Last night Mike Birbiglia had a show over at Town Hall, and unlike normal stand-up comics who would invite a decidedly less talented comic to go on as the opener, he had the Mates of State. If none of you are familiar with them, just think of the indie pop-duo you vaguely remember from high-school and you’ll be all set. Anyway, if the viewer was unfamiliar with Birbigs, as they call him on da streetz (and by “da streetz” I mean twitter), they might have thought it was weird when an awkward looking “olive-garden Italian” guy came onstage.

In fact, there are probably a few things people need to be prepared for if they’re going to see this guy. The first is that you have to understand that even though he’s a guy who’s pretty hip with all us awkward humor-lovin’, This American Life watchin’, whitewashed hipsters, if you go see him perform, you’re going to be sitting next to people who resemble your grandparents. That’s just the way it is. But if you’re the type of person who would find that juxtaposition comically awkward, then Mike Birbiglia is probably one of your favorite stand-up comics. You know how some comics will include some kind of universally pleasing anecdote about their life just so people will clap about it and he can go into a vein of relevant comedy, like “So anyway, I just got married…” or “So anyway, I’m a cancer survivor…”? Well Mike Birbiglia is the kind of guy who would instead say, “So anyway, I ironed my pants tonight…” and it elicits pretty much the same response.

The second thing you have to know is that if you’ve heard his jokes beforehand, you’re probably going to hear most of them again. I don’t know how this developed as an expectation in the stand-up comedy community, but for some reason there is this stigma against hearing jokes more than once. “Who does this guy think he is, trying to get me to laugh at something MORE than once? I’m leaving to go watch improv comedy troupes.” Stand-up comedy is probably the only type of performance where people will literally be upset that they’re hearing the same material. It’s not like you’d be at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert (not that you would be) and think to yourself, “What? These bitches are playing Freebird AGAIN? Don’t they know I’ve already heard this song?” or “Every time I see this damned Rent show, it’s always the same! Get a new act, you damn broadway/off-broadway hit musical! Seriously!”

His act is filled with white-culture related references and absolute value humor, so there is definitely an audience for it. He actually spoke last night about how he was at NYU, performing for This American Life live, and when he got the DVD for his performance, he watched it for about thirty seconds before he got too angry at his own appearance. So if you like a guy who will bring out an indie-pop duo and sing a harmonized song about oatmeal with them (who wouldn’t?) and then get the audience to stand up and act like they’re a southern black gospel choir for several seconds until it starts to feel awkward and they all sit back down, or you want to hear how to fight for justice with soft pretzels, might I refer you to the comic stylings of Mr. Mike Birbiglia? If not, you can just continue listening to your bootleg Dane Cook shows. That’s fine too; just let me know when you get out of the 9th grade.