On the scene: Mike Birbiglia at the Vic Theatre

The line between the groggy, funny Mike Birbiglia onstage and the hungry and exhausted one nibbling from a vegetable tray in his tour bus moments later is a thin one, I'm happy to report. I ended up in said bus (warning: stargazer alert) because I attended his sold-out show at the Vic on Saturday night with a posse that included folks friendly with the comic from way back when. Turns out, he's a nice guy. He chatted amiably with a bunch of us about his old D.C. improv troupe the Regal Beagles and how he once sat through a marathon night of improv at iO (a bit much, he said, but he loved TJ & Dave). He also seemed thrilled to be touring. After turning in 42,000 words of a manuscript he's been working on (a book version of his off-Broadway show Sleepwalk with Me), he seemed happy to be on the road and in front of audiences with his latest show, I'm in the Future Also. The audience at the Vic seemed to think the feeling was mutual.

After a likable, if not predictable opening act (musical comedian Henry Phillips), Birbiglia shuffled onstage like a man woken up from a nap—coffee in hand. It was fitting then that the alt storyteller launched into a tale about having to wake up at 4:30am, a time of the day he hilariously described as being "this incomplete time in which the Matrix hasn't even been built yet." This was great. He used this as an introduction to life on the road and a perilous adventure at the Peoria airport. As fate would have it, a bunch of Peorians were sitting in the first few rows stage left, and Birbiglia's ability to weave the enthusiastic bunch into his storytelling throughout the night was impressive.

Birbiglia is a vibrant storyteller, and it's no wonder his tales have found a home on NPR. He has a very rich cadence, and while each line is very carefully rehearsed and delivered, we were almost convinced that he was telling us these stories for the very first time. Of course, he wasn't. Some of the material from the evening (which he admitted right off the bat) was pulled from Sleepwalk with Me, and this proved mildly disappointing. I haven't seen Birbiglia live before, I'm a huge fan of comics bringing new material to the stage every time they tour. Bill Burr, for example, is adamant about this. Given the preponderance of YouTube videos, live albums and Comedy Central specials, there's so much access to a comic's material these days that recycled material just doesn't thrill me, even if it is the first time I've heard it live.

But that's a small gripe. Birbiglia's story about vomiting on the Scrambler, a carnival ride of woeful consequences, was the highlight of the evening for me. Likewise, tall tales of getting bullied in junior high and kicked in the head on the soccer field were delivered with lethargic panache. Even the finale, a retreaded tale about sleepwalking his way right out of a window at a La Quinta Inn, was inspired and chuckle worthy. I left thinking, I wanna be like Mike! I mean seriously, who wouldn't?