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Thursday, March 28, 2024
The Observer

Adam Devine throws a hilarious house party

All around "bodacious, radical and gnar" (his words) dude Adam DeVine brings his friends front and center on the stand up stage in his new Comedy Central show, "Adam DeVine's House Party."
DeVine, one of the stars of Comedy Central's "Workaholics," acts as emcee and host to a massive house party every Thursday night at 12:30 a.m. in the show, which features a host of up-and-coming stand up comedians performing short sets in the middle of DeVine's party.
DeVine and the comedians perform an extended sketch as a storyline in between the stand up sets, allowing DeVine to show off his comedic chops and something of a connecting narrative to the episodes.
"Nothing against like 'Live at Gotham' because that was the stand up show that I did that really sort of let me on TV and gave me a chance to do stand up so it was awesome, but ... you see these comics that you don't know, and then you only get to see them for like five or six minutes, so you don't really get to know them well enough," DeVine said in an interview with college newspapers around the country, including The Observer.
"There has to be a better way where you can get to know the comedians outside of just their performance, and that's sort of where the idea for like throwing a giant house party and having a little story happen within the context of the stand up show."
He said that though he's not necessarily just being himself on the show, the house parties in both his new show and on "Workaholics" does draw some from his own experiences.
"['Workaholics' co-star] Blake [Anderson] and I, we've had house parties forever, because before we got ['Workaholics'] we were so broke that we couldn't afford to go out to bars," DeVine said. "... As soon as we got the show, we moved to this insane house in the hills that we rented and had like giant metal dinosaurs on the roof, and so we'd always have insane, bonkers parties there and that was like, 'Oh, I really want to do this [stand up] show.' It could be a lot of fun partying in a giant mansion."
Fans of "Workaholics" don't need to worry about DeVine leaving the show due to time commitments; he said he shot the first eight episodes of his stand up show in nine days. And even though Kyle Newacheck, who plays Kyle on "Workaholics," does appear in and direct the stand up show, DeVine said the experience of doing his own thing was different but enjoyable.
"It's cool," he said. "It's kind of cool to act with different people, and since it is my show it's up to me if something's not working. ... It's kind of fun doing something so new and so different than anything I've done before, like hosting a giant stand up show with cranes or cameras swooping over the crowd, or trying to blend the scripted stuff in with the stand up stuff. ... It was a really cool, fun experience, and I hope to keep doing it."
Outside of "Adam DeVine's House Party," the 29-year-old comedian may be most well known for his character as the immature, not-so-bright Adam DeMamp on "Workaholics," but also co-starred in the 2012 musical comedy "Pitch Perfect" and currently has a recurring role on ABC's "Modern Family." He said even with all the work, he's still having fun.
"It is a ton of work, but it's still way fun. Doing stuff like Conan O'Brien, if you would've told 20-year-old me that I'd be doing stuff like that I would've s**t my pants. I'm crazy busy, but it's still so much fun and I love doing everything," DeVine said.
Adam DeVine's House Party" airs Thursdays at 12:30 a.m. on Comedy Central, and even though he's acting for the party scenes in the show and was being semi-serious during the interview, DeVine wanted to make sure that people don't think of him as too much of an overly serious guy.
"If you guys could just write that I party a ton throughout the [story], I'd really appreciate it," DeVine said. "I think that would really spice up this interview for everyone."
Contact Kevin Noonan at
knoonan2@nd.edu