MIke Birbiglia (Buckner/Variety/REX/Shutterstock)

Spoke with Mike Birbiglia about the new “Don’t Think Twice,” which is about (the dissolution of) an improv group. As a middle-aged occasional improviser, this one hit close to home. (See also: That Onion headline about how everyone in the improv group has a receding hairline.) I do think it’ll hit a lot of people, though… especially creative types who have been at it for some time, and who sometimes ask themselves why they keep at it.

Mike Birbiglia Talks the New Movie ‘Don’t Think Twice’

Though I do think Alex Karpovsky’s TJ & Dave movie “Trust Us, This Is All Made Up,” translated improv to the big screen really, really well, I appreciate the time and energy that went into portraying improv here. It’s clear Birbigs et al wanted the viewer to be a part of it, wanted it to feel lively and fun, and it does.

Bassem Youssef (Larry Busacca/Getty)

Americans are still a little at sea when Bassem Youssef is mentioned; they seem to perk up, though, when they hear “the Egyptian Jon Stewart.” A brave guy who isn’t waiting for congratulations or tocommiserate about howdifficult it was toget death threats every day. (For the record, he still gets them, they’re just not as frequent.) Here is my profile on Bassem and his new Fusion series for Rolling Stone.

Beyond the scuffle with North Korea re: The Interview and Comedy Central putting the kibosh on images of Muhammad (in a bear suit) for on South Park, it’s a little hard in the states to make sense of the moment Youssef lived through. We’re awash in satire. We presume free speech. Barring some horrifying episode like the one that the writers of Charlie Hebdo went through, Americans can poke fun and feel safe. To get a sense of the transitions Egypt went through, what they mean and what might be ahead, Bassem is an amazing help.