John Mulany is a comedy superstar who finds familiar and entertaining things. At 42, he already has five highly rated specials on his name… 3 Primetime Emmys… and has a reputation as one of the best stand-up guys in the game.
“I don’t know if you’re following the news right now, but I keep my ears open. Everyone everywhere seems very crazy about everything.”
But for his new job, stand-up sits. Mulaney hosts a talk show on Netflix, featuring a sofa and celebrity guests. And sometimes it’s all live. “It feels like I’m at a greater risk,” he said. “I love it. It’s the best.”
I asked, “Explain what you feel – is it like facing a cliff and hanging over it?”
“No,” he replied. “It’s always hanging from it.”
At last year’s Netflix comedy festival, they talked about “LA’s stuff” like earthquakes and coyotes as an experiment called “Everybody’s in La.” Now the show is back with a wider focus and has the new name “Everyone Live With John Mulany.” Starting this week, we will be performing live every Wednesday night. “It’s a joy to know that hopefully a lot of people are watching,” he said.
To watch the live with John Mulaney teaser, click on the video player below.
And he knows everything about live television. For Murani, Saturday Night Live is a home turf. He started out as a writer there in 2008 and helped create the biggest characters of the show, like Bill Hader’s Stephon. Mulany often changes the script at the last moment to turn off Hada, like this Halloween skit.
Steffon: “Have you heard of Bracula in Black Dracula? Well, they have a Jewish Dracula.”
Seth Myers: “Oh, what’s his name?”
Stephon: “Sydney Applebaum!”
This seems to have been born from John Mulanie. Growing up in Chicago, Mulany says he grew up feeling that comedy was his destiny. When asked if he had any memories of when he noticed something funny, Mulanie said, “These things are always funny ‘You don’t want to sound selfish, so I don’t remember when I didn’t think I was funny.’
Shortly after graduating from Georgetown, he joined “SNL” and began his career. He made his mark in New York, but he is fascinated by Southern California, where he currently lives all year round.
He made a record shopping for us with the legendary Hollywood amoeba music.
“When you come out in a place like this, will people come to you or leave you alone?” I asked.
“A little,” he said. “My joke is that I’m like Louis Farrakhan. I mean a lot to a small group of groups.”
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The truth is that Mulani is much bigger than he admits. In his latest special, “Baby J,” he played in a sold-out crowd, focusing on his addiction and recovery. He describes the 2020 intervention on behalf of his performances by friends like Seth Myers and Fred Armisen.
Of course, it’s funny now: Mulani says he’s been clean for over four years.
When asked if slander is something I think about every day, Mulani said, “Well, that’s a good question. I don’t think about cocaine, opioids, benzodiazepurines. I admit that I understand the vigilance that is necessary every day. I don’t think about it every day. Likewise, a bigger term than abstaining from chemicals, I definitely think about it every day.”
Mulaney believes his wife, actress Olivia Munn, helped him navigate recovery. You may remember her from Aaron Sorkin’s “Newsroom” or “X-Men: The Apocalypse.” But she’s also a bit of a superhero in real life. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023 and shares her entire journey online, from her first test to double mastectomy. Since then, other women believe they have saved her life.
Phillip Faraone/VF25 via Getty Images
“There’s this lifetime risk assessment test, which is the only reason this lifetime risk assessment test was actually discovered,” Mulaney said.
She is also the mother of two young children, Malcolm and May. “I’ve felt this many times, I’m going, ‘I can’t believe I know this person, let alone I’m married to her,” he said.
His father gave him not only new material but a whole new perspective on life.
From the monologue on Saturday Night Live in November 2024:
“My wife and I welcomed a baby girl into our family. … My wife takes care of a 5 week old. I take a 2 year old child. That’s not fair. It’s not a distribution of labor at all. “You have a 5 year old child, I take a 2 year old person.”
John Mulany lived a good life that made people laugh. Now, as two husbands and father, he says there is something to live with.
When asked how my father saw the world, Murani said, “I am now in the world because I was a father. Before that, my head was my home. When my son was born, when I first thought, I was, “Oh, you’re there.” And when my daughter was born, I had this – it didn’t sound like “Wooooo” or something, but when she was born, I went to “Ah!” My thoughts are, “Oh, we’ve met before, so it’s like these people just came in it, I don’t know, make me like the world.”
Online Only – Check out our extended interview with John Mulany:
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A story created by John Damelio. Editor: Lauren Barnero.
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