180. Kumail Nanjiani: Oh, Mary!, The Big Sick, and a Return to Stand-Up

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

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kumail Nanjiani is a stand-up comedian, a movie star, and an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter. Now he’s returning to stand-up comedy after a six year break and co-starring as Abraham Lincoln in the hit Broadway show Oh, Mary!. Kumail sits down with Mike to discuss all the twists and turns of his career, including co-writing The Big Sick with his wife Emily Gordon for producer Judd Apatow. Plus, how Kumail coped with the unexpected reception of the Marvel movie Eternals, and what Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg really think of the show “Silicon Valley.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	I was in this movie called Eternals.
0:02.2	Okay, yes, yes.
0:03.0	A big Marvel movie.
0:03.8	Yes.
0:04.3	And it came out and it got really bad reviews.
0:06.4	They didn't do that well.
0:07.5	And it like shattered me too much.
0:10.9	And that's when I like, I was like, oh, I need to like go to therapy to figure this out.
0:15.2	No kidding.
0:15.5	What was it?
0:16.5	It was such, it was so, first of all, people have way bigger problems than this, you know?
0:21.7	Much bigger.
0:22.9	Not everyone's in Eternals.
0:24.3	Not everyone's in Eternals.
0:27.5	Honestly, too many people are, though.
0:35.5	That is the voice of the great Kumail Nanjiani.
0:38.9	Oh man, I love Kumal.
0:41.0	I've wanted him to come on the working-in-out podcast for so long.
0:44.0	I've known him kind of forever.
0:46.5	I feel like we're about the same age, and we met 20-plus years ago.
0:51.2	So excited to have an in-depth talk with him.
0:53.6	He's obviously a great stand-up comic, but he paused that a few years ago to work as a movie star, a TV star. He's now back doing stand-up. He's on Broadway. He's playing Abraham Lincoln and O'Mary. He's got a new special coming out on Hulu soon. We talk about all that, so it's an awesome episode today.
	...

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