Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out 207. Chris Fleming Returns: He Is Way More Popular This Time
Mar 30, 2026
Chris Fleming, a comedian known for offbeat physical comedy and his HBO special Live at the Palace, returns to talk about his rise in popularity. They explore the perks and pitfalls of higher profile life. Short, playful riffs cover celebrity glare stories, protecting bits (including an Adam Driver musical snafu), and new jokes about drum circles, hotel smells, and dog DNA tests.
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Match Tone To Create Causal Connections
- Use tone-matching to make disparate ideas feel connected onstage.
- Chris uses Kellyanne Conway-style answer-matching: match the question's tone to let unrelated thoughts read as causal.
Double Down On Your Unique Voice
- Do double down on your unique voice and tune out trends when building a career in comedy.
- Chris Fleming credits persistence, doing frightening counterintuitive material, and ignoring trends for his leap from bombing to killing onstage.
Risky Insanity Can Deepen Audience Engagement
- Audiences lock in more when a show goes off the rails because they sense freshness and risk.
- Mike Birbiglia noticed his strangest, most insane performances often held the audience more tightly than safer shows.