Back in a starring adventure
Andrew Dice Clay
It’s amazing what a little Entourage can do for you. Andrew Dice Clay was in comedy purgatory until the HBO series featured him in a five-series arc last year. Now Clay is back on top, with a Showtime special in the works, a run at the Riviera (he performs two weeks a month for the rest of the year) and, best of all, a role in an upcoming Woody Allen flick. “The Woodman has been pleased with my performance,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times in August. Jack Houston caught up with Dice to talk about his new-look career.
Q: We hear you’re in talks to star in a reality show. What can you tell us about that?
A: I love Vegas as the backdrop. I wanted to do a real reality show because I’ve done the fake one, which I didn’t want to be fake, but those producers didn’t want to listen to me and everything was watered down and phony, and it failed. They’re actually shooting the real deal and people are going to feel that.
Q: Your guest spot on Entourage really put you back on the map.
A: That was the greatest show I ever did. From the show’s creator to the cast to the crew, everybody was great on that show, and they were great with me. And it was an incredible experience ’cause of that. ’Cause I’ve also done television shows where you don’t get along with the producer, where you don’t get along with the director and the writing stinks. This was a top-notch show, and I showed up to deliver on that. … It’s a whole new career.
Q: It seems like a lot of your set is based on improvisation. How much of your act is planned?
A: I always take every show as a separate show. I never go up there with a set plan. The first 20 minutes of my show I never know what I’m going to do, and then I get into newer bits, then I get into the classic bits, and then I’m eating a turkey sandwich in the dressing room.
Q: What’s your relationship with the so-called “nursery rhymes” that made you famous?
A: Normally, I’ve done it because it’s like having a hit song. That’s something they can actually do with me, and the crowds always love it. So I don’t mind doing it. It’s called a signature piece. That would be a signature piece of mine.
Q: What’s it been like having both your ex-fiancée (Eleanor Kerrigan) and son (Max Silverstein) perform with you at the Riviera?
A: She’s had to open for me for the last five years, and at the beginning it was very tough because my crowds are animals and they’re just very aggressive crowds. And she fought that and became the best. And now my son … he’s facing those crowds and I’ve seen how strong he’s gotten with them. You can’t back down from my audience, and if you can get great in front of my audience, you can be great anywhere.
