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Comedy Culture

John Mulaney got JFL42 off to a hilarious start

JOHN MULANEY at the Sony Centre (1 Front East), September 21 at 7 and 9:45 pm. jfl42.com. Rating: NNNN

Playing two shows at the sold-out Sony Centre last night, JFL42 headliner John Mulaney and opener Max Silvestri, as part of Mulaneys Kid Gorgeous tour, performed a spirited night of comedy predicated on growing up, getting older and still not knowing any better.

By now, youd think Mulaney might. Hot off the success of his Broadway show Oh, Hello and widely popular stand-up specials New In Town and The Comeback Kid all of which are available on Netflix, making his work increasingly accessible Mulaney, walking out to David Bowies Rebel, Rebel, began his set with an apology. Hes been a little under the weather recently, so please forgive any coughs or throat-clears he may suffer.

He wasnt worried about coughing in front of Toronto, though.

Its because youre so nice, the 35-year-old New York City-based comedian said. Toronto is like Betty White. Youre always nice, youve looked the same for 30 years, and youve always looked old.

His ailment didnt hold him back. The Kid Gorgeous material which, like his previous sets, involves a cast of throat-intensive voices, such as a child homicide investigator named Detective J. J. Bittenbinder (a real person), a brusque Mick Jagger and a curb-stomping James Stewart in Its A Wonderful Life felt a bit like school assembly, which Mulaney recalls as an event where someone with no expertise would go up on the gymnasium stage and for some reason be allowed to talk.

Mulaney even had the vocal strength to hilariously demonstrate the evolution of the police siren, which, at its earliest, sounded like the death throes of a fat, gay cat, and the newfangled updated siren, which sounds like theres a DJ in the back of the cruiser.

But what truly sets the headliner apart from other comedians is his characteristic childlike innocence: Do I have a Best Buy rewards card? Nope… I wish!

Mulaney is the comeback kid. Hes new in town. Hes kid gorgeous. I once said hello to balloons, Mulaney said, not wanting to seem impolite to something in his peripheral vision.

Pretty much all of Mulaneys jokes last night were huge winners, albeit overly familiar. Whereas in The Comeback Kid Mulaney outlined the absurd-if-you-think-about-it plot of Back To The Future, his JFL set saw him deconstruct the opening of Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, claiming it was pretty rotten of a seemingly bedridden Grandpa Joe to be faking it for 40 years.

Its not that these beats arent funny Mulaney ensures every other line lands (and to be fair, my face hurt from laughing following the performance). Kid Gorgeous does, however, feel like hes treading familiar ground. His previous And with your spirit joke about Catholics rewriting the response to The Lord be with you was top-of-mind through his Kid observations about Mass and how the word psalms sounds similar to songs anecdotes involving his wife, Anna, and his French bulldog, Petunia, remain a major focus.

So, despite being entirely new material assuming audiences hadnt seen some of the acts funniest moments debuting first on the late-night TV circuit, including Mulaneys appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert describing Donald Trump as a horse running loose in a hospital last nights show felt a little bit like a greatest hits package. Or, for those who werent familiar, an excellent distillation of whats made the comedian tick during his entire career.

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