Interview: Adam Paul From Hollywood Residential

I had a chance to sit down with Adam Paul, the creator, star, and writer of the Starz network original, Hollywood Residential. Hollywood Residential is about Tony King (Adam Paul), a struggling actor, hosting his own celebrity home makeover show…and basically he’s a huge train wreck! On this show they makeover the homes of: Paula Abdul, Tom Arnold, Carmen Electra, Chris Kattan, Cheryl Hines, Jamie Kennedy, John Cho, and Beverly D’Angelo. To me this show is the 30 Rock of Home Makeover shows, so if you have Starz, I give the Nads seal of approval! Nads: Hey Adam! I love your new Celebrity Home Makeover Show! Where on earth did you derive the show from?

Adam: The show comes from my experiences…

Nads: …in Mesopotamia?

Adam: No, it actually comes from the fertile crescent (lol). No, the show comes from my experience trying to fix things around the house and having no success! I had a lot of rage about it and then fear that I would end up having to host a show where I had to fix things. It’s basically humiliation upon humiliation and that’s where it all came from.

Nads: As an actor you have to build up a lot of character from constant humiliation don’t you think?

Adam: I think as an actor in this town particularly, you are humiliated everyday.

Nads: You’ve been on Entourage, Weeds, Buffy, and Port Charles…were you just wanting to start your own thing?

Adam: Yes, well we shot a pilot of our own and that’s what the Starz network saw. That pilot was basically the pitch. It made it a lot easier to have something to show the network instead of sitting down and trying to explain the show from front to back.

Nads: Who’s homes do you makeover on your show?

Adam: Paula Abdul’s home, Tom Arnold, John Cho, Carmen Electra, Chris Kattan, Beverly D’Angelo, Jamie Kennedy, and Cheryl Hines who is actually the executive producer of our show too. I had fun with all of them.

Nads: I want to know about Paula Abdul!

Adam: What do you want to know?

Nads: How is she?

Adam: She’s fantastic!

Nads: She is?

Adam: In every way!

Nads: Really? What about her reality show where she was looking for a new assistant, she was a little “off” don’t you think?

Adam: Um, I think shes always looking for a new assistant (lol). I’m not going to make apologies for Paula Abdul, I will say this about her: one thing that a lot of people don’t know and truthfully I don’t know why its not publicized is that she has a photographic memory and I’ve never met anybody who could look at a script once and know all her lines, other people’s lines, pausing, blocking, all that, it must come from being a choreographer….

Nads: Right…and being a cold hearted snake…

Adam: I don’t think shes that. not genuinely.

Nads: Don’t worry, I said it you didn’t.

Adam: Yeah thats right, you DID say it.

Nads: I like Paula. Paula if you are reading this…I know your not…BUT I think you’re a good crazy. (clear throat)

Adam: Truthfully, I really did love working with Paula. I think she’s actually like the woman that you see on American Idol, the very sweet, loving caring for the contestants, I think that’s genuine and I think it also probably makes her vulnerable.

Nads: I do have to say that she’s a target for a lot of things that’s for sure. She’s been through a lot…So back to your show, whats you favorite episode? Do you have one?

Adam: I do. I love the Cheryl Hines episode, thats because it speaks to the theme of the show. It’s very much about what it’s like to be a celebrity and all the crazy stuff that happens. Cheryl’s very good on the episode and we reveal Cheryl’s dirty little secret which is that she’s a really good actress on top of being funny and hilarious on Curb and everything else she’s on. She’s just really a great actress and I love that….I loved the first episode, actually, I love them all.

Nads: Have you gotten recognized on the street yet?

Adam: That has not happened yet, but if it does I’ll call you and tell you all about it. However, it happens to my wife all the time…so, I’m actually quite used to it..shes on an ABC show called Notes From The Underbelly and she did a lot of stuff on Vh1…so she gets recognized in airports all the time…and she never sees it coming. She’s always like, “Can you believe they recognize me? And I’m like honey I can see them running at you with a pen and an autograph book from a mile a way.”

Nads: (lol) Your wife was my favorite in Fat Actress, I loved that show!
…On your show, your co-stars are Lindsay Stoddart and David Ramsey, what was it like working with them? They are improv geniuses….

Adam: They are really great!! Lindsay is fantastic in every way..but I was watching last week’s show and David is an amazing actor and amazing improviser. He can do it all without language, like it’s all in his eyes. His timing is dead on. We also have Eric Allan Kramer on the show, whom we should not ignore, he’s also a great actor.

Nads:Last week you made-over Tom Arnold’s home right?

Adam: Yeah, Tom Arnold went to rehab and I had to break him out.

Nads: Did you get him wasted?

Adam: I went to check up on him to make sure he was being responsible so that we would have him as a guest. And then, he wanted to go out, and all kinds of terrible things ensued.

Nads: Are talking about a tranny hooker maybe?

Adam: What happened was that Tony had a very very sketchy memory of what happened the night before. So he went through his day trying to find Tom, who had disappeared. He finally pieces together what actually happened the night before and it was ugly, and, yes it was tranny related.

Nads: I love that. For some reason tranny comedy is always funny to me.

Nads: Whose home do you make-over this Wednesday (tomorrow)?

Adam: Carmen Electra. This episode is a lot of fun because Carmen Electra develops a crush on me, which would never happen in real life…you’ll have to check it out.

I want to thank Adam for taking time out to talk to me. I hope the show comes back for another season, because it truly is a FUNNY show.

Check out Hollywood Residential on Starz , Wednesdays 10:30 ET/PT