The Melbourne International Comedy Festival
The Arts Centre: Fairfax Studio
Reviewed on March 29, 2013
Acknowledging the elephant in the room.
The best comics view life with a unique slant that the average person doesn’t get.
Where most folks do their best to erase painful and awkward memories that threaten to derail them, for the stand – up, these tales of woe, discomfort and misery are comedy gold.
Manhattan’s Mike Birbiglia has three Comedy Central specials, countless radio and television appearances, and a trio of chart – topping records to his credit including Two Drink Mike (2006) and My Secret Public Journal Live (2007).
Blessed with a baby face not unlike Tom Hanks, Birbiglia has a genial and self – deprecating approach to story – telling which is both entertaining and highly engaging. By challenging and deconstructing the social minefield with his refreshing Gen X point of view, it is not hard to see why he has been referred to as stand – up comedy’s everyman.
In 2009, Birbiglia took a bold step by creating a one – man show Off – Broadway that debuted at the Bleeker Street Theatre in Greenwich Village. After playing for four sold out months, Birbiglia immediately took the act on the road. Touring the United States, the UK and Australia for several years thereafter, audiences were transfixed, shuddering with recognition from Birbilgia’s man – child antics.
Fusing his gentle brand of comedy with a touch of theatre, Sleepwalk With Me specifically detailed Birbiglia’s experiences with rapid eye movement behavior disorder. It is an affliction that causes sufferers to act out their dreams as they are happening. The condition is so powerful, Birbiglia once jumped out of a second storey motel window while on tour.
Taking 33 stitches in his leg as a result, Birbiglia nevertheless uses this outrageous punch line for laughs. For any misunderstanding hotel clerks out there, at least Birbiglia can argue on doctor’s orders not to issue him a room above the ground floor.
Winning Birbilgia a handful of awards, Sleepwalk With Me was eventually turned into a book and a feature length film.
His new show, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, (think Meet the Parents and The 40 Year Old Virgin) follows the same narrative format by making self – conscious somehow cool.
Moving past the medical maladies of Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend dissects the dating dilemmas from Birbiglia’s youth and beyond. Shifting the routine’s arc back and forth in time, the audience is allowed in on the joke. There is a sense that through laughter, he is also healing personal damage with humor.
Two particular moments stand out.
A date with his high – school’s bad girl can only end in disaster after Mike invites her to a local carnival. He spends the evening filling up on peanuts, cotton candy and ice cream. However, when they decide to ride the aptly named “Scrambler” together, Birbiglia realises before too long what is going to happen. When the audience does as well, he says, “I know. I’m in the future, too.”
The second story is about arguing with his current girlfriend before flying across country to a gig. Everything that could go wrong does, including being “t-boned” by another driver in his rental car. Seeing this as a life and death moment, Birbiglia’s cynical views on marriage and the universe change in an instant.
Taken directly from his own experience, this is Mike Birbiglia’s Annie Hall. Like Woody Allen’s movie masterpiece, Birbiglia’s interconnecting stories are funny and sweet, sad and desperate, but filled with a single – minded determination to stay afloat despite the odds. Without giving too much away, Birbiglia does indeed triumph over adversity.
Playing until Thursday, this is 90 minutes of pain and laughter you won’t want to miss.
Image Source: indiewire.com