Bo Burnham

About

Bo Burnham is an American comedian and musician who first rose to Internet fame through musical comedy videos uploaded to his YouTube channel. Since his on-screen debut in 2009, he has stared in his own sitcom and released four comedy albums.

Online History

On July 11th, 2006, Bo Burnham created his YouTube channel boburnham.^[1] He uploaded his first video to the channel on December 21st, 2006. The video features Burnham singing an original comedy song titled, “My Whole Family…” As of January 2014 the video has over 7.9 million views.

After posting songs regularly for four years Burnham’s channel didn’t see any new uploads from October 29th, 2010, until December 5, 2013, when he uploaded a short promotional video for his comedy special what.

On December 13th, 2013, Burnham hosted an Ask Me Anything event on Reddit^[9] to promote his comedy special, what., that was released on YouTube and Netflix that month. He covered many topics including his relationship with his parents, cars, and his plans for the future. When asked if he would return to posting videos on his YouTube channel more regularly he explained,

“The reason I didn’t for the last three years is because I wanted to make the whole show first. When I post songs online, then they don’t play well live anymore (people know them so they don’t laugh). And I love performing live. So I probably won’t return to posting things regularly, but when I do have stuff, and it makes sense, I’ll post it.”

As of January 2014 Burnham’s YouTube channel has over 660,000 subscribers.

Offline Career

Burnham has had small roles in the comedy films Funny People (2009), American Virgin (2009), Hall Pass (2011), and Adventures in the Sin Bin (2012). Burnham wrote, produced, and stared in Zach Stone Is Gonna Be Famous, a comedy show that premiered on MTV on May 2, 2013.^[8] The show was canceled after one twelve episode season.

He has also released four comedy albums-Bo Fo Sho (2008), Bo Burnham (2009), Words Words Words (2010), and what. (2013). All five were released through Comedy Central Records.

Reception

As of January 2014 Burnham’s Twitter^[3] account has over 860,000 followers and his Facebook^[4] page has over 520,000 likes. He also has 1.7 million followers on Vine^[2], and his Vines are frequently included in round-ups compiled by VineyVideos^[5].

Personal Life

Bo Burnham was born in Hamilton, Massachusetts on August 21st, 1990.^[6] He attended Massachusetts Catholic school St. John’s Preparatory. He was accepted into NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2008, but he deferred his enrollment.^[7]