As devastating wildfires blaze through multiple pockets of L.A., they continue to take a toll on residents from all walks of life — including comedians, whose job it is to make people laugh in these times of tragedy, even as some have also been evacuated or lost their homes.
Southern California native and longtime Malibu resident, podcaster and comedian Adam Carolla recently spoke with The Times about his experience evacuating from the fires, and how his condo miraculously survived. Carolla, who is constantly performing in L.A. and around the country, spoke about what he knows so far about the city of Malibu, his upcoming gigs — including the Comedy Fantasy Camp in Hollywood this weekend — and his opinions on jokes about the fires and other tragedies. He also talked about his decision to leave California due to state policies and taxes, and where he eventually plans to relocate.
You’ve lived in Malibu for some time, and were in the middle of the fire zone. What was the process of evacuating like for you?
I’ve had my condo in Malibu for about five years and another place in another part of the city for a few years as well. I’ve been living in Malibu off and on for the last 18 years. When it comes to the evacuation, I don’t get scared easily, it takes a lot to scare me. I wasn’t freaked out at all. My wiring is mostly worried about being inconvenienced, or embarrassing myself in some way where I do something to screw something up or hurt someone or something. Those are my default settings, I don’t really worry about fear or personal safety. I worry more about protocols or screwing something up and embarrassing myself. I was living at a hotel in Burbank for a few days, they still haven’t let us back into our homes. But, now I am staying at my buddy Dr. Drew’s house near Pasadena.
You have a lot of neighbors who have lost their homes and properties. Do you have any updated information you’ve heard on the condition of the area where you live?
Well, I’m not sure about Santa Monica or Pacific Palisades. But in the center of the city, like in Malibu proper, at this point I would say it seems like 75-80% of the homes and businesses are just gone, burnt to the ground, nothing left. The hillside area, that is to be expected to some degree, but near the ocean on PCH that is insane beyond belief, it’s just total devastation, people are still in shock, and yeah, I did have many neighbors like myself who thankfully made it out unscathed, but many also lost their homes. I have a good friend who lost two places, one on PCH and one in the canyons of Malibu. They are both gone, that is a rough spot to be in.
Through the disaster you were still working, even recording an episode of your podcast a day after the evacuation from your Burbank hotel room, and playing comedy shows. How do you do it?
It is just my wiring to keep working. But, I will admit, this week has been such a whirlwind. But I am glad I have some fun shows coming up. What I’m looking forward to is the Comedy Fantasy Camp in Hollywood. We’re doing it again, and will be having some fun at this time around again in Hollywood. A lot of my friends are performing like Jay Leno, Brad Williams, Natasha Leggero, and there will be more.
As a professional stand-up comedian, do you think it’s insensitive, or “too soon” to make jokes about the recent fires, or any other major catastrophe or tragedy?
Well, I don’t have any rules on what people can make jokes about; there are no rules, it’s up to the individual comedian. For me personally, I think you can make a joke about anything, there are no limits. But, personally, I don’t like things that are unnecessarily mean or inaccurate and mean. But the No. 1 rule in my book is that the joke has to be funny. I don’t like it when people are mean just for the sake of being mean. But hey, when it comes to tragedy, if you have a joke about the fires then let’s hear it. But my caveat is again, just make sure it’s funny. The ones that are just mean and not funny are kind of weird to me.
Do you think there is any way any type of positive could come from these massive catastrophic fires?
The fires may lead to something positive eventually in L.A., I think it’s possible. Maybe L.A. has hit rock bottom with this disaster, and something good could come out of this. People always ask me when things will change course here in L.A., and for years I’ve always told them, maybe when things bottom out, and to me, everything is burning to the ground in my neighborhood, yeah that’s hitting rock bottom. I hope something positive happens in the future, we’ll see. In L.A. the politicians tend to spend money on nonsense, then we have to cut back and tighten our belt over important stuff, and then we run into problems like these fires. If it were up to me, I’d take care of paying for police, fire and overall safety as the top priorities, everything else comes after this, but apparently the leaders in L.A. like Karen Bass, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t see things this way.
For years now, you’ve ranted about leaving California and going anywhere, to live in any other state. Have you finally made a decision where you will live, and when you will leave California?
Oh yeah, since COVID and before even, I’ve been talking about getting out of California. It’s mainly the policies and the taxes. I was undecided which state to move to, but finally I made a choice. I bought some land in Nevada, and I have to build my place first, so I’ll be in California till it’s done and it’s gonna take a minute. People always ask me what are some of the reasons why I’m leaving the state, and I always tell them, from the state and local levels, it’s just not going well. I pay a lot in taxes, a lot. So do a lot of people who make a lot of money, and even just upper- to middle-class working people. We pay way too much in taxes and what do we get? All these people do is try to take more and more money from working people. I’m over it, I’ve been over it, so that’s why I’m moving. But, don’t worry I will still be touring as a comedian, so I won’t be a stranger to L.A. or Hollywood.