At 22 years of age most of us were just finishing Uni, or stuck in a job we hated, looking back on our slender existence with wistful malaise, hoping for the future while waylaying the past. A mis-spent youth that has gathered little results or success. At 22, Bo Burnham has already stormed the Edinburgh Fringe twice, created, written and starred in his own sitcom for MTV, and is the youngest person ever to record a Comedy Central special. But please don’t hold that against him. His mastery of the craft of comedy is mainly because he has kind of invented his own brand of meta-comedy that features songs, dance, magic tricks, intricate wordplay, prolonged eye contact and being self-referential to incidents that happened but moments ago. He’s a great talent that has gotten past the ‘difficult second album’ moment of comedy and can look forward to a long life in comedy. Or a grizzly descent into drink and drugs. Whatever the future holds for Burnham, it’s certain to be like nothing you’ve seen before.

Tue 12 & Sun 17 Nov, The Dancehouse, 10 Oxford Road, M1 5QA, Tel: 0161 237 9753, 8pm, £16, dancehouse.ticketline.co.uk

Tue 12 Nov - Sun 17 Nov
Words:
John Stansfield
Published on:
Sun 10 Nov 2013