Georeactor Blog

This past week, John Mulaney hosted 6 episodes of "Everybody's in LA", a live late night show format somewhat tied to living in Los Angeles, somewhat adjacent to the "Netflix is a Joke" festival. It's still available on Netflix for rewatch.

Each episode had a topic and an expert (coyotes, palm trees, helicopters, Mulaney's hypnotist for paranormal, earthquakes, tar pits for the "future of LA" segment). These were the only non-celebrities (though Zoey Tur and Dr. Lucy Jones have Wikipedia pages). Science/nature experts were given a block of time to "let them cook" with one comedian, but then were less incorporated into later parts of the show. Sometimes the celebrities and callers had good questions, but it seemed difficult for them to get a mutual laugh going (and someone was quite hostile on coyotes?). The celebrities also had middling levels of experience with LA?

Marcia Clark was also on for the "helicopters" episode, and it was heartwarming to see her meet Zoey Tur for the first time. Obviously people wanted to run various OJ Simpson questions and jabs past her. This went pretty well even though it doesn't fall into the show's core concept.

Stephen Colbert sometimes does The Late Show live mixed with pre-recorded and scripted segments. So is this actually new ground? I think so - they had multiple guests, people are allowed to swear, and Colbert's live show is usually about a political event which dominates the conversation (versus 'palm trees').

Mayor Bass called into the last episode. Maybe there was some coordination with this being a "Future of LA" episode, though from a public safety perspective maybe she should have been on the Earthquakes episode? Anyway this was interesting local gov communication and she fielded a substantive question about replacing the palm trees.

Mulaney's rehab story is frequently referenced, while other elements of his personal life remain unspoken (Anna Marie Tendler, his ex-wife, is releasing Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir later this year). So I'm not sure how we'll feel about all of this in 6 months.

When the subreddit started talking about Everyone's in LA for other cities, and Mulaney's rumored open-ended Netflix contract, my first thought was The Sack Lunch Bunch (2019) already was the New York City version? It was a weird format where Mulaney brought in Richard Kind and other celebrities from his network. In retrospect, there were only a few NYC parts:

• Natasha Lyonne being there
• Fran Lebowitz reference (I had to Google her, sorry I was a fake New Yorker)
• segment about "top New York moments" culminating with a stranger crying on the street (my brother recently asked me about a viral post about crying on the subway being a NYC rite of passage)
• the concept being reminiscent of New York's own Sesame Street

So it's less NYC-coded than I remembered.
It would be difficult for NYC to have 'forces of nature' topics comparable to coyotes and earthquakes. It's not news that LA lacks a city core and that's what Manhattan excels at (Times Square, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Central Park). My structure would either be the boroughs (kinda basic for NYC introspection, but these are not solidly grounded for people who've never spent time in NYC). Or for topics: the subway, the rivers (with the oyster farms people), Statue of Liberty / Ellis Island, bodegas and delis. This is very former museum guy of me, but video at a museum before or after hours, have people make fun of art, I dunno.
Also Roosevelt Island is strange and historical and good to visit and take Instagram photos. Promote Roosevelt Island into national cultural consciousness.

What about other cities, in the US or the world?
Mulaney is from Chicago and might come back through here eventually.
Someone should do this in London. As a basic American I have no concept of neighborhoods, things specific to London vs. the rest of the UK, what plays are happening on the West End.