The "really good" Ira Glass note Mike Birbiglia gave to Gary Gulman
How to get to what's underneath a joke.
On Mike Birbiglia’s podcast Working it Out (at ~51mins in), Gary Gulman tries out a joke about Jews and how they seem to ignore Jesus when talking about notable Jews. Birbigs offers up this interesting note that he credits to This American Life’s Ira Glass:
This would be like an Ira Glass note: But how is that joke about you? Are you ignored? Do you feel ignored? How do you feel about what’s happening in the joke? That’s what he always says: Plot and then how you feel about it and then plot and then how you feel about it.
Gulman’s reply: “That’s really good. That’s a good Ira Glass note.”
Interestingly, this is also what my therapist constantly asks me: “How do you feel about what’s happening?” So maybe good storytelling is just effective therapy (or vice versa).
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