Adam Carolla solo on new cable show

As a young man, Adam Carolla believed something would break for him in show business by the time he was 30. He was wrong.

At the time, the best work from the carpenter-turned-comedian was appearing on L.A. area floors, walls and roofs, not on national radio and television programs. The closest he was coming to the big time on a regular basis was listening to talk radio as he pounded nails or spread roof tar.

“I’d be at someone’s house or be up on the roof all day and I’d get lonely – stir crazy – and talk radio became this soothing voice in my life,” says Carolla, who especially enjoyed listening to morning drive-time shows.

“But the idea that I was making $10 an hour and stacking drywall while these guys were making a few hundred thousand, and they were having a party, and there were Playmates and there were good times, I just couldn’t imagine it.”

“I had two thoughts about it,” he adds. “One was I could do that, and the next one was I’ll never get to do that.”

He was wrong. Today, after becoming known largely as a comedic counterweight to radio and television partners on such shows as “Loveline” and “The Man Show,” Carolla has become a hot Hollywood property on his own.

Earlier this month, the 41-year-old known for his mix of crude humor and edgy wit launched “Too Late With Adam Carolla” on cable’s Comedy Central (Monday through Thursday, 11:30 p.m., cable channel 60 in Spokane, 50 in Coeur d’Alene).

In October, he rolls out a program on cable’s TLC, a home improvement show called “The Adam Carolla Project,” in which he buys and rehabs his childhood home in North Hollywood.

Most impressive – or perhaps daunting – may be that Carolla is poised to take over for shock jock Howard Stern in the key California markets of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco sometime late this year or early next after Stern moves his show to satellite radio.

“It’s hard to say when it will start,” Carolla said after taping his late-night show recently at Hollywood Center Studios. “I’m not being evasive; I really have no idea. Right now, I hope it’s later rather than sooner.”

For a guy who’s on record as despising a heavy workload – he once quipped, “Figure out what you wanna do, then take a nap” – Carolla is doing a good imitation of a workaholic.

Some wonder whether he will be able to multitask between mediums or whether he’ll eventually fall into the ranks of radio personalities who failed in TV.

“Historically, it’s been hard to make the transition from radio to television and from television to radio. They involve different psychologies,” said Michael Harrison, editor of the radio industry magazine Talkers.

“But he’s a talented guy, and I think this is a smart way for him to go. Either he has it or he doesn’t. We’ll find out soon, won’t we?”

So far the ratings for “Too Late” haven’t exactly blown up the late-night landscape, attracting less than 1 percent of the 18- to 49-year-old audience share.

The critics have been mixed as well. They generally praise Carolla’s incisive satirical abilities but knock his penchant for base humor.

Comedy Central has committed to airing three months of the show and will re-evaluate after that point. (It’s scheduled to return Sept. 6 after taking next week off.)

The show’s look and feel are more radio than late-night television. There’s no monologue, script, bandleaders or big-name celebrities. The audience is seated close to Carolla, who sits center stage in a big chair.

He regularly takes phone calls, does a comedy bit or two and riffs with a guest, a varied list that has included former “Saturday Night Live” performer Kevin Nealon, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and comic Louis CK.

Carolla has realistic expectations about its cultural reach.

“I know this show is never going to have mass appeal,” he says. “It’s going to be a nice little boutique. This is going to have its own indie-college kind of vibe. I’m fine with that.

“We’re not going to be Ford or GM over here, we’re going to be Saab. But that’s OK, they have dedicated owners.”

Despite the Zen-like attitude about the show’s place in the media universe, Carolla, the son of a psychologist, is aware of being judged.

In fact, it’s unmistakable, especially in the first weeks of a show. He receives frequent “notes” from executives about how to sit, where to look and when to let loose.

“When you do television, there’s more to do, and when you do new television, there’s a lot more to do, especially when you don’t have partner. I miss not having that person,” said Carolla, who since the mid-1990s has co-hosted the nationally syndicated radio show “Loveline” with Dr. Drew Pinsky. (A television version aired for a while on MTV.)

But Jimmy Kimmel, who co-hosted “The Man Show” with Carolla for five years before landing his own late-night talk show on ABC, says his former sidekick is perfectly capable of cutting it on his own.

“Adam doesn’t need a partner,” Kimmel says. “The guy is just funny. He has a strong opinion on almost every topic.

“You can ask him about Sea-Monkeys or shoelaces and he has a strong opinion. And when he gets going, you’re just a bystander.”