Hannibal Buress is known for many things. Perhaps most controversially, his 2014 stand-up set about then-underreported rape allegations against Bill Cosby went viral, leading to a media firestorm and, eventually, guilty sentencing for the comedian in 2018 (which he recently appealed).
Buress also cohosts on Cartoon Network’s cult-hit The Eric Andre Show and plays Ilana’s long term boyfriend Lincoln on the popular Comedy Central series Broad City. That show wrapped earlier this year after a successful five-season run. But the multi-hyphenate comic, actor, writer and producer hasn’t slowed down a bit.
Apart from his Handsome Rambler podcast and a few big-screen roles, Buress bops around on stand-up tours, surprising fans with the occasional pop-up DJ set or intimate show (which the Chicago native has brought to the cozy back-room bar at Gramps in Wynwood). Now, he’s filming a brand new comedy special, and the live-taping is happening right here in Miami this Saturday, August 10.
While this city has provided Buress with a wealth of material for his stand-up routines (“I got arrested in Miami and it’s a long story that’s pretty funny,” he shares), he also happens to actually enjoy a thing or two about the 305. Ahead of his back-to-back performances at Downtown’s historic Olympia Theater, we caught up with the comedian on some of his all-time Miami favorites, plus his thoughts on the end of Broad City. [Edited for brevity and clarity.]
On Gramps: “I like doing experimental, small shows, live podcasts, DJ sets. Gramps is a dope home for that.”
On Smoke Signals Studio: “Smoke Signals is this collective of just different artists that put on lots of events—it’s Aja Monet and phillip agnew. They put on a lot of fun stuff, so I’m glad I met them in December 2017 and then I saw this show they did in a backyard, just this dope performance. So since then when I come to the city I link up with them. It’s always a good time, they always have something really dope going on.”
On Villain Theater: “I found out about them on this last trip, in June. I really enjoyed that space. It’s just a nice sized spot and the team they have working there, everybody was really fun and just really excited to be working there. So, that was cool. When I was in Miami, the reason was I was scouting venues. We were leaning towards Olympia, but we wanted to look at some other spaces, so we looked at the venue. The Villain, we decided to just do a small pop-up show to try to get the word out and promote the big shows in August. It was a good, quick trip.”
On the end of Broad City: “It was a good run for Broad City. It was five seasons and it was a fun time for me to try different things that I probably wouldn’t have. It’s just different types of scenes, and just being in a relationship on-screen. I probably wouldn't have written that kinda stuff for myself, you know? I'm glad they got to end it on their own terms and it wasn't canceled. They wrote it to end it at five seasons.”
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