Comedian Eugene Mirman

12th May 2020

We’re joined by comedian Eugene Mirman! The comedian and writer has opened for comedy duo Flight of the Conchords and played Yvgeny Mirminsky on Adult Swim’s Delocated. He is also the voice of “Gene Belcher” on the popular Fox animated series Bob’s Burgers. We’ll talk about his latest project, a documentary titled It Started as a Joke. It’s about Brooklyn’s alt comedy scene as well as a personal story about his family. Eugene joins Bullseye to discuss dealing with grief, defining space in his life for silliness and why community is so important to him. All that and more on the next Bullseye!

Episode notes

Photo: Brian Tamborell

Eugene Mirman on his documentary, “It Started as a Joke”

If you’re unfamiliar with the humor of comedian and writer Eugene Mirman, his Instagram is a good place to start. He usually starts his morning with a Daily Quarantine Routine check-in for his followers where he recounts in rare quirky form a laundry list of absurd tasks he’s checked off his to-do list to keep sanity during sheltering in place. Things like watching Rabbi bloopers and ordering seven pounds of yeast from Canada are as present as learning how to make a meal at home and taking a Zoom call with friends.

His esoteric and cheekily wholesome form of comedy has been a welcome addition to the world of New York comedy, specifically Brooklyn, where his Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival ran for 10 years.

On screen he’s worked on Adult Swim’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Delocated and Home Movies. His most popular role is probably as the voice of the musically ambitious and off-handedly hilarious Gene Belcher on Fox’s hit animated series Bob’s Burgers.

He was born in Moscow and immigrated to the United States when he was four years old. He is fluent in both English and Russian. He went to college for comedy and started his career doing stand up in the New England area before relocating to New York.

His latest project is a documentary titled It Started as a Joke. It’s about Brooklyn’s alt comedy scene as well as a personal story about his family.

In addition to being a love letter of sorts to the Brooklyn comedy scene of 2008 to 2017, the film chronicles his life with his wife and young son.

In January of 2020, his wife Katie succumbed to a long battle with cancer.

We’ll chat with Eugene about dealing with grief, defining space in his life for silliness and why community is so important to him. Plus, what’s in store for the future. All that and more on the next Bullseye.

In this episode...

Senior Producer
Producer
Maximum Fun Producer
Maximum Fun Production Fellow

Guests

  • Eugene Mirman

About the show

Bullseye is a celebration of the best of arts and culture in public radio form. Host Jesse Thorn sifts the wheat from the chaff to bring you in-depth interviews with the most revered and revolutionary minds in our culture.

Bullseye has been featured in Time, The New York Times, GQ and McSweeney’s, which called it “the kind of show people listen to in a more perfect world.” Since April 2013, the show has been distributed by NPR.

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Senior Producer

Producer

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Maximum Fun Production Fellow

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