A Talk Series? John Mulaney ‘Was Intrigued by Six Live Nights’ and All the Wacky Possibilities
On June 6, the 2024 IndieWire Honors ceremony will celebrate 13 creators and stars responsible for some of the most stellar work of the TV season. Curated and selected by IndieWire’s editorial team, the event is a new edition of previous IndieWire Honors ceremonies, this time focused entirely on television. We’re showcasing their work with new interviews leading up to the Los Angeles celebration.
John Mulaney is talking about Marcia Clark.
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To fans of the comedian, this shouldn’t come as a surprise — the former O.J. Simpson prosecutor has been a guest on his “Oh, Hello” Broadway show, the trial popped up in his stand-up, and Clark recently appeared on Netflix’s hilarious talk series “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA.”
“The O.J. Simpson trial was just an all-consuming experience for me as a kid, and I could talk about it for hours and hours,” Mulaney told IndieWire during a recent interview. “But beyond that, the legal work she does now pro bono is really cool. Also, she’s a very good writer and [her] new book, ‘Trial by Ambush,’ is really interesting. She’s writing about former Los Angeles district attorneys, of which when she started, they’re the big name in the office. And she’s now going back and actually examining the legacy of these other DAs. I just could talk to her about anything.”
A few moments later, after discussing Mulaney’s “nostalgic” love for Johnnie Cochran and Clark’s mutual respect, this reporter realized she now also wants to read Clark’s book: Mulaney’s gift is such that when he’s intrigued by something (parody documentaries about flop musicals, children’s programming), he can make others find it fascinating, too.
That talent was certainly on display in May during the six live nights of “Everybody’s in LA,” a hodgepodge talk and variety show tied to Netflix’s recent Netflix Is a Joke Festival. Part traditional talk series, part lo-fi public access vibes with a dash of man-on-the-street weirdness and goofy pre-taped skits, Mulaney — who will receive the inaugural Innovation Award at IndieWire Honors — was the center of it all, focusing each episode on an LA-specific oddity/interest of his: Earthquakes. The Paranormal. Coyotes.
“Netflix wanted a show every night, coinciding with the festival,” Mulaney said about the initial pitch. “They didn’t know what they wanted. They brought it to me and said, ‘Would you want to produce this? And be some part of it?’ And it was like that: ‘We don’t know what this is. Do you want to do it?’ That open. And I was intrigued by six live nights, the run of it, and the finite amount of time.”
The broad idea — Mulaney originally didn’t even plan to host — came to him around the holidays, right after the strikes. “I knew we wouldn’t be able to start until February, even in pre-production,” Mulaney said. “And I [thought,] ‘Oh, that’s so fun, where we’ll just have to get a staff together, get a lot of great people together. And then we’ll just have to go, go, go. And then it’ll be done May 10.’”
One iconic variety show that Mulaney learned from was Chris Rock’s 1997 HBO series, which comes with its own special Clark tie-in. “I was kind of ripping off ‘The Chris Rock Show,'” Mulaney said when asked about his favorite talk series. “He had Cochran on and I remember watching that as a kid and going, ‘Oh, he’s having on who he thinks is interesting.'”
“I filed that away,” he continued. “As like: Oh, of course you do that. If you can get someone you’re interested in who would really be cool to an audience, everybody wins. … And so I had Marcia!”
The idea of bringing in experts and focusing on “the weirdest city” came early in the process as well. “You have Jerry Seinfeld, and he’s sitting next to a coyote expert,” Mulaney said. “That was a North Star from the beginning. So the fact that that specifically came together was really great.” (“This is the weirdest show I’ve ever been on in my life,” Seinfeld quipped the first night while on the couch next to coyote conservation advocate Tony Tucci.)
When pitching the various experts, Mulaney first needed to assure them they weren’t going to be a punchline to the joke. “I learned quickly you have to say, ‘Oh, we’re not making fun of you.’ Which I would have never thought you have to say! But of course, they’re [saying], ‘It’s a comedy show.’ And we’re comedians,” he said. “And I was like, ‘No, no, I’m much more interested in you than I am the [other] comedians.’” Just another way to explore curiosities and bring viewers along for the ride.
“[Fan response to ‘Everybody’s in LA’] in particular felt really gratifying because most of the comedy I’ve done [like “Sack Lunch Bunch” or “Oh, Hello”] is actually about external topics and not about my own life or psyche or whatever; it was never about my personal life,” Mulaney said. “To me, I mainly make fun of TV shows and random things I’ve seen. So this show being entirely external, in a way in the end becomes the most personal thing you can do. I promise you: I think more about earthquakes and ghosts than I do my own life.”
So: Is more “Everybody’s in LA” — or even just some sort of his own variety program — on the horizon?
“I’m really not sure,” Mulaney said, noting he liked the “puzzle” aspect of putting a show together. “I used to have strong opinions: ‘I’ll only do this’ or ‘I’ll never do this.’ And ‘I don’t want to get pigeonholed like this.’ And I think both I and the entire entertainment business has changed so much. I mean, there are people who one hundred percent host a game show every week and we have no idea — except for the millions of people watching them. I’m very now into instinct and what’s happening in the moment. And that’s how this show came together. I really don’t have some strong principled take on doing it again. It was so fun, you know?”
Indeed. One innovative thrill of Mulaney’s show is decidedly retro, updating ‘90s radio for Netflix with call-ins from viewers about the night’s big topic (Palm Trees, The Future of LA). Running the gamut from sweet and relevant to total nonsense, the idea that the panelists didn’t know what would happen combined with Mulaney’s ability to have fun — or be playfully exasperated — kept things loose, watchable, and silly.
“John has such a hyper-specific style of storytelling, and he has this kind of hyper-specific confidence,” “The Bear” creator Christopher Storer told IndieWire. “I think what I loved about that show so much is that every sort of minute looked like it was about to get out of control in every possible way. But because John is just who he is, it’s totally and completely in control.”
That included when the at-home callers weren’t quite up to snuff.
“There was one story I won’t name but [I thought], Are you kidding? I was so bored,” Mulaney said chuckling. “And I was like, you gotta hold it together; you did invite their calls. My biggest takeaway was I feel like on ‘Larry King Live’ or on drivetime radio people so knew what a call-in segment was that they hit the ground running fast. They go, ‘Yeah, I got three things to say about Lenny Dykstra.’ But our callers just [tended to be younger] generationally, I’d be like, ‘…Hi.’ And they’d be like, ‘So…I know you’re talking about earthquakes…’ Get to the story! You gotta come in hot.”
As primarily a stand-up comedian, Mulaney tends to work solo, but in discussing his Netflix series with IndieWire, Mulaney repeatedly highlighted the pride he felt in his hires (including a fantastic Richard Kind as sidekick), as well as the collaborative nature a variety show needs to really click. “I was not interested in everything feeling like I wrote it,” he explained. “I really wanted people to have ownership over their own stuff. I think that’s what’s always worked best about ‘Saturday Night Live.'”
Besides forthcoming stand-up dates, the comedian is currently unsure about all that’s next. (This writer couldn’t help but mention the possibility of Mulaney taking his Netflix show to other cities, a query he was happy to engage with, at least when it came to general spitballing about what that could look like.)
As for internet rumors trying to draft him into hosting the Oscars — yes, please! — he noted: “I hosted the Governors Awards, and I really had fun doing that. I will say: I’m open to whatever. I personally have an affinity for [something lower key]. It’s so fun to try to do your absolute best at not the biggest award show, like the Spirit Awards or Governors Awards. They’re just a little more relaxed and casual. Going in and trying to have a shitload of fun is a great feeling.”
“John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA” is streaming now on Netflix.
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