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Welcome
to "I'm
With Busey"
"Gary's
Got a Stick"
Click
here to visit the
official "I'm With Busey"
page at Comedy Central
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UPDATES
Sadly,
"I'm With Busey" has run its 13 episode
course. Those of us who were fans will remember
the show as a very strange, strangely weird, weirdly
very funny experience. Half-mast your flags, for
"I'm With Busey" is no longer with us.
I
was quoted in USA
Today (June 24, 2003). Next stop,
superstardom! For me! Yeah! It's gonna
happen, I can feel it. Ooh, yeah. Right
on. Boom-shaka-laka and Compton. And
Compton? And Compton!
On
June 17th, the premiere episode of "I'm With Busey"
shocked and awed a nation with shock and awe. Then
I made repeated and inappropriate reference to
"shock and awe" on my website.
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Gary
Busey starred in his own TV show in a historic
moment of TV genius that just might forever vindicate the reality
show genre.
Gary
Busey's 13 episode reality show was called "I'm With Busey,"
and it originally aired in the glorious summer of '03.
It involved a young comedy writer/magician named Adam de la
Pena who hung out with his idol, wise old Gary Busey. It
was the show of my dreams. This calls for exclamation points!!!
"I'm With Busey" was
not just a reality show about Gary
Busey. That
show would
frighten most sane viewers away. Thankfully, Adam de la Pena
was
more than a mere straight man to Gary's kookiness.
The
pair had a wonderful and different sort of comic chemistry. Gary
was
supposed to be dispensing wisdom. Inevitably, Adam the
endearing insult-comic would make a jokey comment and Gary
would tell
him to shut up or pay attention or something of the
like. At different times their dynamic resembled that of
a father and son, a fan and his idol, and sometimes an old
married couple.
Another
ingredient in their relationship was Adam's dorkiness. The
beautiful thing was that each thought that the other was the
socially awkward one. Moments after spouting a long monologue of
pure crazy, Gary would react to one of Adam's jokes as
if it were the stupidest, most blundering thing he'd ever heard.
Needless to say, Adam was always making apologizing faces as
Gary talked to and alienated strangers. It was an awkward
comedy team made in heaven.
In
the end the show was about Gary, but Adam was the host. Adam
introduced the scenes
and sometimes cut in to comment with short comedic monologues.
Adam was our intrepid guide through Busey-town.
You
may have found it off-putting at first, but in the end it was totally
rad.
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Make
sure to check out clips from the show at the seemingly
fossilized "I'm With Busey"
official
site. Like I said in the Gary Quotes section, printed word cannot
adequately convey the strange hilarity that is Gary Busey.
These clips do a lot better.
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