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Adam Carolla (born May 27, 1964) is an American radio/television host, comedian, actor and voice actor. Carolla achieved fame for several broadcast stints: co-host of the radio show Loveline, from 1995 to 2005 (and its television incarnation on MTV from 1996 to 2000); co-creator and co-star of the television program The Man Show (1999–2004); co-creator and performer on the television program Crank Yankers (2002–2007).

In 2006, Carolla completed work on The Hammer, an independent film that he co-wrote and co-produced. Carolla plays the lead role in the film, opposite Heather Juergensen. The film was released on March 21, 2008.

From January 3, 2006 through February 20, 2009, Carolla hosted The Adam Carolla Show, a weekday morning radio program broadcast from Los Angeles and syndicated by CBS in eleven west-coast markets beginning January 6, 2006. The last show aired Friday, February 20, 2009, when CBS shifted the format of the syndicating station, KLSX, away from talk radio, opting for a less expensive Top 40 format instead.

On Monday, February 23, 2009, Adam moved his weekday talk show to a self-produced podcast format, now called The Adam Carolla Podcast. It is distributed as a daily download on his official website (), and as a free subscription through the iTunes Music Store ().

Early life

Carolla was born in Pennsylvania to an Italian-American father, Jim Carolla, a psychologist, and his mother, Chris, a sex therapist. Adam's parents failed to give him a middle name. As a joke, he wrote "Adam Lakers Carolla" on his drivers license application. His drivers license still gives his full name as "Adam Lakers Carolla."

After living in Menominee, Wisconsin and Secane, Pennsylvania, the Carolla family relocated to the San Fernando Valley, and Adam was raised in North Hollywood, California. His family is often a topic on his radio show; he claims that his parents were uninterested in his upbringing, and still have no interest in his life. He describes his family as good people, fair and honest--but often claims that they were opposed to anything that involved getting off the couch and doing something. He also alleges that his family was incredibly cheap; Carolla would get small amounts of money, usually coins, for his birthday instead of gifts, and he did not go to any funerals growing up.

Carolla attended Colfax Elementary School, Walter Reed Junior High, and North Hollywood High School. Carolla never received good grades, graduating with a 1.75 grade point average. He claims to have majored in ceramics. Carolla did not receive his high school diploma until years later, because (as he claims) he owed the bookroom $19.95 for a copy of We The People (ISBN 0-385-41903-1). Although he eventually did pay for a history book at his high school, it was many years later; he incorporated it into his home improvement comedy "The Adam Carolla Project". Because of this, he also did not participate in his high school graduation ceremony.

He was voted class clown and was the captain of his football team. Carolla played Pop Warner football for many years; he later suggested that being involved in sports saved him from a chaotic home life.

He began living on his own at the age of 18. He briefly attended Los Angeles Valley College, a junior college, where he was placed on academic probation before dropping out to work in a series of jobs, including a carpet cleaner, carpenter, boxing instructor, traffic school instructor, and metal worker. Promotional posters and billboards introducing his self-titled radio show in early 2006 carried the caption "Adam Carolla: American Genius".

Early comedy career

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Carolla claims that his goal from youth was to write comedy. He did not envision working on-air on the radio, or on-camera in movies and television. In his spare time he worked on his comedy skills, training with The Groundlings and attempting stand-up, but he didn't believe either of these were a good fit for him. He did perform sketch comedy with Acme Comedy Theatre for a few years, during which he worked with M.D. Sweeney (later, his business partner in a restaurant venture), Paul Rugg, and John P. McCann (with whom he wrote and performed a number of sketches involving Manly Men Doing Manly Things).

During Carolla's early twenties, while working in various jobs, he grew fond of listening to talk radio. In his late twenties he heard an ad on the radio seeking a boxing instructor to train Jimmy Kimmel. Kimmel was, at the time, a radio personality on the KROQ morning show Kevin and Bean as "Jimmy the Sports Guy." Carolla met Kimmel at the radio station, and the two became best friends. Carolla asked Jimmy how he could get into radio; Jimmy replied that Carolla should create a character. Carolla eventually joined the show's cast as "Mr. Birchum," the ornery and misanthropic Vietnam-veteran shop teacher.

Radio

Loveline

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Carolla was offered the job of co-hosting Loveline with physician Dr. Drew Pinsky in 1995, replacing Riki Rachtman. Pinsky selected Carolla personally, after hearing Carolla's earlier radio work. Loveline is a syndicated radio program produced by Westwood One, and was also a television show on MTV for four years. On Loveline, Carolla often gave extended commentary about matters having little to do with the official subject matter of the show. Common topics included: Carolla's dislike of the negative effects of religious zealotry, criticism of celebrities, and complaints about politically-originated policies that make little sense, such as junior colleges, traffic/parking enforcement as pure revenue-generation, superfluous red left-turn arrows, and other "wastes" such as the abundance of police officers available to serve traffic citations while none seem to be available for important issues like counter-terrorism, and 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!") His impassioned criticisms and observational humor became a central characteristic of the show.

During his time on Loveline, Carolla gradually drew an increasing fan base to the program. Carolla, on Loveline after earlier attempts at traditional stand-up comedy, eschewed traditional stand-up methods, such as scripted comedic "bits". Carolla has claimed that he has no "act", referring to himself as a "comedy factory, as opposed to a comedy warehouse", distinguishing himself from comics who prepare material. Carolla preferred to use his time on the airwaves—and the subject matter of Loveline as an inspirational springboard—to launch into rants in a similar fashion to Dennis Miller. Carolla's presentation of his views frequently fits the description of black comedy. While Carolla distinguishes himself as being self-educated, he frequently refers to his formal education in abysmal, self-deprecating terms. Carolla claims to have genuinely forgotten several of his own past jokes, insights and innovations that have caught on with fans, attributing his forgetfulness to his "no self-esteem".

During his final shows on Loveline, the fanbase that he had cultivated was, in his own words, larger than he expected. Carolla often claimed that he had no idea of the effect he had on his audience, saying frequently that, among the small staff in the Loveline broadcast studio, "no one cares"; he repeatedly drew attention to the apathy of his co-workers—with extended, comedic complaints about the staff, including Pinsky (they both stated they had become very close during their work together). He repeated sentiments of fan appreciation on-air during his last few Loveline broadcasts, consciously breaking from his black-humor comedic tone to thank his fans in earnest, explaining that the opportunity for his own morning radio show similar to Howard Stern's was an opportunity he could not pass up.

The Adam Carolla Show

On November 1, 2005, Carolla announced that 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 November 3, 2005, to allow him to have time to prepare for his morning debut in January, 2006. He stated that he would 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.

On February 18, 2009 it was confirmed that The Adam Carolla Show had been 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.

The Adam Carolla Podcast

As of February 23, 2009, Adam began hosting a daily podcast at www.carollaradio.com. The show is available through iTunes: The Adam Carolla Podcast. The RSS feed is The Adam Carolla RSS Feed. In the initial 24 hours, the first Adam Carolla podcast was downloaded over 250,000 times and, as of the third podcast, it was the number one podcast on iTunes in both the U.S. and Canada. 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 second week of the show, the fourth episode of the podcast featuring former Adam Carolla Show sidekick Dave Dameshek was downloaded over 500,000 times.

Television

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 regular guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. With partner Daniel Kellison, they are the heads of Jackhole Productions and created another television show named Crank Yankers for Comedy Central, which revived the Mr. Birchum character.

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.

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.

In 2006, he appeared on the special summer series Gameshow Marathon as a celebrity panelist on the Match Game episode.

In August 2007, Carolla guest hosted Jim Rome Is Burning.

Recently, he has appeared as a guest on several episodes of Comics Unleashed.

On the February 18, 2008 broadcast of his radio show, Adam 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. He was voted off on the April 8, 2008 episode after his performance of the Paso Doble.

On June 16, 2008 Carolla was selected to host a pilot of an American version of the popular BBC show Top Gear for NBC. NBC declined to pick up the show; it is currently being shopped to cable networks.

On 21 February 2009, a day after his Los Angeles-based morning radio show was canceled -- as part of a format change at KLSX-FM -- CBS picked up a comedy pilot starring the actor/comedian. "Ace in the Hole" stars Carolla as a husband and father who works as a driving instructor. Carolla created and wrote the pilot with Kevin Hench ("Jimmy Kimmel Live"). 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.

Dancing with the Stars Performances

Film

In 2006, Carolla finished work on The Hammer, a semi-autobiographical independent film in which he stars opposite Heather Juergensen. The film is based loosely on his real life and is filmed at a gym he helped build with his co-star, Ozzie, which is played by Oswaldo Castillo, his friend in real life whom he met while building the gym when they both worked in construction.

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.

Adam made a short appearance in "Waiting" sequel "Still Waiting" directed by Jeff Balis playing a pick up artist guru.

Adam has written a new movie titled Deaf Frat Guy: Showdown at Havasu. It has been sold and will begin filming shortly.

He would voice the title character in the independent short film Save Virgil.

Personal life

On September 28, 2002, Carolla married Lynette Paradise. Lynette gave birth (via cesarean section) to their first children, twins Natalia and Santino "Sonny" Carolla on June 7, 2006. 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).

An avid car enthusiast, Carolla has owned a BMW M3 E30-generation model, an E46-generation M3, Datsun 510, an Audi S4, Audi R8, Jaguar sports coupe, MINI Cooper S, Nissan 350Z, Aston Martin, Lamborghini 350GT, Ferrari and 1984 Nissan 300ZX Turbo (The original Newman Sharp car driven by Paul Newman and Fitzy to an SCCA national championship in 1984).

Honors

Asteroid 4535 Adamcarolla is named in his honor.

References

1. "Adam with Jeff Probst and Louis C.K." The Official Adam Carolla Show Blog. 2006-02-02. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
2. Loveline, 1998-03-18
3. "The Hammer (2007)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
4. "The Hammer - Official Site". Retrieved 2008-08-09.
5. http://www.toronto.com/movies/movie/597827
6. ^ http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cbs-radio-amp-2311999-jack-format
7. ^ "Homepage". The Adam Carolla Show. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
8. www.imdb.com/name/nm0004805/
9. The Adam Carolla Show, 27Nov 2008
10. "Adam with Leanne Tweeden, Dr. Gadget, Jimmy Kimmel, Kenny Morse, and Cle "Bone" Sloan – February 14, 2007". The Official Adam Carolla Show Blog. 2007-02-14. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
11. ^ "Adam with Mark Burnett, Rick Fox, Finesse Mitchell". The Official Adam Carolla Show Blog. 2006-12-16. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
12. The Adam Carolla Show, 2008-10-28
13. "Adam Carolla". Loveline Information Archive. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
14. "April 1st, 2003". Loveline. 2003-04-01. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
15. "Adam with Kurt Busch, Shawn Merriman and Mistress Melissa". The Official Adam Carolla Show Blog. 2006-10-11. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
16. "Biography of Adam Carolla". All American Speakers. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
17. ^ Getlin, Larry (2006-01-03). "Fame & Fortune: Comedian Adam Carolla". bankrate.com. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
18. "Biography for Adam Carolla". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-08-10.
19. Thomas, Karen (2005-10-25). "Infinity signs Roth and Carolla". USA Today. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
20. http://carollaradio.com/2009/02/24/thanks-everyone/
21. http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/la-oe-stein6-2009mar06,1,4616454.column
22. Ryon, Ruth (2005-11-20). "Adam Carolla selling TV series house". sfgate.com. Retrieved 2008-02-21.
23. "The Adam Carolla Project". epguides.com. Retrieved 2008-08-10. {{cite web}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
24. Bruno, Mike (2008-02-18). Dancing+With+the+Stars+announces+lineup "Dancing With The Stars announces lineup". ew.com. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
25. The Adam Carolla Show, June 12 2008 makes it clear Adam is the host and has chosen two "sidekicks".
26. http://jalopnik.com/5108040/nbc-cuts-top-gear-usa-due-to-knight-rider-failure/
27. Michael Schneider (21 February 2009). "http://www.variety.com/article/VR1310001181.html?categoryId=14&cs=1". {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
28. ^ "New boxing movie, celebs' fight-Derby dilemma, more". SportsIllustrated.com. Retrieved 2007-11-06. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
29. Adam Carolla interview on Leo The Film Freak, 2008-06-21.
30. White, Nicholas (2006-06-07). "Adam Carolla, Wife Welcome Twins". people.com. Retrieved 2008-02-20.

External links

• Adam Carolla at IMDb
• Adam Carolla Podcast

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