Bill Burr bringing 'Slight Return' tour to arena

Jun. 15—After the past two years, we all deserve a good laugh, and Grammy-nominated comedian Bill Burr is just the man for the job.

Burr will bring his "Slight Return" tour to Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, 255 Highland Park Blvd., Wilkes-Barre Twp., on Thursday, June 16. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7. Tickets start at $49.50 and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com.

The show will be a phone-free experience, meaning phones, smart watches and accessories will not be permitted in the performance space. Upon arriving at the arena, all guests must secure these devices in individual Yondr pouches that will be opened when the show ends. Guests maintain possession of their devices at all times and can access them throughout the event only in designated areas within the venue. Anyone seen using a device during the performance will be escorted out of the arena.

Burr is one of today's top comedians today, achieving success in not only the comedy world but also TV and film. One of the few comics who can sell out arenas like Madison Square Garden and London's Royal Albert Hall, he's set to become the first comic to ever play Fenway Park in Boston when he stops there this fall.

He's also known for his ability to see where the industry is moving. In 2012, he began releasing comedy specials on Netflix and stayed there, joining the streaming world years before it was considered a desirable platform for content. Burr also got into podcasting early, launching his "Monday Morning Podcast" in 2007, and it remains one of the most downloaded comedy podcasts more than a decade later.

While he's had a robust career across entertainment, Burr still feels one of the biggest misconceptions about him is that he's an angry guy. Burr told the Hollywood Reporter in April that "people think, like, I'm just walking around fuming, or they'll watch my act and take it literally."

He's also experienced some controversy from things he's said in his standup routines, including raising some eyebrows with his opening monologue on "Saturday Night Live" in October 2020. (He took on the racial reckoning by mocking the complacency of "woke" white women.)

Burr insisted to THR that no one should make an assumption about him based on his stand-up or what they hear about it.

"You can't take one incident or one quote and say, 'That's who you are,'" he told the publication. "It took me 50 years to figure out who I am, and I've been with me for 50 (expletive) years. How are you going to figure out who I am in a joke?"

Still, Burr said he adjusted some of his attitudes over the years, and while he won't specify which old jokes, if any, he regrets, he noted in his new special that would have taken a more playful tone in certain situations.

"I like how I'm seeing the world now, and I feel like I'm doing less of this (points at an imaginary person) and more of this (points at himself)," he said in the magazine. "I've made every mistake you can make, pretty much. I've hurt people and I've helped people. At the end of the day, you want to have more good stuff on that side of the ledger than bad stuff."

Good things career-wise include "Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill," a showcase featuring stand-ups curated by Burr that dropped on Netflix last week; creating an animated Netflix series, "F Is for Family," which ran for five seasons; six comedy specials; a Grammy nomination for "Bill Burr: Paper Tiger," recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall; starring in films including "Daddy's Home" with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg and "The King of Staten Island" opposite Pete Davidson and Marisa Tomei; and appearances on television shows including "The Mandalorian" and as Patrick Kuby, one of Saul Goodman's henchmen, in "Breaking Bad." (No word yet on if he will appear in the final season of "Breaking Bad" prequel "Better Call Saul" on AMC.) Burr also recently wrapped his directorial debut, "Old Dads," which was inspired by Burr and co-writer Ben Tishler's experience of becoming fathers in late adulthood.

And while Burr might rage against the frustrations of modern life or lash out at things beyond his control and maybe even put it into one of his routines, he's grateful to do what he does.

"I'll be honest," he told THR. "In 2011, I bought a house with money from being a stand-up. And I remember (being) on the back porch with my beautiful wife and said, 'I know you're not supposed to say this, but I made it. I've been satisfied for a long time. Anything I get after this is great.' The most inner peace that I've had in my life is where I'm at right now."

Contact the writer: gmazur@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9127; @gmazurTT on Twitter