Mike Birbiglia’s Sperm and Dana Delany’s Orgasm: Comedy at the Nantucket Film Festival

Comedy is rich, relevant, and raunchy at the Nantucket Film Festival. It helps that Ben Stiller is on hand for hosting awards nights, and for the annual comedy roundtable. Never mind that, as Mike Birbiglia aptly pointed out, there is no round table. On Saturday night, the ‘Sconset Casino was the site for stand-up with a theme of love letters. The conceit was this: Readers starting with hilarious host Ophira Eisenberg to comedic actors such as Kristen Schaal read letters from the likes of Oscar Wilde to Danny DeVito’s mother, and then followed up with a story of their own. If this were a competition, which it is not, Mike Birbiglia would win hands down for his reading of Tina Fey, and his depiction of forcing a sperm sample into a tiny paper cup, proclaiming, “My boys don’t swim.” If that does not sound funny to you, you had to be there.

Following her reading, Dana Delany revealed that she had been a waitress in Nantucket back in the day, and that her mother, recently divorced, had come to visit and maybe get lucky. At dinner at Chanticleer (the name means rooster or cock), a restaurant that still exists, her mother tried to chat up the hunky waiter; Dana ended up with him and had her first orgasm. Delany came to the festival to help actor Ryan Eggold, now writer/ producer/ director promote his new movie,Literally, Right Before Aaron: she plays the sexy mother of the bride. After “love letters,” guess where they went to dinner!

A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.