Whitney Cummings—stand-up veteran and co-creator of 2 Broke Girls—once told a story on The Tim Ferriss Show about seeing a comic at the Hollywood Improv years ago. The comic walked onstage and, without a single word, started running in place—full tilt, flailing, panting, gasping. Just him and his breath. No punchline. No setup. Just the sound of exertion echoing off brick walls.
At first, people laughed. Then they stopped. Then they got concerned. “What is he doing?” Cummings remembered thinking. “Is he having a manic break?” But the comic didn’t flinch. He just kept running. And then, like a switch flipped, the audience cracked. “It was some magical bell curve of funny,” Cummings said. “I was laughing so hard I had to leave the room. He got past the stage of bombing and turned it into this other level … performance art. The audacity that he had and the bravery. And it was just—really amazing to see.”
That was Josh Fadem, and he hasn’t stopped moving since. The Tulsan-turned-Angeleno-turned-Tulsan-again has channeled that manic energy into creative projects in Tulsa and beyond, working monthly comedy showcases like Low Stakes at Chimera and recording a semi-regular podcast called Here Come the Details with comedy legends like Bobcat Goldthwait. He pops up at open mics and runs a monthly Noir Night film series at Circle Cinema. There’s a good chance he’s even made you laugh on your streaming service of choice, notching acting credits in 30 Rock, Better Call Saul, and Twin Peaks: The Return.
You can see him right now in Sterlin Harjo’s The Lowdown, playing a chatty record store owner a few doors down from Ethan Hawke. Fadem also had a hand in the Tulsa noir behind the scenes, suggesting classic noir movies to Harjo as reference material for the show and serving as a consultant for the writers’ room.
Like any true Tulsan keeping in touch with our culture, Fadem occupies a niche place in my pop culture consciousness—part of a personal constellation of semi-known celebrities, more than an extra but less than a leading man. A Tulsey Town Brian Dennehy, of sorts.
And so I dared to wonder: What’s Josh Fadem’s deal, anyway?
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Despite being omnipresently out there on the entertainment streets, the 45-year-old is reserved in person. I met Fadem one Monday afternoon ahead of Noir Night. Taking a break from his preparation—which includes meticulously editing an intro to the evening’s film—he sat with me in Whittier Bar’s Devil Room. Our fixer for the exchange was Tulsa’s alternate mayor and good friend of Fadem’s, Evan Hughes.
The contrast between Fadem’s off-stage personality and his zany performance identity is as diametric as the black-and-white zigzagged carpet in Twin Peaks’ Black Lodge. Onstage, Fadem is a sort of mammalian Furby animated by Buster Keaton’s ghost. His intensity brings to mind a class of “alternative comics” like Better Call Saul star Bob Odenkirk and self-proclaimed “riffer” Casey Rocket, who talks about “riffing” repeatedly in his sets—even saying “I’m riffin’” as a punchline of sorts.