Mike Birbiglia writing, directing a movie about an improv group

If you’re ever in a comedy club or theater, sometimes you may have the opportunity to glance at old cast photos and headshots along the walls. Some faces you now know very well; others remain unfamiliar.

In group photos of sketch and improv groups, have they all remained friends?

Don’t Think Twice, a new film that Mike Birbiglia wrote and is directing and co-starring in, just began production this summer in New York City, focusing in on one improv comedy group that loses its lease on its home theater just as one of its performers hits the big time with a promotion to a hit TV sketch show.

Birbiglia’s cast includes Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher and Chris Gethard, who gathered with Birbigs earlier this summer for an improv show at The Magnet Theater (as pictured above).

“I’m over the moon about filming this project with this cast, this crew and these producers,” said Birbiglia. “Miranda Bailey and the team at Cold Iron and Film Arcade are such a creative and thoughtful bunch of folks. This is exactly what I want to be doing, and I can’t wait for people to see it.”

Cold Iron, Film Arcade, Bailey and Amanda Marshall are producing alongside Birbiglia, while Ira Glass, J. Beck and Andy Bohn are executive producing.

Birbiglia previously turned his one-man show, Sleepwalk With Me, into a feature film that won an audience award at Sundance in 2012. His current screen credits include Trainwreck, The Fault In Our Stars, Girls, and Orange Is The New Black.

Note: I happened across production last week along St. Mark’s Place. Or should I say, Birbiglia happened upon me. Either way, I now wish I hadn’t been in such a hurry to another appointment, otherwise I would have much more to share with you already!

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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