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).

Mike Birbiglia's My Girlfriend's Boyfriend Kalamazoo State Theatre Feb. 18, 7:30 p.m. $28.50 - $33.50 kazoostate.com, (269) 345-6500 Wharton Center, East Lansing Feb. 19, 7 p.m. $26-$31 whartoncenter.com, (517) 432-2000

Love has been an especially cruel beast to Birbiglia, and the theme for his current project is fueled by his charmingly pitiful experience with romance from adolescence to present. On this painfully honest journey, the comedian bares his soul in a seemingly impossible undertaking -- finding reason in love.

"'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."