By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent, Updated November 10, 2023, 10:00 a.m.
In his most recent one-man show, Mike Birbiglia joked that his family wasn’t terribly religious about observing Christmas: They were mostly focused on food. That’s a jumping-off point for the Shrewsbury native’s string of 10 shows at the Wilbur Theatre Dec. 15-23. Though his tour will be called “Please Stop the Ride” once he leaves Boston, his Wilbur shows are officially titled “Christmas Parmesan” and will include some bonus holiday material.
“I wanted to do my new hour over Christmas because I wanted to go visit my family,” he says. “And then I was like, ‘What if I just called it “Christmas Parmesan”?’ Cut to four months later and I’m like, ‘Oh, I think the tour is going to be called “Please Stop the Ride.”’ Those [Boston] shows are still called that. I’ll probably do 10 minutes of Christmas jokes, but … I’m not doing ‘A Christmas Carol.’ ”
The growing Birbiglia family gets together for the holidays, notes Mike’s brother and writing partner, Joe Birbiglia, and usually they attend Mike’s shows together. Which sometimes means preparing their parents for what they might hear.
“My brother’s the over-sharer, and they’re under-sharers,” says Joe. “So there’s a real fun dynamic where I’m approached by my father [who asks], ‘Why would you let him say that? Why would he say that?’ And I’m just like, ‘You know, he’s a 45-year-old man. You can ask him.’ ”
