A few days ago I decided to browse through the depths of Netflix, looking for something at least halfway decent to watch to take a load off my mind for a little while. It was then I found a stand-up special titled "Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend." I had a minimal knowledge of who Mike Birbiglia was, but knew that a blogger that I admire really likes him, so I trusted his judgement and hit play.
It was the best decision I made that day.
In the special, Birbiglia talks about how he's managed to navigate his love life, from his first kiss to his latest romantic adventures. He manages to entangle his adamant aggression towards the institution of marriage and romantic anecdotes into the ongoing story of the first time he fell in love, and how he dealt with this, seeing as he'd never been interested in marriage while his girlfriend at the time, was. But the story wasn't what stuck with me after watching this, but the way he told it. Mike Birbiglia's delivery in this was wonderful, in the way that he could make the audience tear up from laughter in one second, and be entirely silent. He has a way of juxtaposing his funny stories with melancholy reflections on them. In some ways, he reminds me of David Sedaris and his qualities as a monologuist and the way he has complete control over the audience's emotions.
This little hour special also made me realize that I really, really enjoy comedy. I mean, who doesn't? But I spent the whole summer looking for genuinely hilarious things to watch, to read, to look into. I need to figure out what it is that I like so much about it, but I think for now I'm just going to continue to enjoy it throughly. If anyone has any suggestions for anything, either book wise or video wise, I am up for it.
(Sidenote: Ira Glass produced this special for Mike Birbiglia, who has also been on his podcast "This American Life," which Luke has mentioned a few times in class. Just an interesting sidenote.)
