A 10-year-old superfan got to interview John Mulaney and we are extremely jealous
What a peculiar cocktail of emotions this Vulture piece has stirred up in us. On the one hand, it’s an interview in which the interviewer is a 10-year-old John Mulaney devotee and the interviewee is 37-year-old John Mulaney. It is impossible for us to be anything but delighted by the existence of such a thing. That would be great any day, any time, for any reason; that its existence is further justified by Netflix’s impending John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch is just the cherry on top. Well, it just so happens that editor Christopher Bonanos’s son, Alex, is “a John Mulaney superfan who at the drop of a hat will impeccably reproduce every line of Kid Gorgeous over breakfast.” Alex wrote his questions himself (“with some very light coaching from me,” the elder Bonanos added) and sat down with Mulaney after school one day.
Some highlights. First, the opening:
John Mulaney: “In a Sentimental Mood,” by John Coltrane, is playing. You can add that.
Alex Bonanos: I’ve heard this song about 47 times because they always play it in school.
J.M.: They do? When and where?
A.B.: When we’re working. Our teachers are allowed to put on music while we work. This happened a lot during second grade, and for some reason they think second-graders are interested in jazz.
This bit, on the inspiration for Jake Gyllenhaal’s character in the special, is pretty great:
A.B.: You know how one of the segments is Mr. Music with Jake Gyllenhaal? I have to say that was amazing — did you also think that his performance was the most amazingly over-the-top thing?
J.M.: I wanted [laughs] — he was my No. 1 wish, because when he hosted SNL, and in this movie I saw, Okja, he made very strong choices, which not a lot of actors do. And we thought Mr. Music has to be a bit of a lunatic, and it’s a calypso song, so we needed someone who would own that enthusiasm. When I talked to him on the phone, he said, how do you want me to play it? And I said I can’t stress enough how much I want you to make your own choice. And he started laughing and said, “Oh, mmmkay, all right.” I didn’t say anything about Okja. And we were on the set after shooting Mr. Music, day two, and he wandered over and said “I feel like this is Okja II.” And I said, “Funny you mention that, because this to us is like the drunk guy from Okja but he’s been sober for two days.” There’s a moment near the end when he’s staring off and I say “Mr. Music …?”