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Date: 1/21/2020
Interviewing comedian, actor and podcaster Gilbert Gottfried is an experience that is full of laughter. He makes you laugh, and if you say something even remotely funny, Gottfried will burst out into laughter himself. He is a great audience.
Gottfried will be appearing Jan. 31 at East Mountain Country Club in Westfield. Tickets are $60 and include a buffet dinner, opening acts and Gottfried’s show. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets and information are available at eastmountaincc.com.
Gottfried, now 64, has been performing standup since he was 15 years old and has been a constant pop culture presence in comedy clubs, TV, motion pictures and podcasting during that time. A recent documentary about his life, “Gilbert,” received rave reviews and provided amazing insight into his life and career.
He has become known for pushing the comedy envelope as far as any comedian and will make jokes about almost anything.
In a telephone interview with Reminder Publishing, Gottfried said that when it comes to on-the-edge humor, “Sometimes I think twice, but then I do it anyway.” He readily admitted that the more taboo a subject is, the more he is attracted to it.
Gottfried created a controversy over some gags after the tsunami that hit Japan, causing an atomic accident at a power plant. He lost a lucrative voice-over job with Aflac over the incident.
“I’ve never learned my lesson,” he said with his trademark laugh. He then expressed concern that if he didn’t regularly get in trouble it might mean “I’m losing my edge.”
I asked my Facebook friends to contribute questions that I could ask Gottfried; one person asked who were Gottfried’s favorite comedians. The response was swift and definitive: “I hate all other comedians because they are taking food out of my mouth.”
Naturally the remark was punctuated with his laugh.
Regular listeners to his podcast know that Gottfried is a student of comedy who holds special reverence for the Marx Brothers among others.
His movie-watching as child in New York City greatly influenced his taste.
“When I was growing up the greatest film school in the country was in your living room,” he said, referring to the movies from the 1930s and ‘40s that were regularly broadcast on local TV.
He recalled how one station had all of the classic horror films – Gottfried has frequently expressed his love for Lon Chaney, Jr. – while another had gangster films.
He has had a considerable career as an actor, – his IMBD pages lists 168 credits as an actor – performing character parts in everything from comedies such as “Problem Child” and “Beverly Hills Cop II” to dramatic roles on shows such as “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
“I like acting,” he said. “I’m one of those pretentious comics who thinks I could do ‘King Lear.’”
He explained that dramatic roles attract comedians “because drama is looked upon as more valued than comedy.” He observed that comedy doesn’t get the same attention at the Academy Awards as drama.
“Comedy is harder,” he said. “Getting a laugh is hard. A lot of times in drama, you tilt your head the right way, you look sad.”
He said there should be a dramatic school called “Bag of Tricks” that would train people to do those little tricks.
Gottfried noted with pride that he co-stared with Ryan Gosling when he was a child actor in an episode of the TV show “Are You Afraid of the Dark.” He said subsequently People Magazine named both him and Gosling as the “Sexiest Man in the World.”
The idea of being awarded this title sent him into a fit of laughter.
Gottfried has carved out a long career in animation performing the voices for a variety of characters. Perhaps his best-known role is that of Iago in the animated Disney film “Aladdin.” When asked which bird character he liked the most, Iago the parrot or the Aflac Duck, Gottfried noted the duck didn’t end well and “the parrot in Aladdin never complained.”
He has been heard in recurring roles such as Digit in “Cyberchase,” as Mr. Mxyzptlk on the “Superman” series and in the 2016 “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series as Kraang Sub-Prime.
A memorable role from the 1990s was that of Jerry the Bellybutton Elf on “Ren and Stimpy.” Gottfried said the role was originally intended for the late Jerry Lewis, but apparently he was not available. Gottfried added some Lewis touches to the performance.
Another question from Facebook involved his being a cast member on “Saturday Night Live.” Gottfried was a member of the cast that came after the first iconic cast that included John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd.
The reception to the new cast was not very good, he remembered. “It was if they had changed the entire cast of ‘Friends,’” he said.
He added, “People already hated the show [because of the different cast]. Once it was on the air we gave them a reason.”
Gottfried said the show’s writers didn’t like him very much and recalled in one sketch he had to play the corpse at a funeral.
Every week, he and comedy writer and historian Frank Santopadre present “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast,” (https://www.gilbertpodcast.com/) which features interviews with a wide variety of entertainers, directors, producer and writers. Recent guest have included Marilu Henner, Kenny Loggins, Mario Cantone and Marsha Mason.
When asked about who are the guests he is seeking to have on his podcast but hasn’t yet booked, Gottfried said he didn’t want to talk about them.
“If I mention them it puts a jinx on them,” he said with his laugh.
That laugh is well known to his fans, as is his distinctive voice. Gottfried is well known for delivery. When asked how that evolved he explained that there was no effort on his part to actively develop the sound, but rather from many nights – “millions of times” – of performing “it’s what I turned into.”
He added, “I never gave it a thought.”