“We don’t have the answers but we do have jokes,” said Mike Birbiglia in a March 30 interview with GMA.
Birbiglia may not have all the answers regarding how to help people in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, but he is wielding his jokes to raise money for out-of-work comedy club workers by launching the website Tip Your Waitstaff.
“I got on the phone the other day with my friend Roy Wood Jr., who is a brilliant comedian, and we brainstormed ways to raise money for the waitstaffs and bar staffs and hosts at comedy clubs across America right now,” said Birbiglia in an email to fans. “I’ve been a waiter and also a host at a comedy club and so I know that often these people are living paycheck to paycheck and right now there are no paychecks, and particularly there are no tips! So Roy and I came up with this idea called Tip Your Waitstaff, where we raise money for these folks by doing livestreams of new jokes on Instagram. So far we’ve had John Mulaney, Gary Gulman, Maria Bamford, Nikki Glaser, Jacqueline Novak, and Sarah Silverman. We’ve helped to raise somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000 and climbing!”
Zanies Chicago, Stand-Up New York, the Houston Improv and the Comedy Cellar are among the GoFundMe campaigns listed on Tip Your Waitstaff.
Birbiglia’s brainstorming sessions with his funny friends premiere on Instagram and the comedian has plans to upload the episodes to YouTube soon.
Watch the full Tip Your Waitstaff episode featuring John Mulaney below and head over to TipYourWaitstaff.com to contribute to the campaign.