Even by today’s standards Bobcat Goldthwait is a genius stand up comedy act…
When he did Johnny Dare last year, even Johnny – who sees them all – said, “You blew me away dude, you are one of the all-time best.”
The guy is much more than just one of the stars from Police Academy 2,3 and 4.
The man has had a fantastic career.
Bobcat was on David Letterman at age 20. He went on to be a comedy star and film star in movies like SCROOGED, BLOW (“I can’t feel my face”), SHAKES THE CLOWN and many more. He did HBO Specials and then became a director in the 90’s. Bobcat directed the Chappelle Show, The Man Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live and films like Windy City Heat for Comedy Central and his new one GOD BLESS AMERICA, which has gotten rave reviews. It’s a dark comedy that’s out now.
Bobcat continues to do voices for shows like The Simpsons, he also did voices on Dr. Katz and Beavis and Butthead. The guy never stops working. He even played a dog on the “Happily Ever After” television series.
His standup is pure comedic joy.
Many people don’t know what to expect, thinking he’s that strange voiced man from Police Academy. But he’s a brilliant thinker, more like a George Carlin.
Bob and I have worked together for many years. In fact the Bobcat and Pauly Shore were the first two Hollywood stars I had on stage at the Chiefs Red Fridays in Westport in the late 90’s. Bob played Westport, OP and the Legends once about a year ago.
We even hung out in Vegas a few years back with Tommy Chong when the two of them headlined the Riviera Hotel. Bobcat also hates when I do my radio schtick, he wants to do his thing, not mine. I understand that.
Hey, I love listening to his stories and comedy – it kills me.
Bobcat will make a weekend stop at Stanford and Sons Legends this Friday and Saturday.
It’s a chance to see one of the best veteran talents in the biz.
Bob does a KILLER impersonation of Bono.
Like Gilbert Gottfried, he seems to be one of those love him or hate him-type comedians. I always liked Bobcat, his Godzilla bit in One Crazy Summer cracks me up everytime, but sadly, God Bless America could have been so much more than it was. I really wanted to like this film, but what should have been really biting, social commentary just turns into a wearisome, one-joke montage of violence. Done much better with Michael Douglas in the Joel Schumacher-directed Falling Down. Still applaud the effort and worth seeing, I guess, but in my Jack-like review, I would only give it 2 out of 4 stars as what starts out promising, quickly peters out and grows tiresome.
“World’s Greatest Dad” was great though.
Speaking of Gottfried, ever seen him tell “The Aristocrats” joke? I nearly have a siezure everytime I see/hear him do it. It’s the foulest, most offensive, yet hilarious joke ever.
Gilbert gives the Aristocrats a nice spin, but my favorites are Drew Carey and Bob Saget.
Check Gilbert out on the Comedy Central Roast of Roseanne Barr. He KILLS!
I’ve always like Gilbert as well. Glazer might be able to speak better to this, but amazingly enough, they say he’s really revered by other comics. And yes, his bit during the Hugh Hefner roast with the 9/11 joke leading into The Aristocrats joke and subsequently the whole movie, is pretty effing great.
Give Bob some credit, his budget was not 45 million like the Douglas picture…I enjoyed most of Falling Down..hey where did you think..’THINK ABOUT IT’ came from….’yeah all the jews these babies killed, think about it…’ The hock shop, military store scene…great piece.
No knock, Craig, just think that Falling Down did a better overall job as a social commentary. And maybe that was due somewhat to Douglas as the main character and having a more polished film director (although I’m not really a fan of most of Schumacher’s work) but budget differences shouldn’t have affected the message Bob was trying to get across. I think Bob’s film had great intentions and he pulled off some of what he was trying to say, just feel it fell a little short as it all sort of petered out during the last half.
PB, again good points. I do think the budget matters at that level, 35 to 40 million over the less than one million Bobcat had to work with, however yes they make pretty much the same point…twenty years apart…odd, huh.
Bobcat had another great weekend, everyone very much enjoyed his stand up at Stanfords, Friday shows were not totally sold out….due to our pals the Chiefs huge following on TV, but Saturday was…so overall a nice weekend.
Bobcat is now a cutting edge small budget director with yet another film coming out this fall/winter, a scary one like Blair Witch…his sounds much better, it will likely make him a pile of dough…he will follow that maybe with a studio picture….he sure has it in him…hope to have him back in a year or so for more standup at Stanfords.
glaze whats the deal…ralphies at the midland…how did you lose that deal…
i thought he played last time at your place….did he want too much money
or did he want a bigger venue.
We were one of the last clubs he played, he was already doing theaters at that time last year…hey he wants to do more money in one night, then a few days…when you our club or most clubs, its lower pay, more nights, radio and so on…comics want to do bigger venues for the money and prestige of saying I am only a THEATRE OR STADIUM entertainer, or big show rooms in Vegas…they all want to be Larry, Jerry or Lewis…its the next step up from comedy clubs, its a pain in our ass cause we build some of these guys and there is no real payback…we built Jim Jefferies in the midwest and now he has gone exclusive to theaters, its just the biz….TJ Miller may be an exception he wants to always come back, he can also sell out big rooms, but he is already well to do and so far doesn’t care, two series and tons of movies, he is not insecure about it, but he is a rare breed…I thought Jim would always stop in, now not so sure, its the fame game….Ralphie is no different..I wish him well