You might already know the nuts and bolts of comic John Mulaney—he was born here, graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep, wrote for SNL, and appeared on Weekend Update once in a while. But the young writer and comic has been busy lately, specifically with a new quasi-autobiographical Fox sitcom Mulaney. In anticipation of his set at Up Comedy Club tonight, brush up on your Mulaney need-to-knows with these 10 biographical tidbits.
He's a North Side native
Mulaney grew up in Lincoln Park, but decamped for Georgetown after high school and New York after Georgetown. Since he didn't start improv until college, he's never consistently gigged in Chicago's comedy scene.
He's a Law and Order SVU fanboy.
And regularly works it into his standup routines.
He got his start with Nick Kroll of The League.
Mulaney and Kroll met at Georgetown, and later, in New York, hosted the Oh, Hello show at UCB Theater in East Village. The monthly talk show/sitcom hybrid featured the pair as aging Upper West–Side divorcees. A reprise, from Kroll's Comedy Central show, below.
He keeps it light.
Ahead of his 2012 Comedy Central special New in Town, Mulaney told the Reader, "If you're going to write a joke about a really dark subject it has to be the best joke about that. And I don't have the best ones." But be warned: Light does not mean clean.
He's a pal of Seth Meyers's.
Mulaney of course knew SNL staple Seth Meyers when he wrote for the show between 2008 to 2012, but in 2010, Mulaney told Vulture he'd auditioned for SNL having already known Meyers. Two years later, Mulaney confessed that Meyers and Amy Poehler had actually invited him to audition for the show. Their banter, below.
He's one half of Stefon.
Bill Hader might've gotten the screen time for Weekend Update's freakiest correspondent, but Stefon was a collaboration by Hader and Mulaney, who would regularly switch out cue cards between dress rehearsal and broadcast to make Hader break character.
His first joke was about a sex therapist.
And he told it at age four, after watching Dr. Ruth, to a group of his parents' friends at a barbecue.
He won an Emmy for Justin Timberlake's SNL monologue.
JT's guest spot in 2011 featured a song about, well, not singing, with lyrical help from Mulaney and Seth Meyers and music by Katreese Barnes.
You can see him on T.V. every Sunday at 9:30 p.m.
The comedian plays a fictionalized version of himself on Fox's new sitcom Mulaney. Think Seinfeld by way of Funny People.
He and his wife, makeup artist Annamarie Tendler, have a French Bulldog.
And her name is Petuniafish, who also goes by Tunafish, Tuni, Tooti, Petooti, Crème Fraîche, Glass Milk, Dollop Sour Cream, and others.
Go: John Mulaney performs at Up Comedy Club at 9:30 p.m. tonight. 230 W. North Ave. $35.