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Promotional art for Happy. And a Lot.
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Happy. And a Lot.

Jay Mohr

Showtime · 2015 · 67 min

Stories of marriage, raising children, and wandering the Liberace Museum high.

Jay Mohr leans heavily into domestic friction and his established celebrity impressions for a 2015 hour that paints him as a bewildered family man. He works through the frustrations of marriage and raising two children, leaning on his talent for mimicry to populate his stories. The set’s strangest sequence moves away from the house, detailing a time he smoked medical marijuana in the 108-degree Nevada desert and sought refuge inside the Liberace Museum.

Filmed in Santa Barbara for Showtime, the release caught Mohr during a prolific broadcasting stretch when he was juggling a daily sports radio show and a popular podcast. The audio version received a Grammy nomination for Best Comedy Album the following year, drawing some industry attention because his then-wife Nikki Cox was nominated as the sole writer of the material.

The set list

5 bits
  1. Similar Hates

    Mohr argues that sustaining a happy long-term relationship does not depend on having similar interests, but rather sharing similar hates.

  2. The origin of the special's title

    Mohr describes picking up his son from preschool and reading a daily report card where the teacher listed his mood as 'happy' and handwritten next to lunch '...and a lot.'

  3. Phobias and homophobia

    A breakdown mocking the absurdity of phobias, focusing particularly on the illogical nature of homophobia.

  4. Attempting things that are 'so bad it's good'

    A critique of ironic appreciation that recounts his own failures, including a story involving Las Vegas, Liberace, and palliative care marijuana.

  5. Russell Brand impression

    A celebrity impression of British comedian and actor Russell Brand.

How it plays

About
marriage, happiness, parenthood, similar hates in relationships, phobias and homophobia, irony

Backstory

The special was written entirely by Mohr's wife, actress Nikki Cox—noted as potentially the first time a comedian's wife penned an entire hour special—and drew heavily on his personal happiness, marriage, parenting, and his conversion to Roman Catholicism.

Details

Released
Taped
Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara
Runtime
67 min
Where
Showtime
Director
Scott L. Montoya
Honors
Grammy Award nomination for Best Comedy Album (58th Annual Grammy Awards)
Topics

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