stand-up spotlight

New stand-up tour from Saturday Night Live’s John Mulaney hits Austin suburb

Mulaney has been in the headlines lately.

Courtesy photo

Stand-up comedianJohn Mulaney is bringing his 2022 funny tour to Texas. The former writer for Saturday Night Live is launching his From Scratch Tour in March, with stops at 33 cities across the U.S., including three dates in the Lone Star State:

H-E-B Center in Cedar Park on Thursday, March 24
American Airlines Center in Dallas on Friday, March 25
Toyota Center in Houston, on Saturday, March 26

Produced by Live Nation, the tour will begin March 11 in Pennsylvania, and will hit the Midwest, California, and the South before wrapping up in Chicago on July 14.

Tickets go on sale at 10 am Friday, December 10 on Ticketmaster.com.

Mulaney’s last stand-up stretch was his Kid Gorgeous tour in 2018, later released as a Netflix special that won the Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Variety Special.

He’s earned lots of acclaim but has made headlines lately due to his personal life, including a stint in rehab, a sudden divorce from longtime wife Anna Marie Tendler, and a quick relationship with Olivia Munn, who is now pregnant.

AV Club notes that his first post-rehab shows delved into his substance abuse, a departure from his previous wholesome persona.

In December 2019, his musical variety special, John Mulaney & The Sack Lunch Bunch, debuted on Netflix. Previous specials include The Comeback Kid on Netflix in 2015, and Comedy Central special New In Town in 2012.

He began writing for Saturday Night Live in 2008 and has served as guest host four times.

He’s also starred on Broadway in Oh, Hello On Broadway with Nick Kroll; the duo have since released a Netflix special of the same name, as well as a podcast.

Tour dates are as follows:

Friday, March 11, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania: Mohegan Sun Arena
Saturday, March 12, Louisville: KFC Yum! Center
Sunday, March 13, Cincinnati: Heritage Bank Center
Friday, March 18, Portland, Maine: Cross Insurance Arena
Saturday, March 19, Ledyard, Connecticut: Foxwoods Resort Casino
Thursday, March 24, Austin/Cedar Park: H-E-B Center
Friday, March 25, Dallas: American Airlines Center
Saturday, March 26, Houston: Toyota Center
Friday, April 1, Savannah, Georgia: Enmarket Arena
Saturday, April 2, Charlotte, North Carolina: Spectrum Center
Sunday, April 3, Birmingham, Alabama: Legacy Arena at The BJCC
Thursday, April 7, Sacramento: Golden 1 Center
Friday, April 8, San Jose: SAP Center
Saturday, April 9, Salt Lake City: Vivint Arena
Sunday, April 17, Denver: Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Friday, April 22, Omaha: CHI Health Center
Saturday, April 23, Saint Paul, Minnesota: Xcel Energy Center
Friday, April 29, Berkeley: Greek Theatre
Thursday, May 12, Orlando: Addition Financial Arena
Friday, May 13-Saturday, May 14, Hollywood, Florida: Hard Rock Live
Sunday, May 15, Tampa: Midflorida Credit Union Amphitheatre
Friday, May 20, Columbus, Ohio: Schottenstein Center
Saturday, May 21, Norfolk, Virginia: Scope Arena
Sunday, May 22, Raleigh, North Carolina: PNC Arena
Thursday, June 9, Springfield, Massachusetts: MassMutual Center
Friday, June 10, Saratoga Springs, New York: Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Saturday, June 11, Buffalo: KeyBank Center
Sunday, June 12, Syracuse: Upstate Medical University Arena
Friday, June 17, Atlantic City, New Jersey: Hard Rock Live at Etess Arena
Thursday, June 23, New York City: Madison Square Garden
Thursday, July 14, Chicago: United Center

comedy tours concerts

Movie Review

Office sexual politics rear their ugly head in Netflix's Fair Play

Photo courtesy of Netflix

Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor in Fair Play.

The career of Alden Ehrenreich has – so far – been one without much progress. He was the star of Beautiful Creatures 10 years ago, a film that made little impact. Since then, he’s been in a Woody Allen movie, a Coen Brothers movie, and played a young Han Solo, none of which made him a star. After a few years away from movies, he’s back with a bang in 2023, with roles in Cocaine Bear, Oppenheimer, and now Netflix’s Fair Play.

Ehrenreich plays Luke, who’s in a relationship with Emily (Phoebe Dynevor), which they must keep secret because of a no-fraternization policy at the hedge fund where they both work. Working in finance, both are naturally ambitious, although Luke is a bit more naked in his desires. When Emily gets promoted ahead of Luke, he is at first is supportive, but is soon unable to hide his jealousy.

Written and directed by Chloe Domont in her feature film debut, the film tracks the devolution of Luke and Emily’s relationship, going from hot and heavy to heavily antagonistic. The sexual politics at play in the story are front and center, with Emily being the lone visible woman working in an otherwise all-male office. Luke initially bristles at whispers that Emily was promoted for reasons other than her financial skills, but working as her underling starts to bring out the worst in him.

Because Luke and Emily start the film as equals, the power dynamics take on an unusual form. Emily arguably does much more for Luke after her promotion than he would for her if the roles were reversed, sometimes to her own detriment. His blindness to her helpfulness, which eventually turns to suspicion, speaks volumes about the fragile ego of many men.

Another type of reversal is the sexuality depicted in the film. Most films of this type build up to the big sex sequences, using them as a culmination of a particular relationship. But Domont starts the film with them, and uses the absence of them later on as a way to denote how much Luke and Emily have drifted from each other.

It’s understandable why Domont set the film in a hedge fund, given the disparity between men and women in the field. But the scenes in which the employees, led by boss Campbell (Eddie Marsan), talk about the intricacies of their work just don’t pop, mostly because the dense terminology feels like the characters are speaking a foreign language.

Ehrenreich and Dynevor (best known for Bridgerton) each start off great, but as the film goes along and they’re required to get increasingly histrionic, they both become less believable. Domont saves most of the drama for the film’s final act; if the film was more balanced in its ups and downs, the two leads might have been able to even out their performances as well.

Still, the film has a propulsion to it that keeps it interesting, and the intensity of the final sequence is sufficient to forgive any earlier missteps. And, unfortunately yet again for Ehrenreich, it’s Dynevor who leaves the bigger impression, making a case that she should get many more lead roles in the future.

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Fair Play is now playing in select theaters; it debuts on Netflix on October 6.

Photo courtesy of Netflix

Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor in Fair Play.

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stand-up spotlight

New stand-up tour from Saturday Night Live’s John Mulaney hits Austin suburb

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Movie Review

Office sexual politics rear their ugly head in Netflix's Fair Play

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Get Austin intel delivered daily.