John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous (2018)

I saw John Mulaney perform this set live in Washington DC. The Netflix special is mostly the same, except I don't remember hearing the bit about Leonard Bernstein. In person, I was slightly underwhelmed by the material. It was the second time I had seen John Mulaney, and the first time was fire. John Mulaney is perhaps the most polished of all the stand-ups today. His delivery is non-stop, and exactly the same each iteration, proving how well-rehearsed he is. Rehearsal, of course, is not a bad thing, but perhaps it makes him sound a little less genuine. His performance doesn't have the natural hesitation of normal spoken cadence. He also only has one volume. He yells at the audience for an hour straight. Can a stand-up be too polished?

Oh, Hello: On Broadway (2017)

It's not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but I love John Mulaney. John Mulaney and Nick Kroll star in this limited engagement run on Broadway as ultimate New Yorkers Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland. They have thick accents, often mispronounce words, and go off on ridiculous tangents. Basically, if you were already aware of them, you are predisposed to like it. But the comedy is very niche. It's not going to attract newcomers. There isn't too much of a story, but just enough to make it funny. They're being evicted from their rent controlled apartment on the Upper West Side. There are tons of insider New York jokes that play to their audience. And they host a show on NY1 called Too Much Tuna, featuring a different celebrity guest each night. Steve Martin was featured in that particular performance and he fit in splendidly. Final verdict: I thought it was funny, but I'm kind of weird.

The Comeback Kid (2015)

John Mulaney is my favorite (or second favorite after Tig) stand up comedian out there today. He is hilarious on TV and in person. He came to Hopkins to perform a preview of his Netflix special. He did a lot of the same jokes as in his Netflix special with some extra jokes (about 30 minutes longer than his special).  I love the voices he does (like of Bill Clinton) and his expressions and his sarcasm. He makes fun of these little moments in his life that anyone else might have forgotten.  The jokes were funny the first time in person, and even though I know the punch lines, they are timeless jokes that still make me laugh.  They're actually not totally timeless, they are topical to a certain time in the past sometimes, but he gives you enough background that it is still funny, like jokes about Back to the Future. For the record, he was worried that we wouldn't watch his special having already heard the jokes in person, but I did and it was totally worth it.

New in Town (2012)

To say that I love New in Town would be an understatement.  John Mulaney is hilarious in all of the stand up he does.  I was lucky that he visited Johns Hopkins and did an extended set, longer than he was paid for.  I have seen this particular set at least four times now, and I do not watch anything four times.  It's a shame his TV show didn't work out last year.  I love how he does voices, especially his impression of Ice-T.  He is capable of doing so many voices, and even the ones of people you don't know, his personal acquaintances, are still funny.  He makes jokes about mundane moments in his life that any one else might have simply forgotten, but he finds the comedy in it and he harps on it and lingers on the joke, and brings it back later, and it leaves me laughing every time.