‘If you’ve seen me do standup before, I have a kind of different vibe now.” Well, quite. Rare is the reputational reversal as complete as John Mulaney’s, who in short order these last two years went from being comedy’s happily married Mr Nice, via rehab for cocaine addiction, to a divorce and new relationship that sent fans into a tailspin. There’s not a squeak about his domestic life in this confessional new show, which focuses instead on what happened when Mulaney’s celebrity pals staged an intervention to arrest his self-destructive slide into pharmaceutical oblivion.
Given the fashion for public self-flagellation, and indeed for heart-on-sleeve solo comedy, one braces for a show in which Mulaney reckons, lip perhaps a-tremble, with his public fall from grace. But, different vibe notwithstanding, that’s not his style. Yes, he dedicates the whole show to lurid stories of addiction and dysfunctional behaviour. But – as with the one about buying a Rolex watch to trade for drug money, or the one about “equine therapy” for recovering junkies – he makes them fun. There’s no sackcloth and ashes: heart on sleeve isn’t Mulaney’s mode. In the 40-year-old’s telling, at least in retrospect, addiction and rehab is a bit of a hoot.
