Fresh off his appearance at The Roast of Justin Bieber, comedian Hannibal Buress graces the wonderful pages of The FADER’s April/May issue. As the first comedian to ever cover the magazine, Hannibal becomes the 3rd Chicago reared artist to make the cover this year – following The Social Experiment (& Chance The Rapper) and Tink.
Peep the intro below:
Hannibal Buress is about halfway through his second set of the night in Denver when he turns to his DJ, who is sitting a couple of feet behind him, fiddling with his turntables. “Hey Tony,” he says with a subtle wince, “play some music.” And then he walks offstage.
Nobody is expecting this, least of all Tony. But the DJ puts down his drink and searches for a song as the crowd begins to murmur. Is he coming back? Is this part of the act? Did you hear what happened in Philadelphia? Eventually, they accept the intermission as an expression of Hannibal’s eccentricity. After all, how many comedians travel with their own DJ? There’s also the fact that he’s just told a joke, which he prefaced by warning that it was totally unrelated to the jokes that came before and or would come after it, about taking a handful of ejaculate to a palm reader and asking about his future.
This sudden exit wasn’t part of Hannibal’s routine when I last saw him, a few weeks earlier, performing a sold-out show in the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s regal opera house. There was a triumphant swagger to Hannibal’s every move that night, as longtime fans from his adopted borough marveled and delighted at how the comedian’s droll, deadpan style had brought him here. He’s been an underground favorite for years, the type of guy you would see around town at bars or concerts or hosting his D.I.Y. comedy showcase a few miles away at the Knitting Factory. Now, legends like Chris Rock and Louis C.K. tip him as the future of comedy. As Hannibal strolled across that vast, fabled stage in Brooklyn, it felt like an intermediary moment before the next level of fame, when he’s starring in his own movies and playing arenas.
