Mike Birbiglia: The New One (Off-Broadway)

“One of those shows that, when it concludes you automatically think back to where it started and trace the path. You don’t notice the path...because you are having so good a time...Birbiglia sends us into the stratosphere howling at his observations, and brings us to a full stop when he wants to drop deeper into what it means to be a man on the verge of changing his life forever. He examines all of it. And going along for the ride is an experience not to be missed.” Full Review

"One of the two best one-man shows I’ve seen in my longer-than-I-prefer-to-admit life...Birbiglia’s an amazingly honest and truthful storyteller...He’s mastered the creation of humorous concepts along with a nuanced, good natured unhurried delivery...Birbiglia’s smart. He has stage presence. His measured pacing is honed to get the biggest response from the stories he tells. He covers all the bases in his very precise commentary." Full Review

“The latest chapter of Birbiglia's life inventory...This time Birbiglia digs more deeply, subjecting his flaws to hilariously ruthless examination and getting to the heart of marriage and fatherhood and what they mean to him. As always, he is the most elusive of targets, defying categorization even as he lands laugh after laugh...‘The New One’ treads nimbly on more profound matters...This time he has an epiphany that can bring a tear to your eye” Full Review

"His comedic observational skills are sharp as a tack...Birbiglia seems deeply sincere in his lack of self-regard. It makes him all the funnier and more relatable...By the end of the evening, you feel less like an audience member than an old friend. Which is not to downplay the performer's incredibly sharp wit and gift for wordplay...It takes tremendous skill to come across in such an unskilled manner....That the show is being staged in such intimate confines only makes it all the more special." Full Review

"Birbiglia's grin is infectious, and after each and every punchline while the audience is still laughing, he delivers that bemused look as though he is enjoying the recollection as much as we are. This always seems to keep the laughter going longer. He also knows how to milk the most mundane material for a seemingly endless series of one-liners, a never ending stream of humor on one of life's many absurdities which he has lived through - and survived." Full Review

"Ever since seeing 'Sleepwalk with Me,' I have been hooked on his brand of humor: good-natured, self-deprecating, unflinchingly honest and thoroughly grounded in life...His usual director Seth Barrish once again shows his flair for the material. Each time I see a new Birbiglia show, I am fearful that it could not possibly be as good as the previous one. Each time I am happy to find that my worries were groundless." Full Review

"It's all very funny and bracing, because Birbiglia is a nuanced storyteller with a gift for teasing out the absurdity of contemporary American life, as well as sending up his own anxieties and neuroses...'The New One' is grounded in an intimate emotional honesty. That's not to say the show is a downer; it hums along on the strength of Birbiglia's warm-hearted wit...Just try to score a ticket. 'The New One' may be his best one yet." Full Review

"Dazzling...In this seemingly freewheeling, but exquisitely crafted monologue, Birbiglia charts his emotional, psychological, and medical passage to parenthood...'The New One' is a deft combination of stand-up comedy, autobiographical performance, and one-person play...Birbiglia weaves personal narrative with droll observations and discursive tangents that morph into new and even more discursive tangents...Miraculously, it all works, and the comic payoff is substantial." Full Review

"It’s kind of a medical miracle, what Mike Birbiglia has done. No, not fathering a child after fertility doctors informed him 'my boys don’t swim.' Rather, he has miraculously breathed life into a catalogue of ancient comedy targets...His take on these subjects is frequently hilarious, and fresh nearly to the point of innocence, as Birbiglia encounters each awful reality for himself...An affecting story is at first funny, then sad, and finally profound." Full Review

"It's hard to call [it] a play; although carefully scripted…with a distinct, if pleasantly meandering, beginning, middle, and end, it's more like an extended standup routine…He tells honest-seeming, if slightly exaggerated, stories about his own life, larded with humor that's often sexual or scatological; rarity of rarities, however, he keeps the profanity to a minimum…His biggest drawback is a habit of slipping from a clearly articulated conversational tone into mumbling and whispers." Full Review

"His fans, won over by his previous shows seemed to have a blind faith that I didn’t share. And I felt my skepticism rewarded when for the first fifteen minutes or so he seemed to ramble...'The New One' winds up a fresh, funny, subversive and even occasionally moving account of becoming and then being a father...He recounts with annoyance how people say to him 'Is it the most joy you’ve ever experienced.’ And you have to say ‘It’s the most joy’ – his expression priceless." Full Review

"The show is a sustained demonstration of effective comic writing and acting—Birbiglia is brilliant at weaponizing the conspiratorial stage whisper...Birbiglia hits peak funny when riffing on his frailties, medical and otherwise, and his self-deprecation comes across not as an underhanded cry for unearned 'helpless dad' sympathy but as an expression of genuine doubt about his role in the new family unit." Full Review

"Directed by Seth Barrish, 'The New One' is original perspective on a familiar situation. Birbiglia is at the height of his powers as a storyteller, and his innate drollness earns laughs from particularly embarrassing subjects...Really, the laughs are nonstop. There's not a single lull. But it's also surprisingly tender, particularly in the later section." Full Review

"Is there anyone out there in either the comedy world or the theatrical scene capable of delivering more laughs per minute than Mike Birbiglia? I don't think so. And in the case of his hilarious new solo show, 'The New One,' now at the Cherry Lane Theatre, 'delivering' is the key word. As one might have guessed, the ultimate focus of this rollicking 80-minute diversion (smoothly directed by Seth Barrish) is Birbiglia's not completely willing entry into parenthood." Full Review

"About his reluctant journey to fatherhood and how it has changed his life. That may sound about as scintillating as potato salad, but Birbiglia isn't some generic straight white guy whining about domesticity. He is raw, self-deprecating and painfully aware of both his privilege and his failings...The show isn't groundbreaking in structure, style or substance...But the meticulous and evocative way he expresses himself makes 'The New One'—like a newborn baby—special, unique and lovable." Full Review

"Mike Birbiglia is a terrific story teller, comedian, author, filmmaker, director...How Jen actually gets pregnant is a good portion of his story as told with jokes that spring so naturally from his narrative that we are hardly aware of the set-up. Under the unobtrusive direction of Seth Barrish, Birbiglia ambles with ease about the stage...His inevitable epiphany comes as a wonderful surprise and a heartwarming conclusion to another unique chapter in this very talented man's life." Full Review

"Birbiglia has a down-to-earth, good-guy vibe...He’s not normcore, he’s just normal...It’s a cozy pleasure to be in his company...It seems silly to say that a comic has 'found their subject,' but there is something about the process of becoming a dad that seems to have opened up a new and wonderful exploration for Birbiglia...This is a life-affirming piece of work, for fathers, mothers, and all of us who have them." Full Review

"Don’t ask me for specific laugh lines, of which there are scores. For me, they evaporate as they pass. Yet they are commendably effective when Birbiglia spouts them and then, just as often as not, follows them with one of those sunbeam grins...Regularly, Birbiglia has the knack of topping a gag with another line and then another...While I rarely laughed out loud but sat throughout with my own appreciative grin, the audience of Birbiglia fans giggled and guffawed from start to finish." Full Review

"Parenthood is well-worn territory for comedians, but Birbligia makes the show fresh and revealing through direct storytelling, precise pacing and his trademark nice guy persona, in which he presents himself in a casual, affable and excited manner. He interweaves observational humor, personal anecdotes (such as his clueless experience in Amsterdam’s Red Light District), sentimental touches and physical bits." Full Review

“Engaging one-man show...Birbiglia is a soothing presence...Birbiglia is a seasoned storyteller, and he plays the audience like they’re an old acoustic guitar he’s been noodling on since childhood...Birbiglia is not the kind of comic who aims to shock. He appears more eager to put his audience at ease, to assure us that all will be well. He ends the show on a positive, heartwarming note, so that we’re literally applauding him for not leaving his wife and baby." Full Review

"An observational everyman, he speaks fairly gently—sometimes in a whisper—and at times smiles and laughs along with the audience, giving the sense of a very accessible guy who happens to be wonderfully out of step with normalcy...This having-a-baby-is-challenging routine is something we’ve heard a million times from comics, especially since it leads to some reluctant joy over the situation, but fortunately, Birbiglia’s wit, timing, and personal approach make the show well worth birthing." Full Review

"At first excruciatingly funny and then just kind of excruciating. The first hour, about his wife and cat and brother and vascular repair, is gorgeous, just the right amount of wrong...But once Mr. Birbiglia actually has a kid, most of what makes him so immensely appealing — his acuity, his empathy — goes down for a nap...The jokes don’t really stop, but they take a brakes-stripping turn toward self-pity ...After the birth Mr. Birbiglia seems awful. " Full Review