Comedians working together is a beautiful thing.
Comedian Mike Birbiglia welcomes a different comedian or creator each week and together they work out original, untested material. And, occasionally, uncomfortable topics. Join them as they work it out.
Mike Birbiglia: A comedian, storyteller, director and actor who has performed in front of audiences worldwide, from the Sydney Opera House to Broadway. His shows, “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend” and “Thank God for Jokes,” were both filmed for Netflix. His most recent show, “The New One,” ran for 99 shows at the Cort Theatre.
In addition to performing live, Mike is an author and filmmaker who wrote, directed and starred in the films Sleepwalk with Me and Don’t Think Twice. Mike’s book “Sleepwalk with Me and Other Painfully True Stories” was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. As an actor, Mike has appeared on “Inside Amy Schumer,” HBO’s “Girls” and “Broad City,” as well as in the films Trainwreck, The Fault in Our Stars and Popstar. He plays the role of Danny Pearson on “Orange Is the New Black” and Oscar Langstraat on Showtime’s “Billions.” He is a contributor to “This American Life” on public radio. In 2017, Mike was honored with the Kurt Vonnegut Award for humor.
This week’s episode, Mike welcomes back to the podcast comedian Beth Stelling, whose Netflix special If You Didn’t Want Me Then is on seemingly everyone’s best of year lists, including Mike’s. Mike and Beth discuss touring together, Beth’s desire to be authentic on stage, and Beth’s dad feeding raccoons out of a trough. Plus, they explore the parallels between stand-up comedy and Beth’s new venture: professional field hockey.
Beth was named “Best Stand-up Comedian in Chicago” by The Chicago Reader in 2010. Soon after she was a New Face of Comedy in Montreal’s renowned Just for Laughs Festival and re-located to Los Angeles in 2011. Within her first year in L.A., Beth made her late night TV debut on CONAN and released her debut album “Sweet Beth” on Rooftop Records. She also appeared on comedy programs such as Comedy Central’s @midnight, Chelsea Lately and The Pete Holmes Show.
Beth was asked to perform stand-up on Jimmy Kimmel Live after Jimmy saw her perform at Upright Citizens Brigade in Los Angeles. That year Beth filmed her first half hour stand-up special with Comedy Central in Boston, and Vulture named it one of the “Best Stand-up Specials of 2015”. In conjunction with her Comedy Central special, Stelling released her second comedy album “Simply the Beth”. The Interrobang and Splitsider named it one of the top ten albums of 2015. Her second half hour stand-up special was filmed in L.A. and is now streaming on Netflix as part of The Standups series (season 1, episode 5). Beth’s first hour stand-up special “Girl Daddy” produced by Conan O’Brien and Team Coco is available now on HBO Max. The New York Times called it “The Best Debut Special of the year,” adding, “It’s a virtuosic performance, conversational while dense with jokes.”
As a writer, Beth has written on I Love You America with Sarah Silverman, The Last O.G. on TBS, HBO’s Crashing, Another Period on Comedy Central, Apple’s upcoming animated series Strange Planet and she is currently writing for season 8 of Rick and Morty for Adult Swim. Beth is a go-to hire for punch-up on features, after getting her start as an on-set writer and Associate Producer for the hit summer film Good Boys written by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.
On the acting front, Beth has a recurring role on Peacock’s comedy Rutherford Falls opposite Ed Helms and Jana Schmieding. She can also be seen in season 2 of Amazon’s series Red Oaks opposite Jennifer Grey, as well as guest starring on Comedy Central’s series Corporate. You’re welcome to listen to Beth’s podcast (hosted with her mom Diane) called We Called Your Mom which has two seasons on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Checkout more episodes of Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out featuring Tom Papa, Liz Kingsman, Jim Gaffigan, and many more HERE
