It’s no real secret that things aren’t too great in the world right now. We know it, you know it, and even Adam Conover knows it — but he’s taking the opportunity to embrace the suck, and at least help us laugh a little in the face of daily dread.
As he makes his way to The Wilbur on Sunday (February 22) as part of his new Nihilism Pivot tour, Conover isn’t quite feeling like his usual smart-ass, “Mr. Fix-it,” bouncy-haired self. Instead, he’s deciding to focus more on things outside of the realm of his usual stomping grounds of social awareness and pointing out cultural hiccups and political corruption. It also just so happens, that he’ll be blazing this new trail in the biggest room he’s occupied in the city thus far, as he makes his debut on the famed comedy cathedral’s stage.
“I’m thrilled to be coming back to Boston in a bigger way, because it is such a great city with a rich comedy history, and the Boston crowds have always been so good to me,” Conover tells Vanyaland. “It’s always great to be doing a theater, because this is the year that I’m moving from clubs to venues like The Wilbur, and it’s one of the shows I’m most excited for on this tour, because it’s just such a big fucking deal, and I’m looking forward to bringing my new hour there.”
Of course, he’s excited to share his new batch of stories and perspective with his audience in any capacity — and to proceed into the next chapter of his career following the release of his first stand-up special, Unmedicated, in 2024 – but to be able to do it in a way that is more “one-of-a-kind” than he’s familiar with in Boston just brings the anticipation of his visit to a whole new level.
“The wonderful thing about theater shows is that the energy is concentrated down to one point,” says Conover. “When you’re doing clubs, you’re doing five shows over three nights, and you have to save your energy, and each crowd gets a slightly different show, but when you take all those people and pack them into a theater for one night, the energy level goes through the roof and carries you around like you’re floating on a cloud.”
To accent the obvious glow-up of sorts, Conover has also pivoted to a new path in his comedy journey. Where the more socially-minded, informative, and almost cartoonish version of himself is what launched him to stardom, the Adam Ruins Everything architect has tuned into his personal life more deliberately, as he’s come to realize that the world, in no uncertain terms, is going to hell whether he talks about issues from his platform or not, so he’s taking the chance to keep things lighter, or least more palatable overall, and look inward while he’s at it.
“Things have gotten pretty bad out in the world, and I’ve sort of concluded that comedy is maybe not the way to change the world in quite the way I thought it was,” says Conover. “There’s still plenty of good that can be done, but at this point, I’m just trying to do comedy about what’s on my mind and what I think the crowd and I are thinking about. I just want to have some fun on stage, and give folks some relief from their day. One of the central jokes in the set is about how I don’t want to have to do important comedy anymore, because now I just want to do jokes about doing drugs and fucking.”
Beneath the sillier, or at least less “informative” new face to his comedy, another glaring reason that Conover is consciously changing things up rests in some personal trials he’s endured over the last few years, and after deciding to leave Los Angeles for a month to decompress, he took the opportunity to make his way back home to post up in a New York sublet to do as many stand-up sets as he could, every night.
What he found, as he shifted his creative gaze to telling his audience about what he was feeling, was that his newly ventured territory resonated with crowds in a deeper, more meaningful way, thus paving the way to a brand new creative chapter in his career.
“All of those feelings became the core of the new hour, and it was really just me having no choice but to talk about what I’m thinking about and what actually matters to me, as opposed to thinking about what the crowd might be interested in hearing about,” says Conover. “Instead, I’ve talked about where I am and what I’m going through, and audiences have really responded to that. It feels really direct and honest in a way that they seem to really appreciate.”
Although he calls Long Island home, it’s not a huge secret that Conover has a sweet spot for Boston in his heart. In addition to years of traveling to the city, and performing in front of crowds that have welcomed him warmly, Conover also lends his very first baseball fandom to the Red Sox, and has maintained an affinity for the team over the years, even as he made his way to the west coast and settled in Dodger country.
Deep down in his soul, though, is a rowdy and perhaps somewhat callous east coast spirit, just as the good lord intended. Conover simply can’t wait to get back to Boston to breathe in the subway stank and that palpable, hard-nosed “fuck you” energy he so longs for thousands of miles away from his cold, miserable, and lovable east coast roots while giving everyone a chance to laugh in the midst of a world that is literally melting around us.
“I’m really looking forward to getting back some of that east coast energy. I’ve been in LA for ten years, it’s nice and relaxed here, unfortunately it’s also always on fire, and I miss the weather on the east coast, because that’s how it’s supposed to be. You’re supposed to be miserable for part of the year, in the slush and the rain,” says Conover. “Not to mention, there’s that rivalry between all the regions on the east coast. I grew up on Long Island, and they hate everyone from New Jersey, while everyone from New Jersey hates everyone from New York City, and everyone in New York City hates everyone from Boston down to Philly. We all hate each other, and we hate sports teams, the way they talk, Dunkin’ Donuts, and that’s just how it goes.”
He adds: “After you spend 10 years on the west coast, though, and then you come back east, you realize those are all the same guy. Their meat-topped-dough comes in hoagie form rather than pizza or whatever the fuck, but it’s the same outlook on life, and I just need to get back to the East Coast periodically so I can inject that into my veins.”
ADAM CONOVER :: Sunday, February 23 at The Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St. in Boston, MA :: 6 p.m., $35 to $45 :: Advance tickets