Andrew Dice Clay at The Paramount on June 9
Andrew Dice Clay is coming to The Paramount on Sunday, June 9, for a special one-night performance. Recently, I had a chance to speak with the Diceman. He was chatting from his cellphone while in Columbus Circle, probably filming some of his current social media shorts that have earned him some impressive viewership stats. They don’t call him the “Undisputed Heavyweight King of Comedy” for nothing. Here’s what he had to say.
CH: What can you say about your success?
DICE: The New York Times used to write about me. It was at a time when no one would even let me be on the same block as Carnegie Hall [Dice performed at Carnegie Hall last month on Feb. 15]. I think the headline back then said, “The Demise of Western Civilization” or something like that. Last year was a game-changer for me. Now, everything I’ve been doing, A Star Is Born, working with Scorsese; it is unreal. Now the headlines say I am this great performance artist.
CH: What is the secret to staying relevant?
DICE: Believe in yourself and what you do. Achievement and accomplishment are very possible with hard work. You know, people always say, “You’re really lucky,” and I say yeah, I guess, if you want to call hard work “lucky.” I have strived and bridged a lot of generations to finally have the career that I have always wanted.
CH: Did you believe that you were funny, then?
DICE: I couldn’t care less back then; I did not care about stand-up comedy. I just cared about being a performer. Why go to acting school once a week when I could get up and perform seven nights a week. My comedy chops grew. Now I really love it. I understand it. I have grown with the times. I am not doing the material I did 45 years ago, except the Mother Goose poems, because that’s the signature piece. It’s iconic. It’s memorable and the whole audience still does it with me. Other than that, I do not want to do material from 1980 in 2024. It was unheard of for a comedian to sell out arenas. I am the only comic to ever open for Guns N’ Roses; I opened with “Little Miss Muffet…” and they went berserk.
CH: How has your content changed?
DICE: I am still edgy, but the material has changed. I am older; I have learned things: I have seen things. My comedy, I’d say, is more self-deprecating now; it’s relatable. I watch clips of a 25-year-old Dice and it was so cartoony and robotic, even the way I talked back then; I never broke character. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun, but now, I put more of myself into my material.
CH: Why do we collectively need comedy?
DICE: I don’t get into politics, but you see what goes on around the world, everybody fighting everybody. I had a very smart mother. She said three things. Never talk politics. Never talk religion. And never bad-mouth Frank Sinatra. I did meet Sinatra in Vegas; I think we were shooting The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. He told me what it was like for him to be a grassroots phenomenon. He told me to never back down and keep moving forward. He said no matter what gets in my way, there will always be deterrence, but to do whatever it takes, go around it, go under it, go over it. He told me, “A guy like you is going to survive it.” I could not believe the things he told me. To this day, it is still surreal.
Recently I went to see my friend Bill Burr perform. The minute I walked into his dressing room, he said, “Dice, you’re going to do some time up there tonight, right?” My stomach dropped and initially I said, “No, I didn’t come here tonight to do that.” He said, “You got to do something; you gotta go up.” That lit the switch for me again. If you call yourself the “Undisputed Heavyweight King of Comedy” when you get on stage, you got to prove it. I’ll never retire; I’ll never be out there playing pickleball.
Fans can get tickets to the Sunday, June 9, show at The Paramount (www.paramountny.com).
Visit www.andrewdiceclay.com for more.