Adam Ruben

ajruben@jhu.edu / Princeton Stand-Up Club

Adam Ruben is a Jew from Delaware. You can imagine all the comic material he gleans from this rich upbringing.

Instead, he is renowned for his observational humor, his cheerful yet cynical take on the hypocrisies of daily life. Whether he's ranting about Inspector Gadget's libido or the grammatical nuances of the future indicative, Adam combines intellect with wit and just the right degree of whininess. Jerry Seinfeld himself once described Adam's comedy as "leave me alone" and "how did you get my phone number?".

Adam's new book, Surviving Your Stupid, Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School, will be published by Broadway Books (a division of Random House) in April 2010. It's a look at the low points and, well, lower points of grad school. Interested? Buy it here. (Or buy the e-book for your Kindle here.

In addition, Adam has also written numerous plays, short stories, comic articles, musicals, and a screenplay and is a writer for National Lampoon. Many of his plays have been performed on college campuses, and a few have toured nationally. His stand-up accolades include second place in the Pittsburgh Funny Bone's World Series of Comedy, second place in the Jewish Week's Funniest Jewish Comic Contest, and first place at the D.C. Improv's 4th Open Mic Competition. In his other life, Adam recently finished his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins University, where he was also a Lecturer in the English Department; he is currently working on a malaria vaccine with a biotech company called Sanaria. Please don't hold this against him.

Adam also appears as a recurring guest expert on "Food Detectives" on the Food Network, now in its second season, where he and host Ted Allen ("Queer Eye," "Top Chef," "Chopped") debunk food myths. Apparently the Ph.D. qualifies him as an expert on the five-second rule of dropped food. The show is currently in reruns and tends to broadcast at 9:30 AM on Thursdays, so if you want to watch it, quit your job or buy a DVR.

Adam has appeared with John Pinette, Greg Giraldo, Kathleen Madigan, Sue Murphy, Brett Leake, Jake Johannsen, George Wallace, Jim Gaffigan, ANT, Ty Barnett, Tony Woods, Bob Sommerby, Mickey Cucchiella, Freddie Roman, Dan Ahdoot, Jeff Caldwell, "Coach" Tom Whitely, Raymond the Amish Comic, Bob Levy, the comics of Dane Cook's "Tourgasm," and many others. It would be neat if you found this web page while Googling one of them.

Adam has appeared in Maryland at The Baltimore Improv, Winchester's, The Comedy Factory Outlet, The Five Seasons, The Wyndham Hotel, The Columbia Sheraton, Tracy's Comedy Club, The Crab Cake Factory, Kaufmann's Tavern, Saphire Café, Frazier's on the Avenue, Whispers, Ristorante Felicita, The Comedy Dock, The Bethesda Hyatt, Jillian's, and aboard the Lady Baltimore; in D.C. at The D.C. Improv, Chief Ike's Mambo Room, The Zoo Bar, Nanny O'Briens, Staccato Lounge, Politiki, SoHo Tea & Coffee, Lulu's Club Mardi Gras, Café Japone, Titan Bar, Topaz Hotel, Taglines Comedy Club, T.S. Muttly's, Busboys & Poets, the Warehouse NextDoor, and the D.C. Arts Center; in Virginia at Sterling Cinema Drafthouse, Arlington Cinema Drafthouse, Wiseacres, Stacy's Coffee Parlor, The Comedy Spot, and Freddie's Beach Bar; in Delaware at Hot Tamales, Comedians at the Doubletree, Comedians at Kahunaville, and the Sheraton Suites; in Philly at the Spaghetti Warehouse and the Philadelphia Comedy Festival; in Pittsburgh at the Funny Bone's World Series of Comedy and the Improv's Carnival Comedy Challenge; in New York at The Comic Strip, Gotham Comedy Club, New York Comedy Club, The Laugh Factory, and Three of Cups; in California at the La Jolla Comedy Store; at the Boston Comedy Festival; and at Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, Towson University, and the University of Maryland-Baltimore County.

You can see some of the stuff he's written in the Dcstandup Reading Room.

You can read an article about him from the Johns Hopkins News-Letter, too.

And another one about the stand-up class he teaches in Johns Hopkins Magazine.

And another about his role in "Food Detectives" from Delaware Today.

Have a bar/bat mitzvah coming up? Adam does those. He can do stand-up (rated G, of course), play improvisational comedy games with the kids, and if you want something more dramatic and impressive, he can even bring in the Bottle Dancers.

Adam also does character work with Carbone Entertainment and Alana Shor. So if you want, say, a guy dressed as a paparazzo walking around your party, those are the places to go. Adam leads a strange, strange life.

Adam now has a MySpace page! Adam is not a 13-year-old girl, so he really isn't sure what to do with a MySpace page. But he has one. It's here.

A couple of Adam's plays are published and can be purchased from Amazon.com. "New Tricks" appears in this anthology, and "Out of Character" and "Shot At" can be found in this one.

Recently some film students from American University made a short documentary about Adam, which you can watch here.

And here's a short clip from an episode of "Food Detectives" in which Adam and Ted mix Mentos and Diet Coke with explosive results. (It'll probably get taken off of YouTube at some point because I doubt the network approved it being posted, but hey, I didn't put it up.)

Upcoming Shows

2/16/10: 8:00 PM, Mortified (storytelling show featuring embarrassing writing from adolescence), Town Night Club, 2009 8th St. NW, Washington, DC. Mortified
2/17/10: 8:00 PM, Speakeasy DC (another storytelling show), also at Town Night Club, 2009 8th St. NW, Washington, DC. Speakeasy DC
2/23/10: 8:00 PM, Taglines Comedy at Michael's Pub, 8630 Guilford Rd., Columbia, MD. Taglines Comedy
2/28/10: 8:00 PM, Headlining, District Live @ Union Jack's, 4915 St. Elmo Ave., Bethesda, MD. Union Jack's