For better or worse, a memorable character follows its creator throughout his or her career, and that’s been the case with .
Known best for the bug-eyed, strangle-voiced caricature he perfected on stand-up stages and in ’80s comedies such as “Hot to Trot,” “Shakes the Clown” and the “Police Academy” series, Goldthwait has spent the rest of his career focusing on acting, writing, directing and — at times — fleeing his own creation.
Still, Goldthwait’s turn-on-a-dime, frequently dark humor is finding an appreciative new audience that doesn’t care about his past associations and projects. We caught up with the L.A. denizen over the phone in advance of his shows at Friday, July 29 and Saturday, July 30.
Have you been doing stand-up pretty consistently over the years between ?
I actually just recently started enjoying stand-up again. I finally realized that I didn’t like the character that people knew and it was just like, “I’ll be myself.” So I would say the stand-up is a much closer extension of who I am.
Do you reference that character on stage, since that’s many peoples’ reference point for you?
Deconstruct is a good way to talk about it. Making jokes about peoples’ expectations kind of defuses the situation, but then you also have to realize that a lot of people in the comedy clubs were born in the ’80s, so they don’t even know what I’m talking about. There are people who do like the persona and get offended when I (don’t do it), but those people only have to deal with that character once a day. When you’re living with it every night you grow to fucking hate it. I really love Jerry Lewis in the early pictures, or his pictures that he made in the ’60s even, but then eventually when it’s it’s kind of a rough lot.
There definitely seemed to be more of character-based stand-up in the ’80s, whereas now it’s more about finding a comedic voice similar your real one.
During the ’80s comedy boom people inhabited characters. A lot of the persona-comedy was about making fun of traditional stand-up. In (traditional stand-up), people were going on stage and trying to look as normal as they possibly could and then talk to you about everyday things, and then you were supposed to relate to them. So I think it was a reaction to, “I know you were expecting this, but somebody else has come out.”
And certainly being a director and writer has given you the chance to get completely away from that sort of expression.
I do say that the reason I like making movies is because I can say a lot more of what I think of the world. Making a movie is so different than the stage because there are no expectations of delivering a punchline every 30 to 45 seconds. And when you’re doing stand-up, you’re keeping the dumbest person in the room occupied for 50 minutes. That’s what you have to do or you’re not going to get through our act. When you’re doing a movie, the dumbest person just goes to “Transformers.”
Do you have a favorite joke of the moment, yours or someone else’s?
Yeah, it’s a street joke. This guy goes to the shrink and says, “I can’t stop thinking about suicide. There’s no joy in my life. The world’s hopeless.” And the shrink goes, “Here’s what you do: You go to the circus and there’s a clown named Bob and you watch him and come back to me and tell me there’s no joy in this world.” And he says, “I am Bob the clown.”
What’s your favorite thing to do outside of entertainment?
Right now it’s shooting guns. I’ve unleashed my inner redneck! I’ve been fighting it now for 40-some years.
Do you have a favorite gun?
I enjoy a revolver. I’m an old cowboy.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever felt bad laughing about?
Oh, I don’t know. Lots of things. There was a moment at my brother’s funeral where one of the pallbearers was little person named Ricky. He was hanging onto the side of the coffin, so as he came down the aisle I said to my daughter, “It looks like Ricky’s riding the subway!”
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John Wenzel is an executive editor of and an award-winning A&E reporter for The Denver Post. He is the author of (Speck Press/Fulcrum) and maintains a of random song titles and band names.
