Mike Birbiglia can definitely draw a crowd
and brought him back to Center Theater Group, where he last performed his Broadway hiton CTG’s Ahmanson stage. The new show explores questions of life, health and mortality as Birbiglia recounts scenes from his past by using a doctor’s visit as a jumping-off point. And, true to its title, he details trips to the YMCA and dips in its pool as well as an encounter with an older man in the locker room.
Ahead of the performance, his friends walked the red carpet in front of the theater and weren’t shy about sharing praise for both Birbiglia’s work and his humanity. “Mike is remarkably human,” explained multihyphenate Seth Barrish, who has known the comedian for more than two decades and directed the show. “He’s really willing to talk really openly and honestly about stuff he’s going through or has gone through.
Docter, in town from the Bay Area where he lives, made sure not to miss Birbiglia’s show. “His work is always pulled from real-life stories, stuff that actually happened to him, and it’s told in a really funny way,” he explains of the appeal of Birbiglia’s work. “The hard work is weaving all these things together into some coherent narrative that leads to a feeling at the end. That’s what good storytelling does.
Schaal said her longtime friend is “kind of like an everyman” in that his work is very accessible but for as brilliant as he is, he remains “very humble in how he sees the world.” That way, “everyone feels like they’re part of the story.” Bloom described it as authenticity. “That’s not a persona. That is just him that he’s doing on the stage. He is both a stand-up and a storyteller and that is not super common. Also, there’s a real arc to what he does and a real theatricality.” She was also quick to credit Barrish, with whom she is also working on her own stand-up special at the moment.
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