Adam Christopher says, “F*ck what you think is funny, this is also funny”
By Matt Levy
When interviewing comedian, visual artist and modern-day philosopher Adam Christopher, I asked, “What makes you happy?” It’s a fairly innocuous query that can go anywhere. Some take this question at face value and bring up friends and family. Adam did not do that. What makes him happy is what makes all of us happy- we just didn’t know it yet. He put it into words for all of us. Here is his pristine list:
-Good conversation that involves bits and philosophical quandaries.
-Smoking cigarettes indoors
-Saying the word ‘queef’ in place of ‘dope’ — ex. “these questions are straight queef”
-That moment right before you complete a project and you have the clearest idea of what you’re doing & witness it all come together
-Having time to think and do absolutely nothing
-A grilled fatty rib steak with steamed rice on the side
-Ramen
-Dry Hot Pot
-Raw bar oysters & shrimp cocktail — he added, “I’m a classy broad”
-Four drinks of whiskey or beer with friends
-A bit of weed
-Driving SOBER at night with music blasting while smoking cigs
-A casual bike ride at sundown on a cool summer night
This man simply understands what makes him happy and always has.
For example, when Christopher, a native NYer, was asked what he’d be doing when he dropped out of high school, he told his guidance counselor, “I’m moving to Africa to be a tribal leader.” She replied, “Very funny, space cadet.” He didn’t quite make it to the promised land but as an experiment in survival, he did move to Portland, OR for almost three years with $800.00 in his pocket, absolutely no plan and after about a year he was running the social media and marketing for a medical marijuana dispensary. He also lived in Australia for a year working on music projects and DJ’ing. He described Australia as “very exotic — like if America lost to the Brits.” He goes where his heart tells him it will bring him happiness.
It started rough though. Adam’s childhood wasn’t great except for living in a luxury hotel for a bit, eating at a few nice restaurants here and there, going to Disney World a few times and watching a lot of movies and early Comedy Central. What he’s trying to say is he saw A Clockwork Orange too early in his young life and it affected who he became. Christopher is the son of parents who are both “f*cking nuts” and never married. Despite it all, he loves them both and said, “I’ve resolved things with my father, who’s a wizard that speaks ten different languages — no joke — and I’m not close with my mom but she is a charming broad.”
In High School, Christopher, a self-described “Silly, awkward person who doesn’t tell anyone his race because he likes playing with his identity but if you happen to know what it is congrats, you win absolutely nothing” was the subdued class clown who never got into major trouble and a percussionist in the band. He skipped a lot of school to watch movies and then dropped out because he was destined to create. He made electronic music for a while under the moniker Axton Frick and studied production for about a decade inspired by the likes of Daft Punk, Samiyam, MUZAK from the 70s, Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz, Kora music of Senegal and Fela Kuti but realized he was funny, so he focused more on comedy writing and making sketches instead.
He went into his comedy career with the attitude, “If you think I’m funny, you’re gonna love my comedy.”
The oddball with a dry voice that is usually mistaken as sarcasm is right.
Christopher mused, “The arrogance of the unconscious human mind is where comedy lives.” He added, “There’s a point as a creative person where you end up taking your image more seriously than what you’re trying to express and that is funny. Like when people take comedy seriously and don’t realize how funny that is, is funny. ‘Oh I gotta write this many times a day’ and ‘I only do a great set when I sleep well.’ There are so many variables in one performance and in one writing session that keeping any sort of track is delusional.”
He continued, “The closest you come to any truth is the instincts you build over doing it and also living life as a person dealing with bullsh*t thrown at you and what you throw at yourself. That becomes material and I know this first hand from my really wacky upbringing and life has proven to be consistently wacky throughout so why not observe and learn how to work with it. You’re gonna die either way so shape the f*ck up so we can all have a relatively good time in here.”
Christopher added that in the early 2000s, “We didn’t get Arrested Development and when we finally did we brought it back as some weird zombie of nostalgia. Like what?”
Then, he finally said, “If you type Mark Twain like a f*cking idiot, you get Mark Taiwan.”
After a brief respite from this speech, Christopher asked, “Does any of this make sense?”
It does. Seeing his act in practice was the cherry on the top. At a recent show, Adam roasted a group of tireless hecklers. He had a wireless mic on so he got offstage, walked up and told the jokes right at them which made them nervous for a second but the audience ate it up. The hecklers and the bartender even bought him drinks. Christopher was loose enough to not let his ego get in the way and instead had fun with a potentially stressful scenario. That’s a comic.
Outside of stand up, Christopher loves collaborating with fellow genre-defying comics Charlie Dawson & Tom Achilles. He said, “They make me laugh harder than I’ve ever laughed in my life. We are really supportive of each other’s style and it naturally blends even though we are so very different.” With his fellow co-conspirators, Christopher is developing Way Too Zesty TV. It’s their vehicle to release the kind of comedy/content they love that follows the mantra, “F*ck what you think is funny, this is also funny,” their motto is “100% COMDEY” and yes, the typo is intentional.
As a “Capital A” Artist, Christopher finds an influence is “Anything that makes you wanna do something creative so it could be anything” but he also added that he’s inspired by Fear Factor era Joe Rogan, Dr. Seuss, Carol Burnett, The Wu Tang and Monty Python. Seeing Monet’s “Water Lilies” made him tear up in awe when he first saw it in person.
When he’s not making people laugh or crying at paintings, Adam continues to make music, design logos and “Photoshop” stuff. He doesn’t have a fancy computer nor can he afford Photoshop so making cool stuff within his limitations is a fun, frustrating puzzle. He also wants to play with more Legos but they’re fairly expensive so he watches Lego building videos on YouTube. Adam added, “Shout out to Lego if they wanna send me something.”
Nowadays, Christopher temporarily resides in Florida due to the pandemic. Before that, he lived in a tiny 10 x 12 room without a kitchen or bathroom and has a girlfriend. About her, Adam said he’s, “So lucky. We get each other. She’s really funny, brilliant and kind. We met doing comedy and were friends for about a year before anything ‘significant other-y’ happened.”
In five years, Christopher sees himself working on Way Too Zesty TV seeing how far this merry gang of misfits can take the project. He envisions more sketches or “programs” and possibly a live show of some sort that they can tour with — but he added, “With the aftermath of this pandemic it could also just be Mad Max: Fury Road from here on out.”
If it really is a Fury Road reality from here on out, you know Christopher will still somehow find happiness in it. Who knows? Maybe he’ll finally make his way to Africa and prove to his counselor that this old space cadet knew what he was talking about all along. THAT is the ultimate form of happiness.
You can find Adam’s musings on Twitter and Instagram.
You can also follow Way Too Zesty TV on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
Finally, here’s a wonderful story that didn’t fit in the piece that you, the reader, deserve for making it this far:
Once, Adam was walking through Times Square smoking and bumped into a hip hop promoter. The promoter asked for a cigarette and when Adam said, “No,” the guy got in his face threatening a fight. Old Adam C smirked and said, “Yo, let me eat that ass” and gave him a cheesy smile. The rapper froze in confusion and Adam walked away unscathed.
