Many Stars" makes it kind of like a cool B-side. That's an old record album reference. I don't know if kids are going to understand that now, but back in the day bands would put out a 45 and then there would be just one song that you could only get on the back side of whatever the bigger single was. ... The point is, I try as much as I can to make sure that the people that come and find me on YouTube are not going to just see me telling the same joke wearing 15 different outfits.