In 1995, in Omaha, Adam DeVine was 11 years old and waited for three trucks to pass before crossing the street on his bicycle. He never saw the fourth. The first two wheels of a 42-ton cement truck ran him over and dragged him 150 meters.
He fell into a coma and woke up two weeks later with every bone in both legs broken, his skin torn, a collapsed lung, and infections advancing. Doctors did not know whether he would walk again or whether they would have to amputate his legs. He survived, he was later told, because the bicycle absorbed the first impact. Then came 26 surgeries in two years, and he had to relearn how to stand, sit, and walk from scratch.
When he returned to school, his classmates mocked the scars he was left with. His dream of becoming a professional baseball player had died on the asphalt. But Adam found another way out: he began telling jokes to draw attention away from his injured body, and he called local radio stations to do celebrity impressions while he recovered. That refuge became the beginning of his career as a comedian.
