John Mulaney on Turning Addiction Into Comedy and Why He ‘Identified’ With Matthew Perry’s Journey
variety.comWilliam Earl administrator Only a comedic mind like John Mulaney’s could mine gold from one of the lowest points of his life.
The comic released his third Netflix special, “Baby J,” in April. In stark relief to his previous, more ebullient hours, his latest work examined his 2020 drug relapse and the intervention that led to a successful stint in rehab. “Going to rehab and a lot of other things had become public knowledge, and I felt there was no way to start doing stand-up again without going through this,” he tells Variety now. “I also had a lot to say about it.
It had been an extremely eventful time, and the goal from the beginning was to do this as funny as I could make it — not as impactful as I could make it, not to pause for dramatic effect.
I just wanted it to be a little wilder and put you in my very confident, demented brain during the time of addiction.” Luckily, Mulaney, who has now been sober for three years, has a strong support system of comedic peers and heroes that he has gotten to know from his time on the road and writing on “Saturday Night Live” from 2008 to 2013.
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