Hannibal Buress Talks Making Music, His Podcast, and the Truest Version of Himself

By the time you’ve read this interview, Hannibal Buresss will probably have already taken The Capitol Theatre stage by storm. People most definitely laughed. Some might have even fallen out of their seats. If you’ve ever see Hannibal on Broad City or The Eric Andre Show, listened to his podcast Handsome Rambler, or seen him perform live, you already know: The dude’s funny as hell.

Yet his tangibly laid-back demeanor just might be the funniest thing about him. He might be blazed, he might not be. It doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day the only thing that does matter is getting comedy’s hottest new star to talk about the thing he loves to do most: make people laugh. 

 

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Have you ever been to Westchester before? What’s your impression of the county?
I’ve been there before, but it was for a show and went back to the city so I actually don’t really have an impression of Westchester beyond it being a suburb that people move to when they want to be close to the city but away from it at the same time. That’s really all I got, you know?
 

That’s the common perception, so you’re pretty spot on. You’re coming to do stand up, but you also act, make music, and record a podcast. When would you say your truest “Hannibal” comes out?
Probably would have to be during the podcast. We’re getting real loose and we don’t really have structure a lot of the times. I mean we’ll do a little prep for the guest and do research and all that, but sometimes it’s just like “Okay, let’s just talk and see what we got.” So I think in that format, pieces of the real me definitely come out a lot. It’s just raw, we’re just coming up with stuff.

Stand up is definitely me, a true version of me, but its honed and kinda practiced where the podcast is me just freestyling and coming up with shit.
 

Do you have a favorite moment from the podcast?
Favorite moment? Chris Rock being on was fun. The Open Mike Eagle episode, too, cause some of them are straight forward leaning towards the interview side, and some of them are just us freestyling and just veering off into weird places. We do that on more episodes recently, especially if there’s a rapper or musician that’s a fan of the show. Lizzo’s episode is super loose and has a bunch of small clippable moments. It’s real fun.
 

I was listening to an RL Grime mix a while back and was shocked to hear you featured, talking about being “Chicago’s Avicii.” How far are you taking this music thing?    
I don’t know how far I’ll be taking the music thing. I’ve been toying with the idea of making a mixtape or EP for years now.
 

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What genre?
Hip hop or other variations. I’ve recorded a little bit of stuff; I made a juke song, Chicago Juke Music.
 

You mentioned that in your Hot Ones interview. Didn’t your friend react to the genre saying “Oh they’re just gonna keep sayin’ the same shit over and over?”
[Laughs] Yea, that was a great moment, when he realized that.

It’s just fun to make a song and try to come up with something. Not just to do it just to do it. I’d like to come up with something that is listenable, not saying it’ll reach the biggest audience, but the people that it did reach would want to play it again.
 

Will you be wearing your Hannibal jumpsuit at the Cap?
Nah, I think that’s retired, that outfit. I gotta get something else. The jumpsuit, that was from 2014, 2013. So yea, I gotta retire that.
 

Are there any future projects you’re most excited for?
We got the movie Tag coming out June 15. That’s with Jeremy Renner, Jake Johnson, John Hamm, Ed Helms, and myself, so that’s the big summer movie for me this year. Excited that for that to come out. That’s pretty much it, and I’ma chill after that. Yea.

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