John Mulaney on SNL50 Hijinks and Getting Away With His Late-Night Netflix Show

Summary

Episode Summary: John Mulaney on SNL50 Hijinks and Getting Away With His Late-Night Netflix Show

In this captivating episode of The Town with Matthew Belloni, host Matt Bellany engages in a deep and humorous conversation with renowned comedian and writer John Mulaney. The discussion spans Mulaney's multifaceted career, including his contributions to Saturday Night Live (SNL), his innovative late-night talk show on Netflix, and his experiences in the entertainment industry. Below is a comprehensive summary of the key topics, insights, and memorable moments from their dialogue.

Introduction to John Mulaney

Matt Bellany begins by highlighting John Mulaney's impressive career trajectory, emphasizing his roles as a six-time SNL host, a writer for five years, a top touring stand-up comedian, and an actor recently cast in the upcoming John Madden movie directed by David O. Russell.

Notable Quote:

• Matt Bellany [00:00]: "John Mulaney is a six-time SNL host and was a writer for five years. He acts as well and was just cast in the new John Madden movie that David O. Russell is making."

Securing Creative Control with Netflix

Mulaney delves into how he managed to maintain complete creative freedom for his late-night talk show on Netflix. He explains the strategic approach he and his team took to present a unique format that diverges from traditional late-night norms.

Notable Quotes:

• Matt Bellany [02:00]: "How did you get away with this show?... you are absolutely 100% doing what you want to do."
• John Mulaney [03:01]: "We did basically a six episode pilot of sorts during the Netflix is a joke festival... we sort of had a proof of concept."

The Making of SNL's 50th Anniversary Special

Mulaney shares his experiences writing for SNL's milestone 50th anniversary, highlighting the collaborative efforts with esteemed writers like Tina Fey, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey, Jim Downey, and Simon Rich. He recounts the pressure of producing a show of such significance and the memorable moments, including performances by Steve Martin and surprise guest appearances like Jack Nicholson.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [08:54]: "There was enormous pressure. Myself, Tina, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey, Jim Downey, Simon Rich, we were all at a rewrite table together by midweek."
• John Mulaney [10:22]: "Rehearsing that day... Nathan Lane, Taran Killam, Maya Rudolph—all of us were there. It was great."

Creative Processes and Writer Collaboration

The conversation explores Mulaney's philosophy on working with writers, emphasizing empowerment and autonomy. He describes an environment where writers are encouraged to take ownership of their segments, drawing parallels to his time at SNL where writers manage multiple aspects of production.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [07:06]: "My writers are excellent and there's no need to be tough on them. I like to empower the writers..."
• John Mulaney [08:19]: "When you're 25 at SNL and you have a piece on the air... you've gotten some notes, but you basically are in charge of everything."

Touring and Personal Life Balance

Mulaney discusses his love for touring and performing live, particularly enjoying cities like Dublin, Birmingham, and Asheville. He shares anecdotes about touring with his young children and the unique experiences each city offers its audiences.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [18:11]: "I enjoyed performing in Dublin, Ireland."
• John Mulaney [19:06]: "They come with me. But bunks on a bus are great for children. They really are."

Reflections on the Mulaney Sitcom

Mulaney reflects on his self-titled sitcom that aired on Fox, sharing lessons learned from its development and eventual cancellation. He emphasizes the importance of maintaining a clear creative vision and the challenges of balancing writing with production elements.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [20:10]: "I wish I'd controlled a little more. There were tons of good jokes, but the way I packaged it, it just landed with a thud."
• John Mulaney [21:49]: "Would I try again? Maybe, if the idea was there."

Future Projects and Comedy Landscape

Looking ahead, Mulaney expresses excitement for future acting roles, including his collaboration with David O. Russell. He also shares his perspective on the current state of comedy, asserting that it's always a good time for comedic expression and innovation.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [22:23]: "I enjoy acting very much."
• John Mulaney [28:00]: "I think it's always a good time for comedy."

Reinventing Late-Night Television

Mulaney elaborates on his approach to reinventing the late-night talk show format, aiming for a balance between evergreen content and live spontaneity. He discusses the challenges of adapting to streaming platforms and the importance of creating content that resonates over time.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [06:24]: "We've tried to make them aggressively not topical in one way, but topical in another way so that they feel a little more evergreen."
• John Mulaney [25:08]: "It's fun to do a monologue on a late night set with an announcer right there and have it be completely not topical and more personal."

Embracing the Unconventional

The episode highlights Mulaney's willingness to experiment with unconventional show ideas, such as a blindfolded episode, and his ability to navigate creative compromises with production teams.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [26:04]: "It really resurrected about seven days ago."
• John Mulaney [26:45]: "Talent department was like, that might be a hard sell... so we settled for creative compromise of the year. Just me blindfold."

Conclusion

Matt Bellany and John Mulaney wrap up the conversation with reflections on the evolving nature of comedy and the entertainment industry. Mulaney emphasizes the enduring relevance of comedy as a form of expression and its ability to adapt to changing societal landscapes.

Notable Quotes:

• John Mulaney [29:58]: "We're trying to remind you things are a little uneasy."
• John Mulaney [30:03]: "I do genuinely think that... there's no era that was bad for comedy."

This episode of The Town with Matthew Belloni offers a profound and entertaining glimpse into John Mulaney's creative mind, his experiences in the entertainment world, and his vision for the future of comedy and late-night television.

Transcript

[Bill Simmons]

This is Bill Simmons and I want to tell you about my movie podcast, the Rewatchables, where each week I'm joined by ringer movie lovers Chris Ryan, Sean Van Van Lathan, Kyle Brandt, Mallory Rubin. We have a whole bunch of people on we talk about movies we can't stop rewatching. And now you can watch us cover these movies on video in the Spotify app. We have covered over 350 movies including Heat, Goodfellas, Boogie Nights, Pulp Fiction. We have some real heavy hitters coming up here in 2025. Make sure to follow us on Spotify, where you can watch every new episode. Right now, just head to the Rewatchables on Spotify now on video Critics and.

[Matt Bellany]

Audiences agree Netflix's Nobody Wants this is the Best Comedy of the Year.

[John Mulaney]

You're the Rabbi. It's hot, right?

[Matt Bellany]

The Hollywood Reporter raves. Kristen Bell and Adam Brody share crackling chemistry.

[John Mulaney]

Is there a world where this works?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[Matt Bellany]

Nobody wants this is 2024's winner of the American Film Institute TV program of.

[John Mulaney]

The Year, Godspeed Hot Rabbi.

[Matt Bellany]

It sets the romantic comedy standard for.

[John Mulaney]

You called me your friend in front of the teens whose opinion I care about most. That was so sus.

[Matt Bellany]

Nobody Wants this For your Emmy consideration in all categories including Outstanding Comedy Series.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This episode is brought to you by Acorn tv, the home of brilliant mystery, Acorn TV presents Murder Mystery May Featuring a new mystery series every Monday and a killer movie every Friday. Later this year, Acorn TV welcomes Alicia Silverstone in a gripping new drama called Irish blood. And in 2026, Brooke Shields plays a best selling novelist who forms an unlikely alliance with an influencer to find the killer of a close friend in Ally and Andy Brilliant Mysteries exclusively on Acorn TV. It is Thursday, May 29th. If you flipped on Netflix last night and wondered why a grown man was getting beat up by three 14 year old boys, you probably haven't been watching John Mulaney's talk show all season. That was just one of many absurdist stunts Mulaney pulled during the 12 episode run in his funny and at times very awkward attempt to reinvent the late night format. It's why I wanted to have him as the keynote for my recent Puck event for Emmy season. Mulaney's also one of the top touring standups. I've seen him many times. He's a six time SNL host and was a writer for five years. He acts as well. He was just cast in the new John Madden movie that David O. Russell is making. In our conversation, there's a lot of SNL talk, how he helped put together the 50th anniversary show, how he deals with Netflix executives on his talk show or mostly doesn't deal with them, what his next steps might be. So today it's John Mulaney live from my Emmys event. From the ringer and Puck, I'm Matt Bellany and this is the town. How did you get away with this show? Because I would like to know the conversations with Netflix where you say, okay, this is what we're doing and they say okay, and maybe they have notes, maybe they don't have notes, but you are absolutely 100% doing what you want to do. And I think everybody would like to know how you get away with that.

[John Mulaney]

I think we were sort of, we found an interesting side door into doing this in that we did basically a six episode pilot of sorts during the Netflix is a joke festival and it was called Everybody's in L. A. It was very similar in, in vibe. And so we sort of had a proof of concept, albeit we did that six nights in a row versus 12 weeks weekly.

[Unnamed Speaker]

But that was also very idiosyncratic and kind of niche. And you were definitely doing what you.

[John Mulaney]

Want to do then, 100%. I think the, you know, why let someone do what they want is because you've seen it six times in a row and you sort of liked it. And we had a lot of. There wasn't any sort of. We were bringing the show to a different format and there wasn't any kind of discussion ever of will it be different?

[Unnamed Speaker]

How about guests? Do they say, oh, you know, we can get you ex movie star and oh no, I like my guests.

[John Mulaney]

I want, oh, they offer up guests. They often offer people who have something that they want to promote, which makes sense a lot of shows.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Which is why most talk shows are not as great as you want them to be because the person on the show is just plugging.

[John Mulaney]

Well, what's fun is we have people who have projects dropping that week. We just never bring them up.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Right.

[John Mulaney]

We never get around to it, which.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Is another hallmark of most talk shows that are not great. So that's.

[John Mulaney]

I'm a big fan of talk shows though. I am too. I like a lot.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I am too. But the frustrations I have with talk shows are that the parts you like are often subsumed by the parts that you have to deal with to get the people on the show that you like and the promotion and, you know, certain topics off limits and things like that, for sure.

[John Mulaney]

And the Cadence of doing, you know, if you're doing five or four nights a week, it's a totally different beast. And we are lucky in that we get to curate what we're doing. It being sort of 12 hour specials of sort that have taken the form of a talk show.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And because you like late night, I mean, there's been a lot written about the kind of, not the demise, but the threatened demise of late night. Do you feel some kind of a responsibility almost to reinvent it?

[John Mulaney]

No. And I can tell watching the show that we feel no responsibility of any kind. No. I mean, there's so many ingredients from so many shows from Larry King Live to the Joe Franklin show to the Tonight show to Letterman to Conan to everyone. And at the same time, we're not really existing in a nightly way. So it doesn't feel. It feels like it kind of rhymes with the genre, but isn't exactly. Yeah. What we're doing. I don't know if it would, if it means anything to other businesses.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. I mean, the, the thing is that people have said that late night format doesn't translate as well to streaming.

[John Mulaney]

Oh, that's interesting.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You know, the host that you put on after the news to help you go to sleep and you like them and you like their jokes and it's a nice little tapper to the night.

[John Mulaney]

Still a thing that you watch the news and then watch the late. I mean, that's been out of date for quite a while.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I agree with you. But the format is based on that assumption that people want a little capper to their evening. And in streaming, it's just not the same audience.

[John Mulaney]

No, it's not the same. But I mean, hence why, like I've tried to make them aggressively not topical in one way, but topical in another way so that they feel a little more evergreen. And it's really like we love the live tune and we love the countdown to going live. We love, you know, trying to get everyone to watch at 7pm Pacific on Wednesdays. But we also think about it in terms of these 12 hour installments, living on the service, you know, forever. So we have a bit of the, like, this is our Wednesday night show. And then we have a bit of like, we want this to basically work for a long time.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You came up as a writer. Are you tough on your writers? Are you especially.

[John Mulaney]

My writers are excellent and there's no need to be tough on them. I have.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You're tough. You're a jerk, aren't you? We.

[John Mulaney]

I don't know. No, I think I'm fun to work for it because I let you do what you want. I'm being allowed to do what I want. And I like to empower the writers, all of whom, by the way, most of whom have run their own shows. I mean, everyone's a real writer, producer. What I was looking for, most importantly, were people that can write and be extremely funny, but also have worked with every department, have worked with ads, just can make everything go, you know, so everyone's pretty much their own self starting writer, producer business at our show.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And famously, that is something you learn at SNL 100%.

[John Mulaney]

I mean, when you're 25 at SNL and you have a piece on the air, you're 25 and they've given you NBC for five minutes to do your thing. You've gotten some notes, but you basically are in charge of everything from working with the set design department, the directors, the props department, costumes, giving notes to an actor who just won an Oscar and is now hosting on a victory lap, and you're telling them how to do an English accent, like the.

[Unnamed Speaker]

That sounds pointed.

[John Mulaney]

Huh?

[Unnamed Speaker]

That sounds specific and pointed.

[John Mulaney]

There was someone who. I was trying to teach them how to do a very famous line of theirs, and they kept blowing it. And then I realized, oh, they just don't like the joke.

[Unnamed Speaker]

De Niro, I'm sure. Nevermind. No, no. So you went back to SNL for the 50th to write. I can't imagine what that writers room looked like for the 50th. And I also can't imagine the pressure to throw stuff together that would be worthy of a special like that.

[John Mulaney]

There was enormous pressure. Myself, Tina, Paula Pell, Emily Spivey, Jim Downey, Simon Rich, we were all at a rewrite table together by midweek. Like, Wednesday, Thursday, we were reading pieces.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What was the dumbest idea somebody threw out?

[John Mulaney]

Oh, man, there's a really dumb one. But I can't say.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, you can.

[John Mulaney]

I really can't. But it would have been such a bad idea. And I'm happy to say that I sort of. I did try to. We all tried to stop it. Everyone tried to stop it. There were so many ideas that everyone under the sun was coming to it. And what I learned by Saturday, Sunday was I thought. I realized, oh, nothing's probably gonna get cut. Like, we were all operating with that anxiety of, they're gonna cut my piece if it's, like, not up to snuff. But at a certain point, you're blocking on Sunday afternoon and you have all of These people who have flown out and have rehearsed this and have spent the weekend and we're all building up to the 50th and it was like, oh, we're gonna put on pretty much just a long ass show.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Well, and if you have Eddie Murphy and Will Ferrell in a sketch, you're not going to cut.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah. If something falls flat that afternoon at rehearsal, you're not gonna just cut the thing. Also, the bad thing was it got out to all of us that we had 15 minutes of grace after the three hour mark. And so no one made any cuts once we found that out.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Was there anything that you were particularly proud to have gotten on the air in that special?

[John Mulaney]

I mean, doing that. Some of that monologue with Steve Martin was out of body. Out of body. Exciting. And the large New York musical piece that we got on the 50th was very fun to pull off. I have to say. Rehearsing that the day previous, doing a dance rehearsal with everybody in that in Dr. Oz's old studio on the sixth floor of 30 Rock, that was incredibly fun. Just like 11am Everybody showed up. Nathan Lane, Taran Killam, Maya Rood, all of us were there. It was great.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Who was the person you were most surprised to see at the 50th?

[John Mulaney]

Oh, that's a good question. I didn't know that Jack Nicholson would be there.

[Unnamed Speaker]

That was pretty good.

[John Mulaney]

That was pretty good. Yeah. I also though, because I was writing, had lists of everyone coming because you were trying to see if there was anyone else you wanted to put in things. So did they have like a whiteboard.

[Unnamed Speaker]

With people that were erased and added?

[John Mulaney]

No, it was just adding and adding and adding. It just kept getting larger and larger. And then Rockefeller. Not Rockefeller. Excuse me. Radio City on Friday night was gonna be this enormous concert where we get to work in a lot of people who might not be coming or represented in the show. And then those people were great on Friday and then they were represented in the show. Like, we just kept adding and adding and adding. That was the formula, I thought.

[Unnamed Speaker]

The one thing that surprised me on the show was there was no Chevy Chase, even though he was there. How did that happen?

[John Mulaney]

I don't know. The play by play of it. I'm trying to think. There was. There was a sort of Weekend Update moment and they acknowledged Chevy during the physical comedy montage.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And then no hater, which was disappointing to me. No, Stephane.

[John Mulaney]

Oh, I miss them a lot. Yeah, yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

That's still like top 10 SNL sketches.

[John Mulaney]

I'm glad you like it? Thank you.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And I've always wondered, like, when did it start where you would put stuff in the prompter that he did not know was coming?

[John Mulaney]

Oh. So that thing of trying to trip Bill up kind of started probably the second or third one in that. It had been this pretty wild piece we translated into an update feature. And it went really well. And Bill was laughing a lot during it. And it was just kind of. It was. I think it was the spring. It was one of our last shows of the year. And he was extremely, extremely amused halfway through. And he was very hard on himself about breaking. And that was. The real thing is, afterwards, he had this real good, like, Tulsa, Oklahoma, work ethic where he was like, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have done that. And then we just thought it was so funny that it frustrated him that we would try and make it happen again and again. We were trying to take a thing that happened organically and see if it could continue to happen organically with a little effort from our side.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. And Lauren famously doesn't like that. So how did you get around his distaste for trying to get people to.

[John Mulaney]

I walked up to him after we were at, I can't remember, some barbecue joint for the after party, and we had just done a big one, and I went, I'm sorry. And he said, if. If he was. If what he was saying wasn't funny, it would bother me. But what he's saying is really funny.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay. Yeah. That's pretty good.

[Craig Horlebeck]

That was good.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You've hosted the show now six times.

[John Mulaney]

That's right.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Can you tell when you are in the middle of a host week or getting close to air, whether it's going to be great, medium, not so great.

[John Mulaney]

I've been very fortunate. I have felt that I've been super lucky in that the ones I've done have been really strong.

[Unnamed Speaker]

By the way, I went to one of them. I went to one of your shows.

[John Mulaney]

Which one did you go to?

[Unnamed Speaker]

I went to the one right before COVID And the funny story is, I was sitting next to your parents.

[John Mulaney]

You were.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And I was with my own dad. I was sitting next to your parents. And it was the monologue where you did a whole spiel about how your dad has no friends.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And I'm sitting next to your dad where you are. And it looked like he didn't know that was coming.

[John Mulaney]

No, they never know what's coming.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And I was sitting there with my own dad looking at your dad being mocked for having no friends.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah. I mean, you know, he's got a couple, but. But a lot of them sprang up after that monologue in a way. In a way that really probably kickstarted him making some friends.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And not. And not your mom's friends that became his friends.

[John Mulaney]

No, not your, not your mom's friend's husbands. Those are not your dad's friends. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Over. Over all your written and performed sketches, what's the one you're most proud of?

[John Mulaney]

That I've done on Saturday Night Live. Oh, that's a. I really love the sketch. What's that name? It's a game show where.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, I don't even remember that.

[John Mulaney]

Huh?

[Unnamed Speaker]

I don't even remember that. When did that air?

[John Mulaney]

So I wrote it with Simon Rich and Merrick Kasoyer when I was a writer there, and then we did it twice. When I hosted. The last time we did it and Senator Tim Kaine was on. He was Hillary Clinton's running mate.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[John Mulaney]

And no one remembers who he is. And, and as I see from your reactions, that's still the case. Those are extremely. I am a little old fashioned. And a very funny game show piece is great because it's just joke after joke after joke. When they're hitting that hard, it's great.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Now, obviously everybody who gets asked this question is associated with the show. We will move off SNL at some point. They all punt on the Lauren question. So I'm going to ask it in a different way. If someday he's hit by a bus and they say, you, John Mulaney, must take over this show.

[John Mulaney]

You don't think he knows how to dodge a bus?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Maybe not.

[John Mulaney]

He's been in New York City for 50 years.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, but I don't think he's ridden.

[John Mulaney]

Public transportation since the 70s bikes to work.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I think he is. He is dropped via helicopter at this point. But they say, you, John Mulaney now, must take over the show. No excuses. What's the first thing you do? First thing you change about the show?

[John Mulaney]

I would change nothing. I would immediately be fighting all of the changes that I fear others would try to make.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, you think so? So you think changes are coming once that baton is passed?

[John Mulaney]

I don't know. I say that not factoring in that. I'm sure the people in charge there recognize there is some magic to the formula. But Lauren's a person of enormous stature. And so I would, maybe I'd start jumping up and down screaming, I have stature too. Just to impress everyone.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay. And, yeah, and I, I imagine they. That he has not discussed any. Some. Anything like that with you?

[John Mulaney]

No. The only indication I've seen is that he's still going and just had the season finale.

[Unnamed Speaker]

This episode of the Town is brought to you by Hulu. Presenting Paradise. Paradise is Hulu's critically acclaimed addictive drama series starring Sterling K. Brown, Julianne Nicholson and James Marsden, filled with nail biting twists and turns. The Daily Beast calls Paradise your next TV obsession and the New York Times says it's exhilarating in all the right ways. Paradise is for your Emmy consideration in all categories including outstanding Drama series. For more information, visit fyc.hulu.com this episode is brought to you by Focus Features An Indian Paintbrush Presenting the Phoenician Scheme, an epic comedy adventure from director Wes Anderson. Starring Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threpleton, Michael Cera and an all star cast. Follow Zsaza Korda as he races to survive assassinations, win back his daughter and pull off the scheme of a lifetime. The Phoenician scheme. Rated PG13. In select theaters in New York and Los Angeles May 30. Everywhere. June 6 Stand up. What are the best cities to play?

[John Mulaney]

I mentioned this to you backstage, but I was thinking recently about how much I enjoyed performing in Dublin, Ireland.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I did not realize you were huge in Ireland. Although I guess Irish American does not surprise me.

[John Mulaney]

Well, but they are not impressed by Irish Americans at all. And they actually very much dislike. If you say I'm Irish because they're Irish and they won't let you forget it. You're an American who wears green. But you know where else is great was Birmingham, Alabama. I did an arena in Birmingham, Alabama that was great. Asheville, North Carolina, really fun city.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What makes those audiences so great? They're just happy that you're there.

[John Mulaney]

Birmingham was just. I just walked around. I had. My son was probably 12 months old. I was pushing him around the city in a stroller and everyone was like, we're coming to the show tonight. And then everyone was at the show. It was that. It's that kind of town.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Interesting.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Do you like touring?

[John Mulaney]

Very much. Very much.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Even though you have kids now and it's.

[John Mulaney]

They come with me.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Oh, they do.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Interesting.

[John Mulaney]

But bunks on a bus are great for children. They really are. They're dark and the movement really rocks them to sleep. And yeah, it's. It's also super fun. You know, you wake up in a different city. There's always some sort of, you know, children's museum or reptile place. You can take them To. There are so many reptile places in America.

[Unnamed Speaker]

There really are.

[John Mulaney]

We really love reptiles, and we don't talk about it enough. Everyone's always focused on what's so wrong with the country. But we do have, hell, a lot of reptiles.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yes. Regional zoos.

[John Mulaney]

Amazing regional zoos, baby.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[John Mulaney]

When you go, is this like an educational zoo? And they go, oh, no.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Be careful. Cher is going to come after you.

[John Mulaney]

Oh, really?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. She's big.

[John Mulaney]

Oh, I thought you meant on the podcast. I was like, that's pretty cool. You'd think there'd be more of an entourage backstage, just solo Cher valeting and walking out here.

[Unnamed Speaker]

So you had a sitcom on Fox?

[John Mulaney]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What did you learn from that?

[John Mulaney]

Should we hold for applause?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, please. It was called Mulaney. It aired on Fox. What did you learn from that experience?

[John Mulaney]

Oh, many things. If you have a sort of a thread, if you have, like. If, you know, your show's like a balloon and there's a thin thing that you can only define, that you want it to look like and sound like and feel feel like. And even if you have trouble articulating that to people, you have to keep it alive. There were elements to it that I wasn't. That anyone had bad advice. I just was. I just couldn't say, like, I want it. I could. I didn't have the nerve to keep repeating, no, I want it to look and feel like this and flow like this. And so I look back on it, there were tons of good jokes. So many funny things in. But the way I packaged it, it just landed with a thud. You know, it just. It's something about the way it felt and moved in the music and every little element. I let a lot of the small elements get away from me. Cause I thought I was focusing on the writing and the jokes and the whole presentation. I wish I'd controlled a little more. The other thing I learned, though, is that nothing is in your control. And I remember Martin Short saying when we were probably in our. I don't know, we're doing our 12th episode, but the news isn't good. And they're probably. You know, they're measuring our dressing rooms, and they're probably shutting down production. And he said to me, he goes, this is it. By the way, he goes, 98% of it is failure, because that's the job. You just fail and fail again. Then you sometimes get a hit. It's amazing. So that kind of. I don't know that.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Would you try again? What, another comedy? Another scripted comedy?

[John Mulaney]

Oh, maybe. If the idea was there.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I mean, you're doing. It's interesting. Like, there are those standups that are known for standup and they are in the kind of, you know, I am huge in stand up and I don't cross over. And then there are those who pursue acting and sometimes even pursue drama. You're doing this John Madden movie with David O. Russell. I have some thoughts on David O. Russell. We can talk after. But it. Do you want to. Do you want to act more?

[John Mulaney]

Sure. I enjoy it very much. And when. When some of these projects have come along, like with a good friend like Natasha Leon's Poker Face or Christore calling me about the bear, which was very exciting, let alone working with David on this film, which is going to be incredible. Those are just, you know, I'm so excited to jump at those things. I may not pursue them as much, but.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Are you going to be like a Chris Rock where you want to direct movies and.

[John Mulaney]

No, I don't want to direct movies.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You don't?

[John Mulaney]

100%? No.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Why?

[John Mulaney]

I don't want to get there that early.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Is that for real?

[John Mulaney]

Yep, 100%.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You know, is that, Is it that you don't want to get there that early or you don't want to be in charge?

[John Mulaney]

No, I like being in charge, but I don't want to get there that early. I think just showing up and there's been. You show up at 7 and some people have been there for a minute. I don't want to be one of those people.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay. You also passed on hosting the Oscars last year. Why?

[John Mulaney]

Yeah, too early. Too. Too early in the day for me. No, but that 5:00pm red carpet. Get out of here.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah, 4:00pm you gave a nice opportunity to your friend Conan and it worked out for him.

[John Mulaney]

I wouldn't give him any opportunity. It wasn't. I didn't want to do it. They came to me very flattered about this past year and I didn't want to do it. And they, man, they put on an incredible show. Wasn't that great?

[Unnamed Speaker]

It was great. He did a really nice job.

[John Mulaney]

He was so good and so poised. And so again you go like, oh, yeah, you know, we just feel in good hands with you. And then he's so funny. He made the movies feel big. I mean, halfway through I was like, yeah, this was a great year for movies. I hadn't seen a thing.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Honestly, that's kind of the job because most people watching have. He really.

[John Mulaney]

He really gave it this big tent feeling that, you know, I felt very invested in these films that I still haven't seen.

[Unnamed Speaker]

How do you discover new comedy talent?

[John Mulaney]

Going out and doing shows.

[Unnamed Speaker]

So people who are opening for you, people you see in the clubs.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah. And just trying to get out more and do that. Whether it's at Largo here in LA or the Comedy Cellar in New York or the Knitting Factory in New York.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You work out a lot of material at clubs around LA a lot?

[John Mulaney]

Yeah, I work out a lot of stuff for the show Mondays and Tuesday nights. And yeah, I kind of confine it right now to building up to the Everybody's Live show because I do a pretty long monologue. So there's, you know, to work out 10 minutes takes a lot of concentration.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And do you find that you, do you like mining your own life for your monologues? Like your, you know, you've been doing a lot of stuff about your family and your kids and stuff like that. I feel like that is that you've shifted a little from the more observational stuff to more personal.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah, I, I, I did a little. I, I am so if I didn't do it about my kids, I'd be doing it about hosting a show. There's not a lot of other activities happening right now. And I, it's fun to do a, it's fun to do a monologue on a late night set with an announcer right there and have it be completely not topical and more personal. That feels like an interesting ingredient to me, at least.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Back to the show a little bit. Are there ideas that you guys have come up with that you feel are just too out there?

[John Mulaney]

Yeah, there was one that we were like. It went from a note card in the definite column to sort of the maybe. And then it was moved over to not even on a bulletin board. It was just on a wall at the far end of the room. And we're doing it tomorrow.

[Unnamed Speaker]

No way.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah. It really resurrected about seven days ago.

[Unnamed Speaker]

How did it go from no way to. On the show, I sit in the.

[John Mulaney]

Writer'S room and I go, whatever happened to. And then we sort of think about who might do it, or we think about it another way in. And then it immediately seems it's one of those shows, be it Richard Kind or the Wang Chung music or the look of the set. Once we made the decision, we were totally convinced. So as soon as we all go, yes, there's kind of no stopping it.

[Unnamed Speaker]

So a blindfold episode.

[John Mulaney]

Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

How does that happen?

[John Mulaney]

The original. It was scaled down from the original idea I wanted, which was that the entire audience Was blindfolded. I was blindfolded. And all of my guests were blindfolded.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay. The talent HR stepped in at some point.

[John Mulaney]

Talent department was like, that might be a hard sell. And I was like, explain to them. It'll be so funny. Then someone pointed out something really smart. They go, the studio audience, if they're blindfolded, will be missing a lot of the jokes. And I was like, yeah, but the people at home won't. And they're like, you won't like sitting in a studio where people are really confused and not laughing, even if you think it's quote unquote awesome.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Right.

[John Mulaney]

So we settled for creative compromise of the year. Just me blindfold.

[Unnamed Speaker]

That's very funny. And do, do you have a guest that is your white whale that you really want on?

[John Mulaney]

Yeah, a white whale. If. Yeah, I have some Moby Dicks. If, if, if Captain Ahab couldn't kill Moby Dick just because of scheduling. Like, they're not that elusive. It's always just, you know, they're in Vancouver or Atlanta filming a movie.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Right.

[John Mulaney]

Everyone's in Vancouver.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Right. They're very hot.

[John Mulaney]

They really are.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah. Okay, so to wrap up here. And I appreciate you coming on.

[John Mulaney]

I really appreciate you having me.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What excites you about comedy right now? Is it a good time for comedy?

[John Mulaney]

It's always a good time.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Is it a tough time for comedy?

[John Mulaney]

I think it's always a good time for comedy. I think, yes, it's great. I mean, people, be it a lot of, you know, friends or contemporaries of mine who have the kind of entrepreneurial podcast into a large following, into a touring career type career, or people that are a little more 20th century, like myself.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Why don't you have a podcast?

[John Mulaney]

Huh?

[Unnamed Speaker]

Why don't you have a podcast?

[John Mulaney]

Because I have the talk show. Everybody's true. Yeah, but you could, you could turn. You could turn. You could dim the TV and listen.

[Unnamed Speaker]

To it like a podcast.

[John Mulaney]

Maybe we should release it as a podcast. I don't know how that would work.

[Unnamed Speaker]

What excites you now? What excites you about comedy?

[John Mulaney]

What excites me right now is I will be selfish. The show I'm doing right now really excites me because it has given me a place to do something that I found kind of important right now, which is we're not a topical show. We don't talk about the news, but we are trying to capture a few feeling of absurdity and unease and a lack of control that's happening. So it sounds a little big headed, but I did want to find a space similar to what, like the Dada movement was in Weimar Germany or what the punk movement was under Thatcher and Reagan. Something that's really just a little confrontational, very unplanned, that feels a little wild and. And that isn't trying to conform to a preset of expectations. Now, I say that we're doing a show that follows a lot of conventions, but the feeling of it I find very relevant to the time.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And you think that's relevant to the larger world and what's going on. Those things you mentioned were very.

[John Mulaney]

We're not your cathartic laugh of the night.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Yeah.

[John Mulaney]

We would like you to feel we're trying to remind you things are a little uneasy.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Interesting. And that is. So you're essentially saying Donald Trump is good for comedy.

[John Mulaney]

No, but I do genuinely think that. I can't think of an era that was bad for comedy. Yeah.

[Unnamed Speaker]

All right. Well, John Mulaney, everyone.

[John Mulaney]

Thank you.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Thank you very much. We are back with the call sheet. Craig, what's your relationship to the Karate Kid franchise?

[Craig Horlebeck]

You know, I saw the original. I don't think I've seen any of the other ones. The original is a great movie, but it was never like, a huge part of my childhood.

[Unnamed Speaker]

You did not see the 2010 movie with Jaden Smith in the top role there?

[Craig Horlebeck]

No. I think I was 16 when that came out and still had no interest. Although that movie made like $350 million.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It did. I know you were shocked by that. Cobra Kai also, like, I. I thought Cobra Kai was funny.

[Craig Horlebeck]

Did you watch that on your own or with your son?

[Unnamed Speaker]

I watched it on my own. Oh, my son. Like, he was too young for that. But I thought Cobra Kai was funny. The thing about it is it was comedy. Like, they knew that the franchise was a joke. And that's kind of my issue with the Karate Kid Legends movie this weekend is like they're trying to go back to making it a serious film franchise after having exploited it on TV for laughs.

[Craig Horlebeck]

Well, it's also just in general, it's hard to go from movies to TV back to movies.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It is.

[Craig Horlebeck]

It's built in that people are expecting to watch this on their TVs. I mean, this is a 94 minute Karate Kid movie that I'm.

[Unnamed Speaker]

It's only 94 minutes.

[Craig Horlebeck]

It's only 94 minutes. It's basically an episode of television. I imagine a lot of people are going to be like, I. I will just wait for this to come out.

[Unnamed Speaker]

And they only spent like 50 million on it. It's actually not that big of a budget, even though they're marketing it like it's this big tentpole. Sony does not have that much this year. They've got a couple horror movies. I know what you did last Summer and the 28 Years later sequel, but that's kind of it for Sony's summer. It's amazing.

[Craig Horlebeck]

And this is jammed between Mission Impossible, Lilo and Stitch Ballerina coming out next week. I think it's going to be tough.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I think they are very scared of how well Lilo and Stitch is doing. Although my kid wants to see it. The tracking is at 25 now, per NRG. It was at 35 about three weeks ago and went down to 30 and then now 25 for the weekend. I'm still going to take the under.

[Craig Horlebeck]

I feel like we need to rethink how we discuss tracking because I almost think the number whether you're like a million over or under it. I feel like that should not be what determines if you're correct or not. I feel like you should really be predicting will this significantly over or underperform.

[Unnamed Speaker]

But that's betting. Betting is you set the line and you go over or under.

[Craig Horlebeck]

No, I know, but you saying over 77 million for Mission Impossible. It hits 77.5, I'm more interested.

[Unnamed Speaker]

That's a W. I'll take it.

[Craig Horlebeck]

Of course it's a W. But I'm more interested as a listener in. Do you think this is more likely to overperform by 15 million or underperform by 15 million? And you have to choose one of those.

[Unnamed Speaker]

Okay, maybe, but I don't think this movie's going to gross like $10 million. I think it'll probably do somewhere in the high teens, low 20s, and it won't get quite 2. 25. So that's a more detailed prediction. Yeah, I just think this is in I.P. no man's land. I mean, Jackie Chan, okay, bring him back. He's 71 years old. You know, have him do his karate scenes in the dark, which was in the trailer. I have not seen this movie. I did not go to the premiere. It was in New York.

[Craig Horlebeck]

We saw a scene at Cinemacon.

[Unnamed Speaker]

We did see some footage at Cinemacon, which was cool.

[Craig Horlebeck]

It was a good action scene. But you know what? A lot of movies have great action scenes now.

[Unnamed Speaker]

I know Ralph Macchio, 63 years old. It's kind of amazing. He's almost as old as Jackie Chan. But, yeah, they got newcomer kid. I don't know. We'll see Unfortunately, I will be seeing this movie with my kids, so I'll have a full report next week.

[Craig Horlebeck]

Okay, great.

[Unnamed Speaker]

All right, that's the show for today. I want to thank my guest, John Mulaney, producer Craig Horlebeck, artist Jesse Lopez, and I want to thank you. We'll see you next week. The Town is supported by FX's the Bear. In season three of the Emmy winning series, Carmi pushes himself harder than ever and demands excellence from his crew as they do their best to match his intensity. The Los Angeles Times calls this season as magnificent as television gets. Starring Emmy winners Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Adeburi, Eben Moss Bachrach and Liza Colon. Zayas. Awards eligible in all comedy categories. All episodes of the Bear are streaming on Hulu.