Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 210. Ramy Youssef Returns: He Lit Up The Pyramids

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

In the wake of the release of his new special “Ramy Youssef: In Love,” Mike welcomes Ramy Youssef back for his third appearance on the podcast. The two discuss why Ramy cannot reveal the price of his wedding nor the price he would pay to hear his dog talk for a day, what it’s like to write from the blank page, and what major celebrity might have stolen Ramy’s look. Plus, Mike has a few questions for Ramy about Martin Scorsese’s email address. Please Consider Donating To: War Child Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

So in your last special, I got thanked in the credits. And then in this one, I noticed you thanked Martin Scorsese and Lauren Michaels. So are you moving in a certain direction? Is this the new regime? No, you know what it is? I think you did one of my Cherry Lane shows. Yeah, you're right. And so I always take a note when someone does a show with me.

That's what happened. And so Lauren opened for me in Toronto. That'd be fun, right? Dude, you talking to this special about paying $10,000 to hear a dog talk? I'd pay $10,000 to see Learn Michaels' stand-up. That is the voice of the great Rami Youssef. I love Rami Yusuf. It's his third appearance on the podcast.

One of my favorite people, one of my favorite comics. He has a new special out called Rami Yusuf In Love. It's on HBO Max. I couldn't recommend it more highly. fantastic comedy special. We talk about that today. We talk about jokes, a lot of work on a lot of jokes today.

By the way, thanks to everyone who signed up for working out premium on Apple Podcasts. We've been doing a lot of the different bonus episodes. Some of them, we work out just jokes. It's like getting ready to go to the comedy seller, work out new jokes. Some of them, I'm with Pete Holmes, and we're working out listener jokes.

That's really fun. To sign up for those episodes, you can go on the Apple Podcast app and you can subscribe to premium. It's $4.99 a month. What you get is no ads. You support the show, which is an independent production,

and you get those bonus episodes. I really appreciate it. Also, if you're in Los Angeles, I'm going to be there in a week. In May 6th, I'm at the Wilshire Ebell Theater. It's Mike Barbiglia and Friends. The Friends are two awesome headliners

in their own right who have been on the podcast, multiple times. It's a surprise, but I think you'll be really, really happy about who those people are. That's May 6th of the Wilshire e-bell theater. All this on berbig's.com. Also, I'll be in Montreal at the Just for

Lafts Festival. July 24th, I am doing a gala for Canadian television. 25 years ago, I was a new face. Now I'm a gala. I'm an old face, gala. Also, July 30th, I'll be doing two shows at Nantucket, Performing Arts Center tickets for that go on sale.

May 30th, and I'm doing a bunch of dates with John Mullaney in May in Colorado Springs, Eugene, Oregon, Bend, Oregon, as well as Moorhead, Minnesota. In August, by the way, signed for the mailing list. I appreciate it. Been doing the mailing list 25 years. And to get even more specific up-to-the-date information, text berbigs to 911-444-7150, to be the first to know about upcoming shows. By the way, this is a great talk with Rami Youssef.

If we talk about his news special on HBO Max, we talk about what it's like to start from the blank page after you release a special. Rami explains why Martin Scorsese is thanked in the credits, and we talk about why Rami would pay thousands of dollars to be able to talk with his dog for just one day. Enjoy my conversation. By the way, you can watch the full one on YouTube.

We have all the episodes over on YouTube right now, and we really appreciate it if you subscribe. We're putting up tons of stuff right now. Enjoy my conversation with a great Rami. You talk about, you ask the audience how much they pay to talk to their dog. Yeah. And have their dog talk back. Someone shouts 10K.

Someone shouts 20K. What's your number? You didn't say. I didn't say because it, um, it's embarrassing, you know. Oh, wow. So it's like everything. It could be a high number. And I don't, I, I, I, the reason.

why I don't want to publicly say the number is mainly my father. It's always a game of hiding from my father how much things cost and how much I would spend on things. So if he heard how much I would, he'd call me and go, what are he doing even throwing these numbers out there in front of people? Yeah. Yeah. Everything, my dad thinks everything is really cheap. I remember Sebastian had the best bit about telling his dad things cost less in one of the specials that was so funny. I said that's exactly what it is with my dad, the dad price. Okay, so you'd pay a crazy amount to talk to your dog. Well, you have a conversation.

You know it was funny one time my wife got this dog psychic that someone told her about. That's a good spend. She was like, this woman's good and you pay her 200 bucks and then she'll tell you what's going on with the dog. And then I thought I was said, where is it? She said, no, she does it virtually. So I said, okay, we're going to Zoom with this woman. about the dog, which it feels like an in-person thing. This is full hoax.

This is full hoax territory. And then it wasn't even video chat. It was just phone call. It was audio zoom. It was only a phone call. And so she was, she said like, just put the dog near the phone. Let's all breathe and we're going to feel into it. We dropped 200 bucks.

It's outrageous. And she had this whole thing of like, wow, I mean, your dog is really expressive. And immediately she goes, he really wants you to know, don't get a second dog. He does not want. he wants your full attention because of where he came from. Of course. Of course he doesn't want a second dog.

My wife is in. She's chatting with the word. I'm kind of sitting back and I go, let's test this woman a little bit. And I go, hey, he's a rescue. We have no idea where he's from. Where are you thinking he's from? And she thinks for a minute.

And I know where he's from. But I kind of, I go, let's see. He's gotten hit by a car in Tijuana. Right? she goes after a minute of silence Pennsylvania she goes he's from Pennsylvania how do you get to Pennsylvania from Tijuana

and how are you so confident after a minute of silence that that's where he's from yeah we are ripped off I thought that was a deep philosophical question how much would you pay for a conversation would you talk well you know it was you know because it

I kind of got really into this thing on this last tour of and there's a couple of it these beats in the special where I had really specific crowdwork questions that kind of opened up an array of really cool answers. Yeah, I noticed that. Yeah. And so I kind of had this feeling that I really like improvising with a crowd, but what can I ask them that, yeah, it just speaks to something that I'm actually thinking about. And it was really cool because in a lot of ways, every city there'd be something different, but then there'd be a range of kind of the same things that people are dealing with.

So between how much they spend to talk to their dog, what they were willing to spend on their wedding, or what they think about performing in Saudi Arabia, you know, people would get really kind of active in the crowd. Right. And it would take the show all these different directions. But the more I did the tour, I realized there were kind of like four or five ranges of answers for all these questions.

That's right. And then I kind of started to figure out how to swerve. And so even shooting the special, we did four shows. Each show I did a different order because the crowd would take it somewhere. else. And then I kind of had made this decision that I would probably just pick one of the shows to be the special. And that's basically what happened. It's mainly just the third show. So you ask people how much they pay for their wedding. What's the most shocking how much people pay for their wedding? It depended where I was. I mean, there were some people who were like willing to share,

they spent like four or five hundred K. No. Oh yeah. I was a caterer in high school at weddings. Yeah. And I was so I was privy to seeing some of these numbers. Oh, yeah. I mean, it was six figures, like, easily six figures people would spend on the wedding. Easily. And also there's all these rough statistics on the likelihood of a wedding ending. Divorce. Yeah.

In this correlation with how much you're spending on the wedding. Like, there's a lot of theories on that. Like this peacocky, you know, we got to prove this is the right marriage by spending all this money. So that's why you lit up the pyramids. I love that part You have this great story It's a great special by the way I think it's your best special

I feel the same I'm really happy That I got to do the first two To get to It's a process I mean that's what I love about this show Yeah Is you're so good at kind of letting people in

On what the process is Oh thanks Like I couldn't do the third Without doing the first two Oh that's interesting You know So would you explain to say more about that I mean I said this to

Nina at HBO, I thanked her for, you know, the latitude, because she just kind of is, she says, you want to do one. All right, when do you want to do it? And they come out and they don't say, they're just like great, you know, whatever. But it, you know, there's all this stuff. I remember there's like the hourglass quote where there's your taste and then there's where, you know, what you're doing is. Yeah. And I felt every time I finish special, I'd be certain things I'd be so happy about.

And then other things I go, okay, great. This is, there's these layers I want to strip away so that it feels more like myself. Yeah. It feels more like my taste. So I'd finish always in the edit. I'm editing the special and then I have all these notes for what I want to do for next time. Oh, interesting. I love that.

And like performance stuff or, you know, which way I want to push it. And so this was the first special that I was sitting in the edit. And notes super minimal more, oh, I just think I know what I want the next one to be now. You know, so it was a different shift. I read this New York Times article once. I think it was profiling Miranda July, and she talks about how she writes after she makes a movie, instructions for the next movie.

That's, yeah. And I'm, so, so I started doing that after Sleepwalk with me. I wrote instructions for the next movie, and it was so helpful and don't think twice. Is there an instruction that is worth sharing? Stuck out. Here's the thing. Here's the thing I learned from,

and I'm about to make my third. Here's the thing, you have to hire a lot of people, people when you make a movie. It's kind of like, it's kind of like a lot of a startup. It's a company. It's a company, right? Yeah. And you have to hire tons of people. Like all told, you have to hire like 100 people. I think it's more. Or more. I mean, technically more. Technically. But like one on one, you really have to interview for like 100 people. Yeah. And then they'll bring some of their people. Exactly. Yeah. And there's this, um, there's this quote from Ilya Kazan, which basically says when he was interviewing people,

whether for acting or whatever it is, is ask them what they're passionate about about this project, and don't lead them to the answer. Wow. And I was like, oh, he's got my number. Because I think on my first movie, I made the mistake of asking the question and then being like, right, but it's about delusions, right?

And it's about really wanting it, your dream or whatever, you know? I'm like telling them and then they're repeating it back to man, you're hired. Well, because it's such a stand-up thing or a writer thing, right? Because when you're a stand-up, you're kind of seducing the audience to get to your point of view. So it's kind of this thing where you're, and also I think when you're making a movie or whatever, you're always selling the movie so hard. Yeah. And then you get to this phase where you actually have to bring the people on board and then you forget,

no, no, they're actually, this is a phase where they're kind of selling you. It's kind of 100%. It's a different, do you have that with either your TV series or your specials, like a specific thing you learned from one to the next? Yeah, always. It's always just, I mean, from the specials, it was really figuring out how to combine writing with the energy that I want to have and also pace and physicality and all those things. So it's always just like how to keep harnessing those things

so that they feel you kind of want that gap to be less. Actually, Mo had told me this thing once that really stuck with me where he said his stand-up mentor told him when you start stand-up, there's a brick wall in front of you. And every show, you're chipping away at the brick wall between you and the audience. And like some shows, you remove a whole brick. And some shows you just chip away at the corner of one brick.

And some shows you smash through the wall. And then all of a sudden there's this like, like new, right? Isn't that so cool? Oh, that's beautiful. That really stuck with me. Yeah, yeah, that really stuck with me. So there's always that. You're always going, where am I at with that brick wall?

Where am I at with, I also view that analogy as there's just less of a gap. Yeah. Between me and the thing. And we know, we do personas on stage to a degree. Yeah. You kind of want it though to be, I think, I guess for me, the goal is that you're seeing kind of like my childish, devilish side on stage. Sure. That's all I want.

I want to give you that inner child. child that just kind of wants to fuck around a little bit. Chris Fleming and I were talking about that on this podcast yesterday. He's so fun man. You want your, you want it to be like a like a middle school sleepover. Yeah, yeah. You want it to be like that insane kind of like why are we laughing? Yeah. Chris is so fun. Oh, he's great. Yeah, yeah. Really, I love him. I run into you in the neighborhood. We live in the same neighborhood. This is my cup from my house. That's how close we live. I brought my own. I get busted on that, by the way. I brought my own cup of coffee. Someone on social media wrote

I saw him like Brubigli in my neighborhood He's just walking around with a ceramic mug Yeah I'm like yeah dude I want my mug Isn't that the idea Isn't that the goal here? Yeah

The coffee shop's right there It's right there My mug's over here Why do we need to make more We got garbage Supporting the local economy And saving the environment Come on

It feels like you're getting busted For being good Yeah exactly That happens to you a lot I should snapshot it And post it myself Yeah, right? Like get your own paparots.

Yeah, yeah. You, I feel like when I run into you, you always look good. You always look really good. And I always look like I just got in a fist fight at the gym. You look great. What is your standard for walking out of the house? Do you have high standards? I feel like I never see sloppy, Rami.

Well, this is the thing. I think part of it's an illusion. I think that my established style is already somewhat, refined sloppy. So then once it's narrowed to that, you would never expect to see me in anything too buttoned up. Right. So then this kind of thing becomes impressive. But this is quite easy. This is just a regular shirt and this. Good to go. In your special, you compare yourself to bad bunny as well as God and the Pope. I compare myself to God? No, I guess not. I was going to say no, never. I would never. The scene of Whoopi Goldberg at the Vatican, I feel like.

You're in the Holy Trinity. I, um, okay, yeah. I, I'm. I'm going to say, I was going to say, I was going to I draw a link to maybe potentially understanding the concept of the charity. By the way, when this comes out, the special is out. You should pause this, watch the special on HBO, come back. But make it clear. I would never compare myself to God. Yes, but people... You do have a bad bunny energy, and I can't quite describe it.

You know, it comes at me a lot. Yeah, it comes with me a lot. People say that. Oh, all the time. Yeah. Is it the combination of like, Facial hair, curly hair. Medium level facial hair, baseball cap, curly hair, turly dark hair?

Sometimes glasses, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's what it is. Have you talked to him about this? No, I haven't seen him yet. It's, you know, there's a beef, obviously. Do you think he gets it? I don't, I will say, I have no delusions.

He's a bigger star, so I don't think he does in his communities. Maybe someone has said it to him. But I've always gotten, you know, people think I'm Puerto Rican. And then with him. But the thing is, is like, I was doing... People speak Spanish, do you? Yeah, all the time. Yeah.

And I have, I don't know it. Oh, you don't have it. I don't have it. I don't have it. Got it. So you go back with Arabic. Yeah, yeah. But Arabic.

Yeah, and then they go, whoa. Yeah, yeah. What's going on here? Don't fuck with this guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It always evokes fear. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so that, he's taller.

Let's be real on that. He's a big guy. He's tall dude, I think. Yeah. But the interesting is, I was doing this look. If you look at early photos of him, when he first kind of comes out. Oh.

It's not. Shots fired. I'm just saying. This was my look from jump. I'm going to put this in the camera. This is my look from jump. Shots fired. From Rami Yusuf.

And I don't know if you do, you do photos on this. I want you just pull up early bad bunny. We can pull up. We can pull up early bad bunny. You'll see I, you know, start having more of a public appearance at a certain point with a certain style, a certain vibe. Wow. Oh my gosh.

So, you know. This is asking for trouble. I know, listen, man. You and maybe one day we'll both be on. the podcast talking about it working it out. I'm a big fan, and I want to be clear, I am a big fan. We're all big fans. Of him. We're all big fans. I just want to be clear, and this isn't

about disrespect. It's just about lineage. All right. For your wedding, did you get fresh water or Nile water? That was it. That'll give context to the listeners. This is your wedding planner. Basically trying to up, I would say, upsell you.

You want fresh water you want Nile water. That really killed me. Yeah, it was just The bit is really about me being kind of a colonizer, thinking I can go over to Egypt and get a discount and get everything I want. And it doesn't work out for me. Right. In the bit or in real life.

But in real life. But in real life, the wedding was best couple days in my life. And it was really great. And it was fresh water. I really, you got fresh water. Nice, nice. I really felt for you when you were, because the wedding, I'll bring people into it.

The wedding planner, was like, we can light up the pyramids. Do you have photos of this? Yeah. Are they great? I mean, we have amazing wedding photos. Wow. Yeah.

He's like, you can light up the pyramids. This is why weddings cost so much. Yeah. Because the wedding planner has so much power. Yeah. Because they leverages your entire relationship. I mean, there's just access, yeah. For your wife, do you want the lit up pyramids or just nothing on the pyramid?

No, yeah, if you want dark pyramids, by all means. Dark pyramids are fine. If you don't love her. By all means, you can fly all the way over here, bring all these people over here, have dark pyramids. If that's what you want. I really felt your pain, though, because you were like, you paid the extra money. You lit up the pyramids and then no one's looking at the pyramids. Because it's cold.

Because it's cold. People go inside. Yeah. Yeah. And people went looking at the pyramids for hours. And then all of a sudden, oh, cool, now it's lit up. That's not why they're there. Right.

They're there for the relationships. They're there for the fans. That's right. That's right. But when you're thinking about the spectacle of the wedding, you forget for a moment. You forget all those things. Yeah. People, you talk about a destination wedding that's a line in the sand.

You know, and it's really... Egypt is far. It's far, but it was one of those things where I kind of over-invited, because then I go, this is so cool. You get to invite people to your wedding and they're not going to come because it's so far. Right. But you get to say you invited them. Right.

very wrong. The amount of people. People showed up. The amount of, we barely had nose because you have people who their whole lives go, I'm just looking for a reason to go to Egypt.

And here's one. That's right. And I can go and it's at the pyramids. I can basically bang out every archaeological goal I've ever had and see a guy I like and be there for only three days if I want

or I can add days. We barely got nose. How many people? I think we're 400, man. How much did it cost? I am not going to say that because my father does not know. 400 people? Yeah.

That's an expensive wedding. Bro, that's light work too for an Arab wedding. I'm telling you, I've been to Arab weddings that are deeper in the hundreds. Really? I've been to an Indian wedding. It was a thousand. It was a conference. We had badges.

Who's the most famous person at your wedding? Um, I don't, you know, a lot of people said they were coming and then didn't come. So there are people who were like, I'm definitely coming and then didn't show up. So I think, oh, I have the greatest answer. Most famous person of my wedding? My wife. She's all that matters.

Nice. What do you think of that? Was that cool? No, that was beautiful. We're going to cut this up and we're going to send it to her. She'll get it at the end of her dog walk outside. She did the design, by the way, on the special. Yeah.

She designed the set, which they now kept at the hideout in Chicago. Yeah. And Chris Storer directed it. Yeah, so it was perfect because they were finishing the last season of the bear. Yeah. A bunch of those guys have worked on the specials. Christian Springer, who I've worked with a little bit,

we've shot a couple things together, but he shot Atlanta and he's just incredible. Oh, wow. And so I had sent Storer a reference point of the end of Raging Bull, you know, when he starts doing comedy in that small New York bar. Of course, yeah.

Or it's just this like rail bar shot onto the stage. Yep. And I said I always wanted to do something that feels like it wraps in how people are watching it and it's super focused. Yeah.

So the special opens that way. There's this cool bar shot that kind of gets you into the room. We shot it on film. Yeah. That's part of the thanks to Martin Scorsese in there because we just,

that was the inspiration. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. Do you know if he saw it? I just sent it to him literally this morning

I just emailed it and I said Hope you can watch this You know Will you write down his email for me Yeah We're gonna All the listeners are gonna email

Yeah imagine I feel like he'd love it I feel like you go wow That's the most emails I've ever gotten in a day I talked to him once And it was so cool Because he was like

Yeah you know How these Hollywood guys are to us literally just like stars like stars are like the industry or something I was like who's us I was like you're you're you're you're Scorsese it's a verb it's an adjective right you're a whole thing but he has this New York mentality

that is so it's so cool he's so he has this amazing like hunger for man we're just out here trying to make movies we're just out here trying to do our thing 100% every ever gives up everyone I talk to who at a high level of directing will say to me, 99% of directing a movie is people saying no.

Yeah. High level guys. Yeah. The crew person said no. The actor said no. The location said no. It's just all day. A battle.

Yeah. It's a battle. It's so funny because when you're starting, you have this weird, kind of ambiguous they. Are they going to let me? Yeah. Are they going to get in my way? Completely.

And then you meet these top guys, and they're still talking about they. Yeah, yeah, it's confusing. I thought you were part of they. I thought you were they. How are you not they? You're not they? You're not they?

You're me? If you're not they and you're me, if you're us, we're all in trouble. We're all in a lot of trouble. You still think there's a day? No, I think that that's one of the most illuminating things about having any modicum of success in show businesses. You go, oh, A, it's never easy. It's never easy.

It's always hard and it always feels like you're going up upstream. It's so, and it's inspiring. Yeah. You know, these guys, you see them and listen to their interviews, you whatever, and you just go, they're just like, oh, I hope I have enough time to do this thing. I hope I can do this thing. And you go, whoa.

Well, the Scorsese documentary. Oh, it's so good. On Apple. It's so good. I usually don't like gush and gush, but it's like about a random documentary, but it's like, man, did they nail it? And for the listeners of this show, it's worth watching, particularly because you realize this iconic film

Yeah. At every step of his career was like, I'm trying to get this movie up. I'm trying to get this movie up. No one wants to make this movie. And you're like, wait, wait, you, like, you already did Raging Bull. You already, you know, you already did it after hours. And it's all, and no one wants to make his movies. It's incredible.

It's fascinating. Everyone's a battle. It's bizarre. So, anyway, just write down his email. No, because I have some questions for him just as a, I'll check my phones, yeah, over there. No, I have pets. No, no, but I, my phone is on my, yeah.

No, no, but I'm analog. Okay, okay, I got you. I knew it. I knew it's Marty's Gmail. He got Marty at Gmail. He was early. You got Marty at Gmail. No, no, you talk about people who,

talk about innovation. People who get in early. They're way ahead of the curve. He got Marty at Gmail. At this point, what's our level of friendship? I'm going to clarify, would you come to the funeral? Would you speak at the funeral? Would you happen to have a prior work commitment

on the day of the funeral? Okay. I'm coming to the funeral. Great. That's easy. That's all I'm asking for here. The only prior work thing could be that I was, I'm just going to give you the truth.

This is 100% of the truth. It would be that I was in production where I'm kind of the person doing everything. Right. Right? So let's say I'm only acting in it. Right. I'm going to call them and I'm going to say, hey, can you move my scenes?

I got to go to Barbaglius. Wow. I would do that. If I'm doing every piece. I like the shorthand. If I'm doing every... I kind of like the shorthand. It makes me feel warm about my funeral.

Yeah, 100%. I'm going to be honest with you, everyone's going to know. Everyone's going to know the context. This is a news. Right. You know, you know. So, I hope. Absolutely.

Dude, rest easy on that. Dude, if it's not. It's news. I need you to get there. and kind of drum up some business. Oh, without a doubt. I mean, remember when I was walking around going like, why isn't anyone talking about Palestine?

If you think I'm not going to go, why isn't anyone talking about why isn't anyone talking about what's happening in Lebanon while the Iran thing is happening? How come no one's ever big a bigger issue? These are all, it's massive. I mean, Lebanon is, I mean, it's crazy. No, that's a bigger issue than me dying.

All the things mentioned are way bigger than anything that has or will happen to you. That's for sure. But I'm just talking about. the kind of way I show up. So I'm just, these are just kind of like algebraic verbs for the energy that I could bring. Yeah, for this kind of awareness.

So I'm going to need that. That's coming, but it won't be needed. It'll already be, that context is there. I'm going to need Malaney. Dude, everyone's there. I might need Conan. Everyone's there. And I also pray, we're talking about something

that's happening in, you know, 40 years at a minimum. This is far. God willing. Far, God willing. So let's pray on that. So now, I'm coming. Yes.

Am I speaking? That is really like, that's at the behest of your family. That's at the behest of the people around. You know, I'm not forcing, I never force speaking it. If it feels like there's momentum for me to do it, absolutely I'm doing it. What if you give a speech and you go, you know, the last thing he said to me when no one was there was he's converted. Look, yeah, I have an agenda. Spoiler alert, pause the podcast.

This is a callback to Robbie converting the Pope. That's a great. Is that the final line? Yes, it's basically the final line. It's basically the final line. Yeah, yeah. It's like I should have just only. You call back to wife thoughts.

Yeah. Wife thoughts is great. Did you think about calling the special wife thoughts? I did. I did. Because it's like you basically, to encapsulate it, it's like there's things you say, and there's things that you say to your friends. And then there's like beyond that, which is wife, wife thoughts.

you would only say to your wife your husband so i kind of test the audience hey can i share one with you and let's see how it goes and kind of that last leg is is i think i end on three thoughts yeah that previously were only wife i think that is one of the most beautiful things about marriage and of course it's not limited to marriage you could just be in a relationship and you could have wife wife Oh, yeah. But, but there's something about the next step of the thing of like, even in theory, we're going to try to go to death on this thing. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, I think that's one of the significant things about marriage. You go, yeah, everybody gets divorced, 50% divorce rate, whatever. Whatever. But we're going to try. Yeah. And that's why you get the wife thoughts. That's where you get those.

Yeah. Sometimes too many, too many wife thoughts. Sure. Sometimes. I can only imagine. And your wife goes, can you chill? Chill for a sec? Yeah.

Calm down. Yeah, yeah. But it is. It's like, you know, you're kind of committing with someone to everything that can be seen and not seen. And I think that's what's exciting, you know. And that's not. Say more about that. You know, it's a spiritual exercise, you know.

Things are going to come up about my past. Things are going to come up about my hopes or things that I feel and from her. And none of it is what you. knew from the beginning because you couldn't know. Right. So I see it as this journey, you know, with someone who, like, the success of it is, are we, do we stay in the car and do we keep navigating together and do we keep doing that? But also if you just get further and then, you know, for some reason, people are like,

hey, actually, I don't think this is, you know, this is the end of the road for us or whatever. I don't think that that's like, that's not a failure. You know what I mean? That's why this whole, all these divorce rates and stuff, not a failure. Right. I mean, it doesn't have to be a failure. Right. You went to, yeah. Yeah, you did something you couldn't have done alone.

For 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. You couldn't have done it alone. That's right. That's cool, you know. Do you have wife thoughts now that didn't make to the special? Oh, yeah, of course. Do you have any ones that are top of mind this week? I'm trying to think if I have anything to,

I mean, maybe not this week anything that's like, you know what I've been thinking about is just, And this was, there's, it's interesting, there's like things that don't make it into the special, but then I kind of realized, oh, this is like a way bigger chunk. Yeah. And I think I've been, and again, I'm always kind of looking to interrogate myself. That's the thesis of why I like stand up. Yeah. And then I'm going to rope you into it.

I've been really kind of fascinated with when I choose to talk about other people. or how meaty it can be. I guess it's on a level it's gossip, but it's also like, it gets kind of, you know how people just bond over, dude, that guy, fuck it. Yeah. Oh, he's so, you know, like those pockets of things.

Yeah. I've been trying to really understand like, can I make it a whole day, like not talking about anybody? Oh, that's interesting. Could I just one whole day, only topics. Yeah. Only my feelings about my own, or I can ask you something,

something about you. So in other words, can you go a day without sort of gossiping? About anybody. About anybody. Can we do that? You ever read four agreements? That's one of them. It's one of them. And it's hard to do. It's so hard. It's so hard to not gossip for a day. So I had this bit that I was trying to do that I think is like the beginning of the next hour, which was basically like try and do a dinner, see if you can make it to dessert. Yeah. Like I don't even think you could make it past appetizers. No, because, well, what's funny is, is the bit that I have from years ago, that's similar to wife thoughts is my favorite thing my wife and I do is drive away from the party.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's one of the special things about marriage is you have the party and then you have a second chance of the drive home from the party or the subway home. And it's like the party can be garbage. Yeah. And it makes the drive home better. Yeah. It's like, you know, what the fuck was that?

It's the sports analysts on ESPN. It's always better when the game was awful. I mean, the way they can rip into the team. That's right. It's like, what are they doing? The coach has got to be fired. You know what I mean? They got them.

Those two got to break up. I mean, it's the play-by-play, the color commentary that you can do with your wife is incredible. It's huge. And I kind of am like, oh, can I challenge us? Yeah. To not. To not do it. That's hard.

happens then. Yeah. Something cool. Something interesting could occur. Yeah, yeah. That's what I've been thinking about. You said that you got to do a bucket list goal of playing basketball with Adam Sandler. Oh, yeah.

And you said it was good, but he's very aggressive and he fouls a lot. Did you calibrate your game against him? Did you switch from, oh my gosh, this is actually happening to, oh, wow, I really need to play basketball now. I think I quickly got into I need to play basketball now. Yeah. Yeah, and I got aggressive as well, is what I didn't mention in the quote and used to be said.

So, were you fouling? I fouled. Yeah. Yeah, and so. They call fouls? We didn't really call fouls, but it was basically, it was two on two. I was playing with David Fenkelworks at 824,

so it was me and David against Adam and Josh Safty. Oh, wow. Josh is skinny dude, right? Yeah. And we're doing D on each other. And it's not my, you know, you know what I mean? It's not my fault. Yeah.

Josh falls a couple times. Okay. He's not happy, right? Then this is the morning of the Golden Globes. Hold on. Hold on. Yeah. He falls a couple times.

Yeah. But like you're saying he's not happy. He thinks it's your fault, but it's not. I guess these things are debatable. Okay. You know, I think it's we're moving. Yeah. I think we've got, you know.

Yeah, yeah. A couple times I boxed him out, which is how the game works. Right. Isn't my fault you fell. Right. There's no ref. Understood. You know what I mean?

That kind of thing. Golden Globes that night. Just write down his email. Golden Globes that night. Shalame walks up to me. Okay. And goes, I hear you foul a lot. I love it.

I go, dude, that's not. I hear you foul a lot. I hear you foul a lot. And I go, that's not exactly how it went down. Yeah. And he just kind of gives this smile, as if to say, I think that is how it went down, walks. What do you do with that?

You know? I mean... Yeah. Here's what I would say. I just need some on-the-court advice here, you know, from Mike from Bigley. I don't like how you laughed through that sentence. That makes me feel bad. I get that.

I get you feeling bad about that. I would guess... that you aren't fouling. I think you're boxing out. Not being there. Yeah. Because fouling, you really have to be using your hands, right?

You'd have to, you know. Look, all right. And this is the thing. If I'm being honest, I can think there were probably like four little scuffles in the game, you know, play by play here. One was a foul.

Okay. Did they call it? Yeah, yeah. I think there was a ball exchange. I was like, hey, I think I fouled there. One was gray, two, who knows? You're also like, here's what I know about being your friend for a lot of years. You're a competitive person.

100%. And by the way, so is Sandler. Oh, my God. No, no. But that's what brought it out of me because I walked in being like, oh, man, we're going to be like shooting hoops. I thought we're going to just be having fun. I thought there's a good chance he's doing accents. Like, I thought it's just going to be like, we're a ho-ha.

And I go, wait, we're playing a game. Well, if we're playing a game, I'm going to fucking play. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm here to play. Yeah. I like it. It's fun. You should have said to show me.

I'm trying to dream big, dude. I mean, you know, at the time, that marketing wasn't out, but you bet I've replayed it in my head. But this is the thing, the thing I like about competition in general. Yeah. This is like my, what I, what excites me about it. I like when people are raising the bar. That's what's fun. Because then you go, yeah, we can do that.

That's what's fun about it. I like that. That's what's fun about it. Never anything interpersonal, though. It's never like there's no, the joy isn't winning as much as it is getting to do something you weren't able to do. You didn't know if you could do. You hadn't done yet. That's where it becomes really fun.

Like when you see art you really like, you go, yeah. That's sick. I even had that with your special. I was watching you do your story to close about meeting the Pope, and I was with you. We met the Pope, and I did a bit about it, close my side. Which I loved. And it was like that thing where you're in a drawing class in college

and you're sketching the same model, and you look at the other person's paper, you're like, ah, motherfucker. You know what I mean? Like, that guys is a little better. No, I did. I liked yours better. No, but I was very inspired. Like, I thought yours, but again,

what I loved about it was that we think about religion differently. Yes. That's what I liked about it. So I was like, it's like in a way, a comp, but it's not a comp. Yeah. You know, we were both at the same place. Right. But we have a totally different framework of how we view the world.

Yeah. And so that's where it becomes cool where I go, oh, wait, Mike, yeah, that is like, that is worth a bit. Yeah. You know, and that's exciting. And then, but it's never, you know, each of us could only do the one thing. Right. And I think this is something that I love, you know, this is even in every spiritual practice, but someone, you know, I heard this, this sheikh say this once.

And I think it applies to anything. He said every single human being on earth has a unique advantage on their journey. And that is literally just if you embrace the thing about you, you have a unique advantage. That's right. And so seeing people embrace their unique advantage makes you want to embrace your unique advantage. So that feels kind of like competition, but it's not. It's actually like it's, I don't know, it's inspiring. Well, that's right.

I always thought that about like bits. Sometimes people will be like, oh, that person did a bit, but then the other guy, this person stole it or whatever, and you know, no, no. They didn't steal it if they did it well because every topic is going to be covered.

Literally every topic is going to be covered. I hate that shit when someone goes, no, bro, I talk about supermarket prices. Yeah, supermarket prices are mine. You talk about supermarket prices? I talk about the Mexican family. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you talk about the Mexican family?

Get the hell out of here. Like, it's like, that's not. subway delays. That's not the... Subway delays is mine. That's not what we're talking about. You know, write something that only you could tell.

Because I don't actually care about the topic. I care about how you interact within it. Do you have new bits that you're working on that you, that are half, you know, thoughts or seeds of anything? I'm a little bit stressed because this is so funny. I was talking about this with my buddy who does music. And he was like, he's like, oh, it's so weird. You finished your special and you put it out.

And I'm sure people want to see you after the special, but you just did all your material. That's right. And he said, well, for me, when I put out my album, everyone just wants to see me play my album live. Absolutely. And so I have. Same with when people write books.

It's crazy. They just want to read excerpts in the book. Yeah, I just want to hear it in the author's voice. So I'm supposed to do this, the Netflix fest in May. I'm doing the same thing. I have a material. I don't have a joke. No, trust me.

And that's why we're working some jokes today. No, no, I don't have one. You don't even have. I don't have anything. I have the thing I told you earlier about getting through dinner with my wife. And it's not even like, it's like a cute thought right now. Like I need to, you know, so I'm in a bad place. Okay.

I think we'll find something then. We'll find something. No, because I feel the same way. I feel like I have about a half hour. I've about about half hour stuff. Wait, that's incredible. Half hour is huge. It's okay.

So are you supposed to do an hour at Netflix? I'm doing a half hour because it's Mike working it out with friends. Oh, cool. Yeah, so I have two friends. It's like May 6th. Yeah, I'm doing the fifth. I'm doing half hour with Alana Glazer.

Nice. I told her I would open. Do you have, what do you have? Do you have 10 minutes? You don't have 10 minutes. But you always have a back pocket. You always have a backpack at 10 or 15 probably. I'm used to having a reserve of something.

I think I have 10. I think I've got 10. But by the way... I think I've got 10. But by the way, here's what I've noticed. Because would you have three or four specials now? This is my third. Third.

So it's like, at this point, you can rethink and reconfigure things from your first two specials. Like, you can go back into topics that you had. Have you done that? Yeah. Like, sometimes on the... I'll do it. Like, if I'm doing an hour, like, right now, this summer, I'm doing like a few situations where I'm doing like 40, 50, I'll do 20 minutes of, I'll do the scrambler from girlfriend's boyfriend.

I'll do the sleepwalking story from sleepwalk with me. And like, because what I find is that if you revisit stories, it's new for the audience. They haven't listened to it in 10 years. Wow. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then it's new for you because it's where you are in life now. It's like I tell stories about like middle school.

It's like, I have a middle school kid now. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like my life is different. Yeah. It's like you can talk about being single now in relation to that you're now married and your life is completely different. I kind of actually, well, first off, this is really good advice because a friend of mine said this to me. My friend Mustafa, he's an amazing musician, but I was talking to him about how, and I don't know if you feel this way, but how I feel everything I do, it feels like I'm trying to keep getting.

at the same thing that made me start. Yeah. The same, like, we kind of each have our, you know, people say what's, you know, your voice. Yeah. But in a lot of ways, he was like, what's your tension? What's the thing you're going up against? And in a lot of ways, I feel like I'm, and he said this to me. He was like, you know, you're, you was like, I think he was like, the best artists are scaling

the same mountain. That's right. And each piece gets them higher to the top. Yeah. Of this idea that, that, that is eating at them. Yeah, yeah, totally. You know, and, and I love that. I thought, yeah, I never feel, like, I only get closer to the thing,

but then I'm like, wait, actually, I got to talk about this thing again. Because there's a whole other angle that I see now that I'm a little bit at a different point in the mountain. You know, and it's also like, you know, people say that also, but novelists are always, a novelist is always writing the same novel over and over again. Yeah, yeah. And filmmakers, of course. I mean, I mean, Scorsese is a great example of this.

Like, how different is Goodfellas from, from Raging Bull? Like, there's a lot of things. Yeah. Yeah, that cross over. Casino, yeah. I mean, it's wild. But like, you know, it's obsessions. I guess I would say, like, in terms of, like, this being a territory of, like,

trying to mine in the early stage, like, what are you obsessed with that you haven't talked about on stage? Yeah. Like, do you have anything that comes to mind where you're like, oh, I don't want to talk about that? But I do think about that. Hmm. I mean, I have always had this radar of, of, I'm sure you feel like,

the thing that makes me nervous. Yeah. I'm going to jump into it. Yeah. That's always the thing that that's kind of, you know, going at me. And so, yeah, as I kind of get into this next one, I think there is something, you know, sincerely kind of scaring me and eating at me of just,

I don't know how to, I guess the clearest way I can put it is. So I talk around spirituality. I talk about things obviously like, you know, I'm doing the bit, you know. But I do kind of, I feel like I'm kind of getting to this place in my life where I am thinking about death in a way that I never thought about. And I am thinking about, and again, praying that we have, we're on this block together for the next 50 years. Yeah. And I feel like I don't say this.

I say this with the hope and even the inkling and the desire that we have like long lives. But even having a long life, you go, it's short. you know like just genuinely short and I think that's what's interesting about career milestones or like you have a kid and you know we're trying to have a kid this year and so um I I got married and I was like oh wow this is one of those things you go well one day when I grow up I'm going to get married and one day when I grow up I'm a comedy special you know and then you go okay I'm married I've done three comedy specials yeah I want to have a kid and you start to go oh these are like all the like things you do and it is slowly kind of coming this way and so I've just been thinking about

challenging my perception of reality and how much time I actually have. And those things are really interesting to me and scary because, you know, you kind of go, I'm so obsessed with this idea that we're forming and we're constantly making ourselves better. And I never want a stamp on who I am. Right. But I am kind of going, this kind of is who I am. Like I need to look at some of these things. Right.

And I can say, am I happy with where this is at? You know, because I'm not a kid anymore, you know, and those things are really exciting to me. Yeah. And like, how am I spending my? my days. What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I doing? What am I actually doing? It's intense. I'm also really disturbed by my bubble. You know, I'm disturbed by my lack of proximity to real tension. Yeah. I have proximity. I think maybe in some ways, people in this country don't have family all over the Middle East. I have people who I have conversations with on the phone and you can hear bombs

in the background. So it's not a joke on a level. But another love, I am like, I am always kind of haunted by how at the same time I'm walking my dog in Brooklyn and I'm like yeah I guess coffee's nine bucks right yeah no no of course no and also like

it's also that thing where you go like if you travel America to places that are more economically depressed it does some of the politics does track you don't have to go far yeah

it's such a good point some of where people are voting yeah It makes sense. It does drug. Yeah. No, dude, I mean, I was talking about my buddy and stuff where he was like, he was talking to people about what's happening overseas and, you know, some guys in the hood and they go,

dude, we have our own war over here. Yeah. And it's probably 20 to 30 minutes from wherever you live, if not closer. And you go, wow, yeah, people, you know. So that's, you know, yeah. There's a joke of yours that, a new joke that I wrote echoes at, which is one of my favorite jokes of yours, which is the LeBron. joke.

Oh yeah. Because people are like, you know, that might have been when I was just getting to know you and I did it in new jokes. Yeah. And you came up to me and you said, that's in the special, right?

And I had just tried it. And I was shooting the special in two weeks. Yeah. And I said, yeah. I was like, of course. One of the building blocks. Yeah, yeah. And I just thought of it.

Basically, people don't know it. The gist of it is, is, is, how did the, people let their kids hang out with Michael Jackson and you basically go like it wasn't it was peak Michael Jackson. Yeah I was like this is this is like you know I said I grew up with white Michael.

Yeah yeah. At the top you know. 80s Michael Jackson. 80s you let him do what he wants. Yeah like if LeBron James asked me for a sleepover with my kids because it would help him beat the warriors. Yeah. So anyway, I wrote this joke recently where I go

people, it drives me nuts. This is actually a fascination of mine. It drives me nuts from people, my friends, judge people from the past and somehow decide that they would be the enlightened person in that situation. Oh, my God. And I'm like, you're not the enlightened person now.

What makes you think you'd be the Harriet Tubman when you're not the Harriet Tubman of now? No, you're not the Frederick Douglass of our improv group. You're the Tim Douglas of our improv group. off group. Oh my God. I love that bit. That's so funny.

But it's of a similar DNA as your bit. That is so funny. Drives me nuts. It's crazy. It's like you have no risk-taking ability or depth perception right now. What were those people thinking? Like, what are you thinking now? That's so funny.

Yes, I want to do that. You got to do that. I want to try it. I mean, that's great. Frederick Douglass, Tim Douglas? That's so funny. Frederick Douglass, so funny.

And then also, I feel like, you know, sometimes you hear these, I have this obsession right now, which is like, we all have a bank of thoughts in our head at all times swirling around that we do not share with people. And we sometimes we think about saying that,

oh, no, I couldn't, actually, I shouldn't mention that. And one of those is the phrase bros before, hose. Yeah. Which is clearly a cry for help from a bunch of guys who are like, I just want to hug Steve.

Yeah. But I need to dress it up in so much misogyny that you can't imagine I'm experiencing emotion. Bros before hose. Why'd you have to bring the hose into this? And then I go to the audience. Just be with the bros.

Exactly. Just keep it bros. Tonight will be bros. It's like, no, no, I'm going to take it a step further than that. You got to drag the hose in? Got to drag him down? And then I go, every guy, I said this is the audience. Every guy you know.

The most upstanding man you know. The Obama of your life. Obama himself, for sure, has in earnest said the phrase, bros before hose. I go, it's a major concept in the world. The nation of Saudi Arabia is based on bros before hose. That's a great bit. So I'm going to do that at Saudi Arabia next year, the festival.

No, I'm just kidding. And then the other one I add is, oh, you know what I did from this, from last time you were on the podcast? You tagged my joke with, so the joke was in every relationship, you need one person who understands heating and electricity and plumbing. And we don't have that. And so we're currently seeking a third. we're recruiting at local technical colleges.

And then your joke is because we realize we need a husband. Yeah. I've been doing that. It's great. Oh, that's great. It's actually one of the success stories of this podcast. It's like someone with a bonafide tag in the moment and it works and it's in the hour right now. Do you do that with the pod?

Like, you know how in Shark Tank they go back to investments that they made that went well? Do you ever do a highlight reel of tags that worked? No, we absolutely should. And you see them in specials. What's funny is, is like, I don't know if you have this, but like the thing I've been trying to convey for all these years with the podcast is that like a lot of times, like, working on jokes or anything in the creative process, is just pushing around sand.

Yeah, yeah. Just being like, what about this? Yeah. And there's people kicking stuff around. Yeah. So anyway, that was a success story. Oh, my God, that's so cool. Oh, and then the rest of the joke is, though I have this fear.

And this is sort of what gets into the heart of like how I feed. How do I feel about it? It's like my fear is that if we find a husband, we may realize we don't need that first husband. Yeah. Because if this guy is so good with a wrench, he might not be so bad at sex either. Oh, my gosh.

His shoulder might not quiver when he's on top or whatever general thing might happen to an elderly man-making love. I mean, it is wild. Oh, yeah. You've been to that Ace Hardware? You've been to the Home Depot over there? This is a different civilization.

Yeah. They look at us like we're not the same gender. Yeah. And they're on top. That's what happened with when we had rats in the ceiling. Oh, guy shows up. I got this. I had this joke where I go like, I go, I got this.

I go lying in bed with my wife and we hear in the ceiling. And I go, my wife is she's very good at identifying the problem. So good. Yeah, yeah. Which is step one. Huge. You need someone to cut. She looks up.

She goes, I think there's a rat in the ceiling. No, I'm here also. I'm aware there's a rat in the ceiling. And she's like, you got to do something. And so I call the rat guy. He comes over and she's like, I think the rat is here. And then I was like, yeah, I think it was over here. And then she walks across the room and she goes,

and it might have been over here. But that also might have been in a dream. And I was like, I think maybe we got to keep the dream talk on the inside. That's wife thoughts. his wife and how don't share the dreams with this guy because the more you share the dreams the higher the price gets

if this guy thinks this guy thinks we're dreams people he's gonna think he can rip the fuck that's great that's great the more we talk about dreams that higher that price is gonna go we're just tell him

we're logical people we live on earth my god that's so funny if you tell him your fucking horoscope we're cooked I had a rat guy once in L.A. There was a house I was renting.

Yeah? And, you know, yeah, I get it, man. You're just at the mercy of this guy. And he had jokes, too. You could tell, because this is his profession. Yeah. He goes, your place. Talk about the Rats Carlton.

The last thing we do is working out for a cause, and it's, is there a nonprofit you like to contribute to? We will contribute to them and link to them in the show notes. Oh yeah, cool. I know you do a ton of nonprofit work. Yeah, I've been doing a lot. There's this, there's this org I really like called War Child. Okay.

Yeah, and they help children in the middle of all these wars. Awesome. They figure out how to build shit for them and help them out. We will contribute to War Child. We will link to them in the show notes. Amazing. Amazing, special. Thank you for coming to my funeral.

And I hope you'd say just a few words. I'll see you there in 50 years. Thank you. Working it out because it's not done. Working it out because there's no one. That's going to do it for another episode

of Working It Out. You can follow Rami Yousef on Instagram at Rami. His special in love is on HBO Max now. He'll be at Netflix as a joke festival like me, but his show is on May 5th with Alana Glazer, who's also been on the podcast. Go see Rami and Alana and come see me the next day, May 6th.

Check up Burbigs.com to sign up for the mailing list. You can watch the full video of this on YouTube. Our producers are working it out or myself, along with Peter Salomon, Joseph Barbiglia, Mabel Lewis, and Gary Simons. Sound Mix by Ben Cruz, supervising engineer Kate Balinski, special thanks to Jack Antonoff and Bleachers for their music. They got a new album coming out. They've released, I believe, three songs. They're all fantastic. I really like that song, The Van. They're at Madison Square Garden in June. I'll be there. Special thanks to my wife, the poet Jay Hope Stein, and our daughter, Una, who built the original radio for Mabel.

of pillows. Thanks most of all to you who are listening. If you enjoy the show, please rate us and review us on Apple Podcasts. We're slowly getting close to 5,000 user reviews, which is really my podcast dream. We appreciate it. We've released over 200 episodes all free. Thank you, everyone who is listening. Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your dog, for God's sakes. After you do the thing where you pay thousands of dollars to hear your dog talk, you got to go, hey, Rufus. What do you think of that podcast? I play all the time. Mike Barbiglio is working at.

It's where Mike Brubiglia talks about the creative process with other comedians and filmmakers. Do you like it? Do you like it? Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. What's that? You love it?

We should sign up for working at premium? Oh my God, you're so great. You're such a good dog. Thanks, everybody. We're working it out. We'll see you next time.