As a kid dealing with embarrassing personal issues, Mike Birbiglia's father gave him one simple piece of advice: "Don't tell anyone." Thankfully for his growing tribe of fans, Birbiglia categorically ignores this suggestion and in "My Girlfriend's Boyfriend," exercises his uniquely self-deprecating habit of telling uncomfortably hilarious stories to strangers.

In the hit 2008 monologue, "Sleepwalk with Me," Birbiglia recounted an arcing series of terrifyingly entertaining personal anecdotes, covering his history as a hypochondriac, jackal-haunted night terrors, fear of marriage and an untreated sleep disorder (which culminates in smashing through a second-story hotel window to escape an imagined predator missile strike).

"'My Girlfriend's Boyfriend' is very much about my relationship with my now-wife, and when I was developing that I really had to keep in mind to respect her privacy. Fortunately, my comedy is so self-deprecating that I'm usually the butt of the joke and I don't have to worry too much," Birbiglia said.

If Birbiglia's humor is relatively tame, his real gift is in the storytelling, which has earned him regular appearances on Public Radio International's "This American Life." He has the uncanny ability of pulling out barely relevant details over a widely arcing narrative, and never losing the audience.

"Sometimes people will laugh at things that are completely different than what I expected them to laugh at. When you see someone flipping out in hysterics youʼre like, ‘Oh my god. That exact thing has happened to that girl or that guy.' And itʼs really kind of euphoric."

For someone who has made prolific career of rehashing embarrassing life experiences with strangers, Birbiglia is still not immune to the sting of harsh criticism.

"The first time I tell [personal stories], it is scary and cathartic," he said. "The thing about stand-up comedy that's different from other art forms is that when people don't like it, if it's autobiographical, they're basically saying, ‘We don't like you' ... And that's a very hard reality to face."

Comedian Jon Reep has been entertaining audiences since 1995 with his stand-up routine, TV roles and movie appearances, but is most famous as That-Thing-Got-a-Hemi-Guy from the Dodge commercials.

"I've done three different specials on Comedy Central. I won 'Last Comic Standing.' I was in a sitcom for two seasons with Rodney Carrington called ‘Rodney.' I was in a movie, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. I was in all these things, but the one thing I still get recognized for is the Hemi commercials," Reep said.

Unlike JJ "DY-NO-MITE" Walker of "Goodtimes" fame, the 39-year-old Hickory, N.C. native embraces his character role.

"The fact that someone recognizes me for something that I've done, I don't look at that as a negative at all," he said. "I can't tell people not to talk about the commercials, or that I'm tired of talking about the commercials because that's part of my past. I was just happy I did a Dodge commercial and not a hemorrhoid commercial."

Coming from a small industrial town, Reep's exposure to stand-up comedy was limited. Reep credits his father, whom he described as "the class clown in his day," for giving him an early knack for making people laugh.

"Growing up in a small town, you don't think that stand-up comedy is a real job," he said. "It wasn't a realistic thing for me. It was just something where people would say to me, ‘Hey, you should be a comedian,' and I was just like, ‘Yeah, whatever.'"

His first experience with stand-up comedy came at a club in Raleigh, N.C. during his time at North Carolina State University. His open-mic sets — which are centered around his country upbringing — became popular, but he still didn't see the gigs amounting to anything.

"I was sort of doing it as a single man just trying to get the attention of the ladies," he said. "I just wanted to be funny for like five to 10 to 15 minutes, and then move on."

But people liked his sets, so he started booking shows around the country. More than 10 years later, Reep is still getting laughs with stories of his dad and Hickory, N.C.

"If you go see Lynyrd Skynyrd and they don't play "Free Bird," people are gonna get pissed off," he said. "I gotta do the greatest hits."

The airwaves in Grand Rapids just got a little bit funnier.

Nov. 14 marked the birth of a 24-hour comedy radio station in Grand Rapids, Funny 1410 AM.

The Townsquare Media-owned comedy station with the call letters WNWZ replaces the Spanish contemporary hits station, La Maquina Musical.

The launch of Funny 1410 comes just four days after the headliners were announced for LaughFest 2012, allowing stand-up fans to hear the likes of Jim Gaffigan, Kevin Nealon and Whoopi Goldberg before they come to town for the 10-day festival beginning March 8.

"LaughFest set the table for us pretty good on this," said Townsquare Media Operations Manager Jerry Tarrants. "A lot of first-year events on a major platform don't do particularly well, but LaughFest did so well right out of the gate. I think they kind of warmed up the Grand Rapids area for us on this format."

While satellite radio services include stand-up comedy channels in their monthly subscription packages, Funny 1410 features a slightly different presentation that might entice listeners who are already plugged into XM or Sirius. Instead of playing entire stand-up sets on the air, Funny 1410 plays short bits from comedians. In a matter of minutes, you could hear Johnny Carson tell a joke about Ronald Reagan and then listen to Chris Rock explain how to tell if you're in the ghetto.

"It's almost addictive because you'll find yourself saying, 'I wonder who's next?'" Tarrants said. "Because the bits are done in small increments, you're able to enjoy the best from the bit. They even separate the comedians, so you're not hearing George Carlin every 20 minutes."

Think that Dane Cook and Larry the Cable Guy can't deliver the laughs like old-school legends Rodney Dangerfield and Richard Pryor? Worry not, as Funny 1410's joke library extends back to the 1940s, Tarrants said.

"Every week, we're adding 75 to 100 new bits in order to keep building [the library]," he said.

Tarrants said the station's ever-expanding playlist could get even bigger in the near future with the addition of local comedic performances.

"We've been approached by some comedians to host a local thing," he said. "To me, the sky is the limit on the radio station. If someone wants to piece together a local comedy showcase here in town, and we can feature it here on our radio station, by all means we are going to.

"It doesn't need to be stand up, either. It can be funny shows, funny plays. I don't want to be painted into a stand-up corner. If somebody's a humorous writer or a playwright, I definitely want to be able to spotlight them on the radio station."

Other Comedy Events

His 12 years on the police force causing trouble and not writing tickets figures prominently into his act. A prankster to his very core, Armstrong had his fun while policing the great state of Kentucky.

"People up north are scared of Kentucky," he said. "I used to pull people from up north over all the time. I once pulled over a couple that said they were from Pittsburgh. I played the bumbling sheriff and asked, ‘If you're from Pittsburgh, why do you have plates from Pennsylvania?'"

Armstrong says he likes to think the people he pulled over remember his humor to this day. Always a helpful officer, he eventually decided that his life's work lay in laughs, not in writing speeding tickets. As his stand-up career took off, his commanding officer pulled him into the office and asked him to make a choice.

"I think that they were not really that sad to see me go," Armstrong said.

Although his time on the police force inspired some of his most famous material, Armstrong is much happier these days doing what he does best, telling stories and jokes to a roomful of strangers soon to become friends.

"My philosophy is that most comics just do an act. Don't do an act. I go up there and pretend I'm standing in my driveway with my best friends. It seems to work out," he said.

His laidback southern style and PG material made him a natural fit for television, including spots on CMT, Showtime and Comedy Central. Most of all, Armstrong says his job is to make sure the audience leaves happy and feeling like they've made a new friend. After all, in comedy, the audience is quite literally the boss.

"One time, a guy stopped me at the mall to take a picture," Armstrong said. "He realized he didn't have a camera, so I waited 20 minutes while he ran into a store to buy one."

His "be nice" ethos occasionally puts him at odds with the pervading comedy trends. But Armstrong isn't particularly concerned with being on trend. As long as the audience is having fun, he is satisfied.

Joining him at his Dr. Grins appearance will be comedian Ted Denson, whose comedy features many jokes about living with cerebral palsy. Their PG-content and good-natured humor make them a great match, Armstrong said.

A few years down the road from Armstrong's retirement from the force, he feels like he made a good choice by leaving law enforcement for the comedy circuit. When asked if he misses his old policing days, he laughed for nearly a full 30 seconds.

"No," he said. "Not at all."