John Mulaney’s ‘New in Town’

John Mulaney is a stand-up comedian who’s second CD New in Town goes on sale January 31. He is a current writer for Saturday Night Live, where in addition to writing for the show he has also made appearances on the “Weekend Update” segment. Mulaney previously made regular appearances on Best Week Ever on VH1. He has appeared multiple times on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and was a writer for the television show Important Things with Demetri Martin.

Much of John’s material comes from his misfortune in every day life. Take for example his childhood. As an Irish kid with a black bowl haircut and thin eyes, he was often mistaken for an Asian American. Easy mistake, right? According to John, and quoting a child who would one day be his best friend, a boy went home that night and said, “Papa today I met a kid with no eyes.” Kids would call him “Chinaman,” something he thought to be not only racist, but lazy. While also a kid he recounts a babysitter with whom he was in love. While always thinking of her as some kind of adult, he recently has had the revelation that she was only three years older than him. This seems irresponsible to him. “That would be like you’re going out of town for the week, but you hire a horse to watch you’re dog.”

Now that he’s grown up, John deals with a different set of ridicules. Ridicules that he claims are well-deserved. John uses an intricate and very detailed picture to describe how he drives by what he thinks drivers ought to be seeing: “…a hundred year old blind dog who’s texting while driving and drinking a smoothie.” Instead of this barrage of comedy what they see is, “a 28 year old white male trying his best.”

New in Town’s greatest strength draws on Mulaney’s personal list of failures which include his infamous black-out-drinking at high school parties, his profanity chants aimed at the police and the prostate exam that he had to endure in order to get a prescription of Xanax. Real, embarrassing pain is such a great instigator for so many stories it is no surprise that it works again and again.

New in Town is 19 packed tracks of comedy that is honest, refreshing and full of eloquent  brilliance. Mulaney exhibits a strong stage presence and a boyish and goofy personality that’s a joy to hear. His website biography indicates that he has worked under comics like Patton Oswalt, Mike Birbiglia and Brian Posehn. Clearly a positive influence rubbed off on him while working with those very skilled comics. It’s very evident that Mulaney has awesome talent. With a strong sophomore performance it’s likely that we’ll see Mulaney around for a long time to come.

Preview some of Mulaney’s New in Town here, courtesy of thelaughbutton.com. You can read more about Mulaney at his website johnmulaney.com and follow him on Twitter @Mulaney.

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