If you’ve seen Black Mirror, imagine the improvisational skill of the comedian who powers the animated blue bear Waldo in real time. Now add that to the most strangely absurd and yet hilarious comedy imaginable.
We’re talking well past Adventure Time, pushing Adult Swim’s most out-there shows. Be sure to add plenty of music, voice impressions and wacky original characters, and you’ve got the content of McQueen Adams.
Adams, a musician and comedian who performed at Ottobar last Firday, is becoming renowned for this distinctly bizarre style that he creates in his live performances, and last week I got to ask him about where it all comes from.
“It’s a soundtrack to my weird mind,” Adams said. “I grew up in a house where people played instruments, and I did not. I guess my ear was my instrument. I would watch stuff and just try to mimic it, and from that and my love of music I would start creating these scenarios that didn’t exist.”
He said that his impersonations, which range from fictional characters like Gandalf to celebrities like Matthew McConaughey to the likes of Vladimir Putin, develop organically as he creates situations in his mind.
However, despite the undeniable humor that accompanies these unexpected and absurd mashups of characters, Adams said that he isn’t a comedian.
“I love comedy, but I don’t consider myself to be a comedian,” he said. “I guess it’s comedy, but I knew that I wanted to do something that was my own thing, and that’s what I’ve tried to create. I just wanted to create my own niche and do my own thing.”
Adams said that he was still evolving his craft, pointing out that even small details such as whether he sat or stood during his act affected the development of the material. His material develops when his experiences in the real world give him ideas for new impressions or scenes to work with.
“The beauty of this is, just like standup, it’s always evolving, always getting stronger and better because you’re getting new pieces to put into play,” he said. “When I first started, it was me figuring out the pace and the heart of all of this. What makes it work, what doesn’t work. I’m just constantly writing and doing the voices and putting stuff together, and it’s a process.”
He also said that he has to mediate what he says sometimes, and that despite how bizarre many of his sketches are, there is often social commentary to be found in them, especially recently.
“Now, especially, there’s definitely commentary with what’s going on in the world,” Adams said. “I try to be careful because I go to a lot of places where people don’t share my mindset. I’ve been places where people don’t want to hear about what’s going on right now, but I try to skate as close to that line without getting beat up at a show.”
This mediation seems somewhat at odds with Adams’s philosophy, indicating that the artist has yet to find sure enough footing to be confident and open with the messages in his show. He cited Robin Williams as an influence because of the late comedian’s freedom.
“When I was a little kid I met Robin Williams,” he said. “He was eating and I knew, as a little kid, who he was, so I went up to the window and started licking the window. He turned to me and I thought he was upset, so there was that moment where I was crushed. And he literally mimicked me doing what I had just done. It was super cool for me.”
He also identified “Weird Al” Yankovic and David Bowie as having influenced his career and his ideology about artistic expression.
“It was about people telling me to do what you love,” Adams said. “Don’t follow the same path that other people do, carve your own because, win or lose, fail or succeed, you’ll know what you did was true to you.”
Adams said he’d faced a number of bumps in the road, but he didn’t give up because he was committed to his art.
“I went up to Edinburgh, and I had never done the show live ever in my life,” he said. “I was working with a partner who couldn’t come, but I had to honor my commitment. The first two weeks were nightmarish, but I honored my commitment, and I knew it was something I wanted to do in my life. Find out who you are through trial and error and don’t give up.”
Adams ended the conversation by talking about his childhood pet, offering a potential explanation for his absurd comedic style.
“I had a fox when I was a kid,” he said. “My mother sent my father to the pound to get a dog and he came back with a fox. It was housetrained, and that was my pet growing up. It’s weird as hell, but that explains my personality.”
To get more of Adams’s distinct brand of unconventional humor, keep an eye out for his upcoming Comedy Central show Heads Will Roll on Snapchat.
