Mike Birbiglia: My Girlfriend's Boyfriend

This new (well, new to Netflix, I have no idea if it is new) stand-up comedy special is a little bit different than a lot of the stand up that exists out there, particularly on Netflix, because it doesn't focus on really any current events and not even a hint of politics - which a lot of people consider to be a good thing these days - I know i do.

In *My Girlfriend's Boyfriend" Mike Birbiglia presents a very honest but humorous retelling of his life and the failures he has had in relationships. I think that a lot of people out there can probably relate to many of the things that he speaks about in this special and he mixes it up between emotional sequences and genuine comedy and I feel as though it works wonderfully.

I think that many people can relate to Mike because he is very average looking, he isn't tough, he's got thinning hair and he doesn't have much of a sense of fashion or much luck with women in his life (or his past.) This pretty much sums up my life and therefore I see a bit of myself in what he talks about in this.

He talks about how he finds the notion of marriage absurd considering divorce statistics and provided they are true those numbers are actually pretty shocking and adds some real credibility to his fear or disdain towards marriage in the first place. This might not be so funny to people that are pro-marriage - if that is even a thing - but it is pretty difficult to not identify with what it is that he is talking about.

He talks about how the friends he knows that have kids are not the same people anymore but he doesn't necessarily say that this is a good or a bad thing, he just states it as a fact and then puts a humorous spin on it. I had never heard of him before this special but from what I have read this is what a lot of his humor is all about.

All of his comedy stems from his own life experiences and some of the details are very personal, sometimes to the point of being borderline uncomfortable. You can see that some of these moments are very important and / or tragic to him because he becomes misty-eyed at multiple points in the show as he retells traumatic or touching moments in his life.

It starts out strong and he keeps things moving by having his bits not take too long to get to the next comedic moment. I dare you to watch this and not be somewhat moved by the ending. It is, as stand-up specials tend to be, around an hour long and I was entertained the whole way through. I believe this will be the case with most people.

It isn't the funniest stand-up I have seen, but the mix of emotion in there was unexpected in a stand-up special and that is what made it so unique.