Hunter Gardner Interviews Mike Birbiglia

I’m missing Mike Birbiglia’s show at The Charleston Music Hall this Sunday because of Mike Birbiglia. 

Tomorrow morning, I’m getting on a plane to go to Los Angeles until Monday because I want to be a comedy writer (and work to get there), but that would not be the case if I had never been introduced to Birbiglia’s comedy. It wasn’t just his movie Sleepwalk With Me, which he wrote, directed and starred in as a semi-autobiographical character trying to figure out a life balance between his marriage-bound relationship and comedy career, but it was more so his ability to be vulnerable in his comedy. It was therapeutic. It was didactic. It was hilarious. I started going to open mics. I got on stage and bombed. I loved it. And now I want to do it forever. 

Birbiglia took some time to answer a few questions, to give us all a taste of what to expect when he stops by The Charleston Music Hall this Sunday on his Thank God For Jokes Tour. 

HG: Have you spent any time in Charleston before? 

MB: I’ve been to Charleston a handful of times over the years. It used to be one of those cities that people would be like, “What’s a cool city that no one knows is cool?” And I would be like, “Charleston.” And they’d be like, “Oh, neat!” But now they’re like, “What’s a cool city no one knows?” And I’ll say “Charleston,” and they’re like, “Yeah, everybody knows that.” It’s just one of those places that’s like a best kept American secret that’s no longer a secret.

HG: Your one-man shows, Sleepwalk With Me and My Girlfriend's Boyfriend both commentate on some primal ideas (love, commitment, honesty, etc). What are some things that you touch on with Thank God For Jokes?
MB: The show is actually about jokes, about how jokes make us feel closer to people and how they alienate us from people. Jokes inherently are a risky proposition but in my opinion, are worth it. I think of comedy shows as sort of a religious experience in the sense that, you know, in Charleston it’s gonna be 900 people in a room together all laughing or not laughing at something at the same time. And in a way that’s really special.

HG: Girlfriend's Boyfriend does a balancing act between one-man show and a stand up special, does Jokes continue this meshing of presentation, or should we expect more of a straightforward approach?

MB: I would say right now it’s a hybrid. I’m about 25 cities into this 100-city tour, and I change the show every night, just incrementally. 4 or 5 lines, that kind of thing. I think over time the goal is to have it be something that feels like Sleepwalk or Girlfriend’s Boyfriend but right now it’s just the funniest stories I can possibly tell and present in the funniest way I can think of.

HG: I've noticed that you've been asking to meet with couples all over the country to talk about their marriages. Does that end up in Jokes or are you "researching" for another project?

MB: That is for another project but that is top secret and I implore you to never speak of this again.

HG: There's a great moment in Sleepwalk when the main character is in a dodgy hotel, but he's there because he's booked a gig, and for him it is a moment of bliss and accomplishment. As the audience, we think, This is it, this guy will do this forever. Was there a light bulb moment for you as comedian?

MB: Yeah, I remember doing this gig once when I was in college. I was working the door at the DC Improv and I was asked to perform at this place far out in Virginia called Fat Tuesday’s. It was a “Comedy Night” they were having. And I was supposed to perform 20 minutes of comedy, maybe 30 minutes of comedy and I probably had 10 minutes prepared tops. And they introduced me to the stage, and I was backstage, which was just the sidewalk, and I threw up on the sidewalk. And then I walked on stage and I performed four minutes of comedy and then it ended and I left. But they paid me—I think they paid me $50—and it was so exciting, this idea that someone handed me actual money to perform comedy was astonishing to me. Because comedy was always something I viewed as like the greatest hobby that anyone could ever have. The idea that it could be a job is just uncanny to me. And I think that’s part of the reason I work so hard—I write and I re-write, and re-write, and re-write my shows. I try to put on the most amazing show that I possibly can every single night because I feel so lucky to be able to do it.

HG: As a writer, performer and director, is there something that you find yourself struggling with, something that you have to push back against? How do you overcome that?

MB: I actually have a new short that I made with the band Fun.’s guitarist Jack Antanoff, who has this new project called Bleachers. So we made this short that I wrote and directed and acted in and obviously I did the same thing in Sleepwalk With Me, and it’s probably the most challenging to direct because you’re in charge of everything. When you’re an actor your safety net is the director. When you’re the director, your safety net is yourself, which is a very dicey safety net, especially if you’re having a bad day or feel tired. There’s really no option to feel tired when you’re directing. So yeah, I’d say directing is the hardest part but it’s also the most satisfying because you get to control your vision from soup to nuts.

HG: You're currently writing the screenplay for Girlfriend's Boyfriend, where are you in that process? Will Ira Glass be involved in that project as well? 

MB: I’m actually writing two screenplays right now. One of them is inspired by My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend and the other one is a completely different screenplay. And after I finish up this tour I’m gonna film one of those. I’m sort of seeing which one emerges as the stronger of the two and that’s the one I’m gonna film next. And Ira is permanently invited to all projects that I am working on because he is a great friend and a brilliant guy who I am always learning from.

HG: Writing a one-man show or a new hour of stand up takes a lot of working out. Where do you go to test out new material? 

MB: I live in Brooklyn and there’s this place near my apartment called Union Hall where I play a bartender in Sleepwalk With Me. I do a show most Monday nights literally called “Working It Out.” And I say to the audience at the end of the show, “You’ll come see me in 6 months and you’ll think, ‘Oh that part’s different and that other part is funnier now.’ But inevitably there will be one thing where you’ll go, ‘What about that one part? What happened to that story?’ And the answer is that it’s gone. And the reason it’s gone is because of you. And I want you to think about that.”

HG: Anything I missed? Something you would like the Charleston audience to know? Something you would like everyone to know?

MB: I sign after the shows but I don’t take photos because everyone has a camera. I used to take photos back when it was a special thing where someone would be like “I have a camera!” and I’d be like “You have a WHAT!?” But now it’s become this thing where I’ll gladly sign anything people have—tickets, boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, keycards from La Quinta Inn—but it takes too long to take pictures with everyone because everyone has a camera. Other than that, I’m just really excited to come to town because it’s all new. The show is all new and it will never be the same again.

That’s what Birbiglia offers: a personal show, one where he let’s you in and because of that, you’ll let him in, too. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it. You may even thank God for it. 

As of this post, there are still tickets available for Mike Birbiglia’s show at The Charleston Music Hall, Sunday, March 30^th at 7:30pm. Check ticket availability by clicking here.