To say that 28-year-old Mike Birbiglia is one of the nation’s best rising young stand-ups is somewhat of an understatement at this point. His résumé is every comic’s dream: He performed on the Late Show with David Letterman at the young age of 24, released two popular stand-up albums (Dog Years and Two Drink Mike) and traversed the collegiate landscape on a national tour, Medium Man on Campus, last year. Now, with his popular Secret Public Journal blog being adapted for TV, and his new, personal, one-man show Sleepwalk with Me, it seems this up-and-coming comic is finally “here.” We chatted with Birbigs before his somnambulistic arrival at the Lakeshore Theater Saturday 14.
Do you see TV becoming your new career direction?
I see TV and film as where I will go in the same way as Seinfeld and Cosby did. I mean…I hope. I’m not that old, so who knows what the future holds. I still love stand-up because there are no censors. It’s one of the last pure art forms, you know? You make a TV show, and it goes through ten different people, or groups of people, before it goes on the air. If you think you’re going to get something out there that’s unadulterated, you’re wrong.
Is Sleepwalk with Me along that same uncensored stand-up vein?
Absolutely. It’s a series of stories that are so embarrassing that people don’t usually talk about those kinds of things, or tell those stories. They’re too extreme, or they take too long to explain. It’s kinda like being at a campfire, and everyone kind of tells their craziest stories. Well, I tell you all my craziest stories, those moments that are so extreme where, in retrospect, you’re like, “What the hell?” And at the time you’re like, “I guess I’ll continue living.” You know? It’s like if you go to the dentist and they ask you to take your pants off. And you think, “He’s got a degree, I don’t know…but I’m going to make a note of it.”
I actually read that line in your Secret Public Journal. Nice job recycling bits, by the way.
[Sarcastically] Yeah, thanks. You know what’s funny is that I’ve been called on that before, and I don’t see it as that. I put so much thought into nailing analogies about things that once I can describe something, or get across an idea in a certain way, I’m like, Fuck it. That’s the best way I can describe that. I was asked about my show yesterday, and I literally said, [Quickly] “The show is about moments in your life where in retrospect you’re like what the hell and at the time you’re like I guess I’ll continue living.” I can’t get more precise than that. I don’t do it with things that are mediocre, though.
How do you feel about audiences expecting you to do certain bits?
I opened for Mitch Hedberg a bunch of times, who was one of my comedy idols, and he used to say it was a catch-22. People would shout out his bits, he would do them and they would applaud, but they wouldn’t laugh. As a comedian, applause is almost death. Applause is kind of like, “Yeah, thanks for being onstage.” What you really want is laughter—that’s what we’re all after. Because laughter is cathartic; laughter means that people are experiencing something that is an involuntary reaction. They can’t not laugh. That’s a cool thing. If you say something onstage and people can’t not laugh, that’s fantastic. But if they clap, it’s like, [Sarcastically] “Yeah!” People clap for shitty plays on Broadway because, like, it’s over. Anybody can get people to clap.—Steve Heisler
