John Mulaney Is Not a Big Fan of Dry January. But Not Why You Might Think.
The hilarious comedian gets serious (not really) about his new business endeavor, Years non-alcoholic beer.
Years
John Mulaney is touring the country with his new stand-up show, Mister Whatever, has his own Netflix series, Everybody’s Live, and seems to have an open-door policy for hosting Saturday Night Live. So why did the wildly successful and crazily busy comedian add “co-owner and creative director of non-alcoholic beer brand Years” to his resume?
“Because I like it so much,” he told Entrepreneur on a recent call from his Chicago home.
Years is a Midwest-born brew, founded by Pat Corcoran. Mulaney officially joined Corcoran and the other members of the Years founding team, Dan Abel and Noah Armstrong, this past October, explaining to customers in a viral social post, “I drink a ton of these and, you know, you don’t get fucked up.”
As Dry January rolls on (a non-alcoholic holiday that he has some hilariously mixed feelings about), Mulaney shares his thoughts on brand building, leadership, and what it feels like to begin an SNL sketch in front of millions of viewers, knowing with some degree of certainty that it will bomb.
With so much success in comedy, why did you decide to get into business?
Well, it wasn’t so much about getting into any business. I drink non-alcoholic beer, period. And I was never in my life that big a fan of the heavier IPAs. That microbrew, trail mix-like beer. I grew up in the Midwest and I drank Miller Light in high school and PBR. I like a pilsner, a real Chicago kind of beer. So I met Pat Corcoran, who started this brand Years, and it instantly became my favorite beer. So then, as Lenin would say, “What is to be done?” Um, maybe Lenin is not a guy quoted in Entrepreneur a lot? I genuinely like this so much. I will always feel good talking about it and I’ll always feel good telling people about it. I love the branding. I love the can. I love the label. I love the taste. I have two of these after every show. I like the whole thing of it. So I thought this would be something cool to partner with.
Credit: Years
How does being part of a business team differ from being part of a comedy project?
I hadn’t thought about that. It’s totally similar. And it feels fun in the way it felt when I started to work in television. Like, I have a ton of my own ideas, but also? Tell me what to do. Get on the phone with Binny’s or Whole Foods? Oh, does that work? Great! I’ll talk to distributors. I’ll talk to Lucky Strike Bowling. Pat, Dan and Noah have experience in this and they know what can really work. It was the same thing as when I got into television. Oh, is it better to have a little piece of voiceover to announce the sketch? Or is a cold open better? It’s just little things you learn along the way. It’s fun to learn again.
What has been one of the most surprising things you’ve learned?
The real impact on our business of Sober October. These things that seem kind of gimmicky actually have a real sales impact. It was funny, everyone was like, “We gotta get this ready for Sober October!” And I’m like, wait, isn’t that just like a thing people just say? And they’re like, “No.” It’s a big holiday and there are a lot more holidays than you think.
Dry January?
Yeah. But it doesn’t really rhyme, though. Dry January doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well. It doesn’t roll at all. It shoots off the teeth.
Did you learn any valuable leadership lessons from Lorne Michaels that apply to what you’re doing at Years?
The most important thing I learned from Lorne Michaels was just make decisions. He talked about indecisiveness a lot. In live television, you just have to make decisions. If someone comes up and says, “Do you want the red one or the green one?” You have to go, “The green one!” For better or worse. As my friend Fran Gillespie calls it, be “strong wrong.” Stephen Sondheim wrote, “The choice may have been mistaken, the choosing was not.” It’s better that you make a decision and move forward.
We talk about risk-taking and picking yourself up after failure a lot here. What’s it like to be in the middle of a live sketch that isn’t working?
I just keep shifting the definition of “worked.” That’s all I’ve ever done. As soon as something gets a groan, you go, “Yep, good. That’s what I wanted.” I remember there was a sketch with Josh Brolin. This was the night that Sarah Palin herself appeared on SNL. The sketch was called “Fall Foliage,” and it was this guy trying to entice his employees to drive with him around to see the changing leaves the next day. It was extremely funny, but at the dress rehearsal, it played extremely silent. But it made it into the show anyway. And right before the sketch started on air, we’re counting down back from commercial and Josh Brolin’s in costume, knowing that he has to do this long monologue about fall foliage that had not worked at dress. And just looked at the audience and then he looked at everyone on stage so confidently and he went, “Let’s shut these fuckers up.”
Do you have any pre-show rituals to get you in the right headspace for performances?
I used to. I had all of these rituals. Like on one tour, I thought I should be alone and meditate before I went on. Or I thought I should eat at 6 o’clock if the show’s at 7:30. And all these things have gone away in a beautiful way because my kids travel with me on tour. So, if Malcolm, who is four, comes to soundcheck, the pre-show plan goes out the window. I am racing around trying to get in my suit while drinking a can of C4 right before I get introduced. In Cleveland, he just bolted out of my dressing room and ran right on stage. Like two-thirds of the audience was there, and I had to run out and grab him. So yeah, no more rituals.
John Mulaney is touring the country with his new stand-up show, Mister Whatever, has his own Netflix series, Everybody’s Live, and seems to have an open-door policy for hosting Saturday Night Live. So why did the wildly successful and crazily busy comedian add “co-owner and creative director of non-alcoholic beer brand Years” to his resume?
“Because I like it so much,” he told Entrepreneur on a recent call from his Chicago home.
Years is a Midwest-born brew, founded by Pat Corcoran. Mulaney officially joined Corcoran and the other members of the Years founding team, Dan Abel and Noah Armstrong, this past October, explaining to customers in a viral social post, “I drink a ton of these and, you know, you don’t get fucked up.”
