Is that the proper pronunciation, Mike?

Yeah, you can say whatever you want.

Everyone gets it wrong.

When telemarketers call, they'll be like, "Good afternoon, may I speak with Mr. Aw, Man."

Early on in your career, were you asked to come up with a stage name, like Mike Barber or something?

Yeah.

Everybody told me that.

When I was starting out, like I used to show up, like, at colleges, and there'd be a sign, like, "Tonight, comedian Mike Briggleby," you know? [laughs]

I've been writing this book, you know, and it's sort of painfully true stories from my life.

And so I've been calling some people who, who I grew up with to kind of verify some of the stories.

And I called this girl who I had a big crush on in seventh grade named Lisa Buzzetti, and she was way out of my league, you know, but I, I could make her laugh, you know.

She had to talk to me on the phone every night, thanks to alphabetical order, uh, to talk about homework.

And one time, I said something that made her laugh, and I was like, "This is good," like I gotta do that more.

And then one time I said something that made her laugh, and she was laughing so hard, and she goes, "Mike, you gotta stop.

[laughs] [clapping]

It's always, I'm always trying to understand what people are sensitive about.

[laughs]

Where is his owner? You're just gonna let him run around like this? He's gonna hurt somebody.

Somebody claim him or I will, which is a messed up attitude dog owners have, by the way.

How is it that you see, hey, uh, like, how is that, that's where your mind goes first? Hey, you see that living, breathing thing over there? It's mine now.

I want it.

Um-

[laughs]

I claim it.

[laughs]

So my wife says, "Wait for me, I'm not ready." And I held my ground.

I go, "I'm not gonna wait for you, 'cause you're a late person.

I'm an on-time person, and I don't want that getting involved with our marriage, 'cause I feel like it's going really well so far." And she goes, "Fine," passive aggressive, classic for late people.

[laughs]

Just chilling.

Uh, no, I have a symptom.

Don't repeat this.

I've been writing this book, you know, and it's sort of painfully true stories from my life.

And so I've been calling some people who, who I grew up with to kind of verify some of the stories.

And I called this girl who I had a big crush on in seventh grade named Lisa Buzzetti, and she was way out of my league, you know, but I, I could make her laugh, you know.

She had to talk to me on the phone every night, thanks to alphabetical order, uh, to talk about homework.

And one time, I said something that made her laugh, and I was like, "This is good," like, "I gotta do that more." And then one time, I said something that made her laugh, and she was laughing so hard, and she goes, "Mike, you gotta stop.

I'm gonna pee myself."

[laughs]

And I feared that soon I would be the lone member of the non-make out club.

Ugh.

I had one, I had one the other day where I flashed back to one of the first times we took Oona to Rhode Island.

My, my parents and my brother and sister live with their kids in Rhode Island, and we took Oona to the beach, and they were all with their cousins.

They were body boarding.

And there was this thing where it was the first time I could, I s- noticed Oona, like, gaining speed and velocity.

And you could just see on her face when she was body boarding that, like, she'd never experienced something like velocity before.

That's right.

And it goes, "Keep a poem in your pocket and a picture in your head, and you'll never feel lonely at night when you're in bed.

I, I would assume that most people are fascinated by all, uh, that is happening in your sleep.

It's very strange.

Uh, I wrote a draft of my one-person show, Sleepwalk With Me, while I w- you know, in the years when I was sleepwalking but had not jumped through a second-story window sleepwalking, which eventually I did, and which if, if this is sort of news to anyone, [laughs] the...

I, I wrote a book called Sleepwalk With Me.

I made a movie called Sleepwalk With Me.

I did a, I have a comedy album of that name.

And so I was sleepwalking for probably since college or so, or s- since I was, like, maybe 20, and I started writing the show Sleepwalk With Me, and it was about living in denial, you know, uh, being in a relationship where I knew it was over, and I didn't wanna deal with it, doing stand-up comedy where you're kind of in denial of bombing with audiences, and, and then there's the metaphor of I was, I had a sleepwalking issue, and I was not seeing a doctor about it, et cetera.

It's under wraps.

Mm-hmm.

So that's for playing for his base.

For playing, like wider, I don't know.

It's almost like you'd have to nail the perfect thing culturally that people are annoyed at-

... where people will be like, "Okay, you gotta hand it to him in some instances."

Would we be better off, as an example, in Iraq...

W- what are we doing? It's like I saw somebody, I won't even say, 'cause it's embarrassing.

We want it where the women over there don't have to wear the you know what.

Yeah.

So I explained to her like the ballet joke.

I'm like, "We went to your ballet recital, and Mom and I are crying and crying 'cause she doesn't have it." You know? And then I was like, "No, we're crying and we're hugging her." And, and I go, "You were so fantastic." And, and, and then you said, "Dad, you would say I was fantastic even if I wasn't fantastic." And I was like, "You are so much better at logic than you are at ballet." And I go like...

So that's, so it's a joke.

It-

Yeah.

Really basic thing that I'm like, "I'm going to teach my daughter this," which is when something challenging happens, write down two things.

And one of them is, uh, write down, um, what happened and how it made you feel.

(laughs)

...

I recognized, uh, this part too, which is my dad, incredibly sweet, and, um, you know, when we, you know, were kids, he had a temper and he would uncork sometimes and, uh, it was, uh, you know, it- it...

I think it was a kind of generational.

Like, my dad...

A- again, you talked in your special about it.

I- I- you said your dad didn't, um, uh...

There is something contagious about people having fun.

Yeah.

You know, and, uh, Margaret Cho and all these people who are great.

You know, Dave, Dave Chappelle and Reeg, Brian Regan.

And it was great.

And then when I would work the road after, when I, after I was 22, after college, I was working, like, hard gigs.

And I remember, like, I would open for these guys and they w- I remember one guy, he just said to me, he goes, "You're gonna make it." Like, I would do, like, not great.

Factor fuels your day sunup to sundown.

Mm-hmm.

So do you think that the format of the one-hour special still holds the same power that it did even a decade ago, or is, is that changing?

I think it does.

I think it does.

I think also it will.

Like, I, I'm one of these firm believers in...

And this is why I made, directed two movies and why I'm working on directing my next movie.

I'm, I'm, I'm writing the, the next script right now.

So, I guess I'm just curious, like, how could comedy movies come back if this is the state of things?

[laughs]

I mean, my dad, yeah, grew up in 1940 in Bushwick, Brooklyn, was, you know, r- it was really unlikely for him to have the life he had.

Like, he, he got...

I mean, I asked him about this.

So much of this stuff is, like, in the condition he's in, he can't remember what's happened in the last year, but he can remember things from the distant past.

So I've asked him all these things that I had never asked him about his life, and yeah, one of the things was I, I go, "How'd you end up going to Xavier High School in New York and, and, uh, Holy Cross College and med school and all this?" And he goes, "You know, it was like some kid at school was going to take the entrance exam for Xavier," and this is a Jesuit school in Manhattan, and, and I go, "I'll try that." And then he, he, like, scored really well and got a scholarship, and he ended up leading him on this path that I think he never imagined for his life at all.

Do you think everybody has a story to tell? And if so, what is the, what is the advice or the practice of helping people connect with the stories in their own lives that might be important for them to explore?

I think, like, yeah, I always tell people to journal.

Yeah.

Like it's, like every week it's just really, really hard.

And we have moments, right? It's like, and I talk about that in the special, it's like h- going to celebrate his 84th birthday.

It was beautiful.

He's surrounded by his children and his grandchildren and like I gave him rosary beads from the Vatican that the, that the last pope blessed.

Wow.

But, like, yeah, so I've always had, like, deep concerns about the Catholic Church.

And, and I've thought about it, and ultimately it was just like, this is very important to my parents.

Nathan, how did you get to know Nathan Lane? How did that-

So Nathan Lane had...... that, and that's really, in some ways, why I had legitimacy in the theater world is Nathan Lane had a few of my comedy albums, like my, like, Two Drink Mike, and I think my Secret Public Journal Live.

And he really liked this one story I, I tell from Secret Public Journal Live where I s- I was in a, this is a true story.

Uh, years ago, I was in a celebrity golf tournament, and I was paired up with this, for charity, and I was paired up with these two guys and my brother Joe.

And these g- guys said to me, they go, "Who do you think our celebrity's gonna be?" And I was like-

(laughs)

"If you think this is disappointing for you, you can't imagine how disappointing it is for me." And, eh, that was just like, and that was, like, this pain, this like painful hell gig story that Nathan really liked, and then he l- and then he came to my show at Caroline's, and I was actually doing all this sleepwalking stuff.

And he was on Broadway at the time.