From January 30 through February 3, John Mulaney returns to his hometown to take over the Chicago Theatre for a string of shows featuring material from his forthcoming special, Kid Gorgeous. The self-proclaimed “tall child” and former Saturday Night Live writer has released three albums of upbeat observational comedy (The Top Part, New in Town, and The Comeback Kid). He starred in the short-lived 2014 sitcom Mulaney, which was vaguely reminiscent of Seinfeld but ultimately felt to critics and fans alike as an inadequate platform for Mulaney’s humor. A year ago he wrapped a five-month Broadway run of Oh, Hello, in which he and Nick Kroll played nebbish, finicky Upper West Siders. By phone from his home in New York City prior to his arrival in Chicago, Mulaney spoke about his comedic influences, which include a lot of local references and a surprising amount of vitriol and misery.
There was a guy who used yell this one joke over and over again, which was, “What’s Beethoven’s favorite fruit? Ba-na-na-na!”
Spalding Gray
I’ve always enjoyed being yelled at. It’s so funny! Just the idea of being 14 and having your shirt untucked and bringing a grown man to red-in-the-face screams because your shirt is untucked. It says so much more about him and what he’s going through.
Shatner’s Raw Nerve
They were talking about the Elizabeth Smart case. He starts off going, “What do you think of all these kidnappings, Andy?” Andy says, “What do you mean?” “Aren’t there more kidnappings than there used to be?” “No, there were always kidnappings.” So that’s how it starts. Later in the conversation, [King] goes, “Are you a Catholic?” And Andy says, “I won’t answer that on the ground that it could incriminate myself.”
