179. Bob Odenkirk: The Art of Anger in Comedy

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

4.8 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bob Odenkirk was already a comedy legend (SNL, The Ben Stiller Show, Mr. Show with Bob and David) before he took a left turn into dramatic acting with Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. Now he’s entered yet another new phase as an unlikely action star in films like the Nobody series. Bob sits down with Mike to discuss how anger works in comedy and action films, the stress of making Better Call Saul, and the time Bob played Mike’s brother on a TV pilot.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think there's a correlation between anger and comedy, certainly.
0:06.7	Yeah.
0:07.3	Oh, yeah.
0:08.1	Yeah.
0:08.6	Because I think it is, in some ways, comedy is, it's like a corraling of anger into something
0:17.0	that can be funny.
0:19.7	I see it as a value, but also, Mike, I walk around.
0:24.8	I'm like, I'm having a good day.
0:28.8	What the fuck?
0:29.8	What the fuck?
0:31.0	Motherfx!
0:32.1	You just got, you know, whatever.
0:36.6	That is the voice of the great Bob Odenkirk. Yes. We got another one of my absolute favorite
0:43.6	all-time comedians, actors, and writers today. In addition to having this unbelievable career
0:48.7	where he created Mr. Show and was a writer on SNL and did all this work at Second City and worked with Chris Farley and all these unbelievable things, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul.
1:00.4	Recently a Tony nominated performance in Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross.
1:04.0	He is also an action movie star.
1:08.1	He has a new movie coming out called Nobody 2. It is a sequel to Nobody
1:12.9	One. He also has this amazing book called Comedy, Comedy, Comedy, Drama. That's four words,
1:19.0	comedy, comedy, comedy. Drama, I think it's one of the best books about comedy in the process
1:24.3	of becoming a comedy writer-performer that I've read.
1:28.0	So I couldn't endorse that more highly.
	...

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