John Mayer’s Instagram Talk Show Returns With Guests Andy Cohen and Maggie Rogers
By Margeaux Sippell
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – John Mayer’s guitar chops have made him a household name, but it’s hardly his only talent. Following stints in comedy and Twitter infamy,
Mayer launched his own talk show last year, not on television, but on Instagram via the app’s live video feature.
“Current Mood with ,” a delightful 45-minute program in which Mayer regales viewers with musical guests, witty segments and type-written cue cards, returns for its second season today after a brief holiday hiatus. Andy Cohen and Maggie Rogers are scheduled to appear.
“The show started as a way to fight my own loneliness, and maybe help some other people fight theirs,” Mayer said in an story Friday.
The show is filmed on an iPhone in Mayer’s living room and can be watched on Mayer’s page for the next 24 hours, or find it on YouTube uploaded by dutiful fans after.
Each episode is packed with comedic bits and a stream of notoriously complex and thought-provoking discussion topics that showcase the Grammy winner’s razor-sharp wit. He debates everything from the best way to eat cereal to how the tabloids never seem to grow tired of harping on his infamous dating life.
Each musical guest sits for a casual interview and then plays a few songs, with Mayer backing on rhythm guitar and occasionally throwing in a solo. Past guests include Halsey , Charlie Puth , Thundercat , Cautious Clay and Alec Benjamin .
You may be wondering if this is Mayer’s ploy to land his own show on network television. He hasn’t directly asked for that as of yet, nor are any deals rumored to be in the works — but it wouldn’t be the first time he’s had a show on TV. In 2004, when Mayer was still a baby-faced newcomer, he made a two-part special called “John Mayer Has a TV Show.” The highlight of that project was the segment in which he walked around a parking lot before a show wearing a bear suit , interviewing fans who had no idea they were talking to John Mayer. In 2015, he guest hosted three episodes of “The Late Late Show,” in which he and Ed Sheeran gave each other tattoos .
At the end of each episode of “Current Mood,” Mayer likes to bid his several-thousand-strong audience goodnight with some words of encouragement to get them through the next seven days.
“Part of me wanting to do this show is to bring people back to a more human tradition of hearing someone talk, believing what they’re saying, being put at ease, [and] made to feel okay,” Mayer said on Sept. 30 at the end of Episode 1 . “So set aside some time to be truthful and kind. The world around you is beautiful. The world that is downloaded from the big mother brain in the sky as contributed by millions of people… that’s tiring. We all have to live in there, but let’s live outside the Matrix as well,” he said. “God bless you, I love you, have a good week.”
The second season of “Current Mood” returns to Instagram this Sunday, January 27, premiering at 7 p.m. PT/ 10 p.m. ET.
