Mike Birbiglia

So, I've found a new comedian that I love: Mike Birbiglia.

I was first introduced to him at Bonnaroo where he followed Janeane Garofolo. After she performed, a big chunk of the audience got up and left, and he made a bunch of jokes during that to call attention to and make fun of those who were leaving. Honestly, I was surprised he followed up Garofolo since she's such a well-known name, but, in my opinion, he's a much better comedian than she is. I can see why he was the big act.

Garofolo is great when she's acting. Her dry, sarcastic humor can be hilarious. I've seen her live and watched a special she had once on TV, and she's so scripted. She needs to follow her notes when she performs. That really takes away from the show. Mike Birbiglia, on the other hand, flows from joke to joke, and his jokes are so REAL. They happen to the average guy, and he just tells them in such a way that you can't help but laugh.

I know that when I saw him live, I was so impressed. He dazzled me with a bit on bullet phones, saying that he doesn't understand how to use cell phones now because they come with so many features and gadgets that he doesn't know how to use. One of these days he's going to just shoot someone with it, and say "I didn't know my phone had that feature!" It's a real funny idea. Then he does into this huge bit on how he tried to shake the hand of a blind man while on stage at a baseball hall of fame show. He totally mocked the guy (because he didn't know he was blind), and then realized it afterwards. Totally hilarious.

If you're looking to check out a funny comedian, he's your man. Watch some videos of him performing on YouTube.



Check out some of his quotes from Wikiquote:

"I have a habit of making awkward situations even more awkward. I was moving a new bed into my apartment, and a women opened the door for me with her key. And she said, "I'm not worried because I know a rapist wouldn't have a bed like that." Now what I should have said was nothing... but what I did say was "You'd be surprised."

"My family isn't really Italian. We're more like Olive Garden Italian."

"Sometimes when I do a joke and it doesn't get a lot of laughs, it kind of feels like I'm doing jazz. That's kinda cool because jazz is cool, but sometimes jazz sucks ... Maybe I'm the Kenny G of comedy."

"I went to a funeral recently, and they handed out Kleenex before the funeral. Which I thought was cocky."

"I find that a sympathy card is kind of an underwhelming gesture, in a way. It's like saying, 'I know you're going through the deepest loneliness of your entire life, so here's a picture of a daffodil, I hope that works out for ya.' That's why I wanna make my own line of sympathy cards. Like on the cover I'd put a picture of a duckbill platypus playing checkers with a rhinoceros and in the background there's like a hot dog with arms holding up a lemonade stand at gunpoint, and you open it up and it says 'The world is messed up man.'"

"I think Bush seems like that fun guy. You know, that guy you invite to the barbecue because you know he'll start the whiffle ball game. He's like Whiffle Ball Tony! You're like, 'Yeah, Whiffle Ball Tony's here! Alright, alright. This is cool.' And then one day, somebody's like, 'We're gonna put Tony in charge of EVERYTHING.' And I'm like, 'We are? I dunno if that's such a good idea.' Because he's very competitive. He starts going to the neighbor's lawn and challenges them to Whiffle Ball. He's like, 'I heard you wanna play Whiffle Ball, bitches!' And they're like, 'We never said that!' But he starts chucking hamburgers at them. We're like, 'Tony! What are you doing, man!?' He's like, 'They were gonna chuck hamburgers at me!' Then it turns out that they don't even have hamburgers! They have hot dogs, but they only throw them at each other, so it's cool. Then people get upset and they're like, 'Well, maybe we should've gone with Bookworm Steve... but he's so boring!' Then one guy's like, 'What about Ralph? We could go with Ralph,' And everyone's like, 'Shut up, Ralph! This is no time for joking.'"

So what do you think of Mike Birbiglia?