Written by Byron Kerman Sunday, 20 September 2009 04:39

"It's not like I have a huge weight problem, but I'm the kinda guy that could really put the brakes on an orgy."

The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
 
 
"I wanna make my own line of sympathy cards," jokes Mike Birbiglia. "Like, on the cover I'd put a picture of a duck-billed platypus playing checkers with a rhinoceros, and in the background there's like, a hot dog with arms, holding up a lemonade stand at gunpoint, and you open it up, and it's like ‘The World is Messed-Up, Man.'"

As original as Mike Birbiglia the comedian is, he's probably more inventive as Mike Birbiglia the monologist. Just a few years ago he drifted into alt-storyteller territory, performing for New York's "The Moth" podcast, becoming a regular This American Life contributor, and most notably, rocking an 85-minute monologue in a successful Off-Broadway show, Sleepwalk With Me.

The show uses Birbiglia's sleepwalking problems as the basis for various confessional tangents, humorous and thought-provoking. His true tale of sleepwalking through and out a second-story hotel window is horrifying, riveting, and in the telling, funny and rich. A New York Times writer said of the show, "Mike Birbiglia's pacing is simply perfect."

His tour stop in St. Louis promises some of that hybrid confessional humor, with more of an emphasis on the stand-up than the theatrical, which is fine. Two other gems from the clever Birbiglia:

"It's not like I have a huge weight problem, but I'm the kinda guy that could really put the brakes on an orgy."
and
"There are female narcoleptics that fall asleep the moment they reach orgasm. We call these women...men." | Byron Kerman

www.birbigs.com

Mike Birbiglia at The Pageant
w/ Henry Philips
Thursday, September 24
Reserved Main Floor & Balcony: $27.50 [all ages]
Tickets available at The Pageant box office or Ticketmaster.com