STAND-UP REVIEW: JOHN MULANEY - "BABY J"

4/5

Dear John. 

80 Mins. Starring: John Mulaney. On: Netflix. 

If you thought your locked down 2020 was bad. Spare a thought for comedian and all-round stand-up guy John Mulaney. After an intervention staged by a dozen of his famous friends (no real name-dropping, but thanked and dedicated in friend first name kind), on Zoom no less, John was quarantined in rehab for drug addiction in one hell of a winter coat for the snow. Remarking that the cocaine that rendered him skinny made him look better than all the famous faces circled around him sporting their pandemic beards. Seth Myers looking more like Seth Rogen. And if you think that's an image, picture this, John was late for his own intervention. But now, this is the recovery. Surviving and thriving for his new Netflix special 'Baby J'. 

After being 'Kid Gorgeous' at New York's Radio City Music Hall like a Rockette and giving the streaming service a classic children's show with 'The Sack Lunch Bunch' and Jake Gyllenhaal's legendary musical accompaniment, 'The Comeback Kid' is back. Floppy haired, no GQ gel or fruit loop crazy interview story (read for comedic and also drugs are bad effect here) in a Levine maroon suit, Mulaney has never looked better in Boston's beautiful Symphony Hall. It's a bittersweet affair mixing the brutal with the beautiful, but John does it with verve. Even addressing a grade student in the crowd (we're talking tenth grade people) and hilariously, but also with heart and warnings to be heeding, telling him not to repeat anything he here's tonight in his future actions. 

No B.S., of course darkness is on the cards in this BSO show from the outset as winter snow falls outside. Mulaney muses over which grandparent could go, as hilariously as the time his grandma as told in a seriously good SNL monologue (after a haircut maybe?) let him know that no matter how famous he is, if he wasn't her grandson she wouldn't know who he is. Sorry! That's the only joke we'll spoil, and it wasn't even from this show, but a Saturday Night Live monologue. The jokes in this inspired side of the irreverent classic comedian are on tap for you. For one hour and 20 minutes of candid honesty and compelling hallmarks of a man who hasn't lost a step even if he won't come bounding out on-stage any more. And we all know why that is. 

Slow and steady wins the race, but does John Mulaney need to come out on top as the winner of the title of best comedian? Nope! He already defeated enough demons and next is the Statue of Liberty. Luck has nothing to do with it. Neither does caring what other people think. And that's the real peacemaker like John Cena with a James Gunn desert eagle, this all-American talent knows in this self-obsessed world it's better to take care of yourself and then let everything else follow suit. When he was a kid he craved attention, now, in his grand return, he has it. But he doesn't need it. Even after divorce, drugs and almost death, John Mulaney is still the same 'Baby J' his friends have come to love. Just a little more grown and more mature. Gorgeous has become beautiful, and the kid is alright. Don't call it a comeback. He'll be here for years. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Funny: 'John Mulaney-The Comeback Kid', 'John Mulaney-Kid Gorgeous At Radio City', 'John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch'.