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[crickets chirping]

[upbeat funky music]

* *

- All right, here we go.

* *

We're at the Columbus Theatre
in Providence.

Beautiful theater.

Probably about 800 seats.

I'm not performing here.

We're not performing
on this stage.

[laughs]

I'm performing up there.

That's where I work out
new material.

This is very hard to explain.

"Old Man and the Pool"
went to Broadway.

- His Broadway show--
it's fantastic--

"The Old Man and the Pool,"
with an additional

two-week extension of its run.

Please welcome back to the show
our friend Mike Birbiglia.

[cheers and applause]
- Super exciting.

And then it ends.

It's like, well,
I can't tour that anymore.

And so then it's like, OK.
Well, now what do I do?

[indistinct chatter]

This week in Providence,

it's, like, show number one
of 500 shows

or however many it takes

to be the next Broadway show,
comedy special.

What's the next show about?

And it's like, I don't know...
- Right.

- Until I figure out
what I'm obsessed with.

- When a comedian puts
a special out into the world,

they are faced
with a real sense of dread

that that is the last hour of
jokes they're ever gonna write,

and they should probably move
on to a different career.

- Good evening, and welcome...
[laughs]

To the Strange Attic
at the Columbus Theatre,

where Mike Birbiglia sometimes
performs shows for some reason.

[cheers and applause]
Thanks.

Thanks, Gary.

[cheers and applause]

Here we go again.

This is the beginning.

- A comedian
only makes it work onstage

if it looks like it's the first
time they're saying it.

If it doesn't seem natural,
the audience feels ripped off.

You weirdly have to put
all this time into it

to make it look

like you're coming up with it
off the top of your head.

- I don't know
why that's so funny.

You think it's funny,
so it'll live

to see another night
in the show.

I always tell the audience,
"In case anyone's wondering,

there will be no arc."

If you feel themes,
those aren't themes.

[laughter]

It's just the same person
telling the jokes.

"If you notice an arc,
feel free to shout it out."

You're probably thinking,
how come we don't get

the final product?

We just get the first draft.

I think Providence is
a first-draft town.

I just feel like--
[laughter]

Maybe that's who you are.

That's--that's why
my family lives here.

[laughter and applause]

[bright music]

* *

[laughter]

I'm gonna start with a story
that took place

here in Rhode Island
last summer.

My wife and I stayed
at an Airbnb,

which, by the way,
no breakfast.

It's a--Airbnb is
a wildly misleading acronym.

It's like if you showed up
to an AA meeting,

and they're like,
"We're livestreaming."

And you're like, I had heard

it was sort of a private thing.

And they're like,
"Pop open a wine cooler.

We're gonna dish some goss."

[laughter]

All I'm doing right now
is just throwing out jokes

and seeing what sticks.

If they get a big enough laugh,

I'll do them,
you know, next week

in Washington, D.C.

That's actually what's
exciting about these shows,

is it's an adventure.

It's like, OK.
Wonder what this will be.

- Yeah.
- Who knows?

- Mike came upon this idea
to call shows "Working It Out,"

so as to set expectations.

You know, this isn't
a fully realized show.

- I come off of doing
"Old Man and the Pool,"

where it's, like, this
fully realized production.

I've been working
for four years.

So I always have
this sense of, like,

do they know that this is
what they're getting into?

This Airbnb said
five minutes from the beach.

And it wasn't.

It was not
five minutes from the beach.

It was on Seaview Road.

There was no sea view.

Everything was misleading.

[light music]

- I've only done one special,
so I'm so impressed with Mike

and people like Mike
who are prolific enough

to churn out a bunch.

And the other thing
about Mike is,

none of his have ever seemed
even a little bit rushed.

You realize
that he takes that idea

of what a special means
literally.

* *

Obviously, he's been
incredibly lucky to be gifted

with things like
a sleepwalking affliction,

heart trouble.

Not all of us can have this
fall in our laps.

- So I told my brother Joe
about this,

and he goes, "You should
come over to our place."

I went over to his house,
and his house is

five minutes from the beach.

[laughter]

And Joe and I, we work
together professionally.

We've worked together
for 15 years.

I mean--but technically...

he works for me.

[laughter]

I mean, I sign his checks.

[laughter]

So, if he's five minutes
from the beach...

I should be
five minutes from the beach.

So I started thinking,
I should seize his home.

[laughter]

[upbeat music]

* *

I think people ask you a lot,

how come you didn't become
a stand-up?

- Yeah, OK.
- Because you're very funny.

- Yes.
- You're a comedy writer.

- Some would say more funny.

[laughs]

- Some would say more funny.
- Mostly our mom.

- Most people.
- Mostly our mom.

[laughter]

The joke Mike has made is that

I'm too sensible
to be a comedian.

Yeah, I had a pretty serious
corporate job at the time...

- Yeah.
- At Pfizer.

And finally when he said,
"I need your help,"

I was more than happy
to leave that world.

On occasion, I'll write a joke
and give it to him.

And then he'll present it,
and it won't do well.

But he didn't do it
the way I thought

he should have done it.

[laughs]

Is he here? Um...
[laughs]

- When I was in high school,
you were living in Brooklyn.

And you would take me
to, like, the hipper shows

that had Sarah Silverman
and Zach Galifianakis.

- Right.
- Joe took me

to see Steven Wright
at the Cape Cod Melody Tent

when I was, like, 16.

Two of my biggest influences
were Steven Wright

and Mitch Hedberg.

- It's a small world,

but I wouldn't want
to paint it.

[laughter]

- Steven Wright, of course,

was all these, like, one-liner,
like, cerebral jokes.

People are always surprised
that these are the influences,

because they don't think of me
as, like, a joke teller.

And, like, Steven Wright
and Mitch Hedberg are

two of the greatest
joke tellers of all time.

- I'm gonna rob a bank
with a BB gun.

Give me all your money,
or I will give you a dimple.

- In terms of developing
"Sleepwalk With Me,"

my biggest influence

was "Richard Pryor:
Live from the Sunset Strip."

- Of all the people
you ever heard of freebasing,

have you ever heard
of anybody blowing up?

Why me?

- He just had so many moves--
wildly versatile.

Sometimes you don't need
punch lines.

Sometimes
it can just be what happened.

* *

I love jokes,
and I love storytelling.

So I do these shows
that are solo plays,

that are also
stand-up specials.

I'm a very different comic
than I was when I started.

I was like
an observational comic.

And at a certain point,
I started telling

personal stories about my life.

And it was weird.
It was a hard thing to do,

because I was
always discouraged

from telling personal stories
growing up.

Like, my dad, my whole life,

when I would tell
personal stories,

he'd be like,
"Don't tell anyone."

And it would be
about mundane things.

Like, it wasn't
about creepy things.

Like, I wouldn't make
the soccer team,

and he'd be like,
"Don't tell anyone."

I was like, they're gonna know,
you know,

when they show up at the games
and I'm not on the team

and I'm crying,
you know what I mean?

And--

[soft music]

My dad, he was a doctor--

very serious person,
very academic person.

He always had this thing
that was like,

the more that you tell people
about yourself,

the more they can use it
against you.

But the upside is incredible.

If you can open up to people
and tell them the thing

that you'd be the least likely
to tell them about--

how you had cancer
or how you have

a serious sleepwalking disorder
or any of your flaws,

anything that you're
self-conscious about,

the connection can be so deep.

- When you grow up in
a structured Catholic family,

there is a fear
of veering way off.

But I do think that Mom
and Dad were supportive of you

or supportive--
- Of comedy?

- Yes.
- Really?

- I do.
I think that more than you do.

- Literally, when I told Dad
I was doing comedy--

when I was at Georgetown,
I was working the door.

- Mm-hmm.
- And I said,

"I'm working
at a comedy club at the door."

And he goes, "Comedy club?
What do they do, strip?"

- [laughs]
- He literally--

- Right, right.
- You know?

And it's like
a "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."

- Right.
- Like, that's the context

of his old-time clubs.
- That's right.

- When I was a kid, I feel
like everything in my life

was me trying to express--

like, writing poetry,
writing essays,

writing jokes, drawing,
painting, writing plays...

* *

And just, like,
in every direction,

people just being like,

"Yeah, I don't think
that's for you."

And they didn't mean
any harm by it.

They just thought I was this
kid who, like, trips a lot.

Like, it's almost like
the great metaphor

for being a comedian is like,
it's the person who trips a lot

and then figures out
how to write about it

in a funny way.

When I was 20,
there was blood in my pee.

My dad takes me first thing
in the morning to see

a urologist friend of his.

And the urologist asked me
to take my pants down,

and he's looking around.

I started to chime in
with my own theories,

because I find
doctors enjoy that.

I said to my urologist--
I can never unsay this.

I said, "Is it possible
that the blood is from me

masturbating too often?"

[laughter]

I said that...

out loud...

to my dad's friend!

[laughter]

The best jokes are the secrets.

You're telling the audience
things that, like,

you're not even really telling
your friends.

You look at the last show.

It's like,
"Old Man and the Pool" is,

I'm obsessed with age
and mortality.

- Right.
- You look at the show

before that, "The New One,"
it's like,

I'm obsessed
with having a child,

even though I never wanted
to have a child.

- Right.
- The obsession thing,

it's like--
- Totally.

- People being like,
what's the next show about?

And it's like, I don't know.
- Right.

- The last show was
all about death,

'cause it's a preoccupation
and it's relatable.

We're all gonna die.

So now I'm trying
to figure out, like,

OK, I'm writing this new show.

It's like, well,
what's after death?

What's the show gonna be about?

What's more high stakes
than death?

- One time, I was
in West Virginia.

This is when
I was starting out.

And this guy was
opening for me.

He goes, "Oh, you live
in New York City?"

He goes, "I went there once.

"The only place I saw was

the inside
of an abortion clinic."

You know,
that's like a joke where

I wouldn't have written
that joke, like, 20 years ago.

But I wrote down the memory.

That's how he started
the conversation.

Now, what I should have said...

was nothing.

[laughter]

What I did say was,

"You really gotta spend
a week there

"to get a feel for the town.

"You know, I'd probably swing
by the Empire State Building.

"If it's the holiday season,
I'd go to Rockefeller Center

"to see the tree.

"The abortion clinics are nice.

That was one of your things."

[laughter]

I journal a lot--probably
three, four times a week.

And usually, it's not funny,

as much as it's just
writing down memories

so that I don't forget them.

- I'll walk into his dressing
room when he's on the show,

and there'll be a journal
he's writing in,

and there's another journal--

almost as if he's flexing
to everybody who comes in,

I might fill up
this first journal

so fast that I need
a second one.

This is a random box
of journals,

which is the only type
of box of journals I have.

A lot--like, a majority of it
is just writing something down

about how you feel
and then rereading them later

and seeing if there's
anything of value

that's worth saying onstage.

[percussive music]

"Comedy is mean,
even when it's not mean,

"because life is mean
and painful and cruel.

Or at very least,
the funny parts."

I stand by that.

Most of the time,
all of us are being polite

to either everyone
we're encountering

or some people
we're encountering.

And you don't have to be polite
to a journal.

It is the only thing
that I can think of

that is culturally understood
that only belongs to you.

This is from, I think--
it's, like, four years old.

"I just got back
from Brooklyn Bridge Park,

"where ten four-year-olds
tackled me

"and stuffed grass
into my nose and ears

and yelled, 'Beautiful.'"

That's the kind of thing
that I would write down,

and it might become a joke,
it might not.

I mean, that would
basically have to be--

that would be the setup
for punch line, tag, tag, tag.

Essentially,
like, the structure

of, like, everything I do.

Like, in a full journal
like this,

there might be one line
that's, like, anything.

With all of this,
you're creating clay

to make a sculpture.

But if you didn't have clay,
you couldn't make a sculpture.

And so this is the dirt.

[upbeat music]

My whole life,
my dad would be like,

"Don't tell anyone."

I wouldn't make
the soccer team.

He'd be like,
"Don't tell anyone."

I was like,
"They're gonna know

"when I'm not on the team

and I'm crying,
you know what I mean?"

And...

- Do you get time
every day to write?

- God, no.

I mean, I try, but it's like--

I find that the time
I'm able to write most

is on the subway
to the Comedy Cellar.

Earlier today,
I showed them my journals.

I've never shown anyone
my journals--anyone, ever.

- You have
a whole record called

"My Secret Private Journals."

- I know, but I've never
showed them to anybody.

- [laughs]

- So the process usually
is writing in my journal.

And then I'll be like, OK.

I'll give that a shot onstage.

And then I have
one other Rhode Island story.

Pedro from Petro,

which I have to read,
'cause it's brand-new.

Two years ago, my wife
and daughter and I rented

a house here in Barrington.

Everything was great
until we turned the heat on

and there wasn't any.

And it was Thanksgiving.

I'll bring it
to, like, Peter and Joe,

and we'll kick around
analogies and tags

and things like that.

The Pedro from Petro story

went this week

from being 4 pages

to about 2 1/2 pages.

So it went from being
about a 12-minute story

this week to being, like,
a 7-minute story.

And I called the oil company.

I didn't shout,
but I think he could hear

some angst in my voice.

And to deescalate it,
he goes, "Happy Thanksgiving."

[laughter]

And it will probably land
at being,

like, a 5-minute story.

Which I thought was a pretty
smart move on his part,

because I was
forced to respond,

"Happy Thanksgiving
to you, too."

Even though he was completely
fucking me over in real time

and lying to me,
like the pilgrims.

[laughter]

The--all right,
I'll keep in that line.

You could also change
"Happy Thanksgiving"

to "Merry Christmas."

- Oh, right.
Just move it to Christmas.

- Yeah.
- Oh, that's interesting.

- In a way,
that's kind of better.

- Well, is it less--
I mean, well,

people do run out of oil
on Christmas.

- Yeah, but then
you lose the pilgrims joke.

- That's the thing.

- Pilgrims joke is currently
the biggest hitter.

- Oh, right. Right, right.
- Yeah.

I feel like the upsides of
this week, for me, feel clear.

There's a lot of jokes
and a lot of stories that work.

The downside is,
it's not about anything.

- I remember seeing
one of Mike's shows

and going backstage
afterwards,

and this was a show that was
exceptional when I saw it.

I would've thought there was
no work left in this show.

And then you go backstage,

and it does look
like a detective

trying to catch a serial killer
in the middle of a manhunt--

so many different index cards.

I don't know if it made it
more or less fun

to realize how much work,

how much structure had gone
into what I'd just seen

that he had made
look effortless.

- This index-card thing
is brilliant.

It sounds simple,
but it's so brilliant.

He lays the entire show down
on index cards.

[upbeat music]

He tells me,

"If I can lift up
one of these index cards

and the show still works...

- "Decent guys on the bus"
worked.

- "Then that joke,
that story, is gone."

- I was on book
the other night with it,

and it didn't go as well.

- He'll have bangers,

like, really great jokes.

- It felt a little stodgy.

- And he'll just lift it,
lift it, lift it.

- I think, like, long-term,
Pedro from Petro,

if that's gonna live
in the show,

it's gonna have to have
something to do

with taking care of my family.

- Mm-hmm.
- Some kind of stakes.

- I know you well enough
to know

you're in between, like,
five things at all times.

You're working up
new material at the Cellar,

or you're doing the podcast,
you know.

And Jen has your back,
and your brother has your back.

But somehow, even though
they have your back,

you have a feeling all the time
that it's all on you.

- [laughs]
- That basically,

if you stop working
for a month,

suddenly, like, several people
would be unemployed and--

I don't know,
I can't even imagine.

- My wife is--
she's here tonight.

She's a poet.
She writes under a pseudonym.

It's Allen Ginsberg.

And...
[laughter and applause]

And I don't know if I would--

I don't know if
I would have made these shows

if it weren't for Jen,
because she's always

really loved these shows.

And I think
you end up just doing

the thing that the person
who you're in love with enjoys,

because you're like,
what else am I gonna do?

[upbeat rock music]

Actually,
it was a funny moment.

They interviewed Jenny
earlier today.

* *

- If you talk
to Mike's siblings,

you talk to his parents,
everyone will tell you

that Joe Birbiglia
is the funnier Birbiglia.

- And Jen was like,

"I just want to set
the record straight.

Like, Mike's the funny one."

- Aww.
- I thought that was sweet.

* *

- When I met Mike,
he was 25 years old.

As I got to know him,
he would tell me stories.

And what I appreciated
about it

is that he was telling me
all these things about him

that were, like,
a lot of red flags.

It wasn't gonna work
if we were gonna get married

and I was going to stifle

his ability to talk
about his life.

- I'm very jealous
that Mike seems to have

a solid understanding
with his wife

about what is allowed
to be said onstage.

My wife and I are having
a continuing conversation.

- In Hindi,
there's a saying that says...

[speaking Hindi]

"Don't say the things
that you speak of at home,"

which is a very, like, kind of
beautiful saying about...

the way parents
and family members feel

about the way comedians act
onstage.

- My wife has said,

"I don't care how mean
you make me sound,

as long as you
always make me right."

It's diabolical.

- I'm happily married,
which is to say,

I'm not happy...

[laughter]

But I'm happy I'm married.

Does that make sense?

- There's things that we
just keep for ourselves,

and that's
very important to me.

When I was pregnant,
I had a lot of issues.

I was like,
"I really don't want you

talking about this onstage."

And that was really hard
for him.

- But, like,
yeah, because I wasn't

happy before I, like,
was married.

And then I got married,
and I'm like, that's cool.

And then like,
I'm still not happy.

You know what I mean?

And then, like, we had a child,
and, like, that's great.

Still not happy.
You know what I mean?

And...

- So when Mike started writing
"The New One"

about that time period,

it was a little bit
of floodgates opening

after I had sort of kiboshed

his ability to talk
about our lives for a while.

- Me not being happy, like,
that's what was cool about me.

Like, you saw my shows, right?

This is very tenuous stuff
I'm talking about here.

It's unformed
and irresponsible.

[laughter]

For me to have something
be in a show,

it has to be a story that is
attached to something real.

You know, tragedy plus time.

I'm always trying to find that.

But if it's just serious,

if I'm just talking
about cancer

in a serious, serious way,

well, that's not, like,
what having cancer is like.

Like, when you have cancer,

sometimes something funny
happens.

That's why the story works.

There's parts of the Internet
where they credit me with,

"Comedy is tragedy plus time."
[laughter]

- Really?
That's a good one, Mike.

- I'm like, how do I fact-check
that one for them?

[laughter]
That's not me!

My whole comedy career
is based on it.

- Yeah.
- But I didn't invent it.

- That's really funny.

- I haven't been here
in 30 years.

Do you mind if I come up?
- Come on in.

- OK.
Well, thank you very much.

[upbeat music]

This is the house
I grew up in Shrewsbury.

* *

- Oh, hi, there.
I'm Mike.

I'm sorry to be in your home.

I remember standing up
on a high chair

when I was probably
three or four years old,

trying to get attention,

falling down,
and landing on my head.

- Oh, no.
- They take me to the hospital.

I ended up with, like,
20 stitches in my head.

- Oh, my goodness.

- That's where
comedians come from.

We fall on our head.

This week I visited
Shrewsbury, my hometown.

I grew up in Shrewsbury,
Massachusetts.

Yeah.
[cheers and applause]

I went to Saint Mary's School--
it's a Catholic grade school--

from grade one through eight.

And, like, the amount
that you age

in that span of time
is profound.

Like, there was this girl
in my class.

The nun let her
ring the bell for recess.

And I remember thinking, like,
oh, that's so cool.

In, like, third grade,
I was like, that's so cool.

I hope someday
I can ring the bell.

And then when she was, like,
in, like, ninth grade,

I heard she had sex
for the first time.

And I was like, wow.
I still haven't rung the bell.

You know what I mean?

[bell tolling]

You remember
the three-check system?

If you were talking in class,
you get a check.

Like, an X mark.

And I got three checks,
like, so many times

because I just wouldn't
stop talking.

- Yes.
- They taught us

that God was watching us
at all times.

And I thought, oh, I guess
he's watching me masturbate.

And so I tried to cheat
to the camera,

thinking if he happened
to be looking

at the monitor at that moment,
he'd think,

"I've seen a lot
of 12-year-olds masturbate,

but this kid's good."

[laughter]

One of the misunderstood things
about comedians is,

people always assume
they're the class clown.

But I don't think
a majority are.

- I don't ever remember
thinking, like,

oh, he's funny, he's funny,
he's funny.

Looking back on it...

I'm sorry, but you were
not funny as a kid.

[laughs]
- I get it. I get it.

- Your brother was funny.

- Your brother was hilarious.
- Yeah, Joe was very funny.

- Yeah.
- Joe's hilarious.

Growing up, when I would
say things that were kind of

seemingly off-kilter
to my friends,

I don't think it was
ever viewed as humorous.

It was more viewed as just,
like, why are you saying this?

[soft music]

People would be
sort of confused.

* *

- This is first grade?
- This is first grade.

- Yeah.

- I mean, I have this now.

If I say a thing
that I'm thinking,

it's usually not
very well received.

My sisters Gina and Patty,

they were, like,
teacher's assistants.

And when they walked in,

they saw me
just being screamed at.

Like, a teacher,
like, in my face.

And Gina went home
and said to my mom,

"Like, Mike's, like,
a pretty bad kid.

"Like, he gets in trouble.

Like, gets in trouble,
like, a lot."

- There was one kid who used
to pick on you in this class.

- Oh, yeah.
There was one time

this guy was pushing me
on, like, the hill down here,

and then Michael,
like, attacked him.

You, like, slid-tackled him
or something.

- Is that, like,
hard to think about?

- [chuckles]

- It's hard for me
to think about.

It's always hard to know,
like, as a friend

in that situation, right?
Like--

- Yes.
- How do you step in?

- Yeah.

When I was in ninth grade,

I went to this
all-boys Catholic school.

- Saint John's?
- Saint John's. There you are.

Joey Grigioni was
from Worcester.

He loved to fight.

One day,
I'm walking down the hill.

And I feel
on the back of my head

what seems like a rock
on my head.

Turns out it was a fist.

I forgot to mention,
Joey Grigioni

has rock-like fists.

And next thing I know,
I'm just on the ground.

And I'm just getting pounded
in the back of my head.

I didn't even run away
at first, you know?

Like, it took me a few seconds
to just eventually be like,

I guess I should leave here,
you know what I mean?

Like, this conversation
is going terribly.

It's only now, at age 44, that
any of this is funny at all.

[laughter]

[chuckles]

* *

- And then I just
threw in the towel.

I go, you know, I'm just
gonna leave this school.

And what was remarkable
is that no one tried

to talk me out of it.

Not a single grown-up
in my life.

Not my teachers, my parents,
not my guidance counselor.

Nobody said, "Stick with it.

Don't let them get
the best of you."

They knew that they had
gotten the best of me.

Like, the best of me was gone.

[laughter]

So, at the end of the year,
I transferred schools.

And the first few weeks
of school,

you're getting to know people.

And they say,
where are you from?

What was your last school like?

And I decided
to leave out the fact

that I had been
beat up mercilessly

in my previous school.

And you know what?
They never found out.

Because that's what
they don't teach you

in those after-school specials.

Running away works.

- Who am I not telling
in the bullying story?

- Oh, that's true.
That's a good point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, no. I didn't--
it didn't occur to me.

[laughter]

And that's the show.
Thanks a lot for coming.

[cheers and applause]

This has been the first week

of the next show.

So I was just happy
that the "running away works,"

I got off the page.

- I really like that line
of, like,

"That's what
they don't teach you

in the after-school specials."

It's like, running away works.
- Yeah, running away works.

I think for D.C.,
I'll try to memorize it.

[cheers and applause]

Also, like, just adding
the context of, like,

being like, "I'm 44 now,

and so it's funny."

- Mm-hmm.

- It's funnier now
than it was then.

- Yeah.
- Like, it kind of gives

the audience a pass to laugh.

Great job this week, Gary.
It's our first week!

[cheers and applause]

[upbeat jazzy music]

* *

[indistinct chatter]

[upbeat music]

* *

- This week I'm performing
in Washington, D.C.

In Providence,
I was just throwing out jokes,

seeing what sticks.

This week
trying to put together

runs of jokes
into what might be stories.

* *

Growing up,
my dad would be like, "Hush!

Don't tell anyone."

In a year or two, those stories
might become a show.

When she was in ninth grade,
I heard she had sex

for the first time.

And I was like, wow.
I still haven't rung the bell.

It's nice to be in D.C.

The first time I did stand-up,

I won a contest at Georgetown

called The Funniest Person
on Campus.

It was wild.

It was hosted
by Victoria Jackson

from "Saturday Night Live."

I think it was probably
the first celebrity

I ever met in my whole life.

I couldn't believe
that she was at my college.

[bell tolls]

[light music]

* *

The idea that I would
just be performing

in a 600-seat theater
was just shocking.

[cheers and applause]

Like, I think maybe
it was a standing ovation.

Like, it was, like,
pretty big.

Funniest Person
on Campus contest

was when I met Nick Kroll,

because he entered also.

It was a really fluky thing

that a bunch of comedians
came from this school,

because it's, like,
not a funny school.

Just a very serious place.

I never even clocked,
really, the idea

that I was doing comedy
in this very,

like, almost,
like, religious hall.

I auditioned
for the improv group,

and I got in.

And it was, like--
it was a long shot.

Like, I think, like,
50 or 100 people auditioned.

And then all of a sudden,
I was friends

with these ten
hilarious people

who were funnier than anyone
I had met in my whole life.

And I was like, oh, OK.

I guess this is--
I guess these people exist.

And it was very eye-opening.

It made me feel
a certain sense of hope,

that, like, I found my people

and, like, that what I thought
was funny about me,

they thought was funny
about me.

And that was, like, a huge
breakthrough in my life.

* *

Victoria Jackson said to me...

[high-pitched voice]
"You're gonna be a comedian."

[normal voice]
She had a very high voice.

I actually did think, like,
maybe she's right.

I got $200
and the chance to perform

at the Washington, D.C.
Improv, which is, like,

not only the best comedy club
in Washington,

top five, top ten comedy clubs
in the country.

[rockabilly music]

* *

[car horn honking]

* *

- I want you to get
your hands together right now

for Mike Birbiglia.

Whoo!
[cheers and applause]

- Thanks, Gary.
Appreciate it.

Gary Simons, everybody.

I went, and I opened
for Dave Chappelle.

Nice to see everybody.

I said,
"Can I perform here again?"

I thought to myself,
I just need stage time.

And they said,
"We don't need that.

But we need someone
to work the door."

So I go, "I'll do that."

I worked here at the door.

I used to seat people
down here.

The worst was,
you have to sometimes

seat people behind these poles.

For example, like, you have
those seats behind the poles.

Right.
No, and I'm sorry.

I would bring, you know, people
with the menus.

And then I would jog away.

As an aspiring comic,

you get to watch
a lot of shows for free.

I was able to watch, like,
George Lopez and Mitch Hedberg

and Lewis Black
and all these people who...

- Yeah.
- like, I would have loved

to have seen,
but I couldn't afford it.

Started off here when I was 19.

And I was, like,
an observational comic.

Like, the kinds of jokes
that I would say would be like,

I would hate to be
a stick insect, you know,

'cause all the other insects
are always bumping into you.

And that's the whole joke.

That would be my act.

The first time I told
a joke that worked, I said,

"My girlfriend
is getting to the age

"where she's thinking
about having kids,

which is exciting 'cause we're
gonna have to break up."

And I said,
"I don't want to have kids

"until I'm sure
nothing else good

can happen in my life."

It was like
an inflection point.

Not because
the joke is so great,

but because it was the moment
where I realized

that telling an honest truth

about how I felt...

connected with a group
of people in a room.

Like, there was
a feeling of like,

oh, they get me,
and I get them...

in a way that, like,
an observational joke

about insects
or something doesn't.

I opened for George Lopez once,
and I kind of, like, bombed.

I was, like, up here,
and it, like, didn't go great.

At the time, I was living
with my girlfriend.

We'd watch Oprah
every day together.

We were like Oprah soldiers.
We were, like, super into it.

Like, all about it.
We're in the book club.

You know what I mean?

Like, we're just, like,
full-on Oprah.

But the thing that always
struck me as really funny

was that her song
at the beginning of her show

is, like--the song
that was like...

* Run on, run on *

And my joke was, like,
I don't think Oprah runs a lot.

And...

And this is not a joke
I would ever tell now,

other than right now
into a microphone

in front of a group
of strangers.

I go backstage,
and I say to George Lopez,

"Hey, do you have any,
like, critical feedback?"

And he goes, "I wouldn't open
with a thing about Oprah"...

"'Cause they love Oprah,

and they don't know
who the hell you are."

[soft upbeat music]

He goes, "You know, you should
make fun of yourself

"before you make fun
of other people,

"because then you have
a relationship

with the audience."

It's stuck to me
to this very day.

* *

- That's my time.
Thank you very much.

Let's give it up
for Mike Birbiglia.

Whoo!
[cheers and applause]

- Thanks, Gary.

Gary Simons, everybody.

- I've been really grateful
to be able to do these shows

and, like, learn from each one.

- You're killing, man.
You're doing great.

- Thank you.
- It's exciting.

[upbeat music]

- Mike Birbiglia is
one of those dudes

that truly loves
the art form of comedy.

The people that he's touched--
myself, Kroll, Mulaney--

we're all so different,

but it is his love of comedy,

his desire to help mentor.

- My favorite comedians
who are coming up,

like Hasan Minhaj
and Atsuko Okatsuka,

I love that they tell
personal stories.

And usually, like, I love
when their stories

are completely different
from mine.

- Trippy!
- Ah!

Look what you've done.

[upbeat music]

[gagging]

I had already done stand-up

for maybe, like, 11 years.

And my stand-up, you know,
not bad, you know.

But it wasn't gonna be
life-changing.

It was definitely
during the pandemic,

when there was just, like,
a general big sadness,

I turned inward.

I didn't want people
to feel sad.

I started writing
more about things

that was hard for me
to talk about before,

like my mom's mental illness.

The truth is,
my mom has schizophrenia...

I never talked about it
before the pandemic.

Which means she hears
voices in her head

and she hallucinates a lot.

And also, I started talking
to my fans more

and making more videos
with my family...

because it was a mood lifter
for all of us.

So those dance videos
that went viral...

and the drop challenge
that went viral,

that was all, you know,
me running from trauma.

You know?
[laughs]

Mike found me
on one of those videos.

[elevator bell dings]

And then he DM'd me
and was like,

"Would you want to be
on my podcast?"

There is a show in Vegas called
"The Puppetry of the Penis."

- Yes, there is.
- Have you seen it?

- I've seen it. It's...

- You've seen it!
- Bizarre.

- After that, he asked me
to open for him.

* *

Just so cool, you know?

He's the one that told me
to get on TikTok.

We don't need to talk age,
but he is older than me.

He's 400 years old.

I'm hip.

My clothes, trendy.

You're telling me
I need to be on TikTok?

And he's like, "Well, I mean,
do you want to be forgotten?"

- Atsuko, like, she started
coming on the road with me

and opening for me.

And at one point,
I said to her, like,

like, what's the strangest
thing that's happened

in the last few years?

And she told me...

- About this intruder
that came to our house

three times in the same day.

I was already touring
with my hour at that time.

And I was like,
I want to figure out

a way to put this
intruder story into the hour.

But I don't know how.

- And I was like,
wow, this is great.

It's a great story.

- And he was like,
"He came to your house

"three times in the same day.

That's three acts."

- That's not just a joke.
That's a whole show.

- I was really excited
but a little scared,

'cause I was like,
well, I've been doing an hour

that I know works.

But I want
this intruder story in there.

Oh, this is gonna be
so much more work, Mike.

OK, I'll do it.

[rock music]

And then he got
really excited.

He loves process.
He loves jokes and stories.

And so he was like,
"OK, let's sit down."

And he took out
his note cards.

And he was like, "OK,
so act one is first intrusion,

second intrusion,
third intrusion."

* *

If you were to tell
a younger me that as an adult,

I would have
an HBO stand-up special,

I'd be like...

yeah, that sounds about right.

No, I'm just kidding.
I'd be like, "What's HBO?

We don't have cable."

So our landlord
had an intruder.

That's what he's so good at,
having an arc in his shows.

- I used to write everything
down on the computer,

and I actually found

there was value to writing
it out longhand first.

When you think
you have a funny idea

and you type it into
the computer, it goes so fast.

When you think of an idea and
you're writing it out longhand,

about halfway through
a lot of times,

you realize, oh, this stinks.

And I did learn that from Mike.

- It's this weird thing where
I'm not just looking to him

for advice, but I'm also
looking for him

for some form of therapy,
I guess.

- I'm aging into a point

where I'm starting to be
a mentor to people,

which I don't think I ever
thought I was gonna do.

But sometimes
that just happens.

You age.
[laughs]

And--but it was helpful for me
to be a student first,

to understand, like,
what that is and what--

as a student,
what you need from a mentor.

You don't want it
to be pretty good.

You want it to be great.

And the only way
you can make it great

is writing, failing,
getting feedback.

Need more there.

Writing again, failing again.

I'll take out that line.

The story peaked
a little early.

Getting more feedback...

[cheering]
I don't know why.

The ending worked well
in the other show.

Is the only way
that people get better.

That's what
they don't teach you

in the after-school specials.

Sometimes running away works.

Eventually, if you're lucky,

you'll arrive at something
that is yours.

Last night was
the first time I thought,

the "getting beat up" story,
I think,

will probably be
in the next show.

This seems promising.

[applause]

Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

[light music]

* *

- In some ways, stand-up
comedy is like a documentary

of your own life, right?

In most documentaries,
they shoot

and they shoot and they shoot.

And then eventually
something happens.

And we go, oh,
that's what it's about.

It all hinges on,
there has to be a main event.

- Mm-hmm.

- I don't know what
the main event is of this yet.

* *

Once every three weeks,
our dad will call me.

He'll go, "Mike,
the craziest thing happened."

I'll go, "What?"

He goes, "I was
at the hardware store...

And someone had heard of you."

And I was like,

"I don't know if that's,
like, the craziest thing."

- He does say that a lot.

- The craziest thing.

- [laughs]
- Like, I think,

the least believable part
of that story

is that you were
at a hardware store.

Dude, the whole job is,
you tell jokes to strangers.

Eventually some of
the strangers are gonna see it.

- [laughs]

- Our father did tell me once,
one job he would have liked

would have been to be a writer
for "Saturday Night Live."

- No.
- He said that?

- Yeah.
- I can't even see him

saying that or watching it.

- That is absurd.
- Isn't that unusual?

- That is so strange.

- Seems out
of character, right?

- Right.
- Joe gets the juice.

- [laughs]

- My brother Joe was talking
to my dad, who's 83.

He was a doctor,
went to law school,

never wanted me and Joe
to go into comedy at all.

- Mm-hmm.
- And he said,

"I thought,
for a period of time,

that I could write
for 'Saturday Night Live.'"

- Really?
- Yeah.

- Was your dad funny?

- My dad is very dry.

And my mom is
a great storyteller.

- Hmm.

Have you ever heard
of the thing

that Rilke says,
how children dance

to the unlived lives
of their parents?

- Oh.

Going to Shrewsbury this week,

Dad, of course, wanted to know,
"Who did you run into?"

- Yeah. [laughs]
- "Who did you see?"

And then you go,
"Mrs. Gazik, Mrs. McCann."

"Well, did they say
anything about me?"

- They wanted to know
if you were alive.

- Yeah, they wanted to know
if you were alive.

Exactly.
That's exac--yeah.

Yes.
I answered that you were alive.

[light guitar music]

In my 20s and 30s,
as a comedian,

I feel like I have
so many judgments

in my act of my parents.

And I think as I get older
and they get older,

they're in their 80s,
and I'm just like--

it's like, what was I doing?

When I see our childhood home,

like, it definitely brings me
to, oh, yeah,

like, they were just parents
just, like, trying their best.

- That's right.

* *

- So it's like, maybe that's
what the next show is about.

- Mm-hmm.

- I don't know how literally
any one of those jokes

supports that idea.

- [laughs]
- But it could.

* *

It's like, the reason I don't
know what the show is about

is, I don't know
what will happen

in the next three
or four years.

* *

So it's like,
you know, God forbid,

someone close to me dies
or any number of things

that I'm anxious about
at all times could occur.

And I'd say, most likely,

that's what the show ends up
being about.

It's just a doozy.

Being an autobiographical
comedian is not--

it's not advisable.

But also, it's my favorite
type of comedy.

[chuckles]

That's all for me.
[cheers and applause]

Thank you so much.
Thanks for being here.

I'll see you next time,
everybody.

[upbeat music]

* *

Still rolling?
Speeding?

Save it for the camera.
- You save it.

- What was it like?
- Save it for the camera.

- OK. All right.
- That's more interesting

than what I have to say.

- Sister Margaret walked
into our classroom.

And she was like,
"Boys and girls,

"I'm hearing something
on the playground.

I'm hearing a word."
- [laughs]

- "And that word is 'fuck.'"
- Oh, my God. Wow.

"What happened
to that one joke?"

The reason it's gone
is because of you.

- You know, the thing

that always impresses me
the most about Mike

is how much thought he puts
into his clothes.

When he walks out onstage,
you think,

oh, maybe one day
I'll hit it big enough

to have whoever
his personal shopper is.

- Pretty much everything
I'm saying

makes me uncomfortable.

- Yay, good job, everyone.