Quote

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

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Mike Birbiglia
Age: 46
Born: 1978
Born: June 20
Actor
Comedian
Executive Producer
Film Director
Screenwriter
Stand-Up Comedian
Improvisation
Rule
Asking
Habit
Spirit
Interrupting

More quotes by Mike Birbiglia

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Sometimes, when you want to be in a place so badly, you'll do anything.
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I always try to attack the most honest issues I can in my comedy.
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How many people do you know who have thrown up on the Scrambler or a carnival ride? A lot of people, is the answer.
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I almost can't even put to words how happy I am that I got married.
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Some people come up to me and say You know, in Italy, it's pronounced Ber-beel-lia And I say Well, here in America, you're annoying...
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A girl offered me E at the club. 'Have you ever done E?' 'I watch E.'
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Backup dancers are completely respectable. They're the studio musicians of dance.
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Creepy people do the things that decent people want to do, but have decided are not a great idea.
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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.
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I think spending a lot of time with my mom, who's a talker and a storyteller, and my dad, who has kind of a soft-spoken, understated sense of humor, I think that's how I became what I am, which is sort of an understated storyteller.
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Life is unfair and improv is a great metaphor of that.
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My writing process is very feedback-based. When I do stand-up, I listen to the audience. I try to understand what's connecting, what's not connecting, and then rewrite, rewrite and rewrite.
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Eugene Mirman is the Andy Warhol of comedy. People look to him for what's next in comedy, and he emails these people back promptly. The Will to Whatevs put me in a great mood because I was laughing out loud. Alone. That's hard to do.
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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.
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Falling in love is a completely transcendent experience. It's like eating pizza-flavored ice cream
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Success is fleeting. It may not have to do with you but how your work is received.
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In our culture right now, I want to take on this notion of what a singular success means. We think success is one thing, but it's actually a spectrum of where our life takes us.
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I went to the doctor, and they found something in my bladder. And whenever they find something, it's never anything good like, We found something in your bladder AND IT'S SEASON TICKETS TO THE YANKEES!!
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