South Beach Sessions - Mike Birbiglia
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Kings Network.
Are you ready to give me your soul? Sure. He's Mike Birbiglia, and he's a writer. He's a director. He's an actor. He's a comedian. He even does one-man shows. He's got a new special, The Good Life, on Netflix. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But let me start with the one-man show. What is it about you that would gravitate toward the idea of a one-man show? What was in your childhood that would make you somebody who thinks he can pull off successfully and did a one-man show?
I did not mean to write a one-person show. I was trying to make movies this whole time. Like when I was in college, I studied screenwriting and playwriting. And at the end of college, I went to apply for all the jobs in screenwriting and realized that's not a thing. Yeah.
So you failed your way into a one-man show.
Yeah. So in other words, what happened was I did stand up because I was working the door at the Washington, D.C. Improv during college. And so I was seeing great comedians. I mean, Mitch Hedberg and David Tell and Brian Regan and Margaret Cho and all these people. I was getting to watch them for free because I was a door person. It was unbelievable. It's like amazing education. But one of the things I worked in the office, I was able to see the pay stubs You know, everybody. So you go, oh, this person's making a few thousand dollars. The middle act is making $500. The MC's making $250. You know what I mean? So I was like, well, I can MC and try to make a living doing that. And so I drove my mom's station wagon around the country.
for a couple years, and then it kind of became something. I got a couple specials on Comedy Central and all that, and then I circled back, and I was like, well, why don't I try to write a one-person play? Because I really love plays and I love movies. And so I just kind of merged stand-up into a play, and that's what became Sleepwalk With Me, which was at the Bleecker Street Theater in 2008.
Well, that is an interesting thing about you. For those who don't know your sleepwalking tales, we will get to them.
What inspired Mike Birbiglia to create a one-man show?
But let's drive through on your mother's car there. You're doing what? You're just emceeing what? What are some of the sad or ridiculous places you're going to emcee things, trying to figure out what you want to do with your life?
I had...
How did Mike's childhood shape his comedic journey?
spreadsheet of comedy club bookers across the country, and it was accumulated from other comedians and people who were trying to do the same thing. They'd say, oh, there's this booker in Louisiana, and they book a bunch of one-nighters in Louisiana and Texas, and there's someone who does a bunch of stuff in West Virginia and Ohio, and you could call them. And I would literally just call them every day. I was like a telemarketer. I was just, Hey, I'm Mike Birbiglia. I'm a comedian. I could send you my tape. This is in the era of VHS cassettes. And, uh, so I would book myself for next to nothing, any, any place that would take me. And so a lot of times it would be one nighters. Like I remember in my first show, I talked about how one night I was at like a restaurant called fat Tuesdays and it was
And I was backstage, which was the sidewalk of a strip mall. And the manager says to me, so you're going to go out and you're going to do 25 minutes. And I had probably like 10 minutes tops. And I turned around and I threw up on the sidewalk. Yeah.
While he's saying this to you? He walked back in.
I got really nervous. Threw up on the sidewalk. To this day, I've heard that the headliner of that show tells the story from their perspective also. But it's probably funnier, but it's like, but I threw up on the sidewalk and then I walked on stage. I probably did five minutes and then I ran out of jokes and said, and now you're a headliner. And I brought him on. But I will say like, I I doing those gigs and it was a lot of like colleges. It was a lot of like one time I was performing in the center of like a walkathon for lupus, like an all night walkathon. And I'm got a microphone. I'm trying to entertain people going around me. And and I mean, it's always it's so demoralizing, you know, and it but it's but it was it was then and it still is like what I want to do.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:04–2:43
2
What inspired Mike Birbiglia to create a one-man show?
2:43–3:00
3
How did Mike's childhood shape his comedic journey?
3:00–11:34
4
What challenges did Mike face when starting his comedy career?
11:34–11:37
5
What is the significance of sleepwalking in Mike's comedy?
11:37–13:43
6
How did a malignant tumor influence Mike's career choices?
13:43–28:53
7
How does Mike find humor in personal struggles?
28:53–31:00
8
What lessons did Mike learn about failure in comedy?
31:00–1:04:01
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Dan Le Batard Show
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