John Mulaney appeared to be just another of those identical, slick, clean-cut, young comedians in suits until Covid. But all was not well. In December 2020, a bunch of his showbiz pals staged an intervention and sent him to rehab for his addictions to cocaine and various prescription drugs. Out of rehab, he promptly parted from his wife, the artist Annamarie Tendler, and met the actress Olivia Munn. As he noted in Mister Whatever, his latest show, when their son was born, he and Munn had known each other for ‘nine months and 45 minutes’. They are now married.

There was a woman in the front row wearing pyjamas emblazoned with his face

There was a woman in the front row wearing pyjamas emblazoned with his face

Mulaney’s crash provided both the substance, so to speak, and the context for his 2023 Netflix special, Baby J, a hilarious account of his addiction and recovery that managed to keep to self-mockery rather than self-pity, despite its darkness. (If you want illegal prescription pills, he noted, always find the doctor with the lowest internet rating from patients.) It was also an acknowledgment that Mulaney knew he had lost a........

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