Jay Leno and Adam Carolla teach the art of being yourself onstage at Comedy Fantasy Camp
It’s a dream come true for every aspiring stand-up comedian or comedy writer. This Thursday through Sunday, the creators of the Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp present the very first Comedy Fantasy Camp in Hollywood. This four-day retreat hosted by Jay Leno and Adam Carolla at the Improv club will feature many other comics and comedy writers, along with workshops on sitcom writing, podcasting and the art of stand-up.
“The idea for this came to me because I was always intrigued about the Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp,” Carolla said during a recent interview with Leno and Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp founder and Chief Executive David Fishof. “I was fascinated by all these big-name rock stars who would do the camp. I don’t play an instrument but I do stand-up, and they do a baseball fantasy camp as well, so why not do a comedy fantasy camp?” he said.
After talking this over with Fishof, Carolla said the idea finally came to fruition. “I could do something like that,” Fishof said. “We are so excited it’s now about to happen. And we have a lot of special guests who will be talking about so many of the different parts of comedy. For four days people will immerse themselves in the world of comedy by learning from some of the best in the industry,” Fishof said.
Carolla and Leno agree that this event won’t necessarily teach people with no sense of humor to be funny. “We’ll really just teaching people to be themselves and be relatable to the audience,” Leno said. “You can’t teach people to be funny, but you can help them to be comfortable in their own skin. Then the jokes can flow naturally from there.”
“Jay is right, it’s about being comfortable with who you are,” Carolla said, relating how he sees stand-up comedy compared to music. “With music you can hear yourself and know if you have any talent. I’m pretty sure Jimi Hendrix knew he was damn good at playing guitar when he played by himself. But with stand-up comedy you can’t really hear yourself, you really need an audience to give you feedback.”
Leno agreed. “That’s absolutely, true. Also, stand-up comedy is not like music in a way when you think about this,” he said. “It’s not like everyone can play guitar like Jimmy Hendrix. But, anyone can talk into a microphone, right? So people think all the time, they can be a stand-up comedian. But it’s not as easy as just talking. Most comedians are writers, you have to be a writer and write your own jokes.”
Comedy is all about evoking laughter and smiles, so neither Leno nor Carolla is concerned with cancel culture or political division, and agree there are no rules or conventions; each comedian has to come up with his own. “In terms of cancel culture, and all the division, I personally just drop politics entirely from my set,” Leno said. “Now, I sometimes do tell political jokes that aren’t about any specific politicians, but I shy way from anything else. When I did the ‘Tonight Show,’ I really took pride in people not knowing my politics. I loved that, because my goal was not to lecture or judge or throw my politics in your face, it was to get a laugh,” he said.
Carolla shared his philosophy on censorship and comedy by saying he succeeds by ignoring cancel culture. “ I could care less about any of that. My No. 1 rule is you can talk about anything, as long as it’s funny,” he said. “I find myself talking about politics and other so-called no-fly-zone issues that other people won’t talk about, but they have to be funny. If it’s funny, then game on, it’s forgiven. It needs to end with a zinger or a punchline, because if it ain’t funny then it doesn’t work.”
At the four day event, Carolla and Leno will be joined by stand-up comedians including Harland Willams, Alonzo Bodden, Caroline Rhea and others, plus special surprise guests, along with writers from such sitcoms as “Friends,” “2 Broke Girls, “The King of Queens,” “The Goldbergs” and more.
Leno advises stand-ups to resist automatically turning to profanity or insults, especially when dealing with hecklers. “I’m not necessarily against using profanity, but I just think using profanities more than you need to is just being lazy. And, I don’t get hecklers often, but every comedian has dealt with them at some point,” he said. “Comedians should realize that as a stand-up comic, you can bring someone down in the crowd pretty easily. But when you destroy a heckler you destroy a part of the audience, and they think as a group. So it’s probably better if you can let them down easy without snapping their neck. For example, this one time I had a big, huge, fat guy heckling me at a show, and so I called him out and made fun of his tie.”
Carolla’s advice is simple. “Usually your first impulse is the funniest when it comes to stand-up and writing comedy bits. But usually, the less words the better.”
“I agree 100% with that,” Leno said. “Humor is the economy of words. It’s using the least amount of words possible to get your point across and make people laugh. Nothing is harder than writing a joke. I meet comedians who will do anything to get out of writing jokes. Comedy has to come from a natural place. When you tell jokes, you‘ve really got to take the audience to a place where they don’t expect to go. The first five minutes of your act define who you are,” he said.
Leno and Carolla agree that this first of what is hoped to be an annual four-day comedy extravaganza in Hollywood could lead to bigger things for some of those who attend. “There’s going to be a showcase at the Improv in Hollywood to end the entire event,” Carolla said.
Fishof said he’s certain the Comedy Fantasy Camp will change peoples lives. “That’s my favorite part about these things, and I see it all the time at the Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp,” Fishof said. “These events do end up changing people’s lives. People do better at their jobs, they do better with their families, become better fathers. Most people want to be rock stars, or in this case they want to be stand-up comedians, but they can’t because they have to work at their crappy day jobs or become lawyers, teachers, or whatever. This is their fantasy. It’s a life-changing experience for lots of people.”
The biggest entertainment stories
Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
