Get this. He reminds me of Barry Manilow. Hahahaha. Is he still alive? Anyway, Manny was a semi-glittery, bombastic, predictable singer but, unlike Adam, he had great phrasing. He’d pull you into a song, it’s all good, then out of nowhere he’d shout “key change!” and keep on singing. I never figured out who he was talking to because he accompanied himself on piano, he used the same back-up singers for years and he sang the same crappy songs for decades. In retrospect, it’s pretty funny, but those WTF moments more or less ruined the rest of the song for the audience. My point is that whenever he did that, I knew he wasn’t feeling the lyrics; he was just going through the motions.

So when I notice Adam’s performance tics—the aimless wandering on stage, occasional odd phrasing, goofy “badass” facial expressions—they remind me he’s not living the lyrics; he’s faking it while he calculates his next move. I hope Adam finds a way to authentically connect with his audience because what he’s doing now isn’t working for me.