The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Adam Conover

Episode Date: November 29, 2022

Adam Conover (Adam Ruins Everything) joins Andy Richter to discuss growing up in a family of scientists, finding your comedic voice, being a teenage know-it-all, and much more.

Hey there everybody, it's Andy Richter with the three questions again, and I am talking this week to a very funny know-it-all Mr. Adam Conover, who you've sort of made a career out of, like, making people unhappy with your information. That's how I put it sometimes.

Yeah. I make them unhappy. Well, you're the one who picked Adam ruins everything. Like, you dubbed yourself, like, a ruiner. So it's not me. It's a character Andy that's what they all say that's what every prick in this business says

it's a character as you're pistol whipping someone it's a character fair enough no it's like the it's true like Larry David no, it's true. Like, Larry David can say it's just a character, but we know he's really like that.

Yes, absolutely. Everyone knows that. And I am the same way. Yeah, no, people, as I walk down the street, children burst into tears. You know, mothers cover their faces. Dogs shit on the sidewalk.

Like, it's, people hate to see me coming because they just know i'm gonna reveal some information that's gonna destroy their lives no i don't think so but i mean is that something that prior to getting into entertainment like was that sort of do you like being a pill as they say in the midwest no i don't think i like it uh what i often say is that the character of adam Ruins Everything or the sort of comedic engine that we created on Adam Ruins Everything was based on like a younger version of myself that I was often piping up when I wasn't supposed to and telling people things I had learned and getting yelled at. I had poor impulse control. I had a poor understanding of social norms. And so other kids were always like, Adam, what the, what are you taught? Shut the fuck up.

You know, teachers were like, pipe down and sit down. You know, that was, I was always, oh, what did I do? I messed up, you know? And so I created a show where just it's full of people who are constantly yelling at me for acting that way. And as a result, a lot of people end up relating to it. Like a lot of folks, I didn't anticipate this, but a lot of folks who are on the autism spectrum really relate to the show.

Oh, really? Because my character on the show has a very sort of poor understanding of social, you know, he's always making social mistakes. He's always saying something that is factually true, but socially incorrect and getting and berated. And then he's like, oh, I'm sorry, but in a comedic way. And so a lot of folks on that spectrum are like, oh, I really relate to that. And maybe I'm a, I don't know how the

spectrum works, maybe I'm a 0.01 on it. Maybe I have a little bit of it in myself that made me have that experience too, that they relate to. Yeah, no, I think that that's, I think the ADHD and the being smart, like those two can often lead to, because I was kind of the same way. And, and in fact, I remember, I remember like one of the most humiliating moments I had with a teacher was in junior high, who was us about and i you know watched a lot of pbs so i knew a lot of english stuff and he was talking about the difference in you know like that a car a hood is a a bonnet you know yes and as he would go like a like saying a car we call it a hood they call it a and i would go bonnet and you know call it a, and I would go bonnet and, you know, policeman is a, and I would go Bobby. And after, and I mean, you know, after seven or eight of those,

yeah, you know, he, he literally insulted me and said, uh, if I opened my mouth one more time, I have a lot of memories like that. You know, I have memories of of being in class and a teacher making some point about overpopulation or something. Or like, oh, when you have too many people, where are you going to put them? Just making some general point like that. And I said, well, we could buy more land. And she was like, what are you talking

about? And I was like, like America purchased Alaska from Russia because I had learned that a week prior. Right. Right. And she was like, what the hell? What are you?

Okay. Whatever. Moving on. Like just this one thing I had learned I had to blurt out. Well, and also there's plenty of Alaska that there's room for. Like we already have a lot. Like we could fill up Alaska right now. You know, we don't need to buy more.

I know. Yeah. And also after you buy it, what good is that going to do you don't just need more even more land like it's a zero sum game right right you know and all the good land is taken what are we gonna you know buy the south of france i don't think so i mean there's antarctica when you think about it antarctica is this whole continent isn't that weird is a whole continent we're not doing shit with i know we've i know we've colonized phoenix right that's an unlivable wasteland yeah that's a hellscape yeah where's where's the las vegas of antarctica give it time give it time as we ruin the planet other places become popular. That's one of the upsides of ruining the planet.

Yeah. It's all the beachfront property in Antarctica. People aren't thinking about this. In our lifetimes, there's definitely going to be, you're going to be like, well, maybe I'll be 85. I think you'll be dead by this time, Andy. But I think when I'm 85. Fuck you, dude. I'm going to live forever when I'm 85... Fuck you, dude! I'm gonna live forever!

I'm incredibly healthy! Any day now, I'm gonna start that diet and exercise regimen. I just think it'll take about that amount of time. It'll be the window where you're dead, I'm still alive. But I'm gonna be opening the magazine, and it's gonna say

oh, people are starting to go on pleasure vacations to Antarctica. It's so warm now that, hey, in the summer months, it's quite temperate. Right. And, you know, that'll be the universal. Right, right. Or remember Miami? You know, that's, I'm sure that's, you know, that could very well be in our. Oh, Miami's not going to be around five years from now.

Yeah, yeah. That could very well be in our... Oh, Miami's not going to be around five years from now. They're already having sunny day flooding there, which is just like, it's not raining, but it's flooding because of the sea levels rising because it's so low to the ground and the drainage there is so poor. Sunny day flooding.

That's what they call it. I know, but it sounds like a Mama's and the Papa's album title. Sunny day flooding. It so so chipper um well now you're originally from new york state right correct i grew up on long island on long island and your folks are brainiacs right yes i'm as i opened every stand-up set i did for like seven or eight years with uh i'm the only member of my family who doesn't have a phd wow and is that like a disappointment to them or do they really you know i mean i think i finally they now see me as going into the family business because my sister uh my sister actually has a phd in particle physics and she left academia

left research to become a science journalist. She's now a science writer at Science News Magazine, which is a wonderful science publication. And so my dad always had an interest. He was a marine biologist, but he always had an interest in science communication. And so they sort of see me as a little bit in the family business, you know. Oh, OK. But yeah, I would say i was more pressure i put on myself than on uh you know uh than them putting it on me i wanted to go to grad school

but i wanted to go to grad school for philosophy and i'm really glad i didn't do that in 2004 wouldn't have been great to come out of grad school with let's be honest i probably would have gotten a master's yeah right yeah right into the teeth of the uh of the you know that economic crisis of the great recession right wouldn't have gone great for me so but comedy happened to pick up around that time uh for me my college sketch group um started to have a little bit of success in the very early internet and i just sort of went full-on into comedy yeah i'm pretty happy i did now when you were younger uh you have a sister and and a brother or is it that's just a sister just a sister i don't know where you're hearing all this bad information there's no brother all right no matter what the rumor mill says i know there's a lot of

people out there you know there's conflicting things on the internet i've never had a brother yeah yeah making claims they want a piece of your fortune um no no don't believe what you hear okay there's a lot of people out there saying that they were cut out of your fortune. No, no, don't believe what you hear, okay? There's a lot of people out there saying that they were cut out of such and such a will. No such person exists, all right? The courts have been clear on this matter. But is your sister older or younger? She's a year younger than me. She's a year younger than you.

So you were the oldest kid. Yes. And were you, like in school, is there pressure to like really excel academically? Or is it just something that kind of came naturally oh i mean i never excelled academically oh i'm sorry i shouldn't assume well it was an add kid i had um you know i i was one of those kids where they were always like he's smart what's his problem yeah uh he's such potential that's what i always heard yes exactly he'd apply himself i had trouble focusing in school you know i was only interested in things that interested me that kind of problem

i remember i like scored better on my sats than like all of the other kids in the school who were like real grinds you know yeah there's the smart kids who are like they're fucking grinding away and um i got a high enough score that i got some kind of award for it or mean there's the smart kids who are like they're fucking grinding away and I got a high enough score that I got some kind of award for it or something there's like a national merit thingy I don't know there's some kind of like thing they give you if you have a high enough SAT score and the grind kids were like Adam you're like not a

good student like what they were all mad and I was like I don't know guys I guess I just fucking test well guess I don't you know I'm a space case but you, you know, I know my synonyms. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm smart.

I'm not stupid like they say I am. I'm smart. I have an underlying skill. When I finally went to college, I sort of, that's when I fell in love with, you know, learning because I was able to chart my own path and research the things that were interesting to me. I went to a liberal arts school called Bard College where it was very much like, what do you want to study? Like you're a little scholar. You're as smart as anybody. So let's do the research.

And that I really liked rather than the sort of public high school type of learning. Well, I mean as you're growing up, what were sort of your aspirations? What were you sort of public high school yeah type of learning well you're well i mean as you're as you're growing up what do you what were sort of your aspirations what were you sort of hoping to do i mean there was a the the aspirations i can remember was that for a long time i wanted to just like work with computers um like i loved video games and i was very early on the internet. Like sometime around like 1997 or 8, like we got a cable internet connection. I'd always loved computers. But my memory is that literally the cable company called our house and I happened to pick up the phone. And they said, we're doing a pilot program of cable internet. Do you want it at your house?

And since I picked up the phone, I was like, yes to install it please yeah when when they came to install it for some reason my parents hooked it up directly to my room we didn't have a router it was just like went you know straight to the modem into the computer and they just had to go directly into my room as opposed to any other room of the house and then from then on i just spent like all night every night on the internet just like the 1998 internet like the the fun good internet you know just like surfing the web i was making websites and stuff like that i was masturbating a lot of course of course of course that's what it's for you would be wasting your time if you weren't you would be wasting all that internet. But I, so like I taught myself like web design, early web design. And I was like, wow, one day, what if I could be a web developer?

And I kept doing stuff like that, like throughout college. And then when I graduated, you know, me and my comedy group, we all moved to New York together to like do sketch comedy. And I got a, I got a day job, you know, making websites. And then I realized that was a day job, you know, making websites. Um, and then I realized that was a bad job to have, like, and I'm glad I didn't go to that as a career. I mean, I guess I, I honestly might've could have maybe made more money than I have in the, in the entertainment industry if I'd gotten into tech that early, but like, you know, it's not actually a very

stimulating career. Is that what you mean by bad? That would have been a bad job for you? It's just, I, yeah, I think so. You just mean as a personal thing. It's not that like... Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I think coding is, well, it stops... What I liked was the creative part of it. I liked figuring out, I want to make a website. How do I do it?

And then later on, actually, I got into one of the other ways I made a living in my 20s when I was doing comedy for free in basements, you know, in that period, was I did video editing and I did visual effects using Adobe After Effects. I would do special effects, you know, explosions and things like that. Like I, even before I started working for College Humor as a writer, I was doing visual effects for them. And I liked that because it was really creative. You know, be like okay there's you have to make uh bullet holes you have to make a robot that flies around or whatever yeah you're just you've got a piece of software

that you do it with and you figure it out but if i had gone into those things as a career i mean visual effects as a career is not creative you're working on a team of hundreds of people yes you're working 12 hour days you know taika waititi wants thor's you know hammer to glisten more here so start over and make a new hammer you know it's it's a grind right um and i think web development and coding is is the same thing in many ways not that the entertainment industry can't be a grind too but it is you know yeah creativity first no you have and well and too, you have to really be able to handle minutia. That's the part that I could never, you know, I went to film school and I went to film school in, you know, the 80s, basically. And it was the animators at that time.

I mean, animators are already kind of weird. They're still weird. Like they're among film professionals. They tend to be a little more weird i mean and i do not mean that in a pejorative way at all i just i do they're weird or they're fucking weirdos but you know that was in those days too it was because they had to draw every single cell you know and and the same thing like you said about putting explosions on things that was just that was unthinkable like there's no way and you could just do that on your phone now you know yeah but um the the thing that kills me is like a friend of mine's partner is an animator and he

worked on one of the disney movies i think it was i can't remember what it was, but he was just responsible for one of the characters dress, like just how the dress moved. And that was just his department for, and it was like four years of his life, just focusing on this dress. And with my ADD, I'm just like, how, oh, there's no way I would be able to, to handle that. One of the things I like about working in TV on a set like ours, or I'm sure a set like the ones you've worked on, is you've got, when we would shoot Adam Ruins Everything

or The G Word, sometimes you have 100 people on set or working on the set in some capacity, and every single one of them has a different job, and every single person could never in a million years imagine doing anyone else's job like it's the hardest thing ever like when i look at you know i i don't know if you ever do this in a in a moment of quiet i would look over and look at the boom mic guy the guy whose job is to hold the boom mic and i'm like this man's job is to take this long

it's like a 10 foot long pole he has to to hold it over his head for, you know, sometimes 10, 15 minutes at a stretch, literally up like this in a stress position. And he's got headphones on and his whole job is just to listen to what other people are doing very closely and hear if there's another sound. You know, that if a plane starts to fly over, he says, sorry guys, we've got to hold for a plane.

And I have been, when I was starting out as a sketch comedy guy, I would sometimes have to hold the boom mic because I was, you know, it was, we were just five people in a comedy group and that was my job. And I couldn't fucking stand it to just stand there and have to think about just the sound being good and do nothing else.

Yeah. It would require a level of focus I didn't have. And so I look at him and I say this guy's an athlete and so is the guy holding the steadicam and so is you know the woman uh you know doing set deck and you know the guy pushing the dolly yeah the woman directing the show looking at having to like look at every like directing i can't even there are parts of directing that i like and i i get into it sometimes but you know from doing the soup to nuts directing of like something narrative very very difficult yeah you know and all of those people couldn't

imagine oh standing in front of the camera and having everyone look at you oh my god so nerve wracking writing is so you have to sit in a chair and like, you know, fucking pull your hair out. Like it's, we're all sort of suited to our different, you know, role that we fall into. And luckily so. Now, something that strikes me as interesting and unique is that you went with a group from college and moved to New York City. I mean, it's not a huge move. I mean, Bard isn't that far. Nah, it's just upstate a little bit. But still, you guys decided to stay together. And that is such – I've been in comedy groups.

I know what kind of a delicate ecosystem that can be and i'm just i mean how how did you manage that i mean there's just so many personalities how many of you were there first of all i mean we managed it very poorly uh but you know we were all in our you know late teens early 20s so i mean well we started at college and the group you know at some you know sometimes had like 10 or 11 people in it yeah and then people would drift in and out that's too many yeah it's too many and then eventually like there was a process where one after another people started getting kicked out of the group wow you know like uh we don't like this this person is uh

the rest of us kind of is this person funny you? You know, like that. How was that done? How was that managed? Terribly. It was done terribly. I had to be in the room once when we were like, okay, we're going to go over and tell this person that they're kicked out of the group. And I was one of the two people that had to go. I wasn't the one who was speaking, but the other person was. And it was just like, it was very grim, you know? It was really rough.

And does it just start with like minor rumblings between two people and then you bring a third person into it and y'all start being like we should kill this guy you know this guy's gotta go it's been a long time since i thought about this yes it was kind of like that i was never the person who wanted to do it because i was always in fear of getting kicked out myself and i was always when we got down to our sort of final five which is sort of the canonical you know membership of the group uh that that we you know when we really were getting serious about the internet that was who was in the group uh you know i was like how did how did i never get kicked out and i eventually figured out that it was because this is what i told myself is because i was the one who did all of the post-production and editing and i built the website and so like i i knew how

to do all the technical stuff. In the band sense, you were the one with a van. Yeah, exactly. I was the one who debugged everybody else's Final Cut Pro projects. I taught everyone else how to capture footage from DVD tape. I just taught myself how to do all this stuff because at that time, Max had suddenly evolved all of these features that let you edit video natively.

And so that was a big part of it for me. Anyway, honestly, the whole group ran on, you know, social, like loose social hierarchy of the type that, frankly, young men have when they're at that age in that context. So we had a couple of guys who were, you know, sort of on top of the totem pole. And, you know, when they wanted to do something, it would always happen.

And then there were those of us like me at the bottom of the totem pole who were like, well, I'd like to do this. And I'm like, I don't know if we think that idea is funny, so it might not happen. But those other guys never had to ask us if we thought it was funny. So there were like de facto leaders

that were just naturally held that mantle, just cut the way the dynamics were. Yeah, correct. And, you know, so those people might decide, oh, they were not as happy with someone else's performance in the group or, you know. And honestly, there were also folks in the group who like, you know, sometimes or other were less funny than others. You know, like not that they weren't good people, but it's just like, Hey, this is not, we're not getting a comedy energy here, whatever. But at the same time, it's like, you know, it was, it was so unprofessional in every sense of the word that I, I regret a lot of what happened. And, and, you know, when the group finally, like, here's the thing, we went through a long period where we were actually working a lot.

We went to the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen in 2007. Big festival. We got a deal with Super Deluxe, the original incarnation of the comedy website. Super. You remember that website? I sure do. They just paid. I mean, they paid us like low six figures.

Like they just gave us a bunch of money. We were all 21 years old and said, make us a bunch of sketches. And we made a bunch of sketches, most of which were like not the kind of thing anyone would want to watch on the Internet. It was just us being creative. You know, it was like these were making glorified student films, you know, in terms of sketch comedy. But some of them were successful. Some of them were not. But so we were just like managing all this money like by ourselves in a big checking account.

Like I eventually made a spreadsheet to track it wow like it was pretty nuts uh we had like one guy who was our poor business manager who our manager hooked us up with who was like trying to do all of our accounting which is a total mess um we were you know we didn't even notice storyboard things before we shot them and we were treating each other terribly you know it was very high pressure we were always playing all-nighters and just like people being really mean to each other terribly. You know, it was very high pressure. We were always playing all-nighters and just like people being really mean to each other. And so then, you know, the group finally broke up and at the time I was devastated

because I was like, oh, that's it for me in comedy. But then I was like, no, I'm not going to quit comedy. I want to keep doing this. And I started doing like stand-up and improv and teaching sketch comedy at Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. And what I found was like, oh, every new relationship I make with somebody, now that I'm like 25, right, and I'm doing it as an adult, now everyone I meet treats me with respect.

They don't treat me like the guys in the group did, and I don't treat them that way either. And like, oh, wow, we're actually, this is how you treat fellow performers and collaborators. So it was a big learning experience in terms of we had you know i'm so lucky that that old group old english had so much creativity there were so many people in it who were so creative and so driven and we made really amazing things together and it gave me like my first taste of like this is what it is to make

comedy and had some early success but i'm equally grateful for having early failure where the group fell apart and i had to start over yeah because it taught me the difference between good creative relationships and unhealthy creative relationships and it also taught me um that you're going to have ups and downs in your career because i've seen so many people in comedy who grind it out they don't have the early success I did where some website paid us $100,000 to make videos. They grind it out and they have their first success at age 33. And then they're like, as soon as a whisper of negativity comes, they're like, oh my God, it could all go away right now. And I had the experience in my early 20s of having some success and then having it all fall apart and having to rebuild.

And that gave me a little bit of a sense of equanimity of like, okay, well, you know, if, uh, I make a TV now, but if I never get to make TV in the future, I can still find other work that I, that I like to do and that I, that I want to do. Um, and, and so I'm grateful for that experience too. It's, it's interesting. I mean, just it, you're taking me back to like the days of being in a comedy group where, you know, it's like they always say about playing tennis. You know, you want to play tennis with somebody that's a little better than you and you'll play at the top of your game. Whereas if you play somebody worse than you, then you'll play shitty, too. You sort of, you know, meet the person that you're the skill level.

And I remember being in groups where there were just like some people that were just clunkers and yeah you know and it would sort of work itself out usually you know there's was usually somebody in charge of the of the group you know because they were you know it was io improv olympic at the time or the annoyance theater it was these chicago groups that had a power structure so it would kind of work out and then sometimes it wouldn't sometimes you just you would just on a regular serial basis be on stage with someone that was just awful and and you know you don't want to it's i would never would want to be a dick about it because it's but you do want somebody to just take them aside and be like it's not really working but then again who are you

to say when you're young and the stakes are so low yeah that's the other problem because because working at UCB for so many years you know and other places like that like you know I spent my 20s in New York working places like UCB or the Creek and Cave which had a um you know a manager who would favor or disfavor people. Or people trying to get on late night or whatever. And there are all these people who are like, ah, you're doing good work and you're not, and we're going to choose you. And eventually you realize all those people are idiots. Including the people who were choosing people at UCB.

Oh, absolutely. Spent many years there, and some fine people and some not so fine people ran that place. Spent many years there and some fine people and some not so fine people ran that place. But after you look under the floorboards and you hear some stories, you're like, what the fuck did they do to this great person? Why was this shitty person elevated? And why was there such a strict hierarchy here to begin with? So I agree. Other than the fact that the hierarchy benefits the people at the top who get to make the choices and put them in the position of being the kings of comedy.

So it's a delicate balance you have to strike because, yes, you need to be able to, with professionalism and respect, say to people, hey, it's not working out. But you also don't want to have people who are at the top of this totem pole just saying, like, this is what comedy is, because they're always going to exclude people who were wonderful. people who uh you know were wonderful and also it's rare that somebody that's a real super know it all loudly and aggressively i know it all about comedy is actually really that funny i thought you were going to talk i thought you were going to say something about me you're like it's rare that someone who's a know-it-all succeeds in comedy no no no no no i mean no because there are comedy know-it-alls yeah and i said especially like among like tv writers there was there's this particular kind of mid-level sitcom writer and i

haven't been in that world for a while but when i was in that world there's this middle guy that's really good at agreeing with the guy in charge and loves to talk to you about the structure of things but when it comes down to just like the joy part the making each other happy with saying delightfully funny things that guy is a limp wet noodle you know yeah and it's usually very telling that the people that are very concerned with power dynamics institutional structure historical precedent they're usually just afraid you know yeah and it's interesting too like when you say you know that in in your early years this group picking people that aren't funny that's like that's that's a huge part of professional comedy is saying that idea is not funny.

I'm sorry. And that was on the Conan show frequently. And it was tough and you had to kind of suck it up. And I was because I kind of was like the consigliere. And there would be Conan and I would sort of like we were sort of like the last word on like whether something was going to get on the air. And there'd be bits that somebody would have shot and edited and put music to. And you'd look at it before the show and then it's just like, yeah, it doesn't work. And, you know, and it's it's really sad.

But, you know, just because the recipe took a long time to bake doesn't mean you're know and it's it's really sad but you you know just because the recipe took a long time to bake doesn't mean you're going to give it to the customers you know what i mean it's like it's like it's got to be delicious you can't give them food that doesn't taste good you know absolutely but you also need to like an essential thing for comedy that i think about a lot is a lot of times you don't know if something is funny until the words are already out of your mouth. Yeah. And as a comedian, you have to sort of trust yourself.

The number of times I start a sentence without knowing how I'm gonna end it. Yes. Either on stage or in conversation. In improv, that's the deal. Yeah. Yeah. And when I do end it,

oh my God, it was, turned out it was a joke, right? Uh-huh. Now what happens, in order to get to that state, is you gotta say a lot of unfunny shit. And you have to say, you have to believe that it's okay for you to say unfunny stuff sometimes. And that's what it took me a long time to get over going back to my childhood when I was getting chastised by people all the time.

Adam, why did you say that? I remember constantly these people going, Adam, that's not funny. Why did you say, you know, I'm like, well, you're just being loud. Well, yeah, being loud is the first step to not funny. Why did you say, you know, I'm like, well, I, you're just being loud. Well, yeah, being loud is the first step to being funny. You just got to yell shit. And then eventually you learn how to have a punchline at the end. And so you can have,

especially at lower levels, you can have too much control and too much dictation. And I, I experienced that a lot at UCB. And I know exactly what you're talking about, about the mid-level person who gets too dictatorial. Because a thing that happens a lot is, you know, once people get to a certain state, they start to take their own taste as, you know, they sort of reinforce their own taste as evidence that they deserve to be there. Yes. You know?

As empirical truth. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'll make, in my writer's circles, we'll make fun of this a lot, there's a thing where screenwriters, TV writers on Twitter will sort of spout off about like, the correct way to write a script is to do this.

Like, you should never direct the camera. You should never say we zoom in on blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they'll say this very definitively. And I'm like's these rules are bullshit that's not true at all your only job is to paint a picture in the mind of the reader that's it no one gives a shit about this but people will make these declarative sentences because by so doing they're setting themselves up in the eyes of the people listening and in their own eyes as being an expert as being a professional working writer who knows how things are truly done.

Yes. And it serves an important ego role for them. And the less success that you are really having, the more you need your ego boosted in that way. And so that's why the biggest, you know, not just at UCB, but in like not quite professional level of comedy in general. We're all still trying to get good level.

We're taking classes, we're doing open mics, we're doing showcases, stuff like that. The biggest ogres, the people who are the meanest to everybody else about like here's how comedy should be done, the people who would like reject you from a Herald audition or say you couldn't move on

to the next level of improv class, those were the comedians who were very good but were not working. Those were the comedians who were very good, but were not working. You know, those were the people who, who never quite achieved liftoff into professionalism. Instead they're teaching. And so those are the ones who start setting down.

These are the rules of improv as laid down by the gurus before me. And I, myself am a guru, you know? Yeah. And, and it took me a long time to sort of see through that and go like, ah,

like, you know what? The comedians I know who have gotten really good and have achieved liftoff and have like entered the wider world of comedy, they didn't really give a lot of shit about the gurus like you. You know what I mean? Like you might have a lot of good stuff to tell them, but I don't actually have to pass through you on my way to having a comedy career. I can learn from you if I choose. But guess what? The gate that you're blocking, there's no fence on either side of it and i can just walk right around you know and i i do try to encourage people trying to get into comedy to know that well and also too

the people that do it really well i mean in improv in particular uh they they the rules are their play thing like they can do they can do whatever the fuck they want because they have a facility they it's you know they're they're artists and dancers you know the basic one is don't disagree some fantastic improvisers can make a hilarious game out of out of disagreeing they can you know break the cardinal rule and make something fantastic so yeah the rules are good and they are and they are good like the playing by the rules there's a reason for it and it's good but but don't you know anybody that's like really that's giving you more rules and less funny yeah move on you know How did you go from doing group stuff to stand-up? Wasn't that kind of terrifying, or had you already been dabbling?

Well, my comedy group, Old English, did a show at UCB for years, for a couple of years, called Very Fresh, which was a showcase show where we would invite other comedians to be on the show. And so we would sort of do almost, for our hosting bits, multi-person stand-up where however many of us would be on stage just sort of talking to the audience,

sometimes just two of us. And I sort of really discovered that I loved doing that there. I just loved being on stage in front of the audience as myself, not necessarily performing a sketch. Yeah, it's not scene work or anything. Yeah. Yeah. Hey everybody, welcome to the show. Like what, what's going on in the world today? You know, maybe we've got a little bit that we're doing or whatever. And we would do that at you at the original UCB location in the basement of Gristini's, um, or actually their second location, if you want to be technical about it. And, um,

it was just like the best feeling in the world, you know, to have be in front of the audience and have that pop and have them all laugh, you know. And I just knew that I wanted more of that. And when the group broke up, I, you know, I'd always loved stand up and I was like, all right, time to do it. And here's what I can do. I can go to open mics. You know, that's the there is, in fact, a path I can follow, which was really important to be able to see. And, yeah, I did stand up and improv both for about three years, and then at the end of that, I was like,

well, I love stand-up, and I'm getting better at it, and at improv, I still wish I never had to step off the back line. I would still stand on the back line and be like, I hope that everyone else does scenes so I don't have to. Something about it didn't quite agree with me. I said, okay, I gave it a real shot. respect for the art form uh not my not quite my bag i like to be myself on stage as opposed to i like to i like to inhabit the reality that we are all currently in i like to

say wow look at this weird room that we're all in doesn't it isn't it kind of weird in here or how are you guys feeling today i don't like to create and destroy realities at a whim you know and say now we're in a now we're in a bubblegum factory or whatever no no let's just be in the comedy theater together that's the reality i like to be in you know it's so much work all that imagining so much work i felt a lot of pressure from it i'm like oh god i have to create a consistent reality. Oh, how do I do it? I should probably try it again. I might enjoy it more now, years later.

You know, I don't do much improv. I mean, now I don't do any improv. I mean, especially through COVID. And for a long time, I felt really guilty about it because I had peers that were still doing it. And like, you know, the UCB guys for years, like well into having children you know and and having day jobs they were still doing improv at night and i would always have like these pangs

of guilt but it was a basic i mean you probably relate it was like this basic thing about like i again i have a job i have i get plenty of of nice feedback you know like in terms of which is like one of the things that you want as a performer i already i get that at work and i have kids and i just felt like why do i want to leave the house to go get nervous somewhere like you know and it's like it's like because i could go i do a TV show every day effortlessly. And I mean, you know, like just, but that it was like a calculated, not caring. You spoke about it a little bit about the giving yourself the freedom to fail because you also over time realize that's the best way to make the best product is, is to divorce

yourself from worrying about every little thing being perfect yeah where and i would i could do those tv shows every day fine and but i'd go and do improv for 40 people and shit my pants with worry and nervousness that i was gonna suck you know yeah and i mean and also to be absolutely frank there was you know i was the TV guy coming to do improv and, you know, I. People have expectations. Yeah, they have expectations. And I mean, I did fine, you know, and the last time I actually did, there was a fundraiser thing that I thought I was just going to do like a monologue or something. And I found out literally two minutes before we started.

Oh, no, you're doing a full-on long-form improv thing with us. And it was so perfect that I didn't get to think about it. And again, I did fine, but I got to the end of it, and I was like, all right, I'm set for another five years. I don't need to do that again. Now, when you start doing stand-up, do you have kind of a, are you looking at it as just an exercise in doing standup, do you, do you have like kind of a, like,

are you looking at it as just an exercise in doing comedy and making people laugh? Or is there something that you want to say? I mean, I think the best comedy has something to say, and that's what I'm always trying to do. I mean, I, and it's possible that I put too much pressure on myself. Right now I'm trying to write a new hour show that I'm taking on the road. If folks are listening in Washington, D.C., Nashville, Spokane, Washington, Tacoma, Washington, or New York City or San Diego, go to my website,

adamconover.net slash tour dates for tour dates. Sorry I do the plug in the middle. Why do I care? You can do all plugs. I just got to fill up some time here. Great. Well, so I'm doing a new hour

and I'm doing it about my ADD diagnosis as a kid and the attention economy and my own inability to continue to pay attention to this day. And it's a show that I has – it's a lot of jokes. I'm also trying to have a point and have something that I'm saying and have a takeaway for the audience because that's the kind of show I like watching and that's what I like to do. of show I like watching and that's what I like to do. But yeah, it does put a little bit more pressure on me to like write something coherent rather than, hey, here's just like an hour of silly jokes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Now you went from standup improv and into college humor and that's kind of what's your entree into television. Correct. Yeah. I became a sketch writer at college humor and my job was to write two sketches a week. And one of those sketches turned out to be the first Adam Ruins Everything. And then we eventually sold it as a TV show. And then I found myself the showrunner of a television show after a few weeks prior,

having just been a staff writer at a website. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Was there imposter syndrome? Was it like, oh, shit, I'm in over my head. This is way too fast or. A little bit, but I sort of, I realized very quickly that TV shows are power vacuums, um, that you get as much power as you sort of claim for yourself and that no one else was really stepping up to run the, you know, there was nobody else to run the creative of it. And I had to do it.

Um, and I sort of had to reconceive of myself quickly as, yeah, I am the sort of person who can do this. And then there was nothing to do, but to do it. Um, and I sort of had to reconceive of myself quickly as, yeah, I am the sort of person who can do this. And then there was nothing to do, but to do it. And it's actually kind of similar to what I was saying about sketch comedy earlier about my sketch comedy group that, um, early on, I just gutted it out. You know, I just pushed myself really hard and it took years before I learned how to build the systems to, you know, trust the other people I worked with and to trust myself. Um, and to not, as you say, worry about every single little thing and to have more trust until I was finally able to do it in a little bit more repeatable, less stressful sort of way. But, you know, from the beginning, I was like, this is my one chance. This is my chance to make a TV show.

This has to be as good as possible. And I just poured everything I could into it. Yeah. And it's a daunting thing to take what I imagine wasn't much more than a few minutes of a segment and stretch it out into a half an hour of television show. And did you have somebody sort of like assisting you with that stretching process? Uh, I mean, I had, I had, uh, writers, you know, who we brought on for the first season, an incredible first year writing staff, Murderer's Row, frankly, and we figured out how to do it together.

But I did sort of figure it out in the pitch that, you know, we had done four segments of Adam Ruins Everything, and each one of them was an explanatory story, you know, on a particular topic. And so I was like, all right, we'll do three that are part of a theme, and then we'll have a takeaway at the end, you know, that a particular topic. And so I was like, all right, we'll do three that are part of a theme and then we'll have a takeaway at the end, you know, that knits them all together.

Right, right. And so, you know, I knew that we would do that, but that's about it. Yeah. One of the things that I like about comedy is there's no homework and yet you pick comedy that has tons of homework. What's wrong with you? I know. It was honestly made the show very difficult to write.

I mean, our show was one of the most intensely researched shows on television. And it also had a storyline. Every episode had a story and a plot and an emotional arc that we had to take very seriously. So it was, yeah, I mean, it was an extremely difficult show to write. And I remember we used to do writing packets and have writers submit, which we eventually really scaled them back because we realized that, you know, the Writers Guild, which I am now a board member of and have the utmost respect for, was like, you shouldn't have these onerous writing packets.

I just, we had instituted them because I was used to writing them for other shows. these onerous writing packets. I just, we had instituted them because I was used to writing them for other shows. But it was, you know, we would ask people to like research and write a segment of the show and people were like, this is hard. Like you are, this is a hard show to write. And it was, you know, it was,

I'm very proud of what we did because every episode like, you know, we wove together, like what we hoped was revelatory information with like a real character arc for me and another character simultaneously and sketch comedy gags and all this stuff. It was like as ambitious as a show could be. And, you know, it's kind of a bummer for me now that, you know, I was very happy to make the G word on Netflix, which is a very, you know, also a very ambitious show that we try

to do a lot with. But when I look around television now, it doesn't feel like there's as many networks that are trying to do ambitious comedy. You know, they want like a nice little comedy show. They want some characters. They want it to work, you know, but they don't want to like break the format by doing some like really crazy extra execution-y shit other than maybe HBO, which of course has like, you know, Johnson and some and

some really cool stuff yeah and then nathan fielder yeah yeah those places yeah but i mean but yeah but you're i mean that was what was kind of great about well what's great about what you're you know what you do is that it's not just empty calories like there's you're actually getting to the end of being entertained and you have actually learned some stuff. And that's what I always loved about your old show. I haven't seen the G word, but I need to, I need to check it out because. Please check it out. It's, it's out on Netflix now. It's a six episode series.

It's about, it's about the federal government or actually the government in general and how it works and, and all the ways it affects our lives, good and bad. And, yeah, I mean, one of my goals is to – there's so much documentary out there that is, A, slow as molasses, like very information light. You know, it's like always slow zooms and dramatic music and you almost never hear anything. And then it's telling you shit you already know. Yeah. You know, it's like here's the history of – you know, here's a biography of a musician who you already know the musician's biography because you love them. But here it is again. Yeah.

Netflix literally has this show called History 101. And the episodes are like the space race. And I'm like, yeah, I fucking know what the space race. I learned about it in high school. And it's just like Buzz Aldrin went to the. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Tell me what I don't know. Yeah. And so those are the big things for me is always try to find the information that is actually revelatory,

that will actually make people go, holy shit, is that true? Yeah. What the fuck? And then also to make it as information dense as possible so that we are bombarding you with information and with jokes. That's how we hook people in. And it worked, I think. You mentioned that you're working on a new hour. But what else is in the future? I mean, are you pitching other shows? Do you have other things that you've got on plate? I mean, or just like in life, like, you know, you're going to buy a boat, you know, you're building

your own spaceship. What's going on? I've been, well, stand-up has been a real focus of mine because while working, you know, stand-up is still my real first love in comedy it's my favorite thing to do and it is uh you know it was something i didn't have as much time to do as i wanted to while working in tv for many years so that's you know i'm so happy that kovat's not over but at least i can tour again and i can go you know do comedy in front of people it's been really meaningful to me i am pitching some new TV shows, but they're very early stages and nothing that is even worth mentioning

because it might not ever exist. Yeah, yeah, of course. It's a very long, slow TV development process. But are they similar? Are they more narrative things? The first thing, okay, I'll say to you, the first thing that we're talking about, me and my partners who I made these two guys, John and John, who I work do my TV work with.

We're working on a game show idea. And that's all I'm going to say. Oh, cool. But, you know, yeah, it's like a kind of a it's similar. People will see if it ever comes to light, which I hope it does. And I think it will. It has connections to my previous work in ways that will be apparent to people. But it's you I hope it does, and I think it will. It has connections to my previous work in ways that will be apparent to people,

but it's a game show. Yeah. And I hosted previously a game show on Nickelodeon called The Crystal Maze for just one season that was super fun, and I'm just like, man, I just love, I kind of love the art of broadcasting. I just love stepping out there, hitting the mark, looking at the prompter delivering the lines really well keeping the energy up you know all

those sort of just wonderful things about being on television in addition to just the in addition to you know comedy and being funny it's just kind of fun to just do it you know yeah um and so looking for more opportunities to do that and then i'm just trying to you know i Yeah. And so looking for more opportunities to do that. And then I'm just trying to, you know, I have a podcast called Factually. I'm all over TikTok. I'm trying to like figure out, all right, we're in this media world now where you just kind of have to be publishing and posting on every platform all the time. You know, I've found that people actually kind of weirdly care about what I have to say and are interested in what I say about things. And, you know, people like are, uh, like literally in the last, uh,

Los Angeles, uh, election, uh, primary election, people were texting me saying, Adam, are you going to do a voter guide?

I need to know who, who to vote for. Will you tell me? I was like, all right, I guess a lot of pressure, but okay. It's a lot of pressure.

I've gotten very involved in local politics here in LA, but, but people were like, yeah, I want to know who you think I should vote for. Okay. I'll publish a fucking voter guide. Jesus. You know, it's, uh, you know, I've been getting more and more involved in, you know, uh, politics and, and my union and, and the, you know, the world and, and that that's been very, uh, very, very fulfilling to me,

although it's also been a, an awful lot of work yeah uh what do you want people to take away from the story you've told on this podcast i mean you know uh that's i think listen they're the same three questions i have to find different ways to ask them oh that's one of the questions yeah yeah that's like what have you learned so that's a you do such a good job of sort of like hiding the questions that I didn't even notice. Because as we were talking, I was like, what are the three questions I wonder? I didn't even realize you were asking me. Yeah.

Yeah. The first two. Where do you come from and where are you going? Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then what have you learned? What have I learned? I'm stalling. I know.

I understand. What? What did he? What did he? What did he have? I learned? I'm stalling. I know. I understand. What, what to T, what to T, what to T have I learned? Look, I think one of the big things, okay, this is just something on my mind, is when I was younger, I pushed myself so hard because I was like, God, I want to make a career in comedy. And I know it's unlikely. And I know it's an uphill battle. And I just need to work as hard as I can at it. And I did that for 15 years of my life. And it took me a long time to realize, oh, now the risk is, hey, I'm here. I'm doing comedy, right?

Now the risk is I'm going to burn myself out by not resting enough. And I need to, you know, that that is as important a thing to me as working. Yeah. And so that's something that I've really had to learn is is, you know, hustle culture is so embedded in our society at this point that, you know, it's it's really essential for me to to find moments to fucking take a load off and just get high and play video games. And so what I hope people take away from this is it's tell yourself, it's okay to get high and play video games. You can do it. Yeah.

That's, that's very fatherly advice. It's okay, kids. I was going to say it's not that fatherly, but you know what? I just was visiting my dad back home. Well, not back home.

He's now in Eugene, Oregon, which is not where I grew up, but at his home, I was visiting him. And he surprised me because one of the nights, the second night I was there, he was like, Adam, you want to have an edible? And I was like, yes, I do, Dad. Yeah.

And then he had gotten, I had gotten him a PlayStation and a lot of games he can't handle. They're too complex. Right. But he was like, yes, I do, Dad. Yeah. And then he had gotten, I had gotten him a PlayStation, and a lot of games he can't handle. They're too complex. Right. But he was like, which version of Tetris should I download? And I said, Dad, the answer is the Tetris Effect, which is an awesome psychedelic game where every time you drop a piece, it plays music and stuff.

Woo. And we played the Tetris Effect together, and he was like, this is amazing. Wow. Tetris Effect together and he was like, this is amazing. Wow. And I had like such a stoner experience with my dad, you know, just sitting there. And it was one of the most profound experiences of my adult life was getting to do that with him. And so I think that it is fatherly advice to get high and play video games and you should do it with your dad yes well adam thank you so much for taking the time uh to talk with me and um at the stand-up tour again let's let's adam conover.com yeah adam conover dot net slash tour dates or just adam conover dot net it's dot net okay or google my name you'll

find adam conover tour dates what we have to plug it in for you people. Come on. Yeah. Please come out. Go see Adam. And tune back next week for another episode of this podcast. Thanks, Adam. Thanks, Andy. The Three Questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rob Schulte. Additional engineering support by Eduardo Perez and Joanna Samuel. Executive produced by Joanna Solitaroff, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Maddie Ogden.

Research by Alyssa Grahl. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter, wherever you get your podcasts. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.