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Adam Carolla
In this episode, NHL hockey great Brooks like is in. Also, Adam Jenser's doing the news and we'll do all that right after this. This is Adam Carolla from the Adam Carolla Show. If you care about predictions, you care about props, and right now, it's all about playoff pressure. From the hardwood to the ice, every possession, every shift, every shot. Well, it all matters. Bet online has always been the home of real sports betting. Deep markets, sharp odds and player props built for fans who know these games aren't random. The NBA playoffs are heating up, stars taking over, series swinging on a single score. And in the NHL, it's all speed, grit and sudden death. Moments where one goal changes everything. Lines tighten, pressure builds, and betonline delivers. Live betting and in game odds that move with every bucket, every breakaway, every goal. This is where the action happens, where experienced shows, and where the smallest edge makes the biggest difference. Bet Online. The game starts here. At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light and I was transported to another place. Pluto tv. Then I heard a voice.
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Dawson
From Corolla One studios in Glendale, California, this is the Adam Corolla Show. Adam's guest today, former NHL player turned travel entrepreneur Brooks like.
Adam Carolla
Plus the news with Adam Yenser.
Dawson
And now Adam Carolla.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, get it on. Got to get in the church. Making a mandate chick. Get it on. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for telling frame. We love that about you. Professional hockey player, former Brooks like has joined me. He's got a lot of stuff to get into but first 13 years NHL played 750 NHL games with the Capitals, Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings as well. Ottawa Senators. Good to see you, Brooks.
Brooks Laich
Thank you. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you being here, but I appreciate the opportunity to be here as well.
Adam Carolla
Well, we're talking off the air a lot about like what it takes to play hockey. You're from Canada, right. And all this stuff which didn't exist when I was a kid. I played sports all through kids. You just sort of played at the local high school. There wasn't a travel team, you didn't own your own equipment. You just showed up, they issued you shoulder pads and a helmet, you played football, you turned it back in and then that was it. And now it's a thing and it's. But it kind of was a thing for you, right? Canada, hockey.
Brooks Laich
Yeah, it's. Everybody in Canada wants to be a hockey player until, you know, then the game kind of passes them by. But it was growing up there was a. And youth sports, I mean youth sports now that's a whole other discussion that is so much different than when you played. When I played youth sports. Youth sports now is a whole discussion on its own. But when I was growing up, it was the age of 13. When I turned 13, I made the conscious choice that sport hockey was now no longer just playing for fun. Hockey was pursuit to be a professional at it. And there was a huge mindset shift, huge behavioral shift. Everything now every single decision I made from that point on, from the age of 13 till really I retired at 34, was does this make me a better or worse hockey player? That was the lens for every single decision in life.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. And I think some people worry about that because there's a part of it that seems unhealthy.
Brooks Laich
Oh yeah.
Adam Carolla
And there's a part of it that's very healthy. Like a lot of self discipline and a lot of delayed gratification. And the delayed gratification part is the building block of everything that works in our society. And if you don't have it, you. You are screwed and you are not gonna be successful. And everything in our society is there to do away with delayed gratification. So everything is an overnight shipment and a grubhub brought to your door. And everything is about right now. You get what you want. But the only way to build character is the weight. And these are two crazy competing thoughts. And the delayed gratification. Character part of life is suffering. And they do it. And I saw it with every one of my friends. They do a test. I mean, somebody can look it up, but I'll paraphrase because I've been talking about this for a million years. The test is they say, the kid, we'll give you five MMs right now, but if you wait a day, we'll give you 10 MMs. And all the losers go, give me the five. And the winners go, I'll wait for my 10. And everybody I grew up with wanted the five right now. And then also was trying to figure out if you had the other five on you, so they might be able to roll you or take it out of your pocket or beat you up and steal your five. You know, like, where's the other five? I'll just get that now. That's how they thought. I always had the thought of, I'll wait, oh, wait. And none of them became successful because of that. And so you had to give up a lot. And that was good in certain ways.
Brooks Laich
Yeah, it's a real. I've never really looked at it that way, Adam, but it's a really astute recognition of the situation. Because when I look back at it, I would come home from school. I lived in a small town of 600 people, so we'd walk to and from school, and I would come home from school, and we had no gym in town. And I knew I wanted to be a professional hockey player. There's no facility at all to go train. I knew I had to get better, stronger, faster, everything. So I borrowed hurdles from the school at the age of 13, and I would come home and I would jump 300 hurdles. After school, I would set them up 10 hurdles in a row, run through it 10 times, take a three minute break, do it twice more. And that became my behavior. And at that time. It's interesting to hear you say the delayed gratification Because I've never applied that to what I went through. But looking at it now, at that time, I had the NHL in my hand. Even though I was 13, I knew. I knew that there was just a matter of time. I didn't know exactly what I would have to do, but I knew there was just five or six years here, and then I'm in the NHL. And so for me, it didn't feel like any form of delayed gratification. Of course, you didn't get paid during that time, even when you're playing junior hockey. I got paid $89 every two weeks is what I got paid to play junior hockey.
Adam Carolla
Well, your other friends were home watching TV and eating lunchables.
Brooks Laich
Y.
Adam Carolla
And that feels better than jumping hurdles?
Brooks Laich
Probably. Yeah.
Adam Carolla
I mean, hurdle, like, right in the name is. He's got to get over those hurdles. Like, it means work, it means trouble, it means, you know, sacrifice, and it means obstacles. You know what I mean?
Brooks Laich
I remember one of my best friends was interviewed about me making the NHL because we're on the same path. We grew up in the same town. We're best friends. And the interviewer asked him, why did Brooks make the NHL? And why did you not? And he goes, oh, it's very simple. Actually, the simplest question you've asked me, he goes, when. When Brooks turned 13, he. the gym, and the rest of us, well, we hit the booze.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. Yeah.
Brooks Laich
And so that gets in the way, too. But, yeah, that's what I mean. Like, it was a conscious. It was. Every lifestyle decision was this. Does this make me better or worse at hockey? But I never. I never antic. I never thought about the delayed gratification component at all because I was just on a pursuit.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, but you then can take that discipline, which is that delayed gratification, and you can just apply it toward almost. Well, it works in any application now. And also, you got something from the work you put in. So when you've had enough of those experiences, you then expect to be rewarded for what you've put in, which is a thing that I don't think most people really realize is a kind of beginning, middle, and end. Like, if you've written a bunch of books and I've written a bunch of books, I can write a book because I've written a bunch of books. I've done it. I understand what it is. The reason successful guys I know that make tons of TV shows and movies and stuff like that, they just go, I'm gonna make a movie, and they just make it. Whereas Everyone else would be like, what do you do? Where do you start? This is never going to work. How's this going to work? They have. I put in the time, I get rewarded. So you had that definitely with hockey, you put the time in and you got rewarded.
Brooks Laich
I think it's pretty simple. Sorry to interrupt.
Adam Carolla
Go ahead.
Brooks Laich
I mean, especially having lived six years in la, I learned this as well, but I think for me, it was pretty simple. Every single day I woke up, I went out the door to become a better hockey player. I came back in the door a better hockey player. That was just it. That was the only thing I pursued that day. And then actually having lived in la, there was a lot of people that I met. They're like, oh, I'm an actor. I'm like, oh, did you audition today? And they're like, no, I haven't auditioned in a few months. How are you getting better at your craft? How are you every day an athlete, a professional athlete? There's a form of insanity that comes with it as well. To be a professional athlete, like, you have to go so far away from what normal people do, but that's okay. But every single day, I went out the door to be a better hockey player and came in the door as a better hockey player. And that started when I was 13. It started years before that. I started playing hockey at 2, but then the professional pursuit began at 13, and I did it till I was 34. And it bugs me when I hear people say they want to be something. Same as a comedian. I've heard you talk about this. Go to a show every day, anywhere, have 10 people in front of you, have 100 people. Wherever you can be. Can you find a mic and be on it to be better at your craft and come back in the door better than you were at the start of the day?
Adam Carolla
Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's what people want and then there's what they're willing to do to achieve that. And then there's a kind of question, which is, what do they really want? Like, I know people want the accoutrements of a successful career in comedy or sports, but I don't know if they really want the whole thing because the whole thing has a lot of other parts to it that they're not willing to do. And if you are willing to do it. See, I did comedy because I liked doing comedy. I didn't do it as a ends to anything. I mean, I didn't really have a plan like you had a plan. I didn't have a Plan. My plan was, this is what I want to do, this is what I enjoy doing, and this is what I should be doing. And also, it would be a waste if I wasn't doing it. I would not be fulfilling my potential if I did not do this. So I need to do this a little bit cosmically, but I don't have a goal. My goal, because there's two, I guess, get to the NHL. It's kind of a pyramid, and it kind of comes to the point at the top, and that's the NHL. And if you're from Canada and you play hockey, that's where it is. The thing about comedy is like 70 different pyramids with different peaks. Do you want to write? Do you want to direct? Do you want to act? Do you want to do stand up? What kind of comedy do you want to do? Do you want to be in front of the camera, behind the camera? For me, I didn't have any thoughts other than I want to do that for a living. But I didn't even know what that was. But also, I thought it would be a waste if you didn't. Yes, this is what I was supposed to be doing.
Brooks Laich
Did you know that from a young age?
Adam Carolla
I knew that I had an ability at a young age, but I did not know. No, I knew I had an attraction to it, I guess sort of like. I guess like being, you know, being young and gay. Guys always go, like, I knew I was different or I was attracted to guys and other guys would talk about getting a girlfriend or going to the prom, and I just didn't have those feelings, but I didn't really know what it was. And that's how I felt about comedy. I felt like I have this attraction to this thing and I find myself screwing around and joking around, but I don't really know what it is or what it would be.
Brooks Laich
When did it click for you? When did that. When did it become like, okay, I'm actually really gonna pursue this and become a master of this craft?
Adam Carolla
I never really. I had to work a day job. Like my whole comedy craft building career, you know, my amateur career. I had a day job, you know, like full time. I was a carpenter.
Adam Jenser
Oh, yeah.
Adam Carolla
So I just. I just drove a truck.
Brooks Laich
I was like working at Walmart or something. I'd done that too.
Adam Carolla
No, I never really had one of those kind of jobs, which was kind of weird. I just. I was a carpenter and I just worked. And so I couldn't really say I threw myself into comedy 247 because I was On a job site most days. And then at night I'd go take a groundlings class and on the weekends I'd go take more groundlings classes or do stand up, you know, open mics or whatever that was. But there's a part where you should just do it, because that's what you do and you have a love of it. And if you don't and you're starting to make bargains, then it's sort of like somebody, like, let's just say you really like this person you were with or you thought you did or something. And then if you really like somebody and they go, how about we go see a movie this weekend? You don't go, what movie? You just go, okay, if you're asking what movie, you may not be that into that person. And that's kind of the way I feel about. A lot of people want to act. They do stand up. They go, you know, I want to do stand up, but I don't want to drive that far. And how. I don't want to wait that long for the open. If you're asking, that's you asking what movie?
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
You're not really into it. You're not into that person.
Brooks Laich
Yeah. I think drive and dedication, like in pursuit are the things that will separate and I think that's why I love sports, is because you can't just make professional sports anymore. Like, size isn't just going to do it. Like, you need so much application in your life to make professional sports. You cannot shortcut it. And I think that is why social media has taken off. Why kids want to be influencers now more than they want to be athletes, is because I feel like there's a much quicker shortcut to the perceived success of fame, of money, of notoriety, versus the years and decades of application and dedication where nobody knows your name and you have to become so good at a craft that people are willing to pay money to come see you do it.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. There's also a part that people are missing out on, which Dr. Drew always calls ordinary misery, where you just kind of repetition, just repetition. And how you have to picture yourself. Like, what if you want to be a world class swimmer, you just go in the pool and just back and forth and back and forth for hours and hours and hours. And you've got to be able to control your mind because otherwise you go insane with that kind of stuff. And there's a lot of, in a weird way, construction was that kind. It was just the same, just blocks and stacks and stacks and blocks. You're literally just doing the same repetitive motion over and over again. And kids can't. They don't have that these days. They cannot. Well, not kids, but many don't have that kind of crazy focus of doing the hurdles versus, you know, drinking a couple malsa.
Brooks Laich
Yeah,
Adam Carolla
I made it. A Canadian beer for you.
Brooks Laich
Yeah. I think it's because they have a misunderstanding of what that work is. So the basics, everything that you're talking about is just the foundational layer of what allows you to be successful and stack upon. And I have another story about this that applies to a different area of life. But each year I would strip my game down three to four times a year to the absolute basics of skating, passing, shooting, the basics of hockey, let alone the execution of a high functioning play or a high skill play. Something like that. I would have to build like strip my game down. Same as building a house when you lay the found when you understand for the house to look like this, it has to have a foundation like this. And the same is with skill sets in sports. And that you have to return to the foundations. Every year I would start my off season training by skating without pucks for two weeks. The game is played with a puck, but the foundational component of hockey is ice skating. And if you cannot skate, you cannot play. And I would skate without a puck for two weeks as the first two weeks of my training and every year just to return to the foundational elements of skating.
Adam Carolla
That's interesting.
Brooks Laich
And I remember a guy, I was doing some after I retired, I got into some. Just some work with a company that liberates kids from being sex trafficked and stuff. And they had some high functioning, like Navy SEAL guys type things. And. And I was like, why are these guys so good? Like the Delta Force? Like I just have such a respect and admiration of these guys. And he goes, they are not superheroes like you think they are. And I'm like, really, what is it? They're like, all they are are a master of 40 different skills that they're able to stack on top of each other at the same time. That makes them look like a superhero. But they have taken over years, just mastered skill after skill after skill, starting with the most basic. And they have mastered those to the point where they can now stack them on top of each other simultaneously. That makes them so wildly dangerous and capable of. And I just thought that was brilliant the way he described it.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, you know, it's interesting skating without a puck, which is interesting because I used to teach boxing and I would tell people, footwork, spend time, shadow box. And they go, oh, I want to whale away on the heavy bag, you know? And I'd go, you're not. You're fucking up your form, whaling away on the heavy bag. Like you're trying to make a lot of noise and move the bag around, grunt, have people see you and stuff. But you should be in front of the mirror with nothing, no gloves on, just really looking at yourself. And they go, I know that sounds boring. I want to do something that makes noise. You know what I mean? And I'd go, no, you should shadow box for a few rounds just in front of the mirror, and then you should skip rope. And they'd go, I'm not good at skipping rope. And I go, I know, but you need to do it to get good at it. They go, well, I don't like looking bad at it while other people are wailing away on the heavy bag. But I always thought, like, yeah, getting rid of the puck is kind of that. Don't put the gloves on, don't get in the ring. Your form gets whacked out because this thing is pulling you away from it. Just get in front of the mirror and just skate. I grew up in North Hollywood. I do not know how to ice skate. I can ice skate some. I can get around. But, I mean, watching guys who really know how to skate skate, I marvel at. I am so impressed by it somehow. Going backwards in the half, doing the turn, the big long sweeper. The backwards big long sweeper is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in sports. I could never do it. Oh, I could do it if I, you know, did it when I was a kid, but there was no ice. There was no hockey. There's no. There's no mentality of it. One of the big problems is in hockey, you needed to have all your own equipment.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
And that was a lot of money.
Brooks Laich
It's expensive.
Adam Carolla
Skates were of. The thing would have been a. Skates would have been an unthinkable expense in my family.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
So I don't know. In hockey, do they have some sort of slush fund that underwrites these things for the kids because you need the whole duffel bag.
Brooks Laich
Yeah. Unfortunately, there are programs that can assist. There are. In Canada, we have a chain of sporting stores called Play It Again Sports, where you can take your used gear in and get a store credit. So I remember going to Play It Again. My Hometown only had 600 people. We didn't have a sports store. We had to drive two hours to go to a sports store to get hockey equipment. And we would go to this play it again. And then I would look at the rack of used skates and find the one that had, you know, what size was it? Size six. Okay, that one. Here's the cluster of skates that I have to choose from. And I need to go home with a pair of skates because the store is two hours away. So I need to choose one of these six and then I would just choose whatever one was best out of those. But so there is that. But it is wildly expensive ice, right? It's artificial ice. So ice costs are high. Equipment costs are exceptionally high. The cost of a stick is 3, $400. The cost of skates nowadays are $1200.
Adam Carolla
That's 3, 400 for a stick, 3
Brooks Laich
or $400 for a stick. And then some kid might slash you and break it. Like when kids break sticks, you see the parents in the crowd just go, oh, because there's.
Adam Carolla
I didn't know the stick was that much.
Brooks Laich
Oh yeah, it is. And so this is actually one of the reasons why in my opinion anyway, hockey players generally have a pretty good reputation. Professional hockey players, they're looked at as pretty honest, pretty fair, hard working guys. It's a pretty good reputation in relation to some reputations of professional sports. And one of the reasons for that is I think hockey turns out very balanced human beings because most families, in order to afford for you to play hockey, usually need to be have both parents in the home and one of the parents has to have a very good job or both parents. And maybe you're a dual income home just to afford for you to be
Adam Carolla
able to play home.
Brooks Laich
The home structure is pretty strong. The upbringing is pretty strong for the individual, which eventually then when they get money and they get a little bit of fame, they're still a well grown, well raised human being.
Adam Carolla
Genuinely.
Brooks Laich
That's a very broad stroke. That doesn't apply.
Adam Carolla
Nah, I get it.
Brooks Laich
Yeah, but do you?
Adam Carolla
I was picturing lacing up those skates and all that it took. And I have a theory and I'm curious, but I'm so curious about it. I've been noticing, I've been trying to kind of figure out, I talk to young guys and I tell them the same thing over and over and over and they go, oh, I forgot or I didn't check. And I go make a list, make a list, check the stuff, have a list. And they go, I didn't forgot. Then I kind of realized that sports and guys don't. A lot of guys don't go up playing sports. They don't come up playing sports anymore. But sports teaches you an order, and you have a checklist. And I think about, when I played football, you had to. Just getting into your uniform was its own procedure. And there's an order and people vary a little bit, but you have to kind of have your shit together. Like, when you get there, you have to have. You can't forget you're this and you gotta have your that. You can't show up and have one skate the other one's back at home.
Brooks Laich
It's a tough night.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, that's a tough night. And football was very much that way, too. Your mouthpiece and all your pads and all this stuff. And I remember just sort of doing it from a young age. And then later on in life, when stuff came around, I'd go, okay, I got the order that we're doing this in. And then young guys I talk to now who don't play sports, I go, hey, we just talked about this yesterday. You were supposed to. And they go, oh, yeah, I forgot. Or I don't know. And I realized they didn't play the sports. They don't really have the discipline, but they don't have the order. The part where you have to get dressed and everything has to be done in the correct order. And then there's memorizing all the plays.
Brooks Laich
Yeah. And then executing the plays.
Adam Carolla
And then executing the plays and stuff. And that's really what we're talking about. But if you never had that in your background, then it is true that you kind of seem to miss. Like if you're a fighter pilot, you just have a whole order of everything. You just check everything, then you check it again, and then you check it a third time, and everything is where it needs to be. And you don't get into that plane. And then once you're in the plane, it's check, check, check, check, check. Later on, if that guy comes and works with you and you go, here's what you got to do every day when you come in, go to the website. It'll be done. Because that's what they do when they have none of that. They come in and go, did you check the website? They go, oh, yeah, I forgot, there's no order. But I think a lot of the order comes from being in the military will do that for you.
Brooks Laich
Absolutely.
Adam Carolla
But playing organized sports from a very early age will give you that order.
Brooks Laich
There's so many. It's amazing. Even now, now that I'm in more business than sport, it's so amazing how many lessons I have learned in sport that I now apply in a completely different industry in life. And not just that, in just in even general life. Preparation, study, application, dedication, time and pressure. Time and pressure, consistency, just framework. Also learning, learning to teach something. Like everything is sequential. Skills are sequential. It's first A, then B, then transfer your weight, then cock your wrist and release. Then like there's just like everything is sequential. So understanding how to work backwards to learn something, to then teach something. There's so many gifts that sports continue to give, and maybe the biggest one is even just being part of a collective, working with others, handling your emotions, handling your emotions is a huge one. Failure is a huge one.
Adam Carolla
I started to put together this theory and I'm sticking with it, which is
Brooks Laich
test it, test it on me.
Adam Carolla
I started noticing in football that the guys who started to have a lot of success out off the field, retirement businesses and stuff like that, a lot of them were offensive linemen. Now people thought offensive line were these big 300 pound lugs.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
And so why do they seem to be doing well off the field and in business? And I kept talking to guys and hearing these stories and then I kind of realized that the skill position guys, the guys that were scoring all the touchdowns were sort of the prima donnas. They were used to getting the girls and getting the accolades and being carried off the field as a hero. And it had been that way for a long time. The offensive linemen are anonymous. They work in the trenches. They don't get a lot of pats on the back. They don't get celebrated, they don't get on the COVID of Sports Illustrated. They just work together and they work for the team. And all they do is help that guy get into the end zone so that everyone can mob that guy and congratulate him. And that is the kind of mentality you want outside in business, those are the kind of guys who flourish. Not the guy with the head cheerleader who's on the COVID of Sports Illustrated. Those guys don't always turn out great once they get off the field. But the guys in the trenches, they don't want credit. They realize it's a team sport. They just want the team to do better and they want to do their job. And those guys can take that and excel in business.
Brooks Laich
Okay. Having lived that transition, I want to add to that theory and see if you agree with this. See if it checks out for you. So I think I Think everything. I agree with everything you just said. I agree with the skill position, guys wanting the cameras and the girls and the money and the fame and everything there. And then the other guys being more of your, your worker, be your, you know, your front, your offensive line, defensive line, those guys just putting the head down and working just for the power of the collective. I think having gone through it, this is what I experienced. This is what I'd like to see your thought on. Adam, if you make the peak of your craft and you're one of the best in the world to do it now, you go to do something else. That's a pivot. You have experience with this pivoting industry, right? From construction to comedy, pivoting back and forth. If you're one of the best in the world, in the NFL or NHL or professional athlete, now you pivot into some other lane of business, you get knocked off of the top of the totem pole and you are now starting at the bottom. And that is a scary place for somebody that hasn't known the bottom in maybe 15, 20 years. And I personally experienced this. I'm like, oh man, I'm starting a travel company. I know nothing about how travel agents or agencies work. I know nothing about this industry. Do I have the conviction and courage to stick it out to now, learn to become one of the best in it again, or am I going to be the rest of my life? I was, you should have seen how good I was in the NHL. And I think that drop from the top of the mountain to like starting over and other people being the masters of this craft and you being at the bottom scares the living daylights out of a lot of people. And I think the guys that you're referencing that succeed, they don't care about the accolations. They're here for the project and the pursuit. That's what they did with football and now that's what they're going to do in their business.
Adam Carolla
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Dawson
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Adam Carolla
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Brooks Laich
With VRBO's last minute deals you can save over $50 on your spring getaway. So whether it's a mountain escape city break or a week at the beach, there's still time to get great discounts. Book your next day Now. Average savings $72 select homes only yeah,
Adam Carolla
because they even though they played professional football, nobody knew their name. Yeah, 99% of the time there's a couple.
Brooks Laich
It's also wild to play 15 years in a sport and never touch the ball. That's crazy.
Adam Carolla
I would tell people that all the time and they didn't really know what I was talking about. But I was like, I played football for 10 years and never touched a football. That's so crazy. All you do is hit sleds and drag tires and do tackling drills. You never. No one throws you a pass. No one hands you the ball. Nobody. You don't touch a ball. Forget about scoring a touchdown. You don't do anything. Only time I ever touched a ball is I was a long snapper. So I became a long snapper just to touch the ball, just to get
Brooks Laich
your hands on it.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. But long snapper is one of those jobs where all you can do is fuck up, there is no. There's no. If you do your job, no one says anything. If you fuck it up, everyone will say something. So it's only long snapper's only downside. Yeah, that's all it is.
Brooks Laich
That's like a ref, but.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, yeah. So like a ref, but you never touch a ball. I mean, couple of interceptions over 10 years. Never touched. Yo, you're right. So not only. See, the thing about. You can tell me about hockey practice. Baseball was fun because. Practice you played baseball.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Football practice, you did not play football. You just drilled. So it kind of sucked. But that's what made it better because it was tougher and because I always played offensive line too. So I just toil away.
Brooks Laich
Wow.
Adam Carolla
No one cared. But defense was fun.
Brooks Laich
What did you find to be the hardest part of playing football? What was the most difficult thing of playing football? The hardest part, because I never played a single down or game in my life.
Adam Carolla
The hardest part is that for me, is that you were completely padded up. And practice was always in the middle of the day outside. And the sun would just beat down on you. And you could feel your helmet getting hot, like, just from the sun. And they thought water was bad for you, so they didn't want to give you any water. And I was like a Saint Bernard in the middle of Phoenix in July. Like, I was just panting.
Brooks Laich
I can't imagine.
Adam Carolla
So hot, so hot. I want water. I need water. So hot. And it was just. And they would just run. They'd run you ragging. And, you know, I would talk to other people. People played basketball, they go, we got real tough practices. I go, but you're indoors. At least you're indoors or you're hockey. It's tough, but you're at least on ice. You're like. But the sun kicks the shit out of you.
Brooks Laich
So here's the inverse. The rinks that I grew up playing, and we used to have to have gloves, like mittens under our hockey gloves.
Adam Carolla
Oh, really?
Brooks Laich
And toques like, as you guys call them, beanies, like Americans call them beanies or caps under our helmets because the rinks were so bloody cold. Really, it'd be minus 40, minus 45 Celsius outside. And inside the rink was almost as cold because you're playing in middle of rural Saskatchewan, rinks don't have a lot of insulation. It's basically a Quonset that gets sheds. Yeah. And so it is just cold inside and you're just freezing. And you would drive 70 miles to the game with your hockey equipment sitting in the back of your dad's truck. And you'd get there and you'd pull your skates out and they'd be frozen solid, and you put your skates on. They were just frozen bricks. And you're just freezing now. You got to go play. So I think that. But also I think that was one of the reasons why, if you ask trainers in the National Hockey League, they love prairie boys. They love boys from the prairie in Canada, from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, because they don't complain and they just show up. And I look at the environments that, that I was. I didn't know I was going through. I was just going through based on where I was raised. And they just made me tougher along the way. Where kids on the. In British Columbia or Ontario just that had more amenities. They just had nicer environments. So when something was disrupted, like a cold environment or something like that, they didn't handle it as well. They just didn't have that experience.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I do love it. I don't know. It's funny, I was thinking about when you were talking about your hurdles, I was picturing when I was like in high school, I was about 15 or something. I think my dad. I have a picture of it, went and bought. Oh, you got the hurdles picture.
Brooks Laich
It's kind of funny because my brother is laying on the trampoline in the background. Yeah, I'll try and find it here.
Adam Carolla
I. I had a flashback to when I was 15. My dad bought me a barbell set. But it's a perfect Jim Carolla story. Not enough money for the bench press, just the barbell. The bench would have been another 40 bucks or 28 bucks or something. So I didn't have a bench, but I had the barbell set. So I. I don't know why I had a flashback. This. The other day, I was living in our garage and so I had this barbell set set up and I had two drawers that I'd pulled out of a cabinet, and I had these two drawers, kind of chest of drawers type set up next to, and the barbell sitting on top of the drawers.
Brooks Laich
These makeshift.
Adam Carolla
Well, I laid on the floor, tried to do bench press on the floor, but you couldn't get your elbows down that much. But it was better than nothing kind of thing. And I thought, oh, God, weird growing up that way, but good. Like, you know, you had to do what you had to do kind of thing. And you got a barbell, you just can get a bench Press. And so I used drawers similar.
Brooks Laich
So you. I love that because you just made it happen. Kids these days, I don't believe will have that ingenuity and that they had to move on to something else. Same thing for me. I bought my first weight set, was out of the leader post. That was the paper, and it was from a town that was two hours away. It was a $60 weight set, and we put that down in my dad's workshop down in the basement. And then I paid a farmer $25 to weld together this rack that could hold my barbell for a bench and for a squat.
Adam Carolla
Wow.
Brooks Laich
And, yeah, so my parents still have it. I paid Ken Myers. He was just a farmer that lived about 10 miles outside of town. I paid him 20. I didn't have any money. I was 13 years old. And it probably cost him $50 or more and just steal and whatever it cost him. But, yeah, he did it for me. And he welded together a rack that would support a barbell for me to squat.
Adam Carolla
Wow. So the company we're talking about, it's an online travel booking platform called World Playground, was kind of born from you going to all these places as a professional hockey player or even amateur hockey player. Just as a hockey player. You travel. Travel, Travel, Right. And internationally as well. But never really having the time to get to know the town. Right?
Brooks Laich
No, yeah. Travel brings us. I mean, say for you, you've been fortunate to travel, I'm sure, through your career, where your career has taken you. In my career, rest is a weapon. Rest is as important as your training, because the amount of rest you get directly correlates to the intensity and duration of your training. So whenever we would fly to New York City or something, we'd get to New York City at 4 o'. Clock. It was to the hotel. Rest, 6 o', clock, get up, go to a restaurant nearby, eat, get home quickly, rest. You would never experience the city and the amazing things in it. So I did get to travel a lot. Got to play in the world championships in Germany and stuff. Hockey took me all over the world, but I never felt like I experienced it. And so when hockey ended, then I was finally free. I finally had the time, I had the energy, and I had the means to travel. And then I. I just went everywhere, Adam. I just went everywhere.
Adam Carolla
You must have guys on the team that were like, break curfew, go out and have some beers. Find some women, though, right? I mean, they weren't all you, super motivated.
Brooks Laich
I'm sure there were. Yeah. And they Actually, they actually try. And sometimes I don't know if coaches still do it, but I know that this was done in the past. They would have, like an autograph. See, they would stage an autograph seeker outside the hotel at like 11:30, because curfew was kind of generally 11 o'.
Adam Carolla
Clock.
Brooks Laich
I mean, as a grown adult, you're in a professional league. Yeah, there's a. Whatever, maybe a curfew. It's a indirect curfew, an unwritten curfew of like 11pm but also, you're a grown man. If you want to be here, you'll be here a long time. If you're going to be here a long time, get your rest, train, have good behavior. If you want to be here a year or two, go out and party, do what you want, you're going to be gone anyway. But I know that coaches used to stage autograph seekers outside the hotel at like 11:30, and then see who would come in after, like, 11:30, 12, 1 o', clock, see what autographs would come in, because that was a way to find out which player was coming, was staying out late. And then they would sign the autograph on the way in for this person that they thought was just a fan, but it was actually a plant. It was a trap.
Adam Carolla
You're like. It's like a timestamp for you.
Brooks Laich
Exactly. It's a V. Fly trap.
Adam Carolla
Curfew. Wow. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. Sports are more sanitized than they were, I'm guessing. Hockey in the 70s was a different world than how you played, even from an orthodontist standpoint. For sure. How do you feel about the Americans winning the gold? Because you're Canadian, but. And they beat Canada. But you must know. You played a lot of American hockey. Yeah.
Brooks Laich
Grew up in Canada. Born and raised in Canada. I have lived in the States since I was 18. And my fiance and I very proudly got our American citizenship last year. So last January, we got our American citizenship. Our daughter was born here in America. We choose to live in America. She is Icelandic, I'm Canadian. We choose to live in Idaho, and we love it. And this country is amazing and has given me and afforded me so much in my life. We choose to live here when we could live anywhere in the world. That being said, as a Canadian, when the US Women's team beat the Canadian team and then the US Men's team beat the Canadian team, it was such a. I was just like, I told my Fiat, like, babe, this one's so hard to take. I like, our daughter's American, so I, like. I consider myself an adopted. Like, I'm a citizen now, and I'm so proud of this country. And it's still. But it's like, this is so hard because Canada cares. Like the Winter Olympics. Sure, we want to win a speed skating medal or a skiing medal. The country really doesn't care. All it is is women's hockey and men's hockey.
Adam Carolla
Women's hockey is that big?
Brooks Laich
Oh, yeah. It's women's and men's or bust. It's gold medal or death.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I get it. You know, the thing that's funny about this country is this country's got so much going on that if you stopped the next 10 people you saw on the street in this neighborhood and asked them about the Olympic gold, they wouldn't know what you were talking about. Yeah, it's so weird. We're so prosperous and have so much diversity and so much going on that we don't even live. Like. Like when Manny Pacquiao would have a championship fight 20 years ago, the Philippines would close down, shut down, and because of the time difference, the fight would be like 3am or something. They were all up the whole place because he's boxing, because that's all he's got. And people will go, well, it's good that they're proud of Manny Pacquiao. And I'd go, it is. But it also means you got to diversify your portfolio a little bit as a country. You can't live and die with Manny Pacquiao. We don't even. People like Muhammad Ali or they. Like Joe Frazier or whoever, Ken Norton or whoever it was, but nobody lived and died with any real buddy in this place. There are people in this country that don't even know what hockey is. And it's crazy, but then it. It's so crazily diverse. But again, it's good because the alternative is you live in Dallas with Manny Pacquiao.
Brooks Laich
But what if Canada or some other nation all of a sudden became the best? Like, beat the US in football? What if other nations beat you in football?
Adam Carolla
Yeah, I get you.
Brooks Laich
Would that get the attention of the nation?
Adam Carolla
Yeah. Well, no, it would not. We would not like it. But there's so many people here that are from other places that don't even care about football. So they grew up playing soccer and what else?
Brooks Laich
But you're American.
Adam Carolla
You're born and bred American. I don't. I would not like it myself. But it's sort of like, you know, it's like. I don't know. It's like, idiot. Italy goes nuts. You know, they love Ferrari. You know, they have so much pride in Ferrari. And, you know, Ferraris are great and that's cool. And they go nuts with their F1 team and stuff like that. But we got, like 30 different kinds of cars, you know, like, we got so much that we can never really live and die with one. With one thing, which is, again, I think there's. I think it's nice if you're Italian and you love Ferrari and you root on their F1 team. Like, I like some of that. But we're now so big and diverse that we can. We have so many. Our portfolio of stocks is so great. We could have one completely tank and we'd still be rich. And I personally would not like it if NFL was being beat by Germany or Canada.
Brooks Laich
Imagine the CFL team beat an NFL team.
Adam Carolla
I would. I would. I would not be happy that CFL versus NFL record 8 and 2 in favor of the NFL according to the Internet. I don't. I didn't even know this. I mean, listen, you got. Well, Doug Flutie.
Brooks Laich
Doug Flutie.
Adam Carolla
Warren Moon.
Adam Jenser
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Oh, shit. Did Kelly play? No, he played the new expansion American Football League or whatever. I'm trying to think of the guys.
Brooks Laich
Warren Moon, I mean, Warren was the best.
Adam Carolla
He was. But Warren Moon had a whole career in Canada before he came here and had whole career here. Like, that guy played quarterback at a super high level for like 20 years, which is kind of crazy. They played each other 10 times. What years did the CFL and the NFL play each other? Because I never even really remember those.
Brooks Laich
Wow. 41 to 61. Wow.
Adam Carolla
Oh, that's why I don't remember that. I'm like, when did they play each other, by the way? Listen, all this. If this is before we had black folks in the league, it's all null and void. Things changed after we integrated the league and I guess the cfl. All right, you guys need a little more of an end zone or your end zone just goes on in perpetuity.
Brooks Laich
20 yards. Yeah.
Adam Carolla
It's too much. There's too much end zone. Yeah.
Brooks Laich
Different. Very different.
Adam Carolla
And the gray cup is like going bl. You need a big name. Not gray. Is Gray the name of a guy?
Brooks Laich
I don't know.
Adam Carolla
It must be.
Brooks Laich
Usually it's a gray day. Usually it's played outside and it's like snowing and, like the sky is gray and. Yeah, it's gray.
Adam Carolla
Must be the name.
Brooks Laich
I'm not sure why it's called Gray
Adam Carolla
of a famous ghost, because otherwise it's just a sort of mute color. You were married to Juliana Hough, who was my partner in Dancing with the Stars.
Brooks Laich
Oh, yeah, I forgot you went on that show.
Adam Carolla
Oh, how could you forget?
Brooks Laich
How was the experience? Everybody says they love that experience. How was your experience on that show, and what was your biggest takeaway from it?
Adam Carolla
I had. Okay. My experience was this. I was told I know exactly where I was. They called me and they said, can you. They want you to do Dancing with the Stars. And my very first impulse was fear. And kind of fear. For me, that reminded me of. I always describe it this way, like, when you're in junior high and, like, somebody would come up to me and go, johnny Finnegan wants to meet you after school at the tunnel to fight. And you have that weird. That weird. Like that thing. You feel it a little bit in your spine or something. He said, dance with the stars. And I had that weird junior high fight. Schoolyard, like, kind of weird thing. And I just felt fear. And so I went, oh, man. I remember thinking, why are you feeling fear? And then I realized, well, I can't dance, and I'm gonna make an ass of my. You know. And then I was like, okay, you got to do it. You have to do it. If it scare. If it's making you feel this scared, there's something going on that if you're having this kind of reaction. I didn't have a reaction like, I'm busy. That's boring. I got a job. It wasn't that I didn't get. People say to me all the time how much they pay or what they pay, or they go. I go, I have no idea. I've never asked. I really. To this day, I have no. I don't remember getting paid. I don't remember asking about pay. I don't know what the pay was. I was on the radio. I was working. I was doing my thing. I didn't do it for anything. I just did it because it seemed scary. And once it felt scary, I was like, all right, well, you could lie about it and say it was lame or you don't need this, or who cares? But the real reason would be, you're scared.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
So then I.
Brooks Laich
Did you enjoy it?
Adam Carolla
I did it. I did. You know, I couldn't dance, but I was. I had enough of athletic background that I kind of understood that you had to do what you had to do.
Brooks Laich
You could receive some coaching, too.
Adam Carolla
Having played sports, definitely knew how to be coach. Was Fine with being coach. I worked pretty much full time. I did mornings. I had twins that were just born, and I had pretty much a full time job. So I said to Juliana, I go, look, I got two hours a day to do this. And however long, however far we get on two hours a day, that's how far we get. But I don't have seven hours a day because I'm up every morning at. I'm up at 5 and I'm working. And then I got this. But I got a crazy schedule, so I got two hours a day. Now, she was fine with that because she was just. She had like one foot out the door at that point. She was getting started with her acting career and all sorts of other opportunities. And she didn't want 13 hour days because she wanted to just do what she wanted to do. So I remember, like, we had a sort of tacit agreement of like, look, we're not gonna bring home the mirrored ball. I got two hours a day.
Brooks Laich
We'll go as far as we can.
Adam Carolla
And Chrissy Yamaguchi, speaking of skating, she's gonna beat our ass. So no one's gonna beat her. It's all she does for. She does it on ice skate. So forget that. Everyone's playing for second place.
Brooks Laich
We'll.
Adam Carolla
We'll be. We'll make it respectable. But we got two hours a day. So that we did. That's what we did. And I met the ladies in the makeup and the hair and sort of have a little community over there and got to know everybody and practice and all that stuff. And it was like a cool experience. It was a really interesting experience.
Brooks Laich
Everybody that comes out of it seems to have really enjoyed it. And usually that's the first thing they say is the people. And I also think it's just. It's an amazing opportunity to open yourself up to a way of life that you probably never. Or like, even a version of you that you never would have tapped into. Like, would you ever sign up for dance class and go do immersive dance class for weeks on end to try to get better at dance?
Adam Carolla
Oh, not. Yeah, no way. I mean, the experience part of doing a. And I think, you know, as a guy who's done Celebrity Apprentice or done the Toyota Celebrity Grand Prix five years and stuff like that, I'll do. I'll just jump into all of it, man. I'm like, let's do it. Because you'll never get that opportunity to do that again. You can take all the classes you want, but you're not Going to be doing that.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Not on that scale.
Brooks Laich
Not on that stage.
Adam Carolla
And not on that stage. And so I was like, oh, hell, yeah. Like, I mean. I mean, let's experience this, you know? But I did the Masked Singer, and I was like, I can't sing.
Brooks Laich
I think I'd be more terrified of that one.
Adam Carolla
Not being able to sing and not be able to dance is terrifying. And it's kind of interesting because I can drive. And so when they do the Celebrity Grand Prix, I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm in. Let's do it. But when they. But dancing and singing is like, oh, this is gonna be bad. And it's like, I don't know. To go out and suck at something on such a large scale with so many eyeballs, you know, kind of.
Brooks Laich
It's intimidating.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. But my thing is, I don't think you can just cherry pick shit you're good at and do the version of that, you know? Like, I love doing the Dodger Celebrity All Star baseball game or whatever, but I was good at baseball, and it was good. It was like a chance I'm gonna hit some dingers, you know, and this is gonna be good. But then Dancing with the Stars, like, you're bad at dancing and, like, mass Scene was like, you're bad at singing, but you shouldn't be picking. Well, I'll do the driving one. I'll do the softball one, but I'm not gonna do the singing one. I'm not gonna just do all of them.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Probably get more out of the stuff you're bad at.
Brooks Laich
Probably. Yeah. And I think that's somewhat of the appeal to it, is that you see the human side of it. Dance is such a beautiful celebration and movement that's worldwide, but it's also. Yeah, there's a lot of fear around it. I don't feel like I'm a good dancer. I would feel the same thing that you would feel in that. And then I think people really watch, like, watching that Jo of somebody that is just starting out and is on two left feet to. All of a sudden, wow, they've actually got some rhythm and they've got some chemistry with their partner. And if it's possible for them, maybe it's possible for me, too. So have you ever seen the. The Canadian TV show World's Worst Driver or Canada's Worst Worst.
Adam Carolla
I think I've heard of it.
Brooks Laich
So it's just when you were saying that about driving and we're talking about being bad at something. So in Canada, there's Canada's worst driver. And then there's also Canada's worst handyman. And these are shows and you nominate your friend. So Canada's worst driver, you nominate your friend. As in, like, I have a friend who is the worst driver, and I want to nominate them for this show. And some of these people have like 37 accidents. I have no idea how they have a license, whatever. And then they get put through these tests, these driving tests, almost like a driving school. And then eventually, like, one person is awarded the worst driver, the worst driver in Canada. Same thing for handyman. So Canada's worst handyman, they've been going like 27 seasons or something like that, like, a long time.
Adam Carolla
So it started organically, I guess a guy did a really bad job and then somebody went back and like, filmed it or something.
Brooks Laich
I don't know.
Adam Carolla
Do they cook it now, though? Do you think there's a setup? Like, you think a guy has a buddy act, like a really bad hand? And by the way, I'd be a. A good handyman, so I would like to play the good handicap.
Brooks Laich
I don't think so. Because I think when you watch it, you just realize this. It's just. It looks so like. Because also in Canada, we don't have the same production value that you have in the U.S. right. Like, everything is lights and lasers and fire and angles and everything. And in Canada, it's like one steady shot and it's not even color graded or whatever. And you just see Terry screwing up this thing that he's trying to build
Adam Carolla
13 seasons for the driver. What? Show me some of the worst handyman stuff. Because as a builder, I'll have an appreciation.
Brooks Laich
When you see them try to put together, like, a desk or something, you're like, how are you? But they're so. They're like, I tried. And you're like, that's a real person that just is so bad at this. And you probably have friends. I have some friends with this. I'm like, never trust them with any tool ever.
Adam Jenser
Ever.
Adam Carolla
I just had a level show up in the mail before I got started here today. This guy's building a. Like a fun house for his kids.
Brooks Laich
I don't know. I have no idea what they build. It is.
Adam Carolla
Oh, oh, somebody. Okay, hold on. Somebody was trying to use an auger, an auger drill. And the thing caught and knocked him. Knocked him down. Is some strange way it went, too.
Brooks Laich
This isn't going to be one of
Adam Carolla
those nice and pretty home renovation shows where everything works out perfectly. Oh, that's the Oscar is Canada's worst handyman.
Brooks Laich
You ever see those clips like Reason 12:50, why women live longer than men and stuff like that?
Adam Carolla
Yeah. Well, you should watch it.
Brooks Laich
You would laugh. You would also cringe. You would cringe, but you'd also really laugh.
Adam Carolla
Well, I did a show called Catch a Contractor. We just busted bad contractors. People don't really realize is contractors. It's a bit of a catch all for people who are unemployable. So people think people go, how did you get into the trades? You said that to me or you said it to anybody. Most anybody I worked in trades with. How'd you get in trades? They go, was your dad a tradesman or something? It was like a family business. No, you have to be a really shitty student. You have to not go to college and you have to have poor parents and you have to need a job. And then you end up on a job site and you end up working as labor. And you dig ditches.
Brooks Laich
My brother's an electrician.
Adam Carolla
And you move garbage. And at some point you figure out if I could get in the house and pick up some tools, I'd get paid more and I wouldn't be digging ditches for a living. And then eventually you kind of figure it out. But it is kind of a catch all for unemployable people, essentially. And also, you cannot work in an office setting. You can't put a tie on. You don't know how to speak to people. You have certain habits that don't work well in a white collar environment. And you will not be accepted in this corporate environment.
Brooks Laich
I just like, I'm thinking of my brother.
Adam Carolla
You're thinking of brother. And you have to have certain things like, like not showing up a couple of Mondays and not calling anyone or even telling them where you are. Just not showing up and then just showing up Tuesday and someone goes, where were you? And you go, don't worry about it. And that's about it. Drinking beer after you knock off, but still on the job site, sitting in the bed of your pickup truck, Just a whole bunch of stuff that renders you kind of unemployable in a modern society.
Brooks Laich
I think of my brother. I just think of like, like loose lips. Like he'll let anything fly off the lips that probably doesn't go right. It'll go on a construction site, but
Adam Carolla
not in an office. Yeah, absolutely. These are guys you'd want to get. If you're fighting another group of guys, you'd want these guys with you. Fighting. But they're not really employable in a sort of modern world, so they must be out on their own. They like being left alone a lot. They don't like people looking over their shoulders. They're not gonna. By the way. They're not gonna have some woman come in and go, hey, you better get your shit together. Bielensky files junk fix it. Are you kidding? They can't take any of that stuff. So I work with a guy named Russ. The homeowner was this woman's kind of a bitch. She was, like, bitching at Russia. Russ was like, mixing concrete. Russ turned the hose on her. Turn the hose is an adult man turns a hose on an adult woman, pressure sprays her right in the face in her own home. That's how much criticism these guys can take. Zero. Zero critiques. You know, they have no. They have no bedside manner. You know, like, I used to carpool with Russ. He like, I'm gonna pull up your place at 6:30. You're the fucking in the driveway or you're not. If you're not in the driveway, I'm backing out. I'm going to the job. I'm not gonna knock on the door, knocking a. Honk the horn. He fucking be out there. Like, that's how they talk to people, you know, they're not. They can't be employed.
Brooks Laich
You should see the oil field.
Adam Carolla
Oh, my. Couldn't imagine roughnecks.
Brooks Laich
Yeah. If it wasn't. If it wasn't hockey, for me, it would have been. All of my buddies went into the oil field.
Adam Carolla
That's a tough crew. Oh, that's probably. That's worse than construction.
Brooks Laich
That is worse than construction.
Adam Carolla
Right. But no one dreams of working in an oil field. You become a bad student, you have a couple run, maybe you get a dui. You have issues and you're unemployable. I don't even know if you can fill out a job application like you know it proficiently. And you end up in an oil field or a construction site. And then people go, what's wrong with that contractor guy? He's not really a contractor. He ended up here because he has to work and his parents don't have any money. And that's what people need to understand.
Brooks Laich
It's a tough job, too.
Adam Carolla
Oh, oil field. Your brother's smart with the electrician, at least.
Brooks Laich
Well, then he became an electrician in the oil field. Oh, yeah, my brother's smart. He did very well for himself, and he built a company for himself, and he does very well he now sits in his truck and orders everybody else to do everything. He just aligns projects and watches Netflix.
Adam Carolla
Well, eventually you gotta get out of the field, man. I mean, for me, I was like, we climbing around a roof when you're 55, like you don't want to. It beats you up too. Your hands get beat up. You know, you get beat up every year playing hockey.
Brooks Laich
There came a time in February where I wanted to quit every year. And I loved hockey. I love playing it every February. All of a sudden you're playing, you're playing two every second night for the next months. Like you're at about the 48, 50 game area. So you're still 30 some games from playoffs. You're starting to get beat up, shoulder sore, neck is sore. You're playing five games in seven nights. Waking up in a city wherever. And it just every February had hit me and I'm like, I quit, I quit. And then I would think of my best friends in the world. We're back home In Saskatchewan, working 8 hour shifts, driving 90 miles to work one way, working 8 hour shifts in minus 4,40 Celsius, pulling pipe or whatever they were doing. And I'm like, no, I'll go back to the rink tonight.
Adam Carolla
Good.
Brooks Laich
There's no way I'm going to that.
Adam Carolla
You either, there's two. Yeah, you're right. You either do it yourself for a couple of years and really know what that is, or you have family members and friends and guys you grow up with, do it and you know what it is and then puts things in perspective. All right, Brooks, let me give you a plug. World Playground online travel booking platform. Make the unforgettable more affordable. Where should people go to find this worldplayground copy?
Brooks Laich
Worldplayground co. Yeah, you can just Google search World Playground. But what it is for anybody listening, we've talked about youth sports and stuff. Anybody listening our book, It's a travel booking platform. You probably know a half dozen other ones. And the only difference is we don't ever add a single cent of commission to your travel product ever. So we never add a markup commission to your hotel room or your cruise, your travel insurance. We're integrating flights as we speak. The whole purpose of this booking platform is to save every single traveler on earth the most money possible. When other companies are trying to maximize their profit and increase the price of your trip, we are trying to remove every single cent of unnecessary cost to just give you the traveler the actual cost of the.
Adam Carolla
How do you get paid?
Brooks Laich
We monetize that's the first question we ask or get asked. And I always say, adam, this is great for you. Why does it even matter? The world is more affordable for you.
Adam Carolla
You.
Brooks Laich
We. We will monetize the site from travel service providers. So we have a huge community of travelers using the platform. We have people from 45 different countries using the platform booking their travel on our website. And then we monetize based off cruise lines, hotels, resorts wanting to have their property in front of this highly engaged and ravenous travel.
Adam Carolla
I ask only because if people don't give a logical answer as to how they get paid, then it doesn't make sense and it usually means they're lying. But when they go, here's the way we get paid. We don't need to get paid from you. Then you go, oh, okay, you're telling the truth.
Brooks Laich
Yeah, very simple story. I'll compress it really quickly. So travel moved online in the mid-90s. You used to have to call somewhere and have a travel agent call and book your cruise or they used to mail you your flight ticket. Travel moved online in the mid-90s, and you used to. So you used to have to pay a travel agent commission to do all this booking for you. The travel industry got rid of the agent, got rid of brick and mortar, moved to tech and moved online. But they kept the commissions attached to the travel products. For the last 30 years, travelers have been paying commission, platform or agency commissions on every hotel room, every cruise, travel, insurance, flight, you name it, you're paying a commission on it. And we just thought that was wrong. We thought that should not be charged anymore. A piece of tech transacts your booking. You should not have to pay a commission on that. So our platform completely removes commission. We'll never add a single cent of commission. We'll never keep one either. So you get the best price on travel. We bring the cost of my whole purpose mission used to be to win a Stanley cup in the NHL. Now it is to make the world as affordable as possible for. For every single traveler out there. I know you're a father.
Adam Carolla
Yes, I'm a father.
Brooks Laich
I want to take. I tell my daughter every day, I want to take you everywhere. And we'll be able to. We've done well in life. We'll be able to afford to travel with our kids. Not every father in town has that luxury. And our platform makes that more available for every father, mother, son, brother, grandparent, anybody that is moving from point A to point B. Our website makes that travel more affordable for world playground.
Adam Carolla
All Right, Brooks. Great. We'll take quick break. Adam Jenser's coming in with news right after this. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Riley Auto Parts. Yeah. What business are they in? You know what business they're in the business of keeping your car on the road. There are not many car issues I can't figure out, but if I'm stumped, I'll always hit up O'Reilly immediately. They've got thousands of parts in stock either in store or online. You never have to worry if you're in a jam. They also can test your battery for free. And if it needs to be replaced, they can help you find the right one that fits your automobile. So whether you're a car aficionado or an auto novice, you'll see the employees at O'Reilly Auto Parts are helpful and friendly. They're the best. O'Reilly is your one stop shop for all things auto. Do it yourself. It's O'Reilly Auto Parts. Right, Dawson stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts
Dawson
today or visit us@O'ReillyAuto.com Adam that's O'ReillyAuto.com
Adam Carolla
Adam fast growing trees. Well, did you know Fast Growing Trees is America's largest and most trusted online nursery. They have thousands of trees and plants and over 2 million happy customers. They have all the plants your yard needs, grown with care and guaranteed to arrive healthy. I've moved around a lot. Fast Growing Trees always helps me make my dream yard come true just in time. Love these guys. It's a great idea. All you have to do is just click, order and grow. I recently ordered a bunch of stuff and it just, it helps so much. It makes the yard look so great, fragrant, beautiful, attracts to pretty birds. It's just, you can't believe what a huge impact it'll make on your home. It's Fast Growing Trees, right, Dawson?
Dawson
Right now they have great deals on spring planting essentials, up to half off on select plants. And listeners to our show get 20% off their first purchase when using Code Adam at checkout. That's an additional 20% off. Better plants and better growing at fastgrowingtrees.com using the code Adam at checkout fastgrowingtrees.com code Adam now is the perfect time to plant. Let's grow together. Use Adam and save today. Offers valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. May 27 Hollywood history meets radio history as Kroc's own Adam Carolla is honored with a star on the legend legendary Hollywood Walk of fame. Wednesday, May 27, 11:30am at the corner of Hollywood and Highland. This isn't just a celebration of one career. It's recognition of a city, an era, and the soundtrack of Southern California itself. Join Jimmy Kimmel, Dr. Drew and generations of Loveline fans for Adams induction as a Hollywood icon While celebrating over 50 years of the creator radio station in the country, the world famous KROQ. Wednesday, March 27, 11:30am at the corner of Hollywood and Highland. Congratulations, Adam Carolla.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. Star in the walk up thing. That is crazy.
Adam Jenser
That's awesome. Congrats.
Adam Carolla
Yeah. It's a weird thing that I've expressed on here before. I have not thought about it or really talked about it or had thought. I haven't had thoughts, which is weird because I have thoughts about like omelets and. Yes, you have thoughts on a lot of times, like everything. I've somehow. I was told about this. It's been over a year and I don't think I've mentioned it to anybody. And by the way, I'm the kind of person who will talk about anything to anybody. There's something in particular about this that I think it has to do with my family of origin or something that made it not okay to talk about or something. My family was very like, don't be bragging about this or that and the other, but I'll talk about anything and brag about anything. But for some reason this one, it got to a point where I come.
Brooks Laich
Have you spoken at others?
Adam Carolla
I completely forgot about it.
Adam Jenser
Have you spoken at others or attended others ever before?
Adam Carolla
No, I was. No, I was out of town when Jimmy got his one. He got his star five years ago or something. And I literally had a theater in Connecticut or something. I was already booked and I heard about it two weeks before, whatever it was. And no, I would have liked to have said something there, but he's gonna definitely do something. There's a couple scary parts. One is the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is not a fan of Jimmy. Cause Jimmy's made fun of them enough that they're not really. He's not able to call the shots like he normally is because I guess he's made enough fun of them. And then when they were doing the paperwork or sending an email for what this was and what, you know, dates and stuff like that, they'd misspelled my name. And now, by the way, that could be forever.
Adam Jenser
Did they do 1L or how did they.
Adam Carolla
They did the traditional C O R. Oh, okay. O L L A. I see. Which is now. Not that it's anyone's fault. But. But I don't know. I say Corolla. I don't say Corolla. I just say cuh.
Adam Jenser
And you think it's something they double check. I've had big events that I've done before, things that were a big deal for me, and they always switch the S in the end. They do Jezner a lot and it doesn't bother me that much. But it's like you think it'd be
Adam Carolla
something you fact check when it's spelled. I completely agree. My thing isn't why don't you know how to spell my name? My thing is why can't you use your fucking phone and figure this out? And I would never do it to somebody because I would. I wouldn't profess to know how the name.
Adam Jenser
Well, I'm glad Adam Corolla is getting a star on the Walk of Fame.
Adam Carolla
That's what they'll say on the star. I have had articles written on me where it was spelled two different ways in the same article. Oh, other Hollywood Walk of Famers this year. Demi Moore.
Adam Jenser
Nice.
Adam Carolla
Shaq. Good. I don't like this Timothee Chalamet, which is like 24 and a half. I don't. I would say it's about time. Yeah, well overdue. He just got a second pube. I can't believe he had to wait this long. Spindly punk. The other thing too is Shaq. Demi Moore, Timothy. I'm from here. So it's a little more surreal because this been a part. I mean, look, it's good for everyone and who cares? But. But it's weirder for me because, like, I remember having an apartment with my girlfriend in Hollywood when I was on a construction site and that sort of, oh, okay. I cleaned the carpets at Frederick's of Hollywood. Frederick's of Hollywood.
Adam Jenser
The lingerie store.
Adam Carolla
The lingerie store. And I remember, like, parking the van down the street in like, you know, 1982 and pushing the carpet cleaning steaming device, like, all, you know, through three blocks. But going over the stars, you know, like looking down at WC Fields. What a career. You know, eventually getting to the Fredericks of Hollywood, which was on Hollywood Boulevard, and then having to move, like, all the lingerie racks and clean the carpets, you know, and like, weirdo dudes, like, banging on the glass, you know, because they're watching me clean the carpet. Like, are you open? I'm like, no, I'm not open. I'm cleaning the carpet. So, yeah, it's weird looking down at the. At the stars Back then. And then actually being one is.
Adam Jenser
Yeah, it's kind of interesting just dreaming that someday you'd see your name next to Timothee Chalamet on that sidewalk.
Adam Carolla
At that point, I was dreaming of, I was praying they opened a carpet cleaning hall of fame that one day I, I would be inducted. All the greats, Stanley Steamer be there and Rug Doctor and all the names from our past. And they'd welcome me into their.
Adam Jenser
A star made out of different carpet.
Adam Carolla
That's different swatches. We'd have a Berber star over here. Low cut pile over there. All right, what news do you have, Adam?
Adam Jenser
Well, Gavin Newsom once again under fire for over $20 million diaper deal tied to a nonprofit network work linked to his wife, California governor. California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing accusations of corruption for paying $20 million in taxpayer money to a non profit led by an executive who also sits on the board of his wife's organization that promotes gender equity. It all comes down to diapers as the initiative Golden State Start was rolled out ahead of Mother's Day. Billed as a partnership between the state and Los Angeles based Baby to Baby.
Adam Carolla
Oh, it's a good name. Always a good name.
Adam Jenser
Yeah, they provide free diapers to newborns through hospitals statewide. But according to the deal, they're paying 50 cents for each diaper, which is way more than they cost. According to Steve Hilton, Republican candidate. If you take the number of diapers they're planning to send out and the amount of money that he's spending on it, it's 50 cents for each one, which is 100 times more expensive if you just bought them at Costco. So if you look at the prices at Walmart or Costco or any of these bulk places, they're paying two to three times more for these diapers and they're questioning where the rest of the money is going.
Adam Carolla
Well, look, to be fair, these are the guys who brought you getting all the grade school or high school kids tablets about must have been about seven, eight years ago. They always do this thing. These guys are falling through the cracks and they're falling behind because they don't have access to technology. So they took a tablet which retailed for 550 bucks, spent 700 a unit on it, but they bought 2 million units. So they didn't get a bulk discount. They got a bulk bump up and then distributed them to all the kids who hacked them and watch you porn and then bashed your classmates over the head with them and nothing ever happened. Well, actually, those kids are now the kids pulling the copper out of the wire of the street lights and doing street takeovers and donuts in their Dodge
Adam Jenser
Chargers, trying to get on their tablets.
Adam Carolla
That's what those guys, they're telling everyone, hey, we're doing a street takeover on Alvarado and Hoover Sunday night. Bring your stolen car. We'll do some donuts. I'll hang out the window with my tablet. So whenever they try to give shit away, it never works. It's also a thing where it's like, hey, I'm giving away diapers. Like, you're not giving away diapers. You're giving away my tax money, is what you're doing.
Adam Jenser
You're using other people's money to do that.
Adam Carolla
Basically, what these guys do is they go, hey, man, it was my idea to give away. So this be like if me and all my rich friends went out to dinner. And then I just walked around the table at the end, I tapped everyone on his shoulder and go, hey, mark Garrison, need $300. Give me 300. I just tapped everybody. Rick Caruso, I need $300. Okay. Can I have that? Yeah, I'll take that. And then at some point, I stood up at the head of the table, and I was like, I wish I had something metallic here. Hey, listen, everybody, good news. I'm paying for dinner. I should have all the cash that all you idiots get escape me. And I bet everybody be like, oh, it's so wonderful. So generous. So generous. He took all the money away from people that pay taxes and gave it to poor people. Yeah, he's a hero. All right. I guess we have the clip of that.
Adam Jenser
This is Gavin selling diapers.
Adam Carolla
You know exactly what I'm holding in my hand. Diapers.
Brooks Laich
We'll be distributing 40 million free diapers this year to families to address one of the real cost challenges they face, the affordability of diapers.
Adam Carolla
Okay, first off, I say this about parents who made powdered milk. Buddy, if milk is a bridge too far financially, you can't raise kids. If this is one of your real financial setbacks is fucking diapers, you're in no position to raise a family or children, number one. Number two, there was a whole movement for cloth diapers.
Adam Jenser
Yeah, I remember.
Adam Carolla
Because disposable diapers are horrible for the environment. And I looked it up. They take 500 years to break down in a landfill, and they compose. The third largest item in landfills are disposable diapers. Really? Right. So, Mr. Clean California Environmental Guy, why are you weaponizing these diapers? Why are you taking a bunch of poor people and giving them diapers that it's gonna end up in the landfill. Why not give them cloth diapers and train them up on how to reuse the cloth diapers?
Adam Jenser
He's giving them the diapers, but he's giving them the solar lighting to save the environment.
Adam Carolla
That's right. Solar lights and diapers. So it's awesome.
Adam Jenser
I feel like Hil should use this when they had those old diaper commercials where they show like how much waste
Adam Carolla
they pour the water.
Adam Jenser
He should be using this in a commercial. Just. This is how much waste Gavin Newsom is holding in these diapers.
Adam Carolla
Well, also, see, I don't like the free breakfast and the free lunch and the free school thing because I think it indoctrinates the kids to be dependent on the state at a very young age. But this is literally cradle to grave now. You're literally getting them when they're in diapers and depending upon the state and then that'll go right into. Well, it's a perfect cycle. You feed them and whatever they end up ends up in your diaper. But the food is free and the diaper's free and they're dependent on you, which is how they love it. They want bigger, bigger, bigger government and more dependencies. And I have no idea why this is alluring, but it is alluring to lazy people.
Adam Jenser
And that's the voters dedicated throughout their lives to keep voting for more free stuff.
Brooks Laich
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Yes.
Adam Jenser
They could be giving the diapers to the homeless and keeping some human, human feces off the streets.
Adam Carolla
Good point. Oh, trying to run a small business in this state especially, I mean it is all the deck is stacked against you. Am I right, Dawson?
Dawson
Absolutely. We talk about it all the time. We run a small business here and it's tough these days for small businesses to make bankroll every week. But our friends at Cardiff can help you because they built their entire business on helping your business. They got fast funding and same day rates you'll find at a bank, but no red tape and all the bureaucracy that we have here in the state of California.
Adam Carolla
True. They've funded over 12 billion for business owners since 2004. You can apply in five minutes, get approved and funded as fast as well today. If you've been in business for at least a year and are doing 20,000 in monthly revenue, you could qualify for up to 500,000. Zero impact on your personal credit to apply.
Dawson
That's right. Stop letting the big banks slow your growth. Go to Cardiff Co. Adam, that's Cardiff C A, R, D, I f, f, co 80aM Cardiff. Borrow better.
Adam Carolla
At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto tv. Then I heard a voice.
Adam Jenser
Come with me if you want to live.
Adam Carolla
There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free. Truth is that it's just so Beautiful on Pluto TV.
Dawson
Free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe, Arrow, the 100, and the X Files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV Stream now. Pay. Never.
Adam Jenser
All right, we got another story out of Arcadia. Nearby. The California mayor of Arcadia was charged with acting as an illegal agent for China. She's going to plead guilty. This Eileen Wang. The mayor of Arcadia has been charged with acting as an illegal foreign agent by the Justice Department. Wang agreed to plead guilty starting in late 2020. Wang and Yao Ning. Mike Soon.
Adam Carolla
Eileen Wang. Sounds like something a massage therapist with a full release would insult you with. Like you drop your towel. Eileen Wang. Lin Wang. Well, it's not as bulky as a lot of the Wangs.
Brooks Laich
It's not a girthy Wang, lean Wang.
Adam Carolla
Like, it seems like if you didn't tip, you might be that might. If you didn't tip properly on a rub and tug, you might hear that yelled at you when you're heading out.
Adam Jenser
It'll chase you out into the streets.
Adam Carolla
Yelling that behind Wang. Yes. Yeah.
Adam Jenser
Her and Yao Ning soon worked together to operate a website called US News center that purported to be a news source for the local Chinese American community. But the U.S. news center received and executed directives from the People's Republic of China government officials to post pro PRC content on the website and sometimes sought approval from PRC officials to circulate other pro PRC content.
Adam Carolla
Are we all just. First off, I always love when I go, we need more women in positions of parenthood. It turns out women, I think are worse than guys at this stuff. And then we need more women of color. I don't think that one's really working out either, in terms of. I don't think we need that. I've seen it. It doesn't seem to be working out. But is everything here just underwritten? Is all China trying to do is sow chaos in this country, and are we just. Just Charlie Brown kicking that football like every single. They said several. Several years ago when they were talking about Russia and Russia collusions, they said most of the stuff that came out of Russia was racially oriented just to get us fighting. It wasn't pro Hillary or pro Trump
Adam Jenser
or they'd unleash both. They'd put some Facebook ads against one side and one against. And it was just to sow discourse.
Adam Carolla
Right. So what Russia was doing was trying to get us to fight with one another, which is what you would want to do. If you had a foe that had a kick ass military, you wouldn't want to deal with their military, but you would like them fighting all the time. And then you kind of wonder at all these organized protests and antifa and all this junk where we're going to fight ICE or we're going to fight, we're going to be pro Hamas and we're going to go down to the synagogue and everything seems to be like organized. Like, are we all just usual idiots or is this all being funded from outside and we're all just fighting one another because we're being agitated? Like they'll. I'm trying to think, but it's like, it's like a. There was a Benny Hill skit.
Adam Jenser
I love old Benny Hill skits.
Adam Carolla
It's like a Benny Hill skit. And there was this, his old man, remember the old guy, the old bald guy was standing there and Benny Hill was like standing there with an arm and a sling. And then every time a woman came by, she'd be like, ooh, pinch on the ass. She'd look at Benny Hill with the arm and the sling and then look at the old guy and then slap the old guy. And then another woman, oh, and then she'd look at him with the arm and then she's got slapped the old guy again. And at some point you see Benny Hill's arm come up from under sweater and hold a thumbs up. And you realize, isn't that just what's happening to us? Like they're just goosing us and we're slapping each other.
Adam Jenser
We need the Benny Hill music over their Chinese scams.
Adam Carolla
Yakety sax.
Adam Jenser
Yes. Yakety sacks. Yep.
Adam Carolla
Yeah.
Adam Jenser
I also love the name of this center that they created, this news outlet. They call it US News center, run by the Chinese American. They don't even come up with clever names. It's like, we need a cover. We'll call it American Business Company Violence Fight.
Adam Carolla
That's the name of a video game I played. Exactly.
Adam Jenser
San Francisco is plotting an outdoor smoking ban. They're rolling out a sweeping outdoor smoking ban that would snuff out cigarettes on bar patios and parklets across the city. The move has Ignited outrage among local business owners who argue the draconian measure is just the latest example of government overreach putting neighborhood bars at risk. The controversial ordinance is being crafted by supervisor Myrna Melgar and Dr. John Ma of the San Francisco Marin Medical Society require bars and taverns to follow the same smoke free outdoor regulations already imposed on restaurants.
Adam Carolla
Yeah, so. So I think there's a couple things you can sort of mark the decline of this country. About the time we waged war on smokers, if you wanna look, if you saw a chart about when this country started coming undone, we decided that smoking is about the worst thing you can do in this country. And by the way, fighting a cop or throwing a brick at an ice van or setting a hobo on fire, not quite as bad as smoking. Like smoking is the worst thing you can do. We decided in this country, we decided that smoking pot was much better than smoking cigarettes, which is an insanity. You don't want your fucking teenage boys smoking pot. You would much prefer them smoke cigarettes than pot. But we decided that smoking pot was good for you. Smoking cigarettes was bad. People that smoked cigarettes were bad. And we needed to wage an all out war on cigarettes. And then when somebody came up with vaping, which is what people do to get off of cigarettes, we declared war on vaping as well and decided to call it brain poison or something. And all these PSAs that don't have anything to do with the truth at all, by the way, all these PSAs and all the bullshit they've been peddling, it's gonna fall under the heading of the vaccines and Covid and Fauci and the WHO and all the bullshit they've been lying about and peddling for this whole time. We were much better nation when people smoked. Now everyone is chewing on one of these zins. They got a protein. No, they have an energy drink in their hand and they're all fat as shit and they're angry. Smoking was good. It kept people and they socialized. Now if you smoke, you have to go hide behind a dumpster or something. You will be judged. Not if you smoke weed. If you smoke weed, you fucking light
Adam Jenser
up wherever you walk down the sidewalk with that.
Adam Carolla
Wherever you are. No judgment at all. But if you smoke, smoke a cigarette, there's gonna be an issue. And in a town where people are just shooting up fentanyl and crapping in their pants, maybe you should focus on that. That is one of the things I always forget about it. And Dawson, you could probably find it. We haven't talked about it in a while. But when San Francisco's own Gavin Newsom was in here, I said, gavin, I want you to just work big to small. You know what I mean? And by the way, smoking is small.
Adam Jenser
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
In terms of ills. Societal ills. Yeah.
Adam Jenser
I've never heard anyone say, you know what the problem with San Francisco is?
Adam Carolla
Smokers. Secondhand smoke. Right. They've invented something called third hand smoke.
Dawson
Did they really?
Adam Carolla
Oh, they used to talk about first. They used to talk about secondhand smoke being a killer. I used to rail on these things. Remember, secondhand smoke was a big deal
Adam Jenser
when I was in school in the 90s. Like early 90s was at the height of the war against smoking. And we'd have posters against. In the classrooms, they have animals smoking cigarettes on the walls and saying how
Adam Carolla
stup they came up with. Third hand smoke.
Adam Jenser
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Secondhand smoke is the cigarette smoke that just drifts. It always. Here's what it does. A dude, a single dude, sits alone in his apartment and smokes. The smoke goes through the outlet and up the conduit up to the neighbor's unit and it goes right into the nursery with a young Latina baby who got the free diaper from Gavin Newsom is living and it pollutes her head. So see how it works?
Adam Jenser
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
Third hand smoke is when grandpa was out smoking on the patio, but he's wearing a cardigan. And then several hours later, he hugs his grandchild and the smoke from the cardigan is released. Oh, and now third hand, instantly we have third hand smoke. But dumb shit, Gavin Newsom, when he was on this show, I go, just work big to small. Just work big. He goes, you know what, Adam? I like to work small to big. I was like, what does that mean? That's perfect.
Adam Jenser
Politician, word salad.
Adam Carolla
Right? Well, you know, that is free. That's overpaying for free diapers versus three people dying on the streets of overdoses every single day because of fentanyl and major industries and businesses fleeing town. So it's basically saying instead of getting production back in Los Angeles, I'm gonna focus on secondhand smoke. Yeah, that's what that is. Yeah, yeah, it's somewhere, Dawson. But he. He was pretty, huh? He's pretty proud of himself for working.
Dawson
I got the whole hour and 10 minute interview here. I'll see if I can find.
Adam Carolla
There is something we need to do, which is pop those clips because we've. We've played this one a few times. We. I think we need to separate it and label it. All right. Go ahead. What else?
Adam Jenser
We also got smoking.
Adam Carolla
Fuck off. Just let us do what we want to do. How about that?
Adam Jenser
Does it not as a political issue. Do you get bothered by like smoking? If there's. Because when I grew up there was still smoking sections in diners and stuff. And I don't think it bothered me back then, but now that I'm not used to it, when I'm around smoking, it bothers me more than I used to.
Adam Carolla
I don't like, like, you know, you get into a car, the guy was smoking and it kind of smells like smoking. I don't like it, but I don't care enough to say anything about it.
Adam Jenser
Place to step in and be like,
Adam Carolla
no, it's not the government's place to say anything about it.
Adam Jenser
Donald Trump in the news also. He says he's seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st state. According to Fox News reporter John Roberts, the 79 year old president, they always mention his age in these people articles, is interested in turning the South American country of Venezuela into the 51st US US state. Fox News also reported that John Roberts had spoken with Trump on Monday. Reached by people for comment about whether Trump is serious about absorbing Venezuela, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales stated, as the President has said, relations between Venezuela and the US have been extraordinary. Oil is starting to flow and large amounts of money, unseen for many years, will soon be helping the great people of Venezuela. Only President Trump can be credited for the revitalization of this newfound partnership. And the best is yet to come.
Adam Carolla
I know everyone gets their panties in a bunch. Like, what's she going to do with Cuba? I don't know. Don't you think it'd be good for Cuba if we were part of the United States or America got heavily involved with Cuba? In a weird way, it's like, let's just say you're some fledgling company or some struggling technology company and you'd been around for a while, but you were kind of hemorrhaging money. Now you weren't what it used to be. And you, your CFO's an alcoholic. Wouldn't it be nice if Apple bought you up? I don't know. And they go, why Apple? They're so big now, they're getting bigger. It's like, I would kind of be happy for your employees if Apple bought you up.
Adam Jenser
That's always how I feel about these stories about people becoming the other places becoming 51st state. I'm like, if the people there wanted to be good for them, why not?
Adam Carolla
It seems like, well, everyone's Trying to get. Everyone's trying to get from Cuba to Florida in a fucking inner tube anyway. So why not just have a ferry and make them a state? I know we're not talking about Cuba here, but what I'm saying is they already want this. What would be so wrong with it?
Adam Jenser
And nothing would normalize and develop the issues that they're having there economically and with their energy infrastructure. They're just normalizing relations with the US And. And increasing tourism and increasing US Involvement there.
Adam Carolla
I totally, totally agree. Did you have that clip? Did I see that, Andrew? But I missed it, or was he put it up on the screen, but then pulled it off the screen? No, that was something else. Well, anyway, when we do find it, Dawson, we'll label it and we'll put it in the computer. We'll have it. But I'll paraphrase. I told him, work big to small. He said he went, small to big, and then he was very happy with himself.
Adam Jenser
He thought he did that one.
Adam Carolla
Well, yeah. It always reminded me when I was doing a crank anchor call a million years ago, it was about bearing my mom or something like that. And I said to the person at the funeral home or something, I just went, you know, no child should have to bury a parent. And they went, I know, I know. I was like, well, that's the only way it should be. Because the other way around, people usually say, yeah. But I realized you say something that sounds good with enough gravitas. Yes. People go, yeah.
Adam Jenser
And that's how Governor Newsom became governor. Saying things that sound right, no matter
Adam Carolla
how insane they are, that zero sense at all. Like, the actual. The actual definition of what you want out of a governor's working big to small. I don't really care about the little local, itty bitty stuff.
Adam Jenser
Nobody's like, the reason people are leaving our state is because of secondhand smoke.
Adam Carolla
Right? Yeah. All right, we will find this thing and have it for you on some later show. But we're gonna label it. We're gonna put it on the computer. I don't know what it was, Dawson. It's too long. But it is good. It is good. And it's just good because he was so happy with himself. But he also. That was the same interviewer I told him about traffic. And he's like, saw a sign. I like, you're not in traffic. You are traffic. And I'm like, that doesn't make any sense either.
Dawson
All right, I got it. It's gonna take a second to get to, but here we Go.
Adam Carolla
Okay. Now he's played a more profound role.
Dawson
He's talking about his father.
Adam Carolla
Rich and good looking. Hardly.
Dawson
Jesus, about 30 seconds.
Adam Carolla
He's hardly my father.
Brooks Laich
He's played a very important role.
Adam Carolla
And that's right.
Brooks Laich
But he wasn't raising me day to day.
Adam Carolla
My mother was. And so a lot of folks can overcome that. I know. You're the exception, though, not the rule.
Brooks Laich
I don't know. I know a lot of divorced families.
Adam Carolla
Well, I'll tell you what.
Brooks Laich
Chris had done pretty well.
Adam Carolla
And so it's just. It's not as easy as suggesting because you don't have a father, that it's automatic that your lot in life is go to prison and find out what percentage of those folks had in their
Brooks Laich
life or with learning disabilities or with.
Adam Carolla
With huge small. Well, I don't know about that. With huge socioeconomic issues. Here's a lot of generational poverty. There's a lot of others in government. Start big and then we'll get down to the small stuff.
Brooks Laich
I like sweating the small stuff and
Adam Carolla
then getting the big stuff. I think it's the opposite.
Brooks Laich
It's bottom up thinking, not top down thinking.
Adam Carolla
All right, I gotta tell you what, all right. It's bottom up thinking. It's not top down thinking. That makes no sense. First, I don't know gay slang, but secondly, I was just telling this idiot, if you have a dad in the house, it's much more. Your kid has a chance of being much better. She's got. I don't know. I disagree with that. I go, go to the prison and see if those guys have dads. Oh, hey, I don't know. He's the dumbest guy on the planet. Something's wrong with him. There's something wrong. We elected a guy who doesn't think dads being at home are important. No, it's like I reject diet and exercise. I don't believe in it. I know a guy looks good in his trunk, eats donuts. So there you go. All right, Adam Jenser, I will give dates in a second. I'm going to be in Covina. Oh, yeah. RFK Jr. S going to be out there with me. I wasn't able to say it in the past, but he is going to be out there tomorrow at the Laugh Factory. RFK Jr. We'll do a live show there. Visalia at the Fox Theater and then Modesto at the State Theater. And the after on the 24th, I'll be in the Costa Mesa, Westwood coast doing stand up there. Adam, your dates are where where do we find?
Adam Jenser
I got Search Bar in chula vista on May 16th. And then I got Kenosha Comedy Club with Yakov Smirnoff May 29th and 30th. Yakov had dinner with him last night.
Brooks Laich
He's doing good.
Adam Carolla
Wonderful guy.
Adam Jenser
Yeah.
Adam Carolla
So till next time, Sam Crowford, Adam Yenzer and Brooks like saying mahalo.
Dawson
Leave us a voicemail at 888-634-1744 and be sure and get tickets to see the ace man@adamcarolla.com.
Adam Carolla
At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light, and I was transported to another place. Pluto tv. Then I heard a voice.
Adam Jenser
Come with me if you want to live.
Adam Carolla
There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free.
Adam Jenser
The truth isn't.
Dawson
It's just so Beautiful on Pluto TV. Free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 and the X Files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV Stream now pay. Never.
Adam Carolla
At first, I didn't think it was real. I woke up to this blinding light and I was transported to another place, Pluto tv. Then I heard a voice.
Adam Jenser
Come with me if you want to live.
Adam Carolla
There were thousands of movies and shows, and they were all free.
Dawson
It's just so Beautiful on Pluto TV. Free streaming of Terminator 2, Fringe Arrow, the 100 and the X Files may cause excitement, loss of sleep, and sudden belief in extraterrestrials. No credit cards or alien encounters necessary. Pluto TV Stream now pay. Never.
Date: May 13, 2026
Host: Adam Carolla - with guest Brooks Laich and news from Adam Yenser
In this lively episode, Adam sits down with former NHL player and travel entrepreneur Brooks Laich for an in-depth discussion about the evolution of youth sports, what it takes to succeed as a pro athlete, and why kids today gravitate toward the influencer path over traditional sports. The conversation is filled with stories from Brooks’ hockey career, insights into discipline, the pitfalls of instant gratification, and the deep character-development only found on “the hard road.” Later, Adam Yenser breaks down news headlines, including an exposé on California Governor Gavin Newsom’s $20 million “diaper scam” and reactions to political developments in California and beyond.
Notable Quote:
“The only way to build character is to wait.” — Adam Carolla (06:15)
Notable Quote:
“It bugs me when I hear people say they want to be something... but they’re not willing to do the other parts to it.” — Brooks Laich (12:20)
[82:52 – 87:29]
On grit and sacrifice:
“One of my best friends was interviewed, ‘Why did Brooks make the NHL and you did not?’ He goes, ‘When Brooks turned 13, he hit the gym; and the rest of us, we hit the booze.’” — Brooks Laich (09:08)
On the influencer trend:
“Kids want to be influencers now more than they want to be athletes… There’s a much quicker shortcut to the perceived success.” — Brooks Laich (17:03)
On absurd government priorities:
“Just work big to small. Smoking is small.” — Adam Carolla (98:18)
On adapting to new challenges:
“If it scares you, you gotta do it.” — Adam Carolla, on accepting to appear on "Dancing with the Stars" (55:54)
| Time | Segment / Topic | |-------------|----------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:27 | Adam & Brooks: Youth sports then vs. now | | 05:28 | Brooks: The 13-year-old mindset shift | | 07:30 | Training stories, discipline, and sacrificing for sports | | 12:20-17:03 | Delayed gratification; why kids want to be influencers | | 17:55 | “Ordinary misery” and mastery by repetition | | 23:24-25:36 | Hockey’s financial barriers and character-building | | 27:08-31:46 | How sports instill structure and success in life/business | | 54:00-60:31 | Dancing with the Stars, overcoming fear, trying new things | | 64:07-68:30 | Trades culture, oil fields, construction stories | | 82:52-87:50 | News: $20M Diaper scam exposed; Adam’s reaction | | 90:29-94:32 | Arcadia mayor: Chinese foreign agent scandal | | 94:54-98:18 | SF outdoor smoking ban, Adam’s anti-nanny state rant |
If you haven’t caught the episode, you’ll walk away with a deep appreciation for the discipline required to succeed in pro sports, a gruff but insightful take on what’s gone wrong in American youth culture, and a no-holds-barred roast of California’s most questionable political priorities. You’ll also get a dose of classic Carolla: direct, unfiltered, and always aiming for both a laugh and a little wisdom.