Mike Birbiglia!
How do you describe doing one of your favorite things in the world without getting so excited you cause your readers to vomit continuously by continuously saying, “I can’t believe I got to do that!” over and over again. Well, I’ll try to suppress my squealing zeal for the remainder of this posting. OH MY GOD I GOT TO SEE MIKE BIRBIGLIA IN PERSON! I GOT TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH HIM AND LAUGH HYSTERICALLY AT HIS JOKES FOR AN ENTIRE TWO HOURS AND I LOVED IT, I LOVED IT!!! Oh. Oh, boy. Well, now that that’s over, I’ll tell you about my Saturday. The day began as a warm, wonderful, and sweet treat. Taking its time to unfold like the delicate pirouettes of a descending autumn leave—perhaps a lovely blush apple red one—the cardinals and blue jays decided to swarm the campus. (I secret publicly believe this is in an attempt to take it over—and they do eat spiders, probably.) The robins, which I sometimes triumph over in our race against the sun in the early morning, were very busy chasing each other into trees and impressing me with their neck-breaking arcs in MY direction. I have developed my skills of dodging the beautiful blue birds with the red breasts and am now pretty good at it, although occasionally I feel my muscles tense horrible as one swoops in my direction and only barely misses me.
At two, I went to the movie theatre at Short pump using our ever-useful Spider Shuttle. My flavor of the week was a bit of Rocky Road rice ice cream. Okay, really it was The Darjeeling Limited, a story about three brothers who decide to try to reconnect on a spiritual journey across India. And A LOT of crazy randomness, both hilarious and terribly sad, ensues. Get it? Get why I said it was rocky road rice ice cream. Ah ha! No, I know I’m not that funny, hehe. Oh well. So, it was a relaxing couple of hours—I love laughing and crying in movies and I got to do both in the same one, which is always a plus.
Then, I returned to campus and at 7:30, I made my way over to the Camp Concert Hall—a beautiful auditorium where the school presents a number of wonderful performers over the school year—in the Modlin Center. On this particular evening, Mike Birbiglia’s Secret Public tour had the chance to prove itself on our hallowed campus grounds. He, and the two groups that started the program, did not disappoint. In fact, I haven’t laughed that hard in a long while. I cannot remember the first man’s name (I AM SO SO SO VERY SORRY) but that does not mean he wasn’t funny. The second group was a little bit more conspicuous. They formed a “Christian Rock Band” and looked very much like four-year-old boys. They sang hilarious songs about chastity and alcohol abuse (and made them seem like inherently funny concepts) strumming a guitar and a two note xylophone. Then, the big fish splashed out of the water like one of those evasive carp and slapped us all in the face. Mike Birbiglia (the Birbigglebug) is one of my favorite comedians; I have seen all of his television stand-up specials. Naturally, I was not going to miss my opportunity to see him in person. I think I laughed the hardest in the audience (perhaps because I knew what to expect) but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. After he finished, Mike let everyone know that he and the rest of the gang would be available for meeting and photos right in front of the hall. Well, I certainly couldn’t let a chance like that pass me by. Now I’m not photogenic, but I wanted a picture up close and personal. I asked for one and surprise of all surprises, he told me to get in the middle so I got a picture of myself between Mikey and the “Christian Rock Band”. I’m happy right now, if you can tell. One of my favorite things to do in life is watch comedy and I got to meet one of my favorites. It’s all good.
this is the 1st comedian. Leave me a comment if you know his name, please.
This is the “Christian Rock Band” whose title I can’t remember. Aren’t they grand?
multitalented Birbigglebug.
I like this picture because the rest of them are so blurry and bouncy and then Mike’s just staring at the camera.
Now, I hate pictures of myself. BUT I MET THE BIRBIGGLEBUG!!! AHHHHHH!!!
Quote of the week:
I spend a lot of time on the road and I like to listen to the music on the radio. But I’ll end up listening to Christian rock…by accident. It’s hard to avoid because they all start out as a Bon Jovi ballad. ‘Well, I woke up this morning and I got myself some oatmeal and I put some raisins on it and….Christ is god. God, God, God.’ I think every religion should have its own rock.”
– Mike Birbiglia
