John Mulaney's Next Project Will Delight You

In our October cover story, the comedian discusses his relationship with Pete Davidson, the problem with white dudes, and how his partying days came to an end.

John Mulaney Is More Than a Funny Guy in a Suit and Tie Alex, one of eight child actors sitting in a circle with John Mulaney, has a grand unified theory about blooper reels that he would like to share right this second. "Before I see a movie, I always watch the blooper reels," he explains. "If that movie has no fun moments, like, so that means they didn't even have fun doing it? So then I'm not gonna watch the movie." Mulaney's eyebrows fly upward—Alex's logic is a touch cockeyed but impressive. "That's brilliant!" he says. It's a Tuesday afternoon in July, and he and the actors—ages eight to twelve—are gathered in a fluorescent-lit rehearsal space in Manhattan's Theater District, here to rehearse his next, as-of-yet-untitled comedy special. A couple years ago, on the same block, he starred with his friend Nick Kroll in a hit Broadway show they cowrote, Oh, Hello, portraying two grumpy, corduroy-sporting septuagenarian weirdos partial to cocaine, casual misogyny, and Steely Dan. Last year, five blocks north, Mulaney did seven straight sold-out stand-up shows at Radio City Music Hall; footage from one of those shows became his third special, Kid Gorgeous. Whereas that one, released by Netflix, was a watchmaker- tight hour of jokes, he's trying something new this time: a children's variety show. And these children have a lot to say about bloopers. "I think they should have blooper reels at the end of scary movies so people can go home and not feel terrified," another kid interjects. "Right," Mulaney says, nodding. "A catharsis of sorts." He scans the circle. "This whole special," he tells the kids, "is going to be a blooper reel."   Mulaney, thirty-seven, is modeling the new special on the entertainment he loved growing up: 3-2-1 Contact, the eighties-era PBS after-school classic; Really Rosie, a 1980 musical by Maurice Sendak and Carole King; and, of course, Sesame Street. "It's been on TV how many—fifty years?" Mulaney tells me later. He's been rewatching old episodes recently, in thrall to their elastic approach to narrative. "It's modular, fast-paced. Bizarrely paced," he says. "They'll cut to a kid who blows up a balloon, draws a smiley face on it, and pops it. Like, 'Great, love it, moving on!' " With the new show, he wants to make something that will appeal to kids and adults alike. His thinking is twofold. "It's something I'd like to watch," he says. "And I don't wanna do anything anyone else is doing." Read the Full Story The Esquire 25-Part Guide to Funny 2019 With so much hilarity, in so many formats, the options can be overwhelming. Consider this: On the first day of the year, Netflix released forty-seven stand-up specials. FORTY-­SEVEN. Amazon is entering the game, releasing specials by Jim Gaffigan and Ilana Glazer (her first). And that's just stand-up. The glut of comedy means there's that much more to sift through. Guess what: We did the sifting for you. Read the Full Story The Forever Coach: Jim Boeheim's First Interview Since the Crash That Claimed a Man's Life It's twilight at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino, and the curtains glow a dim blue. Jim Boeheim stands on his heels at the lectern, the night before his annual charity golf tournament. Weight back, hips supinated, eyes down. The thunderheads are in. The bad weather is jammed in to the west and headed this way. Golf tomorrow is probably off. Read the Full Story For Ken Burns, Country Music Tells the Story of Race, Class, and Inclusion in American History Eight and a half years ago, the most famous documentarian of the modern era got down, metaphorically, on his knees and, as he likens it, "proposed to country music." It's the second genre that Ken Burns has directed his camera lens towards in his career—Jazz debuted in 2001 to wide acclaim—and, as he recalls, it felt inevitable. "I'm looking for stories that are firing on all cylinders," he explains, "and [Country Music] is an American story firing on all cylinders." Read the Full Story The Instagram-Famous Socks That Really Are That Good I was at a friend's house when I realized that my socks are, in some instances, a conversation starter. It's not because they're covered in some zany print (perish the thought), but because this particular friend had seen these socks before. Loads of times, in fact—just never in real life. "Oh, those are those Instagram socks!" he almost shouted. "Are they actually any good? Read the Full Story The Best Fall Books of 2019 Will Get You Through the Months Ahead Something about fall demands a new stack of books. Maybe it's that infectious back-to-school energy. We rounded up some of the season's best reads, from urgent nonfiction about sexual abuse and toxic masculinity to spellbinding novels about monsters, families, and climate war. Read the Full Story   Follow Us     Unsubscribe  Privacy Notice   esquire.com ©2019 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019