Adam Carolla’s film Road Hard, which he wrote and co-directed with Kevin Hench, plays at the Carlton Theatre in Toronto, as well as being available on VOD. The film is well worth a look, in part because it is sidesplittingly funny, and surprisingly quite sweet, which perhaps comes as less of a surprise when speaking to the relaxed Carolla by phone at his home in L.A. However, Carolla does talk of being on the road, the parallels of the movie with his real life, and how hard he works.

Scene Creek: So this film takes place in an alternate universe?

Adam Carolla: It’s a little art imitating life, and life imitating art. Semi-autobiographical, but with some…errrr…some artistic license thrown in. James “Babydoll” Dixon is my agent in real life, my friend who I am going to see later tonight is kind of the new King of Late Night TV.

SC: So Jack Taylor is not a villain? (Jack Taylor is Carolla’s Bruce Madsen’s character’s former comedy partner on The Bro Show and a successful talk show host).

AC: He’s a super sweet guy. But in the movie, Jay Mohr plays Jack Taylor, and I didn’t write him to be a bad guy. I wrote him to be sort of a business guy, like sort of a “look here’s the reality of where you’re at, where your career’s at, and here’s sort of what I’m offering”, and I didn’t want to make him a bad guy, I wanted to make him sort of a realistic guy.

SC: You crowd funded this movie, but not through the more traditional crowdfunding sites?

I was approached by FundAnything, and they said we wanna do this with you. We said “we’ve never really heard of you, but we’ll go with you if you give us a break. Give us a good price and help us out”. They should have been insulted, I think.

SC: Do people still recognize you from The Man Show?

AC: Some people just go “hey it’s you”. You get to that point in your career, where God willing, people just go “Oh. It’s you”. I think I’m getting near that point where if people recognize me, they go “Oh! You”. It’s better than “Oh, hey, aren’t you the husband from Desperate Housewives, or Gilligan’s Island, or Real Housewives, Celebrity…whatever, they’re just kind of going “Oh! It’s you”. That’s how you know you’ve arrived.

SC: What is next for you?

AC: I’m just gearing up for this Paul Newman racing documentary that’s a passion project of mine. I have a book coming out around the same time, sort of a tongue-in-cheek parenting book after having twins, and the Podcast, Mangria, the signature cocktail I invented, the Spike TV show To Catch a Contractor is coming back around the summertime. There’s always something going on, and that’s the way I like it.