Andrew Dice Clay

Andrew Dice Clay was born Andrew Clay Silverstein in Brooklyn, New York. In the early stages of his career, using the name Andrew Clay, he was an actor and appeared in '80s low-budget porn films, along with sitcom appearances on M*A*S*H and Diff'rent Strokes and a regular role on Crime Story. He eventually gave up acting and turned his hand to standup comedy, inventing a persona known as The Dice Man. Named after a Luke Rhinehart novel, the persona was that of a highly racist, homophobic woman-hating street wise Brooklyn tough guy.

Comedic style

Unlike many other comedians who turned their comedy into a tool of political or social commentary, including contempories like Bill Hicks and Sam Kinison as well as influences such as George Carlin and Lenny Bruce, Clay's desire was to be as shocking as humanly possible. His material consisted of highly sexist routines, portraying women as sex objects and nothing more, and would regularly portray minorities, both racial and sexual, in a derisory fashion.

Insults

Dice would often insult members of his audience while they were actually there, and made many so uncomfortable that they actually left his shows. At this time, his most popular routine involved the subversion of traditional Nursery Rhymes, including "Jack and Jill went up the hill" and "Little Miss Muffet", turning them from child friendly rhymes into sordid sexual encounters. It was these rhymes that subsequently became both Dice's breakthrough into the mainstream as well as the routine that he most despised.

Dice's Nursery Rhymes

"Little Miss Muffett sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey. Along came a spider, who sat down beside her and said 'Hey, what's in the bowl, bitch?'"
"Jack and Jill went up the hill, each with a buck and a quarter. Jill came down with two-fifty... that fucking whore!"
"Little Boy Blue... he needed the money!"
"Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack burned off his fuckin' dick!"
"There was an old lady who lived in a shoe. She had so many kids... her uterus fell out!"
"Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone. She bent over, Rover took over and gave her a bone of her own."
"Mary Mary quite contrary... trim that pussy, it's so damn hairy!"
"Hickory Dickory Dock, this chick was suckin' my cock. The clock struck two, I dropped my goo and dumped the bitch on the next block."
"Jack Sprat could eat no fat, his wife could eat no lean. So Jack ignored her flabby tits and licked her asshole clean."

Popularity

Clay's growing notoriety led to his being offered a recording contract with Rick Rubin's Def American label. Comedy records do not traditionally sell very well, and so it was a great shock, even to Clay himself, when his debut album Dice was a commercial success. Sampled excerpts from the album would find themselves on tracks by Ice Cube, N.W.A, and one-hit wonders EMF, amongst other artists. Clay was the most controversial comic since Lenny Bruce, and his appearance on the MTV Video Awards to promote his new movie, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane, earned him a "lifetime ban" from the network when he started performing some of his already-notorious nursery rhymes. Further controversy ensued when his appearance on Saturday Night Live as host resulted in guest Sinéad O'Connor and cast member Nora Dunn walking off the set in protest to Clay's misogynistic persona. Naturally this made him even more famous.

The Day the Laughter Died (CD)

Clay would then go on to record what some regard as his masterpiece. The two CD set The Day The Laughter Died, lasting just under two hours, hit the Top 40 Album Chart and is considered the first ever comedy concept album. The concept, according to Clay, was to perform "the worst show possible". Clay went in front of a paying audience with no planned material and insulted the audience, as a whole as well as individually, for nearly two hours. Many members of the audience—even by the standards of a Clay show—left, and the entire concert was released without any edits. The album was produced by Beastie Boys and Slayer producer Rick Rubin.

Commercial failure

After Ford Fairlane failed at the box office, effectively ending Clay's movie career, a standup performance at Madison Square Garden was given a movie release as Dice Rules in 1991. It failed commercially due to many theaters refusing to show it, and by the release in 1992 of his album, 40 Too Long, Clay was almost forgotten.

His 1993 album The Day The Laughter Died, Part 2 was recorded in front a small audience at Dangerfield's in New York. On the album, he reprised the concept of The Day The Laughter Died, verbally insulting his audience. Apart from the audience baiting, he attacked American movie critics Siskel and Ebert for giving both Dice Rules and Ford Fairlane bad reviews. He also responded to a request for a nursery rhyme, which he had previously refused to do on The Day The Laughter Died, by stating "You don't know how much I hate those fucking poems, you have no idea how I hate those fucking poems, I wish I'd never thought of those fucking poems." Following the release of The Day The Laughter Died, Part 2, Dice vanished from the media spotlight for two years.

Bless This House (TV show)

He returned in 1995, playing the part of a caring family man in CBS' sitcom Bless This House. Dropping the Dice from his name and eschewing his Dice man persona, CBS alleged that Dice was difficult to work with, refusing to learn his lines among other things, and the show was quickly axed. Dice claimed in a radio interview with infamous shock jock Howard Stern that CBS had promised him they would eventually give the character "an edge", and that was the only reason that he did the show. In typical Dice form, the interview ended with an on air argument with Jackie, with Dice calling Jackie "the dumbest thing since pumpkin pie".

Later works

Following the show's failure, Dice returned to comedy with his HBO special "Assume the Position" and his 1999 album, Face Down, Ass Up. His audience was smaller than ever before due to the fall from grace of so called "Assault comedy" following the deaths of Sam Kinison and Bill Hicks.

CNN appearance

In one particular interview before a supposed comeback, Dice used several profanities on a live CNN cable news program. The video of this episode is available online in many collections of outrageous moments in American television history and "funny video" collections. Comments made on the show include "where are you getting your fucking information" and "Jesus fucking Christ." The channel was not fined by the FCC because it was on cable.

CNN interview transcript: "Stand-up Guy"

Host: Let's talk a little bit about where your career has been --

Clay: (laughing in disbelief) I can't believe it, you know what I mean?

Host: You, of course, were a headline guy, and then --

Clay: I'm still a headline guy, you know what I mean?

Host: For a while you popped out, and now you're coming back --

Clay: I'm coming back... (motioning a cycle with his hands) it's what I do...

Host: For a while you were actually... you were running a gym? Tell us about that.

Clay: (irritated) Running a gym?

Host: Weren't you running a gym at some point?

Clay: You're supposed to be a news guy, where are you getting your fucking information?

Host: That's our research...

Clay: This is ridiculous. I come on CNN, and the guy don't even know what he's talking about. Go 'head.

Host: At no point were you running a gym?

Clay: No, no... running a gym? What do you need a workout or something?

Host: Do you need to take a time out?

Clay: Jesus fucking Christ... with these guys. I come on the news for two seconds... an-and you want to say... every time I do an interview a guy wants to open his fucking mouth. Can't even do a little fucking routine here.

Host: Alright Andrew, thank you very much, we thought that you could hold back.

Clay: (removing microphone) You know? Go fuck yourself. You know what? Fuck the whole fucking network. (leaves)

Host: (to camera) Alright. We'll go back to talking about Art Carney.

Clay: (off camera) Fucking jerk-off. Fucking asshole guy.

Host: And we'll be back in just a moment to fill you in on the Art Carney situation.

Discography

Recordings featuring Dice samples

"A Gangsta's Fairytale" on Ice Cube's album AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted (Priority Records, 1990): Dice is heard saying "Good old Mother Goose, remember her? I fucked her." from "Nursery Rhymes" at the end of the song.
"Just Don't Bite It" on N.W.A's EP 100 Miles and Runnin' (Ruthless/Priority, 1990): Dice asking the question, "But does she suck a good dick?!?" from "Couples In Love", is part of the song's chorus.
"Unbelieveable" by EMF (EMI Records, 1991): Assorted interjections of Dice shouting "Oh, shit!" (sanitized for the radio version, of course), "Whoa, man!" and "It's unbelivable", all from Dice, are heard throughout the song.

Starring roles

Crime Story 1986-1988
The Adventures Of Ford Fairlaine, 1990
Dice Rules, 1991
Bless This House, 1995

External links

IMDB.com: Andrew Dice Clay (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001048/)
Rotten.com: Andrew Dice Clay biography (http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/entertainers/comic/andrew-dice-clay/) (includes some jokes)
Video of CNN Interview (http://www.ebaumsworld.com/cnndice.html) (transcript above)

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Categories: 1957 births | People from New York | U.S. comedians | M*A*S*H actors