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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

The Comeback Kid

John Mulaney

Netflix · 2015 · 62 min

An hour of polite midwestern anxiety and highly structured storytelling.

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John Mulaney steps onto the stage in a tailored blue suit, ready to talk about the mild humiliations of early adulthood. The posture is as erect and formal as ever, but the material leans into the quiet, weird friction of modern life. He spends a significant chunk of the set discussing his marriage to a woman who does not share his polite, passive Midwestern temperament, the absurdities of the Catholic Church’s updated liturgical phrasing, and a deeply strange pitch meeting that must have occurred before Back to the Future got made.

Filmed at the Chicago Theatre in May 2015, the show arrived shortly after Fox cancelled his self-titled network sitcom after a single, widely panned season. Mulaney uses the title of the hour as a nod to both that television failure and the special’s closing story: a childhood encounter with Bill Clinton at Chicago’s Palmer House hotel. He approaches his own setbacks with the same cheerfully pedantic energy he uses to critique wacky real estate agents and his high-maintenance French bulldog, Petunia.

The set list

6 bits
  1. The closer (spoiler). Show it

    Meeting Bill Clinton in 1992 closer

    Narrates an encounter with the charismatic politician, his father's deep hatred for him, and weaves in references to the movie The Fugitive

  2. Dissecting Back to the Future

    Stages the script pitch as an absurd meeting between writers and confused studio executives reacting to the incestuous plot

  3. Getting a French Bulldog named Petunia instead of having children

    Discusses his lack of alpha male dominance at home and imitates Petunia as a disgruntled denizen of occupied Paris

  4. Deconstructing the expression 'Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?'

    Breaks down the ridiculous linguistic logic of the saying by imagining having to take your cow to a cow sale

  5. Father ordering a single black coffee at McDonald's

    Recalls his father pulling into a McDonald's drive-thru with a van packed with hungry children only to order one black coffee for himself

  6. Catholic upbringing and liturgical changes

    Explores the awkwardness of Catholic call-and-response liturgy and reflects on a bratty peer ruining a wedding video

How it plays

Tone
Witty, observant, irreverent, and warm
On stage
Boyish, sharp-witted, self-effacing, nonthreatening pushover delivering jokes with the confidence of someone decades older
Pace
Carefully crafted timing, rhythm, and cadence paired with conversational, natural momentum and escalating goofiness
About
marriage and domestic life, childhood and Catholic upbringing, pop culture and movies, family dynamics, linguistic absurdity

What the critics said

Universally praised by critics as a flawless, masterfully written return to form with impeccable comedic timing and storytelling

In the room: Intimate, highly enthusiastic sold-out crowd at a historic theater

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: rottentomatoes.com, blu-ray.com, vogue.com, theatlantic.com, wesleyanargus.com, dailyfreepress.com, pajiba.com, en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.

Backstory

Following the implosion and cancellation of his network sitcom, Mulaney returned to road touring; he had also recently turned 33, gotten married, and bought a home

Details

Released
Taped
Chicago Theatre
Runtime
62 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Rhys Thomas
Honors
Emmy Nominee
Topics
Before
New in Town (2012)
After
Kid Gorgeous at Radio City (2018)

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