Mike Birbiglia

The stand-up set is not really Mike Birbiglia's form. The solo show is. Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend, Thank God For Jokes, The New One, The Old Man and the Pool and The Good Life have all run on and off Broadway and then arrived as Netflix specials, a career shape almost nobody else has sustained for this long.

What separates the shows from most comedy is structure. He builds them like plays, with something he is avoiding telling you and a second half that has to pay for the first, so the jokes end up load-bearing rather than decorative. He is an Emmy nominated writer, which for a comedian who works this way is the more meaningful credit.

The films follow the same instinct. He wrote, directed and starred in Sleepwalk with Me in 2012 and Don't Think Twice in 2016, both about people whose creative ambition sits quietly at odds with the life around it. As a hired actor he gets used for one specific register, decency slightly out of its depth, in Trainwreck, Cedar Rapids, Your Sister's Sister, Going the Distance, Adult Beginners, Annie and A Man Called Otto. There is a growing pile of voice work too, Howard in Summer Camp Island and Barry in Human Resources among it.