self-effacing comedic storytelling has won him a fiercely loyal fan base over the last decade, but along with his one-man-show approach comes a unique set of problems.
“Honestly, it’s so much trial and error,” said the 35-year-old Massachusetts native, who made his film directing and starring debut in last year’s “Sleepwalk With Me,” based on his show and album of the same name. “I listen to other people, like (‘This American Life’ host) Ira Glass, my brother Joe, my wife Jenny. I’m surrounded by people I really respect and I want a lot feedback, but I ultimately also want to do what I want to do.”
We caught up with Birbiglia in advance of his “Working It Out” small-club shows at through Sept. 8, which will precede the winter theater tour for his next one-man show.
Q: Now that you’ve been doing this for awhile, have you gotten into a rhythm with writing and practicing these shows?
A: With “Sleepwalk With Me” I developed that over five or six years. “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend” took about three years, and this one I’ve been working on for about a year and half. So it’s probably got another year in it or so before I decide I’m going to record it and film it.
Q: How do you stay on track when so much of what you do seems to be amorphously structured?
A: A lot of it is work ethic. I work a full day’s work like people do. I treat comedy writing for myself like a 9-to-5 (job), and then I’ll do shows at night. I’m always looking for what’s working, what’s not working. I’m really kind of obsessive about it.
Q: And certainly there’s no guidebook for this kind of thing, given your style.
A: I feel like what I’m doing is ultimately a blend of stand-up comedy and theater, a hybrid of these two forms. If you were going to be really critical of each form you could say one-person shows tend to be not funny enough, and stand-up comedy tends to not have enough heart, so I feel like there’s a blending of those two.
Q: You’ve been really successful with it. Why aren’t there more people like you out there?
A: I think there’s a demand for it. Sometimes comics, in an attempt to cop some persona of being tough, there’s sometimes a loss of humanity that people kind of see through, and they’re like, “This guy’s not leveling with us. He’s just treating us like we’re an audience and we just feel manipulated.” And I feel like the (stand-ups) who I really connect with are kind of leveling with the audience — people like Doug Stanhope, Maria Bamford, Louis C.K. People who have made a lot of effort to really articulate what they’re saying and express it in a way that’s unique to them.
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642, jwenzel@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johntwenzel
MIKE BIRBIGLIA. Storytelling stand-up comedy. Through Sept. 8 at Comedy Works on Larimer Square, 1226 15th St. $30. 303-595-3637 or .
