Mike Birbiglia

Tag : Brad Point Bits

What was your first ever show like?
Well, what's weird is that I told the story of it on the ComedyCentral show called My First Time . I told this story where my first time I was paid to do stand-up,this guy saw me win a contest on campus. This guy said, "Ifyou go to my bar, I'll pay you 50 dollars for 30 minutes ofcomedy." I had only 11 minutes of comedy, but I went anyway. Iwas there backstage and I was scared. I had a sheet of paper with aseries of bullet points. There were six of them. In my mind, theywere each bits. In my mind, I was like, "I'll go up there andtell my jokes about Teletubbies and just start riffing onTeletubbies." That was not the case. I did four minutes ofcomedy, and I had no more jokes. I just walked off. I went to theowner's office, and it's funny because it wasn't a comedy club,just a restaurant. There's no qualifications to be a comedy club.All you have to do is have photos on the wall. I go to his office,and I figure maybe he'll punch me or has a gun. He gives me 50dollars and says, "Do you have an 8-by-10 photo?" Mylesson ended up being that I need to get a photo.
At what point would you say you became a storyteller?
A few years ago, I was in the HBO Comedy Festival. They had me tella story. I told the story of this girl in high school that I dated.I met her parents and her other boyfriend and only then realized Iwas never her boyfriend. At this point, I realized you can takestories that are gut-wrenching and get the biggest laughs. BillCosby and Richard Pryor really figured out how to do that.
Do you have any new sleepwalking stories?
I have many. I probably have 10 or 12 sleepwalking stories. There'sone I build to in my show that is particularly harrowing.
The one where Brad Pitt is chasing you down the hall as you'rereliving a scene from Fight Club ?
That's just the tip of the iceberg. I'm really excited about thenew show. It's the one I'm doing in Cleveland.
You seem to have no trouble coming up with new material.
I have a wealth of problems. I will always be able to draw on them.There's no end to the visits to my therapist.
Talk about how your Catholic upbringing provides good fodder foryour jokes.
Yeah. It's funny because I was raised Catholic. I was even an altarboy. You know, you hear about Catholic guilt, and then I hear aboutJewish guilt. I think human beings just have guilt. I don't thinkit's specific.
Your comedy is relatively clean. Do you try to limit the expletivesor was that just for the DVD?
It was originally by design because of my parents. They wereprofoundly embarrassed I was a comedian at all. I had to clean itup. If you don't need to curse, then why would you? If you do needto, then I respect that. There are guys who do like Doug Stanhopeand Robert Schimmel. I love those guys. If you're me, you don'thave to. I like the fact that 13- to 90-year-olds can come to myshow.
Is it really true that your brain has "no on-deckcircle"?
There's some truth to that. There are sections of my life that Icould rope off as I wish I hadn't said that. It's like, "Canyou drag that to trash?"
You usually play a song during your set. Which do you plan to playin Cleveland?
You know what, I don't have a song in this show. The show has sucha tremendous ending on it that a song might be overkill. You haveto see for yourself.
Did iTunes really rescind their initial offer to you to make apodcast because you weren't a big enough celebrity?