Andrew Dice Clay enters the ‘No Spin Zone’
Comedian on his appearance in Woody Allen's new movie
This is a RUSH transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," April 3, 2012. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
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BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: So, you and Woody Allen, both comedians at heart, but total opposites. I mean, he wanted you in this movie.
ANDREW DICE CLAY, ACTOR AND COMEDIAN: Yes, I mean it was like a --
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-- freak thing to me because I get a call from --
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-- my manager, Bruce, going, "Woody Allen wants to meet you tomorrow." And I thought he's teasing me, you know. Because, to me, I would never think Woody would understand what I do.
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CLAY: When she had all that money, she wanted nothing to do with you. Now that she's broke, all of a sudden, she's moving in.
SALLY HAWKINS, ACTRESS: She's not just broke. She's all screwed up. And it's none of your damn business, OK. She's family.
CLAY: She stole our money.
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O'REILLY: So, why did he want you.
CLAY: He saw there was a lot more depth to me than what I do as a stand-up, let's say.
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CLAY: "Excuse me, is this the end of the line." I said, "No, moron. It's the front and we're all standing (bleep) backwards."
(LAUGHTER)
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CLAY: I have to be honest, I'm very humbled by the whole experience and very grateful for it because acting is what I always wanted to do that's why I started and performed on comedy stages to like hone characters and develop my own method of acting.
And it's been a crazy rollercoaster ride. People seem to be very happy with what I've done.
O'REILLY: Good. I've been a big critic of entertainers who sell product to children. And the stuff is raw, profane, disrespectful. And impressionable children pick up on it.
Now, that's a very controversial stance that I've taken. Do you have any feeling about that.
CLAY: Well, you know, my big concern, not so much with comedy and music, is more what goes on with the Internet because that's the easy access to me.
O'REILLY: Right.
CLAY: I mean I'm probably the most vile comic on stage because I -- you know, my persona is a tough-talking Brooklyn guy.
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CLAY: Wait, I've got to feel it. I've got to (bleep) feel it. Shut the (bleep) up.
(LAUGHTER)
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O'REILLY: Why did you decide to be so raw in your act.
CLAY: Well, once I decided to really delve into the stand-up and I would see that a lot of comics don't really understand performance art, meaning walk around, meaning really entertain other than their jokes, to give people a show. I'd put it that way.
It was almost like, "I wanted to put and build a comedic hero."
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CLAY: Jack and Jill went up the hill, both with a buck and a quarter. Jill came down with 2.50, oh!
(LAUGHTER)
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CLAY: When I grew up, I said, "There was never a comic that had that bigger than life, tough-talking attitude.
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And through the years, that's how the material would build. It's almost like --
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-- if you came to see that guy on Broadway, it would be a show.
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But because he's a comic, I went through -- you know, a whole thing with the media for years, you know, "Who's Dice. Who's Andrew Clay."
Well, that's my stage persona. And there'd been others, --
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CLAY: Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce.
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Only they didn't put the whole persona with it. They didn't put the big leather jackets with --
O'REILLY: Yes.
CLAY: -- the studs and the rhinestones. And I really just wanted to give people something like a -- almost like from a comic book, a hero.
O'REILLY: If somebody came to you and said, "You know what, you're talented and you were very successful. You became the hottest stand-up in the country at one point, but you've coarsened the country." How would you answer that.
CLAY: Well, I don't feel I did because the people coming to see me are adult, you know. And it's all about the jokes, you know.
But what was made out of it years ago is not what it is today. Because even my material today, it's just as raw, and I like performing like that, it's who I am as a comic.
O'REILLY: Success justifies that criticism.
CLAY: It's not about justifying. It's about people wanting something, you know. If you want PG stuff, there's plenty of it out there.
O'REILLY: Last question. Woody Allen and you on the set, he's a remote guy. He doesn't deal with actors that much.
He kind of just comes in and tells you what to do, you do it, and he says, "See you around."
CLAY: Wait, you know what it is, Woody does his directing, casting the parts.
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O'REILLY: Right.
CLAY: It's almost like, "All right, that's my direction.
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I got the perfect person to play that role."
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CLAY: Believe me, she knew Ginger, OK. She knew.
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CLAY: I am just absolutely grateful that I finally got to do the kind of role that I've been wanting to do for 20 years.
O'REILLY: All right, Mr. Clay, nice to see you as always.
CLAY: Great to see you.
O'REILLY: OK.
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