‘Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney’ Needs Some Work

Live from Los Angeles, it’s…John Mulaney holding a clipboard?

On Wednesday night, Netflix premiered the semi-new talk show Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney, hosted by the beloved comedian and Big Mouth star. I say semi-new because this isn’t Mulaney’s first foray into the late-night comedy space. Last year he hosted six episodes of Everybody’s in LA—a pop-up talk show that was taped during the week-plus-long Netflix Is a Joke Fest and aired live on the streamer in May. This time Mulaney is doubling up by hosting 12 shows in 12 weeks.

Despite his dry run last year, the first episode of Everybody’s Live definitely felt like a work in progress. “Ten months is the perfect amount of time to forget how to do this show,” Mulaney quipped in his opening monologue.

He wasn’t wrong. The first show was a bit of an awkward mess—not that he seemed too concerned about it. Wearing a maroon blazer and shirt, Mulaney came out to deliver the monologue while inexplicably holding a clipboard. As the show went on, it became clear that he was crossing things off along the way—suggesting that the clipboard provided some type of road map for the show.

Here, and elsewhere, Mulaney was unafraid to let the audience see what goes into making live television—though he also seemed proud of how slipshod the production appeared at times. “We worked on this show all day,” he said. “Some crew members were here as early as 9 a.m.” After his announcer, Richard Kind, stumbled through a segment listing celebrity birthdays, Mulaney deadpanned, “That went great.”

Though his attitude was decidedly laissez-faire, Mulaney really did seem to be opening up, letting us into his life and his (pretend) home. The show’s warm and comfortable set—modeled after a Los Angeles living room with a grand piano, a telescope, and a view of the city—contained framed photos of Mulaney and his wife, actor Olivia Munn. Rather than going for topical humor in the monologue (though he made one solid Luigi Mangione joke), he veered toward the personal. Mulaney joked about his sobriety: “I can’t do coke or Adderall anymore, so I’m making it your problem,” he said. He earnestly talked about Munn and her five-year-long battle with breast cancer, telling the audience it’s “been a real thing” for his family.

Thankfully, opening up about his personal life didn’t stop Mulaney from doing what he does best: telling jokes, and edgy ones at that. Mulaney joked that sometimes Munn’s “cancer brain” (not to be confused with “brain cancer”) has led to silly accidents, like using the word cum instead of sperm in front of her doctor.

Mulaney also seemed genuinely interested in the topic he chose to base the episode around: lending people money. To discuss it, he assembled an extremely random panel of guests that included Oscar nominee Michael Keaton, personal finance expert Jessica Roy, SNL alum (and longtime member of Mulaney’s inner circle) Fred Armisen, and, most impressively, folk icon and activist Joan Baez. But here again, it was clear the show was still working out its kinks. Mulaney seemed to be warming up as he interviewed his first two guests, Keaton and Roy. Their conversation meandered, somehow landing on whether Keaton enjoys Benihana as Roy sat mostly silent on the couch. As the show went on, Mulaney got better about involving all his panelists, particularly Roy. But chemistry is everything on late night television—and at various points throughout Everybody’s Live, it was clear that chemistry is not all that easy to come by.

The main event of Everybody’s Live was an old-fashioned call-in section, where Mulaney asked viewers at home to share their money-lending woes. Mulaney and company came alive as they reacted to what seemed to be real people like Dylan from Montville, who borrowed $20k from his brother to go to law school, then spent it on a car that he totaled instead. Jessica from Spokane told the group that she gave her brother $10k to go to college, but he spent it on drugs in Vegas. Responding in real time, the panel’s responses ranged from sincere to jokey. “We can’t give any financial advice,” Mulaney said at the top of the segment—though that didn’t stop them from actually trying to help, to some degree. “Don’t do the exact thing you did again,” he told one of the call-in guests. It wasn’t exactly a laugh riot, but at times it made for compelling (or at least, compellingly uncomfortable) television.

There were other compelling moments on the broadcast as well. After bringing out Baez and Armisen to join the panel, Mulaney asked Baez a question about Martin Luther King Jr.’s sense of humor. Before answering the question, Baez went rogue.

“First, I have to set a context that I’m here in. You said I could say anything I want out here,” she said, ignoring Mulaney’s question. “We’re all here to be silly and have fun, as long as we recognize the fact that our democracy is going to go up in flames. We’re being run by a bunch of really incompetent billionaires.” The unscripted moment—which came genuinely out of left field, but was clearly deeply important to Baez—threw a curveball and a jolt of energy into what had been a somewhat subdued telecast. Mulaney, a pro, handled the moment with aplomb before returning to his original question. She wouldn’t repeat any of the jokes MLK told her, but she did promise they were of the dirty variety.

Hearing about a civil rights icon’s penchant for potty humor was a highlight of the evening, but not everything on Everybody’s Live was a success. A live sketch featuring the usually hilarious Tracy Morgan as “King Latifah” flopped particularly hard, in part because of missed cues (remember: it’s live!) and also because it went on way too long. An absurd pre-taped sketch featuring 10 or so actors, including Anthony LaPaglia, Joe Cortese, Rob Morrow, Christopher Lloyd, and two high school students in character as Willy Loman from Death of a Salesman, was far more successful, but also could have used some editing. While this admittedly niche sketch seemed tailor made for a theater-savvy audience (i.e. me), the punchline—which involved the Willy Lomans simultaneously delivering Arthur Miller’s famous “there were promises made” speech—didn’t land: there was simply too much going on.

That seemed to be the overall problem with the show’s first episode—a few wonderful ideas with sometimes subpar execution. But while it was awkward at times, Everybody’s Live had enough moments to make it worth tuning in. Richard Kind revealed that he’s lent three people $10k, and one of them hasn’t paid him back yet . Michael Keaton did an impressive Jack Nicholson impression while explaining his “$500 junkie buy-out” rule. Baez revealed that she crashed not one, not two, but three Teslas on her property before abandoning that particular vehicle. “You’re not just talking about these billionaires—you’re smashing their cars,” quipped Mulaney.

It was in those moments that Everybody’s Live proved how wonderfully weird it could be. Mulaney closed out the program by saying, “Only 11 more of these to go.” But with some fine-tuning, Everybody’s Live could be something really special.