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" The one thing you're most reluctant to tell. That's where the comedy is. "
Mike Birbiglia
One Thing
Tell
You
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" Sometimes, occasionally, people will make out in the audience, completely not aware that there's a human being onstage just yards away from them, who can see them. Sometimes people think that you're on television while you're onstage, so you're not even a person. "
Mike Birbiglia
You
Audience
People
" Someone said to me at a party once, 'Oh, yeah, you're a comedian? Then how come you're not funny now?' And I just wanted to say, 'Well, I'm just going to take this conversation we're having and then repeat that to strangers, and then that's the joke. You're the joke later.' "
Mike Birbiglia
Conversation
You
Me
" I think that my regrets mostly have to do with my relationship with my ex-girlfriend. Every once in a while, you get those flashback memories of conversations you had with your exes, and you just, like, wince when you're walking down the street. Something occurs to you, 'Oh, no, I said that.' "
Mike Birbiglia
Walking
Think
Memories
" I couldn't recommend more that people put themselves in a situation where they can see a lot of work that they admire, and for free. "
Mike Birbiglia
Situation
Free
Work
" Starbucks is the last public space with chairs. It's a shower for homeless people. And it's a place you can write all day. The baristas don't glare at you. They don't even look at you. "
Mike Birbiglia
Place
People
You
" Pain is funnier than love. "
Mike Birbiglia
Than
Pain
Love
" You have to be delusional to be a comedian. "
Mike Birbiglia
Delusional
Comedian
You
" I think the thing I had to be careful about while writing a book was not to say anything that was revealing about other people that they would be uncomfortable with. I didn't want to make people angry - that's a real risk. "
Mike Birbiglia
Angry
Writing
Think
" I majored in screenwriting and playwriting in school - and wanted to make films as a career. But when I directed my first short in college - which was called 'Extras' - I lost thousands of dollars and made an unsatisfying and incomplete film. "
Mike Birbiglia
Lost
College
Career
" Once you know how to make a movie, you can't not make a movie. "
Mike Birbiglia
How
Know
Make
" Everything about starting out in comedy is pride-swallowing, from handing out fliers to bombing in front of audiences. "
Mike Birbiglia
Out
Front
Everything
" There's nothing funny the first time about telling a story about getting beat up and it makes you leave high school. "
Mike Birbiglia
High School
Time
Funny
" You don't really see sleepwalking in films that often. It's weird; I feel like in popular culture we have the perception of sitcom, arms-in-front-of-your-body sleepwalking, and then maybe Olive Oil and Popeye when she sleepwalks through the construction site. But it's all very cartoonish, in some cases literally. "
Mike Birbiglia
Perception
Construction
Culture
" Fortunately, I don't talk about politics on stage. "
Mike Birbiglia
About
Talk
Stage
" It's a difficult line to tread, where sometimes you go to the movies or you watch someone do publicity for movies or TV shows, and they do all the jokes that are good in the promotion of it, and you see the movie, and you're like, 'I kind of get it already. I'm not that psyched about it.' "
Mike Birbiglia
Movies
Someone
You
" The list of fun and easily-fixed brain diseases is very short. "
Mike Birbiglia
Fun
Short
List
" I was very much a late bloomer. That's not to say that girls didn't express interest in me from time to time, but I just, I did not know how to respond to that. "
Mike Birbiglia
Know
Me
Late
" I was raised Catholic, and then I kind of wandered away somewhere in high-school. I never got confirmed, which is a big deal. "
Mike Birbiglia
Never
Away
Big
" The economy of film forces you to make choices. "
Mike Birbiglia
Forces
You
Film
" I'm incapable of feeling any joy. "
Mike Birbiglia
Any
Joy
Incapable
" Backup dancers are completely respectable. They're the studio musicians of dance. "
Mike Birbiglia
Dance
Backup
Musicians
" I love Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel. "
Mike Birbiglia
Jimmy
Love
I Love
" Making a film is beyond exciting. It's so exciting, it's exhausting. "
Mike Birbiglia
Beyond
Film
Making
" It used to be that if you got on 'The Tonight Show,' your career was made. Now, if you're on 'The Tonight Show,' maybe 14 more people show up to your gig in Tulsa. "
Mike Birbiglia
More
Show
You
" Louis C.K. directs his show, which is very much like a series of short films. "
Mike Birbiglia
Show
Short Films
Much
" When I met my wife, I was a working comic, so the first week we went out, she saw me perform, and it was very clear what I do. "
Mike Birbiglia
Me
Week
Wife
" I gravitated toward stand-up because there's no overhead. I mean, literally, there's no overhead: Often, you're outdoors performing in front of groups of people. "
Mike Birbiglia
Outdoors
Because
You
" Dopamine is a chemical released in your brain and your body when you sleep that paralyzes your body so you don't act out your dreams. "
Mike Birbiglia
Your Dreams
Body
Dreams
" After I perform 'My Girlfriend's Boyfriend,' it takes a lot out of me emotionally; and, at the end of it, I feel like I know the audience and the audience knows me. It's this weird unspoken bond that we'll kind of always have with each other. "
Mike Birbiglia
Bond
Know
Feel
" What I always studied in screenwriting from my mentor John Glavin was that the most interesting characters are characters with shades of gray. "
Mike Birbiglia
Interesting
Most
Mentor