‘Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & the Pool’ a gift

‘MIKE BIRBIGLIA: THE OLD MAN & THE POOL’: Mike Birbiglia. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

MIKE BIRBIGLIA: THE OLD MAN & THE POOL
Written by Mike Birbiglia
Directed by Seth Barrish
Through January 15, 2023
Vivian Beaumont Theatre
150 West 65th Street

(212-239-6200), www.mikebirbigliabroadway.com

By David NouNou

When a lot people have lost their everyday humor and comedy has become harder to do, when a standup comedy routine could cancel a comic in a heartbeat, somehow—as he did in his last outing on Broadway, The New One in 2018, about his neurosis and the birth of his baby girl—Mike Birbiglia scores and gets big laughs by joking about things to which most of us can relate, including the not-always-funny topic of midlife emotional and physical health.  In Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man & The Pool, Mr. Birbiglia has managed to hit another home run.

One-man shows can be very hit-and-miss and can be interminably drab vanity projects (as evidenced last month) and one becomes very leery of them. However, Mr. Birbiglia’s one-man show provides humor in the purest and most guileless of ways. The slings and arrows aren’t directed at anyone but himself. He doesn’t display vanity but tries to provide genuine comic relief through the anguish he’s endured in his life through the health issues he’s had and survived.

Mr. Birbiglia is 44, Catholic, married to a Jewish girl Jennie and has a daughter Oona, and they play a huge part in his act. His love for them is heartachingly genuine and he never uses them as the brunt of his jokes but fellow travelers in his journey of maladies.

Mr. Birbiglia suffers from a sleep-walking disorder (the basis for his 2008 Off-Broadway show and 2012 indie film Sleepwalk with Me). At 21, he had early cancer detection for bladder cancer that he miraculously beat. At 34, he learned he had type 2 diabetes, etc. He has been diagnosed by many doctors and told to do many different regimens to remedy his maladies. Without giving you more detail, you have to hear about his treatment of swimming lessons at the YMCA. A genuine sidesplitting classic.

Mr. Birbiglia has the affability of a middle-aged standup Tom Hanks. There even is a slight resemblance and the storytelling has the same warm delivery but Mr. Birbiglia is an original. He writes his own material for his shows, stars in them, and leaves the audience, proverbially speaking, rolling in the aisles.

You might think that an evening discussing one’s own aliments might be a drag, but Mr. Birbiglia, under the deft direction of Seth Barrish, has turned his literal and figurative pain into funny fodder for our enjoyment and makes our ailments more bearable. For an evening of non-stop hilarity, this is the comedy you’ve been waiting for. Think of it as an early Christmas/Chanukah gift, courtesy of Mike Birbiglia.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 13, 2022
Reviewed at November 12, 2022 press preview performance.

‘MIKE BIRBIGLIA: THE OLD MAN & THE POOL’: Mike Birbiglia. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

‘MIKE BIRBIGLIA: THE OLD MAN & THE POOL’: Mike Birbiglia. Photo: Emilio Madrid.

‘MIKE BIRBIGLIA: THE OLD MAN & THE POOL’: Mike Birbiglia. Photo: Emilio Madrid.