Review: Sam Burns, Bing Bing!

In the final third of Bing Bing!, Sam Burns recounts a bit that earned him many laughs and one formative scolding as a kid. “It’s why I’m here tonight,” he offers in an aside. “I’m chasing the dragon. I’ve never killed like that. It was incredible.” 

It’s one of a number of mostly self aware reflections on a moderately misspent youth that are sowed throughout the album — and that make for its strongest material. Modern day Sam’s flailing misadventures are hardly boring, whether he’s thwarting his mother’s misguided suggestions for his act, or recounting a delightfully excruciating awkward interaction on Toronto’s infamous Dufferin bus. But it’s when he turns his barely flinching eye on his younger indiscretions that Bing Bing! best thrives. Recounted with an amusement just wincing enough to save Burns from sounding like he’s wallowing in his past — and to make audiences feel like they’re not just laughing at a bunch of funny shit a comedian did a decade or so ago —  his stories of small-ish town teen delinquency, getting kicked out of the YMCA, and having a drug-induced prom epiphany make for highly amusing listening. Especially that childhood joke, which legit still kills.

Bing Bing! was released on April 6, 2020.
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