Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out - Q&A: Mike Answers Voicemails About AI and Weird Audience Energy

Episode Date: August 4, 2025

For this all-new Working It Out Q&A, Mike fields listener questions about how and why he cuts jokes that he loves, the impact AI might have on comedy, and how to navigate weird or bad energy from an audience. Plus, how to get motived for creative work, and how to restart stand-up comedy after a long pause. Got a question for Mike? Send a voicemail at birbigs.com/wio.

Hey everybody, it's Mike Birbiglia. This is Working It Out, a special episode this week. I went on Instagram and I asked you for questions just about the good life and any other projects I've worked on or my specials or my movies or the creative process or really anything. We like to do this every now and again. If you haven't seen The Good Life, it is currently on Netflix. I can't thank you enough to all the folks out there who have seen it and posted about

it and recommended it to people. It means the world to me is a big labor of love that I worked on for a couple of years, often on here on the podcast. And I just can't thank you enough for supporting it. So we asked for some audio questions, and I'm going to play them. I'll play right here. Hey, Mike, this is Lex. I'm always impressed with how like productive the conversation is when you're working it

out on your podcast. My question is, do you ever just tell someone, no, that doesn't work. That's awful. I've never heard it happen on the podcast. I know in general, that's a bad idea. But are there like times where you like have really just like wanted to stop someone and in like very certain terms just be like please don't do that joke it's bad it's just please I love you stop no I'm just curious thank you for all you do you're my favorite podcast

oh so sweet that's a great question you know, I always think there's potential in anything. Like I think that that's sort of like what my improv training taught me. Like, you know, if you listen to the Liz Allen episode which is all about improv, like I took improv workshops from Liz Allen when I was in college and I was part of a college improv troop that just did long form improv, like Chicago improv and that the principle of long long form improv is

Yes, and yes, and yes, and which is just take the idea that your partner is proposing and to say yes Immediately. Yes, absolutely Let's get let's do that and then also this other thing that builds on that. And that person says, yes, 100% that, and I'll build on that with this. And that is the principle of improv. So like when you watch like Siren Live or really like almost any comedy on television,

a lot of the writers have an improv background. And a lot of the writers are people who are from this background of like, let's build on an idea and build on an idea and build on an idea. And then if it doesn't work, we'll kill it and just go, no, not going to do that. We're going to throw that out. But I find that if you are saying no as your first instinct,

that is not necessarily a productive way to create. And I think that one of the keys to creativity is creating, creating, creating, creating, almost without thinking. And then once you have created something, then you can edit it back. And I think like, for me, if you don't start with something,

then you can't get to the point where you're editing it into what you truly want it to be. Okay, we'll go to the next one. Hi Mike, my name is Lily and I'm a performer who also works in AI. So my question to you is do you think AI has the capacity to enhance the creative process in a positive way? And how do you see AI changing the world of comedy

or entertainment in general? Thanks Lily. So AI is, yeah, this is a big topic because I think there are some lawsuits, I think there's comedians who are suing because AI is, I don't know, consuming people's content and then repurposing it and learning how to tell jokes in the style of whoever it is.

It certainly has done that with my specials because I recently was on a train and I was like, what would happen if I write a joke in the voice of Mike Birbiglia about being on a train. I was on a train to Rhode Island and the jokes were pretty good. I mean, they weren't, like I wouldn't perform the jokes, but they were 60% there, maybe 50% there, but I was very surprised. And I thought, wow, this is astonishing.

And I think like in relation to, I don't know, I guess in relation to creativity, the thing that AI doesn't offer, what it doesn't offer is the fundamental spark of what makes art interesting, which is the personal element of it and particularly like the confessional element of it, the things that you don't wanna talk about,

you're uncomfortable talking about it, and the specificity with which you talk about the things you don't want to talk about. All right, here's the next question. Hi Mike, and the Working It Out podcast team. So grateful for the podcast, it's been so fun. I'm Niffer from Orlando, Florida, and I am curious about getting into comedy writing.

I have some samples, I have some things written. I do some stand up, but it's not something that I am going out there every week for. But the writing side I really enjoy. How do I get that in front of the right people? Do I need to move to Los Angeles or New York? Thanks for your help. Hey niffer Thank you so much for your question. Thanks for the shout out to the crew. I'm sitting across from

Mabel Lewis and Gary Simons to the producers on the show as a matter of fact really good Segway into Mabel plugging her tour right now Mabel. Tell us about the show. You're directing that is on tour I Co-direct a show called Dukes. I co-direct with show Hornbuckle and the show stars Liva Pierce and Jane Wickline from Saturday Night Live. It's a sketch and musical show that the two of them perform in with a bunch of original songs. And we're touring it all around the country. We will be in LA this week. And then we are landing our summer tour at Joe's Pub in New York City.

That's later this month. It's a great show. You're bearing the lead by the way, which is they were guests on the show on July 7th. Of course. And hopefully I like that this is just like for Niffer. You know what I mean? Is it for Niffer? Though Niffer is not in San Francisco.

She was like, how do I get my writing in front of people? And we were like, well, let's tell you about this awesome story. Let's plug these shows. Okay, but that's a great show. Duke's show is so funny. So go see that. The question is, how do I get my stuff in front of people? Do I need to live in one of these cities? My answer for that is actually no, you don't. But there is a caveat to that, which is I feel like

you do want a community of comedians, artists, a sort of scene, so to speak. And right now there's one in Chicago, there's one in, you know, there's one in San Francisco, there's one in, you know, Austin, Texas obviously has a huge one right now. You know, like when I started out in comedy

in the late nineties in DC, like I was just like amazed at the idea of like doing standup at all in front of anyone really. And then, you know, around that time, I found my improv group in college and that was really life-changing. Cause I was like, oh my God, these people like doing this stuff too

and being goofballs and entering theater games and heralds and all this stuff. And it's like, this is unbelievable. I can't believe this. And then at a certain point, I think if you get better and better and better, partly through your work and solitude, but then partly through sharing with the community, you potentially might be at a point where you could share your work with people and try to make it at a scale that you couldn't afford to make it on your own. So that's my long and short of it. I mean, it's an unsatisfactory answer in a certain sense,

and I get it, but it's the most honest version of my answer. Okay, Gary, do you wanna plug into your upcoming shows? Gary Simons is one of the other producers on the podcast. Gary, do you have any shows that you want to plug? Gary, of course, if you saw the Good Life Tour, you probably saw Gary. He opened up for almost every single date on that tour and he is a riot. Hey, thanks, Mike. If you're in Minneapolis in October I'm gonna be in the 10,000 Laughs festival, comedy festival, so you can catch me there which is exciting. Thanks. That's great man, I didn't even know that. It's awesome. Alright, let's go to the next question. Hi Mike, my name is Steve Picotaggio. I'm a

freelance musician in New York City, and I'm a huge fan of your comedy. As a musician, I relate a lot to comedians. I've always been really inspired by not only your comedy, but just work ethic and your vision over the last several years. My question for you is, what are some things you do when you're over the last several years. And my question for you is, what are some things you do when you're feeling

less motivated and less willing to kind of get up and do the work on any particular day? Thanks so much. Thanks a lot, Steve, for the question. Thanks for the kind words. It's a really deep question. It's, yeah, what do you do when you don't have the motivation

to work on the next thing? Look, it makes me think, the reason I'm pausing is it's making me think I'm like, what is the motivation that gets me working on stuff every morning? I honestly think that like, I've done the repetition of it so long for so many years that it feels more normal

to do it than to not do it. So I think it's like, you know, probably for like a pianist or a musician, probably for like a pianist or a musician, it would be a similar thing. Like if you play piano every day for 15 years, if you try to not play piano one day, you'd be like, oh, I probably should just play a little bit. Yeah, it's weird.

I was watching that Billy Joel documentary on HBO, which is really good. And he was saying that when he walks into a room, he's uncomfortable socially, unless he sees the piano. And then he can kind of hide behind the piano. That's sort of how I feel about jokes and writing jokes and all that.

I think, you know, I don't always, what I will say is I don't always know what I'm writing while I'm writing it. Like in other words, like filling pages, or in your case maybe writing songs, and not knowing what that song is gonna be about, or in my case, what the joke's gonna be about, what the show's gonna be about,

what the movie's gonna be about, or in my case, what the joke's gonna be about, what the show's gonna be about, what the movie's gonna be about. I actually think is the majority of the job of any creative is literally just writing anything at all. And I may not solve or have answers for those things on that day, but it's forcing my brain to think about that when I'm not writing. So that maybe the next day I have the answers. All right, this is the next one.

Hey, Working It Out podcast, this is Sean Flanagan. My question for you is about the golden rule of comedy, which is tragedy plus time equals comedy. I know it's been attributed to you Mike before but you've attributed it to others and regardless I'm curious about the time component of that formula like what is the magic number or the feeling the magic feeling around turning tragedy into comedy when will it be shocking to audiences and when will it be funny?

Well, thanks, Sean. That's a great question. I'm just looking it up right now. Comedy is tragedy plus time attribution. This statement is attributed variously to Mark Twain, Steve Allen, Carol Burnett, Lenny Bruce and Woody Allen. I'll go with Twain on that one, but I'm guessing it's before Twain. It is something that I wrestle with a lot and debate in my head. And certainly with The Good Life, I kind of gave into the idea of, well, I'm living this right now

and can I find the comedy in it? And ultimately it comes down to a relationship between me and the audience or you and the audience, which is, are you comfortable talking about it? And does the audience find it funny? Because I think that one of the things I always think about with it is in relation to the movie, Sleepwalk with Me, where as a show, I did it as a one person show and it was really killing.

And then we filmed a film adaptation and we got to the edit and there weren't laughs from these test audiences. Like we would show it to groups of like five or 10 people and Noah was laughing and, you know, we thought it was so funny. And it was me and Seth Barish and Jeffrey Richmond. And we were just like, oh my God, what have we done? This is a debacle, what are we gonna do?

And so we came up with this idea of going out and driving around, you know, New York and Connecticut and New Jersey and talking to the camera and basically saying a lot of things I said in the solo show. So this is me talking to camera and saying like, I know I'm in the future show. So it was just me talking to camera and saying, like, I know, I'm in the future also. And like, I just want to remind you before we get to this part of the story, you're on

my side. And we plugged those in and then it started getting huge laughs. It was the craziest thing. I've never seen a comedy 180 like that in my entire life and career. It was crazy. And so we've analyzed that for years to come. And we always talk about how there's something about

in sleepwalk with me, this show where I'm telling the story and I'm saying I'm jumping through a second story window and all these things that are so extreme but they can see I'm okay. The audience can see I walked on stage, I'm saying I'm jumping through a second story window and all these things that are so extreme, but they can see I'm okay. The audience can see I walked on stage, I'm okay, I'm not bleeding, I'm not traumatized. And with the movie, they didn't know

because the present tense of the movie is these moments where I'm jumping through a window or I'm breaking up with my girlfriend, all these things. And so we found that if you shoot the movie as a flashback from the present and the present is me driving and looking at the camera, we can see that I'm okay and I'm driving a car. I seem all right.

And I have a tone that is, you know, I seem like I'm able to have some understanding of what happened. So that's what I would say about that. It's like how comfortable are you talking about it? And then how funny is it with the audience? We'll go to the next one. Hello. My question is how do you address a split or dead or just weird energy audience when you notice something just isn't right about the vibe or something's off about the vibe? Do you label it up top?

Do you ignore it? Do you launch new material? Do you do crowd work? How do you go about resetting the energy of the room so that it's most conducive for your comedy or just a performance in general? AJ, are you doing an impression of me as you ask a question of me? No, I'm just kidding. We do sound a little bit similar. It's a good question, AJ.

What do you do to reset a room? Yeah, I agree. Like there definitely, that definitely happens like with some regularity, I would say like one in 20 shows, you know, you're in a room and it just doesn't quite feel right, like something happened or whatever. I think generally like you're,

the art form of standup is like one person in front of a group of people and in a room, like in everyone's present in the room. And I think that whatever you can do to acknowledge something in the room that's unusual, I would say the better. Like I think like, you know, a lot of times like I'll perform at colleges or I'll perform at like a corporate event in like a hotel ballroom

or whatever. And I'll just like talk about like the chandelier or the carpet or the tables or what people are eating for dinner or whatever. Whatever you can do to hang a lantern on that like we're all just in this room together. Like that's the baseline of what's happening here. There's a group of us in a room and I'm speaking into a microphone.

And if you can get the audience into the head space of like, okay, that's what we're all doing. And, oh, maybe there's something weird because someone's having a coughing fit in the corner or someone's phone keeps going off or there's a baby in the room or whatever the thing is. Like that's good because then everyone's on the same page. You're like, oh, okay, that's a person.

That's not just like a video recording of a person. That's a person. And once you get to that point, then like you can pivot into material. That's just my, that's one of my tricks. All right, go to the next question. Hey Mike, it's Dan from Florida. I'm curious, the longer you do this,

do you find it any easier to cut jokes or bits that you love but aren't laser focused on serving the larger arc of the project. Thanks so much and congratulations on the Good Life. That's a great question, Dan. I have to say like the amount of jokes on the cutting room floor of this show,

The Good Life is the most I've ever had. I mean, it's literally like a full hour of material that I've done on stage and has worked. And I actually have kind of like a bunch of different ideas for how I could repurpose some of the material. Cause I do love the material, but I have to say like, you know, this American life, you know, Ira Glass has been like a huge, huge influence on me

and a huge mentor to me. And I learned this huge thing from him in relation to that they, at their show, you know, they create a bunch of stories and then they kill the parts of the story that they don't feel like works in that episode. And they use the word kill kind of triumphantly. They kill it and it's like when they're killing something,

it's like an artistic victory because it's sort of proof that what has remained is so strong that it has defied the killing process. And so there's like a pride in killing something because you're like, I'm killing that and it's great. And so I do think that that's, I do experience that. I learned that from Ira Glass. Okay, next one.

Hi, Mike, this is Eva from Brazil and I'm a standup comedian. Lately, I have been on a pause mode because I became a mom and my son is two and a half years old and I haven't been really creative since he was born. I don't know if this is a mother thing, you know, the chemicals on our brain or something, but I would like to know if you have been to this place where you just cannot write or you cannot find your creativity to work on jokes, what should I do?

Thank you. Well, thanks, Eva. I'm thrilled that people in Brazil are listening to the podcast and it makes me so happy. Yeah, that's definitely something people experience when they have kids or have like a major life shift where they're either seeing life through a new lens or they're so obligated by something

in their personal lives that they don't have oxygen to breathe or to write things down or to be creative. And I think like my suggestion is always to write down precisely how you feel without any filter of how it could be comedy, how it could be a play, how it could be a movie or whatever it is, just write down exactly how you feel.

And so the thing that you're, even the thing you're saying, like, I'm feeling frustration, I can't, I'm not feeling creative, I'm not feeling it, it's like write that and see what that leads to and just be really specific and be really honest with your notebook, knowing that you don't have to share that with anybody,

but just put it down in as brutally and honest way as you possibly can, because what I've found is, and this definitely happened with the old man in the pool and the new one and the good life where the more honest you are with this anonymous notebook that only you will ever see, the more you'll find that you're actually are able to share some of the things. As you go, oh, if I leave out this person's name

and I leave out this, then it's just the emotion of it and the funny part of it. And it doesn't betray this person in my life. It doesn't betray that person in my life. And actually I can make something of that. So I would say like, don't think about the genre that is comedy.

Just think about who you are as a human being and how you feel and go from there. All right. Hey Mike, my question is what piece of advice do you have now that you wish you had when you were younger, you know, younger comic starting out in stand up? Thank you.

That's from T. Edward Strinsky. Thanks for the question. My advice for you as a younger comic is try more things. Like try more types of jokes, try more jokes. Like, the other thing is like, I always think about this is, you know, comedians, they end up with like, a lot of times comedians starting out, they end up with like 10 minutes of material that works

and they'll have that for years and years and years. And, you know, they'll try to write more jokes, but I actually think a lot of times, if a joke works, they'll stop writing that joke because they're like, oh, it works. But my piece of advice for that is like, always like, go in harder on that joke. The joke that's working, just go further. What, like, what is it about that joke

that's connecting with people so much? Like it must be something. Like you might be, like you think you're onto something, you might be onto something much bigger than you realize. Like this, you might have a two minute joke, that joke might be 60 minutes. That joke might be a show.

And so that would be my piece of advice, is probe, probe, probe on stuff that works. One last question from Andy J Pizza. Hey Mike, author, illustrator Andy J Pizza here. I'm not starting out in comedy, but I do a lot of public speaking and I find when I'm trying to be funny, it doesn't sound like me and it's not funny,

but when I try to just act naturally or react naturally, my unique perspective is much funnier. And I imagine early on in a comedian's journey, trying to be funny is a really hard habit to break. So my question to you is, how did you break out of this early on, of like trying too hard? And then also if you find yourself writing

and you're trying too hard to be funny, how do you break out of that trap? Thanks, love the show. So I would say a couple things. I mean one is, you know, I took improv classes, you know, when I was in my twenties and I highly recommend them. You know, we had Liz Allen on and she actually even does Zoom improv classes

and I've recommended them to friends who love them. So I would look up Liz Allen if you're interested in that. I think improv, it teaches you to kind of listen and respond. And I think that that type of humor is something I really respond to. And I feel like takes you out of the head space of like, oh, I have to be funny. There's actually no, you just have to be present. You just have to respond and exist and be there. And the humor that you exude

like will come through in that if you're just listening and responding. You know, one thing I always say to young comics is like, when you're on stage, you're actually just trying to convey an idea. You're not really trying to memorize the exact lines and then say the exact lines. You're just trying to convey a comedic idea

that you had in your head. And my director Seth Barish and I always say, like, you know, before our show, it's just like, just tell the story. You know, just get out there and tell the story. Because I do get nervous sometimes before the show. It's like, wait, does this make sense? Does this make sense?

It's like, well, just get up and tell the story. I mean, I think stories are inherently funny if I think if you're funny if, I think, if you're telling the honest version of that story. Working it out, because it's not done. We're working it out, because there's no... So that's going to do it for another episode of Working It Out. Thank you for all your questions.

Thank you for listening to the podcast. I mean, at this point, we're approaching 200 episodes. Thank you for all your questions. Thank you for listening to the podcast. I mean, at this point we're approaching 200 episodes. It's been five years. I can't thank you enough for watching the special, listening to the podcast, and today give me all these fantastic questions. And we've got another exciting episode next week.

See you then.