Mike Birbiglia

Mike Birbiglia has built a multifaceted career as a standup comedian, screen performer, writer-director, and published author whose command of extended narrative turns his routines into what many regard as solo theatrical works. His likable but anxious stage presence, paired with tales that repeatedly cast him as the perpetual also-ran, gradually drew larger crowds during his climb through comedy clubs in the first half of the 2000s. Although Dog Years marked his initial comedy album upon its 2004 release, Birbiglia had already begun contributing to The Moth and making regular appearances on programs such as The Bob and Tom Show. While serving as a recurring voice on public radio’s This American Life, he scored an off-Broadway success with Sleepwalk with Me in 2008, a piece drawn from his battle with a dangerous sleep condition; the show later expanded into a popular book, a number-one comedy album on Billboard, and a widely praised independent movie. After writing and directing the 2016 feature Don’t Think Twice, he reached Broadway with The New One in 2018, a production rooted in the challenges of becoming a parent.

Raised in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, Birbiglia explored several creative pursuits before settling on comedy. He first gravitated toward poetry, then shifted to hip-hop as a teenager and composed a rap performed at his high-school graduation that promoted the institution’s anti-drug initiative. A Steven Wright concert he attended on his sixteenth birthday redirected him toward standup. Through his initial semesters at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., he concentrated on eccentric one-liners modeled on Wright’s approach. Employment at the ticket window of the D.C. Improv also gave him stage time, and it was there that he chose to steer his material toward more personal, autobiographical territory. After absorbing the styles of Woody Allen and Richard Pryor, he forged a blend of punch lines and lived experience that resonated immediately with listeners, polishing that approach in the D.C. region until his 2000 graduation prompted a move to New York City.

An especially strong set at the Comic Strip Live brought Birbiglia to the notice of the club’s general manager and talent coordinator, the late Lucien Hold. Hold arranged a series of bookings that attracted industry scouts and secured a 2002 appearance on Late Show with David Letterman. Momentum built quickly: national tours followed, along with ongoing “My Secret Public Journal” segments on the Bob & Tom radio program and development deals with Comedy Central and its affiliated label. Dog Years arrived as his first release for that imprint in 2004, and fan enthusiasm spread further through independently produced T-shirts bearing lines from his routines. Early 2006 brought the combined audio-video set Two Drink Mike, which logged nineteen weeks on the Billboard Comedy Albums chart and reached number six. My Secret Public Journal Live, drawn from his blog, appeared in 2007 and climbed to number three on the same tally. That year also marked his screen debut, playing the title character in the Stanley Kubrick satire Stanley Cuba.

Birbiglia launched his initial off-Broadway production, Sleepwalk with Me, in 2008 and spent subsequent seasons transforming it across multiple formats. Simon & Schuster issued the companion nonfiction volume Sleepwalk with Me and Other Painfully True Stories in 2010; the live recording Sleepwalk with Me Live followed on Comedy Central Records in 2011 and topped Billboard’s Comedy Albums chart. After a supporting turn in the 2011 comedy Cedar Rapids, his directorial debut, Sleepwalk with Me, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2012, with Ira Glass among its co-writers and producers. Later that year he guest-starred on an episode of the HBO series Girls. Meanwhile he premiered another stage work, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, off-Broadway; after touring the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, he closed the run at Carnegie Hall in June 2013. A Netflix taping from Seattle’s Intiman Theater appeared that September, and the special rose to number two on the comedy chart three months later.

Recurring television roles arrived on Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central) and Orange Is the New Black (Netflix) across 2014 and 2015, while film work included The Fault in Our Stars and the Judd Apatow-directed Trainwreck, written by Amy Schumer. Birbiglia wrote and directed Don’t Think Twice in 2016, an ensemble portrait of a fictional improv collective that featured himself alongside Keegan-Michael Key, Kate Micucci, and Chris Gethard. His second Netflix special, Thank God for Jokes, premiered in 2017 and revisited personal episodes, among them uneasy encounters with the Muppets and director David O. Russell. After a national tour and off-Broadway engagement, The New One transferred to Broadway’s Cort Theatre in October 2018 for a three-month run; the show candidly examined Birbiglia’s life as the husband of poet J. Hope Stein and as a new father. Thank God for Jokes returned to number one on the Billboard comedy chart upon its October 2019 vinyl reissue by 800 Pound Gorilla Records, and The New One reached Netflix viewers the following month.