Life Lessons

Palisadian Adam Lorenzo Pens “All I Need To Know I Learned From My College Bar”

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

In between attending classes as an English major at Syracuse University, Adam Lorenzo could be found working at a local bar—laying the foundation for what would eventually become a book filled with the life lessons he learned there.

Lorenzo worked at Maggie’s even before he could legally drink, becoming its owner by the time he was a junior in college.

“This is how I was paying my bills and doing everything,” he explained. “So it was necessary, and I was working my tail off.”

Lorenzo, who now lives in Pacific Palisades and is a TV/movie writer, said becoming the owner was as simple as “one thing” leading to another, with an owner looking to get out of the business.

“The guy held what’s called a promissory note for me,” Lorenzo explained. “A little bit of money as a down payment and he held the rest, I pay him back every month.”

He shared that he would write papers at the bar, sneaking out of class early to receive beer and liquor deliveries.

“I bartended every single night of my life,” Lorenzo recalled. “You close up at three in the morning, and I had to be at class at 7:30, 8 o’clock, and that was my life. I loved the hustle. I think back at it and it’s funny, but I loved it.”

Before landing at the bar, Lorenzo garnered an array of experience through a variety of different jobs, including selling TV guides as a telemarketer and as a janitor for a AAA building—all of which, he said, helped him learn how to work with people.

“So when I got into the bar job,” he said, “I learned pretty quickly.”

Lorenzo is from upstate New York. He was born in Buffalo and spent most of his time growing up there before transferring to Syracuse.

“I love Buffalo, very proud of it,” Lorenzo said. “Once you survive those winters, it makes you appreciate Los Angeles and Pacific Palisades like nobody’s business.”

When he transferred to Syracuse, Lorenzo said he imagined that he would get into law, maybe becoming a lawyer or maybe getting into politics. He interned for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in Buffalo, whose seat was succeeded by Hillary Clinton.

“Never thought it would end up Los Angeles comedy writer for what I do for a living,” Lorenzo explained. “I had wanted to as a kid, but I never knew you could make a living doing it … I feel very blessed to be in it and to have found it, because it really was something that I loved inexplicably, without knowing that there was such a thing as a career.”

When Lorenzo was behind the bar closing, he said he would look at his reflection. He would see guys who were older than him—which, at that time, meant 40- and 50-year-olds—who owned college bars.

“They’d come in and I would think, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t want that for my life,’” Lorenzo, who owned a second bar by the time he got out of the business, shared. “As great a business as it is, I knew I had something else in me that I was supposed to pursue.”

To break into the industry, Lorenzo began by cold calling the “Late Show with David Letterman.” He watched the credits, picked a name, called the show and said he knew the person he randomly selected, asking if he could get on their joke list. After being sent the release and making the list, he would go to a newsstand, get the newspapers and write jokes to send in.

Though he had never been to California before moving, Lorenzo said he felt like he was supposed to be here. And then he had the chance of a lifetime in 1999.

On a Friday, he received a call from Jim Peterson, who worked with David Letterman. They were offering Lorenzo a staff position on “The Late Late Show” at its beginning.

“I had no idea what it meant,” Lorenzo said. “I didn’t know about the Writers Guild, I didn’t know about minimums, so when they sent the contract, I was just so grateful and so happy.”

The only catch was Lorenzo had to let them know by the end of the day, and he had to be in LA by Monday to start work. So he left behind his life, which included a relationship, and headed to California.

“The first two people I remember meeting on the show were Salma Hayek and George Clooney,” Lorenzo shared. “It was like, ‘How was this happening?’”

Lorenzo has since worked on shows like “Saturday Night Live,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” “Everybody Hates Chris” and more.

From the start of his time in LA, Lorenzo said he loved the Palisades, mainly because of the hiking. Originally, he was in escrow on a place on Tramonto Drive that didn’t end up working out, so he got his first place in the Larchmont area.

Lorenzo continued to frequent the Palisades, going to the farmers market and walking around town with his dog. He became good friends with Dave and Jintana Licht, owners of the former Kayndaves on Sunset Boulevard.

“There’s something about the community that has always appealed to me,” he shared.

Right before the pandemic, Lorenzo left the Larchmont space and rented a guest house on Paseo Miramar, near Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine.

“It was again the universe that brought me to the Palisades,” Lorenzo shared, “and so many wonderful things have happened the last few years for me here … I think being here during the pandemic was really fortunate because I knew so many people and it was a close-knit group.”

And it was a stroll through Palisades Village that inspired Lorenzo to pen his book. He was walking by the since-closed Amazon Books when he spotted “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” in the store’s window.

“This is a project I’ve always wanted to develop,” Lorenzo said, “but I’ve been waiting, letting it bake until the right time.”

After spotting the book in the window, he said he thought it would be fun to develop this idea of “All I Need To Know, I Learned From My College Bar.” The book covers his life before his first staff-writing job for Letterman.

“I could put all of these lessons that I learned during those years that I’ve applied to break into the business,” Lorenzo explained. “I had, over the years, been accumulating all sorts of stories about this, because it was my passion project.”

“All I Need To Know I Learned From My College Bar”—a book “about thinking, not drinking”—was published on March 21 by Fayetteville Mafia Press, owned by Scott Ryan and David Bushman. Each page has a piece of, what Lorenzo described as, “valuable advice,” learned in the “cathedral of knowledge known as a college bar,” as well as an illustration by Antonio Pinna, who was connected to Lorenzo by Pinna’s agent, Ella Lupo.

He shared that the book is intended for students, parents, professors, teaching assistants, college sports fans, “anyone who has ever stepped foot on a college campus” and anyone who “likes to laugh.”

One of the lessons Lorenzo included in the book was “you either set your day up, or your day sets you up.”

“When I owned the bar, I was ritual-oriented,” Lorenzo said. “I tried to always start the day with a workout. Even in the cold, even in the snow, I’d run.”

Other lessons include “go where the love is,” and “do what you love and the money follows.”

“Anyone who’s in the business of Hollywood will tell you it’s not an easy path to take,” Lorenzo shared. “You have to love it.”

For those interested in purchasing a copy of the book, “All I Need To Know I Learned From My College Bar” will be available at all Kitson locations, including on Sunset Boulevard in the Palisades, and DIESEL, A Bookstore in Brentwood Country Mart.

“The book has a lot of heart,” Lorenzo shared. “It’s about making friends, not being afraid to be yourself.”