#16 - Adam Bush: Performing on Broadway, the Power of Storytelling

Chris Miller: But after that, we are officially live.
Adam Bush: All right.
Chris Miller: In the Tulsa Studio. Uh, so I just finished watching your special online.
Adam Bush: Oh, you did?
Chris Miller: Yeah.
Adam Bush: Yeah. What'd you think?
Chris Miller: I loved it. I love the fact that you are able to it's like a mixing board, but with emotions. So, for instance, whenever you reference your dad or you reference your mom, it was like you were able to raise serious and then all of a sudden, you have a punchline that brings harmony. Then boom, you bring it back down, and the whole entire time, it's like you're doing levels. Did you want to be a comic as a kid?
Adam Bush: No. I don't know what I wanted to be as a kid. I think I wanted to be a scientist when I was a kid. Because they have a cool coat.
Chris Miller: They do have a cool coat. Or like, an astronaut.
Adam Bush: Yeah. I think I wanted to be a cowboy at one point. Uh, preacher was probably the biggest thing that I wanted to be.
Chris Miller: Because your dad was a preacher?
Adam Bush: Yeah, my dad was a preacher. And I grew up in ministry in the church world, and everybody my dad knew was a preacher. And so we spent a lot of time on the road, um, because my dad would preach at different churches. And I don't know. There's this great book called the Birth Order Book. It's a little older. It said that, um, firstborns typically emulate their parents, so as they get older, they'll stay where they're in the same city as their parents, maybe even do the same job, be like their dad or their mom based on their gender. That was me. Yeah.
Chris Miller: You were the oldest.
Adam Bush: I was the oldest, yeah. It was my dream to be a pastor.
Chris Miller: Let's go.
Adam Bush: And I achieved it. And then I was like, maybe I'll do something else.
Chris Miller: Because in Louisiana is it, uh, kind of like Oklahoma? And the fact that there's a church on every street corner, it's like that.
Adam Bush: In every city in the whole world. Yeah. Maybe every city in America. Yeah. It's not a Midwestern thing. It's an everywhere thing. It's funny. The older I get, the more I travel, the more I realize, uh, every place maybe has a little bit of a wrong impression about the other place.
Chris Miller: Right.
Adam Bush: And it's just all the same. Except some of them have the ocean, and the rest are landlocked. Yeah.
Chris Miller: The mountains.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: And first joke, you talk about circumference. M not being circumcision.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: And the laugh or the class died laughing.
Adam Bush: Specifically the teacher.
Chris Miller: The teacher.
Adam Bush: Specifically the teacher. I remember that. Yeah. Basically, uh, the joke it's barely a joke, but my math teacher in high school asked me to read the definition in the book, and the definition was for the word circumference. And for some reason, I read the definition and then said not to be confused with circumcision. I don't know why it doesn't make any sense. But dude, remember what that was like. If you get the teacher to laugh.
Chris Miller: That'S a big time.
Adam Bush: You're like, I'm out. Tip your weight staff.
Chris Miller: It's almost like you break the law of physics when you get the teacher to laugh.
Adam Bush: Yeah, they become a regular person, you know, when you're growing up. And if you ever saw a teacher, like at Walmart or something, mhm, you're just like, what? They also buy stuff, right?
Chris Miller: Because there's that power distance. And you can't imagine that this teacher is the same teacher who eats breakfast. And they may eat especially consider.
Adam Bush: I mean, I was born 81, so social media wasn't around when now I'm just like, I can see what my kids teacher is doing. I'm like that's weird.
Chris Miller: You can find your teacher on TikTok.
Adam Bush: I know, man. I don't like that.
Chris Miller: My friend is a teacher, and she said her students have been adding her on TikTok, so she had to make a new one and make it private.
Adam Bush: Yeah, I can see that.
Chris Miller: Do you think that TikTok is, uh, a pretty good thing for comedy?
Adam Bush: I mean, sure, in some regards. I live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Uh, before social media, if you wanted to be a comedian, you had to had to live in Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York. And you couldn't stay in Chicago for very long. You eventually would have to move to one of the coasts. That's not the case anymore. Bo, uh, Burnham is a perfect example. He did not go through the clubs like every other comedian. He got famous on YouTube and started selling out theaters. So, yeah, it's a good thing. That probably the hardest part about it is that it's incredibly saturated, right? And that means if you want to be noticed as a comic, you have to post every day. Well, you can't write that many jokes. So what happens is everybody starts posting clips of them doing crowd work. And the crowd work has kind of just become question time, where a comic but people like it. And so that maybe is a downside to it. But then I heard a story the other day where this girl, she was in New York. She's making it happen. She's not famous or anything. She's not a headliner, but she's filming her set. Someone throws a beer at her. She, instead of getting mad, just picks it up and drinks it. And Jimmy Kimmel saw it, mentioned, um, it she asked, Can I make my late night debut on your show? He had her. And now she's headlining all around the country. So that's a good thing. More people can be found. And there are people who are funny that don't live on the coast.
Chris Miller: Mhm. Do you feel pressure to get into, like, skit humor for TikTok and things like that?
Adam Bush: Maybe if I was younger, I might try to follow whatever the trend is, but I think one of the things you learn just as you're getting older is to do what you're good at. I am a good storyteller. That is my thing. I'm not a good sketch guy. I'm not a good actor. Um, I'm just a good writer and a good storyteller. So I was at a show last night and my buddy was working on some new material, and it's very smart. And I was driving home and I was like, Am I missing something here? And I was just reminding myself, like, he has his degree in English. He's m very good at that type of humor. I'm not, and that's fine. There is a place for me, just like there's a place for him and everybody else. So it's pretty maybe when I was younger, but it's pretty fleeting now.
Chris Miller: Yeah, right. Did you always have that identity of a good storyteller, or is that something that's recent?
Adam Bush: No, I think I did, um I don't know that I knew it until I was older. I always know I was good at telling stories just because I would find that people would listen. I m was at a party how long ago was this? Maybe eight years ago. Was at a party and there were a bunch of people that it was a pretty large it was like a birthday party or something. And someone said, hey, Adam, tell that story about when you went to jail. I was like, oh, yeah. So I told the story about when I went to jail, and I remember looking around and not knowing the people that were looking at me and realized I had their attention. And I was like, oh, it was like a light bulb moment. Like, oh, I am good at this. Naturally, I think I knew before then, but that might have been the moment where I was just like, yeah, there might be something here.
Chris Miller: Yeah, I'm somewhat similar. I would say that you probably have a lot more experience as far as crafting and communicating a story. But that feeling of seeing people and you can tell they're listening, and it's a really special feeling because you have the captive audience and you're like, I could say whatever I want right now and they may check out later, but right now I have them.
Adam Bush: Mhm.
Chris Miller: And that's a really special feeling. Was your first time doing stand up live on Broadway?
Adam Bush: It was, yeah. So I've been a writer for a long time. I sold a television show several years ago. It's a kids television show. And I worked at a church for a really long time, and I was a writer. That was my job at the church for about 15 years. So I listened to Great Storytellers, which a lot of them are comedians, and the two that have always been my favorite are Mike Berbiglia, who's a comic, and, uh, IRA Glass, who hosts this American Life, two favorites from the beginning. And four years ago, Burbiglia was on The Tonight Show. And he was doing a show on Broadway and was, uh, promoting it, and he was holding a contest. It was a marketing thing and said, hey, make a video of yourself doing one of my old bits, and I'll pick my favorite one and you'll come open for me on Broadway. And I just remember thinking, you ever watched, uh, or seen uh, or heard about somebody winning some sort of contest? Or whatever? You're like, oh, man, it would have been cool if I won that. But it doesn't specifically fit you.
Chris Miller: Right?
Adam Bush: You're like, I maybe could do that. Or this one. I was like, this is me. This is me. Everything about this is me. I love berbiglia's stuff. I'm very similar to him. I know all of his stuff. I mean, I had been listening to it for a decade. I barely have to even memorize this because I probably already know it. I have a background in video, so I can make a good video. So I thought about it for a lot, and I have found that it's really hard for me to think about something that I'm unsure if it's going to work out in the end. What would be an example? Uh, I don't know. If I was trying to get into some club or something, and I thought, there's no chance that they're going to have me. It would be really hard for me to work on presenting a good argument. Right. But I was like, yeah, this one. So I thought about it a lot. In fact, I entered the contest three different ways. All he said to do was film a 1 minute video of you doing my set. So I did that. I wrote a song about one of his bits and my wife and I played it and sang it on a video. And then I did, uh, a puppet. I had a puppet do it. And it was all consuming, like thinking about this project or how long this contest for? Several weeks. Wow. Yeah. Uh, so anyway, I won and we went out there and it was my dream come true to open up for my favorite comic, to meet him, to be on Broadway. And then IRA Glass just happened to be the guy who was introducing me. I did not know that. So I, um, crapped my pants when I met him. That was the very first time in front of, I don't know, 1100 people.
Chris Miller: Whenever IRA Glass showed up, you weren't expecting him at all. That wasn't part of the promotion or the event that you were aware of?
Adam Bush: I feel like I didn't know. Did I know about it? Maybe I found out about it at some point.
Chris Miller: But both your favorites were there regardless.
Adam Bush: Yeah, either one of them. I mean, like, talk about meeting your artistic hero. Either one of them. I would have been like, yes. That one time I met IRA glass, and that would have been enough. I would have been great.
Chris Miller: Did they tell you which entry you won for? Was it the puppet one? Was it?
Adam Bush: Yeah, they did. They were very specific about that. So they messaged me on Instagram. That's how I found out that I won. And they very clearly said, we know that you entered three times. The one we want is you. Just you. I thought those song would win.
Chris Miller: Okay.
Adam Bush: Uh, so I called my wife, who did it with me, and she didn't care about winning. This is not her choice.
Chris Miller: She was doing it for you.
Adam Bush: She just did it for me. So I called her and I said, hey, I just want to let you know we did not win. And she's like, oh, I'm sorry. She goes, Are you sad? I was like, I would be, except that I won. Oh, uh, that's epic. Yeah. And then she goes she was just like, I'm so proud of you. Yeah.
Chris Miller: And she was probably happier that you won.
Adam Bush: Yes. She would much rather just sit in the audience and watch it than have to be a part of it. Yeah. And she got to I mean, she got the best situation because she didn't have any of the pressure of doing it. And she got to meet she got to go do the whole thing and go on this fun trip.
Chris Miller: So did you do the same bit that you made the video of? Is that the one you performed on Broadway?
Adam Bush: I think so. Um, yeah, it was I did a little bit longer on Broadway because the videos were only a minute, and the set that he had that I pulled from, like, 15 seconds after that had, like, two more better, bigger punchlines. And so I thought, I'm just going to do them and see if they're cool with and they didn't even notice. And it just was a better ending. Yeah. I thought.
Chris Miller: What is it about IRA Glass that.
Adam Bush: Takes that to you, man? Uh, that's a good question. Um, he m I think it's really easy to do something artistic and to settle and have some sort of success because you did it. But from afar, the thing that I've always noticed about IRA Glass is there's just a high bar. And so I've heard him talk about people pitching him stories that I would have thought that's a great story. And from his perspective, it wasn't good enough. Yeah. That's really attractive to me because I think the magic is in the hard work, and I think most people don't do the hard work, myself included. There are plenty of times where I'm just I don't know, I i gave up or I didn't push harder or whatever. And so that's something I'm really, really attracted to, uh, strong vision. And when it comes to storytelling, I don't know anybody else out there who has stronger vision than him.
Chris Miller: Yeah, he has a really interesting background because he's also incredibly smart. And he went to Northwestern. And it seems as if whatever he touches does quite well. So that aligns with your, uh, observation of his standard of excellence. You're in Broadway and you are performing live. Does any part of you, whenever the show finishes, think like, all right, hey, I'm switching full time. I'm going to comedy. I just did this huge show on Broadway. Everything's golden.
Adam Bush: No, not immediately.
Chris Miller: Um, because it's so uncharacteristic for your first show to be on Broadway.
Adam Bush: Yeah, that's super weird thing. Yeah, I had a credit from the beginning. I, uh, opened for Mike Berbiglia. Even though it was his stuff, it was enough to if somebody would have me on a show or whatever, my credit would be like. He's opened up for Mike Berbiglia, which, if you're a comic listening to this and you have any sort of years under your belt, you would say, uh, that's a little untrue. And you'd be correct. But it was enough to get my foot in the door with people, at least in my own community. I don't know, when I thought about it, I think at some point I just thought, if anything, this could be fun to write my own stuff. And I had performed before, but it was always for a church. And so it was either for their purpose or in regards to something they're trying to accomplish. And I just thought, man, I tell this jail story just for fun. I wonder if I could do that. Wonder what that would be like. So at the beginning, it was just like, I'm a good writer. Like, I had a job as a writer. This is only going to make me better to try to perform in front of strangers, a very different environment than I was used to. I think that's what I thought. I don't know that I ever thought, I'm going to be a comedian and I'm going to quit my job and do it full time.
Chris Miller: It was more along the lines of, why not? What's it going to hurt? Because it only will improve the skill set that I have.
Adam Bush: Yeah, I think so. I like to do things that are fun. That is typically my driving force for just about anything, which can get me in trouble. But, um, thankfully, I don't know, I never did drugs or anything like that because I hear they're super fun. Um, and it sounded fine. And my wife was like, if that's what you want to do, go for it.
Chris Miller: Being a full time writer, you already know how to build a story. But what's that process of like, okay, here's a story I've been telling. How do I make it funnier?
Adam Bush: That's a great question. Um, I think if you like telling stories, which most people do, a lot of that pops out pretty easily. Mhm, whatever made you laugh or when you're just telling it to someone, they laugh at something and just kind of make a mental note the next time. It's typically subconscious, a subconscious note. They're like, when I tell it again, I'm going to tell I'll make sure I tell that part because it's funny. Right. Um, that's kind of how I was getting by at the beginning. So I would just, you know, storytelling, interesting storytelling, is just removing all the boring parts. So that's why many stories that I tell or anyone tells happened over a long amount of time, because there was a lot of boring stuff in the middle of it. And the reason that you can probably think of someone whose stories you don't love hearing because they're just really boring. They're not good at that part. Right. So, uh, I would tell stories and I just could see when people were not interested in a certain part or they look at their phone or whatever, and so I would just tell the parts that I thought were interesting. And a lot of those interesting parts were funny. It wasn't until a while after that when I started to learn or research, like, what if a part isn't funny just naturally? M, where can I figure that out?
Chris Miller: Right?
Adam Bush: And so I started reading books and listening, uh, to other people talk, asking a lot of questions and then just listening to a lot of comics all the time. My whole life is inundated with writing and comedy now. And so one of the elementary learnings you get as a comic is when you're looking at a subject, you ask yourself what's hard about this subject? Or what is weird, what's scary, what's stupid, um, things like that. Yeah, if you ask yourself those questions and we'll allow yourself everybody does it differently, but allow yourself to write it out or think it out, or you work with a partner or whatever it is, you can typically find, like, what is weird about this or what is surprising about this? And there's typically something funny there. I m don't want to pretend like I know everything about comedy because I don't. My, um, experience has been often when a comic isn't doing great and they're confused as to why whatever their set was didn't go over very well, it's because whatever they thought was weird or silly or scary about this subject isn't very authentic. Relatable is not the right word. It would be more like it's not.
Chris Miller: Very real, so it doesn't actually scare them.
Adam Bush: Yeah. Or maybe you would just I think naturally the audience would just say, m, that's not right.
Chris Miller: Not buying it.
Adam Bush: No, I don't buy that. Yeah, it happens on my own stuff all the time. Um, I can't think of an example right now. Typically when something doesn't work, uh, it's because of that. And so I think if you can find what's unique about a subject that people can also connect with, like I tell a lot of stories about my mom and just my mom's awesome. I love my mother, but she's a mom and she does weird things. Right? If I can identify something that I think is weird or silly about what she's doing, uh, hopefully the chances are you'd be like, dude, my mom do.
Chris Miller: Yeah, just wait.
Adam Bush: Yeah, exactly.
Chris Miller: It's one of those things to where I read this book by Amy Cuddy called Presence, and she's a Harvard social psychologist, and she talks about the best public speakers are the ones who authentically believe what they're communicating. Particularly, she gives the example of occupational, uh, like sales, for instance. You have the people who are charismatic and they can speak really well, but the ones who always edge them out are the folks who are charismatic. They can speak really well, but they truly believe what they're saying. And that's what I think of whenever you're talking about with comedy, you have all of these potential things you could share or these things that you could say in a limited amount of time. So you have to be very thoughtful about what you're going to choose. And how does that authentically resound with you?
Adam Bush: Yeah, I think maybe even, uh, at least for me, maybe even a less smart way to say it is just, do I even care about it myself? Yeah, there's a lot of subjects that I think about writing about, and then I'll kind of get into it and just think, I don't even care about this.
Chris Miller: I don't want to talk about what am I doing?
Adam Bush: I don't want to talk about this part of my life. And so the best moments I have when I'm writing or whenever I'm a lot of times I'll just I keep obviously running lists on my phone of just, oh yeah, what about that? Or I'll remember a story and just write down something to remind me later. And so when I write at night, I'll go through my phone and be like, oh, yeah, that story. And I'll just find myself naturally writing without noticing how long it's been, just because I enjoy it. It's something that I care about. And the next day, whether or not I care about it, that's neither here nor there in the moment. But, um, that typically is where my favorite stuff comes from.
Chris Miller: Yeah, that makes sense. So say you have a story on your phone, and it's about getting this cheeseburger from Brahms, and the person who gave it to you said something like, so uncharacteristic of what a typical interaction would be at this place. So you write down, like, funny interaction with Brahms worker getting cheeseburger. Now, whenever you are building a bit out, when you're sharing it, are you just thinking back on that story and being like, okay, let me write it all down? Um, what about it was funny? Like, what's your process that you go down to build a bit out from a story?
Adam Bush: So something that's a little different about my comedy versus most people is I want to tell long form stories. Okay. So even a step away from that special that you watched, a nice storytelling and comedy, um, that was a lot of stories and was sort of just my first opportunity to kind of get everything out there. But the main goal of that was I was just kind of seeing it was a working it out show. So I was just seeing, like, what's hitting and what's not. I call it a, uh, night of storytelling and comedy because there's not as many jokes as there should be in a comedy special. Got you. So I got away with telling just stories. So my next special that comes out is called Who Brought the Kid? It's one story, and so it starts in my adolescence, and it ends a couple of years ago. I can talk about the way that I built that when I'm writing, um, whether it be a story or a bit like you're talking about with the Brahms thing. Uh, I'll just ride it. And when I'm writing it, if it feels like it has any teeth, I'll perform it at an open mic and see how it hits. If it doesn't hit two or three times, I dump it. If it does, then I just try to get it as tight as I can and then just kind of set it to the side. And there are different ways that, like, my jokes make it through. Like, I have, like, a hierarchy of notes on my phone, and it's like, working it out, getting better feels pretty good. And then it moves to a Google Doc. If you get to a Google Doc okay, we'll see you hit the big time.
Chris Miller: Yeah.
Adam Bush: So there's a joke that I've been working on. Uh, I filmed a Dry Bar special back in, uh, last year. And whenever I got to the hotel, the clerk said, what brings you into town? I said, I'm here for Dry Bar. She got very excited and said, are you a performer? And then I kind of matched her excitement because she was so excited. And I go, oh, yeah. And then my wife whispered in my ear, she thinks you said drag bar. So that's funny. Put that to the side. And then I've kind of worked it out a little bit where, uh, if I was a drag queen instead of Adam Bush, I would be Madam Bush. Okay, so that's a joke. So we're going to put that to the side. Um, that'll work in my set, like, if I'm doing 20 minutes or whatever, where it's not a long form story at a club that's going to be there. In fact, it's my closer right now. Um, but working on my next special as I'm writing, I'll be working on a part of the story, and then hopefully while I'm writing one part of it, I'll think oh, man, that drag bar story will work perfect right here. This would have been better. I have this story about I got asked to be a pallbearer, and I'm incredibly weak. I'm only five five away, £135. And I didn't realize how heavy a casket was in a human body. And so apparently, this old lady round the corner who saw me was just like, looks like that little guy's really struggling. So I've been working on this. So I wrote that and I put that to the side. So I've been working on this long form story just about my body, because it's a little odd. And I was writing about my physical strength, and suddenly I was like, hey, that joke works perfect. So I'm able to write I'm writing this story, and I'm like, I'm pretty weak. It's kind of like this. And so I go back to that little joke. So for me, that's how it happens. And then I just start I mean, that's going to be an hour long show, so I try to get tighter from there.
Chris Miller: Yeah. So you have all of these jokes or stories that would almost, like, support or accompany a part of the larger story. Well, and then you put them all in, and that creates this big narrative.
Adam Bush: Sometimes a small joke will ignite a long story. Um, I've been working on all this stuff about I had cancer when I was a kid, and so I wrote one joke about it. I was born with cancer, right? And so the joke is that that's not a great start to life. Right? So that's just a joke. And that's a fine joke. Thankfully, there's been more there. So now that has kind of so that initiated, like, a larger portion. So it will happen for me. It happens one of those two ways.
Chris Miller: So one of the things that I spoke with somebody, she had studied communication for a while, and we had talked about the spotlight effect. And that's this idea of, uh, a lot of people deal with social anxiety because they feel like in public situations, everybody's staring at them, and it feels as if they have a spotlight on them. But the truth is, not everybody's staring at you. Everybody's got all their own stuff going on. But with you, when you're doing stand up, everybody is staring at you. Have you had moments where you bomb and it goes way worse than you expected?
Adam Bush: Oh, Lord.
Chris Miller: Yeah.
Adam Bush: That is part of it. Yeah. There's no comedy without bombing. Any comic who says they're not bombing is just a flat out liar, or they're not that good. I think I can make that statement without fear of anybody saying I'm wrong. Because the whole thing is you're just writing new material all the time. And whether for whatever reason, you get into a situation where you either try new material and it doesn't go over very well. The thing about comedy is. There are a lot of things that really have to line up for a show to go well. Your material needs to be really good. All right. Your performance needs to be very good. The audience has to be interested in there being comedy being thrown at them. They have to like you. And the room needs to be in a fashion that is inviting for comedy. Dark, small, uh, low ceilings. I mean, at least at the beginning, versus until you get to theaters or amphitheaters. But the sound needs to be good. Um, so that's a lot. Any one of those things can go wrong at any point. Somebody spills their water all over their table. That is a distraction. So you're really looking for a distraction free situation where you're doing your best. And if all of those things aren't happening, then there's a real good shot it's not going to be great.
Chris Miller: So what do you do in that moment when you can tell this isn't going great?
Adam Bush: I mean, every situation is different. It depends. Are you contractually obligated to finish the time? If you are, you do what a professional does, and you finish the time. Uh, if you're not, you bail. You're just like, I'm out of here. Yeah. And you get off stage so that the next guy that they might like better, uh, could go up, or you try to win them back. And that's very hard. It is possible, but it is very hard. Yeah. We were at a show. I was MC here in town, and during the headliners set, a lady passed out. They had to turn all the lights on. We thought she was dead. And thankfully, she came back. She had just passed out because she gave blood earlier that day, and she was drinking alcohol, which is a ridiculously bad decision. Uh, so they turn the lights off. She walks out of the room. He's got to get them back. Wow. Isn't that ideal?
Chris Miller: Wow.
Adam Bush: Yeah. You bomb, you learn from it. Uh, some of my greatest lessons uh, any comic will say this, but some of my greatest learnings have been when I bombed the hardest, because it taught me what not to do.
Chris Miller: Right.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: And part of me feels silly even asking about bombing, because obviously it's happening. It's ubiquitous, it's failing. And everybody fails at everything they do. That's like you said, where a lot of progress comes from. But the social phenomenon of bombing, this idea of all of these people, it's very vulnerable. And, uh, it's something about that that's really unique to me. And I think about it, but I've never I mean, I've done public speaking before, but nothing in the this is uniquely comedy, and people expect to laugh. That's a lot of pressure.
Adam Bush: Yeah, it is. I mean, don't get into it if you don't want that kind of pressure. But I think the bigger issue than bombing is if your identity is in how well you perform, which is very easy to fall into. Um, if your identity is in how well you perform, then you're only as good as your last set. If your identity is in something else, mhm, then it's easier to look at the bombing as, uh, a lesson for the next time. And that's hard. I mean, it's way easier to say that than to actually do it. But that is the problem with most situations. And it's not just comedy. It's any job you have. If your identity is in whatever job you're working, you're only as good as your last success. So I think that's probably, I guess if a younger comic and I haven't been a comic for that long, comparatively, but if a younger comic was going to ask me, like, what's one thing, one trap to fall into that I want to avoid, I would say it's work. Do your work, and just remember it's just work. And you're going to get another shot. Yeah.
Chris Miller: What's touring like?
Adam Bush: Yeah, it's lonely. It's really lonely. I didn't know that. You see, especially with successful comics, mulaney or Brigatsi or whoever, you see him given heart, you see him with Entourages. Mhm there's a reason mhm it's because it's lonely. On tour and going to Arkansas to perform for a week, uh, staying in a comedy condo by yourself, away from your family, it sucks, man. And you're doing the thing you love for maybe an hour a night in my place. Most of the time it's for 25 minutes as a feature. Uh, and even then, I'm just sitting in the green room talking to the other comic who I don't know very well until they m call my name and I go on stage. And even that's lonely. I mean, you don't know me. I'm making you laugh, and that's fine, but we're not friends. I travel with someone as much as I can, thankfully. I perform at a lot of churches. And, um, any church who hires me, I'm like, I'm bringing somebody with me, just so you know. So we need two rooms, or we need, um, a room with two beds, or we need a suite, something like that. That's not the situation most comics are in because most comics aren't clean. Most comics don't do churches. And they don't I'm in a very niche market because the kind of comedy that I do and the background that I have that I'm able to ask that. And most people who are from a church, they understand that you would do that. Or I could take my wife with me, something like that. But yeah, that is the thing. You're ah, it like this weekend, I hop on a plane, 06:00 in the morning. I will be by myself. I will leave before my kid is up. And so I'll go, that's fun. Flying is fun to a point, but sometimes it's like another plane, another car.
Chris Miller: I got so tired of airplanes. Oh, yeah, it was so many airplanes. I remember spending the night in Atlanta airport, and I, uh, went to go book a hotel, because they're like, yeah, your flight is canceled. The next one out is tomorrow morning. And all the hotels were booked. So they're like, hey, uh, you can sit in the food court. Okay.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: And I go to the food court, and there's this guy who's watching videos on his phone, and he doesn't have headphones, obviously.
Adam Bush: Yes.
Chris Miller: And he's playing out loud, and there's all these families trying to sleep. And I was like, wow. The lack of perspective taking was kind of impressive to me. But traveling is taxing.
Adam Bush: Yes. Uh, it is way more on your body than you realize. You think I'm just sitting there, but it's pretty regular that I get off a plane. I'm just like, I'm exhausted, I got to go to bed, and you got to get up and do the show.
Chris Miller: Yes. I didn't know about Probiotics until I started traveling because my gut health travel, uh, is like, all right, I'm taking probiotics now.
Adam Bush: All right.
Chris Miller: I'm taking vitamins now.
Adam Bush: All right.
Chris Miller: You have to really take care of your body. So you mentioned being a clean comic. Have you had moments in your career, and I know you've mentioned several times, like, short lived comedy career, and to where you're like, maybe I'll throw in a joke that doesn't line up with clean comedy.
Adam Bush: I've got a couple of jokes. No. Uh, the answer is no. The short answer is no. The long answer would be, there are jokes that I wouldn't do in a church, that I would do in a club, and they are clean jokes. They're just not appropriate for a church. That's pretty normal. Uh, I don't know. You can come up with any idea that you can think of. But I don't know. There's just some things there are some jokes that some topics you don't talk about with your mom that are perfectly acceptable in any other crowd. So it's the same thing. That's it and I'm just kind of a clean individual. My set is a representation of who I am personally. So it's I don't even know, maybe once I I thought of a joke that wasn't clean, but I can't even think of what it would be.
Chris Miller: Yeah, it's like, uh, with churches and church comedy. I recently saw this one comic who was also a magician, mhm. And he would do magic tricks. And then as he was doing the magic tricks, he would say a one liner or a zinger.
Adam Bush: Here's a tip. If you ever perform with that guy, don't go after him, because even if he's bad, um, the crowd will love him way more than you crowds love magicians.
Chris Miller: Okay.
Adam Bush: It's true.
Chris Miller: Has that happened to you?
Adam Bush: No. Uh, but what has happened is I followed a, uh, singer, and she was fine. But there's something about music that it's just really hard to top, even if it's bad. So that was just something a comic taught me pretty early on.
Chris Miller: Don't follow magicians.
Adam Bush: Don't follow magicians. Don't follow cyclists. Don't follow jugglers. Don't follow a sword swallower. Anything like that is more exciting than you talking. Even if they're bad at it. That can be, uh, the title of the episode. Don't follow magician.
Chris Miller: Don't follow magician. Well, this guy was the only act of the night, so nobody had to follow him. But I remember him talking about how he was a traveling comedian and he had done it for decades. And I personally didn't find his stuff that funny, but others did. And I remember thinking it has to be really hard as a comic because funny is subjective. Because I may laugh at something that you don't laugh at, and you may laugh at something I don't laugh at. Whenever you're thinking, how do I make something more funny? Who are you thinking about making laugh?
Adam Bush: Yeah, I probably think of myself first. I mean, just do I think this is funny? And then if I do think it's funny, then I just need to make sure it's clear. Uh, that's kind of a big issue with a lot of the younger comics will come to me and say, what do what do I need to work on? And also, I just didn't understand the joke. And that's half the battle. So it's a pretty common learning amongst comics. It's just like working on your set up can most of the time be more important than your punchline. And it's just because, again, comedy has to be distraction free. If I'm telling you a joke and you don't understand it from the beginning, then you're not going to be paying attention for the punchline. Right. A lot of that's really hard because especially when you're starting out, because you have the curse of knowledge, your mental real estate is different than the audiences, and you don't think about that. So if I'm telling you a joke about my wife, well, you don't know my wife, and she's not like your wife. And so if I don't clarify why what I'm saying about her is funny, it's not going to make any sense. That's why so many people do content on dating, because everybody understands they already have the mental real estate of dating. It's the reason that so many people make jokes about Trump, because we all know about Trump. We all know that he has weird hair and he's very loud, got small hands. Yeah, everybody knows that. He's saying, it's going to be the greatest. We know those things. And so those are easy jokes because you're already on the same page. So if I'm going to do a joke about my kid, I need you to understand everything. Like I just said, my kid, you don't know how old she is. You didn't know that she was a girl until I said that you don't know if she's crazy or if she's calm or what communicating that clearly off the top. So I'm looking for something I think is funny, and then I'll write it down. Um, and if when I write it down, it's not clear, then I'll write it in a way that is clear, and then I try to make it as short as possible. If I can do those things, then typically I can at least take it on stage one time to try it out.
Chris Miller: That's awesome. I love, uh, what you said about the curse of knowledge, because it's something I hadn't thought about, but that's so true.
Adam Bush: What's? Like, your mom saying that, uh, it's the whole thing. You had to be there.
Chris Miller: Right.
Adam Bush: Well, I wasn't. So either don't tell me that story or tell me what it was like to be there.
Chris Miller: And that's for everybody. Right. One of the things that I'm interested in whenever I interact with you is 99% of the people aren't doing comedy in a professional or even hobby. It's like interacting with their friends, interacting with their family, with their coworkers. But I would say the majority of people love making people laugh.
Adam Bush: Oh, yeah.
Chris Miller: And it's like, how can the people listening make people laugh more?
Adam Bush: Well, thankfully, it is easier to make your friends laugh because you are doing some sort of life with them. How many times do we hear the story of, like, your dad got together with his old army buddies or old high school buddies, and they just laugh? Why? Because they were all there. They all knew whatever, teachers, whatever. So it's easier to make your friends laugh. Uh, if you want to make other people laugh that you don't have that kind of relationship with, then you just have to think about what makes me laugh, and then how can I bring them into that scene so that they will understand it, and then we can laugh together. That's why, um, I'm kind of shooting from the hip here, but that's why regularly, whenever, um, a motivational speaker like, if a motivational speaker or just, like, a public speaker was to come through and speak to your corporation. And you're all engineers, right? Mechanical engineers. Well, if he's successful, there's probably a good chance that he really understands mechanical engineering. Right. So when he's making jokes, they're about the pitfalls and the funny things and the quirks of, um, mechanical engineers. Right. Does that work if he's talking to a group of doctors? Probably not. Right. So you got to figure out what is unique to them. So a lot of times when we're doing corporate events, when a comic is doing a corporate event, you end up just doing crowd work, because in this corporate environment, they just want to kind of laugh at themselves. And so, like, I think one of the last ones, I was just like, this isn't going to be fun in the podcast but I'm making this person up, making fun of Susie, who's 85 years old, who's the accountant, like, what can I poke at her? Where everybody's like, um, he's getting Susie. That's not funny to anybody else. That's funny in that situation, because you.
Chris Miller: Guys all have that, and they all know Susie.
Adam Bush: Yeah, they all know Susie, and she's hilarious. Whatever. Yeah. So I think if you want to affect people you don't really know in a way that makes them laugh, then find out something about them asking them questions or figuring out what their quirks are, that sort of thing. I think if you can do that, then you might be on the road to doing something. What you don't want to do is be like, let me tell you this story that you don't care about. It's kind of like I think this is true. No one cares about your kids. You care about your kids. Your mom cares about your kids. Your very, very close friends care about your kids. Other people don't care about your kids. Why? Because they care about their kids. And guess what? I don't care about their kids. I mean, I do, but you know what I mean? Yeah. So when they say, oh, we could do something so funny, I'm just like, I don't know them. I'm not interested.
Chris Miller: But you make a lot of kid jokes. So the reason why, though, is because you give context, and then they get to know your kids a little bit.
Adam Bush: I don't think anybody cares about my kids in my set. I think what they care about is, uh, how embarrassing it was for me. So when I say that my kid pointed at a homeless man, it was like, look, dad, it's you. That's not a joke about my kid. That's a joke about me. That's self deprecating. And she was like, oh, man. Now, you might think, oh, man, my kid's done that to me before, but then that's about you. Or like, that my kid was in Target and saw this lady with a pink shirt, and she was a little larger, and she yelled out, uh, look, dad, it's Peppa Pig. That's not about my kid. That is about how you would feel if your kid did that to you. Right. Yeah. And I think especially younger comics, a lot of times they kind of forget who the joke is supposed to be about, because, uh, if it's not about me and it's not about the audience, then I better really care about who that other person would be. Yeah, I think that's true. It's at least true to some degree. I don't know that it's, uh, just a 100% true statement, but it's definitely true in a lot of situations. Yeah.
Chris Miller: In both those instances, you're talking about the feeling that you felt or that feeling that that situation manifested, like that, oh, man, that embarrassment from the Peppa Pig thing. And a lot of people can relate to that.
Adam Bush: Yeah, I mean, it's the same thing with dating. It's why so many comics do so many jokes about dating. It's like, I've been there, that sort of thing. I don't have content about dating because it's been so long since I've dated, and I didn't have weird experiences when I was so I don't go down that route. And there are plenty of comics that are covering that anyway. And so, like, I had this lady come up to me the other day, and she's like, I love that stuff you do about your four year old. I was like, what is it you like about it? She's like, I have a four year old. I was like, okay, well, that's okay. Can you get all your mom friends together and come to my next show? That'd be great.
Chris Miller: That'd be awesome if your demographics were like, ah, all four year old moms.
Adam Bush: I mean, it's not totally far off in that I have done a lot of ladies events at churches. And because I'm a parent and can't make fun of those situations with my kid, it's likable. They like me. I've been working on this stuff about having cancer, and I've got a big scar on my stomach. And as soon as I got off stage last night, because I was talking about it, this guy came up to me and he pulled up his shirt and he goes, dude, I was laughing so hard because he had a big scar on his stomach. And just something I'd said resonated with him. And I was like, uh, oh, yeah, that's crazy. Not everybody's got a scar on their stomach.
Chris Miller: You're like, lower the shirt.
Adam Bush: I was like, what are you doing? Okay, yeah, you have a scar too.
Chris Miller: Does crowd work come naturally to you?
Adam Bush: I think it does, but I think there's a danger. There are two dangers. Number one, unless it's a clip for video, it's not helping me a ton. I mean, having the experience of doing crowd work, that's good, and it'll help you in the future for shows. But I'm a writer. I'm not making a special of crowd work. There are people who have done that, paula POUNDSTONE specifically. And it's great. It's one of the best specials ever created. But I'm not I'm not going to make a special on crowd work. Um, so it can be dangerous to rely on that. It can be helpful in the sense that if I'm contractually obligated to do an hour and I really only have 40 minutes, I can do 20 minutes of crowd work. And I'm fulfilling the contract. And you do need to do that, uh, in a lot of situations to kind of build up your hour. Um, that's one of the downsides of it. The other downside is, personally, it's really easy for me to get to mean, and that's not something that I want to be known for or want as, ah, part of my life, but it was over December. I did a show, and my buddy went with me, and afterwards, he's like, man, you really you really nailed that couple, man. You weren't letting up. And I was like, I was a little too mean for him, and I actually looked for him afterwards to see if I can apologize to him, and I couldn't find him, so I felt bad about that. That's just kind of it's like in high school, man. You're laughing with your buddies, you start making fun of them.
Chris Miller: Cross the line.
Adam Bush: You cross the line. And most people, myself included, don't care, like, in high school or whatever, but that's not the kind of person I want to be, and so you really have to be careful of that. But in a lot of comics a lot of comics are good at crowd work. I think the thing that comes naturally to me about crowd work is having a storytelling background. I think I'm able to identify things that are interesting about someone pretty quickly. Right? Like, you're wearing a shirt of your podcast name. That's a funny thing, to wear your own merch. And so to bring that up in front of a lot of people, especially if they notice that, they'd be like, oh, man. And it's barely a joke. It's not even but it's fun in a crowd, right? This is happening right now.
Chris Miller: And you have one piece of crowd work that I was thinking about. You were talking about a story and talking about meeting, like, IRA Glass and how that meant so much to you, and you say, like, hey, what do you do? And then you say, like, oh, imagine meeting your favorite blank.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: And I was like, man, regardless of the occupation, that would work.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: Which I like I was trying to.
Adam Bush: Think if I actually think it is crowd work, because that's a planned bit.
Chris Miller: Okay.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: So crowd work is spontaneous.
Adam Bush: Um, I don't know, actually, let me think here. I mean, I guess it's crowd work in the sense that I was asking the crowd, someone in the crowd, and if I tell that story anywhere, I always ask I do that part of it. Um, yeah, I guess it would be crowdworking. The fact that I would be talking to them and going, you're working for it. I think I think it would work. I think it would work with about any occupation, unless it was like, they were like, I'm an actor, and I'd be like, It's like meeting your favorite actor. Well, that is yeah, everybody wants me, so that wouldn't work. Uh, and at that point, I'd probably be like, you really screwed up my joke there, sir. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
Chris Miller: Right? And I loved how universal it could be, because I think my guess would be, whenever you're doing comedy, you want to have some things that, you know, you can rely on, in a sense, like, okay, this is something that's going to work, because you can't control all of those factors. The tall ceilings, the brightness, the spilled drink. So having I can go back to this. I can get to this as a checkpoint throughout your whole entire set. Seems like it'd be appealing.
Adam Bush: Well, you want all of it to work.
Chris Miller: Yeah, of course.
Adam Bush: Uh, you hope that's going to be the case, but one thing they teach you early on is, uh, to have a joke in your hip pocket that you can always like, if things aren't going well, this joke always lands. I can end on it because, honestly, you have a pretty bad set. But if your last joke is good, people will think you did a good job. It doesn't always work. Um, I did a set last month. I, uh, didn't have them from the beginning, and I never got them ever. They just weren't my crowd. And I do not believe that if a set goes bad that it's usually the crowd's fault. A lot of comics do. I don't think that's true. I think, first, you got to look at your material. Second, you got to look at yourself, and then you can look at the crowd. I would say on this one, yeah. That crowd just they weren't my crowd. Yeah. My stuff wasn't for them. And they were more drunk than people should be at a comedy show. So you can have that stuff. It doesn't always work.
Chris Miller: Yeah. I was speaking at a youth group, uh, like, a month ago, and I did this thing that at the very beginning to get their attention, like, hey, every time I say this word, you say, yeah. And I've seen it work before, I've done it before, and it worked. But with this crowd, I lost them immediately the whole entire time.
Adam Bush: Yeah.
Chris Miller: And I just steamrolled through my content, and I was like, all right, well, see you guys later.
Adam Bush: There you go.
Chris Miller: Uh, but I remember leaving being like, well, that wasn't a good, uh, feeling.
Adam Bush: Yeah, it happens. You learn from it and move on to the next thing.
Chris Miller: Yeah. Okay, last question for you. And it'll be interesting, because you are already very vulnerable with your comedy, but what's one thing you wish more people knew about you?
Adam Bush: Oh, man, I don't know that there's anything um I have a job where I get to tell people about me all the time. It's a very narcissistic career. Um yeah. Um, a lot of people know this, but there are a large group of people that don't know this, that if something that somebody knew about me, that if somebody didn't know how much I am in love with the person of Jesus, if they didn't know that about me, I would hope that they would. Not everybody knows that about me. All of my close friends do. My, um, relationship with Christ is the most important thing in my life. But, um, I have a fan base. They don't specifically know that, and that's fine. Some of it's by design. I have a desire to be vulnerable with people in a way that doesn't weird them out. And I think sometimes when people get too spiritual, especially quickly, it's a little off putting. I don't want that to happen. Um, and so some people don't know that about me, but if you do a little maybe do a little bit of a dive into my social media, you'll figure it out. Yeah, you'll spend a little bit of time on my YouTube page, you'll figure it out pretty quickly. I would say, along with that, I wish people knew. And I would say, I hope people know how much, uh, everybody I hope people know how much I love them, even people that I don't have a deep relationship with. And if there is anything I can do for them, I would do it. I am a Christian, and I think, especially living in the Bible Belt, that Christians have a really, uh and, um, it makes sense why Christians have a very bad reputation, uh, for not caring about people who don't share their same beliefs. I do not care if you share my same beliefs. It does not impact the way that I feel about you. It doesn't impact what I think about you. It doesn't impact how valuable I think that you are. Nothing. None of it. None of it. And I know for a lot of Christians, it does it has some sort of impact. It doesn't with me. And so if you're a person who doesn't care about Jesus, it's great. If you need something from me, if I can give it to you, uh, I will. I hope people know that.
Chris Miller: Thank you for being here. It's a blast. I love what you're doing. You're making people laugh. You're telling good stories.
Adam Bush: Well, thank you.
Chris Miller: You bet you. All right, folks, we'll see you next time.
Adam Bush: You.