Mike Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs of 'Don't Think Twice' Talk Their Onstage Failures

The comedians of 'Don't Think Twice' share their biggest f*ck ups with us.

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Complex Original

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“Has anyone here had a bad day, or a hard week?”

The question rings out over a buzzing audience packed into The Hideout, a small theatre tucked in the back of an Austin, Texas coffee shop. Onstage, actors and comedians Mike Birbiglia, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Chris Gethard, and Tami Sagher await a response. For tonight they are Mike Birbiglia’s Dream, an improv comedy troupe that—true to the solo work of Birbiglia, who started the show at UCB with rotating lineups several years ago—taps into personal pain and embarrassment to find the silver lining.

The cast have another commitment in town: they are here for the SXSW world premiere of Don’t Think Twice, the sophomore directorial effort from Birbiglia following his 2012 debut, Sleepwalk With Me. The new film follows a mid-level improv troupe in New York named The Commune, who are forced into harsh realities when they learn their theatre is shutting down. As one of the members also discovers they’ve been tapped for the SNL-esque Weekend Live, the entire group, played by Birbiglia, Jacobs, Gethard, Micucci, Sagher, and Keegan-Michael Key, deal head on with failure, jealousy, and friendship in an honest yet very funny approach.

During Mike Birbiglia’s Dream, select cast members from the film showcase an electric and occasionally moving performance that plays on those themes. Riffing off an audience tale of pay gaps and unionization in a law office, the improv troupe go to work. Micucci and Gethard act as children who go on strike against their mother, played by Jacobs, with “cereal for dinner” being one of the contract terms; later, a quarterly report board meeting between Sagher and Birbiglia shifts into a sensitive therapy session at the Pentagon.

It was an impressive performance that the cast seemingly tackled with ease, but as Don’t Think Twice makes clear in its showbiz narrative, even decades of stage experience can backfire. Ego might obstruct the comedy one night, while an argument just before going on might derail the entire dynamic during another. Speaking with the cast of the film, they all pointed to those moments as essential in their careers, building up their confidence to fail onstage in order to hone their craft. There’s always a vivid tale behind the lesson though, and so Complex surveyed the cast of Don’t Think Twice about their biggest onstage fuck-ups.

Mike Birbiglia [writer/director/performer, This American Life, Sleepwalk With Me]: I remember being in Kansas City doing a stand-up show. I had done seven or eight shows that week, and it was a 10:30 p.m. show after I'd already done one at 8 p.m. I was dazed and doing badly, and then I repeated a joke that I'd already told five minutes before. An audience member said out loud, "You just said that." And I remember it was so painful, because you go, "Oh my God, yeah, you're right." It's so embarrassing, because the illusion of standup is you're just talking, so if you’re repeating yourself, it's like, “You're pretty bad at this.” 

Gillian Jacobs [actor, Community, Love]: When I was little, I was in the production of a Shakespeare play, and it was all professional adult actors and then two or three kids including me. I wore my glasses onstage, which obviously I wasn’t supposed to do, and I just remember getting offstage and an adult actor running up to me and yelling, "What the fuck are you doing?" And then, in the same play, at one point I was carrying a vase of flowers. They'd built this little grassy hill with a low wall around it, and my foot got caught in the wall, tripping me and sending the vase flying into the front row of the audience. I heard the whole building collectively gasp in fear. It was just pure humiliation. 

Keegan-Michael Key [writer/performer, Key & Peele, Keanu]: When I was at Second City at the beginning of 2000, there was a night when I was doing a show that I had done successfully over 40 times. I “assumed” that I had this in the bag and let my focus wane. Then, the house manager came backstage to inform us that future Hall of Fame running back Barry Sanders was in attendance. My fuck-up happened at the beginning of the second act when I returned to the stage more excited to look for Barry than doing the show. As I was searching for Sanders, I soon realized my fellow actors were looking at me because it was my line. “Oh shit, where am I?” I had no clue what my next line was; the line that I had written. That happened ten to twelve more times over the next fifteen minutes. Once I realized I was lost on the stage, I had to get my shit together. I had to make myself focus in on my fellow actors and not on Barry.  Not only that, but I also reminded myself that these people paid good money and deserve the best show that I could give.  

Ever since that night, I always remind myself to have fun but with the understanding that your team and your audience are depending on your focus on stage.  

Kate Micucci [comedian/singer-songwriter, Garfunkel & Oates]: I was backstage with a bunch of comedians. It was a very small room and there was a lot of pot smoke in the air. I ended up taking a nap in the smoke filled room, and by the time I got on stage I was high. It was a Garfunkel and Oates set and Riki [Lindhorne] and I were singing a duet. Riki would sing her part but when it got to my turn I just starting laughing. I was giggling and I couldn't stop.  I couldn't do the song or finish our set. Riki had to call it. And I just walked off stage apologizing and feeling disoriented. I felt so awful about it. It was humiliating. But it wasn't hard to get back on stage. You just have to. There's no choice. I think that's what is so cool about performing. When there is a show to do you get up there and do it.  

Tami Sagher [writer/performer, Inside Amy Schumer, 30 Rock]: That's the nice thing about doing it forever—it gets easier to fail. There was a period of time where I was at Second City ETC [in Chicago]. This is when Sammy Sosa first came on with the Cubs and he whiffed a lot, always trying to hit for the stands. Horatio Sanz was in the cast at the time, and he called me “Tammy Sosa” because I'd do the same thing, coming into a scene like I was closing it down. The problem is if the audience loves that, great, curtains, but if it doesn't we're just stuck out there. And so when that happened I’d hear Horatio just make the sound of a tiny bat swinging, like, "Whoosh." 

Chris Gethard [writer/performer, The Chris Gethard Show, Broad City]: I've had countless fuck-ups. I'm sort of addicted to them at this point, they're how you know you're not playing it safe. I once hosted a show opening for a band and the crowd booed continuously. Sometimes at music shows people don't want a guy talking for twenty minutes. One dude stood at the edge of the stage and yelled "Play fucking music" every time I started a joke. It was not easy.

In improv, I remember once doing a show that was playing to absolute, dismal, humiliating silence. About twenty minutes into the show the sound booth actually caught on fire and the theater was evacuated. The show had been going so poorly that we were all actually thanking God for the fire.

Don't Think Twice is also playing at Tribeca Film Festival 2016—for more coverage of TFF, click here.

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