John Mulaney channeled his all-time low right into a latest comedy special.
The 40-year-old comedian detailed his addiction struggles, time in rehab and the “star-studded” intervention that brought him there in his latest Netflix special, “John Mulaney: Baby J.”
“I’ve had a weird couple years; you’ve had a weird couple years,” Mulaney said, referring to his public personal life — including his stint in rehab, his divorce and the birth of his son with Olivia Munn — in addition to the pandemic.
He burst into song in regards to the weird years, singing, “All of us went to rehab, and all of us got divorced, and now our popularity is different. Nobody knows what to think. All the children like Bo Burnham more because he’s currently less problematic. Likability is a jail.”
Mulaney then admitted that he was hooked on a cocktail of medicine including Adderall, Xanax, Klonopin, and Percocet and was heavily using cocaine.
In December 2020, a bunch of 12 of Mulaney’s friends staged an intervention in person in Latest York and over Zoom under the guise of “dinner with a friend from college.”
The “Saturday Night Live” alum admitted within the special, filmed in February at Boston Symphony Hall, that he immediately knew when he opened the door that his friends were going to attempt to get him to go to rehab.
“Do you recognize how bad of a drug problem you will have to have if, whenever you open a door and see people gathered, your first and immediate thought is, ‘This might be an intervention about my drug problem’?” he quipped.
Mulaney shifted the main focus of his intervention to who was in attendance, including Seth Meyers, Nick Kroll, Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Natasha Lyonne.
“Let me just call this out now, I don’t mean to be weird. It was a star-studded intervention. It was, like, a very good group,” Mulaney said. “It was a very good group. As mad as I used to be once I walked in there, I used to be like, that is a very good lineup, this is actually flattering in its own way.”
“It was like a ‘We Are the World’ of other comedians over the age of 40. All comedians. Yet nobody said a funny thing the complete night.”
He shared that his comedian friends all promised before they got there that they wouldn’t do any bits or crack any jokes — which drove Mulaney crazy.
“I used to be going psychotic. I’m sitting there in an awful chair, crashing from cocaine. Nobody will let me go to the lavatory to clean up, and the funniest people on this planet are looking at me, refusing to do jokes. It was maddening!”
He continued to speak about how unnerving it was to see his friends who’re all the time in character be so serious.
“Fred Armisen was serious. Do you recognize how off-putting that’s? He was identical to, ‘Hey, John, I’m really frightened about every thing you’re going through.’ And I used to be like, ‘Ah, next! Next!’”
Mulaney said on the time, he was so mad at his friends for pulling a “prank” of an intervention on him — but looking back he’s grateful his friends went through with it.
“I used to be so mad that night. That they had tricked me. I mean, at its core, an intervention is a prank. That they had pranked me. They were attempting to tell me what to do with my life, they were trying to regulate me. They were sending me away to rehab for months. I felt powerless. I felt very offended,” he shared.
He added, “Attending to do that show, and standing here, listen, I’m grateful to everyone at my intervention. They intervened. They confronted me they usually totally saved my life.”
Mulaney went to rehab straight from the intervention — with Adderall, Xanax, cocaine and $2,000 in money on him.
“I had other plans that weekend!” he jokingly exclaimed.
But Mulaney’s biggest fear when arriving at rehab was that individuals would recognize him as a celeb — but he was quickly humbled.
“After I first got to rehab, certainly one of my biggest fears was that everybody was going to acknowledge me,” Mulaney said. “Progressively, a latest fear took over. I’m not like exaggerating to be funny. F–king nobody… nobody knew who I used to be, and it was driving me bananas.”
“Please don’t repeat this,” he said while filming in front of a sold-out crowd. “It was within the newspaper that I used to be in rehab, and I left it out.”
Mulaney spent two months in rehab, leaving the ability in February 2021.
Following rehab, his romantic life saw a whole lot of changes as well. His divorce from his wife Anna Marie Tendler was finalized in January 2022. He also welcomed his first child, Malcolm, with Munn.
“John Mulaney: Baby J” is now streaming on Netflix.
