When Adam Devine of "Workaholics" started his own YouTube channel with his two friends and costars, Blake Anderson and Anders Holmvik in 2006, DeVine had received a message from people working at Comedy Central.
While all of this sounds exciting, DeVine said that he and his friends were “total idiots and did not check the account until two months later.”
DeVine always had a background in comedy.
“I was always funny as a child, and I wanted to capture that maniac-ism, so it was either become a comedian or go to prison,” he said. “When I was doing stand up in California, I had to come up with a bio, and I had nothing. So I decided to copy-and-paste the bio of someone I had nothing in common with, and that was Denzel Washington. Evidently, it got out, and somebody posted it on my Wikipedia page, and it escalated to people thinking I graduated from Fordham and was the star of 'Man on Fire.'”
“Workaholics,” now in its third season on Comedy Central, follows three best friends who work as telemarketers for a company called TelAmeriCorp. Each character shares the first name of the actor who plays him.
Coming up with the idea for the show was an easy one according to DeVine.
“We had a web series similar to the show and also Ders (Holmvik) and I both had experience telemarketing," he said. "So we thought, ‘What is the worst job in the world?' and it was selling steak knives.”
Although he and his character share the name, there is not much else that ties the two together.
“Well, we talk the same and, believe it or not, we look exactly the same, but if I was Adam Demamp, I would probably be dead,” he said. “None of us on the show are as stupid as the characters we play.”
DeVine said one of his favorite moments on the show was in the first season when he got to enter a bodybuilding competition with real life bodybuilders.
“I never wanted to be a bodybuilder, but I looked up to 1980s action stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Jean-Claude Van Damme," DeVine said. "So I got to be in a competition without having to get that huge vein in my forehead."
Also in the first season, Australian comedienne Rebel Wilson ("Bridesmaids") guest starred in what would be one of her first American roles. She played a love interest for DeVine’s character and they eventually “took their love affair to the big screen” to star in the a cappella comedy "Pitch Perfect" together.
Keep in mind DeVine does not have a singing background at all. He said he was extremely busy with his show and he had to audition for a role in this movie that he had no idea what was going on.
“I walk in and see people singing and harmonizing and had no idea what was happening,” DeVine said.
He said he did not prepare a song, so he was told to sing something he knew.
“I sang the theme song to 'Full House,'" he said. "I sang like a 60-year-old jazz singer, and somehow I landed the lead role.”
He then proceeded to sing the theme song.
Coming up DeVine can be seen alongside Anderson and Holmvik in an episode of the fourth season of “Arrested Development” in May, and he penned a movie that he hopes will be filmed soon.
“I also have small part in an episode of 'Community.' I can’t say anymore, because it’s a big plot point of this season,” he said. “It’s awesome though; I get to be in two of the funniest shows ever.”
Check out Adam DeVine in Phoenix on Feb. 15 at Stand Up Live for one night only for $20. Attendees must be 21 years old.
Reach the reporter at drosenbl@asu.edu or on Twitter @DillonReedRose.
