Mike Birbiglia (COL ’00) won “Funniest Person on Campus” his sophomore year at Georgetown—let’s see if he’s still got it. His latest one man show, “My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend,” will run for five nights at the Davis Center’s Gonda Theater beginning Monday, Feb. 25.
Make no mistake—this is a love story. “I just delve into a lot of painful and awkward childhood experiences anywhere from my failed first kiss to my failed first relationship to my failed everything else,” Birbiglia wrote in an email to the Voice.
The 90 minute or so show examines a man looking back at his romantic trials and tribulations, though Birbiglia’s style extends far beyond that of typical romantic comedy. The New York Times called it “ridiculously enjoyable” and the Chicago Tribune went as far as to say it proves Birbiglia is the closest thing to an everyman comedy has today.
His return to campus comes fresh off an announcement that this show will soon be made into a taped-for-television comedy special next month and a feature film sometime after that. Birbiglia said, “it’s quite different from the show and it’ll probably take a different name, but the seed of it is from the show itself.”
This process follows the same pattern as his previous project, Sleepwalk with Me, which began as standup and ended up winning the 2012 NEXT audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.
The idea for a Georgetown return started with English Professor John Glavin, who teaches script writing. “That’s where I started taking writing seriously,” said Birbiglia. Prof. Derek Goldman, Artistic Director at the Davis Center explained, “this opportunity came to us through Prof. Glavin when Mike reached out looking for a place to do some performances in advance of his concert taping next month.”
Goldman said that, due to the heavily booked Davis Center, “small mountains” had to be moved to book the event but in the end, “it was one of those rare things where the stars were aligned.” Thank Orion that they were, because the venue played a key role in this upcoming return.
“The other reason I wanted to come, was that when I was at Georgetown we didn’t have anything like the Davis Center,” Birbiglia said. The Davis Center was not opened until 2005. “We were always performing in a black box,” he said, “so I’m really excited for the school—it’s beautiful and I think it’s the perfect playing space.”
However, the most important question Birbiglia had to answer was a “Marry Boff Kill” challenge involving fellow Georgetown comedians Nick Kroll (COL’01), Jim Gaffigan (MSB’88), and John Mulaney (COL’04): “I’d marry Nick Kroll and then as a couple we’ll decide who to boff and who to kill.” We’ll see if they can attain Jayoncé celebrity couple status.
