The live comedy industry has never played a bigger role in sociopolitical debates than in 2024. But James Adomian wonders how much of that commentary was actually funny.
“Fun is fun. “There’s a lot of amazing material out there that can make an audience lose it, whether they agree with it or not,” says Adomian, who has lived in Los Angeles since the age of 9. “I believe in being funny more than I believe in being right. My political beliefs are pretty much the same. Comedy is supposed to be funny. But there are interesting systems of algorithms, botnets, paid promotions, etc. that scream the exact opposite at you.”
Following Adomian’s YouTube special “Path of Most Resistance,” released in September, his North American tour concludes Sunday, January 19 at the Irvine Improv. The comic, impressionist, and vocal actor will return to SXSW Comedy in Austin, Texas this weekend, March 7, where he will deliver a ‘keynote’ as Elon Musk on opening night.
Adomian began performing post-9/11 during the early George W. Bush years. He frequented shows held in the basement of the Vermont Avenue Ramada Inn, downstairs at El Cid, and “Santa Monica shows near the boardwalk in places that no longer exist,” which were underground in terms of street level and legitimacy. Adomian predicts, “Perhaps if we go back into a terrible right-wing era, the best comedy will have to stay underground for a few years.”
He was a regular on the Upright Citizens Brigade’s weekly Scott Aukerman’s “Comedy Death-Ray” and the show’s Indie 103.1 radio broadcast, followed by “Comedy Bang!” Join us for podcasting and TV series from IFC 2012-2016. His highly influential 2012 album “Low Hangin Fruit” was Aukerman’s debut album on Earwolf Records. Adomian openly embraced progressivism and proudly celebrated LGBTQ+ identity at a time when same-sex marriage was not yet legal in all 50 states.
His satirical “Trump vs. Bernie” debate with Anthony Atamanuik led to a 40-city tour, specials on Comedy Central and Fusion, a “Trump vs. Bernie: Live from Brooklyn” album, and numerous media appearances that continued after the 2016 election. Yes. to give. He even ate Armenian food with Anthony Bourdain at Sahags Basturma while discussing politics and culture on the late chef and host’s “Little Los Angeles” web series.
Adomian, who boasts over 20 years of comedy experience,’s incredible first solo special ‘Resistance’ is being released after a long time. I’ve been refining it,” he said at the opening of the special. The high-energy, layered hour is “basically a work of stand-up art.”
A portrait of beloved LA comic James Adomian ahead of his Irvine show on January 19th, following his recent feature “Path of Most Resistance.”
(Marcus Children/Los Angeles Times)
An hour of his views on Elon Musk, Alex Jones and longtime activist Bernie Sanders. “I used to be gay. Now I’m like an advisor on campus,” Adomian said, researching news outlets that portray Armenians, Turner Classic Movies, bigotry, the Federal Reserve and aging as “notoriously gay.” Addressing social media expectations, Adomian said in the op-ed: “If you see the crowd work tonight, it means something terrible has happened.”
“I like to bring up an important or intellectual topic and then make a really stupid joke about it,” Adomian says. “People have said before that my comedy is clever or intelligent. It’s starting to sound like it’s one of those acts where you need a humanities degree to understand it. What I do is not difficult to understand. It’s all very basic and stupid.”
With an opening by Jared Goldstein, Adomian filmed “Resistance” at the “beautiful, dark and strange” Elysian Theater in Echo Park. There he was a veteran of “Stand Up and Clown” and had his own show at the Netflix Is a Joke festival.
He calls Elysian regular Courtney Pauroso’s October release, “Vanessa 5000,” an exploration of sex robot technology, “a dark work of genius” and admires the new comedian’s courage and experimentation. “I was really fascinated,” he says of Christina Catherine Martinez’s experimental 30-minute “How to Bake a Cake in the Digital Age.”
For more than a decade in Los Feliz, Adomian earned a reputation as a supporter and cheerleader of the vocal comedy scene. He cites Tuesday’s “Comedy Night at Best Fish Taco” as one of LA’s best stand-up events. Other popular indie spots include Akbar and Lyric Hyperion in Silver Lake, the Fable in Eagle Rock, Bar Bandini in Echo Park, Club Tee Gee in Atwater Village, Bar Lubitsch in West Hollywood, R Bar in Koreatown, and Offbeat Bar in Highland Park. and Dynamity Typewriter from Westlake.
Adomian took the opportunity to complete a long-awaited side quest when the tour stopped for the 2024 holiday season. He wanted to see the countryside and reduce air travel “as we enter the next video game level of climate apocalypse.” During his three-day trip from Washington D.C. to Chicago on two Amtrak trains through Albuquerque and back to Los Angeles, he got little sleep but enjoyed the views.
He thought about how he wanted to welcome the new year and the many changes that would come with it. The trip was “fun, uncomfortable, comfortable, exhausting, beautiful and fascinating. And now I know how to shower at 100 miles per hour.”
There is a balance between anger and openness that Adomian hopes to achieve in 2025. Or maybe it’s about staying invested while staying spiritual. Adomian, who says he believes in reincarnation, believes living creatures, including politicians, will always reap what they sow. Karma can be: And most importantly, it’s time to become much less dependent on crowdwork.
“Life on Earth is a collection of pain, meaninglessness, beauty and deep meaning that we must somehow find,” he says. “It’s therapeutic for me to say something funny that makes me feel good about being alive. It’s kind of playing a very silly game while also bringing out something important and making it a fun thing to do that’s not scary or unpleasant. To make bad times good times.”
