Mike Birbiglia's The Old Man and the Pool is a stand-up special that feels perhaps a tad long, as it goes for almost 80 minutes and lost me a little at about the one-hour mark. Before then, I was really enjoying it, though, and maybe that's on me feeling tired for not being able to push through and watch it all with full attention (yet last night I watched the nearly three-hour Heat with all the focus in the world, so I don't know what's going on).

I think the best thing about the special is that Mike Birbiglia does a very good job at balancing the humorous stuff (to be expected) and the surprisingly bleak moments (it gets very real at times). I always feel hesitant when stand-up comedians decide to do stand-up dramedy instead of stand-up comedy, but he got the balance right here. The audience was kind of stupid at one point, though. He said something I thought sounded sad, and he looked sad when he said it, and the audience laughed. I think he was playing that part for a sad pay-off to something he said earlier, but they interpreted it as a delayed punchline to a "joke" he set up before.

There are many not-very-good stand-up specials on Netflix, but this is thankfully not one of them. It's largely very good, quite funny in parts, and I appreciated how honest it was about things like health, family, and death. It was a good watch/listen all around.

Mike Birbiglia and Neal Brennan have transcended standup. Both of their latest specials on Netflix have left me with more than just laughter. Both of these phenomenal specials left me with deep thought but without the weight of it all. It's mature comedy in the sense it's for people who've lived some life. Life is hard, and we need to laugh. We MUST laugh.

As a lifelong standup fan, I'm at the age where the one-liners aren't doing it for me anymore. I want stories. I want to relate. I want connection. And Mike Birbiglia's "The Old Man & The Pool" and Neal Brennan's "Blocks" do exactly that through immersive, humorous storytelling.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Mike Birbiglia's work for years now, but I realized watching "The New One" and then this special "The Old Man and the Pool" that he isn't a comedian. He is an exquisite storyteller and a talented comedian, for sure. But Mike has become a "humorist". His work, either written or performed live, is imbued with pathos, intelligence, poetry, and insight. A mediation on life, health, and death, his new special is genuinely funny and also moving. I identified with so many of his musings that I recognized myself in his presentation.

Mike Birbiglia is a humorist in the same breath as America's other favorite humorists. Mark Twain, Erma Bombeck, and Garrison Keillor. Watching this special was like sitting down and enjoying a good book. You finish it deeply satisfied and better for the experience.