Interview conducted by Ben Moosher, Fun Page Editor
Pipe Dream: So, excellent set. I think it’s safe to say that you killed it out there.
John Mulaney: Thank you.
PD: You started your set with a lot of Binghamton-specific jokes. Is that something that you do for every college campus? If so, what’s the research you do behind that, except for just driving through town?
JM: Oh, the research. We were just in the Library of Congress going through Microfiche for months to dig up the fact that Binghamton looks weird. No, we just drove around for about 5 seconds, and — what is the name of that department store?
PD: Boscov’s.
JM: Boscov’s. That looks like a place where you’d buy, like, a pillbox hat and then watch the moon landing. So, do I do jokes like that all the time? About the town and stuff? I wouldn’t just force a joke about any town.
PD: When you do a [non-college show], when do you decide what your first joke is going to be; how do you order your jokes?
JM: Well, I always like to open with something that’s just kind of organic in the moment, like the city we’re in or just the venue we’re in, or just the way it looked, or the way I walked out and invariably tripped or something. Whatever had happened, I try to open with something like that, with the energy of the room and not just come out and go “I got married,” and you know, launch into “material material.” It all depends.
PD: Over the past year, your career has really taken off. How the exposure and the newfound fame and celebrity status has affected your stand up, if it has at all?
JM: That’s nice of you to say. I would say I am medium comedy famous. People that know comedy know who I am, but most people don’t. I can still just do whatever I want. I can eat McDonalds over a garbage can at the Amtrak station and no one is like, “oh my god.” No one knows who I am, so I do have a nice situation where if I go to a comedy club, other comedians might know who I am — people that really like standup, a lot of students here seem to be excited, but it’s not like, “famous,” you know?
PD: Yeah I understand that. So it hasn’t really impacted you that much as far as people stopping you on the street or anything?
JM: No, no, I like that stuff, because it happens infrequently, so it’s just kind of a pleasant surprise. It’s like living in a small town, people are just like, “Hey, Mulaney!” and I’m like, “How ya doin’!” and you know I don’t know them at all.
PD: I want to move on to [how] a lot of comedians have come out recently and spoken a little bit about the politically correct culture of college campus’ nowadays, and how that’s affecting their material, and why they don’t really want to play colleges anymore. By most standards you have a pretty clean act, but I was curious if you have any thoughts on what these comedians are saying and if it does affect your act at all?
JM: No, it doesn’t affect your act … it affects the show maybe. Material that maybe elsewhere wouldn’t hit certain people’s radars might [do so] on a college campus. It also sometimes does at a club, a theater anywhere. Yeah, I mean, there are college campus’ that’ll go along for any ride … it wasn’t like anything I said was enlightened tonight, people seemed to still laugh because they know it’s a joke. I don’t think it’s ever affected people’s material. I don’t know people that are like “I gotta start writing super-inclusive liberal college jokes.” They just sorta go “oh I bombed ‘cause they didn’t like my jokes.” So it’s less affecting their act and maybe affecting how they think of colleges.
PD: Do you think that’s hindering the future of comedy or do you think that it’s more of the comedian’s role to adapt to that setting?
JM: No, I don’t think that they have to adapt. If a comedian offended a certain college crowd, you move on. You know, I don’t think it’s going to do anything to the world of comedy — comedy’s been around forever, so no I don’t think so … [Comedians aren’t] all sitting around talking about how are you gonna address the inclusivity doctrine that came down, that’s not a thing.
PD: I’m curious about the beginning of your career. More specifically, your writing and auditioning for “SNL.” What was that process like? I hear it’s very terrifying.
JM: Well it was terrifying because I had less than 48 hours to even be prepared for it. I was doing standup, I was doing a show called “Best Week Ever.” I made just enough to live in Brooklyn, and I was the happiest I’ve ever been. Then, summer of ‘08, I’d been on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” a couple of times, and they were like, “We’re going to send your Conan O’Briens over to ‘Saturday Night Live,’” and I was like “okay, can’t hurt, but there’s no room for me there. They have so many skinny white guys; they do not need me at all. They have better skinny white guys, there’s nothing I could do that Fred or Bill couldn’t do, couldn’t do better.” And then, August 5 I got a call that I was gonna audition for “SNL” August 7, and I had to get an audition ready. So it was just me, Nick Kroll and TJ Miller — we all found out the same day — whipping together auditions really quickly. And then I went to audition, totally knew I wouldn’t get it, very excited to just be like “oh this’ll be a cool story where I can say I met Lorne Michaels and stuff” and then it’ll be great, and I’ll have the story. And then a couple days later, I got hired as a writer from the audition, which I didn’t even have in the back of my mind. It wasn’t like well maybe this will be the means to an end, I was just like “this will be a cool thing, it’s kind of weird they’re letting me audition, they don’t need me at all.” And I’m more of a stand-up than, let’s say a chameleon sketch actor. So yeah, it’s just a crazy surprise.
PD: Yeah. Having said that, you’re pretty famous for one of the characters you do on “Kroll Show,” and as an Upper West Sider.
JM: I’m good at one character, I will say that. I’m very very good at one character. It was really fun to do, we’re doing an Off-Broadway run of them this December.
PD: I was gonna ask about that. What is going into preparing that show?
JM: Me and Nick [Kroll] sitting around, and liking all of our ideas immediately. We’re not discriminatory about “oh hello jokes.” Anything we say, we immediately start laughing and write down. So it’s a lot of weaning out what the terrible, useless stuff is and what might actually be good for an audience.
PD: You should be pretty excited about that, right?
JM: Oh, it’s going to be so fun. Do “oh hello” every night at a cool theater in the West Village, and then you have your whole day off. It’s like the life of a king.
PD: The last question I really want to talk about [is this]:a lot of people here want to get into comedy in some form after they graduate. Do you feel like it’s different at all for young people tying to go out and be comedians than from when you started out? What might be some challenges that today’s young aspiring comedians might face?
JM: No I don’t think it’s different in terms of challenges. I don’t necessarily think it’s better in terms of opportunities though. Some people are like, “well, now there’s YouTube, and you can just become a star.” That’s not true. Four people have sort-of become a star and even they [aren’t stars] — they’re on “Dancing with the Stars” now. So yeah, you just go to a city where there is a great comedy scene, you make friends with other comedians, and then you either try to do the open mics or you start your own show. The best advice I always give is, Nick Kroll and I, we started our own show that we hosted every week. We’d invite comedians to do it, and we’d get enough of an audience where the comedians have a good time, so then those comedians also have their own shows and they invite you to do their shows. And it’s really just about meeting a lot of comedians. That’s the whole secret to it. Because then it’s like, “Oh, I’m booking a show. Oh, you know who’s funny? This person,” and then you just get more and more work. I wouldn’t say it’s about hanging out, it’s about doing comedy and doing comedy with other people.
Interview edited for clarity and length.