Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mike Birbiglia: The Old Man And The Pool’ On Netflix, The Comedian Wades Into The Depths Of His Mortality

Mike Birbiglia‘s fourth Netflix special adapted his Broadway hit show, The New One, charting his evolution from happily childless single man to dutiful husband and father. For his fifth Netflix special, Birbiglia finds himself staring into the deep end at his own end, wondering if he’ll befall the same fate as his grandfather and father before him. Death and anxiety, but make it funny! If it were anyone else, we might be suspicious. But Birbigs has a solid track record for making his medical maladies merry, so we’re here for it.

MIKE BIRBIGLIA: THE OLD MAN AND THE POOL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Now 45 (and 44 when he filmed this at Lincoln Center), Birbiglia starts his story in 2017 with his annual physical, which goes so poorly for him that his doctor refers the comedian to a cardiologist, and their concern for his heart and pulmonary capacity have Birbiglia reflecting upon how his father and grandfather both had heart attacks when they were 56, and it led to him never even meeting his grandfather. Snuggling with his young daughter, Oona, Birbiglia wrote in his journal, “When I turn 56, Oona will be 19.” So now what? His doctors suggest he take up swimming.

What Comedy Specials Will It Remind You Of?: Birbiglia’s storytelling and production value feels more in line with UK comedians who craft narrative hours for the Edinburgh Fringe than most of the American comedy specials you’ll see. He’s also long been an associate with Ira Glass, so you can think of Birbiglia as an even longer-form fixture of Glass’s radio show, This American Life. Among American comedians, though, perhaps the closest comparison would be Hasan Minhaj.

Memorable Jokes: Birbiglia told The Daily Beast that his recollection of his time as a would-be high-school wrestler isn’t embellished at all, because his awkward attempts at athleticism were funny enough then, and funny enough now to segue into his lack of swimming prowess which makes him feel like a failure before he’s even earned a swimming lesson. “I auditioned for swim lessons, and I didn’t get the part.” He has plenty of observations about the YMCA pool, or any public pool for that matter, that are relatable, whether you’re “the old man” or a tiny toddler seeing old naked men or women for the first time in a locker room.

Birbiglia played the bad guy in a movie last year about confronting mortality, A Man Called Otto, and in this special, his contemplation about writing a will leads him into humorous tangents about strangers who have met untimely deaths. One particular death leads to a show-stopping moment in which the comedian teases us for our diabolical senses of humor. Birbiglia also shares memories about his own indirect experiences with death, whether it was watching the Challenger space shuttle explode on live TV when he was in elementary school, or at 21 when the family’s friend and “second father” Mr. Naples died. And he’s right. Embalming is weird.

Our Take: The set looks like the tiled-bottom of a swimming pool, only it’s erected curving up from behind like a giant wave about to crash down upon him. A bit on-the-nose symbolically, but Birbiglia also makes use of the many-hues-of-blue behind him as a screen, one time to emphasize the seriousness of his condition when he writes “I think I may die soon” into his otherwise private secret journal; another time eliciting chuckles despite illustrating how his lung capacity compares to that of other humans.

Since pivoting from joke-teller to storyteller, Birbiglia has found great success mining his medical crises for both stories and laughs. This continues here, whether he’s harkening back to being 20 and finding blood in his urine that sprays and splays like fireworks, sharing his more recent bouts with type 2 diabetes, or even catching up casual comedy fans on his lifelong struggles with sleepwalking.

He reminds us how comedians often live on the road and don’t necessarily have the most healthy habits, and reminds everyone how we might prioritize short-term survival over long-term survival when push comes to shove, or storm leaks reveal black mold in your home.

As a comedian, he might’ve not given it much thought. But as a husband and father, Birbiglia sometimes overthinks it. In the end, he realizes that though he may have grown up in a family that says “take care” instead of “I love you,” he wants to stick around long enough to tell his wife and daughter he loves them more often.

Our Call: STREAM IT. “People, don’t quote this out of context,” Birbiglia asks us in an aside during his performance. Which, of course, is as much a problem with how we think and talk about comedy anytime we weren’t actually in the room for the full performance to process any of a comedian’s jokes in context. So I’ll instead quote Birbiglia quoting the late Warren Zevon, who when facing his own impending death, gave this advice: “Enjoy every sandwich.” Birbiglia serves up very enjoyable sandwiches. Even if he wishes they were pizzas instead. 

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat. He also podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.