BY NICK MILLER. Content Editor

I don’t watch reality television. I don’t watch American Idol and I definitely don’t watch Dancing with the Stars. But, starting March 17 I will be. Monday will be the first time I ever tune into a dance themed show, but with good reason. Why? This season’s Dancing with the Stars’ cast contains Adam Carolla.

For those of you that know anything about me, which most of you probably don’t, you’ll know Carolla is one of my favorite comedians or entertainers. As far as heroes go, Carolla is one of the few people I consider an inspiration. Not only is he a widely-known radio personality from 10 years as co-host of Loveline and the host of his own morning show based out of L.A., but he has history being a co-creator of The Man Show and working on numerous other shows ranging from Too Late with Adam Carolla, Crank Yankers, being a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live, his voice over work on Family Guy and Drawn Together and much more.

The thing that tops off all of his accomplishments is the fact that Carolla is a self-made star who actually worked his way up the comedy ladder. He comes from humble beginnings with a family that made due on food stamps and his room at his house also stored the washing machine. He struggled in school and entered the working world cleaning carpets and installing closets before he made his way into the carpentry business. As a carpenter he started taking improv classes and teaching boxing classes. After years of swinging a hammer he got connected with a unknown Jimmy Kimmel and eventually got his start on radio. From there out he made himself into who he is today.

Carolla is an inspiration to anyone that has goals of making it big in any career path as someone who worked his way from absolute poverty and a broken home to being a literal millionaire.

I bring all of this up not only for the confession of my eventual watching of Dancing with the Stars, but because he also has his own independent movie coming out March 21. The Hammer, a semi-autobiographical tale of Carolla’s life that he co-wrote, co-produced and stars in, has already got strong revues and has been touted as the best take on Rocky of all boxing movies. Check it out and watch the trailer on the movie’s site here .

For those of you that say the Ace man isn’t your cup of tea, tune into his radio show and give Carolla a chance on his strongest platform. Unfortunately, The Adam Carolla Show doesn’t air in Yuma, but you can podcast or listen online here.

Carolla truly shines when he can rant or go off on topics when he has free reign and is able to let his quick wits and perfect delivery carry his thoughts. This is one reason his television shows didn’t last very long, with the exception of The Man Show, where Kimmel also contributed his talents. If you don’t believe me, check out any of the sites I have linked to or if you listened and enjoyed his time on Loveline, go to the Loveline Archive here. On this site you can listen to shows dating back from 2001.

I hope some of you take my advice as you won’t regret it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 10:15 pm and is filed under The Nick of Time. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.