How To Be Funny: A Fireside Chat With Mike Birbiglia And Genevieve Fricker

Mike Birbiglia is a stand up, author, filmmaker, and unbelievably nice guy. His stories are at once deeply personal and universal, and have garnered him a cult following since his first appearance on This American Life.

After a stint at Melbourne International Comedy Festival with his new stand-up show, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend,  Birbiglia will be touring the country with his delightful new film, Sleepwalk With Me: a semi-autobiographical look at life as a stand-up comic and severe sleepwalker, starring Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, and cameos from a host of comics: Marc Maron, Kristen Schaal, David Wain and more.

I cornered him by a fireplace in Melbourne to talk about pizza chains, Ryan Gosling, and working with This American Life‘s Ira Glass, who produced and co-wrote Sleepwalk With Me.

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Genevieve Fricker: At the beginning of Sleepwalk With Me, you say you wanted to be a comedian, a rapper or an owner –

Mike Birbiglia: – Of a pizza restaurant, yeah.

GF: A pizza restaurant where third graders could hang out. Now that you’re a comedian, what’s your next move?

MB: I’m still holding onto pizza restaurant. I feel like if I got the right oven, and I got the right chef on board, and the right location, I think that my reputation as a pizza joke teller could bolster my reputation as a pizza-maker. People would say, ‘This is a guy with integrity. This is a guy who cares about pizza. Obviously he’s not going to sell us bad pizza.’

GF: This is your first time at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, and it’s my first time too. Do you have any war stories from when you started out doing festivals? What was the worst festival gig you’ve had?

MB: I feel like the worst thing I ever did was in Aspen, Colorado. I was told that I was going to be put on a show, a late night show, that Bob Odenkirk [Mr. Show, Breaking Bad] and David Cross [Mr. Show, Arrested Development] were hosting. Like a Mr Show-hosted event. This was 2003, I’d been in comedy for two years. I was performing in a room for a thousand, fifteen hundred people, who I had never played for before. So I was so nervous I just started drinking.

The combination of the altitude and the drinking – and I’m a terrible drinker to begin with – made me so drunk. I’m on stage, and the set itself went pretty well, because I kinda stayed on script, but for days afterwards people were like, ‘Hey, you were so drunk at that show, that Mr. Show event’. It was just very embarrassing – it was seen by all of my peers.

GF: Your comedy revolves around a confessional style of storytelling. I always wonder, do you ever get scared of hurting real life people? How do you get around it?

MB: It’s funny, in my movie, Sleepwalk With Me, my character’s name is Matt Pandamiglio, which is obviously a wink to the audience that it’s me, but it’s not me. My parents, they loved the movie. I said, ‘Did the parent characters remind you of yourselves?’, and they were like, ‘No, they’re nothing like us’, which is hilarious – ‘No, I literally ripped lines that you’ve said, and put them in a movie, and you don’t even know?’. But yeah, I am very conscious of not hurting people and that’s why I typically put myself down, or at least lower than the other people. I’m typically self-deprecating.

GF: You worked with Ira Glass on the movie, too. He’s obviously had a huge impact on your career. How did your This American Life spot came about, and how did that transition into the film?

MB: I was doing this live storytelling show called The Moth in New York. The Sleepwalk [story] that I [told] for them we sent to This American Life, and they really enjoyed it. And then Ira and I have just worked on a lot of stuff together ever since, and we’re good friends. I was listening to an interview he did this morning on ABC radio … The interviewer says, ‘The character in the film is doggedly persistent’, and Ira goes ‘That’s just like Mike. He’s doggedly persistent.’ I was like, ‘Ira, that’s the closest thing to a compliment you’ve given me in years!’

GF: You’re touring My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend at the moment. I heard you’re turning that into a film?

MB: I’m working on that right now. I was working on that on the flight here, as a matter of fact. The flight’s so long. If you can’t write a movie in 23 hours, then what are you worth?

GF: And will that star you as well?

MB: I think so. The thing about playing yourself or playing a version of yourself is that you really have a strong sense of how to land a certain line or a certain tone. And that’s why I wrote, and directed, and produced, and all these things. At a certain point in the process, I was going to have all these other people do those different things, but I think the comedian in you is a control freak.

GF: If you could choose another actor to play you, who would it be?

MB: I’m trying to think of who is really interesting to me right now in my age group, you know? Because I guess that’s where you need to think. Like, Ryan Gosling? But I wouldn’t really want Ryan Gosling to play me, because he’s too attractive.

GF: What if you scarred him up or something?

MB: I love that you’re telling me that the only way that Ryan Gosling could play me is if you physically scarred him. Like if you took a knife, and then struck him in the face, then he’d look like Mike Birbiglia.

GF: I didn’t mean it like that!

MB: Yeah, I know you didn’t. You know, honestly, now that we’re talking about it, it’s making me think that’s why I don’t have anyone playing me. I feel like I can get away with being the protagonist and also being kind of ridiculous, and I think that some of these movie stars, they can maybe get away with the protagonist part but not so much the ridiculous.

You know who I love though? I love Zach Galifinakis. I think if I had my dream cast, for myself it would probably be Zach, because he’s just magical. I feel like he’s a tremendous actor, magically funny, and strange, but also kind of a leading man. He’s the comedy triumvirate in my opinion.

GF: Your movie is about you as an emerging comic, or at least it’s based on your experience. So give me some advice.

MB: What kind of comedy do you do? That’s an important question.

GF: I tell stories about myself, and do songs and stuff like that.

MB: I do that too. I do songs. I do stories. But advice. Anything specific you were looking for?

GF: This is my third year doing comedy, and it’s going pretty well. But I just live in fear of it stalling; that I’ll just never move beyond where I am.

MB: Ira Glass said this thing once. He says the first thing is having taste, having a good sense of what is good. That’s very key. And the second thing is implementing that for yourself, and trying to mimic that sense of taste for your own self.

So what I would say to you: It’s never thinking you’re there. The people over the years that I’ve seen stall are the people who are just like, ‘Well, I’m great. I guess that’s it. I guess I’m gonna soak it up.’ They don’t realise that success, that commercial success, is ephemeral. Artistic success is a long haul. It’s a long game. I feel like – I’m 34 years old now, and might make my best film when I’m 45 or 50.

GF: Don’t they say that between 30 and 45 is the most prolific stage for an artist?

MB: Sure, but if you look at, like, Louis CK for example, or Jon Stewart, or Jerry Seinfeld, these guys really hit it around 40 – when I say hit it, I mean artistically – they hit this crescendo, and I feel like I’m not there yet, and I really hope to be. I don’t know if I’ll ever get there, but I know that I’m trying my ass off to get better all the time, so I’d pass that on to you as well.

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Melbourne International Comedy Festival Dates:

Mike Birbiglia’s My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend: April 3 & 4, at Arts Centre Melbourne, Fairfax Studio – tickets here.

Genevieve Fricker’s Party Pooper: Every night except Mondays until April 21, at Forum Theatre, Carpet Room – tickets here.

Sleepwalk With Me opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday April 4; click here to find it in a cinema near you.

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Genevieve Fricker is a Sydney-based comedian and writer. She has worked alongside internationally and locally acclaimed comedians, including Louis CK, Reggie Watts, Dead Cat Bounce, Steve Hughes, The Chaser and Fiona O’Loughlin, and pops up from time to time on FBi Radio, ABC 702 and Triple J radio, in print for the Sydney Morning Herald, Triple J Mag, The Brag and Time Out Melbourne, and onstage as a member of comedy troupe Project 52.

Photos by Kate Griffin.