John Mulaney's Life Lessons and Career Advice

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Callaroga Shark Media find they own Johnny Mack with your
daily comedy news. The media has changed so much. John Mulaney,
as part of his press tour, I mentioned, you know,
he did CBS this morning, and I'm like, that just
seems weird to me. But we live so long that
it also seems weird to me that John Mulaney did

(00:25):
Rolling Stone, like in nineteen eighty five. Ooh, John Mulaney's
on the cover of Rolling Stone. Let me see what
he's up to. Ooh, a Van Hagar article I'll read that.
Can't believe David ly Roth quit the band shocking Anyway,
mullany talk to Rolling Stone. They tell us it's the
Last Word column where pop culture icons reflect on their work,
success and the lessons they've learned along the way. Okay,
John said, please feel free to include literally anything we discussed,

(00:48):
because it'll be far more interesting than anything about my career.
They asked John what are the important rules that he
lives by. His answer, never planned more than three months
in the future. Live by, not work by dony crackers
or anything like that. In bed, even if you keep
the plate run under your chin, they'll on up at
your feet and an easy one. But nobody knows nothing.
No one's an expert. We have a complete inability to
ever discuss scenarios that actually will happen, and we're off

(01:10):
on the wrong thread. He told an example one of
my first agents we had to call in two thousand
and five with ABC. They were hearing pitches from comedians
that were twenty three years old, and I asked him
what kind of shows do they want? And he paused
and said, oh, they want hits. That really stuck with me, like,
oh right, they just want whatever would work, and they
want the thing that no one else would do that
it seems like it won't work, but that works. I
used to laugh. When I was younger, people would be

(01:33):
like's your girlfriend pretty? I'd be like, what kind of
question is that? No? All I can get is trolls.
I'm lucky I even have this one. Me'laney said. The
horse being a loose in a hospital joke was about Trump,
but it's more about a joke about how we're not
good at predicting anything. Seven minutes before nine to eleven,
we're all looking for Chondra Levy. We're just not really
on it. We've never been on it. I guess they
were these psychics back in the day that would make
their New Year's predictions some of them won't contrue, but

(01:55):
that's probably not true either. Best advice John mulaney ever received,
my dad told me, if you're on the phone with
someone in a business conversation you don't like what they're
saying or how they're counting, just say nothing. Silence makes
people crazy. They'll pause waiting for you to talk. You won't.
Then they'll continue to talk and they'll go are you
still there? And you go, uh huh, and then they'll
start talking again. He goes, they'll probably walk back everything
they said, or meet you with the terms you wanted,

(02:16):
or they might even go above what you wanted because
they're so uncomfortable. John admits to trying that in his
career and it working. Worst advice John Mullenie ever get.
I won't name them, but in twenty fifteen, an extremely
powerful person in Hollywood was telling me that I always
have to own all my IP which is not possible.
The guy's looking at me and he goes, I know
people were famous, not rich, and they're miserable. And I
know people were rich and not famous and I John

(02:37):
Mulaney say, and they're happy, and he goes, no, they're miserable.
And he looks at me and goes, you need both.
You need to be rich and famous. It was like
a parody of meeting this person. I was like, is
this a cut scene from The Devil's Advocate? Good question
here from Rolling Stone? What advice would you give to
two thousand and eight John mullaney, who's auditioning for SNL
and working on his first special, The advice as soon
as you're ready to leave SNL, stay one more year.

(02:57):
I wish I had. I didn't realize that when you
feel burnt out, that's not the moment to make a
decision like that. In terms of other stuff. There are
a lot of twists in terms of my life after that,
but I don't know if the advice would have stuck.
Funny answer here, what do you wish somebody would have
told you about being a celebrity growing up? Mulaney said.
I would have said to my child's self, it's exactly
like you picture it. And I would have said to
my twenty year old self, it's exactly like you picture it.
Best and worst parts of success. Melleney said, The best

(03:19):
part's easy, it's what you think. The worst part is
your instincts were rewarded, but your instincts aren't always right, John,
do you get imposter syndrome? No, listen. One of my
problems is not that I don't feel really at home
doing entertainment. I have other problems. Then they talked about
the infamous rehab skipping ahead and have you heard of
Chekhov's Gun? This is Chehov's podcast. Mulaney said, I like

(03:41):
David Lee Roth's bluegrass albums of covers, which is called
Strman with the Devil from two thousand and six. I'm
embarrassed to say it's kind of in my shuffle. Terry
Gros said Bill Burr on her NPR podcast, Good question
build us. This special market change in your public or
private self the topic, and I've been talking about this
all week, kind of the new Bill Berber said, it's

(04:02):
something I've kind of been going towards. But like most
people that get on stage, they sort of watch what
you do and then think this little sliver of you
is what you are or whatever, like the Rolling Stone
thing saying that I was the King of Rage comedy,
you know, and it's in rolling Stones, so everybody listens
to it. So then I think I'm just walking around
just fearus all the time. It's two dimensional. I'll jump
in there. I've been in the podcasting industry getting a
fair amount of attention in the first quarter because I

(04:24):
have the sub stack and it's free and link in
the show notes, and I've been, as I call it,
throwing fastballs on the substack. I'm commenting on the podcasting
industry and I'm just throwing heat, nothing but heat, and
people are paying attention. And then, as I wrote in
the substack, when you go, hey, look at me, you
can't be upset that people are looking at you. However,
then I get invited on podcasts about podcasting, and the

(04:47):
first thing I say is I'm glad we're here to
have a new onance conversation, so you can hear the
tone of voice. And don't think I'm walking around kicking
garbage cans all day going. I can't believe everybody's making
video podcast girl, I'm not like that at all. So
I totally hear what Burr is saying about your public persona,
including Johnny Mack, who is ninety nine percent John McDermott,

(05:09):
I'll explain. Johnny Mack clearly doesn't like Adam Sandler movies, right,
John McDermott also doesn't like Adam Sandler movies. But I
don't walk around going all day. I can't leave Netflix,
cave Adam Sandler another deal, Like, I just don't care
and I move on with my life. But you know,
it's a podcast. I'm trying to be entertaining, so maybe
I ramp it up a little bit. Back to Burr,

(05:30):
there's also part of me that really hates the fact
that I've been so angry and had a temper and stuff.
It was never something I wanted to be and something
I grew up with, and you know, you think to yourself,
I'm not doing that. I'm not gonna be this person
because they're making me feel bad as a kid, and
then you grow up and you end up. It's a
weird thing. Gross asked, who's the person who told you
was your wife a therapist? Burr said, everybody in my life,
everybody people reviewing my act, my wife. You know, like,

(05:51):
you can only argue point for so long when one
hundred people in the row are going like, nah, you're
pretty angry. Good Stuff. I haven't been able to live
to that one yet, but it's definitely in my cue.
Good show in Los Angeles tonight is a benefit concert
called Let's Get Laid, Get It Elaid, Yes Well, combined
stand up comedy and live music. It's at the United

(06:14):
Theater Weird Now, Margaret Show, Bob the Drag Queen Al Jardine.
As I've joked before, I assume it's the Beach Boys,
Al Jardine and not some comedian off my radar. Alex Edelman,
Chris Fleming, Eric Idol, Maria Bamford, Mark Prosch, and Neil
Hamburger will make appearances. Other guests include Paul Schaeffer, Peter Asher, Puddles,
Pity Party, Reggie Watts, Rufus Wainwright, and Tim Heidecker. That

(06:34):
is a great, great lineup a night of music and
comedy for La wildfire relief. Proceeds will benefit firefighters who
battled the various fighters as well as those who've been displaced.
The Houston Press caught up with Tom Papa and asked
Tom about growing up in New Jersey. And this is
such a stereotypical New Jersey question that I love that
the Houston people asked it, Tom Papa. Being from New Jersey,

(06:58):
how much was Bruce Springsteen's chef in your face? Tom
Papa said, didn't feel shoved, does so much as it
was a presence like everything else. You had the skyline
of New York in the distance, the Jersey Shore waiting
down south, and Springsteen was the soundtrack everywhere he went.
When I was in high school, he was hitting the
peak of his fame, so it was kind of cool. Yeah,
pop is my age, so yeah, born in the USA. Big.
Then Springsteen had the Lost Years that the big reunion

(07:20):
in two thousand. I know, I personally won tour, saw
twelve shows. You drive up and down the Garden State
Parkway in the summer listening to Bruce, it just sounds right, Absolutely,
Papa says, New Jersey's always been a punchline. I always
said the reason I was a comedian is you had
a good sense of humor about yourself being from New Jersey.
What music is Tom Papa listening to? He says he
still listens to Arim and Prince, but he's left Culture

(07:42):
Club and Duran Duran in the eighties. Dude, Deuran Duran
is fantastic. Tom put On Rio and Hungry Like the Wolf.
Come on, those are bangers, as the kids say. Tom
also loves Ren DMC and Public Enemy, but says, now,
I guess jazz is the thing I listen to that now,
But I would hope that the young Tom would understand
that someday he understand jazz. Kevin Hart has revealed that

(08:03):
he's traded in jeans for all bands, all slacks after
turning forty years old. He was on with Jennifer Hudson
and he said, I'm over forty. I feel like a
good pant is necessary. Jeans aren't the same. Jean's hurt
and are not comfortable. Sam Morel talked about the Error's
tour to w AMC. He's on a bus. Sam says
it's a pretty efficient way to travel because you see

(08:24):
what happens with airplanes now and just the stress of
misflights and all that. You eliminate that, so that's nice.
When my daughter was in school in Chicago, I used
to drive from New Jersey to Chicago. People thought I
was insane, and I'm like, dude, by the time I
got to the airport and the delays and all that,
I'm halfway there anyway, and that's when I would catch
up on my podcast. I would like to drive Chicago
right now. I could listen to Bill Burr with Torry Gross.

(08:45):
Sam talked about the country at this particular moment in
Times and Your Letters to Sam Morrel. He said, I mean,
you see how toxic everything is on the internet, and
now bad everything is on the news, now mean and
racist everyone is on Twitter. And then you go into
like a cafe and you're like, I think it's all right.
You know, it's confusing because you just go around things
seem to be okay, but you know things are tough
from short Old Phil Wang is going to host the
BAFTA Games Awards for the second year in a row.

(09:07):
Video games we're talking about here. Phil said, I'm so
thrilled to be returning as host of this year's BAFTA
Games Awards. Last year's show with such an uplifting celebration
of this incredible industry. Blah blah blah. I played games
all my life, and these awards feel like my opportunity
to think the people who made them. Because of games,
I never had time to learn the guitar well enough
to play at house parties, and I think that is
a public service thank you games. C two E two

(09:28):
twenty twenty five announce their comedy track. C two E
two will be in Chicago April eleventh, of thirteenth. Maybe
I'll do one of those twelve hour drives. Who knows.
Paton Oswalt's will be on the main stage Friday, April eleventh,
eight p m. Also doing an appearance Second Cities Live
Improv Group. That's exciting. And that's your comedy news for today.
If you enjoy the program, tell a friend about it.

(09:48):
They might like it too. If you would like the
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Apple Podcast, click the link in the show no notes.
You can go to Calahuga dot com slash plus and
we can hook it up for you five bucks a month.
You get this one and the other shows on the network,
including five Good News Stories, which I also host, and hey,

(10:10):
let me actually remember if once to plug the Live
one show. I host a weekly program on the Live
one app. The app is free, the show is free.
It's called the Weekly Comedy Thing. It's like this, except
if I tell a story about Patton Oswalt. I can
play a full Paton Oswalt comedy clip and he gets
paid royalties and everything. It's a nice system, so check
that out. It is the weekly comedy thing on the
Live one app See here tomorrow

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John Mulaney's Life Lessons and Career Advice

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