Roll of the Dice

Gambling the Clay Way

By Amy Kepferle · Wednesday, November 18, 2009

“Little Miss Muffet 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?’
—The Diceman

    Andrew Dice Clay really knows how to push people’s buttons.

    In 1989, the controversial comedian was banned for life from MTV after lacing his awards show shtick with nasty nursery rhymes. In 1990, citing his penchant for lacing his standup routines that tended toward misogyny and homophobia, songstress Sinead O’ Connor and cast member Nora Dunn bowed out of a Saturday Night Live performance when they learned Clay would be the featured guest. 20th Century Fox tore up a contract he had with them. This year, he was the first to be fired by gazillionaire Donald Trump on his boob tube show, The Apprentice.

      With a cigarette in one hand—these days, they’re still present, but not lit—and a microphone in the other, there’s no denying that the leather jacket-wearing comedian and sometimes-actor stormed the late 1980s and early 1990s with his own particular, peculiar form of comedy.

    “Nursery Rhymes,” Clay’s 1987 compilation of stories that most definitely would not be read to children at bedtime, is a good starting point for looking at what, at the time, made him both famous and infamous—all at the same time. While some Mother Goose missives are pretty funny without going over the top—for example, “Little Boy Blue: He needed the money”—others, which include everything from bestiality to domestic abuse to oral sex and back again, turned audiences in an opposite direction. (Still, I suspect some who dissed him back then were secretly listening to the album in private and sharing it will all their friends).

    Is it any wonder, then, that Clay’s soon-to-be-released album is dubbed Filthy Animal? Probably not. 

    While he’s made a career out of being a bad boy, there’s no denying that his “Diceman” persona—which he’s said, numerous times, is completely an act—has paid off. Platinum albums, sold-out arenas and television specials made him a financial success, and, all these years later, he’s still doing what he can to make people laugh (or cringe, as the case may be).

  In a recent interview with the Boston weekly Dig, Clay says the years have changed him as a comic. But, he adds, it’s an improvement: “Over the years doing comedy, you just get better,” he said. “I’m a way better comic than I ever was. I mean, if I was going to do a special in a month, I wouldn’t ever rehearse for it, and I’d go up and do an incredible special. I’d more or less work on it as I walk around on the street. Ten years ago or 20 years ago or whatever, I’d go up on stage every night and rehearse exactly how I was I was going to do those bits.”

    Is it a gamble to purchase tickets for Clay’s Nov. 20-21 performances at the Swinomish Northern Lights Casino? Perhaps, but you’ll never hear his stories from the road as he fights to get back on top unless you roll the dice. Oh, and it probably goes without saying that this particular show may be for the young at heart, but it’s definitely not for kids.