By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

He’ll be the first to tell you he’s still not a star.

Might never become one.

But West Seattle-born-and-raised, New York-dwelling comedian Adam Cozens met a goal this year – to earn enough money from comedy to pay at least one month’s rent.

Dare he set a goal of two months, for next year? Too soon to tell. But his longterm goal remains that of turning comedy into a career, rather than a “glorified hobby,” and he is working as intensively at it this year as he did when last we spoke.

Right now, Adam is home for the holidays, presenting and starring in a Comedy Underground show this Tuesday – as he did at this time last year – so it seemed like a good time to sit down and find out what’s happened over the past year. (Here’s our story about Adam from this time last year, which goes into detail about his background, summarized on his own website here.)

Obvious first question for an interview like this: What’s the biggest thing that’s happened in the past year?

A major change in his material, Adam says – “I maybe do two minutes of the jokes I did a year ago. Last year (my routine) was about 25 loose-ish minutes – this year I have 30 to 45, brand-new, with only about two minutes from last year. … I’m writing more and just getting better.” The newest clip we found online is from midway through the year:

He clarifies that he’s “still very proud” of his past material, “but it’s not part of what I am any more, not where I want to be. What I’m doing now is more personal, about me and what I’ve observed” – rendering him more of a storyteller than a performer with “jokes strung together.” Laughing, Adam adds, “It’s not deep, it’s shallow personal, but it’s good. I enjoy telling these much more, I don’t get as bored – I’m telling more about something from my life as opposed to ‘this word is weird, did you ever notice?’.”

Examples: He talks about having been bullied, about his parents and their quirks, and pet peeves, like microwave ovens. “My favorite jokes to tell aren’t always ones that destroy the room.”

The new material emerges as he focuses on the work that he says is essential – writing every day, forcing yourself to do it if need be, and going onstage almost every night, “getting up and doing it over and over again.” With variations: “It’s important to have at least one new joke every time I go onstage. I’ll have a new minute to try out, and maybe it doesn’t work out … I still have fun doing it.”

Performing as many nights as possible – whether in a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall venue, or someplace bigger like Comedy Underground, venue for his DeKonstruction II: ReKonstruction show this Tuesday, again co-starring friend Dartanion London – can be a matter of word of mouth.

“I’ve been able to gain access to different places – if you’re booked on a show and do really well, other people will say, ‘you should come be on my show.’ It’s like networking.” But it’s not always easy: “In order to get better, you need to get onstage, but in order to get onstage, you need to be better.”

This year, he has seen this from the perspective of a producer as well as that of a performer. “I run a small show in New York now, and I like to put on people I know who are funny. It’s a room I loved, and I offered to run the show.” With the help of another producer, he’s been doing that for three months. And he admits “it takes a while to build an audience, even for a free show. There’s so much competition, so many good shows.” In New York, anyway – here in Seattle, Adam performed in Fremont the night before our interview: “We had a full house with 45 people and a $5 cover.”

Speaking of money, he describes this year as “the phase … where I’m turning a glorified hobby into a career. July, I paid my rent and all my bills through just standup earnings. That was the one month of glory – then it was right back to the day job.” (Which is still child care.)

But that one month met a goal for the year, and Adam says he met all the other goals he set, including getting onstage “as much as possible,” writing more, producing a weekly show, auditioning for at least two major New York clubs (he proudly notes he “passed” at three).

Yet, when you watch him, know that you’re not looking at somebody who’s obsessed, just somebody who’s working hard, but also keeping perspective: “I’m in a longterm relationship, we met in college. 15 months now … she’s in New York, and this has given me some freedom: Some nights I might say, I would rather spend time with her (than go perform) – it’s a positive distraction, a more well-rounded life. You see people who do standup fulltime – they take the train, go to the club, take the train, sleep all day, have no life outside (of that) … I’m blessed because I need to have a day job where I can see other things, and see my girlfriend, and I’m still experiencing things” – experiences that inspire better material.

Still, getting onstage can mean going anywhere, any time, no matter what it takes; most of the “road gigs,” according to Adam, lost money. But for the exposure, he’ll take that risk. And memorable stories can result: “One show was five hours north, in upstate New York. I had no idea how I was going to get there.” But he was determined to get there, since he was going to be the “featured” act – doing a 25-minute show, along with the headliner’s hour-long performance. “I didn’t have a car, the bus line doesn’t go on Saturdays … So I found out a buddy was working at a club in Pennsylvania that weekend. He went there on Friday, I borrowed his car.” Ultimately that cost him not only a very long round-trip drive, but also two nights in Pennsylvania and a 75-dollar speeding ticket.

Another highlight of the year was an even-bigger show in California last summer, one he says literally came up at the last minute. He was visiting for a few weeks and let the producers of “a really big show called ‘Comedy Death-Ray‘” know he was in town. “There’s no harm in asking … but I never heard back. Then the morning of the show, I got the call, ‘are you free to host tonight?’ It’s an all-star lineup … me and Zach Galifianakis, Nick Swardson, Andy Kindler, the Sklar Brothers … and I’m just this awkward guy who found out that morning he was going to do the show, for all these megastars. It was a career highlight, for sure the biggest show I have ever done.”

Not necessarily a triumph: “They blew me out of the water – but I did fine. I didn’t die out there.”

And he’s determined not to “die” out here, either, at this Tuesday’s big show. By the time he’d been back here for a few days, he’d already lined up “six or seven” chances to go onstage, to stay fresh. There’s more at stake in this show than his usual performances, though not as much as a year ago: “Last year I was sweating, so nervous … it was really my first time in town that I was inviting people I knew to come watch me … but it went really well.” Adam says they were only expecting 100 people maximum to show up, but they filled the house with 200, and turned some away.

If you were in that audience, and go to Tuesday’s show, you’ll see someone different this year. “I’m not that person any more. I’m so much more confident … and I have the peace of mind of knowing, I did this last year, I can do it again. It’s going to be really fun.”

Perhaps symbolic, last year he wore a suit – this year, he’ll be more casual, more his true self. Also different: The show will be shorter, with fewer people on the bill. He and Dartanion are the headliners, performing about half an hour each; Alex Meyer – another West Seattleite, and former schoolmate of Adam’s, who performed last year, is hosting this time. (For a preview of sorts, listen to West Seattle-based Web/radio personality Marty Riemer‘s latest podcast – Adam and Dartanion guested on Friday.)

Once ReKonstruction is in the books, it’s time to look to 2011. When we spoke, he had yet to set next year’s goals, though he allows that sometime in the “next couple years,” he wants to get “a major TV credit.” There may be other avenues to explore beyond stage work, as he continues working toward a fulltime career – for example, “podcasting is huge in comedy – you can be #1 on iTunes.”

In addition to hoping people will laugh at your work, you have to be able to laugh at yourself too. At one point in our conversation, evaluating something he’s just said, Adam does just that: “I sound all ‘old and wise’ – even though I’ve just been doing this a couple years.” (Since March 2008, to be precise; as for age, he’s about a month shy of 27.)

But knowledge is power, so they say. And as Adam himself said earlier in the conversation, the more you perform, the better you get. So, from our coffeehouse chat, he was off to do a turn on a stage somewhere in Bellevue. And you can see him 8 pm Tuesday night at Comedy Underground (109 S. Washington) – advance tickets recommended, since the show sold out last year.