John Mulaney has been racking up rave reviews and award nominations for his latest Netflix special, Baby J, which offers a hilarious and unflinching take on Mulaney’s well-documented stint in rehab that sparked a tabloid frenzy over the comedian’s no longer private life.
As he works the interview circuit to promote Baby J, which was recently nominated in the new Golden Globes category for stand-up comedy, Mulaney was inevitably asked about Friends star Matthew Perry. Perry had been an open book when it came to his addiction struggles, and his recent memoir was no exception.
While the two didn’t know each other, Mulaney revealed to Variety that he was affected by Perry’s memoir:
“Addiction is just a disaster,” Mulaney says. “Life is like a wobbly table at a restaurant and you pile all this shit on it, and it gets wobblier and wobblier and more unstable. Then drugs just kick the f*cking legs out from under the table. I really identified with his story. I’m thinking about him a lot.”
Like Perry, Mulaney used comedy to share his addiction story. Although, the comedian admits to leaning more towards going for laughs than the profound.
“It had been an extremely eventful time,” Mulaney told Variety. “And the goal from the beginning was to do this as funny as I could make it — not as impactful as I could make it, not to pause for dramatic effect. I just wanted it to be a little wilder and put you in my very confident, demented brain during the time of addiction.”
(Via Variety)