My first experience with the comedy of Mike Birbiglia was when my brother sat me down to watch his first stand up show called What I Should Have Said Was Nothing. After watching the YouTube video through buffering lenses, I was hooked. His comedy focused around his own extremely relatable awkward life experiences heightened to the perfect amount of hyperbole that I was basically on the floor gasping for air. Birbigs is really getting his true comedic recognition these days performing his latest one-man show Thank God for Jokes at the Lynn Redgrave Theater now through May 29th!
From Catsachussets to Orange is the New Black
The Shrewsbury, MA native is most recognizable from his recent casting in the Netflix original Orange is the New Black. He has been cast in small roles in many films, television shows, and recently played opposite Brie Larson in Trainwreck. The majority of the big production projects in which he is cast try to fit him to the awkward, thirty-something male roles in a way that doesn’t quite equal his real personal awkwardness as demonstrated in his stand up.
His second stand up production called My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend and his film Sleepwalk with Me were really the biggest stepping stones of his career. My Boyfriend’s Girlfriend, which I have watched at least three times, chronicles his romantic life where he humorously struggles to find love and keep it. I think I like this production so much because it reminds me of Annie Hall if Woody Allen was more loyal, Italian, and *spoiler alert* ended up with Diane Keaton in the end.
Jokes, Jokes, Jokes
On February 14, 2015, I attended Thank God for Jokes at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, eager to hear the new “bits.” Mike Birbiglia talked about his marriage and how his wife is always late, being in ‘Catsachusetts,’ vegans and vegetarians, republicans and democrats, and most of all, point of view. The New York Times called the show: “his 85-minute monologue, an indescribably ridiculous collection of anecdotes and asides that miraculously blend into a whole.”
If you’re in New York City now or before May 29th, you’ll want to see this performance live to enjoy 85-minutes of Mike Birbiglia’s side of the story. He’ll say “batter up” to all his bad ideas and convert you to the biggest Birbigs fan just like me!