Adam Carolla (Courtesy Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Adam Carolla (b. May 27, 1964) is an American comedian, comedy writer, radio personality, television personality and 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-present).

Carolla currently hosts The Adam Carolla Show (see section below), a weekday morning radio program broadcast from Los Angeles and syndicated in eleven west-coast markets.

In 2006, Carolla completed work on The Hammer, an independent film that he co-wrote and co-produced. He plays the lead role in the film, opposite Heather Juergensen. The film premiered at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, and its release is anticipated later in the year.

Early life

Carolla was born in Pennsylvania to an Italian American father and a Hungarian American mother.

Adam grew up in North Hollywood, California, located in the San Fernando Valley. His family is often a topic on his radio show claiming his parents were disinterested and still have no interest in his life. He describes his family as good people, fair and honest but says often they were opposed to anything that involved getting off the couch and doing something. He also says 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.

After his parents divorced, Carolla split time with his mother and father.

Carolla attended Colfax Elementary School, Walter Reed Junior High, and North Hollywood High School, where in the latter of which he was voted class clown and was the captain of his football team. Carolla played Pop Warner football for many years, and said being involved in it saved him from a chaotic home life. On The Adam Carolla Show, Carolla said he was recruited to play football at Marshall University, but he was not interested in college.

Carolla never received good grades, graduating with a 1.75 grade point average. He majored in ceramics. He never received his high school diploma because he owed the library $19.95 for a copy of We The People (ISBN 0-385-41903-1). Because of this, he also did not participate in his high school graduation ceremony, but he said on Loveline that no one had ever asked him to produce his diploma.

Because of North Hollywood High School"s location, Carolla went to high school with several people who eventually became famous. Pornstar Christy Canyon went to his high school, , as did Molly Ringwald"s sister, Beth Ringwald, to whom Carolla lost his virginity.

Carolla frequently tells stories of pranks he and his friends pulled during and after high school. He began living on his own at the age of 18 in an apartment that eventually included uncaged rabbits. 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, traffic school instructor, metal worker and boxing instructor. In his 20s, he dated a British woman who was a stripper. He also taught himself how to ride a unicycle, which he has ridden during an episode of Too Late With Adam Carolla and as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Comedic style

Carolla is considered to be an accomplished satirist and comedian in several formats. He has co-created, written for, and featured in several talk radio programs, television series, and films.

Carolla's comedic style encompasses the following:

Observational humor
Ironic quips
Black comedy
Satire
Improvisation
Deliberate political incorrectness
Self-deprecation
Homages to early traditional comic styles

Subjects Carolla frequently pokes fun at include:

Hypocrisy among authority figures, especially in regards to public policies
Celebrities, the entertainment industry, and mass media
Municipal authorities, especially those that abuse monopolistic power
Social ills and dysfunctional families
Controversial American laws and inefficient social services
Lazy and socially irresponsible Americans
Ethnic stereotypes
Political extremists, on both sides of the political spectrum
Religious extremists
The use of religion for ulterior or self-serving motives
Interpersonal relationships
Human sexuality
His own family, friends, and co-workers
Himself

After Carolla had established himself as a comedic pundit on Loveline, he frequently joked that his role on radio was "philosopher-warrior". Promotional posters and billboards introducing his self-titled radio show in early 2006 carried the caption "Adam Carolla: American Genius".

Carolla frequently jokes about his own laziness and apathy, despite consistently meeting expectations in a professional manner. Carolla frequently offers salient advice to callers regarding good professional practices, while ironically referring to his own self-perceived apathy. For example, he has almost never been late for his live appearances on the radio; however, he claims he consistently arrives within sixty seconds of going on-air.

Early comedy career

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 (though he did perform sketch comedy with ACME Comedy Theater for a few years). He had spent his young adulthood working as a carpenter, construction laborer, and boxing instructor; it was during this time 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, who at the time was 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 he should come up with a character. Carolla eventually joined the show's cast as "Mr. Birchum", the ornery and misanthropic Vietnam-veteran shop teacher.

Radio

Loveline

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 fanbase 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. He attributes his layman's perspective to his unconventional upbringing, often claiming it has left him as an -- albeit successful -- adult with "NO self-esteem, as opposed to LOW self-esteem". 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". Carolla has commented on radio that on several occasions, fans have recited back to him his own ideas from past broadcasts, and he genuinely does not recognize them as being his own.

Loveline expanded into its largest number of radio markets while Carolla was co-host. During his final shows, 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 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). Once it was announced that he was leaving Loveline after its 10 most successful years, Carolla became the subject of large online petitions to keep him on Loveline. He wrote in response, on fan website The Loveline Companion, that he was deeply moved by the large number of fans and the depth of their dedication. He repeated these sentiments 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. He expressed that in retrospect, he didn't view Loveline as a job, and that he would have continued on Loveline if his schedule would allow it; however, he made it clear that it would not.

The Adam Carolla Show

On August 4, 2005, Carolla announced that he would leave Loveline to pursue a position in morning radio, replacing Howard Stern -- much to 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 at the beginning of 2006. He stated that he would love to continue to do Loveline, which seemed to fly by while doing it, but the show would not be a possibility. 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 January 3, 2006, Carolla began his new morning radio show, The Adam Carolla Show, on stations in Los Angeles (where the show is based), San Francisco, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, Oakland, Reno, Burbank, Fresno and Sacramento.

The show's staff was modified slightly during its first year. At the start of 2007, it saw its largest staff change; the three primary on-air personalities would be Carolla himself, Teresa Strasser, and the newly added Danny Bonaduce.

As of June, 2007, the show has seen an overall increase in ratings in its primary market of Los Angeles.

Over the course of the year Adam Carolla has seen a change in the affiliates that carry his show. This list of affiliates and cities are :

KLSX 97.1 - Los Angeles, CA (Last of the FREE FM Affiliates)
KUFO 101.1 - Portland, OR
KXTE 107.5 - Las Vegas, NV
KWOD 106.5 - Sacramento, CA
KNDD 107.7 - Seattle, WA
KRZQ 100.9 - Reno, NV
KFRR 104.1 - Fresno, CA
KMRJ 99.5 - Palm Springs, CA
WZAN AM970 - Portland, ME (The only affiliate east of the Mississippi, Tape Delayed 7pm-10pm replaced Tom Leykis' slot)
KTMB 99.1 - Boise, ID
KSEK 99.1 - Pittsburg, KS (Time of broadcast unverifiable)
KYCY AM1550 - San Francisco, CA

The following are fomer affiliates:

KPLN 103.7 - San Diego, CA
KZON 101.5 - Phoenix, AZ

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 where he and a crew of old friends renovated his childhood home. The 12 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 of 2007, Carolla guest hosted Jim Rome Is Burning.

Film

In 2006, Carolla finished work on The Hammer, a semi-autobiographical independent film in which he stars opposite Heather Juergensen. The film made its world premiere at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and shortly thereafter received a very positive review in Variety. Further details, including plans for the film's release, can be found on The Hammer official website. In 2003 Carolla had cameo appearance in the film Abby Singer.

Controversy

The Hawaiian community

On November 9, 2003 Loveline was canceled by Hawaii affiliate KPOI after Carolla referred to Hawaiians as "the dumbest people". He also claimed that you could take over the island with a Bic lighter.

The Asian American community

Carolla's morning show became the subject of a minor controversy within a few weeks of airing when on January 24, 2006, Carolla played a segment which spoofed the upcoming Asian Excellence Awards, which honor Asian American media accomplishments. The spoof consisted of what sounded like a typical excerpt from an awards show, except that the dialogue of the actors consisted only of the words ching chong, repeated over and over. The National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP), The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), and The Center for Asian American Media publicly objected to the spoof, calling it racist.. They threatened to ask advertisers to withdraw their support from the show if the station did not issue an apology. On February 22, 2006, Carolla without fanfare read a brief apology for the segment, in which he said that his show had regrettably "crossed the line". On April 26, 2006, Carolla invited the head of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, Guy Aoki, and Teddy Zee, co-chair of the Asian Excellence Awards, to further explain that when he aired the bit, he had no idea that "ching chong" was a racial slur. Mention of the bit was removed from the official show blog.

Ann Coulter

On July 6, 2006 conservative pundit Ann Coulter called The Adam Carolla Show an hour and a half after she was scheduled as a featured guest. This was the second time she had been late or absent on the show. On the July 6th show, Carolla amicably greeted Coulter, saying "You're late, baby doll." (A term he uses with legitimate affection, and not condescendingly.) She complained that she had been given the wrong number. Carolla then joked to Coulter, "How did you get the right number? Just dialed randomly--eventually got to our show?". Coulter insisted she was "really tight on time". Carolla then hung up on Coulter, telling her, "All right, well, get lost." Carolla claimed he did so due to her lack of professionalism, stating that it had nothing to do with her political views, which he stated he was quite open to hearing. Carolla frequently and publicly chides media personalities whom he considers "blowhards".

During the week of June 25, 2007 on The Adam Carolla Show, Carolla mused -- during a news segment discussing Coulter's recent controversial statements regarding John Edwards -- that he himself had, to his surprise, become a "cult hero" for hanging up on her on his radio program one year earlier. Carolla joked that his "cult hero" status was probably more due to the public's dislike of Coulter than it was owed to public approval of himself.

Personal life

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

Carolla is a car enthusiast, owning a BMW M3 E30-generation model, an E46-generation M3, Datsun 510, Audi, Jaguar sports coupe, MINI Cooper S, Nissan 350Z, Aston Martin, Lamborghini 350GT, and a Ferrari.

Earnings

Carolla has historically been very candid about his income for his work in the entertainment industry. He frequently pressures guests to be similarly forthcoming about their income, especially other entertainers (most commonly, models and other professionals whose income depends on their looks).

On the April 10, 2007 broadcast of The Adam Carolla Show, Carolla read his entire 2006 Social Security Earnings History, which includes all reported taxable income he had earned throughout his life, through 2005. He repeated the list on The Howard Stern Show on April 26, 2007. Since 2000, Carolla has, on-air, referred to himself as "literally a millionaire" (with hyperbolic emphasis on the word "literally"). He has used his income history to illustrate to listeners the benefits of being self-motivated and making improved life choices. His 2006 report (including annual reported earnings through 2005) was as follows.

Adam Carolla's Social Security Earnings History (2006) As Reported by Carolla
Year	Reported Income	Comments by Carolla
1980	$232	McDonalds
1981	$746	McDonalds
1982	$1,093	carpet cleaner
1983	$2,289
1984	$9,367	construction laborer
1985	$0	spent the year building a kitchen for his grandmother
1986	$17,672	worked with City of Los Angeles doing earthquake rehab
1987	$2,553
1988	$0
1989	$22,543
1990	$6,312
1991	$0
1992	$3,521
1993	$3,984
1994	$6,442	began work in radio
1995	$36,221	began co-hosting Loveline mid-year
1996	$316,424	first full year as co-host on Loveline
1997	$354,661
1998	$543,453
1999	$1,237,903	first year of The Man Show
2000	$1,013,726
2001	over $1,000,000	(exact amount not specified)
2002	$2,085,764
2003	over $2,000,000	(exact amount not specified)
2004	$1,353,000
2005	$1,661,924

Trivia

Carolla has no middle name, something he views as one of many unfair neglects by his parents. However, while applying for his driver's license, Carolla wrote his middle name as 'Lakers'. This is still reflected on his driver's license.
Carolla claims that he never turned in any homework or studied for any tests after the third grade, and often assails the Los Angeles Unified School District for allowing him to graduate with a C average despite, in Carolla's words, learning nothing in school and barely being able to read. However, he never received the physical copy of his diploma, because he owed twenty-five dollars for an unreturned We the People textbook. On the air, he often tells former teachers who derided and ignored him to "kiss his ass," in relation to his current success, especially a driver's education teacher who gave him an F. Carolla's other grievances about the LAUSD include allowing his sister to attend an "hippie school" within his high school, where, according to Carolla, she attended class for three hours a day, smoked in the building, and addressed her teachers by their first names. Carolla claims his sister learned even less than he did in school due to the ineptitude of the LAUSD.
He is a part-owner of the Los Angeles restaurant Amalfi where he is often spotted dining.
Asteroid 4535 Adamcarolla is named in his honor.
On August 15, 2005, Carolla became a member of the advisory board of Marijuana Policy Project after devoting nearly an entire episode of Too Late With Adam Carolla to talking with Weeds star Kevin Nealon about what they believe to be the absurdities of the war on marijuana.
He loves pies so much that while in high school, he once entered a pie eating contest and deliberately lost so that he could enjoy the entire pie afterwards during the lunch break. Also, when his friend Don threw a pie at an ex-girlfriend, he ate the pieces off the ground despite large chunks of concrete. Consistent with his stated preference for pie over cake, Carolla served several "wedding pies" during his wedding reception.
Adam was the host of an Internet show for the band Ko?n, for their release of their second album, Life Is Peachy.
Prior to a 2003 episode of the Loveline radio show, Adam took an IQ test. He stated that the test reported his IQ to be 91 points. (A median IQ score is 100.) Carolla has stated on-air on several occasions that the test was administered casually and not professionally, and indicated that the results are likely apocryphal. Carolla has used the claim of a 91 IQ on-air in several self-deprecating ironic quips.

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