Denver stand-up comedian Adam Cayton-Holland joins Tom Green for an expansive, deeply personal conversation that blends comedy, sports, and storytelling. Adam shares his love for classic sports movies, sharp observations about Denver life and fandom, and his complicated relationship with teams like the Rockies and Nuggets. The discussion then moves into Adam’s journey through stand-up comedy, Comedy Works, national breaks like Just for Laughs and Conan, and the creation of Those Who Can’t. Adam also opens up about his book Tragedy in Time and its transformation into the Sundance-bound film See You When I See You, reflecting on grief, creativity, and why comedy and darkness often coexist. Sponsored by: Golf DEN, a golf simulator located at the Denver Airport. Visit Golf-DEN.com to purchase gift certificates or to learn more.
Tom Green welcomes Denver comedian Adam Cayton-Holland for a wide-ranging discussion that begins with sports and comedy colliding, from Slap Shot and Bull Durham to the challenges of making football look real on screen. Adam delivers standout humor about Denver International Airport, local politics, and growing up immersed in Colorado sports, while explaining how his fandom for the Rockies fractured and why the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić represents a once-in-a-lifetime gift for the city.
The conversation traces Adam’s path into stand-up comedy, including open mics at the Lion’s Lair, climbing the Comedy Works ladder, and Denver’s reputation as one of the country’s strongest comedy cities. Adam breaks down the realities of touring, crowd work, and building an audience, before diving into the creation of Those Who Can’t, the cult-favorite series that grew from a low-budget Amazon pilot into three seasons of television.
In the most personal portion of the episode, Adam discusses writing Tragedy in Time, his book about the loss of his sister Lydia, and how that experience reshaped his life, career, and priorities. He explains how the book evolved into the film See You When I See You, produced with the support of Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon, premiering at Sundance. The episode closes with reflections on comedy influences, family, fatherhood, and the responsibility of telling stories that are both honest and humane.
00;00;00;04 - 00;00;19;00
Tom Green
Hi there. Welcome back to another edition of the other Tom green Show. Today we're going to focus on two of my favorite subjects sports and comedy. I love to laugh as much as the next guy. I like when sports and comedy, have a confluence. You think of, some of the great motion pictures where sports and comedy got together?
00;00;19;02 - 00;00;49;24
Tom Green
My favorite film when it comes to sports and comedy is certainly slapshot. I thought Paul Newman was brilliant. I thought it was so far ahead of its time. A fantastic film, that I'll never turn off whenever it's on. Each sport, though, has has many great comedic turns. I think of baseball having so many, but I think Bull Durham would be my favorite as far as a quality comedy that, you know, is wrapped inside of some baseball and some romance and all the other things that come with it.
00;00;49;27 - 00;01;09;25
Tom Green
Football always harder to shoot and make it look legitimate, but I like the original The Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds. Again, a film that was probably ahead of its time. Really well played. A lot of good laughs in there. Basketball's had some good comedy as well. So I'll. I'll throw it to white men. Can't jump.
00;01;09;28 - 00;01;39;28
Tom Green
Good film, great actors. Very interesting story. So I'll I'll give that to them on this one. We're going to talk about sports Denver sports from a comedic side, if you will, because today our guest is Denver standup comedian Adam Clayton Holland. Hey, I want to remind you about our sponsor. It is golf, and it is a great opportunity when you are at the airport to enjoy some time swings, some clubs, you know, you end up killing time at the airport a lot of times.
00;01;39;29 - 00;01;58;10
Tom Green
Well, wouldn't you rather sit down, maybe have a beer or a drink or something and hit a few shots? You can dial up almost any course in the world on the simulators. You can hit some practice shots or this time of year, especially if you want to give the gift of golf, you can do so. You can buy gift certificates for golf, then go check it out.
00;01;58;10 - 00;02;13;19
Tom Green
It's on the mezzanine at concourse A, it's golf den, and if you want to buy something or check it out online, their website is golf-den.com.
00;02;13;22 - 00;02;37;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
But today I landed at Denver International Airport, my home airport, and sure, some some some Denver International Airport fans, as you know, when you land, you get on the train that takes you from the, terminal to the main concourse. And there's usually, like a voice, a celebrity, someone of note welcoming you to Denver. The latest one is mayor Mike Johnston, and he says exactly this.
00;02;37;07 - 00;02;51;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
He goes, hey, welcome to Denver. I'm Mayor Mike Johnson, so welcome to Dia, the six busiest airport in the United States. And to the top five in front of us. I got news for you. We're coming for you. Which is like, okay, weird flex.
00;02;51;27 - 00;03;06;11
Adam Cayton-Holland
Then he goes, can you name the five airports in front of us? And then the train ride just ended and everybody got off wondering, what is the answer?
00;03;06;13 - 00;03;07;17
Tom Green
That's crazy.
00;03;07;17 - 00;03;29;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
Making. That's not how trivia works. I didn't know our mayor was into trivia edging. And mayors and politicians, they're so obsessed with their approval ratings. I guarantee this is bringing him way down. Just asking a trivia question and not giving the answer. If I ran for mayor right now, I could beat him. And I'll tell you how my speech would go.
00;03;29;22 - 00;03;50;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
I go, hey, my name is Adam Clayton Harlan, I'm running for mayor. And do you want to know the top five airports that are busier than Denver? Here we go. It's Atlanta, then it's Dubai, then it's Dallas Fort Worth, then it's Tokyo, then it is Heathrow. Denver coming in six. After that, I'm Adam Clayton Holland. Elect me because Denver.
00;03;50;18 - 00;03;54;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
Denver deserves answers.
00;03;54;24 - 00;04;01;04
Tom Green
Yes. Denver deserves answers. Adam Clayton Holland. You thinking about it? You're going to make a run?
00;04;01;04 - 00;04;06;11
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, just on that platform alone. Just trivia based, just whole May Orioles trip.
00;04;06;13 - 00;04;09;03
Tom Green
It seems like fun being the mayor. A really good time.
00;04;09;03 - 00;04;26;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. Seems like everybody likes you. Seems like everywhere you go, they show you on the screen and half boo and half cheer and. Yeah, no, I I'd never would love to be mayor. I just, I think, sometimes I daydream about politicians or being on city council or something. And then I just think now, man, it's so much more work.
00;04;26;18 - 00;04;35;09
Tom Green
Will you pay attention? You're opinionated. You're you're into politics. You're into you pay attention to the world. But getting out in front of it seems like an awful place to be.
00;04;35;09 - 00;04;40;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. I mean, look at the state of politics right now. I'm pretty cynical about it all. And I think you.
00;04;40;00 - 00;04;40;10
Tom Green
Alone.
00;04;40;11 - 00;04;49;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
Just you, just me alone and I think, at some level, money controls everything. So if you're, like, a poor person trying to fight uphill, how do you get real discouraged real fast?
00;04;49;17 - 00;04;51;01
Tom Green
What did you think of my movie lists?
00;04;51;08 - 00;04;52;22
Adam Cayton-Holland
I loved your movie list.
00;04;52;22 - 00;04;56;23
Tom Green
Which is close to yours or do you? I mean, you haven't given it that much thought.
00;04;56;23 - 00;05;09;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
But I was thinking about it as you were talking about it, and obviously I, I'm a little bit of a different generation. Love Bull Durham for me growing up, Major league. Yes. I watched that movie again and again and again and again and again. A love major league that.
00;05;09;13 - 00;05;11;12
Tom Green
Would put Wesley Snipes in two, though it.
00;05;11;12 - 00;05;21;16
Adam Cayton-Holland
Really would. Willie Mays Hayes. Yeah, totally. Totally. What does he say? He's trying to say, Jesus Christ, can't hit a curveball. That's a great love. You know, hockey slapshot for sure.
00;05;21;16 - 00;05;22;04
Tom Green
Yeah.
00;05;22;07 - 00;05;27;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
For football. Longest yards, probably right there. There's a lot of football duds. Yeah. I mean.
00;05;27;26 - 00;05;28;29
Tom Green
Hard to shoot football.
00;05;28;29 - 00;05;44;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
It really is. And I remember one that was just terrible called Necessary Roughness. That was a bad one. And then basketball, I mean, the whole air bud. Yeah. On the air. But I celebrate earbuds one through nine. They're all very like rock top films. Yes. You get a.
00;05;44;09 - 00;05;47;24
Tom Green
Rock put put Rocky and they're not as a comedy, but in sports films that.
00;05;47;29 - 00;05;51;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
I mean, come on, that's probably the best sports movie of all time. Rocky one. Yes.
00;05;51;26 - 00;05;54;29
Tom Green
And then. And then it's a slippery slope.
00;05;54;29 - 00;05;57;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
For sure, though. The the creeds are pretty good.
00;05;57;24 - 00;05;58;10
Tom Green
Creed. Yeah.
00;05;58;10 - 00;06;09;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
That's true. Creeds are very good. That's my guilty pleasure on airplanes. I just watch action films or sort of, you know, less intellectual films on airplanes. I just kind of. And so, Creed, I've watched all of those on planes.
00;06;09;15 - 00;06;24;09
Tom Green
I always don't think, though, I worry about what you watch on an airplane, because I do feel like you can or will may be judged by other people for sure. I mean people walking up and down the aisle or people next to you. It really he's watching that. Yeah, 78 films here.
00;06;24;10 - 00;06;39;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
I judge everyone who's watching things. However, I don't care what anyone thinks about me. I watched sinners on an airplane. Right. And the, you know, Ryan Coogler probably like you. I mean, I feel that an Imax asshole and you're watching it on an airplane like.
00;06;39;09 - 00;06;40;08
Tom Green
This, smaller than your.
00;06;40;08 - 00;06;42;01
Adam Cayton-Holland
Phone. Yeah, yeah.
00;06;42;03 - 00;06;57;15
Tom Green
You mentioned dere air travel. Something you gotta get used to in your line of work as a comic. It seems like it's become worse every year. Air travel. It's just more annoying. Less. It used to be kind of glam as a kid to get on a plane and go.
00;06;57;15 - 00;07;09;02
Adam Cayton-Holland
Somewhere, I bet, I bet, I mean, I've, I've found a little shortcut with those, like, lounges. Yes. You can get a little bit of old school, I don't know, glamor at the airport.
00;07;09;05 - 00;07;10;16
Tom Green
The United Club or the.
00;07;10;16 - 00;07;14;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, the one that was it in LaGuardia. Chase Sapphire Lounge. Oh, that's a nice one. That's like.
00;07;15;01 - 00;07;15;27
Tom Green
You recommend that.
00;07;15;27 - 00;07;20;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
One? But other than that, yeah. I mean, it's just like, get in line with all the other hogs and off you go onto the.
00;07;20;27 - 00;07;38;26
Tom Green
Airplane as hogs. We I know your sports fandom is great. You grew up here. You're a born and raised in Denver. This is your. This is your home. Always has been your home. So the Rockies were at one point your favorite team.
00;07;38;26 - 00;07;39;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
You have. Yeah.
00;07;40;02 - 00;07;41;19
Tom Green
You've left. You fled.
00;07;41;22 - 00;07;58;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. I'm like a lapsed Catholic for the Rockies. And I had a relationship with them, Tom. Like, I really had done some work, gotten my foot in the door, threw out an opening pitch. They, had me do some some PR stuff with them. I remember one year when they made the playoffs. So it was a long time ago.
00;07;58;16 - 00;08;19;19
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. They had, you know, that that psych up video that they play before the game starts like this, this is baseball at altitude, blah, blah, blah. And I got to do the voiceover for that because they asked me to do that. So I didn't, I didn't, you know, I didn't take it lightly sacrificing this relationship. But at some point in the last, it's pretty much right after the Nolan Arenado trade.
00;08;19;19 - 00;08;38;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
Right? I just broke and I, you know, not like I'm a big figure or anything, but I just sort of publicly started, you know, attacking them or when they would do. Yeah. When I wasn't alone. And every sports journalist in town has done the same thing, right at some point, the romance with the Rockies kind of soured for everyone.
00;08;38;16 - 00;08;59;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
And in the last 2 or 3 years, sports journalism towards the Rockies has been brutal in town. And I love it. Honest, honest. Yeah. And it does. It does feel like, I don't know, maybe we were so grateful for baseball and so new to baseball. It took even for the sports journalists two decades to ever even criticize because we were just grateful.
00;08;59;07 - 00;09;02;29
Tom Green
But comedy can be one of the greatest ways in the world to be cruel to someone, for.
00;09;02;29 - 00;09;04;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
Sure, because it's a loving. You can.
00;09;05;00 - 00;09;08;11
Tom Green
Beat the Rockies hard with comedy if you want to.
00;09;08;11 - 00;09;29;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
And they need, I mean, I, I'm not on Twitter anymore because I don't like Elon Musk, so I'm on blue Sky with much less of a following. But I said, like, we're literally looking right now. Nuggets, Broncos, avalanche could all legitimately win a championship this season. A Colorado Rockies just parked my car to a steakhouse. That's that's where we're at right now.
00;09;29;06 - 00;09;31;04
Tom Green
So you you don't even go now?
00;09;31;08 - 00;09;32;11
Adam Cayton-Holland
No, I boycott you.
00;09;32;11 - 00;09;33;17
Tom Green
Used to go quite a bit.
00;09;33;17 - 00;09;53;20
Adam Cayton-Holland
We were season ticket holders from the get go from day one. My dad got season tickets. I was, you know, I went to the first game, I was 12, and, we're very proud of that. Yeah. And we sort of wanted to be one of those generational families that you hear about are the Yankees, the Red Sox. It's like these these tickets have been in my family since Fenway was built.
00;09;53;21 - 00;10;11;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
Right. And I we wanted that. And then at some point, my dad realized we're just throwing good money after bad here. And he would always get season tickets, have 2 or 3, four people. He'd split them with a group. Yeah, a group. But it was in his name. Yeah. And that group just vanished. And it was just harder and harder to unload five games here.
00;10;11;24 - 00;10;13;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
Nobody wanted to buy these tickets.
00;10;13;05 - 00;10;17;22
Tom Green
So who were your who your favorite Rockies, your idols that ones you loved.
00;10;17;26 - 00;10;35;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
You know, it's a great question. It's probably the golden era, the, Blake Street bombers, my my second son is named Ellis. And Ellis Burks had a lot in that, but so did Lafond. Zo Ellis on the nuggets true to to Ellis is that I love that era of the Rockies was great, but I really loved cargo.
00;10;35;18 - 00;10;36;11
Tom Green
Oh yeah, that's.
00;10;36;11 - 00;10;42;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
Just one of the smoothest swings. I think the Major League Baseball logo, it's Harmon Killebrew, I believe.
00;10;42;01 - 00;10;45;27
Tom Green
Is it? Yeah. But Jerry West is the NBA. Yeah, but you think.
00;10;46;00 - 00;10;55;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
I'm pretty sure Killebrew is the MLB logo. And I've always thought cargo with the bat down after the swing. It's just such a silky swing. It could be the MLB logo. It's that beautiful.
00;10;55;21 - 00;11;05;05
Tom Green
So if they come back, if they do return to relevancy, I mean, not even playoffs like, but actual competitive relevancy. Will you come back?
00;11;05;12 - 00;11;23;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
I will, I really desperately want to have good baseball in this town. And I I'm raising my sons to be haters like my wife and I. The last couple of seasons, my wife and I, you know, last season, come on, they were on the cusp of the worst season of all time. And so my wife and I were actively rooting for it.
00;11;23;25 - 00;11;39;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
And so because she loves baseball, because she once loved the Rockies, it's now gallows humor with us. Yeah. So every morning I'm like, check this out. I'm reading The Comedy of Errors. That was the game before, and I and I caught my boys asking. I said, like, did they lose? And we're like, oh yeah. And they're like, yeah.
00;11;39;16 - 00;11;41;06
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I don't, I don't want that. That's what.
00;11;41;06 - 00;11;41;19
Tom Green
Are they.
00;11;41;24 - 00;11;43;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
Four and seven?
00;11;43;01 - 00;11;43;28
Tom Green
Oh man.
00;11;44;00 - 00;11;48;16
Adam Cayton-Holland
I don't want that. But I do want them to recognize that this is crap baseball and demand better.
00;11;48;16 - 00;11;58;22
Tom Green
So on the other hand they're also like you talked about, we're in this halcyon era of football, hockey and basketball that, obviously Denver has never seen. The likes of many cities have never seen the like.
00;11;58;22 - 00;11;59;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
So it's while.
00;11;59;17 - 00;12;08;29
Tom Green
Like potential championship or at least deep playoff runs from all those teams. So they probably are also fans of that. They understand they went to big time.
00;12;08;29 - 00;12;23;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
They love their love in the Broncos run. Right now, nuggets are my favorite team. My son on his own has just decided I love the avalanche. And so he's making me take him to games. Oh great. And it's not even I don't even have it on all that much. I appreciate the avalanche. They're my favorite hockey team.
00;12;23;09 - 00;12;29;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
I just don't watch a ton of hockey. But somehow he's latched on to the avalanche, and so he's made me go to more games than I've gone to in a long time.
00;12;29;29 - 00;12;34;08
Tom Green
So when I talk about Doug Moe or Dan Esler. Alex English, they're before your time.
00;12;34;08 - 00;12;41;06
Adam Cayton-Holland
They are, but I'm well aware of them. All right. And, my neighbor very randomly growing up was George McGinnis.
00;12;41;11 - 00;12;42;00
Tom Green
Oh, Big.
00;12;42;00 - 00;12;42;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
Mac.
00;12;42;12 - 00;12;53;28
Tom Green
Yeah. Who was I always point out was was the worst and the best trade the nuggets made. Yeah. When they traded Bobby Jones away to get George. And George wasn't very good here. But they traded George away to get Alex English.
00;12;53;29 - 00;12;57;14
Adam Cayton-Holland
That's right. And I believe George was a big name.
00;12;57;14 - 00;13;01;02
Tom Green
Oh he's a huge star in the ABA right. An MVP type player.
00;13;01;02 - 00;13;09;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
And when played with doctor J. And I think it was kind of the nuggets brought him in because he was a big name, even though he was a little past his prime when he came here, he.
00;13;09;15 - 00;13;12;29
Tom Green
Didn't have much left apparently when he got here to Denver. But
00;13;13;01 - 00;13;16;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
Well, he got a nice house in Park Hill and he was my neighbor, and he was.
00;13;16;00 - 00;13;21;05
Tom Green
A giant for you as a young man, you see the six foot, eight inch guy, he muscles on muscles.
00;13;21;05 - 00;13;38;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
There's pictures of him holding me, and my older sister ends up upside down by one leg. And he was also super afraid of cats. So, like, he'd call my parents at 7 a.m. and be like your cats on my front porch and I want the paper and so come get the cat. But he was a sweet man, and we knew his whole family, and they're really cool.
00;13;38;27 - 00;13;46;19
Adam Cayton-Holland
So I, I mean, I didn't realize that that was pretty uncommon to have a neighbor who's a Denver nugget, but, that got me into nuggets pretty early.
00;13;46;19 - 00;13;52;19
Tom Green
So you mentioned the fans. Oh, that's more your era of beginning to become a fan. The Fonz Bryant's death.
00;13;52;19 - 00;13;57;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yes. The percent. And who just died? Rodney Rogers just. Yes. Yeah.
00;13;57;18 - 00;14;00;25
Tom Green
He'd had a tough last few years. I didn't know that. Yeah.
00;14;00;27 - 00;14;18;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. Them Mahmud Robert pack. Yeah. I love that dicamba. Of course. Yeah. That that Seattle beating team. Yeah. Back then. And it's all my mom. She's always loved basketball. They had what was it like 14 game fan plan or something like that. Right. And so we got one of those.
00;14;18;10 - 00;14;18;15
Tom Green
At.
00;14;18;15 - 00;14;28;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
McNichols at McNichols, which was lawless. Someone to do a documentary on McNichols. I feel like people just drop their kids off and they're like, there you go. Is free daycare for eight hours?
00;14;28;03 - 00;14;43;09
Tom Green
I'm a big fan. I love the old crappy arenas more than the new perfect arenas. But I'm also not a woman who has to go to the two bathrooms they put into those old buildings. Yeah, you know, half the game. But like you say, McNichols was.
00;14;43;11 - 00;14;53;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
It just fell. It just fell lawless. I mean, I really just felt like there are roving bands of kids that would mug you. I was just. You stick with your mom and dad at McNichols.
00;14;53;17 - 00;14;54;17
Tom Green
Tough, tough town.
00;14;54;19 - 00;14;55;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
Tough town. Yeah.
00;14;55;28 - 00;15;05;23
Tom Green
So the first true superstar. Because, you know, you think of dicamba and funds. They were big stars here. But the first real star of a broader sense was probably mellow.
00;15;05;26 - 00;15;22;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. I mean, I do remember dicamba having a transformative suddenly because, you know, the nuggets were such a punch line. Right. Denver's always got this flyover chip on its shoulder I think it's it's less now. I don't think my sons will grow up feeling that way, but I certainly did. And so to come back, I remember the National spotlight being on us.
00;15;22;23 - 00;15;31;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
But yeah, then when, Melo came, that felt for real. Suddenly, you know, he's on MTV cribs and stuff like that. And it felt like a little bit of the real.
00;15;31;29 - 00;15;36;04
Tom Green
But did he add to the flyover reputation when he said he, I want to go to New York?
00;15;36;04 - 00;15;51;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
Oh, yeah. That's why he's kind of like, you know, he doesn't help himself. He always opens his mouth at the wrong time. If he would just stay quiet, Denver would love to celebrate him. But he seems to every six months say something that makes it harder and harder for the nuggets to just be like, can we just hang your jersey?
00;15;51;13 - 00;15;52;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
And you shut up a little bit?
00;15;53;00 - 00;16;11;16
Tom Green
And here we are, Christmas and talk about the gift of all time Nikola Jokic I mean it's incredible. And there's always someone who wants to have a certain amount of credit for him being here. There's clearly no credit. It was a it was the luck and lightning in a bottle, you know, taken in the 40s during a Taco Bell commercial.
00;16;11;16 - 00;16;13;29
Tom Green
And the and he's him dude.
00;16;14;03 - 00;16;30;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
Tom at my at Thanksgiving you know we did it. It's probably 25 people and everyone's doing the cheesy. What are you grateful for? Yeah. Some of the time it's come to me. I'm pretty over it. I'm just like everyone who family and I'm like, I just said Nikola Jokic and then and then everybody. They got a laugh. And then I just went.
00;16;30;09 - 00;16;52;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
I was like, don't think about it. That this guy with this skill set was born in somber Serbia, somehow wore nuggets jersey as a kid or nuggets sweatshirt. Yeah. Winds up here and becomes what he becomes. Were I, I feel about Nikola Jokic like I think a lot of women feel about Beyonce or Taylor Swift where it's like, I'm glad I'm alive at the same time.
00;16;52;15 - 00;17;01;04
Tom Green
Yeah. But that's the other thing because you contrast him with Melo. He's clearly the same number but he's clearly a better player. He's one of the greats ever.
00;17;01;04 - 00;17;01;14
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah.
00;17;01;17 - 00;17;13;04
Tom Green
But he also has no needs. He doesn't need the light, the fame, the adulation. He is the the least needy superstar by tenfold over anyone I've ever seen.
00;17;13;04 - 00;17;31;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, I kind of feel like, yeah, somebody should publish a book of the Zen statements of Nikola Yogi. But he's not on social media. He really doesn't seem to tolerate any sort of, you know, PR b.s. that the nuggets want to do. He's he reluctantly is like, all right, I'll give you whatever sound bite you need, but I don't really want to do this bullshit.
00;17;31;05 - 00;17;40;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
Right. I just would like to tap out. And I'm a dad of young children, so I'm. I'm on the playground circuit, and he, he he emerges every now and then.
00;17;40;28 - 00;17;42;24
Tom Green
Oh, he shows that playground. Oh, man.
00;17;42;24 - 00;17;59;28
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I was at Wash Park Playground. I've seen his brother as a playground, as it was park, playground. And some dad who's a playground guy I casually know. He's like, you should have been here two days ago. Do. And he's like, Nikola was here. There were 40 Serbians. They were barbecue. And I was like, oh, I think I should.
00;18;00;02 - 00;18;01;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
That was I had the rotation off.
00;18;01;23 - 00;18;03;24
Tom Green
What would would you approach him?
00;18;03;24 - 00;18;05;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
Would you definitely not definitely.
00;18;05;17 - 00;18;08;26
Tom Green
Out of respect or fear or nerves or like just.
00;18;08;26 - 00;18;28;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
I think and you probably could speak to this as well. Better than I could. But like I think what he likes about Denver is that it's not New York or L.A.. Yeah. And that he's not constantly paparazzi. And I think he appreciates that the people of Denver give him a little bit of a wide berth. They get it and let him be a person.
00;18;28;13 - 00;18;38;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. So I don't want to ruin that. I don't want to be the guy who Nicole is like, you know, what if I if people are going to gawk and do this everywhere, I'm leaving.
00;18;38;06 - 00;18;49;25
Tom Green
He takes off, goes to some war and Serbian general for his summers and comes back. And, you know, we don't really, you know, every now and then we'll see the clip of him dancing or partying.
00;18;49;25 - 00;18;55;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. He's obviously his whole vibe, as the kids say, doing flips off of rafts into the river and stuff.
00;18;55;25 - 00;19;14;10
Tom Green
But the reason I ask is because I or I'm going to ask is because I think, you know, you wonder what he'll do when he stops playing basketball, because I always thought Peyton Manning, as soon as he was done here, was out of here. Like he would go back to Tennessee, or he would go back to New Orleans or someplace that he'd grown up.
00;19;14;12 - 00;19;18;09
Tom Green
I'm surprised that he's that he's set down his tent here.
00;19;18;09 - 00;19;27;20
Adam Cayton-Holland
I love that he's set down this tent here. It's cool. You know, as a kid with the fly over chip on your shoulder, it's cool to have a star on the caliber of Peyton Manning that lives in the city.
00;19;27;22 - 00;19;30;15
Tom Green
Do you think there's any chance you'll get to have a footprint?
00;19;30;15 - 00;19;31;01
Adam Cayton-Holland
You know, where.
00;19;31;07 - 00;19;32;08
Tom Green
He's gone to, Sam boy.
00;19;32;09 - 00;19;45;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
He's going to walk the earth like Kane and kung fu. He's. He's on a different level than all of us. This isn't about basketball. It's about horse. It'll be in Mongolia with wild horses. And they like, let's let Joker be free.
00;19;45;29 - 00;20;13;06
Tom Green
I have to try to trace your comedic roots. You've written a book that we'll we'll talk about in a little bit a few years ago, but it includes how you how you grew into comedy, and it seems like it was playing a and there was not a plan B, really that plan B would have been the world would have taken you and shaped you somewhere, but you were probably headed in this direction from whenever you decided to make a plan.
00;20;13;09 - 00;20;37;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
I don't know if I've even still decided to make a plan. I don't know if I agree with that necessarily. I mean, I, I do stand up comedy, but that was an act that was an afterthought. I, I never, I'm more of a writer. Right. And I and I never thought I'd be the guy on stage. I remember reading The Onion for the first time in high school, and that was a religious experience.
00;20;37;17 - 00;20;56;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, and there was it. I know the history of the onion. Well, it started in Madison, Wisconsin, just a paper newspaper. Then the second city they ever moved to was Boulder, Colorado, pre-Internet and my newspaper sponsor at East High School, I was I wrote for the newspaper. He was in Boulder. He found when he brought it and gave it to me, he goes, you'd like this?
00;20;56;17 - 00;21;13;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I read it. And the headline was Christ returns to the NBA. And it was just Jesus dunking. And my brain did backflips. And and from that moment on, I was like, I'm trying to do the onion, right? I want to do this. So I turned our high school newspaper into a humor paper. I got in trouble all the time.
00;21;13;28 - 00;21;28;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
Did it in college. I wrote a humor paper, so I always thought I'll be writing funny somehow. Right. Then I graduated college and was kind of didn't know what to do. I figured if you want to be a funny writer, you try to go to Saturday Night Live, right?
00;21;28;21 - 00;21;31;24
Tom Green
SNL to the land. Yeah. Did National Lampoon still matter?
00;21;31;24 - 00;21;55;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
It did. But that was, you know, a Harvard publication, right? So that was Harvard undergrads that wrote that. And I went to Wesleyan and had graduated and was kind of like, what now? So I went to Second City in Chicago because that's the pipe. Yeah. My older sister was in law school there, so I was crashing on her floor working at Urban Outfitters during the day and then going to classes at Second City at night.
00;21;55;00 - 00;22;01;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
I took sketch writing and I took improv. I didn't like either of them, really. They felt very rigid to me.
00;22;01;10 - 00;22;06;08
Tom Green
So you're studying a second city has has courses? I always think. I just think of the performances they have.
00;22;06;11 - 00;22;27;11
Adam Cayton-Holland
It's it's a whole moneymaking empire. And so they have courses and everyone who's in the, in the company has to progress through these courses. No one is allowed to skip. Right. So those, you know, Belushi and Farley, they probably paid for level one, two, three, four. And then you get into the company and now you're getting paid to be the performer.
00;22;27;11 - 00;22;28;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
But you do have to go through those first steps.
00;22;28;25 - 00;22;32;11
Tom Green
When you were there though, your goal wasn't to perform. It was to right, right.
00;22;32;11 - 00;22;53;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
Right, right, right. And then I remember, going to an open mic of stand up comedy across the street from Second City and watching it and being kind of intrigued. And then lo and behold, the same exact time I was, there was an essay contest in the Westword and it was, I can't remember what it was like, why I love Denver or something like that.
00;22;53;13 - 00;22;56;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
And my friends, like, you should write something. I wrote something.
00;22;56;06 - 00;22;57;08
Tom Green
Cynical. Snarky.
00;22;57;08 - 00;23;18;01
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, but, but also, like, really? Why? I like Denver, and I remember Patty Calhoun is editor, Westword. I won the contest. They published it, and she's like, are you interested in writing more for us? And that was the biggest lead I had going anywhere. And I wasn't enjoying Second City. So I moved back to that and I was, you know, crashing on my sister's floor and air mattress.
00;23;18;01 - 00;23;31;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
I wasn't feeling good about everything. So I moved back to Denver. I started substitute teaching, I started freelancing for Westword, and I went to another open mic here. And watched it. And then I was like, I'm going to do this book started because I started doing standup comedy about the same time.
00;23;31;07 - 00;23;39;02
Tom Green
When you watched Open Mic, did you see it and say, I can do that, or this is terrible, or this, oh, really? You thought anybody can do this, that.
00;23;39;03 - 00;23;58;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
It demystified it. And even, you know, I was at Second City, so I was starting to realize any asshole can sign up for this class because, I mean, these classes taught like, it was like a disaffected teenager and his mother trying to reconnect through improv. Right? And, for corporate assholes trying to be better salesmen through improv. And I was like, I really want to do this.
00;23;58;21 - 00;24;18;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
Can I skip the levels? They're like, no, no one skips the levels. Then I was like, then fuck this, I'm out. So I realized that anybody could do comedy and going to open mics. I watched one at the Lion's Lair in Denver, right? Several guys. Very funny, the rest of them so bad that I came away thinking I could absolutely be funnier than those people tonight.
00;24;18;18 - 00;24;20;04
Tom Green
Did they think they were funny?
00;24;20;05 - 00;24;20;22
Adam Cayton-Holland
Oh yeah.
00;24;20;27 - 00;24;22;05
Tom Green
They thought they were killing.
00;24;22;05 - 00;24;28;06
Adam Cayton-Holland
And where were they being received? Well, the level of delusion. I mean, I'm sure you encounter it in TV as well. Yeah.
00;24;28;07 - 00;24;28;16
Tom Green
But like.
00;24;28;16 - 00;24;42;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
They're. Yeah, like like talentless people who really think they're going to do this. And it's kind of heartbreaking. You watch them for eight years, have the same bad five minutes and you're like, buddy quit. But just realizing that there were those people there.
00;24;42;18 - 00;24;43;24
Tom Green
Why do they do it?
00;24;43;27 - 00;24;58;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
They it's it's the parade of the broken. I don't know, I don't know, I mean, there's standup comedy is where like, self-confidence means self-delusion, kind of the perfect intersection. It's a success. But I think there's some where the, the, the recipe isn't right.
00;24;58;13 - 00;25;12;10
Tom Green
I've told the story that, I grew up wanting to be a sportscaster. That was my goal when I was ten. You know, I wanted to be a sportscaster. It wasn't a much of a career or a vocation at that point. There were a few guys who did it, but it wasn't like the ESPN era. This was. Yeah, there.
00;25;12;10 - 00;25;13;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
Wasn't many options.
00;25;13;03 - 00;25;17;17
Tom Green
I know that. And so I tell people I want to be a sportscaster and people go, oh, that's nice.
00;25;17;17 - 00;25;19;20
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, it's like saying, I want to be Edward Armor or something.
00;25;19;21 - 00;25;38;11
Tom Green
Good luck. Good luck with that. But, when I finally got in the business, got in the door, I was working behind the scenes, and I started to wonder. I said I'd watch pros do it, and I'd realize, do. I didn't necessarily have the guts to get in front of there to to wear the mic, to look in the camera and tell what I want to say and do it properly.
00;25;38;13 - 00;25;54;01
Tom Green
And I was unsure when I started that I would ever be able to do that, but I wanted to be in the business, so I decided I'll learn other stuff. You had to make that jump too, because grabbing the mic wasn't your your be all end out till it suddenly was.
00;25;54;01 - 00;26;13;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, well, you know I was because I'm writerly I'm tend to observe and I'm, I was I was going to these open mics and you know as anthropological and I remember watching people get up and I thought the mic was very funny. He's, you know, usually the mic is a guy who's been doing it a while. Yeah. Can, can successfully get a room going.
00;26;13;25 - 00;26;28;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I thought he was really funny. And I'd watch people get up and they all wanted his approval. And you know, he was a headliner of comedy works. Troy Baxley, this very funny guy. And so the guys that would do well, Troy would kind of be like, hey, all right, man. And they'd get like, hang around Troy. Yeah.
00;26;28;27 - 00;26;45;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
And the guys that did terrible and the women that did terrible, Troy wouldn't wear the you didn't you didn't get a penetrate that circle, you know. And so I just remember thinking like, well, the goal here is to impress him and kind of be welcomed into the club. And so I remember the first time I went up there, he I was welcomed.
00;26;45;13 - 00;27;00;02
Adam Cayton-Holland
And he's like, hey, it's really funny. And like, you know, it's like a it's kind of like a, a kitchen. Can you cook or can you not cook. Right. Can you do this thing? We need people that do this thing. And so, you know, even though I was a baby, I could cook a little bit. There was some spark in me.
00;27;00;02 - 00;27;09;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
So yeah, come here. And then then people start telling you things like, you should sign up for Comedy Works New talent night. It takes eight weeks to get on. Sign up now and do mix and tell. Then you'll be ready. And you know, there's those little things.
00;27;09;24 - 00;27;25;17
Tom Green
But that's funny because I've had comedians tell me, you know, guys, you and I, Sam Adams and Kevin Fitzgerald, they're really terrific guys. But they say, you know, you go to comedy works. The crowd wants to laugh. Yeah, you do have they're on your team, right. And you start out when you're doing open mic nights at the Lion's Lair.
00;27;25;17 - 00;27;33;04
Tom Green
It's not 100%. A lot of people want to sit there and make fun of you or to hate you or to, you know, just not be bothered by you.
00;27;33;04 - 00;27;40;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. Or to keep having, you know, their, their alcohol tremors and not be interrupted by this, this sad scene, man.
00;27;40;25 - 00;27;42;18
Tom Green
Is making noise or trying to drink.
00;27;42;18 - 00;27;59;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
I tried to exactly. And so I remember. So, Yeah, I mean, Tuesday night was new talent night. So when I was a young comedian, where's this? That was that. Comedy works. Okay. That's when you, as a young comedian, could maybe get two minutes, three minutes, five minutes, and it's 15 new talent comics. That's.
00;27;59;03 - 00;28;00;10
Tom Green
That's a meritocracy.
00;28;00;10 - 00;28;14;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
You earn more time and you call in to say, hey, I'd like to get on new talent night. They make you wait eight weeks or whatever the waiting period is, and then when you start out, you get two minutes. They cut the mic on you. If you go over two minutes and then if you do well, you get three.
00;28;14;23 - 00;28;34;11
Adam Cayton-Holland
And then and there's a system that's you start as a seed and you become a bee, then you become an A. Now you can do seven minutes on the weekends before the pros. So anyway, you're climbing that ladder and Tuesday night is everything. Who did well, who did not do well. And comedy works felt like like you're like Sam and Kevin say, it's like you felt like King Kong on that stage, right?
00;28;34;11 - 00;28;55;08
Adam Cayton-Holland
You would destroy it. So once my friends and I got a little bit more established, my other friends started another open mic on Tuesday nights. So you go to comedy works from 8 to 10. Do new talent feel like God? Right. And then we'd go to the Squier Lounge and Colfax. Different vibe from 1030 to 2 and be humbled.
00;28;55;15 - 00;28;59;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I, I remember I lived for Tuesday nights because if you could.
00;28;59;08 - 00;29;00;27
Tom Green
Did you like both the Halloween.
00;29;00;27 - 00;29;12;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
Party and eventually why? I think several of my myself and my friends got decent at this was because we crushed comedy works and we would go learned how to go crush at the Squire in a totally different.
00;29;12;23 - 00;29;13;22
Tom Green
Way, as you say, different.
00;29;13;22 - 00;29;14;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
Set, totally different sets.
00;29;14;29 - 00;29;15;27
Tom Green
Different audience.
00;29;15;27 - 00;29;36;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
Comedy works is appreciative. They're ready for you. They want you to win like their squire is, arms across. Prove it, prove it is. Show me, show me. Yeah. And so like, and a lot of it. And drunken and wild. So there's an element of lion taming and. And you just, Yeah. So like. And then eventually we got good.
00;29;36;05 - 00;29;46;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
And now fans are coming to watch us sly and tame. Right? And they're like, these couple of guys are very funny. And we started doing things elsewhere and that became our little clubhouse. And and you just build your scene, you know.
00;29;46;06 - 00;30;03;24
Tom Green
So I, I've asked before, but like I always think of teachers, you get 25 kids in a room and you as a substitute teacher at times would know this. And they're five brilliant kids who you could teach to the moon, their five kids who you couldn't teach to put on shoes. Right. And they're 15 in the middle. So I always wanted to teachers like, who do you teach?
00;30;03;24 - 00;30;22;24
Tom Green
Do you teach that that big group in the middle and bring them along and leave the five behind and the other five don't worry about. And the same with comedy, because you have some stone faces who are there, right? Who don't want to be there or want to give you a hard time. Most people are there to laugh, and then you have some people who don't even know why they're there to do you.
00;30;22;26 - 00;30;28;07
Tom Green
When you're on stage, play to the stone faces or the people who want to ride the ride with you?
00;30;28;10 - 00;30;30;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
That's a good question.
00;30;30;18 - 00;30;33;08
Tom Green
Or do you do you not played anyone? Just do your thing.
00;30;33;09 - 00;30;50;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
It changes. Really changes. I mean, I I've, I've been doing comedy 21 years and like, it's my full I've gotten relatively capable at this. So I more kind of if you're not along the ride with me, I guarantee 90% of the people are. So I don't really care about you. Yeah, I would loved and I but I'm keeping an eye on you.
00;30;50;17 - 00;30;57;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
I really want I really want to crack. I want to see, like a smile. But if I don't, I'm not. I'm not losing sleep over it.
00;30;57;15 - 00;31;14;13
Tom Green
I stood on the stage up there. We had a couple of events and you see the first row. This is comedy works. You see, the first row is sort of see the second row. Then it's all darkness and the clock totally. The clock is is the thing. But you really don't see the room.
00;31;14;13 - 00;31;14;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah.
00;31;14;25 - 00;31;18;11
Tom Green
And it's kind of a weird I think it's a weird vibe to be up there.
00;31;18;11 - 00;31;36;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
It is a void. But sometimes you'll do strange shows and and they're poorly lit. A corporate whatever. And you can see a hundred faces. Yeah. And that's terrible because now you're really honing in the darkness. Helps a lot if you can just see those first couple rows, because it is a performance. I got the things I want to say.
00;31;36;06 - 00;31;53;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
I'd like to riff and go off script if it's fun and natural, but there's a bad trend in stand up comedy that the internet is encouraging because I don't know if you know, this internet's absolute poison, but, I heard the crowd work, crowd work clips. Crowd works, for the most part, is just lazy bullshit.
00;31;53;06 - 00;32;00;16
Tom Green
Now, are you beating on someone? Is that crowd work like you? Somebody says something and you work them over because you're a comic? Yeah. They're just.
00;32;00;21 - 00;32;12;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, but it's really dumb. It's. It's a lot of like. Hey, how did you guys meet? Hey, what do you do for a living? Hey, how long have you been married? Yeah. And I was like, is this what we got into the art form for?
00;32;12;24 - 00;32;19;25
Tom Green
But are they, when they do that, are they mining just to take off and they think they're relating to the audience?
00;32;19;25 - 00;32;34;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
There's a lot of reasons why you do it. I mean, it's a very effective way of warming people up and ingratiating oneself. And then you can go back into your act. But what's happening is a lot of it is getting combative and people are putting those clips up and it's like, oh, he said this and he dissed that person.
00;32;34;24 - 00;32;47;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
And it's just and now people think that's are starting to think that's what comedy is. So they'll come to shows and be like, well, I'm helping the guy. This is what the clips are that I watch and I go, I actually have like an hour of really funny stuff. Great.
00;32;47;25 - 00;32;48;24
Tom Green
If you just care.
00;32;48;24 - 00;32;51;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
To listen like, I've worked on this.
00;32;51;07 - 00;33;02;24
Tom Green
How do you how do you, how did you grow, as a comic? Because you get those open mic nights and when and how like, what is the progress? What does the ascension look like?
00;33;02;26 - 00;33;24;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
You know, I tell this to every comedian, start your own thing. So. So we were doing the open mic nights, and then I just you're drawn to people that have a similar worth, that work ethic or sense of humor. And I remember my friend worked at a bar as the old Curtis Street bar is 21st and Curtis is a is a real nightmare.
00;33;24;08 - 00;33;39;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
But they were doing shows and she was like, my boss wants to do comedy shows. So I just said, cool, I'll do one. And I and I got my funniest friends did a show and then, you know, that became a thing. And he's like, want to do it once a month? I said of course I do. We did it for a few times.
00;33;39;21 - 00;33;58;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
Then a friend of mine owned an art gallery down the street, and I thought, that's more intellectual. Yeah. An interest. Different crowd, different crowd. Yeah. Let's do that. And then that became this whole phenomenon. And then a lot of my friends and I just really popped out of that. And in the meantime, I'm flying to New York, I'm flying to LA, I'm learning about comedic comedy.
00;33;58;25 - 00;34;01;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
I'm opening for famous people who come here.
00;34;01;12 - 00;34;03;21
Tom Green
And are you making a living yet? And.
00;34;03;24 - 00;34;29;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
You know, I got laid off from Westword in 2019. Okay. No, 2009. Okay. And I got hired by in 2004. So for five years, by 2009, I was doing college gigs, which is kind of a stepping stone for comedians. Right. And so college gigs pay great, but you got to travel all over to obscure destinations and perform for 18 year olds.
00;34;29;07 - 00;34;30;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
As a 26 year old.
00;34;30;18 - 00;34;35;01
Tom Green
Do you break even doing that? You make enough to cover your flights, your hotel and your list.
00;34;35;01 - 00;34;58;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
And we're talking about a distant Denver where rent was a lot cheaper. Yeah. And I remember that. Yeah, a great, great, cooler, funkier, harder edged Denver. So I remember by the time I got laid off from Westword, think I was making 30,000 something. I was like, if I can string together 15 college gigs I can make, I can replicate my my westward income.
00;34;58;15 - 00;35;13;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
And so I had been doing maybe a couple of year. I couldn't, didn't have the freedom to go as much because I had a full time job. Right now, I was a loose, loose cannon, and I and I've got very cool parents who my dad's a civil rights attorney, were not hard up. So my dad's like, it's a big leap of faith.
00;35;13;15 - 00;35;21;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
I was like, I know he's like, well, I'm not going to let you starve. You'll be all right. Go for it. It was very cool of him. But that first year I think I got 40 college gigs.
00;35;21;22 - 00;35;26;23
Tom Green
And they also provide you upwardly upward mobility, a chance to get seen or to break out.
00;35;26;23 - 00;35;46;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
Totally. And you're going all over the country. So I would always, if I'm anywhere near New York. All right. Well, how can I string together three days there and get on the best stages I can get on and I was never shy about I was tactful, you know, I would I here's the tact. And this is like a I feel like doing a podcast about comedy.
00;35;46;12 - 00;36;05;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
But, you know, if someone came through Denver now I'm climbing the ranks, I'd get to open for them and I would do well so they'd see I'm funny. And then I would say after the weekend of hanging out with this person and proving I'm not a maniac because a lot of people are crazy in comedy, then I'd say, hey, if I ever come to your town, is it cool if I hit you up?
00;36;05;23 - 00;36;20;02
Adam Cayton-Holland
And they'd be like, of course. And then I would follow up with that. So it's just, you know, like any profession sort of proving your ability, proving you're not proving you're cool and then, you know, having the courage to ask, could you vouch for me on this show and that type of thing?
00;36;20;02 - 00;36;40;06
Tom Green
Denver. Pretty good sized city. Pretty good comedy city. Yeah, but not the the major leagues are still the coast. It's still new York and LA. But after that, it seems like it seems like Denver has done well with comedy. That comedy, you know, pays here. There are two comedy work stores in the metro area. Yeah, people are doing it.
00;36;40;06 - 00;36;50;22
Tom Green
So, you know, I think I think sometimes it feels like it's not where you want to be. If you want to be big, you want to hit it. You got to be on the coast for sure.
00;36;50;25 - 00;37;14;22
Adam Cayton-Holland
But Denver has always punched above its weight on in standup comedy. Yeah, it really has. Comedy works is the reason. But so many comics have come out of here that are making full time livings. Like Sam. Talent came out of here, and, Derek's troops opening for Nate. Bearcats everywhere. Now, Josh blue lives here. Yeah. My friend Ben Roy, this guy Rory Scovel moved here from LA.
00;37;14;22 - 00;37;25;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
He's in all sorts of. So it's just it's got a great airport. Yeah, there's a great comedy club and there's a very healthy indie comedy scene, right of you. You can see shows every night of the week.
00;37;25;27 - 00;37;33;22
Tom Green
And any of those plays still exist. It's the lion's lair, I see it. Is it still? Yeah, serving it is. And the Curtis Club.
00;37;33;22 - 00;37;37;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
No. Old Curtis Street bars. That was that went away a long time. Yeah, yeah.
00;37;37;27 - 00;37;44;13
Tom Green
Because I mean, I think of the places you'd play. Most of them would likely not most, but some of them would be described as dives.
00;37;44;13 - 00;37;59;06
Adam Cayton-Holland
Oh yeah. Yeah I did I recorded my last special. It's called 20 Years in Comedy. And all I got was this lousy special, and I filmed it at the Lions lair because it was like I started here. Let's do it is. It's on YouTube. But it was very fun. We packed, we did two shows, and we packed it out, and.
00;37;59;09 - 00;38;14;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
Right, everyone who's my age was like, oh, I remember this. And it was funny because I went in with the sense of nostalgia like, let's go. Let's all go back to where it all happened, and then you get in there in five minutes. You're like, oh, this is just a shithole. Like there's no there's no rose colored lenses on this one.
00;38;14;19 - 00;38;17;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
But it was a very fun night. And there's it's still there.
00;38;17;29 - 00;38;29;21
Tom Green
What were some of your biggest, breaks? I know you did, Conan. That was one. Yeah, but you had some opportunities where, you know, suddenly that world opened up to you.
00;38;29;21 - 00;38;52;19
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, yeah. I mean, I remember, there's there's the just for laughs comedy festival in Montreal, and every year they do new faces. That's maybe 12 or 15 of the best new comics in the country, and you're invited to perform, and it's kind of an agency feeding frenzy. You get representation out of that, and it's the launching pad I like in it to a draft.
00;38;52;24 - 00;38;54;02
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, in a sport, it's.
00;38;54;03 - 00;38;56;16
Tom Green
The draw combine because you had a guy come on by.
00;38;56;17 - 00;38;59;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
100, that's it. That's a way better I should say combine. You ran.
00;38;59;17 - 00;39;00;17
Tom Green
A you ran a big.
00;39;00;18 - 00;39;18;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
I had a great combine. Yeah a great combine. The knees were better back then. Yeah. So I got that was 2012. And you go up there and you get, I think 8 or 10 minutes that it's like a showcase. And, you know, some people do really well and some don't. And it's a high pressure situation. All of Hollywood's they're watching.
00;39;18;07 - 00;39;22;14
Adam Cayton-Holland
There's all these sharks I know now it it's not as significant as I thought it was.
00;39;22;15 - 00;39;28;07
Tom Green
No. But why would you not think that this was, you know, one of your biggest sets? You would kid from Denver. Yeah.
00;39;28;08 - 00;39;36;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
Broke through. You know, everybody else is from all over, but mostly New York and LA. And here I am in Montreal, competing.
00;39;36;06 - 00;39;48;04
Tom Green
I always think, you know, you watch a guy on the free throw line or something and, you know, there's four seconds left and it's a tie game. And you think, man, his heart must be racing. And I think you look at some guys ago now, he's he's shooting a free throw like he did yesterday morning.
00;39;48;04 - 00;39;49;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
And Jamal Murray did that the other night.
00;39;49;24 - 00;40;04;29
Tom Green
Yeah yeah. No big deal. They get it. But when you're on Conan or when you're in Montreal, the nerves are a piece of the puzzle and they can help you and they can hurt you. Did you feel that, like, when did you know that this was a platform for you that you may not see again?
00;40;04;29 - 00;40;24;06
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yes, absolutely. Well, there's two funny. There's it's but it is. But like Jamal who I not I would not comparing myself to you get that first little laugh and you go oh that's riding a bike. Here we go, here we go. I've done this a million times. Conan, I remember, was nerve wracking because I'd never done television, and I.
00;40;24;09 - 00;40;45;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
Conan's like a hero of mine. Yeah, I, I did in addition to The Onion, The Simpsons, those are my two. Yeah, those are my two humor tentpoles. Conan wrote many of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons. So I was like, starstruck. And I'm standing backstage and there's, there's, gaffers who are pulling the curtain.
00;40;45;07 - 00;40;45;09
Tom Green
And.
00;40;45;13 - 00;40;57;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
Stagehands and I'm like, real nervous. And I'm just like, thinking about the momentum of this one. Them just just ripped apart. And I was just like, oh, this is just a job for this to do. Like, this doesn't matter.
00;40;57;13 - 00;40;58;10
Tom Green
Thinking about lunch.
00;40;58;10 - 00;41;07;22
Adam Cayton-Holland
I was like, thanks, dude. And then I just like, walked through that into the stage and I was like, okay, this is just a job. This is just the audience. But. And that went really well. It was a great set.
00;41;07;24 - 00;41;23;00
Tom Green
Yeah, yeah. I, you know, I think of when you do that, like obviously nowadays you get immediate feedback. Your, your your phone goes nuts. Yeah. People tell you and that. What does that feel like. Because you're
00;41;23;02 - 00;41;31;08
Adam Cayton-Holland
You know the the Squire where we used to perform, hosted a viewing of it. Right. Like people are texting me left and right, and it was, you know, it was cool.
00;41;31;13 - 00;41;50;08
Tom Green
I was funny because I. You doing a set you pretty much have not necessarily a script, but something akin to a script that you're going to perform. And I think when AMC set up for when I do a live shot or when I'm chatting with someone on the, the news that I used to do, people say, I can't believe you said that, or I remember when you said this or whatever.
00;41;50;12 - 00;41;53;02
Tom Green
I don't even remember it. Yeah, like it. It's well.
00;41;53;02 - 00;41;58;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
You're a great interviewer. You're right. It's it's very just impromptu and off the cuff and natural. That's how.
00;41;58;04 - 00;42;10;04
Tom Green
It works. But dude. But do you like, is it a blur when you walk off the stage after Conan or Montreal? Do you just kind of go, what just happened? Or do you remember it all like that?
00;42;10;07 - 00;42;32;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
The very first time I performed ever at the Lion's Lair, where the MC tribe actually accepted me into the circle afterwards. That is a pure blackout by me. Yeah, the first set ever was a 100% blackout, and I had I had memorized every word of my performance, so I just went up into a fugue state and spat out, I'm sure, with zero stage presence, my jokes and they work somehow.
00;42;32;23 - 00;42;42;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I came to literally with Troy being like, hey man, good job shaking my hand. And I'm walking off the stage. That's the only one I've ever been like, I don't remember a thing. I don't remember what I said. Remember what I said, I remember.
00;42;42;13 - 00;42;43;11
Tom Green
Laugh, I've heard people.
00;42;43;11 - 00;42;53;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
Laughing. Yeah, they're inviting me back. But but no, I mean, by the time I done, Montreal, I was six, eight years in, you know.
00;42;53;25 - 00;42;56;00
Tom Green
So you'd had a certain comfort level.
00;42;56;00 - 00;42;57;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
You certainly earlier.
00;42;57;09 - 00;42;57;29
Tom Green
With the feel.
00;42;58;00 - 00;43;02;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
Butterflies and replaying. I want to see the footage and stuff like that.
00;43;02;10 - 00;43;19;03
Tom Green
But Montreal, afforded you the opportunity finally, where Amazon came forth and decided to back one of your projects as something you'd written and wanted to make. And it wasn't, it was more of a sitcom, more of a reality sitcom called Those Who Can't. Yeah. What was that about?
00;43;19;04 - 00;43;28;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
You know, that's it's all just a perfect storm. But as as I'm getting to the Montreal level, my buddy Ben Roy, I have a comedy troupe called the Great Alex. It's me and two other guys.
00;43;28;15 - 00;43;31;21
Tom Green
But you have to tell people because people. What is a great.
00;43;31;23 - 00;43;52;28
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yes, a great Alex is in a, comic strip. When there's a swear word, they put all the little asterisks. Hashtag ampersand. Yeah. That is referred to as a groulx. Okay. And so we learned that we like to say it's obscure and pretentious, just like us. But so we that's the name of our comedy troupe. The year before I went to Montreal in 2012.
00;43;52;28 - 00;44;12;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
Ben Roy out of Denver went in 2011. And I remember people be like, this is insane. Two dudes from Denver and consecutive years, this has never happened. Denver's the spot. Yeah. And so, you know and then more came after Ben and I. So it was cool. But Ben and I and Andrew had been having a successful indie show.
00;44;12;23 - 00;44;32;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
We'd been making a web series, and it was doing well enough that, people approached us and like, you should write scripts and this and that. And so we just started working on the script, and we transferred that world into a, a there was three idiots into a failing public school, and we were teachers and we called it Those Who can't.
00;44;32;20 - 00;44;51;20
Adam Cayton-Holland
And yet Amazon bought it and we had a short little meal with Amazon back when they were it was very early. It was their first programing. Right. And but they aired our pilot. I remember they had six pilots. They paid us to make one. It was it was the purest. It was the purest creative thing I've ever had in my life.
00;44;51;20 - 00;45;15;20
Adam Cayton-Holland
Because basically Amazon had five shows that they wanted to make, and they were giving them huge budgets. They wanted us to be their little indie web series. We found these guys on the internet harder off. Aren't we cool, Amazon that we found these obscure dudes on the internet. So we learned later these other shows. They had million, literally $1 million budgets.
00;45;15;23 - 00;45;35;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
Amazon gave us $50,000. Oh, and they said, can you make a pilot in a week? And we're like, this is the most money we've ever seen. Of course get. Yeah. So so we did. Nobody flew out here. Nobody bothered us. We filmed it at Manual High School and it was so funny. Amazon had to like take us seriously.
00;45;35;03 - 00;45;52;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
I think they were just trying to tick a box of like, let's show people that we encourage support and creativity. Yeah, I don't think they expected it to be good. And it and then they had the audiences rank them and revote on them. And we were way above everybody. And so then Amazon paid us right. Six more scripts and then they dropped us.
00;45;52;12 - 00;46;11;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
They didn't pick it up. And but because they showed that pilot two years later, two TVs converting into a full time comedy network, someone over there had seen that pilot and thought, whatever happened to those guys? And we had the second chance. And we did three seasons and 36 episodes, and it was a dream come true.
00;46;11;20 - 00;46;14;11
Tom Green
Those who can't short for those who can't teach.
00;46;14;14 - 00;46;16;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, those who can't do teach. Yeah.
00;46;16;11 - 00;46;27;08
Tom Green
And so this also reflects on your time. I think of you as a substitute teacher. It sounds like you kind of just mentioned that like like somebody like I could walk in off the street and say, hey, I'll sub today.
00;46;27;08 - 00;46;31;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
I mean, as long as I don't have a criminal record, I can pretty much scan, man.
00;46;31;16 - 00;46;37;06
Tom Green
So but tell people quickly about those who can't like what the series was, because I think people will go look for it.
00;46;37;13 - 00;46;40;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. Well, it's it's the sad thing is it's lost in the streaming. Oh.
00;46;41;01 - 00;46;41;25
Tom Green
You can't find it.
00;46;42;00 - 00;46;45;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. I mean it's just corporate merger and corporate merger.
00;46;45;09 - 00;46;47;07
Tom Green
It's Barry. You think everything's there.
00;46;47;10 - 00;47;03;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. But not. But the thing that I'm most proud of in my life has vanished. I'm sure it will reemerge. You know, Netflix just bought Warner. That's held up for years. I'm sure it'll see the light of day. You can pirate it. Pirate it. But, yeah.
00;47;03;07 - 00;47;04;19
Tom Green
Send you a few bucks.
00;47;04;19 - 00;47;27;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
No, I don't even care. Just watch it and tell somebody else to pirate it. Take down these corporations. Who cares? But yeah, it was just. I played a Spanish teacher. Ben played a, history teacher, and he played the gym teacher. It was at a fictional high school called Smoot High School. And we filmed it in LA at Van Nuys High School, where they shot Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
00;47;27;06 - 00;47;46;19
Adam Cayton-Holland
Oh, and, I mean, it was a dream come true, Tom. We had such a good cast. We had all these great cameos. Patton Oswald came on the show. I mean, Sarah Michelle Gellar was in an episode. That's great. Michael Madsen, who recently passed away from Reservoir Dogs, was an episode. It was cool. And we were the writers.
00;47;46;19 - 00;47;53;19
Adam Cayton-Holland
We were the creators. We were the executive producers. So we wrote it all. We starred in it. It was a dream come true. You have to do it again.
00;47;53;23 - 00;48;05;17
Tom Green
You were freer to do a lot of that stuff when it was just you. Now you're married with a couple of kids. Yeah. I saw you perform recently. And you were. You talk about not necessarily your kids as much as fatherhood.
00;48;05;17 - 00;48;06;08
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yes.
00;48;06;11 - 00;48;14;06
Tom Green
And so I imagine what's happening in your life becomes fodder for what you do. But the family thing is always tricky for comics. You have to kind of get permission, right?
00;48;14;06 - 00;48;25;14
Adam Cayton-Holland
You really do. My wife's very cool. And we're she's a stay at home mom, although she started substituting in our kids preschool, which is great. They asked her to do it. I'm proud of.
00;48;25;14 - 00;48;29;21
Tom Green
Her. Do you ever say those who can't. What do you substitute?
00;48;29;23 - 00;48;30;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
No, I want to.
00;48;30;28 - 00;48;31;11
Tom Green
Don't do.
00;48;31;11 - 00;48;46;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
That. Yeah, I want to keep the keep the peace. Yeah. It's different. Like, you know, I used to go on the road for as long as I could go, and now I'll be, like, two days. Three days and come back. I film the movie and we'll talk about that later or whatever, but, you know, I'd be gone for a month.
00;48;46;29 - 00;48;55;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, that was crazy. That's the longest I've ever been. But they came out there twice. I came home on some weekends. You know, we we made it work. But, yeah, it's the.
00;48;55;14 - 00;49;06;12
Tom Green
The kids are young enough, too, that you can kid about them without them being aware of what you're saying about them, because you you told some very funny stories, you know, that I think all fathers can relate to.
00;49;06;12 - 00;49;22;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
Absolutely. And but the second kid and I have a joke about it is the classic second kid. The joke is, you know, first kid comes out, he's like, mama, dad, I love you. And the second kid's like, I'm pretty sure we can play it down to manslaughter. And and that's that's my second kid. So he's only four. Ellis.
00;49;22;05 - 00;49;39;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
The, he of Lafond Zo and Ellis Burks. But, yeah, a lot of the jokes are like, this kid's a monster. And my older sister, Anna, she was like, you need to, you need to. He's going to see these. Yeah, and it's not mean, but it is very much like I got one who's easy and one who's hard.
00;49;40;01 - 00;49;57;19
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. And she's like, you need to, like, make these a little so that he's happier about them down the road now. And I appreciate my sister checking that because you just kind of go for the laugh sometimes. You like it's a four year old. It doesn't. But it's like, no, this is a person with a brain. Yeah. Who will watch this maybe, and would like to hear his dad speaking kindly of them as well.
00;49;57;20 - 00;50;11;07
Tom Green
So ten years, it'll be only easier to find every last 100%. Because you think about growing up, you know, you get a few pictures taken here and there, and now every kid has 35 pictures of them taken every day.
00;50;11;09 - 00;50;31;16
Adam Cayton-Holland
Well, and like every kid has everything that they type into the internet. Yeah. Following that. Yeah. And I'm like so grateful that was not the case for me. You know, even down to just like being a middle school kid and making prank calls and stuff, my friends and I would do that. That was a blast. Now, they'd probably do that online somehow.
00;50;31;16 - 00;50;40;28
Adam Cayton-Holland
And it's, you know, who knows what horrible things we said trying to get a laugh or did. Yeah, but now that stuff follows them. So I get you got a ton. You get that.
00;50;40;28 - 00;50;45;16
Tom Green
When they say your permanent record now they mean it. I don't know, you were actually have that digital.
00;50;45;21 - 00;50;46;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
Your digital footprint.
00;50;46;28 - 00;50;56;15
Tom Green
Yeah. They know who you are. Yeah man. So you play you big cities and small cities. Last time I saw you was in, the metropolitan area of gypsum, Colorado.
00;50;56;16 - 00;50;58;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yes. It was, it was a nice. I hit them all time.
00;50;58;17 - 00;51;02;04
Tom Green
It was a great brewery. No, it was a great night. Thought it was a lot of fun.
00;51;02;06 - 00;51;04;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
That was fun. Jim. I met a man that.
00;51;04;13 - 00;51;21;19
Tom Green
Even came out with us. Yeah, and I had another buddy of mine with me. We thought it was terrific, but what's a day like? Like on the road? I mean, obviously I always think of ballplayers getting to the arena, having to shoot around. Yeah, skate around or, you know, stretching. What? What do you do?
00;51;21;25 - 00;51;39;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
I'm bored. I'm boring now. Like, I like to get there, you know, that was a local gig. Somewhat. I did drive to drive three hours, but. Yeah, usually I like to, you know, it's nice. I'm a dad, so it's like, I just like to have a little freedom. And, you know, I'll go to a cool restaurant.
00;51;39;23 - 00;51;57;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
I go to an interesting museum in that city right before the gig. I like to I don't like to eat. I like to eat after the show, to go with full belly on stage. Right? Just feel sluggish, you know, I, I like if it's two nights, the first night I don't drink at all. So the next day I can get up and see things and be healthy.
00;51;57;23 - 00;52;05;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
And then the second night I'll have 2 or 3 beers and like a gentleman. Right. And, enjoy myself. But yeah, nothing I there's no, there's.
00;52;05;17 - 00;52;12;09
Tom Green
No, there's no routine. It's just kind of get there, make sure you're there earlier on time. Yeah, yeah. Do your show.
00;52;12;09 - 00;52;36;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I really hate to be there super early. Right. If I get into the venue five minutes before I'm on, that'd be great. Perfect. But sitting around for an hour, just especially like every comedy club is, is, it's own little kingdom. Yeah, it's a little fiefdom. There's a there's a the guy, just the woman who runs it and there's their whole staff and it's all lovely.
00;52;36;03 - 00;52;49;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
But there is always an element of Kiss the Ring like I think, thank you for being here. And some are very cool. They're like, thank you for being here. But sometimes you just got to go and and, you know, navigate some new ego and you don't really want to do that. So it's just kind of like, let me just go do the thing.
00;52;49;26 - 00;52;58;28
Tom Green
Where's your favorite place? I mean, you know, let's leave Denver out of it. But when you've been on the road, is there a town or a venue that you love the most? Or look forward to going back to?
00;52;58;28 - 00;53;19;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
Lots of them. People always ask me like, what cities are sort of under the radar, American cities that you like performing in. And I guess it's just as vain as I do well, in these cities. Yeah, but I love Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Oh, Waukesha, I love Milwaukee, and I love Portland, Oregon. Another cool time. Yeah, yeah. And like, for some reason, I've had nothing but great shows there.
00;53;19;19 - 00;53;27;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
The audience is I mean, Portland, they're so smart. So this is like a literate liberal crowd. That's kind of my cup of tea.
00;53;27;07 - 00;53;28;16
Tom Green
That's who's going to come see you.
00;53;28;16 - 00;53;40;16
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. And so, Portland always treats me great, but yeah, you know, those are the sort of under the radar. Madison, Wisconsin randomly has a great college town. Yeah, yeah. College towns are always good.
00;53;40;18 - 00;54;06;18
Tom Green
So you wrote this book a few years ago called Tragedy in Time, and it's it's got a lot of what we've talked about your path in comedy, but it's it's a very serious story. Yeah. It's about your family and more specifically, your younger sister who, ultimately takes her own life. And how you how you reacted and coped and dealt and didn't cope and didn't deal and all the things that come with that.
00;54;06;20 - 00;54;14;23
Tom Green
It's a it's a difficult book to read because it's extremely personal. You are you are very free with what you experienced and what your family felt.
00;54;14;23 - 00;54;15;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, 100%.
00;54;15;27 - 00;54;17;04
Tom Green
It must have been very hard to write.
00;54;17;08 - 00;54;39;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
It was the hardest thing to write in the world. As my little sister Lydia, who I'm very, very close with and, Yeah, just shocking. And in just a mental health battle. But, yeah, I, I wrote that book and also all this stuff we're talking about. This was going on when I did Montreal and crushed in 2012.
00;54;39;21 - 00;55;10;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
I came back and Lydia took her life 5 or 6 days later when I went to to LA to take a meeting with Amazon, it was three weeks after Lydia had killed herself. So I went into Amazon's offices totally nihilistic, totally not giving a shit about this meeting, right? And basically, like, why am I here? And my parents and, and my older sister were like, because you've been working for this so hard.
00;55;10;24 - 00;55;14;06
Tom Green
But any priorities you've ever had in your life were totally shuffle.
00;55;14;06 - 00;55;36;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
What you thought was, the world is no longer the world, right? And what I thought I cared about, I don't care about anymore. But Lydia was like a huge fan, huge into my comedy, big support. She would work the door of our shows. She was involved. She was known in the scene. I would run jokes by her and she'd be like, try this, you know, as we were, she was my dear friend, my best friend.
00;55;36;02 - 00;55;54;15
Adam Cayton-Holland
So like, now she's gone. I'm starting to kick ass and I don't care. So, I mean, I wrote about this in the book, but that Amazon meeting, I go in and it's just schmooze Hollywood bullshit. And they're like, tell us about this show. And I'm like, yeah, we wrote this script. It's the funniest thing ever. You should buy it.
00;55;54;15 - 00;55;55;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
I'm I'm like that blasé.
00;55;56;01 - 00;55;59;21
Tom Green
It reminds you of the guy in Office Space when he told him the truth.
00;55;59;21 - 00;56;18;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. Like they're like, dude. Exactly. Yeah. Because, you know, they're just like Hollywood sharks and they expect you to be scared or impressed. And I'm like, I don't, I don't care, I don't care, I don't want to be here. And so I remember they they go, well, we already have a high school show. And I go, well, our shows 100 times better than that show.
00;56;19;01 - 00;56;19;21
Tom Green
Without you know.
00;56;19;23 - 00;56;27;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
What. Yeah. I don't even. And then the guy's like, well, between you and either script's not even finished yet and I go there, scripts not even fucking finished yet. I was just like that. Yeah.
00;56;27;28 - 00;56;29;08
Tom Green
It's just I didn't care.
00;56;29;08 - 00;56;30;16
Adam Cayton-Holland
And I walked out of there.
00;56;30;16 - 00;56;31;14
Tom Green
And can be a weapon.
00;56;31;14 - 00;56;39;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. And I go back to my rental car and I'm probably sobbing, and my manager calls like, I don't know what you said in there, man. They want to buy the thing. And I was like, okay.
00;56;39;08 - 00;56;40;15
Tom Green
And can't even get excited.
00;56;40;15 - 00;57;09;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, yeah. Well, then they call Ben and Andrew and they're like, Holy shit. And truthfully though, that was sort of a godsend. I, I've the books about it, but I, I went through so much therapy and, and you know, I found my little sister, I was very, like nightmares and intrusive thoughts and PTSD. I did this eMDR therapy as fucked up, but in a cliche way, suddenly.
00;57;09;21 - 00;57;38;06
Adam Cayton-Holland
Here's a new project that you can just bury yourself in, right? And it's funny, it's silly. It has nothing to do with that. And it's yours and it's mine, and I don't want to blow it. And, so all that's going on at the same time. And, so, yeah, I definitely tabled some healing and, and processing. But then I did a lot of that once I got this book opportunity, and I didn't write the book because I had my thoughts gathered.
00;57;38;06 - 00;57;59;28
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, I had an opportunity to write the book, and I gathered my thoughts in writing it. And you Lovesong. I saw it and saw. Yeah. And I so I felt this really weird pressure to like, I don't know, Lydia was great and funny and dark and sweet, and so I didn't want her to just be like, here's here's, like, the Adam sister killed himself herself.
00;58;00;07 - 00;58;14;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
I didn't want that to be, like, all that people thought about her or the sort of like, simple synopsis, because she was not that simple. So I felt this really weird pressure to be like you. This book has to show how great Lydia was. So it so I think it did.
00;58;14;11 - 00;58;19;24
Tom Green
Well. It's an incredibly dark thing to happen. So it's understandable that there would be darkness.
00;58;19;24 - 00;58;20;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, yeah.
00;58;20;13 - 00;58;33;27
Tom Green
But I've always felt a lot of comics strike me as dark off stage. Yeah. Like there's a price you pay for being so funny, so uplifting that there's, a check at the end of that that you have to pay.
00;58;33;27 - 00;58;38;12
Adam Cayton-Holland
You know, prior to that, I knew all of that. It's kind of the cliche sad clown.
00;58;38;12 - 00;58;39;09
Tom Green
Right?
00;58;39;12 - 00;58;57;17
Adam Cayton-Holland
But I was always like, did didn't think that applied to me. Yeah. And, you know, I come from a pretty sweet background. Everything seemed pretty all right. And then like, that happened and I was like, yeah, I guess, but but then, you know, I think that's almost reductive to be like, well, yeah, you have you got your demons to Adam because your sister suffered mental illness.
00;58;57;19 - 00;59;16;24
Adam Cayton-Holland
Is that a demon? You know what I mean? It's like, that's what I, I don't have any sort of agenda. And I think it's cheesy to be like, I'm baring the mental health crisis, but I do firmly believe that this is a disease like cancer. And nobody ever asks what went wrong. What what were the signs with cancer?
00;59;16;24 - 00;59;34;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
It's like, well, they got it and it fucking took them out. And so like I it's taken me a long time to get there with, with Lydia. But it's like, yes, she got it and it took her out and that's the disease. And so, I still don't necessarily view it as like, well, see you a dark comic too.
00;59;34;25 - 00;59;40;08
Adam Cayton-Holland
Certainly dark things have happened to me and but pathless and all of it. But I.
00;59;40;08 - 00;59;41;29
Tom Green
Completely separate.
00;59;42;01 - 01;00;03;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. And the more I talk about this in, the more I do all this, every human's got that. Yeah, every human's got pathos. And people they know that have died, that they loved and mental ill, mentally ill relatives that they don't talk about or I don't know, it's like it couldn't be more, what's the word I'm looking for?
01;00;03;29 - 01;00;15;04
Adam Cayton-Holland
Just everywhere. Just ubiquitous. Common? Yeah. It's everywhere. You know, you go back in anyone's family lineage far enough. There's some mentally ill people in that family. Yeah. And so I just.
01;00;15;04 - 01;00;15;19
Tom Green
Hope it isn't.
01;00;15;19 - 01;00;16;05
Adam Cayton-Holland
You. You just hope.
01;00;16;05 - 01;00;19;04
Tom Green
It doesn't get later, you know that. Don't say. Yeah, man.
01;00;19;07 - 01;00;24;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
And it. But if it was you, it's a genetic dice roll. Right. And you. And it was your turn, man.
01;00;24;29 - 01;00;34;15
Tom Green
So the book Tragedy in Time was out a few years ago, but now you've got a big, it's being it's it's been made into a film. Yeah. That we're going to see next month at Sundance.
01;00;34;15 - 01;00;34;28
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah.
01;00;34;28 - 01;00;35;18
Tom Green
What's it called?
01;00;35;21 - 01;00;55;02
Adam Cayton-Holland
It's called see you when I see you. Yeah, I wrote it into a script. It's like this is the culmination of six years at this point. So, yeah, it started in it in a weird way. I wrote the book with this very big pressure on myself to, capture Lydia to a tee, and I think I did it.
01;00;55;02 - 01;01;11;10
Adam Cayton-Holland
I'm very proud of it. So that kind of allowed me the freedom to be like, okay, now here's Lydia. I can put this down. If anyone wants to know about my little sister, here it is. Here's what I think. Here's the tribute to her. I recommend reading this if you want to know my story. That freed me to sort of play elsewhere.
01;01;11;13 - 01;01;29;19
Adam Cayton-Holland
I was a film major, I love movies, I was like, I'm to try to take a crack at this as a script. So I started writing it, and I've tinkered and tinkered and tinkered, and I'm really good friends through stand up comedy with this great comedian, Kumail Nanjiani. Sure. And his wife, Emily Gordon, they made a movie called The Big Sick.
01;01;29;21 - 01;01;52;16
Adam Cayton-Holland
They ran a show in LA called meltdown, which was kind of an indie, great show. And so when I was going out to LA and begging to get on shows, somehow I got on that one. Befriended them years ago, and they're awesome people. Despite Kumail being a literal superhero now, they're the same cool, nerdy video game kids that I met back in their indie comedy club.
01;01;52;19 - 01;02;04;00
Adam Cayton-Holland
But. So I told them I wanted to do this. They had gone through the experience of making The Big Sick and putting their life story on film, and they came on board immediately and were producers, and they've helped me the whole way.
01;02;04;00 - 01;02;13;08
Tom Green
When I read the book and heard of the movie, I was concerned about, you know, everyone, when you surrender your story to Hollywood. Yeah, but you did not you you were a part of the film making.
01;02;13;08 - 01;02;13;20
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah.
01;02;13;20 - 01;02;19;11
Tom Green
And you wrote the screenplay I did. So you're you're comfortable with its portrayal of you and Lydia for sure.
01;02;19;11 - 01;02;34;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
For sure. And, you know, Kumail and Emily having gone through this, the first advice they gave me and by this point when I when I reached out to them, I was like, hey, I've got a script. And they were like, well, let us see it. And they were like, you don't know how to write a script. So that gave me some, helpful things to read.
01;02;34;29 - 01;02;53;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
And, and I came back with multiple versions and we tinkered. But, the thing that Kumail told me, he's like, don't name your character Adam. This is a story. These are characters. And if you name them, Adam, you're going to be it's got to be beholden to you. You're stuck. Yeah. And he's like, changed it all. So I did.
01;02;53;07 - 01;03;15;09
Adam Cayton-Holland
And and so it's very much my family's story, but that that little simple note allowed the freedom to be like what's good for the script. So there are fictional elements to this movie and you see it. It's unmistakably our story. But there are things that lend themselves better to film that we did. I again, I had the freedom to create a new thing, and it's become this beautiful movie, that'll be out at Sundance in a month.
01;03;15;09 - 01;03;18;12
Tom Green
And we'll see it when it comes out. Yeah. I want to end on a lighter note.
01;03;18;12 - 01;03;19;27
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yes, sir.
01;03;19;29 - 01;03;38;07
Tom Green
I grew up in the early, early ages of television. So for me, comedy would oftentimes be as simple as I Love Lucy or Dick Van Dike or those things. And then when my father would expose me to older films, like we would go see the Marx Brothers, that's when I said, oh, my God, that's what funny is funny is, is is writing.
01;03;38;07 - 01;03;48;11
Tom Green
It's not, you know, Lucy making a face. Yeah. Like who who were the comics or the television or film comedians you looked at and said, oh my God, that's that's brilliant.
01;03;48;12 - 01;04;08;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
Oh, dude, what a great question. I love this question. And I could go on forever about this. John Candy knocked me out. Oh, man. John Candy like, knocked me out from the get go, especially uncle Buck. Yeah, I remember seeing that. And even as a young person, like, processing this is super funny and probably relating to Macaulay Culkin in it.
01;04;08;07 - 01;04;27;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
Right. But thinking that there's something more here and like learning about heart and comedy and then and then I was, you know, missing it. It's always like, who are your SNL generation? And mine was Farley and Sandler and Mike Myers and Phil Hartman pretty good. So Tommy Boy, yeah, was a big one. That was the one where I remember having the VHS and watching it again and again and again and again again.
01;04;27;27 - 01;04;49;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
And then I got into college and, I remember seeing the movie Bottle Rocket, which is Wes Anderson's first movie. Yeah. And thinking I've never seen anything like this and watching it in between classes, am I in college on a VHS? And then I've, I've really I love Wes Anderson. He's gotten super twee and specific, but like when he got to The Royal Tenenbaums.
01;04;49;07 - 01;04;50;23
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah, that's probably my favorite.
01;04;50;23 - 01;04;51;11
Tom Green
Movie, really.
01;04;51;11 - 01;04;58;03
Adam Cayton-Holland
I love the royal title, but I mean, it's like a fucked up family trying their best to sort of get through it. I love it.
01;04;58;07 - 01;04;58;25
Tom Green
That's great.
01;04;58;25 - 01;05;00;13
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah.
01;05;00;15 - 01;05;04;27
Tom Green
It's funny, I have all the time in the world and we're out.
01;05;04;29 - 01;05;14;00
Tom Green
I just used to remember that when I did morning news. I always thought we got all this time, but we. We can't talk to anymore because we have to get the traffic and weather because, yeah, it might have changed in the last six minutes.
01;05;14;00 - 01;05;18;29
Adam Cayton-Holland
Well, usually you and I get to talk five, ten minutes. So this is this is a really nice, nice career for me, man.
01;05;19;06 - 01;05;27;08
Tom Green
It's great to see you again. Yeah. Thanks for taking the time to join us. Good luck. I know you're doing stand up. I know you're up in Fort Collins. This may air.
01;05;27;10 - 01;05;28;08
Adam Cayton-Holland
And after that.
01;05;28;08 - 01;05;28;26
Tom Green
Picture, but.
01;05;29;00 - 01;05;35;22
Adam Cayton-Holland
I got a website. Adam in holland.com. I always put all my shows up there and. Well, I'd love to see some of your your fans at my show. That'd be.
01;05;35;22 - 01;05;43;06
Tom Green
Great. And we'd I'd love it. I'd, I'd recommend it. And also, look for the film and discussion of the film at Sundance in January.
01;05;43;06 - 01;05;53;25
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. And I know that you can buy tickets to that premiere online. Okay. So if that's something that people interested in, I think it's like 35 bucks. I'm learning all this, but you can literally watch the premiere.
01;05;53;25 - 01;05;54;03
Tom Green
In.
01;05;54;03 - 01;05;55;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
As a as it premieres.
01;05;55;07 - 01;05;56;12
Tom Green
Oh, in your home.
01;05;56;12 - 01;05;57;21
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. And I don't think.
01;05;57;21 - 01;06;00;07
Tom Green
You don't have to go to Utah. No. It's the last year. It's in Utah.
01;06;00;07 - 01;06;13;26
Adam Cayton-Holland
Yeah. And I, I don't know that is all new to me, but I don't think it stays in your TV. I think you have to be there for that specific time. Okay. And that that's all coming out here soon. But if you follow me and you see that you can watch the live premiere at Sundance and all that.
01;06;14;02 - 01;06;15;07
Adam Cayton-Holland
Thanks. Yeah. Thank you.
01;06;15;07 - 01;06;15;22
Tom Green
Good to see you.
01;06;15;23 - 01;06;19;18
Adam Cayton-Holland
Good to see you.
01;06;19;21 - 01;06;38;13
Tom Green
Obviously, I really enjoyed my time with Adam, Kate and Holland. Hopefully you get a chance to check him out, either in person or maybe get a look at the film. See you when I see you. And that'll be out in January. At least it'll be shown at Sundance, the final year of Sundance and Utah before it comes here to Colorado.
01;06;38;15 - 01;06;55;29
Tom Green
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01;06;55;29 - 01;07;12;07
Tom Green
Then you can get a few swings in. They have golf simulators there. You can have a nice cold drink. You can enjoy some time. And, it's a lot better than sitting there again, staring at your telephone and wondering, when are we leaving? So it's golf, then? It's, It's a great place to get some swings in and have some fun.
01;07;12;07 - 01;07;31;07
Tom Green
I've enjoyed my time there. Hopefully you'll get a chance to get out there and see it as well. You can also get gift certificates. It's on their website, of course, at Golf Dash den.com. That's it for this week's edition. Happy holidays everybody. We hope to see you back here again next week for another edition of the other Tom Green Show.