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Calling all conscious achievers who are seeking more community and connection, I ve got an invitation for you.
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Join me at this year s Summit of Greatness this September 7th through 9th in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio to unleash your true greatness.
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This is the one time a year
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that I gather the greatness community together in person for a powerful, transformative weekend.
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People come from all over the world, and you can expect to hear from inspiring speakers like Inky Johnson, Jaspreet Singh, Vanessa Van Edwards, Jen Cinchero, and many more.
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You ll also be able to dance your heart out to live music, get your body moving with group workouts, and connect with others at our evening socials.
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So if you re ready to learn, heal, and grow alongside other incredible individuals in the greatness community, then you can learn more at lewishouse.com slash summit 2023.
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Make sure to grab your ticket, invite your friends, and I ll see you there.
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I didn t become a comedian to vet all my jokes with folks that may be pearl-clutchers or easily offended or disagree with the jokes that I m making.
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It s kind of the opposite of being a comedian.
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Welcome to the School of Greatness.
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My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.
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And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.
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Thanks for spending some time with me today.
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Now let the class begin.
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Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness.
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Very excited about our guest.
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We have the inspiring Adam Carolla in the house.
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Good to see you, sir.
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Good to see you.
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Thank you for being here.
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We were just talking about how you ve been in L.A.
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for a long time, and you ve been leading the comedy
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You ve been tapped into TV and film.
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You ve been one of the first in podcasting.
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You ve been in this space for a while.
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You ve seen a lot.
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You ve said a lot.
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You ve done a lot.
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And you know, I feel like everyone in this kind of community.
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Or you ve tapped in or interviewed them or connected in some way to a lot of people.
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So congrats on everything that you ve created for yourself and the impact you ve made.
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Oh, thanks.
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Of course, yeah.
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I wanted to ask you a question, because I watched a video that you did.
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I think it was on PragerU.
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That was many months ago.
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about really like criticism with the communities or audiences and having to be careful about what we say.
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You know, as comedians, I feel like comedians have had to learn how to mute themselves or really think differently about what they re gonna say.
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I think in all types of media forms, podcasting and things like that, social media, we ve had to learn how to do things differently.
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I wanted to hear your thoughts on that, kind of just broad thoughts on where we are now after the last really five, six, seven years of more of cancel culture or just critics really speaking out against people s comedy, podcasting, words, media.
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I m curious where you re at today on that.
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Um, I ve always been pretty consistent in that.
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I wanted to say what I wanted to say.
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Um, I was a carpenter for a lot of years and I ve always kind of said, look, if I have to stop saying what I m thinking or what I think is funny or what I think is relevant or important, or just saying what I want to say, then I should get back into carpentry.
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Which doesn t pay nearly as well, so I probably wouldn t, but I m just saying I didn t become a comedian to vet all my jokes with folks that may be pearl-clutchers or easily offended or disagree with the jokes that I m making.
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It s kind of the opposite of being a comedian.
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And I believe the second you start second guessing yourself, especially on stage or into a microphone or even doing what we re doing now, when you start second guessing yourself, it s sort of like,
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You ll get the yips, which is a sports term for a second baseman who s bouncing the ball to the first baseman.
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It s not a physical problem.
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It s the yips.
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It s a mental problem.
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second baseman who s been fielding balls since he was six, if he s playing in the major leagues.
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I mean, maybe five.
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I m sure his dad was out in the yard with him when he was four, just fielding balls.
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And all of a sudden, eight years into being a professional baseball player, bounces one to the first baseman, and it s a 14-foot throw.
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Now he s got the yips and he s, and if he gets that ball and he does that and he thinks about it, this one s going in the dirt too.
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And I just never, you know, I never wanted that.
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So I was like,
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No, I, so I ve always had this sort of philosophy, which is, I am not an asshole, so I can act like an asshole.
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Really?
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What does that mean?
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Can you give me some context?
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Don King.
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Don King was convicted for stomping a man to death.
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Wow.
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But he s got the little flag and only in America and the hair puffed up.
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So he has to push that forward.
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I m not that overtly nice or enthusiastic and I rarely dance, but I ve never done any harm to anybody.
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I m sort of quietly maybe marginally generous quietly and just sort of take care of people around me, but I may act like a rough,
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But I m not you re not at home, but you might be a where you say I m not interested in protecting some inner thing that I m scared It s going to get out like an image of you or something.
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Yeah, I realize people most people think I m Paul, but I m not so I can say whatever I would that s interesting Have you ever felt?
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um, worried or insecure or that you should be on guard when you were either on stage performing comedy or doing a show or a podcast where you re like, maybe I should be careful of what I m saying cause I m getting criticized.
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Or was the criticism something that you would lean into because you would play with that?
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I, I, I, you know, I don t know how to fully,
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convey this, but I think COVID was probably a chapter that everyone went through, and I went through it.
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And judging from my reaction to COVID, I would say I probably lean into the criticism or whatever it is.
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I put out a tweet.
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God, it s been almost three years now.
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And I basically put a tweet out and said, COVID kills old people and sick people and the rest of you got played and who s getting played next?
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And then everyone ran up to me and said, you got to take that tweet down because everyone s pissed off.
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And I said, well, I ll take it down if it s untrue, but I m not going to take it down just because, you know, people are,
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hissed off and I never took it down and I had you know a couple notable Hollywood types call me sort of as a friend and just go hey man you take it down like because you re not doing yourself any favors and I was like
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No, really.
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So do you appreciate them reaching out to you and saying, Hey, I do.
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I see what you re doing and it s cool, but also, uh, you know, do you have more sensitivity or something?
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Yeah, no, I get what they re.
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what they re doing, but you just get it.
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You just do it.
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It s either true or it s not true.
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Right.
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And I guess that s the dance of like comedians, which is like kind of speaking some truth or truce into something, but it could be a sensitive topic for people.
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Also, there s this thing where it s like, Oh, come on, come on, man.
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And I m like,
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My kids missed two years of school, kid, for this thing that doesn t hurt them.
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So what do you mean?
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Oh, come on.
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What about them?
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Right.
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What about everyone who s behind now?
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What about people have languished at home and put on 30 pounds or committed suicide, depression?
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Oh, come on.
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Why is it always this one way street where it s like, oh, I heard someone s feelings.
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All right, Mike, I was talking to my son the other day.
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It s like, he s entering a senior year.
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I m like, how much school do you miss?
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He s like, I miss entire ninth grade.
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Wow.
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And like part of the 10th grade.
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I m like, you miss the entire, you have no ninth grade.
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You did not go to school for the ninth grade.
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If you were
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football player, and that was your senior year.
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I mean, when I played football my senior year, I was like... It was everything.
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Vision quest.
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I was like, oh, I m going to be all valid.
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I m going to hit the weight room.
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If you just canceled that season, I would have killed myself.
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Like, honestly.
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So don t give me, oh, come on, man.
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What about everyone else?
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You re f***ing up.
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And so that s, that was like my approach to this.
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And in many other subjects that probably make me unpopular.
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Right.
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So when you get these friends that reach out that are maybe not trying to like judge you or put you down, but are trying to have your best interest and say, Hey, you know, I want what s best for you and I don t want you to get harmed or your career or you need to get canceled or whatever it is.
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You appreciate that.
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It sounds like you re grateful for their concern.
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Everything for me is motivation.
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Right.
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So if you re reaching out.
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And your motivation is, is all I like Adam and I, I care about him and I m trying to offer some advice because I like him.
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Then, then I appreciate it.
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Yeah.
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If you, you know, if you woke up at five in the morning and came to my house and got my car keys and we re taking my car out to get it professionally detailed for my birthday and you totaled it on the way home.
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I wouldn t be mad at you at all.
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You were trying to get my car detailed.
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Right.
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On the other hand, if you re just going to be lazy or whatever, then I don t have time for you.
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But it s, everything is motivation.
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Sure.
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For me.
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Right.
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How, how old were you when you got into, started getting into comedy?
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Um, I was like, well, I mean, the story is I had a 30th, uh, the, the story since we have time, like Jimmy Kimmel out of box or something.
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And then he.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So, so I was like 21, 22 and I was like my, my life, I, I was sort of looking at the trajectory of my life and, and I didn t see anything good, you know, down the road.
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I was like working as a carpenter, probably kind of apprenticed.
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I wasn t a, you know, it takes probably a decade to really be a, a carpenter.
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Like I know that s three quarter inch birch or half inch birch.
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For wood here.
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Yeah.
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I have no idea what it is.
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Yeah.
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If you did it for 10 years, you d really know.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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You take, it takes a, it takes a little while, but I was probably about, I was probably about three years in.
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So I, you know, knew it was like 10 bucks an hour.
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And, you know, I was just kind of sitting around in my apartment, one bedroom, North Hollywood, Laurel Canyon, you know, two roommates, no air conditioning, you know, sleeping on, sharing a futon.
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In the valley, no A.C.?
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That s a risk.
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No A.C.
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upstairs.
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Oh, no, I couldn t do that.
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Facing the west.
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Oh, no.
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The heat is insane.
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It was an oven.
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It was a goddamn oven.
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And I was just sitting in there.
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It s, you know, sweating through my shirt and I, and I was like, well, there s gotta be something better than this.
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Like, where s this going?
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And I was like, all right, where s the carpentry going?
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Like you re like, I, I m good with my hands.
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I, I, I, I picked it up.
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I could do it.
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I had a little bit of a knack for it, you know, and I was like, all right, so where are we going here?
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Like, by the time you re 30, what are we talking about here?
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21, 22.
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I go, well, maybe I m making 18 bucks an hour.
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Everything was running by the hour.
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Incrementally, you know, you had to get from 10 bucks to 12 bucks to 15 bucks to 18 bucks, and everything s just like, can we add a buck an hour every year and a half or something like that?
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And so I m just like sitting around, I was like,
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And yeah, I was so broke that, you know, the notion of 25 bucks an hour, like one day, that sounded pretty healthy to me, but I still like...
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It rains, you don t work, you don t get paid, you know, you leave your truck outside, they rip off your tools.
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You gotta, you live in an apartment, you gotta bring the truck, you gotta bring the tools in the living room.
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And it s just like, it starts early.
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Everyone s a toll.
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It s like half the guy in California, I mean, in LA, half the guys don t even speak English.
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So it s like, you can t sit around and chew the fat.
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tell jokes, you know, at lunch.
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It was like, okay.
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And like, uh, yeah.
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So, and, and the, but the guys who do speak English don t have any sense of humor either.
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So I m like, eh, what s this?
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And so I m like, I, well, I don t have any money.
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My family doesn t have any money.
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I don t, I don t really have a lot of choice.
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I gotta go to work every day as a carpenter, but
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what else might I be doing in the future that is interesting or there s some air conditioning involved with it, you know?
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I mean, you think living in an apartment this summer, I m working in Chatsworth in a warehouse with no air or up on the roof kind of thing.
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Like, I mean, whenever the weather is, you re there.
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So I m like, well, this sucks.
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And then I m like, well, what else could I do?
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But, you know, doctor, lawyer, white collar, I could fill out an application.
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I don t have any real education.
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I don t have any credentials.
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Like I, where am I going to work?
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I can t even know how to make a tie.
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I don t have a suit.
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Like, well, where would I work?
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I m just a sort of knock around blue collared dude from North Hollywood.
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So I m like, well, you have a sense of humor.
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And like, all right, you can do, you re funny.
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You could do something, uh, with something with comedy, some behind the scenes writer room.
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I, you know, writing for greeting cards, like funny greeting cards, you know, anything just to get some air conditioning and kind of get off the job site, you know?
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So I was like, all right, well, you re, you re,
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22, you got eight years.
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So you got eight years to figure it out.
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Wow.
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To like try the comedy thing, to figure out your lane or your avenue or... And to get some skill.
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Like, all right, so you re funny.
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I mean, you know, being funny, it s like saying, I m handy.
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Yeah, you re handy, but you don t know the nailing schedule on a shear wall.
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You don t know what a TECO clip is, or like an A35, or you don t know how to do a clean stud, and a trimmer, and a parallel.
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You don t know how to do a glue lamp and a parallel?
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No, no, I don t know any of this stuff.
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Right, and you can be as handy as you want, but you don t know, you don t intrinsically know that stuff.
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Right.
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You got to go learn it.
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And I was like,
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You can be as funny as you want, but if you don t know downstage, stage left, you know, if you re not composed on stage or you don t know how to put together a set together, you know, to do anything, then don t kid yourself, pardon the pun.
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So I was like, I got to go get some training, I guess.
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So I started signing up for Groundlings classes and found my way.
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And, you know, and Groundlings was like,
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You re funny, but you don t know what you re doing, and so you can t act, and so you got to go take an acting class.
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we ll let you out of basic, we ll put you in intermediate, but first you gotta come home, you gotta come back and prove that you passed a theater class, like an acting class.
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And I was like, where do I go?
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What do you want me to do?
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Now, the only rub was I didn t have any money.
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So it s like, you know, growlings in a happy class.
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I didn t have insurance on my pickup truck, you know?
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So I didn t have dental, medical, I was barely paying rent.
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So I was like taking,
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whatever beer money I had and just been like.
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So acting class was a luxury.
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Oh yeah, everything was sort of a luxury.
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And I literally didn t have car insurance, but was paying the groundlings to like take classes of the drum of whatever place in studios.
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Sure, sure.
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And everything.
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And yeah, I couldn t act.
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I didn t know what the hell was going on.
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I d never been on stage and nervous.
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I didn t know where to look.
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You know what I mean?
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You weren t a theater arts kid.
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You didn t go to like high school and take these classes there.
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No, all I did was play sports in high school and like wrestle with dudes.
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I just played sports and I would say wrestle, but somewhere between wrestling and a full fist fight.
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Like it wasn t just wrestling.
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It was sort of, the ante was up, but that s all I did.
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And then I went on a construction site.
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So I was dealing with people that went to theater school and college and majored in this and that.
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You had five years of reps already.
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Yeah.
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And I also didn t know anything.
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I was uneducated, you know?
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I didn t, you know, they d be going, oh, give us an activity.
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And they d be like, you re making a topiary.
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And they d go, oh, OK, here we go.
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And I d be like, oh, what is that?
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Yeah.
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What s a topiary?
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Yeah, like I remember not knowing any of these things.
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Well, they take shrubs and shape them into stuff.
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You ever been to Disneyland?
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Yes.
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And you like walk in and there s a ficus tree that looks like Donald Duck.
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Okay, yes.
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It s a topiary.
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Gotcha, okay.
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Right.
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So how, was there ever a moment in those first few years of taking the, you know, stand-up classes, the acting classes, where you re like, oh, this is too hard to learn these skills and everyone is way more advanced than me.
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and I m clueless half the time or part of the time, and I don t have the money to afford this stuff.
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Was there ever a point where you re like, I just need to stick to doing the carpentry stuff?
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I had some ebbs and some flows and some highs and some lows.
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Like when I got asked to leave the Groundlings at a certain point, at the end, I was like rudderless and fully depressed and didn t know what to do.
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Well, I was like, look, I don t think carpentry is a viable option in that I wanted, I was like, I wanna own a home one day and I might like to have kids one day and a wife and I m gonna have to like support those kids and pay a mortgage and maybe support my wife and have insurance and
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a credit card or maybe we want to go on a vacation or something.
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I don t have a credit card.
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I don t have anything.
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And I just can t see carpentry doing that.
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Carpentry getting me that house and all that stuff.
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When was this?
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Early nineties though?
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Yeah, I mean, this is... The decision is probably made in, like, later 80s, but now into the early 90s, nothing s happened.
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But I m assuming, if you re saying to yourself, I don t see this carpentry thing being able to support my vision, and you re saying, I m going after comedy, I don t think parents or anyone else would say, that s the right path to go down.
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If you want to buy a home, if you want to...
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Yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
It seems lower percentage.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s like, take the safer, more surefire thing as opposed to try this comedy thing for 10 years, maybe you make some money and figure it out.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s a lower percentage route.
2
SPEAKER_00
It didn t seem like this is the surefire way, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Well, I didn t have to vet it with anybody because my parents were like, look, you re, you know, you re 18, you gotta leave.
2
SPEAKER_01
And that was sort of the last career based conversation I had with them.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I did not
2
SPEAKER_01
They wouldn t have cared.
2
SPEAKER_01
It didn t really matter.
2
SPEAKER_01
Whatever I was or whatever I did, as long as I didn t ask them for money, we were fine.
2
SPEAKER_00
In the late 80s, early 90s, who were the big people in comedy, whether it was stand-up or TV, film?
2
SPEAKER_00
Late night shows, who were like the icons at that time?
2
SPEAKER_01
It was like Andrew Dice Clay was blowing up.
2
SPEAKER_01
Seinfeld s always kind of a stalwart, you know, he s always there.
2
SPEAKER_01
Uh, guys like Richard Lewis were doing, making the rounds.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, a lot of names you probably wouldn t recognize, because they had a kind of... had some heat then and sort of died off now, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
literally or figuratively, like, I mean, there s just so many names that, you know, cycled through.
2
SPEAKER_01
And a lot of them had shots on The Tonight Show and had their own game shows and stuff like that.
2
SPEAKER_01
You just haven t heard of them and haven t heard of them.
2
SPEAKER_00
But, um... Who are the people you looked up to or you were like, wow, that s really inspiring what they ve done in their career that you actually became friends with or worked with or have...
2
SPEAKER_01
I was always, I always listened to the radio and I always loved the radio.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I, I listened to talk radio when I was younger and it didn t matter who was on, I would listen to
2
SPEAKER_01
a psychologist, um, named David Viscott.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would listen to like Dean Adele, the doctor.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would listen.
2
SPEAKER_01
I d tell Dennis Prager still in the radio, I d go, I would listen to religion on the line, your first talk show.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m an atheist.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would just listen.
2
SPEAKER_01
Cause I was like, we had a rabbi, we got a priest and we re going to argue about religion.
2
SPEAKER_01
I d go, good.
2
SPEAKER_01
Let s hear it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I m not religious at all.
2
SPEAKER_01
I just always enjoyed hearing what Dr. Ruth had a show on out here.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would just, you know, the real estate guy or the financial guy, I would just listen to talk radio.
2
SPEAKER_01
Always liked talk.
2
SPEAKER_01
I would just listen to it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, I don t know, like when you re leaving and you think your dog s gonna get lonely, so you put the radio on so he thinks you re somebody.
2
SPEAKER_01
Probably freaked out because he thinks someone s trapped in a speaker.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, we don t really think of the downstream consequences of keeping our dogs company, but I just like voices, you know, and I would listen to morning radio because I drove my truck every morning.
2
SPEAKER_01
My construction hours are like morning radio hours, morning radio, 6 a.m.
2
SPEAKER_01
to 10 a.m.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s the shift.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then like they start playing music after that.
2
SPEAKER_01
A lot of stations, FM.
2
SPEAKER_01
I d be getting into my truck at 6.15, 6.20, six o clock, you know, because I had a job and I work in a, build a house in an avocado orchard in Simi Valley, you know, you gotta be rolled out at 7 a.m.
2
SPEAKER_01
You gotta leave at six or house up in the hills of Malibu on Rama Pacifico, you know, gotta leave at six or downtown doing earthquake rehab, you know, sitting in traffic.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I d get in the car, turn on morning radio,
2
SPEAKER_01
I d go right through, I get to the job sites, turn on the boom box or go to the, uh, warehouse cabinet shop is working at Chatsworth and industrial park and just walk in, you know, turn it on, finish listening, listen, and, and I was like, I could do that.
2
SPEAKER_01
I could definitely do that.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m never gonna do it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m not going to get a chance to do it, but I can, I can do it.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so for me,
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, it wasn t so much like comedy is low percentage and carpentry is a much higher percentage gig.
2
SPEAKER_01
And so, you know, you were inquiring about me going, I want to get a house and have a family.
2
SPEAKER_01
So I m going to do comedy.
2
SPEAKER_00
Comedy is going to get me there.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
It sounds low percentage and, and,
2
SPEAKER_01
I want to sound like a huge, but playing in the NFL super low percentage, but it s not for Lawrence Taylor for him.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s a good, it s a pretty good bet.
2
SPEAKER_01
He shouldn t work at a Home Depot.
2
SPEAKER_01
He should be coming off the weak side, you know?
2
SPEAKER_01
And
2
SPEAKER_01
I felt like I had enough ability where it was like, yeah, it s one in every 2,000 kids who played college football gets to the pros.
2
SPEAKER_01
And you go, that s low percent.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s not low percentage for Lawrence Taylor.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s setting his own percentage.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know what I mean?
2
SPEAKER_01
He s in charge.
2
SPEAKER_01
And that s how I looked at it.
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, I m in charge.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
500 guys who want to be a comedian, they go, only one of you is going to succeed, then no, I m not doing that.
2
SPEAKER_01
But if you let me produce or create or let me come off the weak side, then I can make the team.
2
SPEAKER_01
Or at least I could make the team.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t know that there s any guarantees.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s interesting because I feel like in every high school or every college, there s always a couple of
2
SPEAKER_00
funny guys, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
It s like, okay, this is our funny guy who tells all the jokes.
2
SPEAKER_00
If we want someone to lighten the mood, there s always a couple of people that you could rely on.
2
SPEAKER_00
So there s thousands every year that come out of high school or thousands every year that come out of college who are like the funny person from their school around the country, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
But was there something inside of you that said, I have a belief in myself, even though I haven t really had these experiences, I m getting kicked out of the standup club,
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, I don t know what they re talking about with these theater concepts and lingo.
2
SPEAKER_00
Did you still just have this belief that like, well, I can figure out my own weak side, I can figure out my own lane in this comedy world to make money?
2
SPEAKER_00
Or how did you believe in yourself enough to pursue it until you started to make money?
2
SPEAKER_01
I got kicked out of the growlings just for... Growlings.
2
SPEAKER_01
Just for accuracy.
2
SPEAKER_00
And what is the growlings?
2
SPEAKER_01
It s a... It s an improv.
2
SPEAKER_00
Improv is what I meant, yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s where all the... I was thinking stand-up group.
2
SPEAKER_00
SNL cast.
2
SPEAKER_00
I said stand-up, I meant improv, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
I know you did.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Growlings is improv, got it.
2
SPEAKER_01
For your viewers at home.
2
SPEAKER_01
Sure, sure.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was, I ve never been, I never really involved my own feelings in my assessment of myself.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I m never right because it s me or I m never wrong because it s me.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s I m very compartmentalized and detached.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I have no,
3
SPEAKER_00
ego and I grew up with not low self-esteem.
3
SPEAKER_00
I grew up with no self-esteem, which is not bad.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just didn t have any thoughts about myself that were inaccurate.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just didn t get fluffed up by my family at all.
3
SPEAKER_00
I didn t think I was anything.
3
SPEAKER_00
So the good news about not having a bunch of free existing notions or feelings about yourself is I could judge myself pretty practically, you know, and, and I would say to people, you know, later on and all the time, but I don t know why it makes you, but I was like, I was a good carpenter.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was funny.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like I knew I was funny.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like I knew I was a good carpenter.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I don t know, you can say, well, that s egotistic or you re fully or whatever it is.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, no, I listened to the morning radio shows when I drove my truck and I got to the shop and everything.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I would listen to everybody.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, I m faster than these guys are.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I m funnier than these guys are.
3
SPEAKER_00
Interesting.
3
SPEAKER_00
I could fill in the joke faster than they could just driving my truck.
3
SPEAKER_00
You would respond by yourself to what they were saying.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, like, what would you say?
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, you re interviewing this person or that person, you know, bang, bang, bang.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was like playing the game in my head.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so I was like, uh, clobber Lang, you know, just training alone.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s like, yeah, it s like, I think of that as like the people that watch Jeopardy and they re just responding before everyone else.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right, at home.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, you re watching at home, and you re like, you know every answer before the person does.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
Now, the difference is, is with Jeopardy and with Standom, so what happens when the spotlight hits you?
3
SPEAKER_00
Can you still do it?
3
SPEAKER_00
You will slow down a little bit in your answers.
3
SPEAKER_00
I ve been there, so I can tell you.
3
SPEAKER_00
Have you done Jeopardy?
3
SPEAKER_00
I ve done other stuff like that.
3
SPEAKER_00
Stuff like that, and you re like, oh, crap, you knew.
3
SPEAKER_00
You can t ask someone, because you ve got 10 seconds, and you re like,
3
SPEAKER_00
So I was like, I have the ability to do this.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I ve always been realistic, you know, with myself.
3
SPEAKER_00
I wanted to play football when I was younger.
3
SPEAKER_00
I played it as much as I could play it.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was a standout in high school and then that was, it was pretty much it.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, because you do not have the ability to do this at a higher level.
3
SPEAKER_00
You don t have that ability.
3
SPEAKER_00
You re not Lawrence Taylor.
3
SPEAKER_00
But if I knew how to do something or I felt like I have the ability, then I m not going to deny it.
3
SPEAKER_00
That s the way I felt.
3
SPEAKER_00
And, um, so I just kept, you know, sort of plugging away, but I didn t really find a home.
3
SPEAKER_00
I knew I needed to find a specific sport to play other than just being athletic.
3
SPEAKER_00
I needed the sport, the stand-up, radio, acting.
3
SPEAKER_00
The sport of comedy.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, the sport of comedy, or the avenue, the lane.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, saying I m funny is like saying I m athletic.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, well, look, you may play baseball, but that doesn t mean you bowl or ski well.
3
SPEAKER_00
If you play football, it doesn t mean you re a fast swimmer or something.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
3
SPEAKER_00
You got to pick your lane.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I never knew what lane to pick.
3
SPEAKER_00
So you tried a bunch of different stuff.
3
SPEAKER_00
I picked all lanes.
3
SPEAKER_00
How many years did it take?
3
SPEAKER_00
until you felt like, oh, I m actually making decent money and I ve figured out my lane or lanes that work for me.
3
SPEAKER_00
How many years was that?
3
SPEAKER_00
Um, well, it wasn t, it wasn t years.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was months probably.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
I didn t make, well, because I made no money for, you know, eight years or something.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just, I didn t get paid.
3
SPEAKER_00
I, I improv troops, acting classes, growlings,
3
SPEAKER_00
open mics, any saying that anybody said sounded cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, like if you just went, Hey man, let s just go sit at the, let s go sit at the diner and write sketches till four in the morning, just drinking free coffee refills on a Tuesday night.
3
SPEAKER_00
I d be like, I ll bring my notebook, you know, what do you think about this?
3
SPEAKER_00
Why don t we think about that?
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, that s all I did was just for free.
3
SPEAKER_00
That never made a penny.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, like, you know, occasionally it d be some weird thing where, like, some guy would get a gig, you know, like, we re going to get in cowboy outfits, and we re going to the Gene Autry Museum, and they need us to do a funny little thing, you know, and I ll pay you $100, you know, and I d go like, yeah, OK, let s do it, you know.
3
SPEAKER_00
But, I mean, I taught.
3
SPEAKER_00
Comedy, traffic school, it was a thing back in the day.
3
SPEAKER_00
I got paid, but I was a traffic school teacher.
3
SPEAKER_00
But in my mind, I was in front of an audience, even though there were just people that were sighted for speeding.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it was air-conditioned, you know?
3
SPEAKER_00
Getting paid.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I wasn t covered with stucco dust, you know, at the end of the day.
3
SPEAKER_00
So, uh, but no, I, yeah, I didn t, I didn t make any money.
3
SPEAKER_00
So you were doing stuff you would like to, you enjoyed that you were finding a talent and good at, but you weren t making money until how many years until you re making.
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, then when I was coming up on my 30th birthday was, was the problem.
3
SPEAKER_00
And that was the timeline for you.
3
SPEAKER_00
It was like, okay, I got eight years.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just, I could have started at 21.
3
SPEAKER_00
I could have started at 22.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I remember the apartment I was at, I was in my first apartment, so it was pretty early, but.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was just like, look, you got until you re 30.
3
SPEAKER_00
Because 30 sounded old enough to like, okay, no more sharing futons and drinking Schaefer beer in the park.
3
SPEAKER_00
Ramen noodles, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Ramen noodles and generic Captain Crunch.
3
SPEAKER_00
Not even the real Captain Crunch.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, everything was generic.
3
SPEAKER_00
The half-off Captain Crunch.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was like, by the time you re 30, you gotta be doing something.
3
SPEAKER_00
So what did you decide to do?
3
SPEAKER_00
Well, I was a little earlier on, probably about a year, maybe a year and a half earlier, I like, I always liked boxing, you know, and I was like, they were opening these gyms or like white collar boxing or whatever, like you teach lawyers and doctors.
3
SPEAKER_00
That can be
3
SPEAKER_00
that could be fun because I like it.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was so tired of construction that I just, I couldn t take it anymore.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I, and I was like, I want to be around people and smart people and people have money and people that drive some truck and, and everything.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I, I, I d kind of made my way into a boxing gym.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s called bodies in motion.
3
SPEAKER_00
It used to be right up this down Pico or something, not far.
3
SPEAKER_00
Is this like late 90s now, or?
3
SPEAKER_00
No, no, this is still early.
3
SPEAKER_00
This is like 90.
3
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_00
91, maybe, whatever.
3
SPEAKER_00
I went into there, and I talked to the guy, and I m like, hey, man, I could really be a good boxing coach.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, get out of here.
3
SPEAKER_00
Get out of here.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he just told me to buzz off.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, why don t you give me a shot?
3
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, we just hire.
3
SPEAKER_00
ex-champions and champions.
3
SPEAKER_00
You hire real people, like, they gotta have credentials.
3
SPEAKER_00
This guy s a WBA welterweight.
3
SPEAKER_00
You idiot walked off a construction site.
3
SPEAKER_00
Those aren t credentials.
3
SPEAKER_00
This is a bronze medalist in the Olympics.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they fluff him up a little.
3
SPEAKER_00
So he just went, no.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I remember I was looking.
3
SPEAKER_00
at the club, at the fitness place.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I saw like speed bag stations with the bag and the, you know, I saw a couple of them like they were sitting on the floor, like against the wall.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he was like shooing me out of the place.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, Hey, those speed bags, you need those hung?
3
SPEAKER_00
And all of a sudden he was like, uh, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, well, I m a carpenter.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, oh, you are?
3
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, because I got some heavy bags that need to be hung too.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, well, I know how to do that.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, oh, so let s talk.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I said, OK, you give me $10 an hour, just flat out.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I mean, back then, carpenters would probably make it $15, $16 an hour or something.
3
SPEAKER_00
I said, just give me $10 an hour.
4
SPEAKER_00
what time s the gym close?
4
SPEAKER_00
Like 10 at night or whatever.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so what time s it open?
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, six in the morning.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was like, I ll be here 10 at night, six in the morning.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ll show up at night.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ll hang all this stuff.
4
SPEAKER_00
Just give me the keys.
4
SPEAKER_00
And uh, and you let me try teaching boxing.
4
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
4
SPEAKER_00
And the guy s like, yeah, okay, sure.
4
SPEAKER_00
Sure.
4
SPEAKER_00
So,
4
SPEAKER_00
taught a little bit and then he wanted to open a place in, uh, old town Pasadena.
4
SPEAKER_00
That was another place, but he did it like renovate or whatever.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he was like, you build that place for 10 bucks an hour and you can teach there.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, I ll do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Holy cow.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I built it.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I taught there, but I would be $20 a class.
4
SPEAKER_00
So, and I was only teaching like,
4
SPEAKER_00
five classes a week or so, but it s like in my world, I was doing something different and I was kind of enjoying myself.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was fun, fun to leave the class and put your mixtape on and all that stuff.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I was like, all right, well this feels better than
4
SPEAKER_00
you know, being on a construction side, but I was still building cabinets and working for myself because I couldn t cut it on a hundred bucks a week, you know, I d teach my morning boxing and then, then go to the job and go build cabinets for somebody or something like that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then I was, I was driving over the hill, um, driving over, uh,
4
SPEAKER_00
Laurel Canyon going up the hill.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was just listening to Kevin and being on K rock.
4
SPEAKER_00
And they were talking about Jimmy, the sports guy and Michael, the maintenance man.
4
SPEAKER_00
And Jimmy said something offensive and I got into an argument and, um, they re going to have a boxing match.
4
SPEAKER_00
They re like, we need trainers, you know?
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, Oh my God, Oh my God.
4
SPEAKER_00
I could,
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t think it was like I could see the radio station.
4
SPEAKER_00
I couldn t like, I, what is this like?
4
SPEAKER_00
This radio station?
4
SPEAKER_00
I listened to it every day.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t know where it is.
4
SPEAKER_00
What s it, what s it like?
4
SPEAKER_00
You know?
4
SPEAKER_00
And it was like, I got to the customer s house,
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, could I use your phone?
4
SPEAKER_00
And she was nice.
4
SPEAKER_00
And she s like, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I, I was calling the radio station and I just get Frank Murphy, the producer, just get his answering machine out there.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m a boxing coach and I want to train someone and you know, here s my home number and leave a message or whatever.
4
SPEAKER_00
And uh,
4
SPEAKER_00
They never called back.
4
SPEAKER_00
And some days were going by and I d be listening, like, we need a boxing coach.
4
SPEAKER_00
And guys were like calling in on air and stuff.
4
SPEAKER_00
I couldn t get anything going.
4
SPEAKER_00
They wouldn t return calls, they wouldn t do anything.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I just went, I found out where the radio station was, went before my 7 a.m.
4
SPEAKER_00
boxing class, or maybe it was like a 6 a.m.
4
SPEAKER_00
boxing class, I can t remember.
4
SPEAKER_00
It was early, like 6.30, 7.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I went down there, I got into the building, it was like a commercial building, and then just went up to the ninth floor, but the suite was locked where the radio station was.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I knew they were in there somewhere, but they re not the receptionist.
4
SPEAKER_00
And they do business hours nine to five, like if you win tickets to YouTube, you gotta pick them up, but you can t show up at seven, no one s there.
4
SPEAKER_00
They re there, but the receptionist isn t there.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was like, oh, now I showed up at 5.30 in the morning one day and I couldn t get into the building.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s what happened.
4
SPEAKER_00
Then I showed up the next day at like 6.30 or 7, I did get into the building, but I couldn t get into K-Rock.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then I was just standing on the ninth floor by the elevators.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I knew that was the K rock suite, but no one s going to answer.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was just like standing by the elevator.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like, what do I do?
4
SPEAKER_00
Did I come back?
4
SPEAKER_00
Like maybe I ll come back in two hours and someone will be there.
4
SPEAKER_00
But then what if I get into the suite?
4
SPEAKER_00
I like says the receptionist going to go get the morning.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t think that s what they re going to just go leave a number and I m just going to leave.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m,
4
SPEAKER_00
And right as I m sort of going over the machinations in my head of like, where could I, how could I work this out?
4
SPEAKER_00
Some guy just comes out of the elevator and he starts like making a line for the back of K-Rock with the key card door, like the staff door.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m like kind of walking with him and he s going in, you know, and I go, are you going into K rock?
4
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I don t know to this day, I don t know if he s the vending machine repair guy or he s a phone screener, like whenever he is, he s just going in and I go, Hey, if you re going in there, just tell him the boxing, there s a boxing coach and he s just, I ll just be by the elevators.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ll just be hanging here.
4
SPEAKER_00
So just tell him someone s here and the,
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, I think the guy kind of just put his hand up or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like we didn t talk about it.
4
SPEAKER_00
He was like doing something, you know, and you just kind of went, yeah, it wasn t door shut, you know?
4
SPEAKER_00
So I just went and stood by the elevators and that s probably out there about 10 or 15 minutes, 20 minutes, something like that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then, uh, at some point some guy just came down to the hall.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s a young guy.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s like, you the boxing coach?
4
SPEAKER_00
I m like, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he goes, oh, okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
Uh, you want to teach me to box?
4
SPEAKER_00
I said, uh, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
I said,
4
SPEAKER_00
well, who are you?
4
SPEAKER_00
What s your name?
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like, oh, my name s Jimmy, Jimmy the sports guy.
4
SPEAKER_00
I said, okay, well, Jimmy the sports guy s gonna fight Michael Mena s man.
4
SPEAKER_00
I guess I just got Jimmy the sports guy.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I ll train you to box.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I said, when do you want to start?
4
SPEAKER_00
He said, how about today?
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, yeah, I m at Bodies in Motion in Pasadena, like old town Pasadena.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ll meet you by the parking structure at noon.
4
SPEAKER_00
He said, all right, I ll see you at noon.
4
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then that guy turned out to be Jimmy Kimmel.
4
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was pretty lucky that it wasn t Michael the maintenance man who came out, but Jimmy did.
4
SPEAKER_01
So you start, so Jimmy shows up that day and you start boxing.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m going to be turning 30 in like three weeks.
4
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, I ve got to figure out something with this guy, you know?
4
SPEAKER_01
So what happened with, how long were you, you know, training Jimmy Kimmel for this match?
4
SPEAKER_01
And then what evolved from that opportunity?
4
SPEAKER_01
Probably had about three weeks, probably.
4
SPEAKER_00
A few sessions a week or?
4
SPEAKER_00
Well,
4
SPEAKER_00
Jimmy was my meal ticket, my life preserver.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m like, I gotta hang on to this guy with both hands.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s a dude, he s in radio.
4
SPEAKER_01
He s on radio.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s on the radio.
4
SPEAKER_01
He s making money.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s making money.
4
SPEAKER_00
Now he s making $49,000 a year or $44,000 a year and he s living in a rented house in Reseda and driving a RX-7 that s beat to, you know, but it s better than me and he s in radio.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I m like, I got to figure out a way to get this guy to think I m super funny.
4
SPEAKER_01
And not just a boxing coach.
4
SPEAKER_01
Right.
4
SPEAKER_01
Not just, oh, I showed up to, like, teach you, and then this is all I do.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, but I don t want him to think I m not a boxing coach, because I don t want him to think I m just trying to springboard this into that.
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, I m some guy who just said he was a boxing coach.
4
SPEAKER_01
How many people have come up to you, you know, at a restaurant in L.A.
4
SPEAKER_01
and said, I m an actor, I m a writer, let me show you my script, or let me do a set, or... Yeah, yeah, nobody wants that.
4
SPEAKER_01
So, I... I was pretty much...
4
SPEAKER_00
80% boxing and 20% funny for the first few sessions.
4
SPEAKER_00
But then I started to move more toward comedy.
4
SPEAKER_00
And as the boxing diminished, the comedy went up.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then we d like train, you know, he d train for 45 minutes or I don t know, an hour or whatever, teach him a few things and then go, you know, they got this little cafe upstairs, you know, they got cold snapples, just unwind a little, you know, have a seat, drink a snapple.
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, and he didn t want to train either.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I was like, yeah, let s go grab a sample and cool off, you know?
4
SPEAKER_00
And next thing you know, we re sitting there for two hours.
4
SPEAKER_00
Comedy hour.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s comedy hour.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m talking about, this is a radio show.
4
SPEAKER_01
You re like our conversation.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I had him pretty convinced after about, by the time the fight came around,
4
SPEAKER_00
He, he said, do you have anything like tape or anything I could see on you?
4
SPEAKER_00
Like, I don t exactly know like what your thing is, you know?
4
SPEAKER_00
And I had a tape, VHS tape of a home improvement sort of comedy show that I did on Eagle Rock Public
5
SPEAKER_00
access, you know, it s nothing.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was just a little public access, stupid Saturday thing, but it was, hey, it was something, you know, it was something.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I like brought it over to his house and I was like, it s just a public access thing.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, it s not very professional or whatever, but you could kind of see what, what I m like, you know, on camera, whatever.
5
SPEAKER_00
And he watched it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And because Jimmy has a good eye, he was like, yeah, I get it.
5
SPEAKER_00
I can see this.
5
SPEAKER_00
I can see what you re doing.
5
SPEAKER_00
I see what you re doing.
5
SPEAKER_00
I mean, there s no production, and there s no set, and there s no anything.
5
SPEAKER_00
But I get it.
5
SPEAKER_00
He was discerning enough to kind of go, there s bits and pieces here or something.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then he lost the fight, and then... He was like, you weren t that good of a trainer, you re better at comedy.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was not that good a trainer.
5
SPEAKER_00
Right.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was actually, I was a good trainer that I could teach people out of box, but we weren t getting it done in three weeks, and I was focusing on comedy.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so when we were done with the fight on a Friday,
5
SPEAKER_00
Jimmy and I were friends, you know, he, he loved me.
5
SPEAKER_00
I loved him.
5
SPEAKER_00
I mean, he found somebody he could talk to and he liked comedy kind of like that.
5
SPEAKER_00
He just liked me.
5
SPEAKER_00
I liked him like immediately, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
And he was like, was he around the same age, around 30?
5
SPEAKER_00
He s a, he s a couple of years younger now.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And, and he was like,
5
SPEAKER_00
He s like three and a half years or something.
5
SPEAKER_00
He was like 27 or something.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, he was like 26 and I was turning 30, like right about then.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I know what his birthday is.
5
SPEAKER_00
So he had two kids and was married at 26.
5
SPEAKER_00
Before that.
5
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, God, this dude s got kids.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I m living in La Crescenta in a rented house with three dudes, you know, and he s like, has a family and house.
5
SPEAKER_00
Got put together.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And like, I think this guy s kind of responsible, has it going on.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s not like my buddy from high school.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so, um, you know, now the fight s over, and this is kind of the end of the prom for me, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, what could I do to, like, with the radio?
5
SPEAKER_00
Like, something with a morning show, or something, something.
5
SPEAKER_01
To have, like, a segment, or be a correspondent, or just something.
5
SPEAKER_00
Something, just something.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like, I ll drive the van, I ll do whatever.
5
SPEAKER_00
I just, I wanna get in there, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
I wanna get in there.
5
SPEAKER_00
And what did he say?
5
SPEAKER_00
He said, uh, he said, what do you do?
5
SPEAKER_00
And then I said, I make things funnier.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like I shoot the breeze.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m back and forth.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m on my feet.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, I m an improv guy.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I d be in there making it, making it funnier, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
And he just went, that s what Kevin and Bean do that.
5
SPEAKER_00
What do they need you?
5
SPEAKER_00
What do they need you for?
5
SPEAKER_00
You think you re going to sit like in between them and like make them funnier?
5
SPEAKER_00
That s their show and they don t need you for that.
5
SPEAKER_00
So you, you got to come up with something other than that.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so,
5
SPEAKER_00
He said, you got to come up with a character.
5
SPEAKER_00
And if you come up with a character and it works, and then it could be part of a reoccurring thing.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I m like,
5
SPEAKER_00
I m not really a character dude.
5
SPEAKER_00
I don t really do voices.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m not that guy.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m just not a character guy.
5
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, well, it s a better start.
5
SPEAKER_00
Figure it out.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, all right.
5
SPEAKER_00
That s your way in.
5
SPEAKER_00
And he said, you can call in on Monday.
5
SPEAKER_00
I won t tell them who you are, because they ll think you re the boxing coach.
5
SPEAKER_00
That s not gonna work.
5
SPEAKER_00
I ll just set it up, I ll tell them I got this thing, it s funny, guy s gonna call in, they re not gonna know anything, and just call in Monday, and you know, they re a little moody, like it may not, they may, it s probably, I ve been on the other end of this a lot, where it s like someone goes, you wanna have that guy back, or is it funny, and I m like, eh, didn t, no, didn t really land, it didn t really work.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I did it, you know, Monday morning, whatever.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I did a character and
5
SPEAKER_00
And it kind of worked.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like it was, it was like working enough, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
And of course I called Jimmy like the second, how d it go?
5
SPEAKER_00
What happened?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And, and he was like, ah, they thought it was pretty, I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_00
That was pretty good.
5
SPEAKER_00
You know, it was okay.
5
SPEAKER_00
Um, I could, we try it next week.
5
SPEAKER_00
I tried again next week.
5
SPEAKER_00
I think I can get them to whatever next week.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so I did it the next week and then the next week and then it,
5
SPEAKER_00
it blew up and it just became this super popular bit and and then and then I got Loveline and I got signed by I got signed by William Morris like immediately and one of the everyone in Hollywood kind of listened to K-rock and this bit became so successful
5
SPEAKER_00
And the character got so popular so fast that I literally got signed from Willie Morris like a couple of months into it.
5
SPEAKER_00
And, and then I got Loveline and then, and, and so there was no trajectory.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was like making zero.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I ve looked at my statement.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s like social security, whatever.
5
SPEAKER_00
They send you the mail every 10 years.
5
SPEAKER_00
I was like making $4,000 a year and $12,000 a year, zero a year.
5
SPEAKER_00
Cause I was working under the table, whatever.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then it s like $36,000 a year.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was like my first sort of heroic thing.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then the next year was like $350,000.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then two years later, it was like a million dollars.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was like, it was like, but it was nothing.
5
SPEAKER_00
before then.
5
SPEAKER_00
And when I started, I started for free, you know, and I did it for a while, months probably.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I would, I would have a lot of my friends from the neighborhood kind of guys be like, who are they paying you?
5
SPEAKER_00
Where are they paying you?
5
SPEAKER_00
And I d be like, they re not paying me anything.
5
SPEAKER_00
And they d be like, why is it paying you?
5
SPEAKER_00
It should be paying you.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so eventually we settled on, on 50 bucks a bit.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I remember telling my friends, so now they re paying me, they re giving me 50 bucks a bet.
5
SPEAKER_00
They were like, 50 bucks a bit, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
Because they got, at that time, they were making 20 bucks an hour as a carpenter.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like, I thought this was show business, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
We re making less than we make for a day, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
And I just remember super clearly when they were protesting, 50 bucks?
5
SPEAKER_00
What kind of money is that?
5
SPEAKER_00
That s a big station, you know?
5
SPEAKER_00
I just said- You re like, this is a dream for me.
5
SPEAKER_00
I m on the radio, I m doing a bit.
5
SPEAKER_00
I got William and Morris, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
I said, I should be paying that.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oh.
5
SPEAKER_00
And they didn t really understand what it meant.
5
SPEAKER_00
But I got signed by William Morris.
5
SPEAKER_00
I took over on Loveline and it was just sort of rocket ship soon as, you know, two months later after I told them that.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I was like, and I knew instinctively this exposure is so great and people,
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was as I d planned, not planned, but I walked in and I was funnier than everyone.
5
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, I knew it.
5
SPEAKER_00
I just needed, the reason it took off is because I was really good, but I just never had an audience or a place or a sport or whatever.
5
SPEAKER_00
A platform, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And then I got in a love line and then they started syndicating and then it was like 100 and whatever markets and then the TV shows, blah, blah, blah.
5
SPEAKER_00
But I was good.
5
SPEAKER_00
Like I was ready to go.
5
SPEAKER_00
And, and I d trained and untrained and untrained and I had no matches.
5
SPEAKER_00
And all of a sudden I met Jimmy, but it wasn t just meeting Jimmy.
5
SPEAKER_00
It was just being exposed.
5
SPEAKER_00
The second I got exposed, it just, everything just blew up.
5
SPEAKER_01
Would you say he s one of your closest friends and colleagues over all the years?
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah, for sure.
5
SPEAKER_01
What would you say are the three lessons you ve learned the most from him, from working with Jimmy and being friends with him and watching his career?
5
SPEAKER_00
The, the number one lesson I ve learned for him from him is when you make yourself of, of service for other people, you end up getting paid back sort of tenfold.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it s, and I don t mean cosmically, I just mean, you know, Jimmy stuck his neck out for me.
5
SPEAKER_00
He helped me.
5
SPEAKER_00
he would show up at you know four in the morning with the radio station and help edit a bit i was doing or something like that he was very magnanimous very magnanimous but at some point i took over for howard stern i signed a big radio deal jimmy was
6
SPEAKER_00
was a producer and Jimmy was making hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know, mailbox money.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it s like, Oh yeah, you did get, you did make some money.
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, we re still not even, I owe him a lot more money, but he invested this time and it wasn t,
6
SPEAKER_00
He did it because he believed in me, or whatever he believes in.
6
SPEAKER_00
He didn t do it for the money, but he put the time in, and there was a payday after that.
6
SPEAKER_00
And it s about relationships, and the people I know who give the least have the least.
6
SPEAKER_00
The people I know that are the most tight-fisted with not so much money, but their time.
6
SPEAKER_00
Time and teaching and mentorship and access and resources.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think about the people, mostly family members of mine, who ve done nothing for anybody else and have nothing.
6
SPEAKER_00
And then there s Jimmy who does everything.
6
SPEAKER_00
for everyone else and has everything.
6
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
6
SPEAKER_00
And I realized, well, how s this work?
6
SPEAKER_00
Cause it s not like, oh, I lend everyone a hundred dollars or I give everyone a hundred dollars.
6
SPEAKER_00
So I m rich.
6
SPEAKER_00
How s it work?
6
SPEAKER_00
And it s like, oh, it s all relationships.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s all relationships.
6
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
6
SPEAKER_01
So that s a big lesson you ve learned from him.
6
SPEAKER_01
What s, what s another lesson that you ve either witnessed or he s taught you directly or indirectly, would you say?
6
SPEAKER_00
Um, I ve learned a lot about pizza.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
6
SPEAKER_00
The first gift I ever got him was a pizza stone for his oven.
6
SPEAKER_00
And he started building elaborate pizza ovens.
6
SPEAKER_00
So a lot of it s sort of pizza related.
6
SPEAKER_00
I learned that show business and comedy is sort of part
6
SPEAKER_00
your God-given sense of humor and ability, but it s mostly about whatever qualities you would need to succeed in the roofing or siding business or whatever.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s just, Jimmy,
6
SPEAKER_00
Jimmy is not the most naturally gifted comedic mind I ve ever met, which sounds like I m downplaying it.
6
SPEAKER_00
I m not.
6
SPEAKER_00
Jimmy s a funny dude.
6
SPEAKER_00
But there s a lot of funny guys.
6
SPEAKER_00
He brings the work ethic to the comedy.
6
SPEAKER_00
Really?
6
SPEAKER_00
A lot of comedians like to rip on loads and go to brunch and sort of hang out.
6
SPEAKER_00
A lot of comedians were attracted to comedy because they didn t want to work.
6
SPEAKER_00
And they just were like, and there are a lot of those comedians.
6
SPEAKER_00
they re hanging out during the day.
6
SPEAKER_00
Jimmy s at work.
6
SPEAKER_00
Jimmy was always at work.
6
SPEAKER_00
He was at the, you know, radio station at five in the morning.
6
SPEAKER_00
You know, when we re doing the man show, he s bringing home a stack of writer s submissions and reading every one of them and everything.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s like what you can do with,
6
SPEAKER_00
ability, when that ability meets strong work ethic, you can conquer the world.
6
SPEAKER_00
Um, each one alone is not really going to cut it in show business or comedy, right?
6
SPEAKER_01
Cause you ve probably seen a ton of comedians at stand up over the years,
6
SPEAKER_01
who were probably really funny.
6
SPEAKER_01
Like, you re like, wow, that was creative.
6
SPEAKER_01
That was, you know, a genius thing.
6
SPEAKER_01
Or you really had the timing down or whatever you work in the crowd and they were in it in the pocket, but they didn t have the work ethic to actually follow through and produce something or build the right relationships to make things happen.
6
SPEAKER_01
You ve probably seen a lot of funny people, right?
6
SPEAKER_01
Talented, funny people that didn t make it.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for sure.
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it helps to be semi-sober and not go off the rails with cocaine or whatever.
6
SPEAKER_00
I mean, there s sort of mitigating factors and circumstances, but
6
SPEAKER_00
You know, not pissing people off, not being flaky, doing what you said you were going to do, being kind of dutiful, showing up, like having people be able to count on you to be there, to take care of the business, not being a diva.
6
SPEAKER_00
Not being a diva like you on a Wednesday.
6
SPEAKER_00
I need a fresh coffee.
6
SPEAKER_00
So that s kind of a work.
6
SPEAKER_00
work ethic, which, which he has a very strong, he has a kind of a accountant s like work ethic with a sort of artist s mind.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s cool.
6
SPEAKER_00
You know what I mean?
6
SPEAKER_00
And if you, you put those together, uh, you got a, you got a pretty winning combination.
6
SPEAKER_01
That s amazing.
6
SPEAKER_01
How long were you guys working on the man show for?
6
SPEAKER_01
Cause that was a big show for a while.
6
SPEAKER_00
Uh, we did four seasons, maybe a hundred and something episode, a hundred little over a hundred episodes.
6
SPEAKER_00
I think something like that.
6
SPEAKER_01
You ve done a lot of projects together.
6
SPEAKER_01
You ve been, so what s it been 30 years, like working with him and knowing him and helping each other and just being in the business together.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, yeah, it s it s easy for me because I was going to turn 30.
6
SPEAKER_00
So I know I have a marker where I met Jimmy because I m always bad at it.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s like, you know, I like I would say to Dr. Drew, when I start Loveline, is that 95?
6
SPEAKER_00
No, 96 or whatever.
6
SPEAKER_00
I d be like, yeah, what, when was it?
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I, I, I m not a marker of time, but because I was so consumed with turning 30 and not getting anywhere, I met Jimmy right when I was turning 30 and I m 59 now.
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So it ll be 30 years, 30 years, three decades.
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Wow.
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Coming up.
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Where do you think you d be if you didn t show up to that radio station that day?
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Um, I mean, as, as Kevin and Bean put it, as I m working on a K rock documentary, they re like,
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You know, Adam was so funny.
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He would have ended up somewhere doing something.
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Again, I m trying to sound like a swipe, but they were like, he s super like the funniest guy I ve ever met.
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So he would have figured in Jimmy the same way.
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Like he wasn t going to stay there at K-Rock doing the sports for another 25 years.
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He would have been on to something.
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I would have been on to something too, God knows when.
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I mean, I don t know when, where, I don t know if I would have.
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I mean, I m kind of a strong believer in, I may have, I would have found my way into radio in some way, somehow, because I was so interested in it and always kind of circling around it, thinking about it a lot.
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It s interesting, though, because maybe you re turning 30, and then 31 and two, if you haven t had anything yet, you might ve been like, you know what?
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I m just gonna go full-time into carpentry or boxing or whatever it is.
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Yeah, I was like, I just wouldn t commit to not trying to do something creative.
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I was told... I used to pull up to the job site with my crappy pickup truck, you know, and I remember...
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periodically, like every couple of years, some guy had a new truck, you know, and if you had a new truck, that was, that s a big deal.
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You d pull it up at that new truck.
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Cause everyone s driving beaters.
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I d buy my stuff out of the recycler, you know, old Datsun s, you know, 79, you know, miniature little Japanese trucks and stuff.
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And I remember a guy named Jan,
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He was about my age, only a couple of years older, so four men on his job.
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He d come fold up this new Ford Ranger, you know, and V6, and it was like, oh, crew cab, you know, whatever.
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And I was like, wow, sweet.
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And he was like, went down at, you know, Galpin Ford, and it s, you know, 289 bucks a month.
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It s like, but you have to have full coverage insurance, like, if you re raking payments and stuff.
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And he s like, yeah.
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And I was like, he s like, you should go get a truck, get a nice truck, get a new truck.
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And I was like.
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If I commit to that, then I m not gonna be able to, you know, I gotta take my groundlings classes, do all my other stuff.
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I don t wanna get, if I get committed to this, then I have to get my contractor s license, and you re getting your contractor s license, and everyone s like, get your contractor s license, and start making some money, and get a new truck, and I was like, I m gonna get sucked into this thing, I m gonna have bills, and then this is what I m gonna be doing, like full time.
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And I m not gonna be able to,
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take off and go do this class or do this thing or do whatever so I always kind of knew it like I just I don t want to commit to this and I want to commit to comedy but I know it s not a high percentage thing and I don t know no
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in it, but I just feel like I ll find a way.
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If I just keep walking forward, I ll find something.
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This is the fascinating thing, though.
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This is part of your story that I really like, is there s a lot of talented musicians or artists or athletes or just talented, smart people at different things who don t go to the station.
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They take the classes.
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They work at 4 a.m.
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at the coffee shop, working with their friends on projects.
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They do their art in their living room.
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They do these things, but they don t put it out there.
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They don t risk it to that extent.
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Just that one extra step that you took.
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It s like, I showed up and no one was there.
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I showed up the next day and no one was there.
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But I decided to stick around.
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Then I told the guy, hey, let them know I m outside, I ll be here.
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And then you waited.
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Like you took an extra step that was unconventional at that time.
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My girlfriend, she s done over 40 movies.
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She s done a ton of movies in Mexico and also in the US.
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But she has a similar story where she was like, I didn t know how to get into acting, but I just showed up at the casting place and I just said, hey,
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I think it would be great for a movie.
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And here s my paper, here s my headshot, whatever, and just talk to everyone.
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And just said, hey, do you have anything that I can do a casting for?
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If she didn t show for that, she wouldn t go land in her first big movie and then all the other things that came from that.
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Because she showed up to the office, the casting, unannounced.
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And I think a lot of people don t show up unannounced.
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Showing up, it s about seven or eight tenths of whatever it is you re trying to do.
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You just have to show up.
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Because you had the talent for years.
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Yeah.
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You were the funny.
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You re like, yeah, he would have finally figured it out and landed somewhere, but maybe it wouldn t have if you didn t put yourself out there in that way, if you didn t show up to the station.
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Yeah, I was never that kind of guy.
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It was not, I was not proactive.
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I was kind of low self esteem and I just kind of kept quiet and stuff and I didn t put myself out there.
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Um, that s a spiral.
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I didn t do it, but I did it this time.
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And you met Jimmy and look what happened from there.
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It s amazing.
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Yeah, it s interesting.
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It s a journey, man.
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Adam, I appreciate your time here.
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I ve got a couple of questions to ask everyone at the end.
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Before I ask them, I just want to tell people to make sure they check out your show on adamkrola.com.
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I think you ve got your tour dates on there.
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You ve got your podcast information.
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You ve got all the stuff you re working on there.
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I appreciate you having me on your show.
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I thought it was a lot of fun.
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It s just a funny time and everything that you guys talk about over there.
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So thanks for having me on your show.
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Sure.
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And I want people to follow that Adam Carolla show over on podcasts and check out your tour.
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If you thought this was interesting and funny and, you know, all that stuff, make sure to check out your website and check out your tour.
7
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Is there anywhere else we can send people to today to support and serve you?
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Uh, no.
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AdamCarolla.com is where all the info is.
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Yeah.
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That s great.
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Um,
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I appreciate your honesty.
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I want to acknowledge you for your realness and your truth and sharing just all the lessons in the journey.
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You ve been in this game for a long time.
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You ve seen people come and go.
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You ve gone through ups and downs and I just appreciate your consistency.
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You show up, you work hard.
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Um, you know, some people love you, some people don t like you, but it sounds like you like you, which I think is good.
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It s like you, I m agnostic on myself, but I just realized
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my strengths and my foibles.
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Yeah.
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You know, and I just, I, you should be realistic with yourself.
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Otherwise you re going to get your, sure.
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Well, you also realize you re like, ah, this might be a little, but this is who I am and this is, you know, but I m trying to be a good guy.
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So I just appreciate the realness, uh, of you.
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being who you say you are.
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And I acknowledge you for that.
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I acknowledge you for really leading the way in an industry that I felt like I was an early adopter in podcasting, but I remember seeing you and Rogan was really in some random tech, you know, podcasts early on that were leading the way.
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And so I really acknowledge you for inspiring me for
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You know, seeing what s possible in the world of podcasting, seeing what s possible to share my voice in my own unique way.
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And there was only a few people that were doing that, and that was you.
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So I really acknowledge you for that.
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that model that you had.
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This is a question I ask everyone towards the end.
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Two final questions that I ask everyone towards the end.
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One is called the three truths.
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So this is a hypothetical scenario.
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You can answer it however you like, but I would like you to imagine that you get to live as long as you want, but it s the last day in your life.
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You get to experience and accomplish everything you want for as many years as possible, but then it s the last day.
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And for whatever reason on this last day hypothetical scenario, you ve got to take all your content with you.
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So books, podcasts, shows, there s no one has access to your content anymore or anything you ve shared, but you get to leave behind three lessons to the world that you feel like, all right, this, this is all they have of my content.
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I m going to share these three lessons.
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I call it the three truths.
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What would those three truths be for you?
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Uh, whatever damage happens in your life or negative, negative things that happen in your life, it will most likely be self inflicted.
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Most everyone I know who s really had some bad times.
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It s all been either directly or indirectly their own doing.
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So you do a lot of externalizing.
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realize when stuff happens, there s a, if not direct, indirect path right back to you and your actions.
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So understand that.
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Um,
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There s really almost no such thing as like literally just, I was just sitting in my car and a drunk driver plowed into me.
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There s, there s something that you could have been doing to, to avoid that in some way, even if it seems totally random.
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So kind of internalize that and, and use it as, as one.
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The other is the aforementioned Jimmy lesson.
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Just be generous and don t be generous because you re generous.
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Be generous because you can do it because you re a narcissist.
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I mean, Jimmy s a narcissist.
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He s not magnanimous.
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He wants people to think of him and go, wow, I love that guy or owe that guy my career.
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I owe that guy.
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I want to help that guy.
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He likes it.
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It s healthy.
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Like it, it s fine.
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It s fine to, um, go, I want to do this and don t look at it as being sort of out of pocket.
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It s you, you pay for dinner a couple of times and then you, your dinner gets paid for, for in perpetuity.
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So, you know, be, be that.
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Um, and then I guess, um, simple tests.
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would be the phone ring identification test, which is when the phone rings.
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It s hard hearing.
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The phone literally just started ringing right when you said that.
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When the phone rings.
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and your name comes up and whomever sees it, what do they think?
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Because we ve all had that person or people where like the phone rings and you see it and you re like, I m just not really up to this right now.
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Or what do they want?
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They want something.
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I can t deal with this person.
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And then there s people you go, Oh, cool.
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Good.
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I get to, this person s calling.
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I get to talk to this person.
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What emotion do you elicit from others?
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If your phone, if your name is popping up on their phone, what is their impulse going to be?
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And, and, and the freest, you know, the freest anyone will be is just go, Oh, that s you.
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Oh, okay.
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Yeah.
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What s happening.
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You know, like,
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It s, it s a, it s a kind of interesting metaphor because we, we all have a scale.
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We have the people in our lives where they call, they go, oh good.
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And then there s the people at the bottom where you re like, this, I m not picking that phone up.
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And then the ones like in the middle where you re like, depends on your mood.
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Yeah.
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They won.
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I know.
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I m not up to this.
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I ll call them back or, or whatever.
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Like you got to figure out where you rank and then try to adjust your ranking.
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It s a great three truths, I appreciate it.
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Adam, model question, what is your definition of greatness?
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For me, it s living up to your potential.
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I was talking to someone about this last night, and they were like, what was your plan with show business, or what was your plan with this, or what was your plan?
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I said, I just wanted to live up to my potential.
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And they kept talking about money or ratings or something.
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And I was like, no, I was a carpenter.
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I knew I could do comedy.
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And it was bothering me that I wasn t realizing it and I wasn t living up to my potential.
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And that potential doesn t mean riches or or accolades or Academy Awards or anything.
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It s just
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I was doing this.
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I thought I could be doing that.
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And I wasn t satisfied until I was doing that.
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And not because that was better or more noble.
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It was just, I knew I could do it.
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And I was going to be horribly unsatisfied in life because I felt I had this potential and I wasn t living up to it.
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And to me, that s the definition of a great life.
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If you can,
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can live up to your potential, even if your potential is not sexy or glamorous or any of your potentials, maybe just being a great dad.
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You know what I mean?
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Like maybe that s your potential.
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That s something to aspire to.
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I hope today s episode inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
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Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a rundown of today s show with all the important links.
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And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me as well as ad free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel on apple podcast.
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If you enjoyed this, please share it with a friend over on social media or text a friend.
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Leave us a review over on Apple podcast and let me know what you learned over on our social media channels at Lewis Howes.
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I really love hearing the feedback from you and it helps us continue to make the show better.
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And if you want more inspiration from our world-class guests and content to learn how to improve the quality of your life, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness Newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.
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And if no one has told you today, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
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And now it s time to go out there and do something great.