Introspection and Humor
Mike Birbiglia Works It Out
Are you honest with your journal?
Mike Birbiglia is a successful indie comedy icon. Is he “indie?” Eh, who cares. I’m sure he doesn’t either. He’s an amazing artist, and I’m drawn to him because he’s a regular guy, but a legendary storyteller. His comedy specials sometimes take him years to craft. That’s what his podcast Working It Out is all about: how he works out his jokes.
He’s used this arduous process over the years to write specials like “What I Should Have Said Was Nothing”, “Thank God For Jokes”, “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend”, and his latest, “The New One”. His first book, Sleepwalk With Me, was eventually turned into a movie, and details Mike’s misadventures with life, and actually sleepwalking out of a second-story hotel window in 2005.
He tells the tale in an interview with The Guardian:
It’s 20 January 2005, and I’m in Walla Walla, Washington.
And I have a dream that there is a guided missile headed toward my room and there are all these military personnel in the room and I jump out of bed and I say: “What’s the plan?”
And they say: “The missile co-ordinates are set specifically on you.” And I decide in my dream, and, as it turns out, in my life, to jump out of my window.
