Thursday, May 3, 2018

John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous

From the comfort of the Fortress of Ineptitude, my wife Andrea, our daughter Randie and I watched comedian John Mulaney perform at New York City’s Radio City Music Hall. John’s new comedy special had dropped on Netflix on Tuesday, May 1st and we watched it that night.


Randie who had visited NYC a few weeks back was thrilled to see Radio City Music Hall again. She got to tour the facility including stuff back stage. As John made his way to the stage, Randie would exclaim, “Hey, I saw that!” and “I was there in that spot!” She got to meet Rockettes. I’m so jealous.


Radio City Music Hall is a big, honkin’ place. When John Mulaney strode on stage, he was facing I reckon about a half a million people. Well, it looked like it to me. Randie, being the resident expert on Radio City Music Hall, cautioned me it’s not quite that big but it is, nonetheless, a big, honkin’ place.


John Mulaney is perhaps the funniest person I know of currently working in stand up. Just like it says about me on the masthead of this blog, John too seems “trapped in a world he is not designed to cope with”.


The new special is called “Kid Gorgeous” and it is minute to minute unerringly funny. His extended bit about school assemblies had us all in stitches, particularly the one about the school assembly hosted by a Chicaho policeman on “stranger danger” whose outlook on life is less about what to do IF you’re kidnapped but WHEN. Which is a lot to deal with when you’re 7 years old.  


Mulaney also wades into current politics with an extended and exceedingly absurd metaphor comparing our current president to “a horse wondering around a hospital”.  How did the horse get in the hospital? What is the horse doing now? What will the horse do next? Where in the hospital will the horse appear next? What will the horse do when it gets there?  Maybe there should be some kind of “horse catcher” on the job but no, the horse fired the horse catcher!


It’s a LOT funnier to hear John tell it.  


Mulaney is particularly good at linking parts of his set in unexpected ways. At the star of the special, John relays a story about how his mother told him she had seen a ghost. Then he moves on to other things. About ¾ of the way into the special, John links back what he’s talking about now to the ghost story at the beginning. John’s not just up there rambling at random. He’s given this some thought. 


Here are some links to some John Mulaney videos. (Standard disclaimer applies: These videos are on You Tube so their continued availability is at the mercy of whatever mood You Tube is in today.)



No one should order LOBSTER in a DINER! So why is LOBSTER on the DINER menu? Here’s what happens when someone tries. This is an SNL sketch from when John hosted the show a few weeks back. It’s a sketch he co-wrote about 7 years ago when he was on the SNL writing staff. Warning: This may disturb any appreciation you may have for Les Miserables. 


Trump Is 'A Horse Loose In A Hospital'
This is a clip from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert doing a variation of the "Horse in a Hospital" bit that John performs in Kid Gorgeous.  



One of John Mulaney’s best stories from a previous stand up special, a lovely story about John and his friend also named John as they torture a diner full of innocents with the musical stylings of Tom Jones.


Anyway, John Mulaney’s Kid Gorgeous is incredibly funny. It’s on Netflix so go check it out now. 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Dave-El's Spinner Rack: Superman In Action

First a word about the return of the best DC Comics logo. Designed by Milton Glaser, the logo that came to be known as the DC Bullet began a...