APRIL 26, 2007
(from Jimmy Kimmel interview, page 294)
Howard: The way you met Jimmy Kimmel was he was on the radio and he was doing a celebrity boxing match?
Adam: Here’s the story, and there’s no hyperbole here. I was driving my truck over the hill to deliver a cabinet, an entertainment unit that I built for someone. I used to teach boxing classes in the morning and then I was a carpenter in the afternoon. I’m driving my beat-up pickup truck over Laurel Canyon and I’m listening to the morning radio out in Los Angeles. Jimmy’s been on doing the sports for about two months. They just brought him out from Phoenix. And he says, “Bobby McFerrin injured himself on the ski slopes. He broke his leg.” Then Jimmy goes on to say, “What kind of black guy skis? I’ve never seen a black guy on the ski slopes.” Michael the maintenance man, the black man in the building, rushes in and starts yelling at Kimmel, “That’s racist.” An argument breaks out. Next thing you know—because you guys know radio—they say, “You guys are gonna have a boxing match. We need trainers. We need a venue.” I’m driving my truck, I’m listening, and I’m thinking, “I could train one of these guys.” Not Kimmel. Just “one of these guys.” Because at the time Kimmel had been there for five or eight weeks. Michael the maintenance man had been there for five years. And of course you wanna train the brother over the fat Italian guy anyway—who, by the way, nobody liked at the time. And maybe still don’t. So I said, “I’m gonna go over there and I’m gonna train Michael the maintenance man.” I called ten times. Whoever their equivalent of Gary [Dell’Abate] was never called me back, of course.
Howard: Right.
Adam: So one day two weeks later, I literally drove to the building, got in, and stood out in the hallway when some UPS guy went in or some guy who changes the vending machine, and I said, “Tell ’em there’s a boxing instructor out in the hall.” Ten minutes later Jimmy comes waddling down the hall. I say, “My name’s Adam. I’m a boxing instructor. I’m not a lunatic.” I didn’t tell him anything about comedy because I didn’t want to freak him out. He said, “Fine. We’ll get started today.” So I started training him.
Adam: The first joke I told on radio was [when] they were interviewing me. You know, “How’s he looking? How’s the progress coming?” I said, “Well, first we were gonna call him the Italian Tornado. Then we were gonna call him the Brooklyn Assassin. But after seeing him move around in the ring we just settled on Jim. That or Kid Shits His Pants. It’ll be a game-time decision.” So I make friends with Jimmy, and first off he’s driving a piece of shit. He’s driving like an ’82 RX-7 with a Bondo-covered fender. And I’m thinking, “This is radio? I gotta get back into carpentry.”
Howard: How did he do in the fight?
Adam: He did nothing I told him to do, and he ended up getting the loss. But we became friends. And I asked him, “How do I get onto the radio? Can I drive the van? Can I answer the phones?”
Howard: So after hanging out with Jimmy, you said, “If he can do it, I can do it.”
Adam: No, no, I said, “If he can do it, anyone can do it.”
Howard: Had that not happened, do you think you ever would’ve gotten into radio?
Adam: I really don’t know how I would’ve found my way in. I really don’t.