In The Inside Outtakes, performer Bo Burnham comes with even more magical songs ★★★★☆

There’s a moment in The Inside Outtakes in which we see how the performer, actor, singer and director Bo Burnham has a Zoom conversation with all kinds of variations of himself. The conversation is about his Netflix comedy special inside, in which Burnham attacks the 2020 lockdown year head on. ‘Higher quarantine art’, wrote de Volkskrant about the special, which was recorded in a few months in a studio behind Burnham’s house. With a keyboard, light effects and that extraordinary musical talent, he made an impressive one-man show (with himself as the only audience), in which he effortlessly and ingeniously combined observations about the isolation that corona with the loneliness we feel in front of our screens.

The Zoom conversation with himself about his own special, including the lack of diversity in his solo show, is completely Burnham. He reflects endlessly on media and his own role in it. It is not surprising that he wrote this footnote with ‘residual material’ from inside of more than an hour, The Inside Outtakes, posted on YouTube. After 24 hours, the production hits 2.3 million views. Burnham was one of the first major YouTube stars, who broke through at the age of 16 on the brand new medium with self-written songs such as My Whole Family Thinks I’m Gay† Years later, he is still a pioneer on YouTube. In this Outtakes he also pokes fun at the rules of the average YouTube video by creating absurd banners and commercials himself.

Don’t expect the polished production that inside used to be. But if this fell off the table, we want to look back at the original production as soon as possible. There are songs and even opening chords that are instantly magical. But Burnham is strict with himself. Outtakes is at the very least a fascinating representation of the creative process of one of the most original artists of our time.

And then Burnham introduces at the end of the Outtakes, as if he were the Marvel Cinematic Universe itself, the upcoming spin-offs of the Inside universe. He can go on for years to come. We take him at his word.