Meet Adam Cagley | Author, Actor, Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Adam Cagley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Adam, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risk has played a huge role over the course of my career, solely because everything I’ve done has required ridiculous amounts of it! Acting, standup, producing and now my books. I tend to make career choices and changes that have very slim odds of success, yet I throw everything I have into them anyway. When I started acting I was 10 years old and the odds of making it wasn’t something I’d ever really entertained, even though I had a snowball’s chance in hell. It was just something I loved and wanted to do, odds be damned. I’ve carried that through my entire career. If it’s something I love and it’s something I want, I go for it with all the focus and determination I have and ignore the high likelihood of failure. I obviously try to mitigate the risks and rig the odds in my favor but I don’t feel like I’ve ever really failed because at the end of every venture I’ve come away with a body of work I can be proud of and that I enjoy. I was in some of the most popular shows of the last 20 years, I performed for sold out crowds and opened for some of my heroes, I’ve produced movies that I love and my debut novel was the number three best seller in Western Horror Fiction. There’s always going to be risk, there’s always going to be a probability of failure. It takes an equal amount of passion, focus and raw stubbornness to make it work! No guts, no glory!

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art fills a void. Not in the world or in society, but in my own library. There are other, better people filling society’s voids! I’m the guy that wrote a horror book about a dude killing sheep monsters. Everything I’ve ever done, the movies I’ve made, the comedy I’ve produced and the books I write now, come from a place of it not existing and me wanting it to exist. I make the things I want to see or read. It’s a defense mechanism to a degree, sure, because if whatever I make fails then at least I have something I enjoy. But it’s been incredibly validating to discover that other people dig what I do too. That’s also what I’m most proud of. I love stepping back at the end of a project and going “That thing didn’t exist. Now it does because of me.” Of course that’s no easy feat, you have to love it harder than you’ve ever loved anything, but the reward is incomparable. The goal in my work is only to entertain! And entertainment should be a break from the world around you! I’ll never try to make you think about it more or in different ways, I’m not the writer to hold a mirror up to society and grapple with heavy themes or ideas to try to enlighten you. I just want you to have the same amount of fun that I’m having!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A week long trip?! Who’s got time for that?! Alright, let’s figure this out. Well. I live in Downtown. So I guess first I could take them on a tour of our many $30 parking lots. There’s a couple right around the corner from me, it’ll take us 45 minutes to get there, so that’ll kill a good chunk of time. I’m a big fan of Korean BBQ and we’ve got some of the best this side of Seoul! That’s where we’d eat. And we’d have to eat a lot! Load up on calories for the hike back to wherever we parked. Best place to hang out? I’d say my living room. There’s a cover charge but its usually not that crowded. That’s the first day. Alright. There’s Universal Studios, big fan. Disneyland, bigger fan but that’s a drive. I can see the Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood sign from the roof of my building! That’s as close as we’re getting though, too much traffic, too many tourists. When’s your flight again? Six days from now?! Oh Jesus, we should’ve left for the airport already.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My family, first and foremost, deserves the biggest shoutout. I’m sure that’s everyone’s go-to for this question but it’s pretty undeniable for me. My parents supported every half-baked idea or dream I had as much as two people possibly could and made sure I had the tools, love and encouragement necessary to keep going when the pursuit inevitably got hard. My dad sacrificed everything he could to help me win and gave me work ethic. My mom gave just as much as did everything she could to make sure I was the best I could be in anything I did. Personal tragedy left my family small and fractured, but we remain as strong as ever. Without my sisters, I never would’ve made it out of the long night our family was forced to endure. I’m beyond lucky to have them and, let’s face it, they’re pretty lucky to have me too! I’m lucky enough to also have a very caring and patient girlfriend that sits and listens to me talk about all of my silly ideas and plans and hopes with a smile. This new era of my career has come to fruition mostly because she believed I could do it and wouldn’t let me give up on it! Every artist needs a strong support system and I’ve got, like, one of those super springy nets circus people have. I fall, they fling me right back up before I can crack my head on the ground.

Instagram: @ThatAdamCagley