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By Roger Costa
What’s more important in a mature life? Maintaining the circle of mutual respect and tenderness among longtime friends and business partners, or abandoning them in order to invest in the possibility of a successful career? It’s a hard question and obvious answer, yet friends are necessary, as well as the importance of accomplishing ambitions, given the current increasing levels of competitiveness in business and disintegration of common friendly connections. Amidst all these topics, there’s a new king of comedy in town interested in shaping them into naturally harmless jokes: Mike Birbiglia. It’s time for the talented writer-actor-director Birbiglia to take over the urbane NYC comedic scene. In this outrageously funny, smart and accurate satire on the risky business of making people laugh, on friends and family, on a generation seeking new beginnings and on the popular TV Show “Saturday Night Live”, Birbiglia proves his thoughtful humor and authenticity, exploring the consequences of comedy in people’s lives.
He is part of a troupe of Stand-Up Comedy improve, a group of extremely inventive and talented creators of jokes, that spend time sharing their inspirations and creativity, as well as devotionally performing together on stage, and having direct participation in decisions of life and work. They are each trying to establish themselves as mature comedians, seeking their dreams of making part on a big show one day. In one of these try-outs/auditions, one of them is accepted to enter the popular show “Weekend” (a debaucherous take on SNL) finding local stardom and challenging their close friendship.
Birbiglia creates a fresh and vivid portrait of urban NYC artists, facing the awareness of difficulties in the writing business and in the artistic field, in search of professional accomplishment in the era of technology and shortages. A Hit at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, “Don’t Think Twice” is filled with amazingly touching and contagiously familiar performances, conquering the audience’s affection towards each character’s dilemmas and reasons. With incredible sense of measurable comedy, and a great example of sharp irreverence, Birbiglia also turns the joke on the financial crisis, as well as a look at self-centered behaviors, expectations and anxieties of the new Generation Y.
(Now showing at Landmark Sunshine Theaters in NYC)
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