Comedian Adam Hunter to host Thanksgiving benefit show

Courtesy photo

Adam Hunter

By Allison Duck (contact)

Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009 | 10:39 a.m.

Comedian Adam Hunter decided to forgo a family Thanksgiving to perform at Bonkerz Comedy Club at Palace Station for a special benefit show for local food bank Three Square. Tonight, comedy fans can bring $10 worth of non-perishables to Bonkerz and get complimentary admission to see Hunter’s show. In addition to the holiday show, the Last Comic Standing alum be performing shows Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.

It’s been about a year since I caught up with you at the LA Comedy Club. What have you been working on this past year?

I’m hosting a show on Dish Network called Man Up Stand-Up and I shot a pilot called Adam Hunter’s ADD and we’re still pitching that. I did an episode of Jimmy Kimmel where I did a scene with Jack Black. He was promoting his new video game and he was constantly seeing demons and I was the demon in the crowd. He’s like, “State your purpose demon! What are you doing here?” and I’m like, “ I’m just here to see who got kicked off Dancing With the Stars!” And then he just beats me up. I pretty much have one line and then he beats me up but I was pretty stoked about it.

Can you tell me more about your recent USO tours?

I’ve been to Korea, Japan, Guam, Cuba, Africa and Bahrain for the military. We went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with the Victoria’s Secret models Marissa Miller and Adriana Lima so that was pretty awesome. In Djibouti, Africa the NCIS guys took me around the whole place and I got to feed these poor kids and give them water. It was a real eye-opening experience about how horribly some people live and how grateful I should be and how grateful I have been since then. Every time I think about how I can’t afford this or that, I think about those kids who were thrilled over half a bottle of water.

How is your project Kamikaze Comedy doing?

I sold it as a Web series to Comedy.com and we’re still trying to sell it as a TV show. It’s gotten over 500,000 hits on YouTube. It’s a hidden camera show where you tell people they’re getting one thing and then they get a comedian. We went to an old age home and told them they were going to get a motivational speaker and they got a filthy comedian. But the old people loved it. They were actually our biggest fans. I’ve got to figure out a way to get it as a TV show.

I hear you’re a big MMA fan -- what do you have in the works with that?

I’m actually writing jokes for the Mixed Martial Arts Awards coming to the Hard Rock. I used to open up for John Heffron from Last Comic back in the day and he’s hosting the awards show. He asked if I could help write some jokes for this and I was in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago and it was awesome because I was directing Randy Couture and meeting guys like Wanderlei Silva and writing jokes for all those guys. It was like a dream come true.

What brought about the decision to do a special charity show on Thanksgiving?

There’s no way I’d rather have it than doing comedy on the holidays. The charity aspect is great. If I can make people laugh at the holidays, there’s nothing better than that. My friend who is my co-wrestling coach -- I coach a little kids wrestling team out here in Hollywood -- he invited me over so I get to have dinner with them.

I know you draw material from your self-proclaimed “dysfunctional” family, how does that play into your joke writing process?

To me, that’s the most real thing. You could see a fictional comedy routine you could just create out of nothing, but that just doesn’t really resonate with me. I tell some of the same jokes each night and if they’re not real to me then I think the audience will see that I’m kind of tired of telling them … To me those are the funniest jokes, the ones that are the most true.