Adam Carolla reinvents himself as an online personality

Adam Carolla (McClatchy photo)

FRESNO, Calif. — There are two things that Adam Carolla has down at this point in his career — talking and re-inventing himself.

Talking is a given. It’s Carolla’s prolific mouthpiece that transformed him from a guy working odd jobs to a certified TV and radio star with a best-selling book and, most recently, a burgeoning podcast network.

Re-invention, well that’s a matter of circumstance.

The last many people heard from Carolla, he was hosting his own syndicated morning radio show. That was until Feb. 2009, when CBS axed the show altogether.

So Carolla did what any geek with a computer and something to say would do. He started his own podcast.

Within a year, it was named iTunes’ No. 1 podcast with more than five million downloads per month. He’s turned that success into a network of his own, ACE Broadcasting.

“The podcast thing,” Carolla says. “That’s just a natural fit for me. I would have been doing this for 25 years if the technology had been there. I would have started this out of high school. Talking, telling stories, telling jokes, complaining about the day, interviewing people — that’s a natural fit for me.

“It’s nothing that I had planned on,” he says. “It was nothing that I ever thought about. Yes, I’m surprised, but no I’m not surprised at anything. It’s just a crazy topsy-turvy life.”

Crazy indeed, when you consider that once upon a time Carolla, 46, was just a boxing instructor who answered the call to coach Jimmy Kimmel (then a sidekick on the Los Angeles radio show Kevin & Bean) for a boxing match.

Carolla parlayed that into a spot on the show, and eventually, a co-hosting gig on “Loveline” alongside Dr. Drew Pinksy. Many people were introduced to Carolla there. Next, he co-starred on “The Man Show” with his pal Kimmel. The two also worked together on “Crank Yankers.” In 2005, he landed his own radio show. In 2006, he starred in the film “The Hammer,” which he co-wrote and co-produced. Carolla has also made notable appearances on “Family Guy” and “Dancing With the Stars.”

When the call came that his radio show was canceled, Carolla was in a pretty familiar place.

“My business is a lot of starting and ending,” he says. “There’s always a small relief factor that no one every really talks about. They talk about getting fired from their job or having a plant close down or having to pull the plug on the radio station. To me, it’s a lot like death. Ehh, I don’t have to get up tomorrow.

“I have a sense of humor,” he says. “As long as I didn’t have to leave that behind, as long as I can take my sense of humor with me, I’ll be fine.”

Carolla did something else after his radio show that he never thought he would do: He wrote a book. Now he gets to add another line to resume — New York Times best-selling author.

“In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks” was released in November and debuted at No. 8 on the New York Times’ list — one ahead of Mark Twain’s autography, if you’re wondering.

“I’m really sort of a writer at heart. It’s just not being able to spell or type had stopped me in my tracks,” says Carolla, who obviously got some help for the book. “If I hit the ground running with the ability to read and spell, I may be on my 20th book my now.”

The book is typical Carolla — rants and raves about life, in this case, sort of a shove for the men of the world to get it together.

Next up for Carolla, a huge car buff, is an automobile show he’s creating with the Speed Channel (” I’m not supposed to talk about it, but who gives a (expletive),” he says). So in typical Adam Carolla fashion, he’s betting on his passions.

“I don’t know much,” Carolla says. “I know I have a good sense of humor. I know I have a good work ethic. I don’t mind working and I don’t mind working for free. I’ve sorta been that way my whole career. I will invest time, money and effort into something that I believe in. I’m not going to to do something that I don’t want do. I usually ask the question, would you do this for free? The answer is probably, yeah, I would.”

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