He starts by talking about how a few years ago everyone
he knew started getting married. He starts with a somewhat general statement
that I can relate to: “Sometimes when I
think I am right about something, it can be a real source of tension between me
and the person I’m arguing with, and the reason it’s a source of tension is
that I’m right.” He talks about how he thinks marriage is insane, and
mentions how fifty percent of marriages end in divorce. He adds: “That’s just first marriages. Second
marriages, sixty to sixty-two percent end in divorce. Third marriages, seventy
to seventy-five percent end in divorce. That’s a learning curve.”
But don’t worry – he can be romantic, like when he says,
“From the moment I met Jenny, I knew I
wanted to sleep with her at least once.” And: “I remember the first time I fell in love. It was in high school, it was
that first time where you fall in love and you’re just like, ‘This is it, I
found her, I’m seventeen years old and I’m done.’” I love his material about failed attempts at
kisses, and about seeing people making out. “Making out is just sloppy. It’s like watching a dog eat spaghetti.”
He also mentions how the way women argue can be maddening. “That’s how Jenny argues things sometimes.
She’ll just say, ‘That’s how I feel.’ And I’ll say, ‘That’s not an argument.’”
He also has some wonderful self-deprecating humor. “If I stare at the mirror, I get angry. Like
I feel like I’m complaining about a bad call a ref just made. I’m like, ‘Come
on! You’re blind if you’re leaving the house like that!’”
His bit about the Scrambler is brilliant, especially as
he acts out the motion of being on that carnival ride. (I had a similar
experience when I was a kid, trying to tell the guy to stop the ride each time
we flew by him – unsuccessfully, as my friend proceeded to vomit onto us. I
never went on that ride again.)
Of course, I love that he rips on Texas: “I was coming back from a five-day stint in
Texas, which was awful, because it was in Texas.” And I love his rant
against marriage, about bringing the government into a relationship, and how
people who don’t believe at all in a particular religion will have the ceremony
performed in a church.
He really only breaks once from his routine to directly
address an audience member. He jumps off the stage to grab someone’s leg who is
wearing no shoes. Only in Seattle.
This is a comedy performance that I think I’ll be
returning to, as it’s really like a one-man play, with a true story arc and
lots of wonderful moments along the way. In that way, it’s quite a bit
different from most stand-up specials.
Special Features
The DVD includes a fifteen-minute behind-the-scenes
documentary titled How To Make Whatever
This Is. It begins with Mike Birbiglia on stage, talking about how he’d
done this show so many times, and kept tinkering with it. Mike Berkowitz
(Mike’s agent) talks to Mike about the show being good enough, and it being
time to stop “fixing” it. There is footage of Mike Birbiglia on The Bob And Tom
Show, as well as footage from an earlier performance of the show. Jen Stein
talks about how the show has broken boundaries in her life. Mike talks about
how it’s hard for him to leave this show behind; after all, this material is
his life.
There is also some bonus footage. The first is a short
bit cut from the show in which he interacts with an audience member, imitating
the person’s pose in her chair. The second is a post-show question and answer
session, in which he talks about his sleeping disorder and a bit about the
performance. The third is Mike asking folks to turn off their phones at the
beginning of the show. He does a great bit about how there is no customer
service anymore, how it’s difficult to get a real person on the phone.
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