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.
In this week’s episode, Mike welcomes Comedy Cellar friend and comedy star Chris Distefano.
Chris shares important lessons in failure: how a bad set got him booked on Letterman, and the advice his wife gave him about not listening to studio executives. Mike and Chris also dissect Chris’s famous 9/11 story, and why Chris’ “worst gig” story involves an actual knife at his throat.
Distefano has been a pretty busy comedian the last couple of years, he wound down a wildly popular podcast (History Hyenas) and spun up 2 (Hey Babe, Chrissy Chaos) on his own network. Additionally, he hosted a truTV show, and started to sell out some major venues. Things are going pretty damn well for Chrissy D.
Now DiStefano is eyeing a new stand-up comedy special and album and he’s chosen to do what a lot of comedians are planning to do these days and self fund and finance the special and corresponding album by himself and drop it right to his fans via his Youtube page. “I am super excited about this special. My career only really started when I put it in the hands of my fans. That’s why I wanted this all to be self produced and put on YouTube. I will let the people decide if it’s funny or not. My mom has said it’s not for her.” stated Distefano.
Checkout more episodes of Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out featuring Tom Papa, Liz Kingsman, Jim Gaffigan, and many more HERE
