Adam Gropman was not one of them!
Raised by parents best described as "hippie-adjacent", in an art-filled Victorian house just outside of Boston, Adam Gropman was an obsessively house-vacuuming, TV-watching little kid, prone to homesickness when forced to sleep anywhere besides his own bed. Adam did leave the house, to bicycle around his neighborhood, play baseball in the park or steal random stuff from local shops, but he preferred joy-riding on MBTA subway trains or watching planes take off and and land at Logan Airport over backpacking in the creepy, uncivilized woods.
7/14/11 POST-FRINGE SHOW
Special Showing! Comedy Central Stage in the Hudson Theater, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood CA THURSDAY, JULY 14, 8pm. No Cover! Call 323/960-5519 to RSVP for seats. Comedy Central Stage is a special live performance space run by Comedy Central network to foster and develop new comedic talents and shows.
7/14/11 POST-FRINGE SHOW
Special Showing! Comedy Central Stage in the Hudson Theater, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood CA THURSDAY, JULY 14, 8pm. No Cover! Call 323/960-5519 to RSVP for seats. Comedy Central Stage is a special live performance space run by Comedy Central network to foster and develop new comedic talents and shows.
It therefore came as something of a shock when, in a bid to "toughen him up", Adam's parents sent the nine year old Adam to the most rugged, stripped-down, back-to-nature camp in all of New England, for two months. Luckily, they also saved a shoe box full of the letters sent back and forth that summer between the somewhat precocious and extremely foul-mouthed Adam and the astoundingly zen, placid-toned Mr. & Mrs. Gropman, and this correspondence forms a powerful backbone to the show.
With its mandatory naked swimming, deep-woods "meeting for worship" and virulent Lord of the Flies sadism amongst the Outward Bounds-y campers, this place was heaven for the young Tarzans and 'Into The Wild' style youths who thrived there, but a tragic and inadvertently hilarious catastrophe for the sensitive, Mad Magazine-reading, Bugs Bunny-watching Gropman.
With its mandatory naked swimming, deep-woods "meeting for worship" and virulent Lord of the Flies sadism amongst the Outward Bounds-y campers, this place was heaven for the young Tarzans and 'Into The Wild' style youths who thrived there, but a tragic and inadvertently hilarious catastrophe for the sensitive, Mad Magazine-reading, Bugs Bunny-watching Gropman.
Gropman performs a short (8-10 mins) presentation of letters back and forth between himself and his parents that summer in the highly popular and successful international show Mortified. Gropman's Mortified piece, entitled 'Unhappy Camper', is an unqualified smash hit, causing explosive laughter and powerful audience responses during the performance, and much eager reaching out afterward, when audience members approach Gropman to tell him how the piece resonated with their own summer camp or other childhood experiences. Some had been miserable in a similar setting and could directly relate. Others had been happy and comfortable in such a setting and were fascinated and tickled at hearing the opposite experience. Others had never been to summer camp or anything quite similar, but all found it extremely touching, entertaining and hilarious. Gropman's 'Unhappy Camper' was a hit chapter in Mortified's top selling Simon & Schuster book, used as the example blurb on both Amazon's and The Today Show's websites, and audio excerpted on NPR, from a live show.
This one person show was performed to acclaim in the Phantom Theater in north central Vermont, as part of the Vermont Festival of the Arts, in the summer of 2010.
This one person show was performed to acclaim in the Phantom Theater in north central Vermont, as part of the Vermont Festival of the Arts, in the summer of 2010.
The show is directed by Cynthia Levin, a highly accomplished standup comedian, actor and director, who has performed and directed distinguished theatrical plays and one person shows in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
Adam Gropman is a writer, actor, journalist and standup comedian, raised in the Boston area, and living in Los Angeles for over a decade. He performs at better comedy clubs throughout Southern California and at clubs and casino throughout various Western states, and in New York, Boston and in select other cities. A graduate of the Second City Conservatory L.A., Adam was a head writer and performer for over 4 years in the acclaimed group Sketch Armstrong, who performed highly successful review shows at Second City, IOWest Theater, McCadden Theater, UCB LA and at the prestigious Comedy Central Stage and SF SketchFest. A short film he wrote and starred in with members of Sketch Armstrong, "Insight Into the Enemy" (aka "Terrorist Bloopers") won distinct honors in the HBO Aspen, Montreal Just for Laughs and Smithwicks Cat Laughs festivals. Gropman acted opposite 2X Oscar nominee Samantha Morton and star of "Narc", "Speed 2" and "Rush" Jason Patric in the Cannes/Sundance indie favorite "Expired" Adam has acted in commercials for which he is creatively proud, for Joe's Crab Shack and Nestle. He also acted in a commercial he considered rather unexciting. Adam, along with co-writer Jeremy Evans, was a semi-finalist in actor/director Ed Burns' screen-writing contest. Adam also regularly writes creative pieces about the oddities of L.A. life for the acclaimed L.A. Weekly newspaper.
Adam Gropman is a writer, actor, journalist and standup comedian, raised in the Boston area, and living in Los Angeles for over a decade. He performs at better comedy clubs throughout Southern California and at clubs and casino throughout various Western states, and in New York, Boston and in select other cities. A graduate of the Second City Conservatory L.A., Adam was a head writer and performer for over 4 years in the acclaimed group Sketch Armstrong, who performed highly successful review shows at Second City, IOWest Theater, McCadden Theater, UCB LA and at the prestigious Comedy Central Stage and SF SketchFest. A short film he wrote and starred in with members of Sketch Armstrong, "Insight Into the Enemy" (aka "Terrorist Bloopers") won distinct honors in the HBO Aspen, Montreal Just for Laughs and Smithwicks Cat Laughs festivals. Gropman acted opposite 2X Oscar nominee Samantha Morton and star of "Narc", "Speed 2" and "Rush" Jason Patric in the Cannes/Sundance indie favorite "Expired" Adam has acted in commercials for which he is creatively proud, for Joe's Crab Shack and Nestle. He also acted in a commercial he considered rather unexciting. Adam, along with co-writer Jeremy Evans, was a semi-finalist in actor/director Ed Burns' screen-writing contest. Adam also regularly writes creative pieces about the oddities of L.A. life for the acclaimed L.A. Weekly newspaper.
