Alumni
Alumni
James Adomian '02 Shares His Multiple Personalities
- Class: 2002
- Degrees: B.A. Whittier Scholars Program
- Current Job: Sketch comic, comedy writer, and Presidential impressionist
James Adomian has multiple personalities.
With a range of characters as politically, visually, and iconically divergent as George W. Bush and Al Franken, the impressionist and sketch comic has attracted a devoted following from numerous television appearances on CBS' The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Comedy Central's Mind of Mencia, live performances with improv group Upright Citizen's Brigade, and online, where on YouTube alone his videos have been viewed close to a million times. To his fans' delight, he will also portray G.W. Bush in the upcoming feature comedy, "Harold and Kumar 2: Escape from Guantanamo Bay."
Near as he can tell, much of his politically active comedy stems from his days at Whittier. In addition to the satirical columns he wrote as entertainment editor for the Quaker Campus, Adomian worked comedy and politics into his studies; for his Whittier Scholars project in theater and economics, he wrote and staged a play satirizing U.S. intervention in Chile using Keebler Elves. His professors often (unknowingly) played a role in the development of his skills of mimicry, he says. "Everybody likes to see someone make fun of authority figures, and I like doing it. I think professors are accidentally the funniest people in the world."
As an undergrad and following his college days, Adomian took full advantage of his close proximity to Hollywood and the L.A. comedy scene, taking classes at the famed Groundlings improvisational studio and taking part in underground comedy showcases.
While doing standup at the now-defunct Comedy Underground in Santa Monica in 2002, he introduced a George W. Bush impression as part of his routine. The portrayal was spot on, complete with facial expressions, cadence, and the president's dual air of confidence and confusion. Seeing enormous potential in the impression, Adomian developed sketch material and threw in a "live audience Q&A with the president," which he staged at another of his regular venues, the Pretty Okay Ho Hum Spectacular in Hollywood.
And it was there that he was "discovered" of sorts.
In the audience that night was a brand new staffer for the freshman television show, The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The next day, the staffer was in a creative production meeting for the show, when a sketch idea was raised regarding the president and a question was thrown out, "Who can we get to play Bush?" Not long after, Adomian received the call from CBS asking him to come down to the studio. At first, seeing his age (he was, he was cast as "young George Bush," but soon the producers realized he was well able to take on the mantle of impersonating the President.
When the cameras went on, Adomian recalls the routine went well. But then, as he walked offstage, he ran into another icon in the wings: legendary comic Don Rickles, who was following Adomian on the show.
He remembers that Rickles stopped him and said, "Who are you, kid? That was hilarious. You were great."
"And then, without missing a beat," Adomian continues, "he flipped to that mean side he's famous for and said with a shrug, 'Well, kid, keep trying.' But for me, coming from a comedian like that, I thought it was fantastic, a good luck sign that Don Rickles himself was there to insult me—a terrific benediction from one comedian to another."
--Published in The Rock, Spring 2008
