Mike Birbiglia’s Broadway show explores life’s big questions with big laughs

At one point during Mike Birbiglia’s new Broadway show, “The Old Man and The Pool,” he jokingly scolds the audience for laughing over a story about the death of a man in a YMCA pool. He stares, he admonishes, he reminds the crowd what, exactly, they’re laughing at. And then he pauses. The crowd can’t stop laughing. One after another, someone’s howl becomes contagious, and the laughter keeps going for several minutes as Birbiglia watches.