John Mulaney on His Life: It's 'Like a Tornado Picked Me Up'

"Once such a consummate urbanite that you half expected to see a pigeon on his head and his pockets stuffed with takeout menus, today he looks every inch a suburban dad, in his white lace-up Vans, olive jeans, long-sleeve shirt." That's how Brett Martin describes John Mulaney in a profile in GQ, which dives into the "whirlwind" of the comedian's last few years, in which he entered rehab for drug addiction, saw his first marriage break apart, suffered a relapse, and had two children, Malcolm and Mei June, with actor Olivia Munn, whom he's since married. Here, more from Martin's chat with Mulaney:

• On once relying on drugs to perform: "There was a time when I would have told you that I could not fly, sleep, or perform unless I had a Klonopin. ... I would have said, 'It sucks, because I don't always want to take Klonopin and Xanax, but I have to.'"

• Beginnings: Mulaney didn't start out in the industry wrestling with addiction. In fact, when he first came to New York in his early 20s, he was hyperfocused on working, noting, "I just hit the ground running. It was all of a sudden this total focus and drive to do as much stand-up as possible. I didn't drink alcohol anymore. I didn't take any drugs. I was just totally dedicated to one thing, kind of monastically, and it was awesome."
• On why he wears suits while performing: Mulaney instituted his self-imposed dress code after watching six comics in one show appear in the "nerdy-white-guy outfit" of jeans, button-down shirt, and sneakers. "I remember thinking, They paid money to see something," he says of the crowd at that show. "Why does it look like one of the audience members is standing onstage talking?"
• On fatherhood: "I've always been good at working with and for unreasonable people—people that are just against logic and the rules of time and space." Of son Malcom, who was born in 2021, Mulaney says the boy "sometimes feels like one of those bosses: 'Why is your hair wet?? Make it dry!' And I'm like, 'That's actually one of the more difficult things to do quickly!'"
• On random drug testing: It's what the couple agreed to do so Mulaney wouldn't be tempted to relapse, and Munn still gives him drug tests regularly. "It's like a relief," he says. "I like to be able to not even have that be a question in her or anyone else's mind. Something about peeing in that cup is like, I'm walking this walk. It gives me confidence."
• On current life overall: "It was like a tornado picked me up, head to toe, hip to hip. And I landed somewhere extremely lucky and nice, where I'm having the best time in life."

More from Mulaney here. (More John Mulaney stories.)