John Mulaney on Bizarre Secret Talent, Stand-Up, SNL, + Mick Jagger

on Larry King now John Mulaney I started wearing a suit when as about 27 because I got onstage in a flannel shirt in jeans the whole audience was my age and looked just like me you know a lot of young guys who look like Lee Harvey Oswald I said there's no reason I should have a microphone so I better dress up and you know look like I have a thought is it true that you'd add to the script between the dress rehearsal and the taping I did yes but only because the first time we did it Bill Hader started laughing and Bill's a real professional he's from Tulsa Oklahoma so he's like he assaulted the earth you know he wants to do a good job so I said well I wanted to derail all of that so I would add new lines to trip him up and make it laugh as president in the current situation it feels like there's a horse loose in a hospital I am an optimist I think eventually everything will be okay but I have no idea what's gonna happen next plus I understand I'm told ish that you do a decent Mick Jagger well I do a tiny impression of him in his new special but it was more about how he's authoritative you know cuz he's done stadiums for 50 years so he's not ever gonna be like um do you have a laptop charger you know he just goes yes no yes all next on Larry King now [Music] welcome to Larry King now our guest today is Emmy winning stand-up comedian actor writer and producer John Mulaney whose diverse resume includes writing for Saturday Night Live creating and starring in his semi autobiographical series Mulaney a stint on Broadway and the much-beloved oh hello which John starred opposite Nick Kroll he also wears a suit like nobody's business John's latest Netflix special is kid gorgeous and it's available now and I was happy to do the promo for this special why did you choose me to do that promo there was no one else on the list it was Larry King or silence why I wanted the authority of New York City I know you've been based here for a while but you're the authority of New York City and I wanted that tone I wanted the Larry King tone to sell the special I didn't want to do a lot of work personally on the comedy I needed you to sell it for me I sold it didn't you punched every word okay you talked about being in the growth phase yeah between young and old what are you how do you look at yourself I I recognized that I still look a little young I feel much older inside and I also have noticed that things are starting to go and I have a beautiful wife who will point out those things that are going my eyebrows are getting out of control I have hair on my shoulders I don't even have a joke for that you don't have to that's just gonna lay there right there yeah you you were the only stand-up to be a writer on Saturday Night Live right well no you to others Conan Conan Larry David it was a big stand-up and then there have been lots of stand-ups that have written their over time you know Eva Alan Zweibel started as a stand-up comic did even even Al Franken and Tom Davis they had a two-man act they did in clubs so there were a lot of people that came from that background Alan Zweibel very funny the funniest and the nicest always takes me to the Friars Club yeah it's where he hangs out of the Dean what does that mean I mean I'm the head man at the Friars you are yeah what are your responsibilities nothing yes just make sure the food's boiled along just go and I'm the Dean oh wow you always wear a suit is that a throwback to the old comedians Cosby goes were sued Alan King always wore a suit well I don't so much use Cosby as a reference anymore you never come out in jeans right I I did last night because I just was doing a short set I like to wear a suit once I have a lot of good stuff prepared otherwise I feel like I'm just selling the suit I started wearing a suit when I was about 27 because I got onstage in a flannel shirt in jeans the whole audience was my age and looked just like me you know a lot of young guys who look like Lee Harvey Oswald and they're all wearing a flannel shirt and jeans and I said there's no reason I should have a microphone so I better dress up and you know look like I have authority what was the short thing you did last night I just did a short little bit of stand-up over at this theater called Largo at the Coronet why because I just had a special come out I burned all that material and I need new material so I'm working on it right now so you tested it last night tested some new stuff last night how long is a short set I did 20 minutes I was supposed to do 10 give me an example of one of those things you did last night on me all right I'll do a newer one that works okay a lot of these men are calling the accusations against them a witch-hunt and I don't I don't love that term I don't know if you've read The Crucible lately but it doesn't end with half a dozen embarrassed millionaires who just takes six months off work before they come back and daddy's home three very hip I got a big laugh over there you got a big laugh for me do you think a wardrobe influences a comedian set yes absolutely the first time I wore a suit was for a special I did in 2012 called new in town and I suddenly felt like for some reason this has given me some Authority you feel authoritative I feel authoritative you have to be because what I'm talking about is nonsense I'm exasperated over pointless topics so I might as well look like you know I'm in charge do you feel funny in a suit I feel like it's funny that I'm wearing a suit that I think I deserve to be better dressed than the audience is inherently funny to me I like this like your ensemble today nice little polka dot beautiful gray of a wonderful blue thank you this is a wool suit it's a little warm outside I'm happy to be an air conditioner but you are the sartorial King and so I like suspenders well yeah I'm bit I'm about to make the move to suspenders they feel good they feel good no more belts more sansabelt which I've never kept our guest is the great stand-up comedian John Mulaney were discussing how he managed to build a stand-up career while writing for Saturday Night Live and the beauty of Stefon after the break stay with us the back with the great John Mulaney his latest Netflix special is kid gorgeous and it's available now do I sell that look at that that's beautiful okay you returned with Bill Hader to write a Stefon sketch you even had a line about me where's gosh she went to some New York restaurant and it has a familiar yet troubled troubled feeling like when Larry King plays himself in a movie yes as I've done 23 movies 23:23 always play myself except for for the what I do voiceover wit I did Billy Crystal I did the B movie yes he did now the first time I was ever introduced that the great Larry King was in ghostbusters that was my first movie that was your first movie you nailed it I mean you say you made it real to all of the first scene they shot really yeah yeah you really you really make it feel like they're ghosts out there that need to be busted because trust Larry King how did Stefan give me the history how Stefan came about well Stefan was a character that Bill Hader and I we wrote a lot together when I was there for the five years I was a writer and it was a character that was kind of based on do you remember the Peter Gatien area era in New York Club kids this was during Rudy Giuliani they're trying to shut down a lot of clubs did you ever take ecstasy there trying to no I never did they're trying it's really great you got to try it this was one of these sort of downtown club kid characters we did a couple sketches meaning a set and other actors and it wouldn't quite work then we put him at the update desk and he just gave tourist tips with some of the most bizarre things you could go to in New York and I so thought it would not work and it worked very well right away and I became a big phenomenon which to this day baffles me you wrote all them Bill Hader and I co-wrote all is it true that you'd add to the script between the dress rehearsal and the taping I did yes but only because the first time we did it Bill Hader started laughing during the segment on-air and that's a lot of fun but you never want to force a fake laugh in the moment right it's cheap so I thought this was very special and Bill's a real professional he's from Tulsa Oklahoma so he's like a assaulted the earth you know he wants to do a good job and stuff so I said well I want to derail all of that so I would add newlines to trip him up and make him laugh were they all all read off the prompter I would tell him you know with cue cards you can't see it for the first time on air so right before he walked out I'd say this is in this is in this is in just so he could be a little familiar but not yet get over it so that he laughs on air as an in-person act yes was it hard to be behind the scenes as a writer no not at Saturday Night Live because going you're a writer you're you have the run of the place well there's a boss Loren Michaels he has the run of the place but when you're a writer you're not just a writer you're a producer you get to work with the costume department the set design department the props department so in about one year when I was 25 I learned more about TV production than I ever could anywhere else and you really had so much control that come not I loved writing for this amazing cast I also knew I could never be as good as that cast but the actual writing and producing is so rewarding that I would have never traded jobs what was it like to come back and host scary very scary why because I had always been behind the scenes I was like the the Russian people putting dogs into spaceships and shooting him off and going have fun and now they I was the dark and they're you know the cosmonauts are stuffing me in there and I was like oh I remember what we used to do to these dogs and then I got there and had one of the best weeks of my life not to be Frank Capra esque but it was like it's a wonderful life I look back and I said this was the most fun five years of my life working here you remember all of it I remembered all of it and I remembered all of the amazing I don't like when people say the crew that sounds like this you know what one guy who's you know this hauling rope it's made up of Tony award-winning designers costume designers artisans painters carpenters editors the makeup and hair department working with all those people was the greatest joyeux did you do any of the writing when I hosted yes those kids too oh yeah yeah yeah yeah I'm too much of a control freak to not do that yeah I wrote a piece with my dear friend Simon rich in America Sawyer that was called switcheroo and then I wrote and these were all sketches we had written when I was a writer I resubmitted him now that I had the class my friend Colin Jost and I wrote a sketch called lobster diner about someone who orders the lobster you know when you get a diner menu and it's ten laminated pages and there's always lobster dinner someone orders the lobster and then we had a big musical about that you come from an academic family right you're both your parents went to Yale Georgetown then Yale Law School yes both of them yes but they went to Yale because it was the best law school not because they were following each other my dad is always quick to point out did you grow up in Washington no we grew up in Chicago where my dad's from in the city so yeah that was after Yale that was after yeah that was after Yale they were both lawyers and my mother's from the Boston area they settled in Chicago my dad was an attorney my mother's a law professor my brother's a US attorney and I'm a stand-up your brother's a US attorney yes where Chicago tough that's a that's a tough office it's a very Fitzgerald Pat Fitzgerald no longer there no but he was a tough US attorney oh yeah everyone in Chicago is tough so you can imagine what the US attorneys have to be but here's of actually important difficult life so of the intellectual side of the family you're on the low rung well I have a sense of superiority however no I have never proven myself in that arena I mean you look your brother's a US Attorney your father's attorney yeah and your mother yeah okay good come on oh yeah yeah John yeah well I went to Georgetown to you did I did but I got in because of the help of a friend of mine I'll never forget his name it was dad was I lived in Washington for 20 years and I spent a lot of time Georgetown where in Washington did MacLaine Oh was Georgetown equal to its reputation what's its reputation mantastic it is fantastic yes I'm telling you it was it equal to its work absolutely you okay John don't act so mad well I don't know what its reputation is reputation is great well we do a lot of other stuff there besides great things so I never knew what you were referring to but you'd live in US and you live in a dumpy row house and two doors down would be Madeleine Albright we walk in a class and you'd see George Tenet it was a fun era to be in Washington DC they were arguing Bush v Gore my freshman year it was very stimulating now I of course didn't go into any of those fields everyone was everyone was a government major were in the School of Foreign Service I was living in Washington Bush versus Gore I was on the air every night that was yo you went to the hearings I was didn't go to the hearings they had open I know yeah my friend got up on a table and Rehnquist went hey get down from there I was proudest accomplishment Rehnquist vtable coming up John on Mick Jagger fan encounters and his longtime friend and collaborator Nick Kroll more with Mr Kydd gorgeous after this John Mulaney just told me spent one year in college with Ivanka Trump yes George yeah we were both freshman at the same time yeah remember yeah she was in my Euro Civ class where we studied pre-renaissance Europe was she good she was very nice a good student and we all smoked cigarettes so I'd see her out on the patio oh really oh do I get sued for that she smoked do you smoke you know you smoked Ivanka and we all smoked out on the patio she's very very nice and and I she left after one year and I thought well that's the last I'll ever see you her I know Eric went there too oh did he yeah you do a bit about Trump in your act and you liken him to a horse let loose in the hospital explain as president and the current situation it feels like there's a horse loose in a hospital I am an optimist I think eventually everything will be okay but I have no idea what's gonna happen neck and no one knows what the horse is gonna do least of all the horse he's never been in a hospital before tell me about oh hello you played an elderly man you did it wouldn't it with your friend mr. Kroll right yeah I guess on the show yes yes I loved his interview with you did you like the world.we scene I loved it more than anything how long did you do it we did it we did off-broadway for about two months and our Broadway run run was from September to January was it a limited run it was a limited run and we did that in case it didn't work was it it was fun every night it was fun every night because it reminded me of Saturday Night Live you're doing a live show you're in New York you're in Midtown and also instead of being on tour which I normally am everyone comes to visit you and it's just rare air to be unbridled told by every Broadway actor every nights different oh absolutely and we would have a guest every night and we'd do 20 minutes improvised with them Martin Short did that I went on stage with him oh really yeah well he had an improvised interview every night in his show oh you did the Jiminy Glick yeah yeah Jiminy Glick I had a most jiminy glick on my show I remember that we stole Marty's idea and then we did it on oh hello and then we would improvise another 10 minutes at the show so we always knew we could make it fresh yeah you did you made money we broke even only the Broadway world brags when they've broken even what we play a game of if you only knew we just saw questions at you okay guilty pleasure mine yeah who else yatta guess how revealing am I supposed to be anything you want to say well as I say to my wife I don't smoke anymore but I smoke cigarettes so you live it I I smell I reek of them III charmingly miss why do you still smoke I smoked for thirty years had a heart attack stopped well I've only smoked since I was 13 around 35 so only 22 years oh you're all right I'm all right person you trade places with for a day let's see it would have been Ed Koch mayor of New York City I wish I had more of that in me yeah yeah it is kind of confrontational it was unbelievable yeah because I so want to give people what they want that watching him just go you never you're crazy if you think you're gonna get that how am i doing how am i doing well you're pissing a lot of people off the comedian that made you want to pursue comedy in truth Jerry Seinfeld great yeah there are many other influences but I saw his documentary comedian when I was a sophomore in college and I said oh this this is a real life you know I can really do this secret talent secret talent I can turn my feet around pretty much all the way I can stand perfectly in in ballet first position and then I can turn them all the way around but this is how I tore my hip so who also I can sing unless you ask my wife and then I can't sing shoving do you have children no we have a dog what's the dog's name petunia the french bulldog what they're gorgeous face yeah they got those little paul giamatti faces yeah so do you have any children three grown and I have two teenagers three grown into teenagers how are the teenagers 19 and 18 in both baseball players both very good baseball really did you play baseball no I loved it though but I did wasn't a good athlete but they need there was I was a terrible athlete I'm afraid if I had children they'd be good athlete he's a club fan yes north side of the city Saturday Night Live character of yours that feels most like you Riley character I wrote with Fred Armisen that made it to the air once he was a little boy who kind of talked like Harvey Fierstein he would go get out of my way [ __ ] and he just was all an authoritative eight year old flamboyant kid childhood celebrity crush Jeanne Tripplehorn who is she Jeanne Tripplehorn the great actress dated Tom Cruise for while she was in Waterworld Waterworld bombed doesn't mean doesn't mean okay I couldn't fantasize a funniest fan encounter funniest fan encounter someone came up to me during this tour and said I'm a huge fan I saw you at the Vic once in Chicago on acid and I thought I don't seem like an act you should see us it's like going to see Mitt Romney speak on ass try to pick something more psychedelic as opposed to a plain slice of white bread in a suit talking what never fails to make you laugh people who take themselves seriously and people who are lying but bad at it it's my favorite thing in the world do you can you give me a person that might be that way that that it lies but is bad at it let's see I'm gonna out some friends of mine I'll tell you another thing people who refuse to say they're wrong that all I love that not that Lauren Michaels is ever wrong if he ever is like if I were to say that's a nice red shirt and you said it's a blue striped shirt he'd go no I know I understand I'm told this that you'd do a decent Mick Jagger oh I don't know if I do a decent interviewed Mick so why does your answer a question was him please ask a question why do the stones keep on going down now what you've stayed on top haha now I don't look in the past I like people that don't look in the past you know people are all about moving forward all I do is sit and dwell in the past and it keeps going I worked with him so I do a tiny impression of him in this new special but it was more about how he's authoritative you know cuz he's done stadiums for 50 years so he's not ever gonna be like um do you have a laptop charger I can borrow you know he just goes yes no yes and he went to the London School of Economics he did graduated the London School not good for his street cred what are you bad at everything but stand-up comedy and sometimes I'm bad at that I'm not a household person I can't change a light let alone a recessed light don't get me started those things they burnt out if you could speak to an animal what animal would you choose unlike not a dog door other than a dog or my dog what animal would I talk to I I i I think a walrus a walrus yeah I go why the mustache yeah that's a good question why do they have yeah I don't know one of the few animals that just has a moustache one thing you'd like to change about the world less [ __ ] and I don't just mean some of the newly-revealed averted [ __ ] just less [ __ ] in general something you long believed to be true and realized wasn't let's see for a long time when I was a kid I thought adults knew what they were talking about and then when whitewater happened I I thought oh none of you have any idea what you're talking about not really that was a real turning point for me tell me something people don't know about Nick Kroll Nick Kroll hates magicians does not like magic I don't know if he hates magicians personally but his enlightenment does not like to watch magic I asked him why don't you like to watch magic he goes because they trick you it's a lie and I said well yeah that's the whole fun of it but he does not like to be that's weird do you like magicians yeah I do yeah but I'm always amazed at how they did it I'm blown away tell me something people don't know about Bill Hader let's see something people don't know about Bill Hader well as I said he'd never enjoyed laughing and was always apologizing to me after he'd laugh is too fun even though it was a concentrated effort and he's doing a serious show now he's doing a series called Barry HBO it's so good you should check it out seen it's very good yes and finally on this segment tell me something people don't know about you about me I am positive I'm gonna be fascinated my wife said to me you mean killed and I go no no no assassinated she goes that just shows your ego that you think you'll be assassinated you just get shot John will answer your many social media questions in our final segment kids gorgeous is on Netflix now don't miss it we'll have more updates john mulaney kid gorgeous is on Netflix available now some social media questions for John m'lady me young if you could go back and take a joke or a bit out of a show like one that ended up being more trouble than it was worth which bit would it be well I said when I was about 26 I had just started dating my now wife I had trouble having her make friends with my female friends it wasn't in a meet they weren't immediately hitting it off one young woman said to my wife it's so nice to meet you sweetie and only and later did she go she shouldn't have called me sweetie and I said why not she goes that's like calling me the c-word and I was like my grandma calls me sweetie I had no idea it was that hot but I told the joke saying Ocean's eleven with women would never work because two would keep breaking off to talk [ __ ] about the other nine that's an okay joke it's an okay joke but now they're making an oceans eight so I've been proven wrong bran flake ass house petunia doing petunias great we're following this Chinese medicine regime with her she's really responding to it how old is she she's turned five yesterday j23 mcguire who would win in a freestyle battle between you and Nick Kroll me bands visit Broadway have you heard about jayjay bitten Burt binder being pissed off about your special and if he has what do you think about it I have heard about this because I checked the internet constantly to see if I'm being mentioned jayjay bitten binder was a detective I talked about in a special he was a detective that would come to my grammar school when I was a kid and he would scare us about stranger danger and he was a Chicago police officer wore a three-piece suit pocket watch had a big handlebar mustache and I remember him wearing a cowboy hat and he'd come and he say you're all gonna die you're all alone out there and this was you know 1980s America where everyone was afraid of kidnappers so we had stuff about you're doing him he was pissed off in the Chicago Tribune that I ever said that he wore a cowboy hat with a three-piece suit and you didn't I my sense memory is that he did but as any detective will tell you I witness recounts are not always reliable weekend updated asks what do your parents think of kid gorgeous my parents were very excited with kid gorgeous they've gotten used to over the years me making fun of them on stage or let me rephrase talking about them mister poops - was it hard to give up drinking yes mister poops - do some research on alcoholism yes it's for a little bit and then I became a bit bit more white-knuckle but I really I think meetings are important but I gave up all drinking and drugs when I was 23 years old in heaven animations know I've taken xanax and one time I had my wisdom teeth pulled and I took a couple hydrocodone and then I said this is too much fun so I had to throw them away Dyanne co 17 having now hosted Saturday Night Live which you prefer hosting or writing hosting was a thrill but I if I could go back in time nothing was more fun than being a writer there sir so Keith are you interested in playing any serious dramatic roles in films or on stage you seem like you could be a great actor Wow first off I'm taken aback by the compliment and also I have tried to act so I seem like I could be a great actor seems mildly insulting but no I never liked to talk in don't want to z' if I was offered you know Iceman Cometh I would do it I'd love to I'd love to be in our town there was the first play I was ever in I'd love to be in our tan again Henry Fonda was great Natalie yes Spalding Gray who's a big hero of mine was great in that Sinatra did the musical he did the musical of our town what was it called our Channel oh not like this swing in town and Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics can I tell you a quick Sam Giancana story yeah sure okay off you go Frank Sinatra is walking out of a restaurant with his friend and Sam Giancana allegedly and Sam is talking to his friend and as they're going through the door Frank grabs him and he goes you never walk through a door with Sam Giancana he goes first and then we follow because people are after him Tony Accardo lived right near my dad in Oak Park growing up in Chicago well you know everything Mulaney not like you you've met all these people thank you so much thank you be well you be well you be well you're you're a big deal to me you're a big deal I mean we didn't even get to talk Oh J you're a big toe J I'd talk oh that's the thing no one knows about museums I'm obsessed with OJ obsess yeah you think he did it thanks to my guest John Mulaney kid gorgeous is available on Netflix you can always find me on Twitter at Kings things and I'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Larry King

Views: 214,584

Keywords: john mulaney, mick jagger, john mulaney stand up, mulaney, stand up, john mulaney new in town, stand up comedy, john mulaney on meyers, john mulaney stand-up, comedy central stand up, john mulaney super mad, john mulaney donald trump, john mulaney montreal, john mulaney ice t, john mulaney back to the future, john mulaney kid gorgeous, john mulaney comedian, john mulaney politics, john mulaney live

Id: xu03CQoed3s

Length: 30min 23sec (1823 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 03 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/CyanNekomata]

Not funny!