Mike Birbiglia spoke to Bill Brownstein of the Montreal Gazette (7/14/2017) about getting personal.
Getting personal is crucial in comedy. I feel that we’re living in this sort of Instagram culture, where people are going: ‘Look at the life I’m pretending to live.’ And then people go: ‘Ew, I’d like to have that life you’re pretending to live.’
I do that myself on occasion. I go on Instagram and ask myself why I’m here and they’re there. But the truth is that it’s mostly fabricated and falsely framed and de-contextualized to give a sense of excitement and thrill. What I’ve tried to do with my shows is to bring them to a place where people don’t say: ‘I’d like to have that life.’ Instead they’d say: ‘That’s what my life is like, too, and it gives me some sense of perspective.’ One that is hopefully humourous and, sometimes, touching.
Brownstein says of Birbiglia:
[H]e merely wants to connect with audiences in search of someone who can articulate their similar experiences. Which explains why he still sees himself as “a travelling salesman of comedy.”
Birbiglia’s take seems to be that he’s not pretending to be something he’s not; he’s trying to speak from his real, lived experiences, his truths.
However, just as people on Instagram are taking selections of their experiences to highlight, we know that Birbiglia is as well. His experiences, while perhaps less “mostly fabricated” (a claim not all comics can make) are no less “falsely framed and de-contextualized to give a sense of excitement and thrill,” because what is a laugh if not a form of excitement, an expression of a thrill?
His stated goal is to be less of an idol and more of a peer, to connect and “give a sense of perspective”; he wants people to relate. Further, this relating is not limited to laughing, but also deeper sentiment. In this, he diverts from traditional comic intentions.
What is inherent in his language, he’s “trying to bring them” and hopes for the best (humor, sentiment). He’s a salesman, but he seems to realize that it’s not on him; he can’t make them buy. The audience ultimately buys or does not; they are active but perhaps only at the level of voting.
Questions? Comments? Thoughts? Additions?
