Matthew Perry’s Addiction Journey Was Something That John Mulaney “Really Identified” With

John Mulaney recently revealed how he relates to the late Matthew Perry’s problems with addiction—and why the actor’s death in October has stayed with him.

The comedian, who has been candid about his own sobriety difficulties in the past, recently expressed how he connects to the late Friends actor’s struggles.

“Addiction is just a disaster,” John told Variety in an interview published on November 27. “Life is like a wobbly restaurant table, and you pile all this s–t on it, and it gets wobblier and wobblier and more unstable.” The medicines then simply kick the f–king legs out from beneath the table.”

He said of Matthew, who recounted his sober struggle in his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, “I really identified with his story.”

And, following Matthew’s death in late October, John told the publication that he’s “thinking about him a lot.”

For his part, John’s 2020 drug relapse, which resulted in an intervention and subsequent time in rehab, is featured heavily in the 41-year-old’s most recent Netflix comedy special “Baby J,” which debuted in April.

“Going to rehab and a lot of other things had become public knowledge, and I felt there was no way to start doing stand-up again without going through this,” he revealed about his choice to prominently portray his relapse in the show. “I had a lot to say about it as well. It had been an extraordinarily interesting period, and my objective from the start had been to make this as amusing as possible. I just wanted to make it a bit more crazy and put you in my extremely arrogant, deranged mindset during the time of addiction.”

Another aspect of the Saturday Night Live alum’s life that has slowly begun to seep into his comedy? Fatherhood.

John and his girlfriend Olivia Munn have a 2-year-old son named Malcom, whom they welcomed in November 2021. In reality, the child accompanied his father on his “From Scratch” tour, which concluded in February.

“Malcolm is a great, great roadie,” John said in June 2022 to Seth Meyers. “Malcolm loves being on tour.”

However, the new dad is still figuring out whether anecdotes are tour-worthy, telling Variety, “It’s a funny thing to me—I don’t have an immediate comedic take on being a dad.” Because of the amount of chatting we do today, I have several anecdotes that I believe are amusing. We’re simply conversing all the time, and I find it interesting how much time I spend talking to a 23-month-old as opposed to any grownups.”