meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

130. Rory Scovel: Dare to Be Funny

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast

Mygirlfriendsboyfriend, Interviews, Comedy Interviews, Sleepwalkwithme, Iraglass, Comedy, Thankgodforjokes, Thenewone, Mikebirbiglia, Dontthinktwice, Birbiglia

4.84K Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2024

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mike welcomes Rory Scovel, whose special made Mike laugh so hard he spit water all over himself. Rory talks about how telling the truth and being vulnerable on stage led him to his best bits, how his taking up abstract painting is similar to comedy, and how a week of fully improvised stand-up shows gave Rory a new perspective on his career. Plus, the best and most off-the-rails “Working It Out” section the podcast has had yet.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

I did six straight nights in Atlanta, fully improvised each night an hour, six nights in row.

0:05.7

By Saturday I was so comfortable on stage with nothing and just going up with the idea that I was like I'm funny I wouldn't be in this job

0:16.2

I wouldn't be able to buy groceries if I wasn't funny right so I'm now able to get past the idea

0:21.9

but am I funny where do I stand in this business? I put out a special

0:26.2

but only so many people saw it and it didn't move the needle the way I thought it would and

0:29.5

I've acted in stuff and I thought that would make me America's darling.

0:33.5

Here's this new guy.

0:34.5

You know, all of the things that we sort of fantasize about in her head.

0:38.5

This moment in time in Atlanta doing this made me go fuck all of your hopes and dreams about what you

0:47.0

think this is and have the most joy in your life knowing you are funny.

0:53.8

Why can't that be enough?

0:55.7

It's brought me paychecks.

0:57.5

So why don't we just be grateful for that? That is the voice of the great Rory Scovol. This is an episode that is a long time in the making and it's one of my favorites we've ever done is an

1:14.4

episode that since we recorded it I think about all the time like I think about

1:19.8

things that he said about improvising on stage and kind of letting your mind wander and

1:26.9

trying different art forms.

1:29.0

It really is a special episode.

1:32.0

This episode actually has one of my favorite working it out sections where we work out material and then literally like if you're seeing me on to our right now, part of my dare about drugs section in my show is from me riffing with Rory in this session which is

1:47.0

sometimes people like Jimmy Kimmel gave me a hard time he was like you don't really

1:49.9

work out jokes on your show when he was on the podcast, but actually like I do.

1:54.0

So we work out that it's really fun.

1:57.0

If you're able to see Rory live on stage, you absolutely should.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.