Mike Birbiglia My Secret Public Journal Live is Birbiglia’s fourth stand-up comedy CD and his second on the Comedy Central label after Two Drink Mike.

He is a very autobiographical comic and quite original but for some reason Birbiglia doesn’t do it for me and I can say the same about My Secret Public Journal Live. This could be my fault.

There is no doubt Mike Birbiglia is a good stand-up comedian, his material is nice and tight, and the CD contains good stuff but the material didn’t really stick with me, even after listening to it a couple of times.

My Secret Public Journal Live features stories about Mike Birbiglia and his family. Not to be mean but I kind of wished something important happened. This is comedy of the mundane and though Birbiglia does make the most of it, such as on Catholic School Sunglasses where he tells the story about selling stuff out of a suitcase when he was in Catholic school, there is an edge that I find lacking.

MIke Birbiglia is a self-deprecating comic and his bit about doing the MVP awards, Roger Clemens Hates Me, is pretty good, but again, I found myself wishing for a little bit more bite to the material. I also wish he had done a bit more with the Jack and Irma’s Magic Phones routine as as is it does not rise above the usual complaint about cell phone plans.

This is perhaps why the bit I enjoyed best on the My Secret Public Journal Live CD is You Can’t Shoot the Shooter, a solid bit of political comedy where Birbiglia takes an original and funny crack at Dubya.

Mike Birbiglia‘s My Secret Public Journal Live is not to be confused with his second independent release, My Secret Public Journal, though it does contain the bit about the charity golf disaster. My Secret Public Journal Live also contains the very funny short bit about moving into a new building and what he should have said to his neighbor that appears on his first stand up comedy CD Dog Years.

My Secret Public Journal Live
Mike Birbiglia
Stand-up comedy CD
Comedy Central Records 2007
59 minutes

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