Adam Sandler Tells Incredible Story About Bombing The First Time His Mom Ever Saw Him Perform (While Opening For Jerry Seinfeld)

adam sandler and his mother judy

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In an effort to promote his new film Spaceman, hitting Netflix on Friday, March 1, beloved comedian and actor Adam Sandler has been doing the media rounds and made an appearance on his buddy Conan O’Brien’s podcast.

While appearing on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, Sandler explained how, due to the vulgarity of his stand-up comedy sets, for a long time, his mother never saw him perform live.

“My mother never came to see me do stand-up because that was the instructions [from his father],” Sandler explained.

But once he got an opportunity to open for Jerry Seinfeld, who famously does not curse in his comedy, Sandler saw it as a chance to finally have his mother see him perform live.

“I opened for Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld was cool, he let me open for him in Boston one night and my parents are in New Hampshire,” Sandler begins.

Unfortunately for the Sandman, however, altering his usual brand of comedy threw him off and he bombed on stage.

“I don’t think he told me to, but I said, ‘Oh, he doesn’t curse so I can’t curse.’ And I told my Dad and Mom, ‘Hey, I’m doing Seinfeld! I’m doing 15 minutes before he goes on, if you guys want to come, because I’m not allowed to curse.’ And my father was like, ‘Judy, we’ll go,’ and they both came. And because it was a clean set, I wasn’t used to it, and I f—— ate it for 15 minutes and my poor parents were watching me just fail miserably.” 

While Conan’s official YouTube page has not uploaded the clip of Sandler telling this specific story, you can watch him riff on meeting the one and only Paul McCartney below.

Alongside Sandler, Spaceman — directed by Chernobyl filmmaker Johan Renck — also stars Academy Award nominees Carey Mulligan and Paul Dano.