Lion’s Lair Lounge epitomizes Colfax Avenue — grimy and storied and, for some, approachable. Open-mic night at this Denver dive bar gave comedian, writer, and actor Adam Cayton-Holland his start in stand-up two decades ago.
To celebrate, Cayton-Holland returned to Lion’s Lair to tape a new special, “20 Years in Comedy and All I Got Was This Lousy Special,” which is out today on his YouTube channel.
He sat in a gaudy booth, covered in vinyl to prevent stains, with me to discuss Denver and himself — then and now. You can listen to the full interview, or read excerpts below.
Ryan Warner: At the start of this special you call this a s***hole. Describe the decor here.
Adam Cayton-Holland: This is a stop on any Denver tour, this sort of laminated, plush, pleather, leopard-print booth we're seated in. Varying states of decay in the cushioning, but whatever, it just makes you tougher, you know?
Warner: I think there's a spring in my butt.
Cayton-Holland: Unrelated, but yeah.
Warner: Ha! How dare you. What else are you seeing, a lot of arcade games?
Cayton-Holland: Yeah, a lot of arcade games, some art on the walls, kind of a dingy, rotting floor. A great classic U-shaped bar that everyone can gather around. Then there's the stage up there in the corner, and yeah man, just a punk rock venue, a dirty, nitty-gritty, warts-and-all punk rock dive.
Warner: With the construction going on of bus rapid transit, Colfax businesses are struggling. Are you worried about this place?
Cayton-Holland: Absolutely. I'm worried about a lot of the places on Colfax. I frequent a number of these businesses and every one of them is, like, "Every day, different story." I'm no transit authority. I hope this bus route is an excellent boon for Denver and that everyone was right, but currently for these Colfax businesses, it's rough, man, so I feel for them.
Warner: Do a little comparing and contrasting. Who was Adam Cayton-Holland 20 years ago, who is he now?
Cayton-Holland: Oh geez, what a question. Adam Cayton-Holland 20 years ago was very wide-eyed, very sort of ignorant of comedy but excited about it all and ambitious, for sure, an ambitious young lad. Adam Cayton-Holland now is way more seasoned in the comedy landscape, equally ambitious, but a lot more realistic.
Warner: Ambitious, but realistic. Give me an example of what tempers your ambition now.
Cayton-Holland: It's not necessarily a tempering of ambition. It's having had really amazing career highs and lows, peaks and valleys. Having had things that, if you told me 20 years ago "you'd get that," I'd be like, "Eureka! I won the lottery." And now 20 years in, you're like, "Oh, it was just kind of another badge on a uniform." I also know a lot of my idols now and I know none of them are happy.
Warner: So is it true that there's no "there" there?
Cayton-Holland: There's no "there" there. At all. I had a TV show ["Those Who Can’t" on truTV] and I remember we had an icon on, and we were just making small talk in between takes. He was just complaining about this and that [part] he didn't get, and "this guy got that," and his manager" this and that," and I’m like, "Oh, we're all the same miserable, it's just a higher level and nicer cars."
Warner: Do you have a memorable Colfax story?
Cayton-Holland: Oh, absolutely. I remember vividly a man walking in when I was on stage. I thought he was talking into a phone. He was talking very loudly, and then he turned around and he was talking into a baby's shoe. I was like, "Sir, is that a baby's shoe?" And he gave me one finger, like, "Hold on, I'm on a call." And then, we were all like, "Where's the baby? Where's the other shoe?" So many questions, all of them never answered on Colfax.
Warner: I want to know how much comedy is about the things you're annoyed by versus the things you love.
Cayton-Holland: That's a great question. To be truthful, most of it's things you're annoyed by. That is easier. It's easier to write, "I'm mad about this," because somebody mad and clenching their fists is already funnier than someone saying "I love this." So I think a better writing challenge, harder writing, is to tell people about something you love and make it funny.
Warner: This special cuts between you on stage and you milling about Lion's Lair. At one point, you're in the old photo booth. It made me think about how, in comedy, you're photographed and recorded a lot. I wonder how that makes you feel about aging– because there are so many images of a younger you to compare your current self to.
Cayton-Holland: It's pretty wild, isn't it? And in the 20 years that I've done comedy, the way people present comedy has changed. Clips are more constant. There's a photographer at every show. It used to be a little bit more like working at night secretly, like Batman, and you'll emerge when this hour's ready, and you'll have hair and makeup and look great. Now every night you go out, it's photographs and "get your clips out there."
It's been humbling to watch yourself age through social media — your hair getting grayer and less of it — but it's also kind of a good death of self. If you're just constantly online, you stop caring what you look like. You're just like, "Yeah, that's it, warts and all, here I am."
Warner: You mention in this special that you listen to music when you write jokes. I wondered, what sort?
Cayton-Holland: It can’t have words or it's got to be something I've listened to so much I don't even listen to the words anymore. It's just got to become ambient. I really like Hermanos Gutierrez, they're a great duo, they're brothers, just guitar. There's a band called Khruangbin that I like a lot, El Ten Eleven, just musical, good ambient noise with no words. That's what I write to.
Warner: You wrote a book called “Tragedy Plus Time,” about your formative years in Denver and losing your sister to suicide. How is the film adaptation coming along?
Cayton-Holland: Dude, Ryan, it's so good, I can't wait for people to see it. I've seen three cuts now. The first cut I saw, I was floored by how good it is. We’re going to submit to festivals in the fall.
