On Friday night, in the premiere of his appealingly chaotic livestreaming variety show “Everybody’s in L.A.,” which runs every night this week, John Mulaney delivered a monologue about his adopted city next to a map that broke it down into a crooked jigsaw puzzle of neighborhoods.
It’s the biggest comedy showcase of the year (with more than 500 offerings, a 40 percent increase from the festival’s already mammoth debut event in 2022) but also something of a corporate flex.
Who else could get Hannah Gadsby and Shane Gillis in the same festival or draw the talk-show titans Jon Stewart and David Letterman to host events?
The most newsworthy shift this year was the aggressive move into livestreaming events, following the blockbuster success of Chris Rock’s 2023 special, “Selective Outrage,” about being slapped at the Oscars.
(One of that ceremony’s hosts, Wanda Sykes, returned to the place it happened, the Dolby Theater, for a festival show and began by saying this time no one would get assaulted).
Persons:
John Mulaney, Hannah Gadsby, Shane Gillis, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Chris Rock, Billy Crystal, “, Harry Met Sally, ”, Tracee Ellis Ross, Meg Ryan’s, Chris Rock’s, Wanda Sykes
Organizations:
Netflix, Dolby
Locations:
L.A, Los Angeles