Laugh Track: Mike Birbiglia

Storytelling and comedy are two of the hardest arts to master and it’s rare that a single person excels at both. How do you make a story funny and interesting and at the same time weave jokes into it so that it doesn’t feel forced?

One of the best storytelling comics working today is Mike Birbiglia. A relative newcomer, he started doing stand up in the early 2000s and by 2004, he had put out an album. While Dog Years was self-released, it became popular enough to win several comedy awards that year. The next year, he was featured on the Comedy Central Records compilation album Invite them Up, which featured stand up bits from up and coming indie comics. The album featured many comedians, including Eugene Mirman, who have gone on to become mainstream successes.Using the success of Comedy Central’s Invite them Up, Birbiglia released two albums in two years, titled Two Drink Mike and My Secret Public Journal Live. The album was well-received and pushed Birbiglia into the mainstream of comedy. The album features several of his trademark stories.

Using that as a springboard, he launched his own Off-Broadway show called Sleepwalk with Me and took it on tour across the U.S. The tour was extremely successful and he turned it into a book by the same name, which debuted at number 29 on the New York Times Bestseller list. His show featured a mix of stand up and stories. He also released an album based on the show in 2011.

Besides doing stand up, Birbiglia is a regular contributor to the radio show This American Life. His longform comedy bits have struck a chord with people and if you ask anyone who knows about him, they will only have good things to say about him.

He’s one of the rare stand up comedians that deserves every ounce of success he has.