Adam Sandler says he feels “guilty” doing stand-up comedy in front of his daughters.
Sandler, 59, addressed the awkwardness during his Wednesday, November 19, appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s ABC late-night show, telling the host that Sadie, 19, and Sunny, 17, briefly attended his recent performance in Las Vegas.
“I’m very filthy,” the comedian confessed. “You know, I curse a lot. Been doing that my whole life. I feel guilty because I shouldn’t have done it, but I do it and I continue to do it.”
Sandler recalled, “It was my daughter’s birthday. They came to Vegas to see me. Right away, I [said], ‘Goddamnit.’ They’re in Vegas. ‘Can we bring our friends and we’ll celebrate at one of your shows?’”
He thought, “I can’t be myself” or “curse in front of them.”
He had previously noticed “shame in their eyes” after they witnessed him cursing onstage. Describing his daughters’ reaction, the Happy Gilmore star joked, “‘Who is that guy? That’s a fake guy, that’s a stand-up comedian guy.’ You get the real daddy at home.”
In an effort to keep it clean, he tweaked his November 1 show at the Fontainebleau “out of respect for the kids and their friends.”
Sandler told Kimmel: “I’m on stage, knowing my daughters and their friends are in the crowd. I’m changing everything up. It’s Vegas, everyone’s expecting filth. And I’m not giving them the filth for like an hour and 45 minutes.”
Besides making jokes, Sandler had the crowd sing “Happy birthday” to Sunny, whom he and wife, Jackie Sandler, welcomed on November 2, 2008.
“Then I come off the stage, and my wife’s waiting for me,” he said. “I go, ‘Hey.’ She hugs me [and says], ‘Great show, I love you.’”
When he asked Jackie, 51, if the kids enjoyed it, she replied, “Oh, they left five minutes into it. Because they wanted to have fun with their friends. I think they went and had dessert or something.”
Sandler said he was “happy” they skipped the event, noting, “I did curse a few times and there were things that I was going to have to explain.”
He wrapped up his two-month, multi-city “You’re My Best Friend” tour this month. And on December 5, Jay Kelly, his new film with George Clooney, will start streaming via Netflix.
Sandler plays Ron Suzenick, the longtime friend and manager of Clooney’s title character, an A-list actor having an existential crisis.
Speaking with Us Weekly in October, Sandler recalled that Jay Kelly director Noah Baumbach “called me, like, a year before I got the script. He said he’s had an idea and he’s going to write it and I’m in it. And then I got to read the script, get affected by it emotionally and say, ‘Thanks for doing all the work, and now I got to make sure I don’t let you down.’”
“It’s a good feeling,” he added.
The Saturday Night Live alum frequently appears with his family in comedies that he produces, such as You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah and Happy Gilmore 2.
“It’s always been our thing to work with our friends and family,” Sandler explained to USA Today earlier this year. “It’s cool to see [my kids] getting better. They work hard and they go to school for it, and they love it. So, yeah, I’m just proud. Couldn’t love them more.”

