Adam Bush starts each day by writing for an hour shortly after waking up. This week, much of the focus is on Friday’s set at Tulsa’s Blue Whale Comedy Festival, followed by two days of stand-up comedy performances in Dallas for a very different crowd. He’s also preparing for a recording next week.
His sets can range from a few minutes to 40, so he’s always tinkering with his routine.
Nearly every weekend of the year he’s on the road doing his clean comedy sets on various stages across the country. By the end of 2026, Bush estimates he’ll have performed 150 shows.
“Something really nice about getting to travel so much is you see so many cities, and they’re all great, and they’re all terrible,” said Bush, who recently launched his new behind-the-scenes travelogue YouTube series “Adam Wants to Be a Comedian.”
“Traveling this much has made me just have an even bigger appreciation for Tulsa,” he added.
More and more often when he’s doing a set in Anywhere, America, a fan will approach him and tell him how they’ve recently visited Tulsa and absolutely loved it.
“I tell them, ‘Yeah, it is awesome, but don’t tell anybody,’” Bush said. “It’s great here. I can still afford my house.”
So yes, Bush is very excited to get in his car and make a short trip across town to again take part in the Blue Whale Comedy Festival. This year, he’s among a group of comedians in “The Next Wave: Top Comics to Watch Showcase” at 8 p.m. Friday at Bob’s Room inside Cain’s Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.
“It’s just, like, an incredibly legit festival that I can drive to from my house, which is incredible,” Bush said. “Blue Whale is a huge gift to the city and to the comedy community, and we’re very lucky to have it here.”
Tulsa has long been a routine stop for touring comedians and a launch pad for some, like the late great Sam Kinison. The city is rare for its size, featuring two comedy clubs that draw national touring acts, Bush said.
“Tulsa is so surprising because, like, the amount of people that live here for there to be two clubs, you don’t realize how insane that is,” Bush said. “Nashville has one club. Just one. They have the biggest comics in the world right there. You got Nate Bargatze, you got Angela Johnson, you got Dusty Slay, you got Leanne Morgan all going to Zanies.”
Bush’s home club is Loony Bin, meaning if he’s in town for a weekend there’s a good chance he will be opening for someone there. But he also does five to 10 gigs a year at Bricktown Comedy Club.
A few years back, he picked up a gig at Bricktown to warm up the crowd for Preacher Lawson. A couple weeks after doing the gig, Bush got a call from Lawson’s manager asking if Bush would like to spend a year opening for Lawson on the road. He accepted, hit the road and hasn’t stopped traveling since.
He’s recorded a special that streams on DRYBAR+ and self-produced a one-man show at Chimera that sold out and became a YouTube special. He’s taken part in Bargatze’s “Nateland Showcase” and considers the comedy giant as one of his mentors in the industry.
“He’s a little nicer than I am,” Bush said. “I do clean comedy that has a little bit of meanness to it, and I think that’s a specific audience. Nate told me early on he was like, ‘Pick a lane and then work that lane. You can’t if you try to be everything to everyone. It’s not going to work out for you.’ And I think he’s done that too. I mean he’s huge, but he’s clean and you can bring your grandma.”
For 15 years, Bush’s job was to speak to large crowds a few times a week from the pulpit. He decided to stop doing his own sermons about eight years ago and instead try stand-up. He knew he was comfortable sharing stories in front of random people, so why not share his own?
For many years he had been entertained by Mike Birbiglia, and in 2018 the stand-up comedian launched a contest to have aspiring comedians record themselves doing one of Birbiglia’s jokes. He chose his favorites to open for him on Broadway — and Bush was among them.
“The first show I ever did in stand-up was at the Cort Theatre (now known as James Earl Jones Theatre) just off Times Square,” Bush said. “It was a packed house. Ira Glass helped introduce me, and I did a minute-and-a-half of one of Mike’s sets that I knew anyway.”
Bush returned to Tulsa and started taking part in local open mics on Mondays and Wednesdays. Then churches started calling. He continues picking up gigs on the church circuit when he’s available.
“Growing up the son of a preacher, I have a lot of stories about just that that I’m not going to do opening for Big Jay Oakerson,” Bush said. “I probably share a little bit more about my faith, but it’s not that different from just doing a clean show like at Blue Whale or at Nate’s showcase.”
Seven years in, he doesn’t have enough of a following to headline on his own. But he has the relationships to go out on the road with four people throughout the year, Bush said.
The ultimate goal is to become a national touring headliner who can call friends and rising acts to open for him — comics in the same position as him now. Until then, he’ll keep waking up each morning and writing. Then it’s back to the road.
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