It's going to sound weird to hear this but the pandemic came along at nearly the perfect time for Mike Geither. His sister had just died and he had a lot to process. In fact, his best friend had just died too, and another friend, and his father, and his nephew. And he was newly divorced. Things were piling up and The Body is the Best is the result of him having the distance and time to work through all of it. And now he’s convinced that we all come pre-programmed with a kind of wordless knowledge that lets us get through times likes these. This is stand-up comedy meeting stand-up tragedy.

Mike Geither is a playwright and standup comedian based in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is professor of creative writing at Cleveland State University.