Adam DeVine (middle) with Workaholics co-starsAdam DeVine has managed to light up the comedy scene in recent years with viral internet videos through MySpace and YouTube, moving on to sitcoms and movies where he carved his career through roles that just got bigger as time went on.
Now he's starring in, creating and executively producing the series Workaholics alongside friends Blake Anderson, Kyle Newacheck and Anders Holm, as well as working on an upcoming film with not only those three, but Seth Rogen.
We got the opportunity to put some questions to the comedic genius about his career, his show which recently started airing in the UK on Comedy Central and what lays ahead for the star.
For those who haven't seen Workaholics yet, can you tell us a little bit about it?
Yeah - it's about three best friends who live together and work together doing telemarketing and they sort of do everything in their power to not do their work. So, they work harder at not working than they do at their job.
In America we had the recession a few years back right when we got the show, and we were thinking about when we were pitching the show - all these college graduates that can't get good jobs anymore - all the people that would normally be retiring at their jobs are staying another five or ten years longer, so there's like a real overlap of people that have a good degree and can't get a good job - so we were like, let's make it this show where these guys actually have a college degree - they can't actually get a job to save their lives so they just get a job and say 'Screw it! We're gonna live in a state of rested development for as long as possible', and they get a job doing telemarketing and just say 'let's just have as much fun as we can'.
Then since the show's been going on they're like 'wow, these guys are college graduates? They're idiots!'.
The American school system's a little warped so, anyone can get a degree if they have a little money.
You're series creator and executive producer on the show, so how did you feel when you realised it was such a success?
Oh, I don't like it. No, I mean it's incredible. It was beyond anything that I expected.
Like, the first season, me and Blake and Kyle - the drug dealer on the show and who also directs most of our episodes - all lived in the house that we shoot in.
So, before we got the show we lived in that house together making internet videos and then we got the show, we were hedging our bets a little bit and were like 'let's just shoot it at our house, that way if we were to get cancelled, at least we've paid our rent for a year.'
At that time Comedy Central was cancelling a lot of shows - they'd give it one season and then cancel it - so we were like 'we might get cancelled, so let's make the show that we wanna make and hope we don't get cancelled' - but kind of playing on that we were gonna get cancelled.
So, to have it be a success and have people watch it and like it was amazing.
How is the chemistry on-set?
Oh it's great! It's so much fun and I think the reason we all love doing it so much, and hope to continue doing it for as long as people want to see it is that, these guys are my best friends, you know?
When I moved to Los Angeles from the middle of America, these were some of the first guys that I met, and the first guys that I thought were really, really funny, and we sort of just fell together, and it's very rare that you come up together and have such success with your best friends, so I think we're gonna try and keep it going as long as possible, because we really do have just a great time every day.
Adam DeVine (left) with Workaholics co-starsDo you ever have any moments where you slip out of character into fits of laughter?
Oh yeah, breaking character. Totally. I just got the season four blooper real and that's all it is - because we improv so much on the show, because that's how we sort of came up - with our internet videos where we would just beat them out and improv the whole thing.
These we write then we kind of go off and improv from there but yeah, we improv so much and sometimes it just catches you off guard and you can't help but laugh at how dumb we're being.
It's mostly that, it's never like 'oh my God, that was the most clever thing I've ever heard', it was like 'I cannot believe we're doing this' (laughs).
What is it about the series that you think UK audiences enjoy?
I think what people in the UK and really people anywhere would like about the show is that you can relate to these guys. If you're not in your early-mid-20s, you can relate to being in your early-mid-20s. You can understand what it's like when you first get that freedom, when you're away from your parents, when you're living on your own for the first time, and you're out of college, and you just wanna have as much fun as possible and try to limit your amount of responsibilities to zero, so that's what I think people can relate to. Before you get married and have kids and go down the road of 'I'm an adult now', or you have a mortgage or anything truly important, back when you were just 'Operation: I'm gonna go to the pub or go to the bar, and try to meet a girl, it might not work, and if it doesn't work that's fine too because I'm hanging out with my buddies, and things are gonna get weird and wild, and somebody's gonna get a d**k drawn on their face!'.
You've starred in a lot of big hits - Pitch Perfect and Modern Family to name just two - but what have been some of your favourite moments in your career so far?
I mean, there's so many really surreal things, when I'm like 'wow I can't believe this is actually happening'.
I sang the National Anthem at Dodger Stadium - at a baseball game - which was crazy, there was like 60,000 people there which is a huge deal in America - singing the National Anthem.
I'm not really a singer but all of a sudden everybody takes their hats off and I have to lead us through this American tradition of singing the song and not messing the hell up. That was probably the most nervous I've ever been. Normally I don't get that nervous because I've been doing it - if I mess up it's funny and it's fine and it's whatever - but at that point it was like no, there's no messing up.
Is live comedy something you've always wanted to do?
Yeah, I think so. I remember I did a play in second grade and I was the letter 'I', it was an alphabet play. I remember I was supposed to enter on stage but I stuck out, ran out back and ran around the audience through the back hallway and entered through the crowd, and I was getting big laughs because the teacher was like 'what is he doing!?', and I'd come through like I'm the Messiah with my hands raised, and I remember getting big laughs then, and I remember how good that feeling was and how much I wanted to get that always. It just seemed like a fun job, where you get a lot of laughs - you make your friends laugh and laugh at your funny friends all day long as your job for as long as you work - that seems better than working on the railroad than my dad did. That's kinda where my head was at.
Who are some of your favourite stand-up comics?
I like Louis C.K., Chris Rock. Old schools like Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
You're working on a film with Seth Rogen - can you give us any details about it?
It's an action-comedy, adventure sort of Die Hard-esque in a hotel room, starring the three of us from Workaholics. It's a different movie starring the three of us, but if you like Workaholics you're gonna like this movie.
We're really excited for it and we hope to start shooting it sometime soon.
What advice do you have to those who may want to go down a similar career path to yours?
Don't do it! Don't do it guys! (laughs) I don't want any competition, I've finally made it! I don't want any young bucks knocking me off and taking my job, so stay in school! (laughs) Stay in school and get a nice job working in an office!
Are there any projects in the pipeline that you'd like to share some details about?
Seth Rogen is helping us produce the movie with Scott Ruden and Eden Goldberg - Seth's writing partner - so that's kind of the biggest thing besides what we're doing on Workaholics.
But, I'm doing a stand-up comedy show on Comedy Central and hopefully someday we'll make it up to you guys - we just got picked up for another season - called Adam Devine's House Party, which I'm really excited about.
It's kind of a cool idea - I'm throwing this big house party and then there's stand-up comedy happening in the back yard, but there's a narrative threat that runs through the party, through the stand-up comedy. I'll be dealing with something at the party and have to go like 'Oh man, I need to bring you on stage', and bring the next guy up on stage, while dealing with whatever's happening inside the party.
So, I'm pretty excited about that. I'm doing some cartoons - one for Disney and one for Cartoon Network - Uncle Grandpa on Cartoon Network and Penn Zero Part Time Hero on Disney, and it's pretty exciting.
I have a lot of stuff I'm working on which in this business sometimes, having ten years of having zero to work on so it's nice to have a lot to do now.
Workaholics on Comedy Central at 11pm every Friday.