196. Michael Che: An Amateur Therapy Session

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast

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

4.8 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mike started this podcast so that one day Michael Che would come on. Today is that day. In this all-timer episode, Mike and Che work out tons of jokes and discuss the advice Lorne Michaels gave to Che that he’ll never forget, how Che went from designing and selling t-shirts on the street to being a stand-up comic, and what keeps him coming back to SNL. Plus, the time Che nearly did something to Colin Jost on air that he would really regret.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Lauren used to always tell us, he used to always tell me, he used to be like, stop auditioning for the job. You have it. Nice. And it was frustrating as hell because I didn't know what it meant. And I think, what I think he was trying to say was, you don't have to convince me you can do it. Just do what you do. We trust you. Yeah. And then, you know, we started to do that.
0:22.2	And the things that started to work were the things that felt the most natural. So we just
0:26.0	steered toward that. Think about how many people he said that to it before he fired them.
0:32.9	I will not sit here for any Lauren Michael's slander.
0:38.5	That man has never fired anyone.
0:41.5	Everyone's quit and given up on him.
0:48.2	That is the voice of the great Michael Che.
0:51.9	Oh man, am I excited?
0:58.6	Since the dawn of this podcast five and a half years ago,
1:05.1	I have said to my wife, Jenny, for a couple months, maybe someday Michael Chea will be on the podcast one of my favorite comics. And after all this time, it's happened. And, man, was it a great conversation?
1:14.2	It was very vulnerable and instructive?
1:18.3	I learned a lot.
1:20.2	Michael Che is one of the funniest people I've ever encountered in comedy.
1:25.0	One of the most thoughtful people.
1:31.0	Of course, he's the co-host of Weekend Update on Saturday Night Live with Colin Jost.
1:33.5	He has two comedy specials that are great.
1:36.4	Michael Chey Matters and Shame the Devil, both on Netflix.
1:41.5	Thanks everybody who has signed up for working it out premium. It really helps us
1:47.3	out here at the show. You're supporting the show. We work really hard on the show. We really care
1:52.1	about it. Here's what you get. If you sign up for working it out premium on Apple Podcasts,
1:55.6	you get no ads in any of the shows. We have all, you know, 200 episodes, which are all free, but then you get
2:02.3	them without ads, and then you get these premium episodes we recently did with one with Pete Holmes,
	...

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