PLAY FOR LAUGHS
Mike Birbiglia brings his improv past to big screen in ‘Don’t Think Twice’
‘Could we have found a more appropriate place to do this?” said a beaming Mike Birbiglia. The veteran comedian and actor was sitting down at Chicago’s iO Theatre to share stories behind the creation of “Don’t Think Twice,” the new film he wrote, directed and stars in — opening Friday at the Music Box Theatre.
His goal with the movie was to “make people feel they were actually a part of the world we created in ‘Don’t Think Twice’ — the world of improv comedy, which those of us who worked on the film know so well.”
“I like movies that make you feel like real life — and not like you’re simply watching the movie. I love films like ‘Once,’ ‘Broadcast News’ and ‘Terms of Endearment.’ I love films that lure you into a sense of feeling, ‘These are real people!’ ”
Birbiglia’s film focuses on a small New York improv troupe who have lost their theater lease, just as a couple of the close-knit cast members are on the verge of getting auditions to join the ensemble of “Weekend Live” — the film’s fake version of “Saturday Night Live.”
While “‘SNL’ was never something I was meant to do,” Birbiglia said, “it does represent for a certain group of people the brass ring — the institution of comedy success.”
The director — himself a product of many years of toiling in the comedy vineyards — explained that “four of the six key cast people had improv experience. The two that didn’t were [‘Community’ star] Gillian Jacobs and [Garfunkel & Oates singer] Kate Micucci.”
Birbiglia remembered watching “Don’t Think Twice” star Keegan-Michael Key when the “Key and Peele” actor worked on the e.t.c. stage at Second City and noted the importance of iO co-founder Charna Halpern’s role in teaching a class for Birbiglia and his improv group back when he was a student at Georgetown University.
Birbiglia laughed as he said, “I still have the copy of her book, ‘Truth in Comedy,’ that she signed for me — writing, ‘I look forward to seeing you in Chicago.’
“Actually, I might have ended up here if not for my sister. She moved from Chicago to New York, and I had to live on her couch. If she had stayed here I would have been here, but her couch ended up in New York, so it turned out I got my start out there.”
As for the germ of the idea for the film, Birbiglia fully credits his wife, Jan Stein.
“She came to see my improv show in New York one night. There was quite the group there that night. I don’t remember all of them, but Ellie Kemper [‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’] was there and Aidy Bryant, speaking of ‘SNL.’ In short, there were a lot of good improvisers there.
“My wife said to me afterward, ‘Everyone here is sort of equally funny and talented, but that person’s on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ that person’s a movie star and … that person is still living on an air mattress in his tiny apartment in Queens.’
“It wasn’t just a great observation, but I suddenly saw a whole movie in my head at that moment. I could see a sort of ‘The Big Chill’ type of movie — set in the world of an improv theater.”
Birbiglia soon turned to writing the screenplay, saying, “I wrote this line on my wall: ‘Art is socialism, but life is capitalism.’ No one says that in the movie, but that was the guiding principle for me as I was writing it.”
Speaking of the screenplay, Birbiglia pointed out that his references to Donald Trump in the script “were weirdly prophetic.” In the film, the improv theater is losing its lease as Trump’s company takes over the property to build more condominiums.
“Just before we filmed the scene about Trump, Gillian Jacobs said to me, ‘I think his candidacy for president might be getting serious. I don’t think it’s a joke anymore.’
“I dismissed her, thinking, ‘Silly actors. They don’t understand these complex world issues!’ However, just to be safe, I asked everyone to think of an alternative person to Trump that we could substitute in that scene. … We really thought long and hard but simply couldn’t come up with another scoundrel who would have the same impact.
“Just goes to show you — you just never know.”