‘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.
Occasionally, that can feel shallow. Usually, you’re too thoroughly entertained to care, as our host recounts a life he can now barely credit, of dodgy doctors dishing out unwarranted prescriptions, drug dealers solicitous for his safety, and media interviews conducted in states of narcotic semi-coherency. After his friends mount their overcrowded intervention, Mulaney is droll too about the mixed blessing of owing your life to no fewer than 12 different people.
It’s all delivered with the Chicagoan’s trademark slickness and crisp articulacy, from a vantage point of now, he tells us, being happier and better-adjusted than ever. Maybe that all feels a bit neat; it also finds those other, unaddressed aspects of his not-so-private life rearing up in our peripheral vision. You may wonder, finally, that a tale of addiction, intervention and recovery should be this high-spirited – but it’s great fun to come along for the ride.
• John Mulaney is at Hammersmith Apollo, London, 26 and 27 January
• In the UK, Action on Addiction is available on 0300 330 0659. In the US, SAMHSA’s National Helpline is at 800-662-4357. In Australia, the National Alcohol and Other Drug Hotline is at 1800 250 015; families and friends can seek help at Family Drug Support Australia at 1300 368 186
