TVSquad

Tonight, Bill Burr will be the first stand-up comedian to do a performance spot on Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show. If you don't know him, you will soon be one of the few. Burr has been on a roll for the past few years, getting stronger and stronger and playing bigger and bigger venues, culminating in last year's special, Why do I Do This?, which premiered last August on Comedy Central and is now on CD and DVD.

I've seen Burr live for years, playing shows like Denis Leary's annual Comics Come Home in Boston and Opie and Anthony's Traveling Virus tour. I have never seen him fail (the closest I came was last year in Los Angeles in front of a mostly indifferent crowd, working really hard for every laugh - for some perspective, Dave Attell and a lot of other good comics bombed that night). He became infamous for a decidedly NSFW YouTube video showing him at an O&A show in Philadelphia, the only time I can think of that a single comedian took on a crowd of hecklers and won.

Burr has a particular combination of intelligence and street smarts that allows him to appeal to a variety of fans. He's also self-aware and willing to share that with an audience, giving them a front row seat to his embarrassment as he contemplates what to do about a fight breaking out on the subway or his sudden impulse to start punching muffins at a craft fair.

You'll see a bit more of him on the big screen, too. Burr is in L.A. now for the Tonight Show spot, where he has also been filming for the Tina Fey and Steve Carell movie Date Night, in which he has a supporting role. He'll be back in New York soon filming for the movie for the next month.