Mike Birbiglia on Stand-Up, ‘Offensive’ Jokes and SNL

<p>Mike Birbiglia is currently <a href="https://www.birbigs.com/working-it-out-pod" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">working out</a> his latest one-person show <a href="https://www.birbigs.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">‘The Old Man and the Pool,’</a> including a stop at this coming week’s <a href="https://www.netflixisajokefest.com/artists/mike-birbiglia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Netflix Is a Joke Fest</a>. But before he went on stage for one of his final performances of ‘The New One’ in Los Angeles, Mike Birbiglia opened up about his unique process putting that show together and broke down his evolution from stand-up to theater—and why he doesn’t care how anyone wants to characterize what he does. We also discussed the state of “offensive” jokes, what he learned about telling stories from ‘This American Life’ host Ira Glass and our mutual, unhealthy obsession with ‘Saturday Night Live.’&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Get tickets to see Mike Birbiglia perform live at <a href="https://www.netflixisajokefest.com/artists/mike-birbiglia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Netflix Is a Joke Fest</a></p><p><br></p><p>This episode was originally published on November 26th, 2019.</p><p><br></p><p>Follow Mike Birbiglia on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/birbigs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@birbigs</a> and Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/birbigs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@birbigs</a></p><p>Follow Matt Wilstein on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mattwilstein" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@mattwilstein</a></p><p>Follow The Last Laugh on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/lastlaughpod/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">@lastlaughpod</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Highlights from this episode and others at <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/the-last-laugh" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Daily Beast</a></p> &#10;&nbsp;<br /><hr><p style='color: grey; font - size: 0.75em; '>See <a s