1. Despite Burr’s whiny “girlfriend” voice, his fantasy about shoving her head into a pumpkin and his insistence that old men can descend into a fixed state of horror due to their significant others’ nagging, Burr’s girlfriend is really quite a peach.
2. Joe DeRosa is someone to watch. Opinionated, smart and cutting, he was not only a good match for Burr’s tone but had his own dark, deranged bits that killed: He defended George Bush’s initial reaction to the news of 9/11 at the elementary school, carefully enacting the meltdown he would have had if he’d been in Bush’s position—it involved lots of wonderfully hopeless self-castigation—and illustrating the way in which New York transforms young, hopeful dreamers into the crazy people you see on the street who believe they’re Michael Jackson.
3. Burr wanted a dog, so his girlfriend rescued a pit bull despite his fears about it (“The thing’s face had muscles! It probably survived two weeks by the L.A. river by choking out coyotes!”). Quickly, though, Burr came to love it; people now give him as much room as he wants on the street: “It’s like having a gun you can pet!”
4. At this point, crowds heckle Burr just to see what kind of impressive judo-style maneuver their comments produce. A guy who blurted out “Irish motherfucker!” got an inspired riff about how it wasn’t the ’20s, Burr didn’t just get off the boat, and they weren’t going to meet at the edges of their respective neighborhoods to do battle over who had the right to sell apples on the corner. Another guy who asked Burr if he wore sandals; in Burr’s eye, this guy became a sad, unsuccessful salesman who was seizing what he saw as a golden moment of business opportunity in an embattled market.
5. It’s beautiful to see Burr attempting to tackle his anger issues, to do things like accept the offer of a cookie from another man and not feel threatened. He told a story about shutting up his know-it-all nephew by pouring a little water on his head—and then feeling just slightly bad about it. The new twinge of regret makes his meaty rants all the more delicious…and it seems clear something in his nature will keep any peace just out of his reach. “I just have to knock everything down,” he admitted. “That’s the natural way I go.”
