Hannibal Buress takes the weirdness in stride

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      You can chart Hannibal Buress’s climb up the comedy ladder from his Vancouver appearances over the years. In order, he’s played the Biltmore, the Rickshaw, and the Vogue, and he’ll be prowling the stage at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. The guy is one of the biggest names in the business. Yet he still has time to talk to us, even against the wishes of his New York publicists. Asked if he’ll get in trouble for talking, Buress responded, “They work for me; I don’t work for them.”

      Despite the successes, from his sold-out standup shows to his work on Broad City and The Eric Andre Show, Buress remains low-key. “I don’t think I’m really different. I just try to manage everything and keep it in perspective and try to have fun and be appreciative,” he says. “It’s definitely weird. I mean, it’s weird with women and different situations like that, where I kind of know what they’re there for. It’s not my looks. But you know, there’s worse things in the world to deal with.”

      Buress was in six films in 2016, and four more are in the works for 2017. And it’s not because he’s such a great actor, by his own admission. With all his television work, and the fact he slays thousands upon thousands throughout the world with his standup both in person and on his Netflix specials, he’s a recognizable face. Buress has one goal in mind when acting: “I just try to say my lines and not be jarringly horrible.”

      Words to live by. He’s not a trained thespian, although he admits to working with an acting coach if he’s got a big audition coming up. “I just say the words, man,” he says. “I mean, a lot of times you’re already acting in your standup a little bit, switching into different characters. I used to not think I could do it. I would get offers to go on auditions and I wouldn’t go just because I didn’t see myself in that way. I’m talking more in 2009, 2010, where my agent at the time would try to push me into film and different roles like that and I just didn’t feel comfortable as an actor. But it really just takes time and learning.”

      Buress also received a lot of press and a certain amount of infamy with a bit about Bill Cosby, revealing until-then underreported—but already public—allegations of sexual abuse to the public, effectively bringing down the House of Cos. It’s something he’s been reluctant to talk about. He describes the whole situation as “very weird”. Buress was thrust even farther into the public eye. Every time a new claim came forward, his name would be thrown in for good measure as the genesis of the public’s knowledge. “It was more that they kept going back to me with it, you know what I mean? There are still people bringing it back to me. It’s a very fascinating situation,” he says.

      His standup has grown from mellow and understated to more energetic and forceful. His Hannibal Montanabal tour includes a DJ and a video element to “mix it up a little bit”. The aim is to “keep people engaged from when they come into the house, even before the show starts. We just have fun with it and tinker with the show and make sure people have a good time.”

      In a business where performers hold on to the spotlight until the bitter end, Buress claims he’ll retire from standup well ahead of his best-before date.

      “I’m doing some real-estate investing,” he says. “Trying to set up some stuff so that I won’t have to tell jokes in about seven years.”

      It seems unlikely, but he clarifies: “I don’t want to grind at telling jokes in seven years. I want to have the option to do it. I want to do it at my leisure. I want, seven years from now, anytime somebody comes at me with an offer, I want it to be a known thing where it takes an obscene amount of money to get me out of the house.”

      I still don’t believe it. He counters with “Interview me on my 40th birthday.”

      Deal. If I can get past his publicists.

      The Hannibal Montanabal Tour plays the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on Friday (October 21).

      Comments