Some people know him as a co-host behind the cult-favorite podcast “Cum Town.” Others know him as, per GQ, “the millennial Jon Stewart.” But if you’re looking for a general overview on Jewish comedian and podcaster Adam Friedland, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are 18 things to know about him.
1. Adam was born on April 10, 1987 in Santa Monica, California.
2. He’s an Aries!
3. Adam is the son of South African Jewish immigrants. His family immigrated to the United States to avoid his father being conscripted into the South African army. Still, Adam spent parts of his childhood in Cape Town. “There,” according to GQ, “he learned how to swim and worshiped Nelson Mandela.”
He also grew up in Las Vegas.
4. The story in Adam’s family is that his Lithuanian Jewish relatives intended to get on a boat to Ellis Island and instead ended up on a boat to South Africa.
“Can you imagine being from a shtetl and you get off a boat in Africa? It must’ve been like seeing ‘Avatar’ or something. Like, I imagine in Lithuania they didn’t even have color,” Adam explained on the Doomscroll podcast. “I imagine the shtetl as black-and-white.”
5. Please enjoy this photo of Adam hanging out with some penguins.
6. After high school, Adam lived in Israel for a year. He has since become a critic of Israel.
7. He attended George Washington University, studying Middle Eastern studies. He initially wanted to go into politics, “until he met the people who were actually running for office and found their personalities repellent.”
8. He started performing stand-up in Washington, D.C., where he met future “Cum Town” collaborators Nick Mullen and Stavros Halkias.
9. Some of his comedic influences include “Def Comedy Jam,” “ComicView,” Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert.
10. One of the most memorable bits of the “Cum Town” podcast (2016-2022) is when Adam accidentally “shit himself” on air. You can listen to Adam get vulnerable on his new podcast “The Adam Friedland Show” about the incident.
“I was on a moronic podcast, and I was a nebbishy heel,” Adam said of his time on “Cum Town.” “People called me a bug, and I had to tell my parents that that’s how I made money.”
11. Remember when people dug tunnels under 770, aka Chabad Headquarters? You can listen to Adam’s take on that too:
12. He is known for his “edgelord” comedic sensibilities. Adam has found himself mired in controversies for calling Chelsea Clinton ugly and getting Matty Healy to laugh at racist jokes, among other things.
13. Adam was previously engaged to podcaster Dasha Nekrasova. She is perhaps best known for hosting the Red Scare podcast. They dated between 2018 and 2020.
14. His fiancée’s name is Maia Lafortezza.
15. His new(er) podcast “The Adam Friedland Show” came about after Stavros Halkias decided to leave the “Cum Town” podcast.
“‘[TAFS]’ was genuinely maybe the first time I was like, ‘I’m going to try as hard as I can on something.’ Because it’s scary, right? It’s really scary to try. But what you find is that it’s way better to be trying and working hard than lazy,” he explained to GQ.
16. Adam has interviewed some very high-profile guests on “The Adam Friedland Show,” including Dave Portnoy, Chet Hanks, Matty Healy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Amanda Knox and Congressman Richie Torres.
17. Despite being a podcaster himself, the only podcast Adam listens to is “Arsenal Vision.” (It’s a show about the English soccer team Arsenal.)
“Being an American ‘football fan’ is the lamest,” he wrote in The Spectator World. “For me, it’s a solitary, monk-like experience. I get up for the game early. Arsenal often ruin my weekend before it’s started. It’s kind of masochistic. Supporting Arsenal reminds me I’m going to die one day.”
18. “The Adam Friedland” show offers kippot as merch!
