Well, keeping my fingers crossed, I guess we can say the pandemic is over right? Unless Monkeypox becomes the new hotness and we all will die… again…

*sigh*

When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was slightly relieved. Not because of the disease itself and the deaths it brought, but more about the social adaptation our society had to endure. Here in the Netherlands we also had lockdowns, but they were less strict compared to other countries. We worked from home and we were still allowed to walk in nature, meet your direct family members and get groceries. And for me this was more than enough. I guess I’m a bit of an introvert and avoid most social interactions, even though I can fake being sociable when required.

During the lockdowns many of us took up new hobbies like bread making or learning a new instrument. For me not much changed, however the time spent on my hobbies increased dramatically. I started to write more, read more, exercise more, practice piano more and so on. Combine that with steadily going through my backlog of movies and series, you could imagine that the lockdown for someone like me, felt like a gift.

It was in this lockdown that Bo Burnham decided to make his comeback, working tirelessly on a one man show, writing, recording and producing the show Inside all by himself. I have been a fan of his work ever since I saw him on CollegeHumor:

So I was happy to see that he got a new special out on Netflix.

In Inside Bo Burnham tries to make due with what little he has in a single room. Using various light and sound techniques he pushes the one man show performance. Combine that with his style of humor taking aim at game streaming, reaction videos and the general use of technology in lockdown and you got yourself a funny show. 

However Inside also shows a very vulnerable part of Bo. All his struggles as an artist being in lockdown, his own anxieties and depressions. It is this intimate storytelling which draws you in, making you feel all the feelings I and you probably as well have had during the lockdown.

I can honestly say that this comedy special is one of the most unique I have ever seen and if you want to see more of Inside, he recently released a 1 hour compilation of outtakes which also contain songs not shown in the special.