John Mulaney "Mister Whatever" Tour, Theatre Royal, Glasgow. Saturday 25th April, 2026

John says this is his first time performing in the UK. Not for him the plaudits of the Edinburgh Fringe. He doesn't covet a 'San Pelegrino' Award or whatever. He much prefers the grimy lanes and haunted theatre of Glasgow. He even manages to pronounce the city name correctly (not so much with Edinburrow).

I've had emails and texts reminding me I'm not allowed to use my phone in the auditorium. To reinforce this message, there are signs blu-tacked to the backs of every other seat, plus ushers wandering about, holding aloft "No Mobiles" boards. 

A souvenir

To be fair, they are quite polite to those who transgress this rule. I see no one being ejected, though a woman in the row in front comes close, her phone screen still lighting up her face as the house lights dimmed, a senior usher bearing down on her. 

Before the show, I wound my wife up that we were in the front row, even showing her the 'Row A, Stalls' ticket. She was unaware that the Theatre Royal has four rows in front of row A. Our seats were great, but not dangerously so.

The evening followed the typical American comedy club format, minus the MC, with an opening act, a feature (middle act) and then the headliner.

 

Mandal is first on. He's a US comic from Georgia. He complains he is fat, even though he's lost 30 lbs. He says people don't congratulate him. They just tell him to keep going. He doesn't like it when people shorten the word congratulations. He doesn't like congrats. He wants his 'ulations'. They don't do it for other expressions. "Sorry for your L'.  

He was a gentle, cuddly start to warm us up. Good comic.

(Photograph by Emma McIntyre, Hair and makeup by Christina Spina)

Andrea Jin is drier. She's a serial immigrant, moving with her family from China to Canada, and then to the US. She asks if it's complicated to move to the UK. We say yes, so now she's thinking she might move here. Writing this the next day, I can't remember any of her other material, but I did like her at the time. 

At the interval, droves of the audience leave the auditorium. I doubt everyone needed to pee or to buy a drink. Most likely, it was phone addiction, craving their next screen flick. We stayed where we were and munched through a tube of Munchies (half a tube is one portion, it says on the pack). I'll admit to feeling a touch of phone withdrawal myself, not being able to Shazam the preshow and interval music. All I can say is it was a jumble of Southern blues. 

After he returns from the bar, the chap on my left asks if I've seen John before. I reply no. He then informs me that he got married last year (congrat...ulations) and that he and his new wife saw John perform the following day in Boston. He tells me John was excellent. Andrea had played then, too, but not the first guy. Even though they've seen the show, they came back because they enjoyed him so much. I reckon it's partly to reminisce. His wife, who is beside him, is the right side of gorgeous. They appear still very much in love. 

(Aside: I get the same feelies when I see images from The Angels Take Manhattan - we watched the filming in Central Park on the last day of our honeymoon).

Disclaimer: not my photo. I pinched it from the internet,
rather than trawl through old hard drives. 

John Mulaney was immense. He has a presence that leaves you in no doubt that he knows what he is doing. This was my first experience of him as a comedian, and I was impressed. Whether he was discussing how creepy his son can be, or how he adopted thirteen Vietnamese when he married his wife (her extended family - "how much money you got, John Mulaney?") or his love of horror films despite all satanic possessions being the same (Satan inhabits a teen, make a mess of their bedroom, vomits copiously, says rude words, then gets sent back home to hell by a loud exorcist), he knew exactly the tone to pitch the comedy. A fine mix of writing, delivery and performance. The way he could step out of a routine to relate a funny anecdote and then dovetail back into the joke was so slick. He didn't even need a beat, and we were back where we were. I loved the line "From the moment my son was born, I'd known my now wife for exactly nine months and forty-five minutes" (That might not be exactly how he said it).

The only time he seemed perplexed was during the bit about hiring a religious person for the exorcism when he asked us, out of curiosity, what religion we were. Cue a spontaneous sharp intake of breath from the audience. You could tell John genuinely didn't understand the reaction, ending up nominating one person near the front to describe what had happened. The answer didn't explain, so he continued with the routine, barely referencing it again. A minor blip that the audience enjoyed more than he did.

Despite the high ticket price, John was good value. It was great to see a master of comedy at work.

Ticket Price: 96.40 x 2 = £196.75 including £3.95 transaction fee.