Mulaney reflects on life in L.A., comedy, ‘SNL’ ahead of Spokane show
From routines about the absurdity of Ice-T on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit” to a maddening Tom Jones listening marathon, comedian John Mulaney’s observational style is both acerbic and absurdist. Mulaney, who performs at the Fox Theater on Thursday, got his start as a writer for “Saturday Night Live,” co-creating Bill Hader’s popular Stefon character, an eccentric “city correspondent” who would promote bizarre nightclubs on “Weekend Update.”
He recently created and starred in a Fox sitcom titled “Mulaney,” which was canceled after 13 episodes and lackluster reviews. (For the record, I was asked not to bring up the show in the interview.) His 2012 special “New in Town” was named one of the year’s best stand-up records by the A.V. Club, and his upcoming stand-up special “The Comeback Kid” premieres Nov. 13 on Netflix.
We spoke to Mulaney in the days leading up to his Spokane performance about how he hones his material, what inspired Stefon and how he’s adjusting to life in Los Angeles.
SR: So what are you up to today?
John Mulaney: I just got my calendar for today, and I have this 1 p.m. call with you. I
SR: Now I’m thinking about that bit you have about people canceling plans. Did your face just light up when you said that you had no plans?
Mulaney: Eh, yes and no. When I’m not on tour, downtime is such downtime. Being on tour is really cool, but then you have three days on tour and that’s awesome. But then after awhile, it’s like, I was thinking of taking piano lessons. I need something when I’m not performing stand-up.
SR: You have to keep your brain limber.
Mulaney: Yeah. And also just to have a hobby other than comedy.
SR: So are you on a break from tour now?
Mulaney: No, I just go out a few nights a week. I come home, then I’m gone Wednesday to Sunday. Then I come home and I’m gone Friday and Saturday.
SR: Are you still based in New York?
Mulaney: I’m in Los Angeles. My wife and I moved here a few months ago.
SR: Do you like it there?
Mulaney: I do now. I grew up in the city of Chicago, and then I lived in the city of New York, and this is really like living in a suburb. It’s so different for me, but I’ve started to like it. I’m a really bad driver, and I have to drive every day, but I’m now into that. Like, the first time I went to Target and filled up my cart with stuff – which sounds like the most mundane thing – it was almost like “Bad to the Bone” was playing in my head while I was doing it. It was so cool.
SR: Well, congratulations.
Mulaney: (Laughs) Thank you.
SR: I’m assuming that you’re doing all new material since “New in Town”?
Mulaney: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. All new.
SR: How do you hone new jokes? Do you go back to comedy clubs?
Mulaney: Yeah. A lot more when we go back to New York – I still have an apartment there – and I’ll go to the Comedy Cellar every night. Then on tour, when you’re doing an hour set, it feels OK to throw in a joke midway through that’s brand new. … You make it sound clumsy, like it’s spur of the moment, so that if it doesn’t get a laugh, you can act like you were just musing.
SR: Would you say that the notoriety you’ve had as a stand-up comedian has affected the way you write?
Mulaney: (Pause) Um, notoriety…
SR: Would you say “notoriety” is the wrong word?
Mulaney: No, but it’s an interesting thing. I would assume that if I have my name on a poster in front of a theater, everyone there is familiar with who I am. But when I go to the Comedy Cellar and they announce me, I’ll hear a couple tables excited. But a lot of them are, like, “We’re from Sweden. We don’t know you are.” Which is cool, because I have to win with jokes. And better comedians than me have said this, but notoriety’s nice, but it buys you about 45 seconds and then you have to be really funny or else people are disappointed.
SR: What are you writing about these days? Is it still in line with the “New in Town” material?
Mulaney: It’s the same guy, but, you know, that was three years ago. You know, some big life things did happen. I got married, I am old
SR: Do you ever go back to “Saturday Night Live”?
Mulaney: Yeah, I wrote on the 40th anniversary (special). I had visited, and I had written for Bill Hader when he hosted after we’d both left. But there was something about the 40th – everyone was back, and it really was like a time machine. … The show was awesome, but I have to tell you, that weekend was great. You kind of leave “SNL” exhausted, and it’s like, “Should I leave? Should I not? This is an institution!” I think everyone leaves in a bit of a daze. And this was really cathartic and nice.
SR: That definitely came through on the show. It seemed like everyone was happy just rubbing elbows.
Mulaney: Yeah! Just genuinely happy. No drama, you know what I mean?
SR: Since I have you here, I have to ask about Stefon. Where did that character come from?
Mulaney: It’s two different people. One was a guy I knew who was always trying to start a club night. Mayor Bloomberg shut a lot of them down, but you’d have, like, pop-up clubs that’d be in a warehouse or an abandoned ship on the Hudson River. He was always trying to start one of those, aggressively, and maybe the pitch was for me to invest money in it. But he would list things (like Stefon does), and it’d always start with, “It’s going to have
SR: What was it like seeing that character blow up? I mean, if it had been the ’90s, don’t you think Stefon would have had his own spin-off movie?
Mulaney: Perhaps. It was really cool. It was honestly – and this sounds fake modest – but we genuinely thought, “This is hilarious, we love this. This will