| Adam Carolla | |
|---|---|
Carolla hosting 107.7 The End's 2nd annual Lonely Hearts Valentine's Party. Seattle, WA. February 9, 2007 |
|
| Born | May 27, 1964 Los Angeles, California, US |
| Occupation | Comedian, comedy writer, radio personality, television personality, actor, carpenter |
| Known for | The Adam Carolla Show (podcast), The Adam Carolla Show (radio), Loveline, The Man Show |
| Predecessor | Riki Rachtman on Loveline |
| Successor | Stryker on Loveline |
| Religion | None (atheist)[1][2] |
| Children | Natalia and Santino "Sonny" Carolla |
| Website | |
| www.adamcarolla.com | |
Adam Carolla (born May 27, 1964) is an American radio personality, television host, comedian, and actor. He currently hosts The Adam Carolla Show, a talk show distributed as a podcast on the ACE Broadcasting Network. The Adam Carolla Show recently claimed the title of the Guinness Book of World Records "Most Downloaded Podcast".[3]
Carolla also hosts "The Car Show", which debuted on Speed TV on July 13, 2011. Mixing car reviews, tests and his brand of witty and dry humor, he headlines an eclectic cast on the show.
Carolla was the cohost of the radio show Loveline from 1995 to 2005 (and its television incarnation on MTV from 1996 to 2000), the cohost and cocreator of the television program The Man Show (1999–2004), and the cocreator and one of the regular performers on the television program Crank Yankers (2002–2007).
In November 2010 Carolla's book In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks debuted on the New York Times Best Seller List for hardcover nonfiction.
Contents |
Carolla was born in Los Angeles, California[4][5][6][7] to an Italian-American father, Jim Carolla, a psychologist; and his mother, Kris (née Novello), a perpetually out-of-work welfare recipient with a degree in Chicano studies.[8] Adam's parents did not give him a middle name.[9] As a joke, he wrote "Adam Lakers Carolla" on his driver's license application.[10] His driver's license still gives his full name as "Adam Lakers Carolla."[10]
Adam was raised in North Hollywood, Los Angeles. He attended Colfax Elementary School,[11] Walter Reed Junior High, and North Hollywood High School. Carolla did not receive his high school diploma until years later, claiming he owed the library $19.95 for a copy of We The People (ISBN 0-385-41903-1).[12] Carolla can be seen paying off the book to receive his diploma in an episode of his TLC show, The Adam Carolla Project.
During his earlier years, Carolla played Pop Warner football for seven years; he later suggested that being involved in sports saved him from a chaotic home life.[13] During his senior year at North Hollywood High School, Carolla distinguished himself in football. In December 1981, he was named to the First Team Offensive Line, Central Valley League, one of 8 leagues at the time in the LA City Section of the California Interscholastic Federation.[14]
He began living on his own at the age of 18. He briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, a community college, where he was placed on academic probation before dropping out to work in a series of jobs, including carpet cleaner,[15] carpenter, boxing instructor,[16] and traffic school instructor.[17] Although broke, Carolla and his friends and roommates owned a 1963 Cadillac limousine.[18]
Carolla's step-grandfather was László Görög, who wrote The Mole People.[19]
Carolla was offered the job of co-hosting Loveline with physician Dr. Drew Pinsky in 1995, alongside Riki Rachtman. While primarily a call-in show where listeners would ask questions about sex and relationships, Carolla would often spend much of the show ranting about various topics, from his time working as a contractor to incessant radio weather and traffic reports ("How many traffic reports have you listened to? Thousands. How many times have you actually changed your route based on a traffic report? That's right! Never!"[20]). Carolla served as the louder, funnier side of the show in contrast to the reserved, thoughtful Dr. Drew. Carolla left the show in 2005.
On May 13, 2009, Adam returned to Loveline as a guest. During a typical discourse with a caller who was giving short, unaccommodating responses, Carolla snapped jokingly "Oh, Jesus Christ, I don't miss this God-damn show one second!" Adam said being on Loveline was like "visiting your grandfather at the morgue".[21]
On November 1, 2005, Carolla announced he would leave Loveline to pursue a position in morning radio, replacing Howard Stern—with Stern's approval—in a number of West Coast markets. Adam's last night on Loveline was Nov. 3, 2005, to allow him time to prepare for his morning debut in January 2006. He stated that he'd love to continue to do Loveline by recording it immediately after his morning show, but Westwood One insisted that the show must be broadcast live. On October 25, Infinity Broadcasting officially announced that it would be replacing Stern with Carolla on several radio stations in the western United States.[22]
On February 18, 2009, The Adam Carolla Show was canceled as part of a format switch at KLSX to AMP FM, a new top 40 station. The final show was Friday, February 20, 2009.[23]
Carolla started a daily podcast on Feb. 23, 2009, at his personal Web site. The first Adam Carolla podcast was downloaded more than 250,000 times in the initial 24 hours, and by the third podcast, it was the number one podcast on iTunes in both the U.S. and Canada.[24] During the debut week, the Adam Carolla podcast recorded 1.6 million downloads. In the second week it recorded 2.4 million downloads. By the fourth episode of the second week, featuring former Adam Carolla Show sidekick Dave Dameshek, the show was downloaded more than 500,000 times.[25] Adam stated that bandwidth cost more than $9,000 a month as of May 2009.[26]
At the end of 2009, The Adam Carolla Podcast was selected by iTunes for its end-of-the-year awards as the Best Audio Podcast of 2009.[27]
On May 18, 2011, Adam announced on Jimmy Kimmel Live that The Adam Carolla Show has taken the Guinness World Record for the most downloaded podcast ever from Ricky Gervais[28][28] after receiving 59,574,843 unique downloads from March 2009 to March 16, 2011.[29]
Carolla has occasionally stirred up controversy due to sweeping generalizations he sometimes makes during unscripted broadcasts, the more notorious being about specific ethnic groups or women. In late 2003, Carolla stated on the air during Loveline that Hawaiians are "dumb." Carolla further elaborated that Hawaiians are "stupid," "in-bred," "retarded" people who are among the "dumbest people we have." These comments were met with anger in Hawaii, and resulted in the loss of radio affiliates for Loveline there.[30]
On the April 4, 2010 episode of The Adam Carolla Show, Carolla referred to Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao as being illiterate, having brain damage, and being someone who prays to chicken bones.[31] Carolla said of the Philippines, where Pacquiao makes his home, "They got this and sex tours, that's all they have over there. Get your shit together Philippines. Jesus Christ. I mean, again, it's fine to be proud of your countrymen. But that's it? That's all you got?"[32] Filipino leaders, including the office of President Gloria Arroyo, responded to the incident.[31][32] Carolla later apologized via Twitter, saying, "Read your comments. Sorry if I offended many of you. I don't preplan my commentary. I try to be provocative [and] funny but I crossed the line and I'm sorry."[33] Carolla received death threats over the incident.[34]
In August 2011, Carolla attracted the ire of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation after a podcast in which, referring to transgendered people, he asked, "When did we start giving a shit about these people?" The segment was in response to a proposed initiative to have the puppet characters Bert and Ernie, from the children's television show Sesame Street, enter into a "gay marriage." He went on to say that the LGBT moniker ought to be replaced with "YUCK," and that LGBT activists ought to "shut up," and that they are "ruining [his] life."[35] The GLAAD organization also referred to previous offensive remarks by Carolla, including an assertion that, "all things being equal," heterosexual parents are better than homosexual parents. Carolla responded to GLAAD via TMZ.com, stating, "I'm sorry my comments were hurtful. I'm a comedian, not a politician."[36][37][38] GLAAD responded by identifying Carolla's apology as "empty."[39]
Carolla began his first original television series with The Man Show, along with partner and close friend Jimmy Kimmel, on Comedy Central from 1999 to 2003. He left The Man Show at the same time as Kimmel, after having been reportedly offered $50,000 per episode to stay on. Carolla has continued his work with Kimmel as a writer and guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Carolla and partner Daniel Kellison are the heads of Jackhole Productions. The two created the television show Crank Yankers for Comedy Central, which revived the Mr. Birchum character. (The show premiered in 2002 on Comedy Central and returned to MTV2 on February 9, 2007, running again until March 30, 2007. The show screened in Australia on SBS Television and The Comedy Channel between 2003 and 2008.)
From August 2005 to November 2005, Carolla hosted the talk show Too Late with Adam Carolla on Comedy Central.
Also in 2005, Carolla was featured in a home remodeling program called The Adam Carolla Project wherein he and a crew of old friends renovated his childhood home. The 13 episodes aired on the cable channel TLC (The Learning Channel) from October through December 2005.[40][41]
In 2006, Carolla appeared on the special summer series Gameshow Marathon as a celebrity panelist on the Match Game episode.
On the February 18, 2008 broadcast of his radio show, Carolla announced that he would be one of the contestants on the next season of Dancing with the Stars. Later in the broadcast, it was revealed to Adam that his partner would be Julianne Hough.[42] He was voted off on the April 8, 2008 episode after his performance of the Paso Doble.
| Week # | Dance/Song | Judges' score | Result | ||
| Inaba | Goodman | Tonioli | |||
| 1 | Foxtrot/ "Mellow Yellow" | 5 | 5 | 5 | N/A |
| 2 | Mambo/ "House of Bamboo" | 6 | 7 | 6 | Safe |
| 3 | Tango/ "I Can't Tell A Waltz From A Tango" | 7 | 7 | 7 | Safe |
| 4 | Paso Doble/ "Plaza Of Execution" | 6 | 7 | 6 | Eliminated |
On June 16, 2008 Carolla was selected to host a pilot[43] of an American version of the popular BBC show Top Gear for NBC. In December 2008, NBC decided not to pick up the show.[44]
On February 21, 2009, a day after his Los Angeles-based morning radio show was canceled — as part of a format change at KLSX-FM — CBS ordered a comedy pilot starring the actor/comedian. "Ace in the Hole" was to star Carolla as a husband and father who works as a driving instructor. Carolla created and wrote the pilot with Kevin Hench ("Jimmy Kimmel Live").[45] Carolla stated that Pamela Adlon was to play his wife and Windell Middlebrooks of the Miller High Life commercial fame will play his best friend. During his March 30, 2009 podcast, Carolla briefly described the show as being "All in the Family, essentially", with Carolla playing a similar role to that of Archie Bunker. On the July 23, 2009 episode of the Adam Carolla Podcast, Carolla announced that CBS was not picking up the pilot for the 2009 season, "in any way, shape or form."
On October 22, 2009, it was reported in Variety that Carolla had struck a deal with NBC to produce a half-hour pilot for a sitcom. The report was later confirmed on January 4, 2010, and was the first comedy pilot ordered by NBC for the season.[46] The untitled project, written by Carolla and Kevin Hench, was a single-camera endeavor that starred Carolla as a contractor and father who attempts to rebuild his life after his wife leaves him.[47][48] Carolla was set to executive produce the NBC project along with frequent collaborators Kimmel and Hench, as well as his agent James "Babydoll" Dixon, Jon Pollack from "30 Rock", Gail Berman, Daniel Kellison, and Lloyd Braun. Universal Media Studios, BermanBraun, and Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel's own Jackhole Industries.[47][48]
On the February 13, 2010 episode of Carolla's CarCast podcast, he broke the news that The History Channel has picked up Top Gear US, which NBC had decided against in 2008.[49] On the March 26, 2010 episode of CarCast, Carolla said that he would not be co-hosting Top Gear US because of scheduling conflicts with his NBC sitcom project. In June 2010, Carolla said that his NBC pilot had not been picked up, and was now "dead."[50]
Carolla's "The Car Show" debuted on Speed TV July 13, 2011. Appearing Wednesdays at 10 PM Eastern, it features Carolla as the host, along with Dan Neil, John Salley, and Matt Farah. It is a similar format as Top Gear, mixing car reviews, tests and humor. The show has been met with largely positive reviews from car enthusiasts and comedy fans. Talk show host and comedian Jay Leno called The Car Show, "...a lot of fun."[51]
Carolla has also done voiceovers for cartoons, including Commander Nebula on the Disney animated series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Death on Family Guy (replacing Norm Macdonald who only did one episode) and Spanky Ham on Drawn Together.
In 2006, Carolla finished work on The Hammer, a semi-autobiographical independent film he co-wrote and co-produced, in which he stars opposite Heather Juergensen. The film is based loosely on his own life and is filmed at a gym he helped build with his co-star, Ozzie, played by Oswaldo Castillo, his friend in real life whom he met while building the gym when they both worked in construction.[52] The film made its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and shortly thereafter received a positive review in Variety.[52] The film was released on March 21, 2008.[53][54][55] The film is rated 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Adam made a short appearance in Jeff Balis' Still Waiting... (a sequel to Waiting...) playing a pick-up artist guru.
Adam helped write an unproduced screenplay for a movie entitled Deaf Frat Guy: Showdown at Havasu.[56]
He is the voice of Virgil in the independent short film Save Virgil.
Adam uncredited announced to Spy Kids: All the Time in the World in 4D, Aroma-Scope.
On November 4, 2010, Adam Carolla's In Fifty Years We'll All Be Chicks... And Other Complaints from an Angry Middle-Aged White Guy was released by publisher Crown Publishing. Carolla dictated the text, but the book itself was ghost written by Mike Lynch.[57]
On September 28, 2002, Carolla married Lynette Paradise. Lynette gave birth to their first children, twins Natalia and Santino "Sonny" Richard Carolla on June 7, 2006.[58] On The Adam Carolla Show, Adam repeatedly mentioned the birth was originally scheduled for June 6, but that he and Lynette decided to push it back one day as to avoid the symbolic 666 (06-06-06).
Regarding his religious beliefs, Carolla has stated, "I am not agnostic. I am atheist. I don’t think there is no God; I know there’s no God. I know there’s no God the same way I know many other laws in our universe. I know there’s no God and I know most of the world knows that as well. They just won’t admit it because there’s another thing they know: they know they’re going to die, and it freaks them out. So most people don’t have the courage to admit there’s no God and they know it. They feel it. They try to suppress it. And if you bring it up they get angry because it freaks them out."[1][2][59]
Regarding his political views, Carolla has stated, "I guess I would be Republican, in the sense that I want a secure border, I'm not into the welfare state, I'm not into all those freebie lunch programs. It just kind of demeans people." He goes on to state, however, that he is also in favor of some traditionally "liberal" causes such as the legalization of marijuana.[60] Elsewhere he has stated that "My feeling is this whole country is founded on the principle of 'if you are not hurting anyone, and you're not fucking with someone else's shit, and you are paying your taxes, you should be able to just do what you want to do.' It's the freedom and the independence."[61] In November 2011, Carolla posed for the NOH8 campaign.
Carolla has stated that he consumes alcohol on a daily basis.[62][63] He invented 'Mangria', which is red wine with vodka.[64][65][66]
Carolla participated in the 2010 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race.[67][68][69] He previously competed in the race in 2003.
Asteroid 4535 Adamcarolla is named in his honor.
| Preceded by Riki Rachtman |
Co-Host of Loveline 1995 – 2005 |
Succeeded by Stryker |
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