John Mulaney almost got scammed trying to book Bone Thugs-N-Harmony for show

Hosting a variety show isn’t all fun and games — it can even get a bit dangerous.

John Mulaney revealed as much during the opening moments of this week’s Everybody’s Live, giving his fans a behind-the-scenes look at his job by recounting the wild story of his attempt to book Bone Thugs-N-Harmony on the show. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work out.

“Motherf—er, let me tell you about the week I had,” Mulaney began his monologue. “We had something very special planned for you this evening that we had to scrap very recently.”

The comedian then explained that the bit involved the death of his announcer and sidekick Richard Kind’s (fake) tortoise, a tragedy that would prompt a surprise appearance from the hip-hop group, who would perform their 1996 single “Tha Crossroads.”

“If you’re not familiar with ‘Tha Crossroads,’ it was an enormous hit about their friend’s tragic death,” Mulaney said. “And I cannot overstate how hugely popular it was with horned-up junior high kids at Catholic schools to grind with each other during the Clinton administration.”

Things initially went smoothly. Mulaney reached out to a contact for the group that he found online and scheduled a meeting with their manager. Group members Bizzy Bone, Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone, Wish Bone, and Flesh-n-Bone were not on the Zoom call with Mulaney and his show’s writers, but he said their alleged manager “assure[d] us that they’re really into the idea and want to do it.”

What followed was a series of red flags. Mulaney began a back-and-forth with the manager, who at one point demanded $2,800 up front which, the comedian explained, had to come from his personal bank account.

“I couldn’t pay it through the show budget, okay? So now I need to withdraw $2,800,” he said, before revealing a bigger problem. “A few years ago, in an effort to safeguard my sobriety, I set up certain measures, right? I set up a system where I cannot have, at any time, more than $300 cash unless I alert certain people.”

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Mulaney, who checked into rehab in December 2020, detailed this plan in his first post-rehab stand-up special, Baby J. So in order to get the money to book the group, he had to call wife, Olivia Munn, who was reasonably concerned. “I say, ‘Hi, how are you?  I need to get $2,800 cash, and I need it today.’ And she said, ‘What is it for?'” Mulaney recalled. “And I said, ‘It’s for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.'”

As Mulaney recalled, Munn was not convinced: “She’s like, ‘John, you know I love you. If you want to tell me something, you can tell me it.’ And I, in an effort to calm her down, said, ‘You don’t understand. I have to have this. I have to have this right now.'”

Though Mulaney did manage to get his hands on the money, lucky for him that it never made its way to the so-called manager, who ruined his chances of pulling off a scam by suddenly demanding $100,000 at the last minute. After another back-and-forth, in which the manager lowered the fee to $75,000, Mulaney eventually replied, “You screwed me over, and you screwed our show over, and I won’t forget this disrespect.”

Upon further research, Mulaney discovered that he may have dodged a bullet by cutting the contact. “After a little investigating, I have come to believe that the man I was talking to was not the manager of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. In fact, several sites list a different person,” he said. ” I’m concerned now that I never had any direct contact with Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.”

Then, looking into the camera and speaking directly to the culprit of the alleged scam, he said, “Credit where credit is due. I do indeed look like someone you could hustle over a booking for Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. But you played this very wrong. Indeed I am pretty unaware of what things should cost or how much money it takes to sing songs. But had you asked for $50,000 on Monday, and then had you asked for $25,000 on Tuesday, and then had you shown up today at our taping with any four men claiming to be Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, and named any sum of money to walk out on our stage, oh, you would be a very rich man indeed.”

He added, “Instead, you have nothing. I, meanwhile, have $2,800 in cash that I have to return to my wife and then immediately alert my sponsor.”

Mulaney ended his 10-minute saga by apologizing to his viewers and offering a consolation: a pair of tortoise trousers for four lucky audience members. 

Representatives for Everybody’s Live and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment and updates. But one member of the group has offered a response to the tale on social media. When music site Stereogum DMed him, asking if he had heard Mulaney’s story, Bizzy Bone simply replied, “Whose [sic] that?”

Resharing the post on BlueSky, Mulaney responded, “Can you get me his number?”

Watch Mulaney tell the full story of his failed Bone Thugs-N-Harmony booking above.