Josh Adam Meyers: The Goddamn 500

2019 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Series

A lot of peo­ple can’t tell you what they’ll be doing in five years, but Josh Adam Mey­ers has a pret­ty good idea of what he will be doing. Born in Bal­ti­more, the come­di­an and cre­ator of The God­damn Com­e­dy Jam (GDCJ), has made an epic pod­cast com­mit­ment, but we will get to that. We sat down with Mey­ers, as he was at his fourth Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val, where the GDCJ has become a sta­ple and fan favorite.

Josh Adam Mey­ers had been a ​“New Face” at the 2013 Just For Laughs in Mon­tréal. Fol­low­ing that, he saw his peers get­ting big­ger oppor­tu­ni­ties that just didn’t seem to be hap­pen­ing for him. It was out of that frus­tra­tion that he turned to his pas­sion for music and cre­at­ed The God­damn Com­e­dy Jam. With help from the band Ele­menopy, the jam has been a great suc­cess, see­ing invites to most major com­e­dy fes­ti­vals and, if you’re lucky enough to catch it, the occa­sion­al show in LA. It is so audi­ence inter­ac­tive and also gives comics the chance to live out the dream of being a rock star! With its suc­cess, now almost five years into GDCJ, Mey­ers seems to have got­ten his stand up mojo back and has been able to start focus­ing more on sets again.

Mey­ers attrib­ut­es a lot to his friends in com­e­dy offer­ing sol­id advice and just being good peo­ple. Mey­ers says, ​“They’re good guys that worked their ass off to get to a place. And they taught me it’s the work, it’s love the work, because all the reward means noth­ing if you don’t love the work. Every day is Christ­mas, if you love what you do.” One of those good guys is Bill Burr, who Mey­ers feels very close and grate­ful towards. Burr sug­gest­ed Mey­er­s’s grav­el­ly voice would be per­fect for the char­ac­ter DJ Howl­in Hank on Net­flix’s F is for Fam­i­ly, and he was right! 

With Mey­er­s’s love of music, it’s not shock­ing that he would be a great fit for a music pod­cast, but as he doesn’t seem to do any­thing small, he has tak­en on quite the musi­cal endeav­or. The 500 launched at the end of Octo­ber 2018 and is tak­ing a new album each week from Rolling Stone’s 500 Great­est Albums of All Time, lis­ten­ing to, dis­sect­ing, and dis­cussing it with a guest (often, but not always a com­ic). Mey­ers puts hours of research into each album and hand­picks the guest, based on their rela­tion­ship to the music. It’s a fan­tas­tic way to get to know the guest as well as the album, as they share mem­o­ries and sto­ries, and some­times shock at a hid­den mean­ing Mey­ers uncov­ered in his thor­ough research. Mey­ers has com­mit­ted to see the project through, along with lis­ten­ers aka the #fleecearmy, to the end slat­ed for May 31, 2028.

“…all the reward means noth­ing if you don’t love the work. Every day is Christ­mas, if you love what you do.” Josh Adam Meyers

On a per­son­al note, I’ve seen the way Mey­ers melds his pas­sion for com­e­dy and music to cre­ate such a con­nect­ing, almost reli­gious, expe­ri­ence for the come­di­ans and the audi­ence. This year’s final Moon­tow­er GDCJ end­ed in Mey­ers encour­ag­ing a group hug from crowd to stage and it was an emo­tion­al and beau­ti­ful expe­ri­ence. I can’t tell you what will be hap­pen­ing in the year 2525, but I can tell you what I’ll be doing in 2028. Lis­ten to The 500 wher­ev­er you get your pod­casts and be sure to keep an eye out for any place you can see The God­damn Com­e­dy Jam live, such as Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val 2020!