Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - 217. Aaron Chen: High Quality Jokes from a Low Capacity Kind of Guy

Episode Date: June 29, 2026

Comedian Aaron Chen may be known internationally for his role on the hit Australian TV series Fisk, but he’s been a working stand-up since the age of 15. In fact, he might be the only Working It Out guest who learned to drive commuting to and from comedy clubs with their dad. Now he’s got a hit Netflix special, Funny Garden. This week, Aaron sits down with Mike to discuss his journey from the suburbs of Sydney to opening for Ali Wong to headlining his own shows across the world. Plus, Aaron and Mike open up about the instances early in their careers when they regrettably lashed out at audiences, and how they became more adept at navigating difficult shows. Please consider donating to Food Bank For NYC. Mike's tour dates: https://www.birbigs.com/tour-dates Text BIRBIGS to 917-444-7150 for updates Find Mike: Website: https://birbigs.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/birbigs/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/birbigfans TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@mikebirbiglia Find Aaron: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chennylifestyle/ Website: https://www.aaronchencomedy.com Hosted and Produced by Mike Birbiglia Producers: Peter Salomone, Joseph Birbiglia, Mabel Lewis, Gary Simons Sound Mixed by  Shubh Saran Supervising Engineer: Kate Bilinski Video Consultant: Graham Willoughby Special Thanks: Marissa Hurwitz, Josh Upfal, David Raphael, Nina Cwik, J. Hope Stein, Oona Music: Jack Antonoff and Bleachers Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Who'd you meet where you were just like, well, this is very a surprising turn in life, meeting this person? Well, I don't want to say you, but, you know, like meeting you, that's crazy. Meeting like Todd Barry, you know, like that's a guy from, like, these are guys from CDs. You know? In Australia, I just know them from CDs. He's a guy from CDs. You know? That is the voice of the great Aaron Chen.

Welcome back to Working It Out. We have Aaron Chen this week. I'm really excited. We've talked about him for a while. a lot of guests have mentioned him as one of their favorite comics. He's one of my favorite comics to watch. He's an Australian stand-up. He's very well-known in Australia from a show there called Fisk.

He's got a special out right now called Funny Garden on Netflix all over the world. We talk about that today. We talk about jokes. We work out jokes. By the way, thanks to all our working it out premium subscribers, the Berbilia Familia. We've been doing more bonus episodes. We recently dropped one with Liz Allen, who's a great improv teacher and improviser. We've done some recently where we work out listeners jokes, each other's jokes.

We did one with Pete Holmes. If you join, it is $4.99 a month, and you get no ads on the podcast ever. Plus you get the bonus episodes. By the way, thanks for all the positive feedback we got on last week's episode, the Q&A with John Rudnitsky. We got into the nuts and bolts of the financial and logistical struggle of being a stand-up in really gritty ways. I love that episode. As always, you can watch this episode and others on YouTube. Video is also now on Spotify, and I think coming soon to Apple Podcasts as well for the video version.

I have a great talk today with Aaron Chen. We talk about how he started doing stand-up comedy in Australia when he was in high school. We talk about lashing out at audiences early in our comedy careers. Oh, gosh. We kick around material, and Aaron explains how his dad taught him to drive while they were on the road going to comedy clubs. Very different from my relationship with my dad. This is a good one.

Enjoy my conversation with the great Aaron Chen. So you and I know each other from the comedy seller. Yeah. You're like, before you showed up, we were talking, Gary and I were talking about this. It's like you're one of the people who, when you kill with an audience, it's like a sonic heightening of the room. Like, you're killing so hard that it's like, it's a new height. and you're like, oh, I didn't know that this room could get this loud.

That's very nice to say. Wow, that's incredible. But here's the question. Yeah, when I'm bombing. Yeah, what's that like? You didn't know it could get that quiet. What is it like that? Because I've never seen it.

Like, I've never seen you bomb. What does it feel like for you? What does it feel like for the people in the room? I think there was a period in Australia for like two or three years where I had to learn not to throw a set. I feel like I don't see people in America doing this much, but there was a time in Australia where people, if you were doing bad, you'd tank it, you'd be like,

you guys suck, you don't like, you don't get it. You'd yell at the audience, right. This is the worst night of my life, that type of thing. And it took me like a year or two to stamp out that edge, because it was very painful when I... So you used to lash out. I would lash out, yeah. It was like socially acceptable among comedians

to lash out at the crowd when they weren't good. People were lashing out in Australia. There was a big problem. I don't know if they still do it. I had an era of that early in my career. You did? Yeah. 100%. It's so embarrassing. When's the last time you lashed out? Can you remember it? I mean, it was so long ago. I don't... You're a professional. It was so long ago, really, though. I wish I, you know, and I wish I never did. Yeah, same. I hate that I did. Same. But mine's recent. How recent? did a, in the past year, I did a show at MIT, but it wasn't like a big show there.

It was, they had like a Chinese society. Yeah. And it was Chinese New Year. So I can remember exactly. It was whatever Chinese New Year was this year. And it was one of these things not set up for comedy. It's in the middle of like, they had an event and they're like, okay, so now people are going to get up and go get food from the buffet.

I think this is a great time for you to start. set. Right. So people are getting up and getting food from the buffet. Every other act was like kind of a talent act from the crowd. No one was really like into it or laughing. Yeah. But then that, so I lashed out. I did lash out. I said, well, this. I didn't say like I, you guys suck. I was like this is like this is like this. Yeah, this is bad. This is not good. Yeah. You were like a young phenom. Like you blew up in Australia. You were like on a TV. show and you were stand-up. Yes.

And you were like mid-20s, like young 20s? Yeah, I started early. I started at 15 and then I was on TV later on. The 15 thing always is interesting to me. 15 clubs. Because, you know, there's only a few people who I think Sandler started when he was like 16 or 17 maybe. Yeah. I think Chris Rock started when he was like 16.

Really? Yeah, yeah. I think Chappelle started when he was like 14. Yeah, like really young. Aziz started really young. I want to say like 17. Yeah, right. It's interesting, like one time Aziz was on stage, he was super young.

Because I was probably in my 20s and Aziz maybe was 18 or 19. He was super young at the comic strip upbri-side. Right. And Lucian, the guy who booked the comic strip, said to me, he goes, when someone is 17 or 18 years old and they have the audacity to walk in that door and say, I'd like to be on stage, usually there's something there.

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I always stuck with me. Uh-huh. Because truthfully, most people walk in a comic club and say, I'd like to be on stage, there's not something there. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what that is.

The youthfulness, like what drove you at 15? Uh-huh. To be like, yeah, I should be on stage. I think it fell into place. Everything fell into place. Like I was just doing like speeches at school and I'd always do them funny. And then I was chasing that bug, you know?

Yeah. How funny were these speeches? Let's be honest about. Few gags. Some stolen. Let's be super real about these speeches. Yeah. What's the funniest thing you said in one of your speeches?

I went to like an all Asian school. So it was like, not all Asian. By rule, that was one of the rules? That was the rules. Yeah. It was an unwritten rule. It was maybe like 70% Asian, like a lot. So it was a lot of Asian gags, that type of stuff.

Yeah. Hockey stuff or original? I would probably say hacky, maybe some original neutrality poked out, but I wouldn't claim that. And then I googled how do you do funny speeches? outside of school. And it was a stand-up competition. There was one for kids. Interesting.

That the Melbourne Comedy Festival run. Amazing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you entered? I entered. At 15. At 15. And then I started doing mics and stuff after that.

Did you win? I didn't win. The first year. I won the second year. You won when you were 16? 16, yeah. Needed a year. Do you have any good jokes?

From back then? Yeah. I, um, like, party areas, you know, party areas, they get real crazy on Friday, Saturday nights, pack full of people who are, like, they work out a lot, and they're very drunk. And that's like a Venn diagram of things I'm scared of. And I say that one of these guys, he bumps into me. But he thought that I bumped into him, so he says, do you want to fight?

Don't underestimate me. And I say, I think you underestimate my ability to estimate. That's great. That's good. Age 16. 16. I'll still do that. Aaron Chen, comma, age 16.

Yeah. I think you're overresting it may my ability to estimate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's strong. I guess I would just say, like, how do you write? Because it seems like your bread and butter is mundane. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah.

Like really zeroing in on the mundane. Yeah. Which must be very annoying for the people in your immediate life. mundane people. aren't punchlines yet. Yeah, yeah, right. I get an idea, I'll put it on my notes or a notebook or something, but it's always just like one little idea.

What gets it from the notes app on the stage, and then what gets it from the stage to the special? Great question. It normally comes pretty fully formed. Like, I have to be pretty confident that the punchline, at least, is there, or something like that. and it's like pretty easy to work out from there. And then it's 50-50 whether it works or not.

And then from the special, I think it just keeps working over time and then you're in. I guess my experience of it is like I find you so enjoyable to watch that actually if you didn't go to the punchline, like I would still be along for the ride. That's nice to say. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. I think that's probably why you were able to do stand-up comedy when you're 16. Did you learn to write through setup punchline that vibe?

because you're pretty you're free flowing with it no that is it it was headberg Stephen Wright wow David Tell you know

the real like setup punch people and then just like observing like okay this part is no one taught it to me I never took a class

I was just like okay this part's true and then this part is like a turn and then like just trying that out and then like realizing that like I think

similar to you, like when the part that's true has to do with yourself, that that can have more impact. Yeah. How did you know with this special? How did you know when it was done? Because I feel like at any given time, you're, you probably have a couple hours of material. No, I'm like, what's in the special is like everything I have. I'm always like pushing to get more material. It's so hard for me to like. Oh, really? I'll get to an hour, but that's like with crowd work or with like, you know, a bit of space and stuff, I'll get to an hour. But normally it's like, in terms of material, it's 45 minutes every time. So then pass that, you just lash out of the audience.

Yeah, lashing out is, gets me to an hour. At 45, they're like, air and stretch. And you're like, no. These guys suck. And they're like, this motherfucker. You're like laying into people. That's what happened. I'm trying to think, yeah, it's 45 minutes.

I think I just tour for that long. I also like, it's just like if I, something is not working, I'm so eager to get it out of the special. You know, or get it out of the hour and replace it with something else. So maybe I'm like,

should maybe sit in the bits a bit more and just work on them. But it's just by the time I'm sick of doing that 45. I think that's when you know it's ready. Oh, that's interesting. When you get sick of it. You do get sick of it sometime.

Well, yeah, because it's a lot of times it's the same words over and over again. Same words. You've to it everywhere. You're like, it's time. Right. Mm-hmm. Do you, now that you just dropped the special,

Mm-hmm. Are you on the spot to, like, come up with a new 45 minutes plus lashing out at people? Yeah. I'm still working on the lashing out. I got about two minutes of lashing out. But, no, I'm trying to write now. I think since September, since it came out. Wow.

Yeah. So you sort of had this epiphany at like 15, 16. You became a... Like, what was your first break in your 20s? Or like, how old were you when you started doing it professionally? Professionally, I was like maybe like kind of seven years in that five to seven years in. What do you think are the benefits and costs of breaking early like that? I don't know if there was like that much of a benefit in doing it early except just like time.

Yeah. Yeah. You just did it for longer. Right. Yeah. But I don't think I, yeah, I don't think there was too much negative because I didn't like explode, you know. Oh, interesting. So I still did the 10 years. Like I wanted to do the 10 years. Yeah. Is that a standard amount of time people think of doing stand-up 10 years? A lot of people say 20 years. That's when you're like.

Really? You haven't heard this thing? I've never heard any of these things. Who are you talking? I'm listening to podcasts and stuff from this very country. Clearly not this one. People are like 20 years, that's when you really know you're like, I've heard like a long time ago Louis said that and stuff like that.

That's interesting. Nate Bagazzi talks about Louis talking about. Oh yeah, I love that podcast. I love that podcast. I love that podcast. People talking about Nate talking about Louis. Oh my God. Those guys are so engaging.

Comedians, talking about comedians. I had, it's funny, you should say that, 20 or 10. Did you ever feel anything at any point? I heard it, okay, I heard, I had always heard seven. Seven is what? Seven to find your voice. Yeah. That was what I found.

I was, because I started at like, I don't know, 20. And then when I was roughly like 27, I was like, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This feels like something that is me versus someone else. Right, right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That makes sense. I think that's what the 10-year thing I was thinking. Yeah. Like, kind of. But 7 might be more.

But 20 is interesting, too, because it's like... That's a long time. It's a long time. And also, like, I think I'm at 25 years or so, like, at this 20, maybe 25 to 30 years at this point. So you've been a comic for five years, then. Exactly. I've been doing it. Been a real comic. I've been dedicated for about 5 to 7 years. But, uh, but no, there is something to...

20 years. I do think there is something to the 20-year thing because I think you honestly, like you feel like there's nothing to lose at that point. Right. So you're kind of like, well, what? I'm not afraid to say anything because like what are people going to say to me really? You've experienced all the seasons of. Well, the seasons of like rejection from audiences, I feel like I've lashed out at the best of them. You've lashed out at the best audience.

I've laughed out. I've experienced all versions of this movie. I've watched all versions. But like, yeah, no, I do, that 20 is interesting. I've never heard that concept. But I do, I get it. When I hear it, I'm like, oh my God, 20? That's insane.

Who even does it 20? It's not even that many people. Yeah. Well, that's what they're kind of saying. Like, you feel, like, comfortable, like, you've seen everything kind of. That's interesting. So how long are you in at this point? Like 15? 15, yeah. What do you feel like you know now that you didn't know five years in? Five years in a lot. I think it's like even the lashing out stuff, you know, that's like you just learn all these like little lessons all throughout.

You've seen the process as well of doing an hour and dumping it. You see that cycle of like riding again. That's like the scary. Like I think five years in, or like, I was maybe doing like my first hour and then being like, where do I go from here? Yeah. Like, how do I do that again, you know? What do you make of crowds here versus Australia? And then what do you make of just life here versus Melbourne or Sydney? Crowds here really, really good.

Australian crowds are good, but it's like the club scene post-COVID in Sydney when I left, it was like really scattered. So it was really hard to know which club was going to be. be good at. Oh, there's only one club in Sydney. Is that right? One club and lots of bar shows. So it's always hard to know which bar shows were good. But here, it's just like so consistent. You can get like every type of crowd. I feel like with like a lot of the Brooklyn rooms and stuff, people are doing like very niche comedy to crowds who are up for this like niche thing, you know? I think that's completely true. Like someone can do a 10 minute set about like Tony Hawk's pro skater or something like that.

And the crowd would be like, yeah. Right. That's our guy. Yeah, yeah. But in Australia, you have to be pretty broad because it's a young comedy audience and smaller population. There are maybe only five people who, like, would get Tony Hawk. Right.

How do you find the living in New York versus living in Sydney? Living in New York is, it's so fun. It's exciting. It just feels like you're in it all the time. Right. I like catching the subway and stuff. It's so quick. In Sydney, it's like a pretty,

slow low-key life. It's like really beautiful and like the sun's out and stuff and you go to the beach. Sydney struck me as a small town. Did it really? Even though it's a big city. Yeah, yeah. But like I was doing the Sydney Arts Festival. I think with like my girlfriend's boyfriend, like 15, 20 years ago.

A long time ago. Yeah. I go down to Bondi Beach. Yeah, I'm excited for this. I go down to Bondi Beach. Gorgeous beach. The waves are unbelievable. The waves are so, they're just like intense.

And I love the ocean. So I'm with my wife and I just like throw my clothes off. She's like, what are you doing? Running into the ocean. I just run in the wave. It was as though Hulk Hogan picked me up and body slammed me. You ran right into the waves. Wow.

I mean, it was just like I was scrambling. cratched up. Yeah. And I came back to jazz. I was like, that was awesome. Yeah. And that night, I'd go to the stage door at the venue. And every night, the guy at the door would say two words to me.

Yeah. You'd just be like, good day, Mike. That would be it. Nice enough, old man. Great. That sounds classic. Final day. I'm walking into my show.

He goes, hey, Mike. You go, hey. He goes. Hey, you got smacked Dan by the way of... How do you hear that? I don't know! I don't know! You told The Guardian, you were, quote, a low-capacity kind of guy.

Wow, you already got that research into your... Oh, yeah, this is a very well research podcast. This is... That's two days ago. This is not a podcast where we talk about what Nate Bargazzi said about Louis C.K. This is a source of... material. This is ground zero of comedy discussion podcast. We have questions. It's good. What does it mean? Low capacity kind of guy. I'm very low capacity. Like I don't have like much

energy like in terms of like social things I can do like one two maximum a day. You know, I'm not like these guys they wake up. Let's go. Right. And then they go into the night. I'm low I get worn out really easily. Yeah? I can't think about a lot of high-level things. Like, you know, people are doing like social media and stuff like it overwhelms me. Oh, really? Yeah.

I get overwhelmed really easily. Really? Yeah. I'm not like nice with it, you know? You say you're not nice with it? Yeah. I can do like maybe like, like I can do stand up and then that that will be it. That's why like I kind of commit to that.

I do stand up. You're writing scripts and stuff like that and you're beautiful. It's beautiful. I can't hold, I can't hold like a script in my mind, you know. I can only hold these little gas. I think I'm nice with it. Because. Look at, this is high capacity.

Oh, this, yeah, maybe this is. Yeah. Although maybe it's smoking mirrors for low capacity. It can't be. I'm trying to, maybe it's a bluff. Maybe it's like a puffer fish or something where it's like I'm, oh yeah, yeah. I'm showing a big puff. I'm scared of puff of fish, though, you know?

Oh, of course. You got things on the movie. You got motion. That's what they say. I know, but maybe the motion is distraction. I don't know. You don't seem low capacity. Thanks for saying.

I am. I am. Yeah. I'm the puff of fish, if that's the case. What did you learn opening for Ali Wong? Wow. See, this is recent stuff. at all. I learn a lot. She's, um, she's high level. She's high level. High capacity.

She's high capacity. But she does keep it lean, you know. She doesn't do too many things all the time. She has a good setup going on. She like keeps it as lean as she can. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. You feel like you learned that from... I've learned how to do it. I've always aspired to that, but seeing her tour is like, it's really, yeah, it's inspiring. And yeah, so, Ali, so funny. knows how to work a show like knows like puts a bit of like well you

you do this to the maximum but she's like she's like I used to write on TV shows and movie so I know to put like maybe like a twist at the end of the show you know yeah and I never think about it like that you know but you do it is an hour

you are trying to she had that with being pregnant yeah that's her thing that was a good twist yeah yeah she was like You have comedy except. Yeah, she puts her body on the line. Yeah. That's what I learned. That's what I'm trying to get to.

You learned to drive, driving with your dad to comedy clubs to perform. Wow. Yeah. Your dad would sit in a passenger seat when you drove almost 20 miles to the comedy clubs in the suburbs of Sydney. What did you and your dad talk about on those drives? that's a really good quest that really is really nice that's high capacity it's high capacity questioning that's really yeah yeah I couldn't even we would talk about just general things I feel like we kept a pretty general like

what what are you up to like we listen to music that's a low capacity answer yeah I feel like it would always be late at night sometimes he'd like pull over and like have a nap during this you know you You'd pull over and your dad would have a nap while you're driving? When he was driving... When he was driving... When he was driving... But when I was driving, it was a lot probably about the driving.

Right. Because I was learning and he was like, what are you doing with that? Like, that's not conventional style driving and stuff like that. I just want to unpack this. When your dad was driving, he would say to you, hey... I don't do this side of the road. Yeah, yeah, thank you. And he'd go, hey, I'm going to be respectful to the Australian driver.

He was like, hey, Aaron. Steering well got flushes the other way. I'm getting a little woozy. I'm going to pull over and take a nap and you'd go to like a rest stop? No, because it was all suburban in Sydney. So he'd just find a place. He'd park at the curb, you know. Yeah.

And he would put his seat back, you know, how it goes all. And then he'll sleep for like half an hour or something. Interesting. Yeah, and I sit there. He's like, you sleep. I'm, you know, like I'm really young guy. I can't really pull that kind of thing on. It wasn't nap time for you. Yeah, it wasn't nap time. So I just sit and listen to music. You were raised Christian, drifted a bit, and you've said that you're on your way back to faith. I like it. Talk to me about that. What's your journey? How did you end up on the return? Well, I just was doing comedy at the time

And I couldn't really reconcile both of the things And like the way I was living in college and stuff Oh, interesting Yeah, and then I was doing that for a while And I was going good And then, but you couldn't reconcile it like You were smoking and drinking and reading philosophy Yeah

And that felt at odds maybe Oh, just like where I was hanging out And stuff like that Who I was hanging out with and I was like It wasn't really, it wasn't meshing So I was like, let's put it aside. You were like hanging out with Heathens? Yeah, a lot.

I get it. Respectfully, I was, yeah. Yeah, it was a good time. But then at the end, you think a lot, and then you get to the end of your thoughts. And I think it's time for me to go back. Do you see the religion being ever at odds with comedy? I did at, at this, like in that period. But now I'm like, oh, no, like it's everything you can kind of do, you know.

Well, the reason I say it is like it feels like at the heart of comedy is like, like noticing hypocrisy. Yeah. Or things that don't quite make sense. Yeah. If you look at like a lot of religions, Christianity among them. Yes. There's just so much hypocrisy. I agree.

Yeah. There's so many. contradictions. Yeah. And do you find yourself breaking that apart in your head when you're listening at church? Like the hypocrisy of it? Yeah, or do you give yourself over to it? Like, well, that's what everything is.

Everything has contradictions. Well, yeah, I do think like everything has, and more specific, everyone, like, has like hypocrisy and contradictions. But I just, even through that, I feel like the narrative of Christianity is, like, I found that to be the most existentially satisfying, I guess. Interesting. In what way? Well, it's just like what are we put on this earth for?

Why are we here and stuff like that? And in terms of meaning, like I don't think I could have got that meaning from like the secular life script, I guess. Like we're here, we enjoy it. We have pleasure and then it's over. I didn't find that to be existentially satisfying. Do you think you're going to heaven? I hope so. I don't know.

I hope so. Before I go to the slow round, I hope so too. I'm low capacity, though. Yeah, yeah. Low capacity heaven's great, actually. Because it's like, it's heaven, there's clouds. St. Peter's there, but it's like kind of like mellow. Yeah, it's mellow.

it's chill yeah no one they don't ask you to do like too much i don't know loot playing yeah yeah yeah they're like you can you only have to loot for like five minutes everyone's gonna do shifts that's what we're doing yeah yeah shift work um before i go to the slow round anything what's slow round oh i know slow round no the slow round yeah i know slow round You've been listening to too much comedians talking about neighbor and I'm talking about Louis CK Around here we do the slow around Yeah

All right What are people's least favorite and favorite things about you Least favorite is probably low-capacitness I don't respond to these texts and stuff in time Oh, that's interesting, yeah Favorite thing maybe I am relaxed Yeah

Yeah I'd say They don't mind that I find you just be like when I see you just like a pleasant engager of people I just feel like you engage with a lot of people and a lot of types of people and you don't have that thing that a lot of people in entertainment have

where you're looking over people's shoulder of like who's the important person in this room but I'm scared of those people I get really scared of people who are like very ambitious no no of people who are like statured you know so I kind of leave them alone if they want to come talk to me you know I'll talk to them but

what about the comedy seller though you must have statured people yeah yeah you must have come across some people who are statured it is nice but you see them and they're like kind of your heroes from afar but then up close you see all the like

the person the barnacles the barnacles and it's funny I feel like comics are different because like no matter like who comes in they'll they'll talk to like the all the other comics you know no i think that's true i think i think comedy has this odd kind of like i think the old expression is politics creates strange bedfellows it's like i think comedy has that too yeah where it's like you end up talking to people who you have almost nothing in common with yeah and the only reason

is that they also are speaking to a group of strangers, and that's a weird job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You meet a lot of people through the cellar. Who'd you meet where you were just like, well, this is very a surprising turn in life, meeting this person? Well, I don't want to say you, but, you know, like meeting you, that's crazy, meeting like Todd Barry, you know, like, that's a guy from, like, these are guys from CDs. You know, in Australia, I just know them from CDs.

You know? And then you see like you do see like glitzy stars they come in. Right. Who are you jealous of? I'm jealous of this guy, Ethan Simmons Patterson. Yeah, I love Ethan. One, he is so funny and two, he has zero social media presence. Isn't it amazing? Some people become like big celebrities and then they just get rid of all their social media presence because they don't have to do it. But he doesn't even worry about getting to that point before getting rid of it. It's just. He's an amazing comic. He's from Chicago. He works the cellar. I don't know where else he works, actually. He's at the cellar a lot. He's at the cellar a lot.

Yeah. He's an amazing comic. I feel like I tell everyone about him. Yeah. He's got a lot on the move. I think of you and him in a similar vein, actually. I think of you and him. I don't take that.

I really like that. I'm being like people who when, similarly, like if I was telling, if I was saying to somebody, go to the comedy teller, try to look for Aaron Chen, like trying to look for Ethan. Simmons Patterson on the lineups because I think there's an excitement when you go on and when he

goes on because they don't know you necessarily from television. That's what I that's what I like. And that's it's fun. Yeah, yeah. Someone crushing. They've never heard of it. Isn't that what like a great kind of it's all about? Isn't that what a great entertainment experience is though in a way? Yeah. Is it going to something that you're like, yeah, this should be good. And then you're like, oh my God. I think, who are these people? And there's a point where like, people that kind of scared, they can be scared when I go up because I seem like I don't know what I'm doing. Right.

You know, I look like really like I accidentally went to the cellar. You know? I feel like Daniel Simonson's like that as well. Oh yeah, Daniel's another one. People like, they get worried for him for two minutes and then he's just like crushed. He has that Andy Kaufman thing about it where you literally are like, oh, this is. gonna be a train wreck. Yeah.

And then he turns it a full 180. He turns at 180. Into crushing. He's gorgeous. These are three, by the way, we should make a clip of this. These are three people you should look out for. And you go to the comedy seller. Daniel Simonson.

Ethan Simmons Patterson, Aaron Chen. Thanks for including me. Those are the big three. Yeah. I mean, there's more, but those are three really good ones. And Chris Rock. It's not usually on the schedule, but yeah, I agree. I agree.

If there's space for one more, then, yeah. Do you have any material that's sort of half-baked in the notebook? You can use your phone. And I'll share some with you, but if you have any, we can sort of talk. That's what we do here on this podcast. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know about this. Jokes.

I have one bit. It's about, oh, you know, when you call, like my Wi-Fi broke so I had to call the people but on the hotline they like the scripts they read from they're so long you know it's like it's not because I'm like hey my Wi-Fi broke can you help me fix it right but they have to read this script where they're like I'm so sorry that you're experiencing all these difficulties yeah yeah yeah I'm like trials and tribulations like they have to say like every word in the dictionary so I'm trying to get that to work like something like that that's really funny yeah

Yeah, yeah. They're like, I don't know what it is, like what the reason is that they have to say that much stuff. The other thing I've noticed lately on the customer service, you call, they go, before they even get someone on, I go, hey, just so you know, we want to do a, we want to do a form afterwards where you evaluate your experience. You're just, you're so angry because you're just like, I don't even have the experience yet. You want an evaluation of the experience. Give me an experience. This is nothing. That's so funny. What's happening right now is nothing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And maybe towards the end, you break me in a little bit with the experience. And then it's like, hey, in a few minutes, we might ask you to rate your... All right. I guess this is going pretty well, isn't it? At the start is crazy. At the start, before we've spoken to anybody? Yeah. And it's like a robot often, the AI, and you have to talk to the robot.

And you're like, in a few words describe your... You know? Yeah. And I don't know how to talk to you yet. Like, I'm not trained to know, like, what you will understand. Here's what I... Yeah. Here's a few things I jotted down.

Okay, go ahead. If you walk by those stores in Soho, you see tons of people trying to buy being hot. Right. Like, lotions and... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a billion-dollar industry. It is, big. Of looking hot.

Are you talking about skincare only or other... Yeah, skincare, but... Like everything in so fashion. It's endless, right? It's all about looking hot. And I just wrote, this is offensive. It's like, how many people a day do you actually honestly see where you go like, Jesus Christ, that person's hot?

Yeah. Like, it's not that many people. No, no, no. You have a billion dollar industry just failing people. It's not trickling down. It's not working. That is funny. That's funny.

It's like, millions, how many people a day do you think? Do you go, oh my God, like one? Oh, you're like really wild by. I'm asking you. Like, I think more than, it's got to be more than one. Five? Between one and ten. Right. Okay, let's say it's, let's say it's, let's say it's, you're seeing a lot of people. Let's say five. But I'm, maybe, you see 500 people. Yeah. Yeah, you see more than 500 people in this city. Right. In this city, right? So this is the thousand. So five over a, a thousand. Yeah. It's like a vast minority of people are hot.

Yeah. This is a failing industry. It is failing. Yeah, it's failing. It's a lot of promise. And then my example is like I went to buy a coat in this department store in Soho and the guy goes, looks good on you. It didn't look good at me. Right. That guy said that to 25 people that day. Yeah. Nobody looked good. So you got scam. How many of those people

look good? One? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the one in 25 guy. All right. I had, and then this is, I'm getting ready to go to Los Angeles. I was in Los Angeles once and I met this casting director. Yeah. And someone goes, oh, this is Mike Barbiglia.

And she goes, oh, you're Mike Barbiglia? I thought you were big and fat. That's so funny. That's so funny. And it's just like, I don't know where the joke is, but it's, It's like big, like did she have to say big and fat? I mean, like, I think big. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I mean, that's already there, like from there, that's already there. And then big and fat. Big and fat. Yeah. Yeah. And is that a nice thing to say or is it? Right. Is that a nice thing or a not nice thing to say?

Why did she think that? Yeah. That's unbelievable, especially for a Hollywood person as well. Yeah. You know, they're normally really careful with it. Yeah. But she's like, you must, in her mind, you must have been big and fat. That had been bypassed.

Right. Like, she was so shocked at hell. Right. There's something about the big plus fat that makes it an insult that both big and fat in isolation isn't an insult. Uh-huh. This person's big is fine. This person's fat is even fine. Big and fat is a compounding.

that makes it an all-out verbal assault to your face in real time. I think you were big and fat. When I was a kid, so many people did yo-mama jokes at me. When they met her, they were like, I thought you were big and fat. All right. Do you have anything else in your notebook?

I feel like I threw a bunch of jokes at you. If you have anything else, we'll talk about that. I got one thing where I saw, like, a news clip of, I think it's sensitive, though. Maybe tried it one time, but it's just too sensitive. Talking about the Middle East War. No, I think it's a real loose topic that people have a lot of fun with. Well, that's not been my experience. Tell it to me, and then I'll break apart what I think could be the thing that might make people.

at. Well, okay, so basically what I say is like, I see these documentary of these guys, like kind of like, they're with the AK-47, but they have, some of them are wearing a suit jacket when they fight, you know, and I think that's like very intimidating because these guys like, you know, they're confident. It's like, they, they know they're going to go do a Zoom meeting afterwards, you know, like they've scheduled a Zoom meeting. something like that, you know, and they're like, yeah, I can make it to the ambush, but I can't do the skirmish, because like, I got a three o'clock. I think that's good. Why would that particularly be sensitive? I don't know how to, yeah, I don't know. I feel like, just, there was a shift. I was doing, in my special, I'd do a joke about a visa and, and before the Iran war happened, it was like, it was good, you know.

Wait, can you say the joke just so people know? Yeah, I say that this is true. Australia's, we got a visa called the E3 visa, and that was a gift from America to Australia because we helped out in the Iraq War. And then I say, so for us, it was not a pointless war. It's a good joke. And it used to like go crazy.

afterwards it gets like a less crazy response but there's like a period in the middle in the setup where like the air really leaves the room you know I think it's cyclical I think like we're in so many of these yeah we are pointless wars yeah that I actually think that whether or not something is top of mind is significant to whether or not the laugh is big yeah right right like I feel like you might want to hold onto that for like a year. Keeping the notebook. Try it again. Yeah, yeah, the suit jacket.

Yeah, I do think like it is sensitive. Like I noticed that at clubs is like when someone goes into something about world events right now, it's like the audience is like waiting. Yeah. Like which which way is this? What's the point of view on this? Exactly. Yeah. I definitely think that's a modern comedy audience.

change, which is the audience is waiting to see if the point of view of the comedian fits with their point of view. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did kind of a free speech focus show the other day. Yeah? And it was like a little more like right wing crowd, I think. That's the sense that I got. Because they turned on you a little?

Yeah, because they didn't like... You lash out at them? No, I didn't lash out. out at them, but they were kind of sensitive in a way. Like they were kind of scared at what they were laughing at. What was the take? It wasn't a specific take, but in general,

there was a bit of caution around the room, because it's like kind of if you attack their values, it would be the same as what right-wing people think that left-wing people. It's just anyone who you attack their values, they kind of will clam up at that. No, I completely agree. And I think that there's a lot more of people in the audience being self-conscious and self-aware of what their tribe believes and whether or not they're allowed to laugh based on what their tribe is.

I think everyone's shutting stuff down now. Oh, yeah. Completely. Like, I think the sense was like if you, at that show, like if you talked about like kind of like work stuff or whatever, that's the same thing as what happened the other way. Yeah, I did a show recently where like right before I walked on stage, it was like a corporate show and the person was like, no politics. Yeah. You said it in my face. Uh-huh.

I was like, oh, shit. They must have had a bad experience. Yeah. And I was like, yes, no politics. The final thing we do is working out for a cause. Is there a nonprofit you like to support? Because what we do is contribute to them and then we link to them in the show notes. Imagine I pick like the worst thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, that's a great question. What's your one? Well, mine, my one typically is, um, is food banks. Food banks is good. Because what I've found over the years is you go to a town, contribute to the food bank. It's a direct relationship between this organization and, and people eating, and they stretch a dollar really well.

It's just, it's kind of amazing. I get all the literature in the mail. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really impressive what they do. Let's do food banks. Okay. Yeah. Do you want to do it specifically to New York?

I would love to do it to New York, yeah. Okay. So I'm going to send a specific shout out to, because now I follow them on Instagram, too. Food Bank, NYC. Great. It is a great, great organization. Aaron, thanks for being here. Congratulations on your special.

Thank you. Fantastic. Thanks. Because it's not done. Working it out. That's going to do it for another episode of working it out. You can follow Aaron on Instagram at Chenny Lifestyle. His special funny garden is on Netflix, really, really funny.

Check out berbiggs.com to sign it for the mailing list or text for Biggs to 917-444-7-1-50 to get text alerts and be the first to know about upcoming secret shows and my next tour and all. all that. Our producers of working out are myself, along with Peter Salomon, Joseph, Barbiglia, Mabel Lewis, and Gary Simons. Sound mixed by Shib Sarin, supervising engineer Kate Balinski, special thanks to Jack Antonoff and bleachers for their music. Special thanks to my wife, the poet Jayhobstein, and our daughter, Una, who built the original radio fort made of pillows. Thanks most of all, to you who are listening if you enjoy the show. Rate us and review us on Apple Podcasts. We appreciate it so much. Tell your friends, tell your enemies,

tell your low-capacity friends. Just text them. Don't call. That might be too much. Just go, hey, no need to respond, but maybe while you're at home laying down scrolling, you can open up your podcast app and put on Mike Brubicles working it out. Maybe later we can talk about it, but we don't have to plan it. Let's keep it low capacity. Thanks, everybody. We're working it out. We'll see you next time.