Sometimes, when you want to be in a place so badly, you'll do anything. Mike Birbiglia More Quotes by Mike Birbiglia More Quotes From Mike Birbiglia There are so many people who are clever. There are 8000 people at Princeton who are more clever than the three of us at this table. BUT, we have the ability to give something that they don't have...which is us. Mike Birbiglia clevergivingpeople When I made 'Sleepwalk with Me,' many people asked me if was a novelty thing, a one-off. But this is the goal, I'm just hitting it 12 years after I thought I would. Mike Birbiglia goalpeopleyears Where art and business intersect is a challenging hurdle for a lot of people, reconciling the fact that not everyone is going to make it in the same way. Yeah, you have to be a little selfish, probably. Mike Birbiglia selfishpeopleart I was a screenwriting major in college, and really wanted to do that after I graduated, but there are no job listings for that, as we all know. I had many classmates that made it in the business, but stand-up comedy was my way in, and my first film 'Sleepwalk with Me' was based on those autobiographical experiences. Mike Birbiglia collegejobsway I have this habit of asking 'why do you want to do it?' and then interrupting them to say, 'here's why you want to do it.' Because it's in the 'yes...and' spirit [rule of improvisation]. Mike Birbiglia asking-whyspiritwant All techniques of comedy are valid and interesting to me. Mike Birbiglia comedytechniqueinteresting What I write is emotionally honest and truthful as the human experience can be, to make people feel less alone, or at least that's the hope. Mike Birbiglia honestwritingpeople I struggled with that notion early in my career. 'I know this is funny but nobody is laughing.' This thought occurred for years. Mike Birbiglia careerslaughingyears I thought if I could do stand-up comedy well enough, I could parlay it back into films - like Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen did. They merged principles of comedy and drama together, and that's what my first film really was, a stab at that kind of comedy. Mike Birbiglia principlestogetherdrama When I was in college my improvisation troupe and I did a road trip to Chicago, and went to The Second City to see the classic 'Paradigm Lost' revue - with Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Scott Adsit and Kevin Dorff. It blew my mind, and proved to me you can do sketch comedy like you're doing 'Long Day's Journey into Night.' We could treat it like theater. Mike Birbiglia collegejourneynight I performed for the U.S. troops in Guantanamo Bay. And signed autographs for people who've been gone from America for so long they didn't realize that I'm not famous. Mike Birbiglia humorfunnyamerica I was an altar boy as a kid. And the answer is no. Mike Birbiglia humorfunnykids I'm a whitebread cracker. That's my favorite white person slur: "whitebread". The other day, someone came up to me and said, "What's up, whitebread?" And I was like, "That's not even an insult. That's just my race plus a food. I can do that, too, black bean soup! Stay out of this, Asian chicken platter!" Mike Birbiglia humorracefunny I didn't realize how good I was with technology until I met my parents... my dad told me "You're good; you should be a computer programmer." I said, "You're bad... you should be a caveman." Mike Birbiglia dadhumorfunny I went to a funeral recently, and they handed out Kleenex before the funeral. Which I thought was cocky. Mike Birbiglia cockyhumorfunny I was made to believe that my life was going to be fixed and it wasn't. I'm still the same loser who had flown to Los Angeles on my sister's frequent flier miles just six days before. Mike Birbiglia humorfunnybelieve So I went to a club the other day, which is timely because my self esteem had been hovering right around 'normal' and I had been meaning to knock it down to negative 1000. Mike Birbiglia humorself-esteemfunny I like 'Donnie Darko;' it's a cool take on dreams and sleep. Mike Birbiglia dreamsleep Backup dancers are completely respectable. They're the studio musicians of dance. Mike Birbiglia backupdancermusician It had that kind of open-ended fear to it - like that feeling you get when you're driving and you see a cop. And you're not speeding. You don't have drugs. But you're just thinking, I hope he doesn't notice I'm driving. Mike Birbiglia humorfunnythinking
