A podcast appearance by comedian Bill Burr turned into an unexpected (alleged) family reunion.
When the comedian, 56, was a guest on Tuesday’s episode of the “Howie Mandel Does Stuff” podcast, a surprise special guest entered: Smashing Pumpkins guitarist Billy Corgan, 57, who previously theorized that he and Burr may be half-brothers.
Corgan revealed on the podcast in November that about 10 years ago, his stepmother told him she believes Burr “might be one of the children that your father sired in his days being a traveling musician.”
“My father did once tell me that I had a half-brother named Bill, who was born around the same time as me,” the Chicago musician said. He insisted at the time that he was not joking.
During the Tuesday interview, Burr jokingly tore into Mandel for setting the encounter, calling it “rude” and saying a podcast wasn’t the appropriate venue for them to meet.
“What was supposed to happen? Are we going to go play catch?” Burr quipped. “We’re both in our 50s.”
Mandel eventually left the room so the two could have a conversation alone. With the host gone, Burr asked Corgan about his “relationship with Dad,” which the Smashing Pumpkins star described as “difficult.”
“At some point, it did become funny to me that he had multiple families,” Burr said, noting that “my dad told us he was a dentist.”
Though it seems the two were only playing along with the idea of them being related throughout the conversation, Burr acted like he was convinced by the end of the interview, declaring definitively that “we have the same father.”
Still, Corgan jokingly suggested, “The fact that he said he can’t sing, I think that sort of disproves that we’re related.”
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