1. A surprise set from melodic and heartfelt indie-rock power duo Mates of State is the perfect lead-in to a night of comedy from stand-up’s most endearing talent, Mike Birbiglia; both are the performance equivalent of friendly hugs.
2. He wasn’t drunk. He promises. In spite of what a blogger claimed to have been disappointed by in an earlier performance, Birbiglia is never intoxicated onstage. “Apparently I’m just a mess. Me at neutral is a mess.”
3. The spinning-circles-within-spinning-circles movement of the “ubiquitous” carnival ride known as the Scrambler can actually be physically represented by one person on a stage. And it will make you as nauseous as the memory being recalled.
4. Birbiglia always sticks his landings. His act is not only a collection of funny jokes, but also a series of ideas and anecdotes that, you realize at the end, relate to one another thematically and humorously for an even bigger payoff.
5. When he sprinkled classic jokes into his set, audience members delivered the punch lines in tandem—”Season tickets to the Yankees!”—and when the Mates of State backed him on “The Oatmeal Song” as an encore, the crowd stood, clapped and sang along. Mike Birbiglia will be a household name…but I guess we actually learned that a while ago.









Since we couldn’t be in Edinburgh this year, comedian and saucy songstress Jessica Delfino has sent dispatches through both the literal Scottish fog and the Festival Fringe alcoholic one.
Tonight, at 10pm, The Jon Dore Television Show makes its American debut on IFC. The 30-minute comedy, which originally aired on the Comedy Network in Canada, is cocreated by and stars stand-up comic Jon Dore, who aims to improve his life in a new way in each episode. The show has a good-natured misguidedness familiar to fans of The Sarah Silverman Program, features Dore interviewing real people about ridiculous subjects à la Sacha Baron Cohen, and oozes with the kind of happy-go-lucky malaise of Chris Elliott’s Get a Life. Also, it’s super weird.