John Mulaney Brings His New Show To Scotland!

Yes, the one and only ‘Baby J’ brought his fifth stand-up special: Mister Whatever to my quaint little hometown of Glasgow! This would be the first time Mulaney has played a tour in Scotland, consequently the Theatre Royal in Glasgow city centre was packed. Every seat was full, and we happened to be seated at the second back row of the stalls, not simply because that was all we could afford but that’s all that was left! Due to this extremely high demand, Mulaney decided to add a matinee show to his one day appearance in Scotland’s largest city.

It was a balmy spring night and the large crowd made the 17^th century building even warmer. Mulaney himself even commented on how the building clearly wasn’t built for the sun to be out (yeah, it is Scotland buddy). And how he would kill us all for a breeze right now!

The excitement in the air was electrifying and the warm up acts helped hype the crowd up for the main event. The support acts consisted of comedians: Mandal and Andrea Jin. Mandal was particularly hilarious with his quirky observations; enthusiastically telling the audience how he loved a ‘wet zoo’ (aquarium) as opposed to a ‘dry zoo’. Jin also held her own, but may have been more suited to a smaller, more intimate venue due to her calm demeanour. Jin’s jokes about living with Asian grandparents were hilarious.

As good at the warm up acts were, we had assembled for one reason! Props to Mulaney for just walking on the stage for his entrance, no taped introduction, nothing fancy, the lights were only just lowering from the brief intermission. Taking everyone by delighted surprise (assume was his plan?). The theatre exploded in raucous applause and cheers. 

Mulaney started with a couple of observations about Glasgow. Mostly about the streets making no sense (yeah, our cities are not based on grid systems because they are hella old) and how he wasn’t going to tailor his material to a British audience (fair) he doesn’t care that we’ve never heard of Best Buy, he’s never been in a Tesco and doesn’t plan on being in one! Basically he was gonna do some stand up, and we were gonna sit there, and like it!

…and we did.

Mulaney’s opening monologue may sound cocky and mean spirited but said in his cartoonesque vibrato, it comes off as rather charming. Maybe it’s the fact he’s retained his boyish face and his debonair style despite  going through a bit of an image shift in the last few years. In Mulaney’s last special; Baby J (2023) he spoke candidly about his drug relapse and subsequent divorce. In Mister Whatever Mulaney’s life has done quite the 180. Now a father of two with wife and actress; Olivia Munn.

Mulaney regaled us with his tales of the innerworkings of fatherhood. Including planning his son’s birthday’s party bags and the strange, and sometimes downright demonic, things his young son would say. In his past shows Mulaney would discuss his strict Catholic upbringing. Bringing this up in the Glasgow was quite a choice as Mulaney didn’t appear to know the history of sectarianism within the city, and assumed most of the population were Protestant. There was some good natured giggling from the audience, and Mulaney could tell there was something he was missing. Eventually he asked someone from the front row who explained there was ‘historically a large divide’. Mulaney took it in good stead and quipped that we should maybe all leave the theatre together for safety.

Mulaney described himself at the top of his game (yet, it is agreed he won’t carry more than $200 on his person at any one time despite being a millionaire, this is due to his past drug abuse) and I could certainly appreciate that after his show. For almost two hours he had us all in hysterics. I spoke to some friends who were also at the gig and one summed the evening up with an excellent Scottish phrase, she was: ‘buckled with laughter’. Mr John Mulaney, Glasgow thanks you for a memorable night!

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