What I Should Have Said Was Nothing

Mike Birbiglia frames his transition from traditional stand-up to narrative monologist as a medical directive. Instructed by his therapist to keep a journal of his awkward moments, Birbiglia took the assignment a step further, emailing the entries to his fans and testing them out on stage. The result is a conversational hour built around embarrassment, leaning away from standard setups and into the cringeworthy details of his own existence as an “Olive Garden Italian”.

Filmed at New York University and released in 2008, the set catches the comic right before his career shifted toward theatrical one-man shows. The hour features stories about his childhood in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, the struggle to do a George W. Bush impression without sounding like Kenny G, and his frustration over being a mildly recognizable unknown. He closes the performance with an acoustic guitar song that recounts everything he just talked about.