LOS ANGELES — Fresh off the release of his stand-up special “Baby J,” funnyman and new-ish father John Mulaney is currently giving new material the sniff test at the Largo Comedy Club in Los Angeles.
A-list comedians such as Zach Galifianakis, Will Ferrell, Sarah Silverman and Larry David often use the venue as an incubator for bits. The theater seats roughly 300 and was where the pre-rehab Mulaney gave his 2018 “Saturday Night Live” monologue a dry run in a surprise appearance on Oscar weekend.
Taped at Boston’s Symphony Hall after a string of life-changing and tumultuous events played out in the tabloids, Mulaney’s latest Netflix special addresses some of his bizarre behavior around that very same time.
And while cocaine is the white elephant in the room, topics such as drugs, his divorce, and his whiplash romance with actress Olivia Munn did not creep into the conversation on Tuesday.
At the 10 p.m. show on Tuesday, his second of the night, Mulaney only made the occasional reference to his “girlfriend Olivia” but did spend a good portion of the evening extolling the joys of fatherhood.
Mulaney and Munn welcomed their son Malcolm Hiep in November of 2021 and promptly took the tot out on the road with an “autistic, gay, evangelical bus driver” behind the wheel of the tour bus — just one of the bits that had audience members howling.
He also told a story of being sued by Comedy Central for $1 million after failing to produce a third comedy special for the outlet. He had signed a three-special deal for a mere $5,000.
“I don’t even think they paid me the whole amount,” he said.
The recollection slow-danced around the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, but Mulaney let that dog sleep.
And while he appeared a little tired — and what father of a toddler wouldn’t be tired at 10 p.m. — his new material is funny, fresh and self-deprecating. We don’t want to spoil the good time for everyone or expose a scientist’s secret sauce — especially since some of the jokes are half-baked. Just don’t expect Papa Mulaney to be.
