Stan Birch ‘22
Managing Editor
A month ago when we booked the tickets, I was in the dark about the rollercoaster of a year John Mulaney had just lived through. Reader, to say I was surprised when I was brought up to speed by a classmate would be a massive understatement. I was floored. In the blink of an eye for me,[1] a show to see a great comic had now become a chance to see one of two things: someone crash and burn or someone rise from the ashes. What I got was completely unexpected and even better than I could have imagined. I got both.[2]
The line in front of the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia spanned several blocks out two doors, and the crowd was lively. The end of the line involved proof of vaccination with an ID and then a trip to will-call. I noticed a large number of ticket-holders under the age of sixteen, and had questions for the parents that were leading them to seats. This was one of the first shows back for a recently recovered addict, after all. Maybe the show wouldn’t focus too much on drug use or recovery.[3]
The next step to get to my seat invoked a flashback to the second time I took the LSAT. I dropped my phone in a Yondr bag and they sealed it tight. I watched many people panic about not being attached to their phone for two hours, but I personally breathed a sigh of relief. If you’ve been to a concert or a show in the last decade, you’ve watched part of that event through your own phone screen or the screen of the 6’2” guy in front of you who filmed the entire thing.[4] For the artists, the absence of phones allows them to be honest, experimental, and comfortable connecting to an audience. This was necessary for the show to come.
The Academy of Music itself is a stunning venue and added an extra element to my first comedy show back after 2020. The lights dimmed and Seaton Smith came out onto stage to open. Immediately launching into edgy and enjoyable material, Smith perfectly primed the audience for punchlines to come. With a very distinct presentation that appeared simultaneously at-ease but anxious, Smith tackled topic after topic while delicately walking the razor's edge of going too far. Then it was time for the main act.
John Mulaney strutted out onto stage in a very familiar manner, greeted the audience, acknowledged the year he had just lived through, and then began to artfully drag us all alongside him through his supposed fall. He opened up about the challenges he’s faced, the true level of his addiction, his road to recovery, and even his upcoming child.[5] In the hopes that there is an upcoming special in his future, I’ll avoid divulging much of his material here. However, if you thought that his return to the stage would be a Sack-Lunch-Bunch reprise, you would be very mistaken. He talked with members of the audience who had been through treatment and pulled no punches against himself. Mulaney shocked audience members with how bad his addiction was. Asking as an “amateur-drug-trafficker,” he still wants to know what civilians use Venmo for.[6] I regret not buying a t-shirt, but after the comedian bluntly admitted it would be nice if everyone bought one since “for some reason his assets were being accounted for and divided,” the line was literally out the door.
Talking us from his drug-induced high to his withdrawal-induced low with such intimacy and openness, what the audience saw in front of them was someone truly rising from the ashes. The night of his star-studded intervention he may have been “cocaine skinny with a fresh haircut,” but I think Mulaney looks healthier and happier than ever before.
At the end of the day, I’m just glad to see the son of a Northwestern Law Professor and a Skadden M&A Partner doing anything but pursuing a J.D.
Mulaney is back.
[1] But several grueling months for the comedian.
[2] John, if by some sick twist of fate you’re reading this, please take my sarcastic jokes as an audition to write with you and just pretend I was left off of that same email chain as Nick Kroll.
[3] Oh, just wait.
[4] Reader, if this is you, please tell me when you ever watched that 46 minutes of footage all the way through. Separately, if you have ever done this on an iPad, I invite you to frisbee it into the nearest body of water.
[5] In a decision that can only be described as classy, he only mentioned his upcoming child once, keeping the focus of the evening on his own “endeavors.”
[6] Did you know that you can max out your Venmo, Cashapp, and PayPal accounts monthly? Mulaney knows.