This week he’s king of all media

By Jerry Fink

Monday, March 17, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Radio talk show host Adam Carolla will be the uncrowned King of All Media this week, temporarily replacing the self-styled King of All Media Howard Stern.

Carolla — former host of “The Man Show,” “Loveline” and “Crank Yankers” — took over Stern’s time slot on terrestrial radio in several West Coast cities a couple of years ago when Stern moved to satellite radio.

Here’s Carolla’s schedule:

• Tonight he appears on “Dancing With the Stars,” seen locally at 8 p.m. on KTNV Channel 13.

• Friday his comedy “The Hammer” opens in movie theaters.

• From 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. Mondays through Fridays you can hear him locally on KXTE 107.5-FM (Xtreme Radio), ranting about everything under the sun.

Carolla is so busy he took a 20-minute break in the middle of a phone interview with the Sun to be fitted for tails for “Dancing.” He also took a call from his dance partner, Julianne Hough, a two-time winner on the show. He has some Las Vegas competition on the show — illusionist and comedian Penn Jillette. John O’Hurley, star of “Spamalot” at Wynn Las Vegas, was the winner of the show’s first season.

“The Hammer” is full of references that anyone who listens to his show will immediately recognize, such as Carolla’s boxing career, his pal Oswaldo Sanchez, his career as a carpenter. Carolla plays the role of Jerry Ferro — a carpenter and retired amateur boxer.

Is the film autobiographical?

It is semi-autobiographical. When I say “semi” I’m talking like 80 percent. It’s semi-semi-semi autobiographical.

You have a busy schedule anyway. How did you find time to do the movie?

Truthfully, I had just brought home twins from the hospital. My wife and the twins had arrived home less than a week before I started shooting this movie and I had just started doing the radio show as well. It was not a great time to shoot a movie, but if you really think about it, there’s never really a great time to do anything if you’re busy. If you have a job or two and you’re trying to start a side project and you have a family and other obligations, there’s never going to be a perfect time to do it. What you have to do sometimes is miss out on a little sleep, drink a few more cups of coffee and kind of muscle through it. That’s what I ended up doing with this movie. It was not a good time to do it when I did it, nor would it be a good time to do it now.

Have you ever been this involved with a movie?

I’ve never shepherded a movie like I shepherded this movie. I’ve never been this involved with a project in any way, shape or form. Obviously shows like “The Man Show” and “Loveline” and “Crank Yankers” and other shows I was very involved with, but I didn’t edit those shows. I didn’t promote them as much as I’m promoting this. This is a very personal sort of labor of love. I’m very proud of it and I don’t say that about everything I do. But it turned out to be a very good movie and I really want people to go out and see it. Again, I’m very self-conscious and I’m honest and if when this movie was done and I stood back and looked at it and said, “Well, we’ve got a 6 here,” I would not be promoting it. As a matter of fact this movie could have gone the DVD route. It has been sold to DVD, but it could have went only the DVD route. I’m here to make sure it doesn’t.

So it’s not another Larry the Cable Guy caliber movie?

Well, the joke will be on us. In the comedy department, comically this one is 10 times as good as Larry the Cable Guy movies, but if it makes 1/10th the money, that would be awesome.

What was your ambition when you first got into show business?

I started off with sort of modest goals of just actually seeing if I could physically make a living doing something other than carpentry. That vision sort of got expanded to trying other genres. I love doing radio. I enjoy doing TV. I enjoy the behind the scenes stuff. We produce certain programs and have produced certain programs, created them and written them. I worked for a couple of years as a staff writer on the Jimmy Kimmel show and I enjoyed being a staff writer on a late night show. So for me it’s kind of just about the variety and about expressing myself through different mediums — one day it’s radio, the next day it’s TV and (Friday) it will be a feature. Yeah, it’s kind of weird. It’s like saying, “What kind of woman do you like? Blondes, brunettes, Asian, black, white?” I like beautiful women and I feel the same way about comedy. If it’s a screenplay and it’s funny then I like it. If it’s a sitcom and it’s funny then I like it. If it’s a radio show and it’s funny then I like it. It’s not that I only like this one brand of comedy.

But radio is very natural for you. Is it your favorite?

I’m such a fan of radio but it’s tough because it is a full-time job. It takes up a lot of time. I really enjoy it. I don’t think there’s any other place in show business you get to express yourself like radio. I hate to sound like a snob but so many people get into the business to tell jokes, get a paycheck and go home and then the next night repeat the same joke again and then get a paycheck and do the next joke again and get a paycheck or have someone else write the jokes and they’ll say them. For me it just doesn’t make sense.

(Twenty minute break to get fitted for tails.)

How’s the radio show going?

It’s getting easier by the day. It’s the kind of thing either you can do or you can’t. If you can it’s the world’s funnest, easiest gig, and if you can’t do it, then you’re probably going to be miserable and not going to last too long.

Something like sports. If you’re athletic you’re really going to enjoy it and you’re going to excel at it. If you’re not, I feel sorry for you. You’re going to get picked last and it’s going to be frustrating.

Radio is about the same thing. For me I can do it, I thus enjoy it. You tend to enjoy things that come a little bit easier — as I make my way to dance practice and give that statement some consideration. Yeah, for me it comes easily. I’m good at it. What’s not to like? I get paid to speak my mind for four hours a day.

Has it hit its stride? What was the Danny Bonaduce thing all about?

I think the show has hit its stride now. The issue with Danny was basically Danny was brought on to be a sidekick and anyone who knows Danny knows that Danny’s not a sidekick. Even though I like the guy on a personal level, I realized he needs to host his own show, not be a sidekick on somebody else’s show. After that became abundantly apparent he then in fact got his own show and our ratings went up and everyone sort of lived happily ever after.

Hold on a second. (Pause while he answers another line.) Sorry. That was my dance partner.

You’re really getting into it this dance thing. Do you like it?

I don’t like it but what are you going to do? It’s show business. She was just calling wanting to know where I was and when I was going to get to the dance rehearsal studio. Anyway, I’m starting to warm up on it a little bit, I guess.

Are you starting to feel a little bit like John Travolta?

I’ve not embraced Scientology just yet, but I am starting to loosen up my hips so I am beginning to feel like John Travolta.