★★★★★
“Just based off this chart,” Mike Birbligia’s doctor tells him at the start of The Old Man and the Pool, “I’d say you’re having a heart attack right now.”
It might be one of the bleaker ways of starting an 80-minute stand-up show, but Birbiglia seems to know what he’s doing. The multi-hyphenate director of Sleepwalk with Me and Don’t Think Twice has a storytelling talent which must be the envy of the comedy world. With an easy-going style deftly hiding existentially terrifying musings on mortality, he has the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.
A great curved swimming pool wall forms the backdrop of a show which usually, if not always, feels like stand-up. There’s a reason Birbiglia has cemented himself as a Broadway staple with his last two shows, and there’s a reason he’s been given a rare month-long stint at the Wyndam’s theatre on the West End. More than most comedy shows, The Old Man and the Pool feels inherently theatrical.
(Photo: Emilio Madrid)
Avoiding the stand-up cliché of ‘let’s do a sad bit at the end’, Birbiglia litters emotional sincerity throughout his show right from the start, often through single, devastating lines. Though these moments are few and far between amidst his barrage of perfectly crafted whimsy, there’s still the sense that the show can shift gears at any moment.
He makes the most of the stage given to him, too. With a hands-free mic and a routine which regularly sees him enacting wrestling moves or even just lying in bed, the whole show has a visual variety as well as a tonal one.
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Watching Birbiglia do what he does best, it’s impossible to escape the feeling of watching a real master at work. After floating through an effortlessly hilarious 80 minutes, I could easily listen for another hour. Perfectly crafted, exquisitely told, and very, very funny – right now, Mike might just be one of the best stand-ups in London. Go, go, go.
The Old Man and the Pool is playing at the Wyndham’s theatre until 7 October.
