Grammy-nominated comedian to bring first-ever comedy show to Centreville Bank Stadium on June 12 at 8 p.m.
Throughout his decorated career spanning more than three decades, Grammy-nominated comedian Burr has packed countless venues and cracked thousands of memorable jokes. One of the most defining moments early on in his career, however, came from an emotionally-driven performance that strayed far from lighthearted comedy.
The date was August 12, 2006 in Camden, New Jersey, during Opie & Anthony’s Traveling Virus Comedy Tour.
Burr later described his experience on the Tim Ferriss Show on June 5, 2022, watching the infamous moment back nearly two decades later. Although the legendary set won over the respect of thousands of notoriously harsh fans, Burr does not look back on that night fondly.
“I’m glad that people enjoyed it, because I was embarrassed that the whole thing happened,” Burr told Ferriss.
Ahead of what should have been a routine, 12-minute set at the tail end of a line of performances, Burr recalled watching on as the crowd continually gave extremely harsh reactions to world-famous comedians and performers ahead of him. After the first act of the night was “booed off stage” in a performance that “set the tone” for a tough night ahead, the hostile atmosphere around the venue was apparent from the first minute.
“People were surviving,” Burr said.
Despite the crowd immediately throwing the performers onto the back foot, Burr was not nervous. He was not taken aback. Instead, he decided to fight fire with fire. After seeing several performances abruptly end well ahead of their allotted time out of pure desperation to leave the stage, Burr decided he was not going to cave under the pressure. He was going to take every minute he had, and he was going to make it count.
After all – Burr had been booed before. He was used to it. This was not his first time, and it was not going to be his last.
“The first time you get booed, it is a hell of an experience because you have [the attention] you want, but it is the exact opposite emotion,” Burr said. “You have the entire crowd’s focus, except there is no love. It is just hate.”
Fueled by the crowd’s anger, his own frustration and perhaps his own affinity to Boston sports, Burr spent the 12 minutes furiously tearing into the Philadelphia-based crowd, abandoning his set and instead laying into their culture, insulting their intelligence and ripping into their sports teams. The whole time, he made sure the crowd knew he was not going to back down.
“Seven minutes left,” Burr said. “Seven mother******* minutes left. And I’m doing all ******* seven.”
He gave the same reminder with six minutes left. And then again at four. And then again at three. By the time it was over, he snuck in one more dig before he walked off the stage, going as far as to acknowledge that the crowd existed. Nothing else.
“Listen, I’m out of time. You guys were here, man. Thank you very much.”
Whether he meant it or not, Burr’s approach worked. Slowly, as he passionately insulted thousands of fans to their face, the boos slowly turned into applause. Somehow, he had laid it on so thick that the Philadelphia fans who spent hours lashing out at prior performances were giving a Boston-based comedian a standing ovation. The performance was so legendary, that his final performance of that tour was booed for a different reason.
“I went to Cleveland, and as I walked out on stage, everybody booed because they wanted me to trash their city,” Burr said. “Then it became this thing, and it was like ‘I can’t do this again, or then this [will be] my act.”
While Burr places the infamous rant well in the rearview mirror, and fans are unlikely to see that extreme from him anytime soon, that night set the stage for a comedy career based in blunt sarcasm and smart-mouthed Boston charm.
That night, Burr officially made a name for himself, with the Huffington Post referring to the performance as a “watershed moment in the history of comedy.”
Almost 20 years after the fact, Burr’s next stop will bring that fame to Pawtucket.
On June 12, thousands of fans will pack Centreville Bank Stadium as Burr headlines the award-winning venue’s first-ever comedy show. The historic performance will mark the comedian’s only stop in New England during his 2026 summer tour, taking place just 30 minutes from his hometown in Canton, Massachusetts. General tickets and all-inclusive club seats for the historic show are available now and selling fast! For more information, visit the Centreville Bank Stadium website.
