March 19, 2025

Joan Baez talks about how she crashed her Tesla. Cypress Hill performs “Hits From the Bong” alongside a 17-piece orchestra. Twelve Willy Lomans gather to discuss child obesity, drag story hour, and the most money they’d spend on a mattress. These are just some highlights from the premiere of Everybody’s Live, John Mulaney’s Netflix talk show that was previously centered on the theme of Los Angeles but now is centered around ... really, whatever Mulaney wants. Ahead of its debut, Kathryn VanArendonk spent several days with Mulaney and his writers to get a sense of who he is and what he wants during such a transitional period of his life — one where he’s caught between the old persona he became famous for as a stand-up and the new one he’s still building as a married father of two. “Neither version is fully integrated with who he plays as a host, either,” Kathryn writes: “The Mulaney with the trick of being charmingly annoyed that he has to keep checking off the chores of performing this show, even as he wanders around a world built to his specifications.”
—Megh Wright, features editor, Vulture

By Kathryn VanArendonk

Photo: Jamie Lee Taete

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