Mike Birbiglia
He builds off-Broadway plays out of his own social missteps.
10 specials · 2001–2025
Start with My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, the most honored (2013 · 76 min · Netflix)
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He performs from a stool, leaning forward, holding the microphone close. His voice is soft and slightly breathless, a tone that suggests he is about to confess something embarrassing. He usually is. He favors a rhythm where the setup is an observation and the punchline is an admission of his own inadequacy. When a crowd laughs at a misstep he made, he will often pause, look down, and offer a quiet, defeated agreement before moving to the next beat.
Specials
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A storyteller's gentle confrontation with aging parents and trampoline park liability.
Netflix · 77 min
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A documentary following the agonizing process of writing stand-up comedy.
Peacock · 45 min
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A quiet, theatrical monologue about the horrors of reluctant fatherhood.
Netflix · 85 min
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A storytelling hour about romantic failures and a serious car accident.
Netflix · 76 min
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What I Should Have Said Was Nothing
The awkward journal entries that turned a comedian into a storyteller.
Comedy Central · 56 min
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Olive Garden Italians, amateur rappers, and the guitar guy at the party.
Comedy Central
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The early, hyper-specific stand-up that launched a major storytelling career.
Comedy Central
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Premium Blend: David Alan Grier (S5E3) with David Alan Grier, Brody Stevens & 2 more
David Alan Grier hosts a 2001 showcase of four emerging club comics.
Comedy Central · 22 min
On stage
He occupies a specific, self-created lane between standup comedy and theatrical solo performance. Other comics study his hours for their architecture. He figured out how to make a standup special function as a three-act play, taking shows from theater runs to streaming platforms without losing the intimacy of a comedy club.
His early work relied on shorter jokes and an acoustic guitar, but he abandoned that to focus on long-form narrative. He builds his shows around a central conflict—deciding whether to have a child, dealing with a grim medical diagnosis—and populates the hour with smaller anecdotes that seem unrelated until the end of the show. He uses laughs to keep the audience comfortable until he is ready to shift the tone. He is precise about where he puts a callback. A phrase introduced as a throwaway joke in the first act will return in the third as a serious admission. He scripts his stories down to the syllable, making sure the humiliating details are specific enough to ring true.
His sleepwalking disorder, which once caused him to jump through a second-story motel window, served as the foundation for his shift into narrative storytelling.
Turning points
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Theatrical Debut of Sleepwalk with Me
Birbiglia transitioned from conventional standup to theater with his off-Broadway solo show Sleepwalk with Me, establishing his signature narrative style.
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Gotham Awards David O. Russell Incident
Birbiglia roasted director David O. Russell during an awards monologue by reading a leaked on-set argument, which later formed a centerpiece story for Thank God for Jokes.
At a glance
Fans also like
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John MulaneyLongtime college improv troupe peer and close collaborator sharing a refined, narrative-driven observational style.
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Pete HolmesContemporary comedian who shares a conversational, introspective comedic approach focused on vulnerability and relationships.
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Nick KrollCollege improv contemporary and frequent peer who similarly transitioned from standup into narrative theatrical work.
Podcasts
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Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out · host
Comedian Mike Birbiglia welcomes a different comedian or creator each week to work out original, untested material and uncomfortable topics.
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The Old Ones · host
A limited podcast where Birbiglia analyzes his past stand-up comedy albums and material alongside friends and fellow creators.
Also on screen
- Sleepwalk with Me
- Girls
- The Fault in Our Stars
- 2015–2016
- Orange Is the New Black
- Trainwreck
A clip to start with
Mike Birbiglia - Sleepwalking