Stand-up comedian and frequent contributor to This American Life, Mike Birbiglia, takes on his first feature-length special. Coming off like your girlfriend's brother who still lives in the basement of his parents' house, Birbiglia seems too guy-off-the-street to have anything interesting to say, but his hindsight makes for a great lens through which to view his life. Theming the show as a therapy tool, his take on a therapy session is substantially less intense than, say, someone like Marc Maron. Instead, he uses the time to unburden himself of embarrassing situations and awkward moments. Focuses mostly on personal material and anecdotes about past employment or gigs he had, but his take is universal and it's easy to get on-board with his good-natured demeanor. The funniest "average guy" you'll ever see.
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sambson5 November 2014I only found the actual one hour special to be mildly amusing. Like listening to anecdotal stories on NPR - a few titters and a chuckle. Once he was through 'performing' his 'material' and the credits rolled, the bonus material reveals a much more carefree and spontaneous comic who made me laugh a number of times in the 20 or so bonus minutes . WHY was this what was cut from the special?!? Admittedly, there are jokes in the later part that depend on having heard a piece of set-up in the actual special, but I was frankly surprised that my opinion went from 'Don't think I'll be watching much of this guy' to 'I wonder if he's done other stuff that's as good as the last 20 minutes?' Needless to say, if you watch this, make sure to stay after the credits. This is the only comedy special in the 50+ I've seen on NetFlix, that included extra footage - and wisely so. I'm obviously not the only one who thought this.