John Mulaney’s Wacky Live Show Playfully Interrogates a Hypnotist
John Mulaney has no intention of making his six-episode live Netflix show, Everybody’s in L.A., more coherent. As he put it during the show’s fourth episode on Wednesday night, “People keep asking me, ‘When is this show gonna make sense?’ When L.A. does.” That said, this installment—which focused on the paranormal—might’ve been the strangest yet. The disorganized vibes began almost immediately, when Mulaney skipped over the monologue and threw the show over to a live performance from Weezer, who played their 1996 single “The Good Life.” The transitions on this show are usually abrupt, but even by its own standards, this felt off.
Then, it was time to “get down to other business”—all of which unfolded with just about as much ceremony. There was yet another disorderly panel, in which a gaggle of comedians (and Elvira) seemed to annoy Hollywood hypnotherapist Kerry Gaynor; there was a skit all about nepo babies; and, perhaps most exciting for Mulaney superfans, he and Nick Kroll brought back their Oh, Hello characters Gil Faizon and George St. Geegland for an L.A. mansions tour, which they mostly spent talking about how much they loved hanging out with Charles Manson.
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Sarah Silverman and Cassandra Peterson—aka, the face behind Elvira—were our first guests of the night. Both are longtime Angelenos, and both claim to have experienced some hauntings. Peterson once owned New York’s infamously spectral mansion Briarcliff Manor, where she claimed that at least five unexpected deaths have occurred over the years. She recalled seeing a shadow follow her around on the floor of her pool, as well as doors shutting on their own. Sometimes, she heard footsteps upstairs when no one was there. Eventually, she called in both a Catholic exorcist and a Native American shaman to clear out the house, which she said put an end to her problem.
“Who had better luck,” Mulaney asked, “the Catholic exorcist or the Native American shaman?”
Peterson did not hesitate before quipping, “With me?”
Mulaney broke up the conversation with the usual live call-ins, and one of the callers in this episode sounded suspiciously like Silverman’s ex, Jimmy Kimmel. At one point, the comedian also cut to “Oh, HelLos Angeles,” in which he and Kroll’s creepy old characters brought their friend Art Simpson’s ashes on a mansion tour. Things were halfway normal until Mulaney’s George St. Geegland told their tour guide, “When I was in the Manson Family as a pledge…” Things devolved quickly from there.
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The other pre-arranged bit for the night was a strange segment on nepo babies, in which Mulaney revealed that he had a few celebrity children in the audiences—“Lil’ George Carlin,” who told the camera, “I’m a self-made man, dumbass,” as well as “Eve Harvey” (a bald little girl with a mustache). Just when it seemed things couldn’t get any stranger, Lil’ John Oliver showed up to eviscerate Mulaney with a cutting Lil’ Last Week Tonight segment.
As always, some parts of the night worked better than others. Our announcer, Richard Kind, was having as much fun as ever when he staged an on-camera argument with Mulaney and threatened to quit the show, and Peterson proved to be the funniest guest of the night. (She even hid a rubber snake in Mulaney’s snack machine, a prank his camera crew wisely did not capture so it came as a surprise to us all.) The panel discussion, however, felt shaggier than ever—especially after hypnotist Gaynor and comedians Tom Segura and Ronny Chieng joined in. Silverman’s provocations repeatedly fell flat, and while it was funny to watch the comedians pillory Gaynor with silly questions about his past experience investigating haunted locations—e.g., do ghosts really have funny voices?—Gaynor himself seemed increasingly miserable.
Chaos is the entire point of Everybody’s in L.A., so it’s self-defeating to expect organization. Still, in multiple moments, I found myself wishing that it all hung together a little better—that the bits and skits had slightly stronger punchlines, and that the conversation didn’t feel quite so stilted. Part of the issue might be that Mulaney’s guests are stand-ups and not improv comedians, but at the same time, one would think that crowd work could prepare someone for a panel discussion. Anyway, the weirdest part of the night was that while Weezer played two songs, neither of them was “Beverly Hills.”
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