Congratulations to Brian. He’s RhodeIslandComedy.com’s Featured Comedian of the Month for September, 2011 after wracking up the most page hits through the end of August. Check out his Ten Questions interview.
Hometown: Chepachet
Website: Brian’s Cat County site
Bio: Smithfield, Rhode Island native and current Chepachet resident Brian Mulhern has been working in local radio, and/or writing for television since 1991. His first paid gig came when he began writing monologue material for Jay Leno’s “Tonight Show” fill-ins for Johnny Carson. In 1993, Brian began a radio internship for Carolyn Fox’s afternoon show on 94 HJY. Soon thereafter, he was writing for the show. Over the next year, that position evolved into him becoming her full-time sidekick, “Brian the Pharmacist.”
In December of 1993, Brian and his brother Kevin began a long-standing relationship with comic legend Phil Hartman. Phil was in his final year at “Saturday Night Live,” and was leaving to get his own NBC/prime-time/sketch show. Phil chose their writing submission over hundreds of others, and immediately had the brothers out to “SNL” to see how it was all put together. They worked on the pilot over the next year, and ultimately, it wasn’t picked up by the network. But the Mulherns continued to work on a number of projects with Phil until his tragic death in 1998.
In 1995, Brian and Kevin were hired to write for “The MTV Movie Awards.” They would go on to write for the show out in L.A. three times – in 1995, 1999, and 2003. In doing so, they would write short films involving the likes of Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell, and work closely with fellow writers Patton Oswalt and Will Forte, who would later go on to join the casts of “King of Queens” and “Saturday Night Live” respectively.
In 2000, Brian left HJY to team up with former HJY night jock Paul Jaxon for the “Jaxon and the Pharmacist” afternoon show on WRX. Shortly thereafter, they and Kevin were hired to take over the morning show on the FNX Radio Network, which was based out of Boston, and also ran on stations in Providence, Maine and NH. In taking this job, the Mulherns had to turn down an offer to join “Mad TV’s” writing staff.
In the summer of 2002, Brian left FNX to move to L.A. Kevin would join him in February of 2003. While there, they would not only work on “The MTV Movie Awards,” but they would also serve as writers/segment producers for the syndicated comedy game show “Street Smarts” through Telepictures. In addition, they wrote the special features segments for the “Friends” DVD releases for Warner Brothers.
Brian moved back to RI in the fall of 2003 to become Joannie Edwardsen’s co-host for “Joannie and the Coast Morning Crew” on 93.3 Coast FM. He would remain after Joannie’s departure in 2006, teaming up with Tad Lemire for “The Tad and Brian Show” until June of 2008.
Brian can now be heard co-hosting “The Cat Country Morning Show” on 98.1 FM with Jessica Tyler and Amanda Leonardo, where his on-air name is Brian Phillips. You can also hear him doing traffic for “The Buddy Cianci Show” on WPRO-AM, where his on-air name is Brian Miller.
