Meet the internet funny guy who takes himself seriously

Child prodigies are, frankly, just a bit creepy. Especially the American ones.

Recently at the MTV awards, Alexys Nycole Sanchez, a little girl from the movie, Grown Ups, took to the stage to collect an award and made a speech in which she thanked, alongside her co-stars Adam Sandler and Salma Hayek, God. Alexys is eight years old.

Bo Burnham is similarly precocious. It was five years ago, when Burnham was 15, that he became an internet sensation. Not in the sense that a picture of a cat that looks like Hitler becomes a sensation, but a proper, full-on, internet superstar.

Burnham posted a video of himself singing a comedic song in his bedroom, accompanied by a keyboard. Ostensibly, it was something amusing to send to his older brother. My Whole Family Thinks I’m Gay spread like wildfire, and a comedy star was born.

He went on to be signed by an agent, released an album of comedy songs, was commissioned by MTV to write a sitcom and was approached by Judd Apatow, Hollywood’s uber comedy producer behind Knocked Up and 40-Year-Old Virgin, to write a movie, a kind of anti-High School Musical. There was also the not-so-small matter of 70m plays of his internet videos.

Speaking from his Massachusetts home, Burnham reveals himself to be a little too world weary than any 20-year-old really has a right to be. Especially one who appears to have the world at his feet.

When the videos of his comedy songs went viral, was it a surprise? How did it feel to suddenly have his funny little home-made three-minute videos being watched by a million people a day?.

“Being surprised or amazed by it all would not have been productive,” he says, sharply. “I could be like ‘woah, wow’ at everything that’s happened, but I think that would foster a sense that maybe I shouldn’t be here.”

Burnham leaves the statement hanging in the air. It is clear that this young man feels he very much deserves to be where he is.

You can’t really blame him – although in the early days even though he had millions of fans of his YouTube videos, he was still ‘only’ an internet star.

“It’s an abstract thing when people are watching your videos via YouTube,” says Burnham after our interview has been temporarily interrupted by a bad line.

“It’s nothing more than numbers on a screen. Like when you’re doing a TV show, you’re not aware of how many millions of people are out there watching.”

Millions, however, were. He was becoming a big name in America. Referencing pop culture, he name-checked Eminem alongside Robert Frost and TS Eliot in songs about teen angst with ironic titles like I’m Bo Yo in which he aims his laser wit at the banalities of modern rap.

In person, he may sound truculent; in his songs, he is dazzling witty with lyrics that are layer upon layer of social observation, internal monologues that are hilarious.

Last year, he decided to bring his little act to Edinburgh and play a 175-seat venue. Five-star reviews followed, as did a nomination for the Foster’s Comedy Award (formerly the Perriers). He didn’t win the top award, but had he done so, he would have become the youngest person in 30 years to take the prize.

“Edinburgh was great, but it was this weird little frenzy in a self-contained world,” says Burnham. “It was like going to some strange summer camp. But I guess the whole thing built its own momentum.”

Momentum is the right word. Garnering five-star Edinburgh reviews, for a comedy act, is definitely something special.

Burnham clearly wasn’t sure how British audiences would take to this teenager (he turned 20 during the festival) and his pun-laden comedy songs.

Reports of the shows were that people tried not to laugh too much for fear of missing the next gag, which would arrive within seconds of the last.

After the festival, he returned home, but is now back in the UK for a tour which sees him come to Yorkshire this week.

“I don’t want to be doing well because I’m young; I want people to like what I do because it’s good,” he says. And the line goes dead again.

There’s no doubting Burnham has talent and, given his wealth of material, the tour should be a deserved hit. The only thing he needs to learn to do now is not to take himself so seriously.

[email protected]

Bo Burnham, Sheffield City Hall, June 16, 0114 2780789. Leeds Carriageworks, June 17. 0113 2243801.