John Mulaney: New in Town

John Mulaney, a staff writer for Saturday Night Live, takes the stage in this Comedy Central standup show. He starts out pretty slow, talking about how people thought he was Asian as a child, and the audience is appreciative, but either they've been warmed up or there's some canned laughter in there. By the halfway mark, though, his pace of jokes has picked up. He's on a roll and he's pretty funny -- the laughter in the background still sounds canned, or at least as if the volume is turned up when he pauses for breath.

Even when he tells stories about himself, about his period as a drunk, Mulaney does not vary his pacing much. Early in the show, a bit slower, later in the show, a bit faster. Although the stories are good and well told, they lack a sense of person that I prefer in a comic until the last one. I don't know if you will have the patience to wait for it.