Interview: Connor Burns on CONNOR BURNS: 1994 at SoHo Playhouse

Scottish comedian Connor Burns will be bringing his show, Connor Burns: 1994, to the SoHo Playhouse as a part of their International Fringe Encore Series, which “provides opportunities to emerging artists who show exceptional talent at each season’s Fringe Festivals both artistically and commercially.”

Recently, we had the opportunity to chat with Burns about his show, including what his creative process is like and what he hopes audiences will take away from the show!

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How did you first get started in the world of comedy?

Definitely a coping mechanism growing up! I'm the youngest of four by a long way in the family - all my brothers and sisters were way older - so I learned quite quickly that being funny was a good way to avoid physical confrontation. [Laughing] Growing up, I always wanted to try it, and it was actually being the best man at my older brother's wedding and the buzz I got from doing the speech and going, “Well, I guess that's comedy, right? I wrote jokes and people laughed!” And then after that, I got into the open mic scene and never really looked back.

And can you tell us a bit about your current show?

Yeah! So it's called 1994, which was the year I was born. A lot of the show is about turning thirty, and my dad is in his early 70s, so it's me challenging my dad, going, “Was everything really better back in the day?” It's a lot about growing up, being the first generation to grow up alongside the internet, technology and social media, and comparing it to what things were like when my dad was my age. There's a lot of me having an existential crisis about turning thirty, but I promise it's funny! [Laughs]

[Laughs] So what is your creative process like for a show like this? 

So this one's a wee bit different because this is the first show I've done where I use a lot of sound cues and stuff throughout the show. I've always done hours of just stand-up in the past - and this is still that! But this one, I liked the idea of using music throughout my dad's timeline and my timeline, big seminal moments in our lives, to give the vibe of what was going on in the world - what were the big songs at the time? So I started with that little nugget, and the rest of the show has grown outwards from there. A lot of turning up to open mics on quiet Tuesday nights and trying these bits to twenty or thirty people at a time, until eventually the show was built. Then I did the show for the whole month of August at the Edinburgh Fringe, and that's where it really became super cohesive.

What was it like performing this show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe?

I loved it! It's very different from a lot of comedians at the Edinburgh Fringe because, for me, it's a hometown show. I live in Edinburgh, so if nothing else, it's a month of not having to live out of a suitcase, which, as a comedian, is very novel! I love it. Whenever new comedians ask me, “Should I do the Edinburgh Fringe?” I always go, “Look, you might not make money. For the first few years, you're just gonna have to suck that up. But you will absolutely leave that month ten times the stand-up you were coming into it.” Because it’s so much stage time in such a condensed amount of time! Once you’ve performed to sixteen people, four of which are tourists who just wandered into the wrong room, standing in front of 200 people in a comedy club is the easiest gig in the world. It's a boot camp!

And so you're now bringing the show to SoHo Playhouse in New York. What is it like to be performing there?

Crazy! I'm sure you hear this stuff all the time from people, but all the cliches are true. You do dream. Especially for someone like me, I feel like my generation of stand-up, over the UK and stuff, we are one of the first generations who are equally as influenced by American stand-up as we are British. We've grown up in the Netflix era, so the biggest comedians in the world, and the ones that kind of inspire me the most, tend to have come from the States. And New York is just the hub of it. I've grown up watching videos of people in front of that Comedy Cellar wall, so it's a bit of a “pinch me” moment. I'm really excited!

And so you've performed internationally before. Do you notice different audience reactions based on the country you're in?

I've done it in a few different places. Comedians, we get way in our own head about that stuff, and you learn very quickly that funny is funny - if it's funny somewhere, it'll translate. It's usually just local references. Or if you've got a specific bit about a politician, you can always find a like-for-like politician in that country. And I'm lucky my fiancée is American, so I often run a lot of stuff by her and go, “That would work, right? They’d get that?” I think she'll be glad to see the end of the show! There's a lot of me trying to make her laugh in conversation, and then her getting angry later and going, “You were testing a bit on me!” “100%, sorry, that was all that was!” [Laughs]

[Laughs] Do you have any favourite jokes from 1994? 

I can't give it away too much! It's a routine about going for a haircut. It's based on a true story and it's a very fun, down-the-line observational bit of stand-up. And then halfway through the story, it takes a right turn. It's my favourite part of the show because no one ever really sees it coming. I can't say much more than that, but it’s a super fun story to tell on stage!
 

On that note of observational comedy, how do you decide what kind of comedy you're putting into your shows?

I've tried to sit down in front of a blank page and go, “Right, I'm not going to leave until I have five new jokes,” and it doesn't work for me! I heard a great interview once with Norm Macdonald and it's the first time I was like, “Oh, that's the closest thing I've heard to how I view stand-up,” where he goes, “A punch line will pop in my head, and then I'll just go on stage and try and figure out the funniest way to get there.” That's definitely how I approach stand-up. I never really write anything down. For me, my little notes on my phone is honestly the scrollings of a sociopath! It's all these really awful, out-of-context, little things for me to remember, something funny that pops into my head. Then I just need to go on stage and do it wrong ten times, and then finally figure it out and go, “Ah, that's how I get there in a funny way!” I’m quite fortunate, in that I've got a couple of really good small open mics that are really low stakes. You can turn up with literally just an idea and ramble for a few minutes. Without them, I think I'd find it really hard to pull a whole show together. I wish I was one of these really clever writers who the thing comes together really fully formed, but no, I need human feedback very regularly to let me know if I'm on track or not.

Do you have any advice for people looking to get into comedy?

Absolutely! My advice that I give to people is to get comfortable with the fact that it's not the '80s or '90s anymore, and you are going to have to learn to be semi-proficient in three or four other things other than just stand up. For better or worse, we all have gripes, but we're all half-decent video editors. You will have to learn a little bit about social media marketing and how that works - it's just a hustle. You might get really lucky! You might be one of the people who is plucked out of obscurity and given an old-school run at things. There are those more traditional routes, but we're all finding our own audience way more on social media. So I would say, get good at stand-up first. Don't start putting clips out when you're really new, because you will regret it later. The internet is forever. But just get used to the fact that you're probably going to have to learn three or four other things the way that everybody that's self-employed has to do now.

What has it been like for you with learning with this social media, like growing up in this age? 

My thing about social media is, we do gripe a bit and we go, “Oh man, do I really want to put another crowd work clip?” You do feel like you're flooding the market. But, ultimately, all of the time I've put into building a social media following has served my own career, and it's given me the ability to go from working the circuit to now touring. And that's huge! That's something that would have taken a lot of other people to help me achieve that. You can kill these opportunities, and you're great, but sometimes it's just the show biz industry - your face doesn't fit, or you weren't the right thing they're looking for. And now, I've got a direct channel to my own audience, so I can put a show on sale and say, “Right, here's the ticket link”. It can be frustrating and time-consuming, but you're the ultimate benefactor of all that work.

What do you hope audiences take away from 1994?

It's not something that's very popular in stand-up at the minute - I in no way want to change anyone's mind about anything. There's no message in the show. It is quite a hopeful show, I think. But we're all living in the wake of these last few days and the events of it. No matter what side you're on, I think there's a lot of uncertainty. If I can have an hour of your time and distract you and make you laugh, that's all I want.

And finally, how would you describe 1994 in one word?

I'll say hopeful! There's a lot of me shouting and swearing and damning things, but actually, it's a really hopeful show, and I do hope people leave it with us, bringing their stuff.

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Connor Burns’ 1994 runs from 12 to 7 November at SoHo Playhouse as a part of their 2024 International Fringe Encore Comedy Series.

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