Will Burkart | |
|---|---|
| Born | Peoria, Illinois, U.S. |
| Comedy career | |
| Years active | 2014–present |
| Medium |
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| Website | thewillburkart |
Will Burkart is an American stand-up comedian known for his crowd work and short-form comedy videos. After developing a following through clips of his stand-up performances on social media, he began touring nationally in 2023. He later performed at the 2024 Netflix Is a Joke festival and released his debut stand-up special, Warm Regards, in 2025.
Burkart was born in Peoria, Illinois, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He later attended film school in Chicago.
After completing film school, Burkart moved to Los Angeles to pursue stand-up comedy.
Burkart began performing stand-up comedy in 2014. He spent several years performing in the Los Angeles comedy scene before gaining a larger audience through social media. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when live comedy performances were disrupted, he increasingly posted clips from his stand-up sets online. His crowd-work videos in particular attracted a substantial following.
In 2023, Burkart embarked on his first nationwide headlining tour, performing in 45 cities. He continued touring in 2024 and appeared as a headliner at the Netflix Is a Joke comedy festival in Los Angeles.
Burkart's comedy incorporates observational material and audience interaction. He has said that he generally avoids political material in his stand-up, preferring comedy that does not require an audience to share a particular political viewpoint.
In September 2025, a video of Burkart interacting with National Hockey League player Reilly Smith during a performance in Las Vegas went viral after Burkart initially failed to recognise him.
In 2023, Burkart launched The Will Burkart Podcast, a comedy podcast focusing on his experiences as a touring stand-up comedian.
Burkart recorded his first stand-up special, Warm Regards, in Sacramento, California. It was released on June 16, 2025. The special runs approximately 38 minutes and focuses primarily on Burkart's prepared stand-up material rather than the crowd-work clips through which he had become widely known online.
Burkart said he deliberately chose a shorter running time for his first special, believing that a roughly 40-minute programme would be more accessible to viewers encountering his stand-up for the first time.
Burkart is particularly associated with crowd work, with clips of improvised interactions with audience members forming a significant part of his social-media presence. The San Francisco Chronicle characterised his approach as "good-natured crowd work".
Burkart has distinguished his online crowd-work material from his prepared stand-up, using short audience-interaction clips to introduce viewers to his comedy while reserving much of his written material for live performances and longer-form releases.
Burkart lives in Los Angeles.