Slate: I noticed that in New in Town, a lot of the humor is based around your fears—of teenagers, of random homeless guys pushing you in the street, of driving. Do you work through your anxiety in your performance?

John Mulaney: A little bit. It felt cathartic to talk about teenagers making fun of me, because it’s like a thing, when you walk around New York, when you see a group of eighth-graders or high-schoolers on the street, it just scares the hell out of me. Not that they’re going to beat you up, just that they’re so merciless and good at making fun of people. I had a bunch of jokes that aren’t on [New in Town] about how afraid I am of possums. I did those in Australia, where they have lots and lots and lots of possums, even in Melbourne proper. That was really fun, because it was 100 percent true, and it absolutely came from my real anxiety. So yes; I have exorcised those things.

(via John Mulaney’s New in Town: Questions for the SNL writer. - Slate Magazine)