NPR 4 THE DEAF: We Hear It Even When U Can’t

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FRESH AIR: Comic Mike Birbiglia’s new film, Don’t Think Twice, was inspired by an observation his wife made when she came to one of his improv shows. “She goes, ‘It’s amazing that everyone is equally talented in this show, and yet this one person is on Saturday Night Live and this one person is a movie star and this one person lives on an air mattress in Queens,’ ” Birbiglia tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross. “And I thought: Not only is that true and a great observation, but it’s also a movie.” Don’t Think Twice tells the story of an improv comedy group that is splintered when one member gets a job on a popular TV sketch comedy show, and the other members feel like failures by comparison. Birbiglia’s first feature film, Sleepwalk With Me, came out in 2012 and was based on an autobiographical story that the comic told on This American Life. MORE

PREVIOUSLY: Welcome to another round of Stupid Answers To Stupid Questions. Actually, that’s only half true. Comedian Mike Birbiglia, of Sleepwalk With Me fame, provided pretty smart answers to our stupid questions. DISCUSSED: Getting bladder cancer at 19; what he and Terry Gross talk about when they are not robbing banks; the strangest place he ever rubbed one out; whether the rumors are true that while Ira Glass seems like a nice guy on the radio, off the air he is real bastard — eating puppies, skinning cats more than one way, poking babies with a sharp stick in Reno just to watch them cry, that kind of thing; the last book he read/movie he saw/album he heard that completely changed his perspective and why. And much, much more. MORE

WATCH: Terry Gross And Mike Birbiglia Rob A Bank, Just For Kicks