The Diceman Cometh: Andrew Dice Clay is one of America’s most controversial and outrageous stand-up comedians.
Banned from MTV and many other television and radio stations, and opposed by women's rights and LGBTI groups internationally, he has been a polarising force in comedy for more than 30 years. He's also one of only a handful of comedians to have sold out Madison Square Garden two nights in a row, and has a considerable acting career under his belt. For the first time ever, Clay will appear on Australian stages, as he brings his ‘The Diceman Cometh Down Under’ tour throughout October.
First of all, why has it taken so long for you to come to Australia?
The truth is I really don’t go anywhere. I don’t leave the States. Australians have always been coming to see me here so I just figured, why not. They’re cool people. They’re always at my shows in Vegas and they are some of the coolest people I’ve met, so I decided you know what take the trip, enjoy your life and have a good time. Let me tell you something, Australian people know how to have to good time.
Australians are no strangers to blue humour, but what can we expect from your show? Is it safe for us to bring our grandparents?
Uh, no! Not unless your grandparents are real and love the real deal, you know what I mean? I’ll tell you the truth, when older people come to see me they go crazy, maybe because they’re older, maybe they don’t give a fuck but they just love it. They go crazy.
Why should the Australian public spend their hard-earned cash to hear what Andrew Dice Clay has to say in 2014?
You know what, I’m current and I am the funniest guy in the world, that’s the bottom line. It doesn’t even matter what I’m talking about, they’re just going to leave the theatre going ‘I am so glad I got to see that’. I’m a concept performer, I know what I do to crowds.
“I could meet the nicest girl, polite, nice, you know and then I kiss her and turn her into a dirty little whore.”
When you were first starting out and throughout the '80s and early '90s, there seemed to more comedians willing to take a chance and be ‘controversial’. Do you think fewer comedians are willing to take a risk now?Yeah, you got a lot of dirty comics out there. But you know dirty and funny are two different things, so a lot of them just curse for the shock value of cursing, but it’s not shocking anybody anymore. You got to paint pictures. I know how to paint those comedic pictures — those filthy, dirty, comedic pictures. That’s the key because anybody can talk dirty, anybody walking the street can talk dirty, it’s another thing to make it really funny and that’s where I pride myself.
You’ve been known for making some pretty controversial statements about certain groups of people in the past. Have you ever regretted anything you've said in your shows, as time has passed?
You know what, not really. No… the stuff I talk about, it’s base. It’s relationships, it’s what goes on between people, you know, sexual but it's sexual cartoons. It’s funny! It’s like, I could meet the nicest girl, polite, nice, you know and then I kiss her and turn her into a dirty little whore. I don’t want somebody to be nice in the bedroom, I don’t want anything with being nice in the bedroom. And then you take it on stage and it just makes it really fucking funny.
Do you think you could have ever been as successful as you have if you hadn’t been seen as being controversial?
You know what, I honestly didn’t set out in my career to be controversial. It just came with the territory. I never even thought that way. I’m an actor and a comic, so it’s all about acting for me, it’s all about performance and theatre, [it] wasn’t about being controversial. The media did that. I never even used to think of that stuff.
How was your experience working with Woody Allen and Cate Blanchett in ‘Blue Jasmine’?
Working with them was unbelievable because from doing nothing, all of a sudden I’m working with what I call Hollywood royalty from the Baldwins to Cate Blanchett who was just, to me she was just a throwback to what movie stars used to be. She’s unreal and she’s deserved every award she [has] won. I love her that’s it. And I’ve loved her for a long time before I did the movie with her, but doing the movie, I got to see how cool a person she was: down to earth, grounded, family orientated. Just a great girl.
Does your return to stand-up and touring mean your acting career is on hold?
No, no. I just did a new thing that Martin Scorsese is doing for HBO. So that’s the newest one.
What are you most looking forward to about coming to Australia?
You know what, to me it’s just going to be a whole experience. It’s just going to be fun. The shows are going to be great. I’m going to have some of my people with me and we’re just coming there to have a blast.
