John Mulaney: Baby J Review: The stand-up comedian and actor is back again on Netflix with his latest and third comedy special on 25th April 2023. His previous specials were The Comeback Kid in 2015 and Kid Gorgeous in 2018, which even won him an Emmy award for outstanding writing for a variety special. Hoping to continue the same streak, Mulaney decides to share all about his life with a packed audience at Boston’s Symphony Hall.
It is directed by Alex Timbers, who also directed and executive produced the 2018 standup and the music is given by singer and songwriter David Byrne, who even appeared in The Sack Lunch Bunch. It has a runtime of about 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Netflix’s description of the stand-up reads:
A chaotic intervention. An action packed stay in rehab. After a weird couple of years, John Mulaney comes out swinging in his return to the stage.
-John Mulaney: Baby J Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-
During the pandemic, a lot of strange and unusual things happened, many made the news for all the more ridiculous reasons. Among them, John Mulaney made the headlines for all the reasons that no one would have expected. From getting into rehab after being intervened by his friends to his divorce and a new relationship with Olivia Munn – Mulaney had a lot to share and he casually dropped it in bits & pieces in a witty, somewhat self-deprecating manner.
Before getting into the stand-up, I was thinking what it would be like. Will he try to salvage his image from the scandals he was embroiled in or make a total joke of everything as if nothing happened? Clearly, I didn’t have many expectations, however, Mulaney grabs your attention from the get-go, with his anecdotes.
He starts with a story from his childhood, as one can never go wrong with a story from the naive days, where no matter what outrageous thing you did, it will be hilarious. He shares the same old tale of how elder siblings try to scare you by saying that one is adopted but mind you, his siblings covered all the angles that would never let their lie burst out.
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He further delved into his attention-seeking habits and what stupid things he would do to become the centre of attention. The whole intro bit is a solid start that piques one’s interest to know what more will he be talking about, through the night. The real ‘wide-ranging’ conversation starts after a hilarious song, which sounds pretty normal at first & then takes a dark turn.
Also, Mulaney notices a young boy of about 11 years old in his audience, which makes him hesitant to continue the show for a second, considering all the ridiculous things he just shared and will be talking about more; but a show must go on & he continues with his cocaine-fuelled anecdotes.
John Mulaney does not really tells you the intricate details about his relapsing but the way he presents it with specific dates & people involved, makes you believe that you are getting all there is to know. As he says in the middle ‘Don’t believe the persona’, thus one should keep in mind that what he presents on the stage is not exactly what Mulaney is offstage.
The most bit of the special is how his friends held an intervention for him, on the pretence of having a dinner and how his addiction got the best of him – making him do all the idiotic (sometimes even illegal) things that felt like the best idea mankind ever had. However, after a while, it becomes a bit repetitive and you wonder if this is all he will be talking about.
His set does have many funny parts but would have been better if he had added some more things about his life, or anything else in general that would have made it another award-winning variety, maybe (?). Mulaney’s return to the stage is somewhat as one would have expected, it’s definitely not the same as before, but with time his ways are also changing.
John Mulaney: Baby J Review – Final Thoughts
Overall, it was a pretty good and hilarious standup. I would give the start a solid 10/10 but it falters somewhere to a 7, after the midpoint of the show but gains back the momentum with his media antics, of which he had no recollection of at all. If you are a fan of the comedian & have been looking forward to his new special then you definitely won’t be disappointed, as he presents his best, well-rehearsed version of himself.
John Mulaney: Baby J is currently streaming on Netflix.