Prior to co-creating TV’s The Man Show and Crank Yankers, and before his big break on the syndicated radio call-in program Loveline, Carolla grew up poor and worked a series of low-paying manual labour jobs, such as carpet cleaning and construction.
That rags to riches story inspires Carolla’s stage show, which is a mix of stand-up comedy, storytelling and motivational speaking.
Carolla says he aims to inspire because he’s convinced there’s an epidemic of entitlement in his country.
“I know it firsthand because my mom was on welfare and I naively asked her once when I was a kid ‘Why don’t you just get a job?’ She said if ‘I get a job, I’ll lose my welfare.’
“Wow, that’s a horrible message to send to your nine-year-old son, but I understood it well,” Carolla says.
“I saw what my mom was turned into because of all the free money, the welfare, the food stamps and the free school lunches.
“It just created someone who slept a little more each day and ironically was a little angrier at the government.”
