“There's something about small venues that's amazing for developing material. It's almost like you can not only hear people's response, but you can understand it. In bigger venues you lose that, but you gain this sense of camaraderie in the audience.”

American comedian, actor, director, producer, and Emmy-nominated writer

Mike Birbiglia is an American comedian, actor, director, producer, and Emmy-nominated writer. He has built a career around solo performance, with six one-person shows that played worldwide and had successful runs on and off Broadway. Those shows include Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Thank God For Jokes, The New One, The Old Man and the Pool, and The Good Life, several of which became Netflix comedy specials. He also wrote, directed, and starred in Sleepwalk with Me and Don’t Think Twice, and has appeared in films such as Trainwreck, The Fault in Our Stars, Popstar, and A Man Called Otto, as well as on Orange Is the New Black and Billions. He hosts the podcast Mike Birbiglia's Working it Out.