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Comedy Central Presents

Mike Birbiglia

Comedy Central · 2006

Olive Garden Italians, amateur rappers, and the guitar guy at the party.

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Before he pivoted to off-Broadway storytelling, Mike Birbiglia was a twenty-something stand-up mining his own awkwardness for a solid half hour. His second Comedy Central Presents appearance catches him in pure joke-telling mode. He categorizes his personality by alcohol intake, noting that zero-drink Mike has serious opinions about wildlife, while two-drink Mike loves dancing and knows a magic trick. He also theorizes that his mere presence would bring an orgy to a grinding halt and proudly claims his family’s status as “Olive Garden Italian”.

Filmed at New York City’s Hudson Theater in late 2005, the set aired during Season 10 and served as the television companion to his breakthrough Two Drink Mike album. At the time, Birbiglia was touring colleges relentlessly and building a dedicated following through his syndicated radio appearances. He closes out the thirty minutes with an acoustic guitar, mocking the guy who ruins every party with an unprompted Oasis cover while fully embracing the persona himself.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Growing up with an unusual last name

    Recounts childhood insults ranging from silly nicknames like 'Birbiglebug' and 'Birbibliography' to blunt homophobic slurs.

  2. Being an altar boy

    Addresses assumptions about his Catholic altar boy youth by preemptively stating, 'And the answer is no.'

  3. The shift in rap music aggression

    Contrasts the innocent rhyming of old-school rap with modern rap artists arbitrarily screaming aggressive curses about the current calendar year.

  4. White racial slurs like 'whitebread'

    Dismisses 'whitebread' as merely a race paired with a food, comparing it to calling someone 'black bean soup' or 'Asian chicken platter.'

  5. Different drinking alter egos and 'Two Drink Mike'

    Breaks down how his personality changes when drinking—from Zero Drink Mike reading biographies to Two Drink Mike doing magic tricks, up to Five Drink Mike dancing with wildlife.

  6. Black comedians imitating white voices

    Examines the ubiquitous British detective-style voice black comics use to parody white people, sympathizing with any actual white person who genuinely speaks like that.

How it plays

About
drinking and altered personas, aggressive modern rap music, childhood teasing and difficult last names, racial slurs and stereotypes, smoking pot and social paranoia, being an altar boy

Backstory

His second half-hour special for Comedy Central, ordered within two years after the success of his first 2004 special.

Details

Released
Taped
The Hudson Theater, NYC
Where
Comedy Central
Topics
Before
Comedy Central Presents (2004)
After
What I Should Have Said Was Nothing (2008)

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