Published on May 17th, 2009 | by Sharilyn Johnson

Run to Sleepwalk

Thanks to the run being extended, I finally got to see Mike Birbiglia’s Sleepwalk With Me, playing at the Bleeker Street Theatre in New York. (Not lazy, just Canadian!)

I’ve loved Mike since first seeing him do a short set at Just For Laughs in Montreal back in 2005. Seeking out Mike’s work many times since then means most of the stories he told in Sleepwalk were already familiar to me. But there’s something about an audience that comes to a “one man show” vs. a “standup show” that creates a mood completely worth the price of admission. You get an engaging guy like Mike infront of an intimate crowd, and it couldn’t not be successful.

I won’t pontificate on the greatness of Mike’s style and why the material works so well and so on. Enough reviews are floating around out there. But what I WILL do is encourage you to go before the show ends in 3 weeks. Tickets are available through the website (http://sleepwalkwithmike.com) but also follow @birbigs and @sleepwalkwme for last-minute discounts.

One review quoted on the promo materials encourages people to go see Mike before he becomes too famous. I think there’s some truth to this. The guy is going to explode in the next few years.

About the Author

Sharilyn Johnson is the author of the book Bears & Balls: The Colbert Report A-Z. Called "one of the city’s most discriminating comedy critics” by NOW Magazine, Sharilyn has been covering comedy for longer than she cares to admit. She served as the comedy reporter for Winnipeg's Uptown Magazine for five years, and was the host of the radio show Laugh Tracks for three seasons. Her work has also appeared in the Toronto Star, the Winnipeg Free Press, The Apiary, and on CBC Radio's national comedy programs LOL and Definitely Not the Opera.