Adam Yenser joins Chrissie Mayr to discuss stand up and his time in Hollywood, Babylon Bee, writing for Ellen for 10 years, their internship for Late Night with Conan O Brien, working with Conan and more!
Chrissie Mayr Podcast
CMP 765 - Adam Yenser
They found it's gonna be above you, Bob. Chrissy is hilarious. Chrissy, have you ever heard of the comedian Kasha K. Ali? No, that sounds like something you yell at before you blow up a plank. Thirty seconds really. What do you say I have to say? I have to say something. I have to say something to you. I was scared confused by the title, everything, everywhere all I want. Because that's also what we call it when the ass takes off his shirt. I shouldn't be up here. I should be in school in the other side of the ocean. Oh, boys and girls, welcome to another episode of the Chrissy Mayer Podcast. Yes, we are postpartum and loving life. You can listen to this podcast on iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean, even, Twitter, Twitch, Rockfin, Rumble, we're all over the place. Before I bring in our fabulous guest, guys, check out my YouTube channel. If you haven't watched or liked or subscribed, I don't know what you're waiting for. Really? Are you waiting for me to die and then do it in memoriam? No, that's dark. Do it now. And watch my pregnancy stand up special once in a lifetime, unless I get pregnant again. But those jokes are, they're really, they're retired and you can watch them, I guess, until next time. But yeah, it's super funny. Check it out. Like, subscribe, all the things. What else? My first technical first headlining show back will be, it's coming up. It's going to be July 20th out here in my neck of the woods in Westchester. It's going to be in Mount Kisco. The venue is called Jazz on Maine. It's going to be two shows on Saturday, July 20th. I think a seven o'clock and a nine o'clock show. Keanu Thompson will be there as well. I don't know if tickets are available yet, but I'm putting it on your radar, guys. I'm very organized. You can tell. Okay. This is a very special day. I have a very special guest today. This is somebody I have known. Like, I can't even do the math on the amount of years. It's 2024 now. Subtract that by 2005. This is almost this person I've known almost 20 years. This is insane. And he's back. He's back in my life to promote his, his new podcast and his fabulous stand up schedule. And we're going to get into all of it. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. It's so good to see you again. You look exactly the same. You look just like Adam. It was a fresh faced boy. When we met, we were both. And I talk about this all the time when I talk about my comedy origin story. I talk about interning for late night with Conan O'Brien back when he was still in New York before he went to LA and then was screwed over a bunch of times. He was thrown from his late night spot a couple times. And Adam was an intern with me. And this was back in like 2005. 2005, yeah. It really, it feels like a lifetime ago, but it also feels like yesterday. Yeah, it makes me feel old when you say it's 20 years. I still think of those Conan days as being like, you know, just a few months ago and away. It was such a memorable time. I don't feel old enough to have been doing anything for 20 years, like maybe dressing myself, maybe. But I remember God, it was a big deal because I was commuting. I don't know what your situation was, but I was commuting into the city from Fairfield University. So I would take the train, be like an hour, hour and a half or whatever it was. And I was, that was the Metro North. I was so, and I would walk to 30 Rock. So that was easy. And just 30 Rock was so awe inspiring. And I just thought the whole world was opening up to me. I was just like, wow, life felt like full of possibility. And now I'm just a grizzled old stand up comedian. Now, now we've all made it. We're on a podcast. And now we're here doing a podcast. And I remember it was the first time I had taken the subway was that podcast. And I remember Jose Arroyo, one of the writers, he would, the biggest thrill would be like, when he would hand me a $20 bill and he'd be like, go downstairs, get me this coffee from Starbucks, and then get whatever you want. And like, I'd be like, whatever I want. And like Starbucks was kind of like a new thing to me. And I just thought the fanciest coffee I could get was like, I don't know, a vanilla skim latte. No, it was like a sugar free, something cancer causing that I would get. And it's funny you say that because I was, that was probably my introduction to Starbucks too. I grew up in Virginia and it was never part of my life. And now I start every single day with Starbucks. I don't know how I look without it. I'm a rewards member. I've gotten points and free, free merch several times over now. Yeah. But I remember those coffee runs because you felt like you were in the center of the comedy universe there. It was everything funny that was happening. All the best writers, the best improv performers, the guests. And even if you were just running a coffee errand or making copies, it felt like you were in the coolest place in the world. They felt like important copies that you were making. Yeah. I had just finished, so that was my senior year. I did that. My junior year, I had an internship at Dateline because I really thought I wanted to be a reporter. And then I spent a semester on Dateline, making Dateline copies. And I was like, oh hell no, this is the most boring hit ever. I'd rather do anything else. And. Was that before Conan? Oh, okay. And then I had reached out to God, not Sarah Silverman, Alice in Silverman. And I don't know how. I don't know how I got her information as a college junior. And just, I feel like, lucked out and got myself that internship. Because I think most people, the coveted intern spots are during the summer. And that's when all the sons and daughters of the executives get their internships. I felt so lucky sneaking in there during the school semester. Because then they're kind of limited to whoever is nearby. They lit the riff raffin then. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I had to do also. Because I had applied during my junior year to like every internship in New York. And I wanted SNL or Letterman or Conan, the Daily Show. But I applied to all of them. You know, like sitcoms, there's not a whole lot of New York, but there was a lot of soap operas. I think I interviewed for one of the soap operas that was in New York. To Young and Restless. Yes, I think so. I don't know if I got an offer there or not. But the one that I applied to that junior year that I did hear back from was the Maury Povet Show. Well, I wound up interning for the Maury Povet Show for that summer semester of my junior year. And then my senior year, I started applying to Conan, Letterman, SNL, all those over again. And got accepted for the spring semester. So I actually took off a semester and delayed graduating for a semester. But it was the best decision that I got to work at Conan. Yeah. I remember. And I don't know if this, yeah, I want to get your take on what your experience was like. Of course, it was so exciting. It felt to me like very competitive because even whether I knew how to get a job there or not, it just felt like every day was like, yes, it's fun. You're in this sort of like comedy whirlwind. And it's very exciting. And you're seeing like Brian Stack walk around who would do the bit characters and like talking to the writers. But to me, it felt like, oh God, well, do you better not? I felt increasingly like it was competitive. What am I even doing? What can I possibly, am I going to fuck up a coffee order? Would I got to mess up like setting out dinner? You know, we were not given important tasks, but I think towards the end there, I got so anxious. Like, oh, this feeling of like, are you going to be picked because it was like me, you, it was Liz Mealy who had been doing stand-up since she was 16 years old. It was John Bander who had been an improv guy. And it was Ellie Kemper, who was an older intern. And that is where she met Michael Coleman, who was a writer at that time. And they ended up getting married. Yep. Yeah. And it's funny you call her an older intern because she still looks younger now, I feel like. Oh, yeah. She's grossing in time. I don't know. And that's, you know, it's interesting because that whole Conan era, whether it was all the writers from there have gone on to do amazing things. Like you mentioned Brian Stack. He's at Colbert now, I think. Allison Silverman helped create the Colbert report when it first started. Ellie, you know, has had this huge career. People that were production assistants interns at Conan, there's so many interns from Conan that wound up working on the office. But I, my experience there, it was very competitive. I wound up becoming the intern coordinator then after my internship was over. But I did what they called the Jason Chalemi intern until you're hired strategy. Yes. So I had, I got an internship that spring semester where I was full time. And then because I delayed graduating first semester, I said, do you guys need interns over the summer? So I stayed on three days a week and I would commute. You mentioned your train commute. I was living in Pennsylvania at the time. So I would take a bus from Allentown, Pennsylvania to New York. It was two hours every morning and two hours every night. And I'd go back and forth like that. And then when the fall semester started, it was my senior final year as graduating December. And I didn't have classes on Friday. So I asked if I could keep interning at Conan one day a week on Fridays. And I would drive myself after my class on Thursday at Penn State in central Pennsylvania. I'd drive an hour back to Allentown, sleep there, take a bus two hours in the morning to New York, just injured on Friday and then commute back to Penn State over the weekend. But eventually, eventually it paid off. Yeah, but I just remember starting at Conan because that was the show that our generation kind of grew up loving. Like that was the coolest, funniest late night show there was. He was still the best. He is. Yeah. And he's kind of on our level more so than like Leno or like Letterman. They seemed like more like adults. Where's Conan seemed like a buddy? I don't know. Yeah. And I think he's kept that up really well too with his travel show and now his pod show. And now his podcast, he's, he's stayed funny and relevant to where there's still people in their 20s now discovering him and loving him. But I remember the day that I started at Conan, me and his other intern from Penn State that were there at the same time. Josh, we were walking down. Josh, what happened to Josh? He was writing for, I think it's a cider website for a little while. Okay. And then I think he's still in New York. I haven't talked him in a few years, but we kept in touch over social media and stuff for a while, but I think, I think he's doing well. But I remember there was that six studio six, a hallway where all the props department and music and the studio entrance was. And on our first day, we're walking past the props department and they had the cactus chef playing. We didn't start the fire on the flute and it's just a prop of a cactus and we were like star struck by it. It's just a prop and we're like, that's, that's the TV. There were so many funny moments like I remember this girl, Melanie. I don't remember her last name. There was two Melanie's. Yeah, there was Melanie. Oh, a little bit bigger. She cracked me up because she was going to say which Melanie is which, but now that you said one of them was bigger. I'm not going to physically. I don't. Her spirit was bigger. Okay. He was God. What's his name? Max Weinberg. She was Max Weinberg's. I think. No, because we had an inside joke me and her because Max Weinberg had his, I remember he had his own intern. He had an intern all to himself and he would. We observed him to sort of treat them like in kind of like a slave like manner and we would joke me and Melanie. Like, like, Oh, Max needs to be carried to the bathroom and I forget the name of his intern. I think it might have been like this little Asian girl. Yury. Okay. Okay. Were they, it's Yuri Asian memories or something? Yeah. Wow. That, that's, that's the shit I can remember, but not like, you know, what I did yesterday. Um, you're just like. Yuri, Max needs to be carried to the bathroom. Like Max needs to be spoon fed his lunch. Oh my God, we crack each other up so much, but it was this. Yeah, you felt very star struck and I remember. Remember when slipknot came and I remember this so vividly. They're like, well, we need to put, we need to cover the drummer's seat in plastic, like the PA at the time. I forget his name. His job was to cover the seat in plastic, the drummer seat, because he was known to pee during performances. And they were like, they were that. Yeah, that was the drummer from slipknot. Apparently. Yeah. They're like, Oh, he's known to pee during performances. Cause you know, you know the story then about who became the drummer for slipknot after that, right? No. So Max's son, Jay, who was like 11 or 12, I think at the time, maybe a little bit older than that when we started. But he was a huge slipknot fan and his dad would bring him in when slipknot was on the show and he'd watched them rehearse and he became a drummer himself. And then when their old drummer left Jay Weinberg became the drummer for slipknot and was there for several years, I think he just left the band. I think they parted ways like last year, but Jay Weinberg was the drummer for slipknot for several years. Napetism in action. Unbelievable. So crazy. Yeah, I remember walking around like it was just such a thrill to be in the building, like just looking at the makeup room and looking at the props and almost. And every time slipknot was on it was fun because they would do the slip nuts where it was, it was his Brian Stack, John Glazer and who else was it. There was. Oh, wow. Yeah. And they come out and they throw the nuts around. Oh, and Andy Blitz. And they come out. Wow. Yeah. And slipknot let them open for them at one of their concerts and they showed this tape roll of the audience doing them and throwing stuff at. Oh, it's so funny. Yeah. The head is so funny. You're like saying names that I haven't liked because there's so many I haven't like thought of in a while, but it's like, oh yeah, Andy Blitz. I thought they were all like so cool. Everybody who worked there, but they also seemed kind of like aloof. Like they were too good. And you know what they should be. They are too good for the interns. You know, I don't know what I didn't get that vibe from people there, especially some of like, I mean, you mentioned Brian Stack Brian Stack was one of the nicest people I've ever met in comedy and working in television. He would remember all the interns names from day one. And he was the type of person where because he was good to the interns. So we all loved him. We were all like, if we ever make it, I was always like, I'm going to be like Brian Stack. I'm going to remember everybody's name. And then when I got in the show, I'm just one of those people that forgets everybody. I didn't live up to the stack standard at all. He was so nice. And I remember Jose was so nice. He gave me a book about comedy writing that I still have somewhere. And like that, those things, that means a lot to you, those moments. And I remember like asking them for advice. And I think it was Brian Stack who was like, just get into improv, like just go to improv. And then I did TV as soon as I graduated to five years between the UCB and the magnet theater. Oh, that's right. Magnet. I haven't heard that place in years. I used to go there to see friends shows all the time when I was in New York. Yeah, that was God. Who was the name, the guy that was in charge of the magnet theater. He was kind of like a large, he was like a tall sort of like a lurching man. What the hell is the name? Somebody in the chat might know. No, it's very, it's very niche. I don't expect you guys to know he had like an interesting name. Like, not Homer, but something. Yeah, I don't remember who it was that was in charge. I might know the name if you said it though. But I wonder if like that, because UCB kind of tanks during the pandemic. I think they went bankrupt. I wonder if they still do classes. They have a theater out here still. That's where I started taking sketch writing classes when I was in New York. It was after. I don't know if I started while I was interning at Conan or after I started as the like receptionist and intern coordinator, but I took two of them. Armando Armando Diaz. Armando Diaz and Ed Herbsmann and Shannon Manning founded it. And I saw Ed Herbsmann in. God, I think in a movie recently, I think he was, he played like a bodega worker in this. I think it's the movies called if, which stands for imaginary friend. It's with. Oh, yeah, that's a new one that's out with Ryan Reynolds. Yeah. It's funny how you say you see him in the background of movies because I think when I first got into entertainment and especially when I moved to LA and started living in Hollywood, you think you're going to wind up schmoozing with all these celebrities and being friends with famous people. And instead, you just know every improv actor in every commercial that comes on TV. Oh, every commercial. I'm always like, oh, that's, that's so and so. You've been still like I've been with my husband, like almost 10 years. Like I go, if we see a commercial and I go, I know him. He goes improv, right? I go, yeah. Yeah, you're just, oh man, I tried and failed. I remember for a couple of years, all I did was try out for commercials and like, I don't think I got a single, a single one. I think one that I was actually happy I didn't get was like a commercial for like herpes medication. I was like, well, if I get this or whatever you look at a thing, you know, but you could be the face of herpes. You do everything. You just try out for everything because you're like, I guess this is showbiz, right? And I had so much failure in like the kind of commercial acting world. And even trying to be a background actor that I just, I did a one woman show. And then I was like, I was so afraid of stand up for so many years. But finally, after doing that one woman show, I was like, you know what, I could, I could try it. I might as well. And then I've been doing stand up ever since, but I remember being so afraid of it for some reason. Now, did you the first time you tried it? My experience was I always thought stand up was something that I kind of wanted to try, but I was, I was a little nervous about for a long time. I wrote jokes in a notebook for three years before I ever got the nerve to get on stage and actually try it. And then I actually didn't get midnight open mic on us. One was it was like, it was like midnight or one a.m. at the UCB theater on Saturday nights. They would have an open mic. And Pete Holmes was the host back then the open. Oh, wow. And that was the first time I ever did stand up. And my first set went, okay, I wouldn't say I killed, but I didn't bomb, but getting those laughs, it was like, as soon as I got off stage, it was like, oh, this is, this is what I love doing. There was this instant sense of, oh, this is the best thing in the world. Yeah, because there's there's people who do it for ego. I mean, I would be lying if I said, didn't do stand up for ego reasons at all, but it's not entirely for ego. It's like, you feel really connected. You feel like a bond with the audience when you're able to make them laugh. It's like, you feel kind of like everybody is in. In that one moment, like we're kind of all on the same page and then the more of those moments you get, you feel like, yes, it's great to be able to make people laugh, but it's just, it's like us, it's like a nice sort of togetherness feeling. Wow. Yeah, and I like the control freak aspect of it also where you're like, it's your perspective. It's your joke. The reaction is immediate, whether it works or it doesn't. I just love that feeling being the moment because even as a writer and I've never done improv, but you know, with improv, you're relying on other people with writing. No matter what sketch or beat you right, when it comes out, I'm often proud of what I did, but if there's like one thing that somebody delivered differently than I would ever one thing that they cut out or change. It feels like I, you know, I would have done it slightly different, but stand up is I love that feeling of just it's all you and you're in control of everything. I like watching your career, Adam, because you're, you're like, you, I feel like you very much took this kind of like what I think you had a lot of mainstream success like you started working for Conan right away and like good for you like you deserved it doing all those two hour, like four hour round trip commute it's like you deserve you. What did you say you were like literally I'll take anything like just please let me work here. When I started at Conan and I got hired. Yeah, I was kind of waiting for anything to open up. And when we first started interning Aaron Cohen was the intern coordinator and then he went on to work at Colbert I think he might still be working with Colbert. And then the intern coordinator after that was Kerry Aldridge and then she left and took a job at HBO and I had kind of filled in for her at the intern coordinator desk when she was away a few times. And so then the producers called me up and said, you know, do you want to be the intern coordinator, which is kind of where a lot of a lot of interns who wound up getting hired there. That was one of the spots because you're kind of a receptionist for the office and you do the hiring and supervising of the other interns. And then I did that job for about six months and then became the segment producers assistant and then that's the job I did there for the rest of the six years that was there. Oh, wow. Okay, so then did you move out to LA with them. Yeah, I never saw myself moving to LA and even when I moved out with the show I thought, I thought I'll go do that for a few years and then I'll probably move back to New York because once you're there you're talking about that excitement of being in Rockefeller Center it's like I wanted to see myself as a New Yorker I like the energy of the city you feel like you're in the center of the world. Yeah. And what I also found interesting I had never spent much time in LA I'd been there for a day once before I moved out there. And people in New York I don't know if it's still this way but I feel like a lot of them talk shit on LA. Yes, constantly. Oh, we don't respect we don't respect LA. And then when I got out here people in LA don't shit on New York and LA is not bad at all I was like oh you know it's nice it kind of got my blood. But yeah I moved out here in 2009 when Conan's whole show moved out for the Tonight Show and you know we all thought it's the Tonight Show will be there forever. And then you know the whole the whole late night war thing with Leno happened about 10 months later. And then I was off after the show got, after the Tonight Show went back to Leno there was about 10 months in between that show ending and then his TBS show starting where I was just kind of doing stand up in LA applying to other random jobs I auditioned for last comic standing I think during that time and then when a show came back on TBS they brought me back on board. And then I worked for the TBS show for about about a year and then the job, the writing job opened at Ellen that I applied for in London moving to Ellen. And then you worked for Ellen oh my god what was that like I've heard so many rumors yeah she's a bitch she drinks baby blood she's horrible. And end of interview good talking no. So I liked working there I was there for 10 years altogether it was a tough place to work she could be tough at times. There were produced there's a producer that was you know could be difficult but I you know I kind of thrived in that environment. And I love the other writers I had a really good you know fellow writing staff that I was working with there. And you know it was it was a tough place to work. But I wouldn't have stayed there 10 years if it was if it was terrible you know you were there for 10 years I was yeah. Holy crap so what roles did you do in that time. So I was a staff writer at what's what was really fun about Ellen is a lot of the late night shows divide between monologue writers and sketch writers so you're kind of primarily assigned to one or the other. At Ellen you just get your assignments for a week sometimes you be on like a sketch or a remote bit with a guest and then sometimes be writing a monologue so I really like that I got to write both. And then there was a few bits there are some of my favorite bits that I developed for Ellen there was one called Ellen's on your Facebook where we would we'd have the audiences email addresses from when they register for tickets. And we would go through their Facebook pages and find embarrassing pictures and then Ellen would show show the picture and ask them you know about their why they posted it because there was a lot of stories in the news at the time about people getting. You know fired from their jobs are in trouble for work for pictures they post on Facebook. So we're thinking oh we wonder if we can do this to the audience that became kind of a recurring segment. And then there was a hidden camera bit I did called Kevin the cashier played by Adam where I'd work at different stores and kind of prank the customers. And that was something I never really, I was never like a huge hidden camera comedy fan myself but that was funny but it wasn't something I was into. And so our head writer Kevin Lehman came up with this idea for me to go out and I think the first one I did was at a Walgreens and wound up being really fun and Ellen liked it so we did a lot of those I worked at all different places I didn't want to sleep number mattress where I did one at there's a fancy restaurant in LA called cut where I did one. We did some at PetSmart. And then one of my favorite bits I would do I'd play this like fake investigative reporter because Ellen would always do the big giveaway shows at the holidays where she gives away prizes to our audience. And we found there's people who would take all the prizes they got from Ellen and then go on Craigslist or eBay and try to sell them. And so, and so we set up this thing where it was like a sting operation. And I originally pitched I think one of our correspondent kind of comedians that we could send out for it but the head writer he goes why don't you do it yourself and I was like I'd love to do it. So I went out in the you know a suit with a microphone and we had the big reindeer mascot from Ellen's 12 days of giveaways. And we would email these people anonymously saying we wanted to buy their stuff and then we'd show up with a camera crew and kind of bust them for selling Ellen's prizes on and feel embarrassed. Some of them did yeah there was we'd always try to do it in a, you know, a way where they were kind of in on the joke and having fun with it. There were some that that felt embarrassed and we would, you know, we'd cut if they were upset or didn't want to be on camera. But it was fun because it was funny because the comments from the audience watching it when we'd air those bits we would kind of do it just as a tug and shake way to, but some of the audience members would get really mad they're like oh I can't believe this person is just doing this to Ellen. Wow, did you get like pretty close to her did you like, do you ever go to like to her house like did she invite people over did she like know everybody names. She knew the writers names and I went to her house a couple times to her houses there's there's many of them. Yeah, I was, you know, I got pretty close to working with her and I don't stay in real good touch with her but we talked every now and then over text and I've been, you know, I left on good terms. It was, you know, I wouldn't say I was like close friends with her but you work with her every day she get she get to know as well and you know I go to her house mainly mainly when we were working on side project like when she hosted the Oscars or when she was working, you know, on other media appearances and stuff like that. That's cool. Did you, oh, wasn't she dating like Portia for a time did you hang out with her. She's still dating Portia for a time. Oh, they've been together for a long time. Yeah. Oh damn. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, Portia was great to Portia would be around the office a lot. That's neat. Okay, so I go from Ellen to Babylon B. I left Ellen the year before her show ended so I left in like 2021. And I, I had always been very openly conservative like I was, there's not many in Hollywood but I remember I remember I was in the control room at Ellen when the whole Brett Kavanaugh hearings were happening. Oh my God. Wow. And they had what was her name Christine Blasey Ford up there testifying. And then Kavanaugh said, I forget it was something where he like, he retorted something very, very forcefully against them. And I started clapping in the control room. I go, oh, we're not all going to clap for that. So I was, I never hid the fact that I was conservative. And I was a fan of the Babylon B because I'd seen a lot of their, you know, satire articles and stuff like that. And one of their writers and hosts at the time Ethan Nicole had heard about me through some mutual comedian friends and brought me on the Babylon B podcast as a guest first. And then a few months later after I left Ellen, he asked me if I wanted to come on board and kind of collaborate freelance for a little while and then it became a full time gig for a while. And then I got laid off in November. So, I can't imagine like the fact that you're a conservative working in Hollywood and you feel like you don't have to hide it. That, that is what I've always felt like would have made me kind of now very incompatible with working in like any kind of mainstream or in Hollywood at all. I mean, not that I would want to, but I was very much like when we were interns I was super liberal. I was just a just a default liberal feminist like just, you know, you go to college that's what that's what your programming is I guess, and because my parents didn't have that much of an impact on me like as far as their politics and their beliefs go. So, that's interesting to hear that you didn't feel like you had to pretend that you were liberal or just never. Yeah, chime in. I think it was, I think because I had never hid it, even when I started at Conan, you know, politics didn't come up often because it's a very apolitical show, but I never really hit the fact that I was more conservative. I think stand up really helped me navigate that well because when I started doing stand up it was 2007 I think. Like Obama won the next year, and I was out there doing stand up jokes because I grew up looking up to a lot of left-leaning comedians like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert. And I didn't do all political material I did a lot of just observational stuff and apolitical stuff, but I kind of got that sense from these comedians that I liked on the left that you're supposed to go after politics you're supposed to kind of criticize this stuff. And when I would do stand up when I was first starting out I had anti Obama jokes because I was more at that at that time it was when he ran against McCain the first time. And I would just do these jokes and then I realized after, you know, very quickly that I was one of the only comedians out there that was doing comedy from that perspective. And then by the time I got to where I was working as a writer in Hollywood, what stand up helped me do because you're in that, like I was saying it's you in the audience and there's this immediate reaction. You have to kind of find a way to talk about it in a way that you're not going to necessarily alienate and piss off everyone to the point where they're going to leave or dislike you. I really had fun writing and kind of walking that line of how can I write jokes that express my point of view, but are funny enough or strong enough that they're going to make people laugh even if they disagree. And so when I came into Hollywood, I never hid that I was conservative. And I think that's important for more conservatives that are out there if they're working in the entertainment industry, because they part of the pressure from the left is they want us to be ashamed to say this stuff they want us to. I would hear from, I wouldn't say a lot of people but both, you know, at Conan and at Ellen, every now and then somebody would come up and be like, you know, I agree with you I don't want to say anything out loud, but you know that's, you know, I'm secretly on your side of this one. I think it is important for conservatives be more outspoken, but I think you do have to be smart about it, whereas a lot of people, especially who make it in conservative media, their trolls or their provocateurs and they try to be as antagonistic as possible. And I think that really works for drumming up attention, you know, if you're trying to build a social media following if you're trying to build your own brand. But you know I enjoyed talking to people on the other side and I wanted to get into these mainstream comedy shows and it's kind of unavoidable the wind up working around a lot of people on the left in those environments. You said you kind of looked up to Stephen Colbert and I remember to I remember seeing him on a daily show being like, oh, this is like kind of an interesting character, and then I would watch him on the, like, get his own late night show and then especially through the pandemic. I was very turned off by just like what a corporate chill he's become, especially for big farm, especially during the pandemic and I wonder you weren't a fan of dancing vaccines you didn't think that was the funniest comedy segment you've ever seen. Did you have a similar feeling like God these people I, so these comedians I idolize have to have changed or just are kind of bought paid. Yeah, I did to some degree, there are still there's comedians on the left that I still love and think are funny, but I think what disappointed me with Colbert it's still kind of weird to watch his show because he's such a funny person. When you look at strangers with candy when you look at the daily show, when you look at the Colbert report he was doing a conservative character but it was funny in this way that, you know, whether he was making fun of your side or not it was, it was hilarious it was such a smart show. And I was excited when he took over the late show I thought he would be great for that spot. And you know partly because of the Trump arrangement syndrome and partly because of the pandemic. It became this very preachy morose one sided, like political diatribes and it seemed like it like it lost some of that humor that made everybody love him. And it's, and I know there's so many talented people that work on that show also there's there's a lot of funny writers and comedians that are involved with it. And it just seems something with his tone changed. And, you know, it was disappointing to see that with him and a lot of other comedians where they started to put the politics first it felt like, you know, one of the things I think made John Stewart's daily show what it was, is he was just a brilliant comedian. I was not, you know, designed at first to be an overtly political show when Craig Kilborn first hosted it. It wasn't heavy handed politically. And I think over time as our culture became more politically charged they kind of put the politics more and more forward. And when you have shows, you know, now like the late show with Stephen Colbert it seems their audience wants that so I get they have their audience that likes it, but it does alienate half the country. And then, you know, I think there's, there's sort of a, there's an inverse of that on the right to I think where a lot of right wing media will criticize shows like Colbert or SNL for going too hard left on the politics. But then I don't know that I see much from the right that's not the inverse of that they're kind of, they'll criticize going for claptor and they'll criticize being biased and doing stuff that alienates one half. But, you know, is I don't see many people that don't already agree with say Daily Wire going to check out Daily Wire comedies. They're not necessarily doing the sort of broad comedy that everybody used to used to come to get like everybody used to watch Johnny Carson. Everybody used to watch. And it was because they weren't super heavy handed politically. But it being neutral and they had great personalities that even if they did show their hand like to where they were politically slightly, the audience would forgive them because they're just such a lovable personality. Here's like Colbert is not a lovable personality in his role as late night host he's very unlikable I think. And I, that's a good point that you're making like why don't sort of right wing outlets make it more politically neutral I think the right wing will always feel like we don't have the leg up because we're not the established media is always going to be left wing like Hollywood is left wing, the late night shows are going to be inherently left left leaning. And I think the right people on the right still feel like they're the underdogs in the sort of media landscape we've got to kind of make our own way and if you look at daily. So there's our only example of like folks on the right making, I mean they're barely making comedy content I think they're just in their infancy in terms of bringing people on or just. I'm not sure what their inner workings are like but I think they've made one maybe two comedy movies and it's not their main bag it's like news and interviews are their main focus that it doesn't seem like to me like they're really trying to be a comedy which I would love to see somebody and do that. Yeah and I think there are there are some people in you know right wing media that I think are really funny like I like Dave Lando a lot. He's over right. And I think one of the great things about Dave is he's somebody who comes from a comedy background he you know he's he's an accomplished stand up comedian he kind of has that experience and that sensibility. You know I think a lot of what happens on the right is there is this right wing media distaste for mainstream left leading politics or comedy rather. But then you know what I love about Dave like I said he has this comedy background a lot of the people that they kind of try to put forward are either political pundits or media figures that then try to be funny. And there's this and there's this immediate sense yeah exactly. And you can tell someone like me or you who's done stand I mean you started to stand up even before me I started in 2010 2011 and that's what I kind of found a little bit. I rolled my eyes with the daily wire I'm like they're just having their people that work there that are news people that are like politics people. I feel like forcing them into a comedy role like yes I love that they brought on Tyler Fisher and maybe a couple others that are genuine comedians but I was like oh my god news people trying to be funny like I'm cringing. So that's what I said at the time I wish they would bring on more people who have more of a solid background in comedy and comedy writing rather than like I think I'm funny and I'm in charge of this whole thing anyway when I just put myself in and I was like. And this is the whole yeah well this is the whole industry also but it's especially in right wing media they're also very social media obsessed because that's where a lot of their platforms and their fan base comes from. And so you know when you have. Like if you look at SNL or the daily show or Conan back in the day. They're going out to improv theaters looking for talent they're going to the Ivy League's for the best comedy writers that are out there working for you know. Why do you think the Ivy League's have the best comedy writers because that is my criticism of SNL that that it's too much incestuous like fishing in the same small pool. I don't know if I would still say the Ivy League's have the best comedy writers because the Ivy League's are in their own political disaster right now I feel like. Yeah. But you know I think back in the day it takes a certain amount of intelligence to write good comedy even if you're writing about stupid things even if you're writing dumb characters. There's there's an intelligence that it takes and I know a lot of both stand up comedians and comedy writers. It's very common for them to have a background in things like law or philosophy. Because they're these things that kind of teach you to think like like make illogical arguments or sort of you know see the logical flaws in life. I've always had an interest in like psychology like why why people do the things they do and like almost kind of like arguing for the other side that's what that's where a lot of comedy is. Yeah, and that was that that was one of the funny basis of the Colbert report when when he was kind of doing that character he was making these, these funny illogical arguments from from you know the right even though he wasn't on the right. But yeah I think that's there is an intelligence I think that that come that you need for a lot of comedy writing and I think that's why at least at one time the Ivy Leaks were, you know, one of the best places to look for that stuff. And then what I was going to say though about conservative comedy bring back to that. So when they're looking for political pundits or people who already have a big social media following. There are people who are big that then try to be funny, whereas I think you know they need to look at if you actually go out to comedy clubs and see who's the funniest person here because I think you will find when I go out to comedy clubs. There certainly aren't a lot of conservative comics, but there's more than what you might expect and there are some I think that are very funny there's some that are kind of more moderate they might not be on the right but there's a big push back now. Against things you know like like cancel culture and what culture even people that maybe didn't traditional identify as being on the right. When you go out to actual comedy clubs and open mics you do hear those kind of perspectives at least more frequently than you did five to ten years ago. And you know I would like to kind of develop content and personalities from the comedy world rather than looking who's the current biggest right wing media star and let's try to make them be funny. Cause yeah I think that's one of the problems I think a lot of the right wing media sites they're run by people who don't really have a background in comedy they want to be funny but they don't have a background in it. But similar to the same reason why you have comedy club owners going to the latest ticket or like management companies going to the latest like big TikTok star I mean like oh you have this huge audience. Can you just figure out hey a pinky Patel can you just figure out an act something to do on stage for an hour we can sell tickets we know we'll sell out a whole weekend. And that'll be that same thing with like I remember Jeremy Piven was coming up I did a show with him at the off the hook club in Naples Florida. They had his name as a headliner on the marquee. He did I think 18 to 20 minutes I was one of maybe four openers for him that night and I remember people were walking out leaving like when is he going to come on like this show is not what it was advertised as I remember like the owner at the time was like blaming me like I was too dirty and that's why people were walking out like no because they probably expected Piven to be on half hour ago. But again he could sell tickets he had the built in audience and that's why you know and I understand the perspective of the comedy club owner that's like hey they have to keep the lights on they have to and it takes longer like of course the right thing to do is to go into the clubs and recruit and scout who is funniest and build from there but a lot of times these the funny people don't always have the biggest audience aren't going to sell the tickets which is a shame and that but that's how it used to be kind of in like the golden era of stand up like 80s and 90s you just needed to be funny and you needed a scout to see you and then that would be that you you have a whole career you'd be get a late night spot you get a sitcom and then you get a traveling tour set up for you and now you got to do all of that yourself yeah and I think it is a shame in a way because I you know I've always struggled with social media because I'm not the most social media savvy or active person and I think a strong argument can be made it's always helped comedians or any artists to have a knack for branding and self promotion and marketing yourself that's always been a part of it but on social media where it's just one person and you're you're the producer you're the promoter you're the artist. It's tilted the scales I think in favor of some people who are the it's like the primary skill they have is marketing and branding and self promotion like I think it's in one of the 48 hours of power. There's one that some court attention at all costs and I think there are people on social media who they just want to they're good at drawing attention to themselves like Alex Stein like Leonidas Tony has been good exactly like Alex Stein speaking of conservative personalities that shouldn't do comedy. Oh my god let me get my sound a big doubt oh my god I should have my drops ready but he's another one I think that's it's to that point where he's an internet troll who's drawn a lot of attention to himself. He did those viral videos where he goes to these town hall meetings and those on fire on those bits I think are good in themselves I get white people but if you look at his, I'm not a fan of his stand up I'm not I don't understand his appeal as a comedy person, he's like Steven Crowder he's like Steven Crowder 2.0 it's it's that's a lot stronger with his stand up like I have I have had him on a bunch of my shows and even like Lila Hart opens for him frequently I like Lila yeah I've done shows with her in Dallas before he has he has gotten stronger but like yeah I feel like with Alex he has this constant pressure on him like what is going to be his next big viral moment how is he gonna because that is what keeps his show going that's what keeps his paycheck coming that's what keeps the lights on for him you know that's how he first found success was from these huge viral moments rather than like good at comedy yeah I mean for him it's probably most I'm not saying he's not good at comedy but it's it's kind of like it's you know I mean like a bear in the zoo they got to figure out what button to push that's going to give them the biscuit and for him Alex learned how to get his biscuit and it was from the viral moment so you're just you're I feel like he's kind of trained to do that like that's success for him yeah and yeah I would agree that's definitely a big part of it that that is the root of it and that's the thing is now it's it's these moments that go viral that draw attention to like I said to one person and I think that's that's different from when you look at the traditional late night shows where they have a team of writers that have this writing or stand up experience and they're kind of you know like a show like a like a Conan or an SNL even in their heyday they have you know 15 to 20 writers that are at the top of their league trying to turn out this much material and yeah when it is when you're just looking for one personality on social media a lot of it does depend on those viral moments that's where it comes back to you know I don't I don't necessarily think it's a good thing that people are trying to get just these these moments that go viral because I don't know that they're the best written comedy or the best performed comedy they're just things that get attention I think it does incentivize sort of trolling and being a provocateur and generating outrage rather than maybe making the best content I've known God incredible like I know Nick DePaulo and Joe DeVito are too they they're touring stand up comics but they also write for Gutfeld and I'm friends with Joe DeVito and I've talked with him like several times like and it's just I guess this feeling that maybe a lot of writers have like and I don't know if you've ever felt this way but that you may be burned through some of your best or some good material on the show and you can't use it for yourself or use it in your stand up yeah yeah I've done Gutfeld a few times I try to write to the topics that they but there are times when a story comes up and you're like oh I could use this this bit that I have about that and kind of you know regurgitated on there and it is hard not to burn through material and I think that's one of the things it's hard with comedians nowadays and posting your content online because you have to build this social media following and now not just for you know like TV or media platform does but even to get booked at clubs they look at your social media following and it's led to this rise in the like crowd work clips which is always weird to me because when I was growing up I think crowd work is fun to see in a club I think there's comics that are great at it but it was never what attracted me to stand up when I was watching you know comedy central presents specials in the 90s or when you first looked up you know clips of your favorite comedians on YouTube or online it was their best written material and now I think a lot of comedians they're generating these moments of this crowd work stuff because it is a way to put out content constantly without burning through everything that you've written and putting it out there but again it's one of those things where it's like I'm surprised that people want to watch things like crowd work clips online so much I think it's fun to see it live I don't understand the appeal of watching it and people like to see a roast people like is that you know the type of person that's like oh roast my buddy make fun of my friend say you fucking gay you know there's something in us as humans like we kind of like to see other people being directly roasted and it's this feeling of like oh she was drunk she spoke out of turn or like she heckled now like what's going to happen I've had a couple of like viral crowd moments that have given me some like good attention for like several months and it's a really satisfying feeling to know like wow this moment that wasn't planned and it feels like you're writing a wave it literally feels like you're paddling out you see this wave coming like alright I could crash and burn but that moment it's like if it goes well you're like wow I'm writing it in all the way to the shore this feels great you're truly put on your feet it's like that it's like you're it's literally just a test of your wits and not like okay no no preparation could have prepared me for this no well written joke could have prepared me for this moment it's just me against this heckler there's something really exciting about that but I know what you're saying it's they have become popular as way is just to not go through material and you look at someone like Matt Reich who made his whole career blew the fuck up just over his crowd and I think there's something you said definitely for those those ones where something you know you uniquely what would you like you said like a roaster if someone gets outraged or some joke lands perfectly where you have this interaction that works out what I mean is I don't like these words just 50 videos of different comedians asking a couple in the audience how long they've been together yeah well that are very generic crowd work that are very almost formulaic yeah it is easy to default to the the easy questions like what do you do for work how long you've been together because you even start to write jokes based on that and sometimes you have crowd because how long have you been together it's always the same thing if they say a short amount of time they go oh you guys are probably still sleeping together you probably still like each other and then if they say a long amount of time you go oh you probably when's the last time you had sex you guys probably don't even like each other anymore it's just some angle of those two stock responses and I just see a lot of people kind of do that same thing over and over again it's easy to be jaded as a comedian be like cuz you know like those are the kind of stock responses but audience members they don't they're not especially people that aren't really fans of comedy like they might get out to one live comedy show like a couple times a year so for them that's like oh yeah how did how did they know like they they they completely nailed us we've been together 10 years wow like that's yeah it's probably like every other profession like dentists watch other dentists work and they're like oh really you're gonna feel it the cavity with that again you don't know about this new stuff okay he's doing a hacky filling yeah really that's how you're gonna pull the tooth okay I don't know why I always take it back to dentistry oh Xander Ziran thinks of the super chat hi Adam this is XB Gavin this is XB Gavin Chrissy tell us some Adam embarrassing stories and have you seen what type of people hit on Adam back and like this is rife with spelling error sander XB Gavin I think this is Gavin that I used to work with me at the Babylon Bee oh snap he's a good friend of mine yeah okay oh my god and he's here now um I don't think I have any Adam embarrassing stories I always knew him as an intern to be like truly an a student like I was jealous of you I was like oh this look at this fucking guy he's getting hired he's getting all the jobs he's working for Alex just look at him look at him just like a blessing life god damn it I don't know that yeah I'm trying to think if there was anything embarrassing that happened back in the Conan days we were all very close as interns I remember like going out to the Blarney Stone all the time to hang out with the interns after work yeah yeah I remember I had to like get I had to go right kind of back like right away because they especially if the show went late they're like well we could maybe a couple times I gotta they let me take a car back to college they would send me back to your field in a black car and I remember telling the driver to like drive around and wait until people were around because I wanted people to see me coming at it is black car thinking like I had this cool life like oh my god what a sad thing for me I'm like to just drop me off in front of my townhouse baby can you hold on that's really cool I don't think I went out too too much because I think I had to get back to to to campus have I seen what type of people hit on Adam back in the day no I didn't I didn't what type of people hit on you back in the day you know it's interesting I will say this no well no that was after I started working at Ellen that's when oh right when I would do the Kevin the cashier bits and the Ellen segments any time I was on TV the next day my like DMS on Facebook and Twitter would be filled with messages from gay men in the Philippines so that's where really those those those apparently the audience that as in as an Ellen performer I was attracting do they want you to come out to the Philippines what did they expect the idea I didn't respond to them really there was this one guy no I'm kidding you know it's interesting because I didn't I didn't date a lot in high school and college I went out on a few dates here and there but what was interesting about moving to New York since he's actually what type of people hit on you I did feel that there was there was a girl that I interned with that we wound up dating for a while when I lived there and when I moved to New York and started working for Conan it was this feeling of when you're around those interns in that environment it was the first place where he felt like oh I'm around like my people like my social network and I think there was you know there were there were interns that would you know date each other and I think it's because you're kind of around these people that you connect with that that you're kind of on the same page and you have you the same sort of you know worldview in the same sense of humor and you're in this you know exciting kind of environment together. So I think I made a lot of really good friends you know working there when you were interning together and it was it was a really fun time and it felt like a very cool group of people to be around. Yeah, those are fun times. Oh Matthew Hammond what's up we're the best improv guys the two guys that did the Sonic commercials. Oh TJ and Dave. Yeah Dave Pascwazy TJ Jagdowski I think they were I remember at UCB they would tell us to go see them whenever they went in town and they would do shows at the Barrow Street Theater in New York and holy shit it was some of the best just theater I've ever seen. Two guys they would do basically like a two man play completely pulled out of their ass and it was like mind blowing how good how good they were. There were a lot of UCB people in Sonic didn't Brian Husky do them for a while. Do you mean like work with TJ and Dave or. I don't know if he was in the one was TJ and Dave but he was a I think he was a UCB guy that I would see it as cat and stuff and then he was in a lot of the Sonic commercials. A lot of like movies too. Yeah. God I would see I remember before Bobby Moynihan got on to SNL I would see him in commercials and I remember like. Yeah Maggie Carrie used to date Bill Hader she was a writer I think at SNL or they met through through UCB and I think Bill Hader is dating Ellie Wong now. Oh really yeah. Oh my God yeah just so many moments of like a commercial and like being like I know that guy. Matthew Hammond does improv prepare for crowd work or is it a built in talent I think improv prepared me to have good crowd working skills. You just have to like be good at letting go of controlling the situation. Yeah and that's hard for me because I've never I've never done improv I've actually been thinking about trying to take a class just for, you know, see how it does as a way to develop a little bit. Because I know this isn't true of everybody but I've heard you know people who are good at stand up are often not as good at improv and vice versa now there are people that are good at both. But it is that aspect of like letting go like as a comedian, especially somebody who's very writerly focused it's like I want to know where it's going. And I do crowd work now but I would say crowd work was probably the last skill that I developed as a stand up comedian. And it is because you have to kind of be used to let it be comfortable letting it go and knowing that you can bring it back. And I think doing stand up for a while to where you have this, you know, not just a few minutes but an hour or more of material that you can fall back on. It frees you to let go a little bit more and see where the conversation with the audience takes you because you're always like well, wherever this tangent goes I can find a way to bring it back to the set and back to the material that that I'm doing. Yeah, I think improv is definitely great for crowd work. Yeah, with improv you have to be similar to crowd work you have to be willing for the whole thing to bomb. You know, you just like be present and listen and go like this could go nowhere like I could, you know, you could sit there and be like shit I have, I got absolutely nothing about real estate. This guy works in real estate, his mom just died and you're scanning your brain like I got nothing I got nothing you know like you just wait wait and hopefully something will come up or if not then you just kind of embrace that moment too. I would say like be a improv and being a writer. They might be at the opposite ends of what part of your brain that you use. Yeah, and the other thing I've heard is hard I read I read Dell close is truth in comedy for the first time this past year because I think a lot about you know trying improv. And I've heard this before but it says in the book specifically stand up comedians. Their most difficult thing and isn't improv is that they always want to go for a joke like a stand up is always you're always thinking where do I get the next laugh. What is just building the scene and committing to the game and you know trusting the other person and not not necessarily going for the laugh every chance that you get, which is so scary for. That sounds terrifying to me. You're like wait this could just never pay off and in front of this paying audience and then, then what it's amazing like, but improv is such a such a culty scene, the UCB like I was obsessed oh my god I remember I'd work at whatever day job I had in the city. I would go take a class would be like seven to nine p.m. like maybe once or twice a week and then the rest of the week I would just after work go and watch whatever show was at the UCB and just take the train back like really late at night. Did that for years. I had so many late nights in New York going to the ASCAT shows on Sunday night when all the like SNL cast members and Conan writers and daily show writers and correspondence they'd all show up there. And it was that free show and it be lined up down the street. Yeah, you just see some of the like Amy polar and Horatio Sans hosted it for a long time. And you just Brian stack would perform there a lot. I don't know do they still do that show. So they used to be went bankrupt like the theater. They have no more theater and they don't have any permanent theater space in New York. Oh, I think because they have one out here on Franklin and Hollywood across from the giant celebrity Scientology Center. Oh, let's see. Is there UCB theater in New York. So remember they used to be on like 23rd and eighth or something. And under Grestiti's market. Yep. It was in the basement and they had bags on the pipes to keep the sewage. Oh yeah, I know that basement well I was fingered in that basement. That's the put that the first place I did stand up that was where the peat homes, the UCB opened Mike was. Oh, wow. Yeah, I think they are. I think there's no. Oh, there's a UCB theater in Hell's kitchen on West 42nd Street really. Oh, and there's a UCB theater East which I would occasionally do. Stand up there that I don't know if that's still open. The last time I walked past it, it looked very much closed down. Apparently there's one in Hell's kitchen. Alright, I'll have to like walk by that. But those ass cat shows, those are so amazing. They'd have the guest monologist come. I saw Chevy Chase do the monologue one time and it just felt it was a very cool like underground comedy scene there. It did. It was very cool and very like sort of insular Douglas Harvard Lampoon used to have the best writers. I remember. Yeah, I met a Harvard Lampoon person like at a stand up show. The guy gave me his card and it just kind of like went nowhere. I was like what it's almost like what can you give me that I can't give myself in terms of like I guess putting yourself out there. I mean, Conan was obviously Conan was a Harvard Lampoon guy and then did, you know, Simpsons and SNL and then got his own show and Dan Gore the Conan writer he was a Harvard guy. He went on to create. He went on to create Brooklyn nine nine after that. Oh, so many Jews. I'm not like now hearing all these names. I'm like everyone's Jewish and works on all these shows. I feel like lucky that I even broke in that there's anything wrong with that. No comment on that conversation. Is Dan gorgeous? I don't even know. Conan's not Jewish. Oh, right, because he's ginger. There you go. But now you have a new podcast with fellow Babylon be writer. Former yeah Ethan and I were both let go unceremoniously from the B. So we have our own. Well, we're not there anymore. Yeah. Ethan he was was fired. I guess back a few months after I started there and then I took over on the Babylon be podcast. He went to daily wire and is working with them on their chip Chile animated show and some of their other projects. And then when I left the be Ethan and I had done the be podcast together during the time when it overlapped and we had fun talking about the news and just riffing on especially weird news stories and stuff like that. So a few weeks ago Ethan and I started a new podcast called the talk down so you can check it out the talk down on YouTube. We go through big news stories weird news stories catch up on what's happening in the week you know how podcasts work the same stuff. And then, yeah, so you can check that one out and then I also have my own kind of conservative version of weekend update called the canceled news and that's on my YouTube channel out of the answer. Oh, I love this. Everyone subscribe. Oh, thank you. Everyone subscribed to Adam's YouTube and you have a stand up schedule. I do live. Let me pull it up. Bing, bing, bing. Oh, and you did laughs as well. Wow. Yeah, you were on that also right. Where did you do? Where did you do your taping at? Um, Ohio. I think the funny one in Ohio. I remember like, I think I was recently started dating my husband and I had kind of. Hofstadter was giving out locations of like, you know, which taping can you go to? And I just slept on it. And by the time I got back to it, it was like, Ohio or something even farther away. And I was like, Frank was like, we're doing it. And he drove me nine hours to Ohio. So I could do this, uh, laughs taping. And I remember it was a fun show. It was fun. It was on very late at night. I don't know what kind of numbers it did because it was on this weird. They never told that. Yeah. I think it was on Fox opposite SNL or something. Anybody watched it. But, um, their clips, you know, they had a lot of good up and coming comedians on there. I had really, I had a good time at the taping. It was Adam Pichanga Casino here in California where I'm going back there in August, I think, for a show. Yeah, it was really exciting. Um, do you know who Pearl is probably thinks she played a clip of one of my clips from laughs, which is now like a hundred has a hundred years ago. What was that 2012. Yeah, there was a while ago. You played one of my clips to be like, look, see, she's a whore. And I was like, Oh, God. Oh, man. Great. Great. Laughs also became, I feel like this happens to a lot of sort of comedy platforms. Back in the day when there was just the three late night shows, if you got a late night spot, your career was set. And then when there was, you know, and then Conan was sort of the big spot for stand up in the late 90s, early 2000s. And then we have these shows like laughs at first, everybody was trying to get on them. And now it's like every comedian at every open mic is like, you know them from laughs on Fox. And then I think dry bar started doing that too because I had a dry bar special. I loved it. It was such a great experience. But so many commute, they start turning out these specials and it's like in the future in the future everyone will have a dry bar special. Oh, yeah. Look at this California dates up the wazoo. If you guys live in the Los Angeles area, or even Texas. It'll be a TKs. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure I'll see Lila that week. She'll probably be on some of those shows I would imagine. And then I was on the road for a while. So yeah, the next month or two, I'm mostly in California. I got some up the coast in the San Luis Obispo area. And then yes, some road shows got TKs in August. And you're still out in California now? Are you back in New York? Yeah, I still live in California. People always ask me why are you still there? I always say it's a beautiful state. The politics suck, but it's run terribly. I don't know that it will ever change, at least not in the coming years. But there's a lot to do. Yeah. People say the same thing for why I'm still in New York. I go look. I don't know is my answer. Yeah. I like having seasons. It's cool. Awesome. Everyone go see Adam. Go subscribe to his YouTube channel. All the things. Listen to his new podcast, Matthew Hammond with another super chat. What are some of your favorite comedy movies? Could they not be made today? Or are studios scared to make them because they are offensive? Yeah, the writers are scared. I think the studios are scared, but mostly the writers are scared. I think at this point, the studios would anything that they think could make money. They'll probably be down for them. Because it's just been failure after failure for Hollywood, but I think the writers are scared shitless. It's interesting you say it because, yeah, I would say what I've experienced in Hollywood is there. Now, I do think currently and recently there's been a lot of pushback against cancel culture. I think people are kind of, I don't know if I would say it's gone, but people are kind of over it and it's people are trying to push back against that. And, you know, Hollywood does make, they make South Park, they make, you know, Bill Burr and Dave Chappelle specials. If something makes money, they will. That's, that's their bottom line. But what's interesting at the sort of height of cancel culture around, you know, 2020, 2021 when the world was going crazy. I would hear a lot of people in Hollywood that are on the left, but the reason they wouldn't want to make this up is they were afraid of people further to the left than they were. It's like there's not everyone in Hollywood is on board with, for instance, the, you know, men playing in female sports and, you know, all this. Yeah, and gay mafia. They don't want to be. Exactly. And so even the people that are on the left in charge, they were scared of the people who are further to the left than them. They'll say, no, I disagree, but I know what will happen to us if we, if we say. It's a horrible way to live your life. That is such a pussy way to live. That's why it is. Yeah. I mean, yeah, they're successful because they have like good jobs, but yeah, I'm happy that I don't have to worry about that. But then I don't know if I go as far as to say you couldn't get a movie made to, like I said, if it was strong enough, if it was, if the right was wrong, then they thought there was an audience for it. Money is the bottom line. But I mean, some of my favorites, my favorite of all time are probably common movies. I love Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And it's interesting because in the whole sort of current comedy culture debate, I feel like John Please has spoken out a lot against sort of sensitivity and what culture and cancel culture and then Eric Idle has been a little more sympathetic to it. But then I loved Anchorman. Oh, yeah. For 2010s, like, yeah, Bridesmaids was funny. Yeah, Bridesmaids was great topic. Thunder was so funny. Do you know Anchorman? I think Anchorman was kind of fresh when we started interning because I think that was when everybody just spoke in Anchorman quotes. That was the era. Oh, God. And then, like, super bad. And then, like, the Judd Apatow era of like, oh, we're seeing just the same six people in every movie. Yeah. And it's not like laugh out loud funny, but I've always loved Dr. Strange Love. You know, it's a real woman and kind of a dark, traumatic comedy, but I always loved that one. Yeah. I remember, I talked about this a lot. So I guess after Tropic Thunder, Jamie Foxx, and he really loved. What the fuck's his name? Robert Downey Jr.'s role in Tropic Thunder, like, you know, was in Blackface. And apparently they wrote, and I don't know if they shot a film, something similar where he was doing that. As a Mexican or like a Spanish character, like, you know, like Mexican face on. And he tabled it. He shelved it because he was too afraid of, like, getting canceled. So there's either a script or a movie shot somewhere. And I'm like, what a shame, because if anybody has the fuck you money and can be a leader in comedy and in, you know, movie production, it's someone like Jamie Foxx. I'm like, if he doesn't have the balls to put something out there, like, what, what help does anybody else have? So that's always bothered me. Like, he should just not. So what, if it bombs, it bombs, like, you got to try them. Yeah. Matthew Hammond, our studio is looking for guaranteed cash with sequels. I would say, yes, but those are not, even those are kind of not, they've spent their goodwill on that. I think they are, but it's a bad strategy. It's, it's, people are tired of all the remakes and reboots and sequels. And, and it's also a shame sometimes because some of these movies, it's like you want. When they make just one good movie, it doesn't always need a sequel because I feel like sometimes that ruins it. You're just like, let that movie be like, they're making the Gladiator sequel now. I hope it's good. I'll go see it, but Gladiator is such an amazing movie. I don't know that I need more of that. It's, it's, you know, if you can't do it well, and maybe they will do a good job with it. But a lot of the reboots and sequels, it's just people are kind of tired of it. And I think they're, they do need new people want to see new content. Oh, definitely. Uncle, Uncle Pat people, as a Christian, how do you deal with keeping your comedy good and yet not cross your values, not cross a line and becoming preachy? Any tips to Christian arts? Yeah, absolutely. I love this question because I do in my stand up. I always try to work in the fact that I'm Christian. I don't make it heavy handed where the whole thing is, you know, me preaching to the audience. But kind of in the same way that I've, that I was talking earlier about how I strategize about working, you know, my conservative perspective into my stand up. I always start off with apolitical jokes, jokes that are just observational or get the whole audience on board, kind of establish that you're funny and get them laughing. And then I never really beat people over the head with my Christian faith, but I say that I'm a Lutheran. I say, you know, what my beliefs are. And I kind of have it worked into some of the jokes. I travel a lot. So I'm a joke about traveling to different national parks. And I mentioned, you know, they showcased the beauty of nature that God created for us. And I'm kind of a joke about that. So I'm not beating them over the head with the message, but my faith is important. I work that in this. One of the reasons I liked working at the Babylon B, because it is, it is a Christian platform. And so I think it's important to kind of have that perspective out there. It's one of the things hard about working in Hollywood is I never felt like I experienced, you know, like being silenced or being canceled. And I do think canceling happens to people. I didn't experience it, but I did experience. You couldn't, you couldn't get the conservative perspective on the air. If you were writing a political jokes, they'd say, Oh, you're great, you know, you can write it like I freelance for a weekend update for several years under Seth Meyers and then Colin just Michael Che. And it's like as long as you're writing, you know, just and I get that it is, it's their voice. So it has to be for them. But even in kind of pitching projects of my own or doing my own bits. You can't do it from a right leaning perspective. You know, wow, that's fascinating. They're just, they just won't allow it. They just have you tried. The one experience. Now, I don't go as hard against SNL as some people do, because I think if you watch Colin Jost and Michael Che, they're, they are very funny. I know a lot of people in the right like to say, you know, SNL has gone woke. I think if you watch it during. I didn't like the whole years where they were doing the Alec Baldwin openings every day as Trump. I thought those were heavy handed. But I think there's a lot of good stuff on weekend update still and they do go after both sides and SNL still has some strong sketches even in their kind of off years. But where I experienced it, like one example always comes to mind when I was at Ellen, when the Robert Mueller report came out that found Trump didn't collude with Russia. Leading up to that, there was all these people, you know, that thought Trump was going to be indicted and that he, they were going to prove he colluded with Russia and he stole the election and all this stuff. And one of our producers, he would tweet out every day, oh, it's indictment Eve, Trump's going to get, you know, he's getting Robert Mueller has the goods. And the day that that came out, it was one of the biggest stories in the news. And I wrote this monologue where Ellen was trying to recap everything that happened in the news and it was like, I think the game of Thrones finale or something was happening around the same time. And there was the Mueller report and it was her kind of getting all these storylines mixed up in her head. And so that was the bit. And in it, I quoted a passage from the Mueller report, I didn't want to editorialize, I wasn't trying to put my own spin on it. But as a set up for a joke, I put in the Mueller report came out and he found Trump did not collaborate or coordinate with Russia. That was the direct quote, it was in all the headlines. And we're reading it in the producers mean, and our executive producer goes, I don't know if we want to say that Trump didn't collaborate or clue that I go, I go, Ed, I go, Ed, that's exactly that's the word from the, from the Mueller report. He goes, yeah, but I don't know if I want to say and I go, and I go, why can't why can't I say that he goes, because I don't want you to. And this was on Ellen. That was the other one. Yeah, but he, you know, there was this thing where I almost, I had to rewrite part of the monologue, but it pissed me off because I almost lost the whole monologue. And in that case, I wasn't even editorializing, it was just the Mueller report, the Mueller report didn't find what they wanted it to find, and they couldn't handle it. It's the, you know, and so, yeah, TDS. Yeah, but yeah, but like as far as a Christian artist, I would recommend, you know, stay true to your values, try to work it in a way that's not heavy handed, make sure you're, you know, make sure you're winning the audience over but then also, you know, communicating your faith and finding whatever whatever are you're doing, if it's drama, if it's comedy, if it's music. You know, I've always said when it comes to Christian music, a lot of times, it's not that there aren't any good Christian groups or rockets out there, but a lot of times it comes across as this sort of like pandering co-opted kind of thing. Whereas there are mainstream musicians like Johnny Cash is a great example who is this rock and country star but then he was a Christian and he worked that into some of his, his songs and his performances and I think that's an important thing to do. Yeah. Junior asks, did Adam see Ellen have one of her insane hours? I never saw her have an insane outburst. You know, it's, it was a, it was a tough place to work. You know, she could be tough at times, but like I said, I got along with her. I enjoyed working there. The thing, one of the things I think was very weird about. I'm making her eating your lunch for no reason. Like when you, when you say tough place to work, I just imagine like she's eating your food. I don't know. She wouldn't know if anyone else's food out at the fridge. What I thought was, I, I will say this, what I thought was weird about the whole Ellen is toxic and the whole kind of effort to take her down. It wasn't something new that I had heard that Ellen was tough to work for 12 years ago before I started working there. Everybody in Hollywood had heard this rumor that it was a tough place to work. It seemed like, you know, that what happened was Ellen, there was that whole Me Too moment where people were trying to tear down, you know, as many celebrities for all different things that they could. And there was this moment where Ellen took a picture with George W. Bush at a Dallas Cowboys game. They were sitting in the stands together. And a lot of people on social media said, "Oh, you're sitting with a war criminal. How can you do this?" And they had me and one of the most left-leaning writers on staff write this monologue for Ellen because she wanted to send this message out there. She said, "I don't agree with George W. Bush on everything. There's a lot he did that I disagree with, but I think we should be able to talk to people on the other side, that we should be able to have these conversations." And that's also how she always treated me. She knew I was conservative. She was very, you know, I don't agree with him on everything, but I'm, he's good right and I'm glad that I'm here and I always appreciated that. But even after she did that monologue, the left started going after her even harder. And I mean, the social media outraged people on the left. And then there was also a thing where Kevin Hart got canceled from the Oscars because he had made gay jokes years ago and Ellen had him on and said, you know, I don't, you know, I know you said that back then, but I don't think that should be, you know, held against you. People make mistakes. People said things in the past. And then there was this kind of shift in attitude towards her. So this, this, you know, rumors that she was difficult and that's just tough and that was a hard place to work. They had been around there forever, but the media didn't seem to care when they saw her as the face of, you know, kind of a left leaning movement. And she is I think still, you know, I don't know all her policy, but I think she is on the left, obviously, and a lot of social issues, especially. But it seemed like it's when they got mad at her, then it was like, all right, now let's bring to the surface, all these rumors that have been around for years about, about, you know, her being tough to people. Yeah. And not you personally, but I guess you kind of touched on it like, oh, she's mean, like, what, what reasons did. I can either confirm, I can neither confirm nor deny. Of course, like what would other, what would other people say are the reasons for her being tough to work with, not you, of course, because you had a good other experience. It's, it's a demanding, it's a demanding environment to work on. I think there was a producer there that that was very difficult to work for, but he was also, he was also the one that was doing the job of the executive producer. It's hard because some of these people can be, can be dicks at times, but you, you sometimes need someone who's a dick in charge, you know, and that doesn't mean it's okay for them to, you know, inappropriate stuff or anything like that. But, you know, I don't know, I think there's just, that these people, their faces on the show, and there's a lot of pressure on them also, and they're real people, they have good days, they have bad days, you know, they've gone through things in their own life. And yeah, there were, there was days when it was tough, and there, there was days when it was, you know, the best, the best place in the world to work, it was, it was a lot of fun. And, and there's also this thing now they did this with other talk show hosts too, there was just a few months ago, they said to about Jimmy Fallon that he's, you know, there was a toxic workplace article. And I think it's the same reporter, there's this girl that she was at BuzzFeed and I think now she's at Rolling Stone and her whole, her whole purpose in life is to investigate which people are toxic to work for and then tear them down in the media. But, you know, people going into this industry, they're celebrities, they're, they have their issues, some of them are difficult people, some of them are divas. So I think we got spoiled starting at Conan, because Conan and the staff are just, it's one of the best places I've ever worked. They're so sweet. It was just like, oh, get yogurt, make sure his gum is stocked. But even, but even like a show like SNL, I've heard that it's not toxic, but it's a draining, it's a grueling pace at that show it wears people down it takes a toll on people. And, you know, when you're going into this environment, they're high stress, high pressure kind of jobs, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what, like, every boss is a dick. I mean, like, yeah, I've never had a boss that was just chill and easygoing. I've hated every single one of them. I've said that before, too, because it's like, even if you work, you know, a fast food job or an office job, you don't think about your boss. There's probably, you've had good bosses, you've had bad bosses, even the bosses that you get along with some days, it's like, oh, they were, they were a dick to me today. My last day job boss was in the hospital for six weeks. He had like a crazy foot infection and like he must have been on some sort of like whatever drug, but he handed me his fucking bedpan to empty out when I was like visiting him in the hospital. And I did it because I was so afraid of losing my job. It's interesting because Ellen would do that at the end of all of our writers meeting one of us, one of us had to carry a bad pan away. Oh my God. It is what it is. Uncle Pappy Wolf, as comedians, do you feel a struggle between wanting to bring different audiences together yet pushing back against the pressure of not being woke to make money? No, I don't feel any pressure to be woke to make money because I've already so firmly dug a hole for myself in terms of being an alt-right person. Like, I've never been mainstream and I sort of gained popularity in following from kind of just being myself and not being part of something else. I would say, yeah, you do feel pressured, like, okay, that your money is kind of related to your following and how many tickets you can sell. I think, yeah. Yeah. Well, I think in terms of money, it is a risk. You're always worried, you know, will there be opportunities for me if I say the things that I believe or, you know, somebody does decide they don't like me. Is it going to deny an opportunity to make a living and have, you know, artists and we make our income doing this? So I think that pressure is there. As far as the struggle between wanting to bring the two different audiences together, what I always come back to is that's why I love stand-up comedy, especially when you're going to the comedy clubs in, you know, like LA and New York have great clubs. When you go to, you know, the middle of the country, one of the things I love is cities are generally, if you go to the Midwest, they're often left-leaning cities, but in very red states. And so the audience is very mixed. And I've always said, the most fun audiences to perform for is when there's some liberals, some conservative, some old people, some young people. The worst, the worst audiences that I perform for are when it's either all conservative people or all liberal people. Because they all have the same mindset. And there's a great book about comedy called the humor code, where they kind of try to come up with like, what's the philosophy that defines what comedy is? And they come up with this idea of the benign violation theory, where what makes something funny is if it violates an expectation or a rule, but in a way that's not harmful. And so, when you have a mixture of people with different political beliefs, different backgrounds, there's a lot of different rules and expectations and taboos that you can play with. And I think something that makes comedy, when it's all for one side, this would go for somebody like Stephen Colbert on the left, Stephen Crowder on the right, or me as a comedian, if I'm performing for an all right-leaning crowd or an all left-leaning crowd. When everyone's on the same side, there's not a lot of rules that you can violate. Like if you go up in front of a left-leaning crowd and call Trump racist, you're not violating anyone that's against it. If you go up in front of a right-leaning crowd and just say trans women are men, it's true, but you're not violating expectation. There's no nuance, there's no creative clever take on it. And so, as far as bringing the two audiences together, I like going to those places where those two audiences are together in the same room, because then you have to walk that line. Try to poke holes in both sides. Sometimes it can be really funny to argue for the other side. I have that instinct. Do you have this instinct as a comedian? I'm known as, I don't brand myself super politically all the time, but I'm very openly conservative. Whenever I go out to a comedy club, if I know it's in LA or New York where the audience is liberal, I love getting them laugh and then leaning into my conservatism and seeing how far I'm on that line. When I do all conservative rooms, I always think sometimes I just start off by shitting on QAnon. I always want to do something to piss off that audience. It's like you always want to keep them on their toes. You always want to alienate them just a little bit, because walking that line I think is where some of the best comedy is. I like doing that, but then sometimes I go, am I going to be physically attacked by a 300-pound woman in the audience? You got a bottle or something thrown at you, didn't you? Oh yeah, we've had sandwiches thrown at us. Not shoes. That would be funny. KMAX does Woke actually bring in money? I see no evidence it brings in revenue. Most shows and movies fail. When I try to go Woke, I've yet to see an overt Woke message do well. It's kind of like the systems in place allow for, what is that? Is that one more? Oh, I'm surprised you can hear that yet. It's far away. I don't even hear it much here. I thought it was like, you know when Christians get sucked up into the sky, what's up? Oh, I'm getting wrapped. I'm getting wrapped here. Oh, it's going to the end. I think the systems that are, the mainstream systems that are in place lends themselves to being taken hostage by the Woke. And again, because they're people that work in them are like regular lefties to extreme lefties. But like products themselves, no, don't do that. Yeah, I haven't seen the Woke. I'm actually surprised the Woke sort of messaging an agenda is still so strong a force in Hollywood and the media. Because it seems like all along, it was more a fear of losing money than a big incentive of making money. They're afraid if they don't play that game, they'll get boycotted or they'll have some backlash against them. I don't really see that the Woke-themed movies and the Woke reboots are becoming huge money makers. And it seems in some franchises, it's alienating half the audience when you do that. It's a fear. I think it's mostly fear. Yeah. I think studios, writers, everyone's got to be like, yeah, no, making a good product is more important than losing an advertiser, getting a bad article written about you online. I think everyone's got to decide together that putting out a good, funny product is more important than all that. I'm Philip Beckio rank levels of gayness ln TSA CIA. Interesting. Oh, God, I wouldn't know. Adam. Oh, I would say, I think you have it in the right order there. I think it's in the TSA and then to CIA. True, I got very much felt up like I was seven months pregnant. I got there's a picture of me, like TSA's lady's got a hand like she's basically knew how much dilated I was. It was good times. Good times, guys. I love this. Adam, thank you so much for coming. Oh, this is so much fun to catch up. Yeah. Fun, my God. Let's not wait 20 years to do it again. Yeah, Jesus. And we have to do some stand up shows together when we're on the same coast during the same cities. Yeah. That would be so fun. Everyone follow Adam. Check him out in California or Texas, wherever he's at. Subscribe to his YouTube channel and your new podcast is called what the talk down with the call and Adam yet, sir. Yes, get down with the talk down. Thank you to the chat. Love you guys and we'll see you all next time. - Next time, bye. - Awesome, thank you. [silence]