Mike Birbiglia has done a lot of growing up since he wrote “The New One,” his latest one-man show reflecting on his fear of first-time fatherhood.
The 41-year-old comedian jokes in the show that the bond between his wife, poet Jennifer Hope Stein, and newborn daughter, Oona, was “so profound — and I was there too.” In another self-deprecating barb, he refers to himself as the “pudgy, milkless vice president of the family.”
“It was a period of time when I felt completely isolated and alone,” Birbiglia says. “I really had this distinct fear that I would never be a member of this beautiful family. I was on the outside looking at it through a window.”
But with his daughter now 4 years old, Birbiglia has followed the example of many a petrified parent before him and figured it out on the fly. Phoning from New York, where he was he picking up Oona from a Brooklyn preschool one recent afternoon, Birbiglia recalls that past trepidation with relief.
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“I’m very much on the other side of that,” he says. “I’m smack dab in the middle of the family.”
Through the sharpened lens of age and experience, Birbiglia continues to look back on his past self with performances of “The New One.” After workshopping the show with a 2017 tour and 2018 off-Broadway stint, Birbiglia made his Broadway debut this past fall as “The New One” embarked on a limited engagement at the Cort Theatre. Now, the Seth Barrish-directed show has been reborn for a four-city tour, which launches Sept. 24 at the National Theatre.
“The New One” marks the fourth one-man show for Birbiglia, who also is known for writing, directing and starring in the films “Sleepwalk With Me” and “Don’t Think Twice.” In “The New One,” Birbiglia turns to wit, humility and humanity as he considers the myriad reasons he was reluctant to become a father in his late 30s and the anxiety that weighed on him during the first year of Oona’s life.
“It’s very confessional in the sense that I’m saying a lot of jokes, there are a lot of punchlines, but ultimately I’m telling one single story that admits a lot of things about myself that are my lowest moments,” Birbiglia says. “I wasn’t the best dad. I wasn’t the best husband. I wasn’t the best person, or the best version of myself.”
Birbiglia shaped “The New One” to appeal across generations, hoping that parents, prospective parents and children alike would empathize with his panicked point of view. And there’s one future audience member he’s particularly conscious of appeasing: his daughter, who he understands will inevitably come across the show — and all of the consternation that surrounded her birth — as she grows older.
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“I do my best to be candid about uncomfortable topics,” Birbiglia says. “I hope to teach her — not just with my shows but with my life — that through openness and vulnerability and sharing, therein lies a lot of true connection with other people. That’s really all we have.”
Birbiglia, a Georgetown University alumnus who once worked as a doorman at the DC Improv comedy club, took “The New One” to Washington’s Warner Theatre in October 2017. He says the joke quotient expanded following that initial tour, as did the depth of his narrative. Since then, the show has also brought on Tony-winning scenic designer Beowulf Boritt, whose minimalist set proves to be a transformative part of the show.
Although Birbiglia has been performing “The New One” for more than two years now, he doesn’t feel obligated to close the curtain on the show. But new work does beckon. Although Birbiglia has established himself as an actor for hire, with scene-stealing roles in the Amy Schumer movie “Trainwreck” and the Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black,” nowadays he gravitates mostly toward nurturing his own creations.
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“In my 20s, I moved to New York with this sense of, ‘I’ll do anything — I’ll write, I’ll act, I’ll perform at your bar mitzvah,’ ” Birbiglia says. “The last few years, I started to zero in on the idea that you only have so much time on the planet, and you have to figure out what you have to contribute. I think it’s telling stories in as candid a way as I can. That’s the best way that I connect with other people.”
If you go
The New One
National Theatre, 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. 202-628-6161. thenationaldc.com.
Dates: Through September 28.
Prices:$39-$114.
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