10 Questions For Rodney Dangerfield

Oct

ogenarian Rodney Dangerfield has headlined Vegas showrooms, appeared on countless TV shows and made more than a dozen films, ranging from Caddyshack to Natural Born Killers. Now he has written his autobiography, It's Not Easy Bein' Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs. Jeffrey Ressner talked to Dangerfield at his Los Angeles home, where the comedian is still wisecracking after undergoing brain surgery last year.

YOU'RE 82 YEARS OLD AND MARRIED TO A MUCH YOUNGER WOMAN. HOW'S YOUR SEX LIFE? I tell you, my sex life today is the same as when I was a kid in my 20s. I never got anything then either.

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YOUR NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY DELVES INTO YOUR EXTREME FONDNESS FOR MARIJUANA. DO YOU STILL SMOKE POT? Once in a while, yeah. It still relaxes me. You get a different head because of your age, but not because of the pot. Marijuana should definitely be legal. Booze is a hundred times worse. Marijuana makes you passive — the last thing you want to do when you're high is have a fight.

BACK IN THE DAY, YOU KNEW LENNY BRUCE. AND TODAY YOU OCCASIONALLY APPEAR ON HOWARD STERN'S SHOW. DO YOU THINK THERE'S SUCH A THING AS CROSSING THE LINE IN COMEDY? I guess you can do that if you do an insulting ethnic joke or something like that. I work blue, very blue, you know. But I'm also working in Vegas for an all-adult audience. Sometimes I see parents walking out of the show with their kids who are, like, 10 years old.

YOU ONCE QUIT COMEDY FOR 12 YEARS TO SELL ALUMINUM SIDING IN NEW JERSEY. DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING SELLING SIDING THAT HELPED WHEN YOU WENT BACK TO COMEDY? No, but I learned something about selling things from doing comedy. In both fields, the most important ingredient is, you've gotta be liked. Whether you're selling aluminum siding or going onstage, you gotta make 'em like you and believe you.

YOU'VE GOT ONE OF THE LONGEST-RUNNING NIGHTCLUBS, DANGERFIELD'S. HOW DID YOUR CLUB MANAGE TO SURVIVE WHEN SO MANY OTHER COMEDY CLUBS SHUT THEIR DOORS? The smorgasbord. No, seriously, it's an old-fashioned nightclub, it's comfortable, it's run right. We have a lot of high schools that hold their proms there.

IN 1995, YOU BECAME ONE OF THE FIRST ENTERTAINERS TO START A WEBSITE. WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT THE INTERNET? I knew right away it would transform communication. It's a tremendous thing to be able to communicate with your fans. I can ask questions and get answers right away.

ONSTAGE YOU'RE ALWAYS TUGGING AT YOUR TIE. WHERE DID THAT GESTURE COME FROM? It came naturally. One night my collar was too tight, and I started doing it and just kept doing it. I have a problem with clothes — I never know what to wear. So I wear the same thing at every show: a black suit, white shirt and red tie. I can't be bothered trying to figure out if this color goes with that one.

DO YOU THINK BEING DEPRESSED IS AN OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD FOR A COMEDIAN? That's the way it is; what can I tell you? The better the comedian, the more depressed he is. When I was 15, I tried to escape being unhappy by writing jokes. So, yeah, it's possible that comedy is an escape from depression.

FOX TELEVISION RECENTLY BOUGHT THE RIGHTS TO YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY. WHOM WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE PLAY YOU? Brad Pitt couldn't do it. He's not built like me. I like Steve Buscemi. He'd need a lot of makeup, but when he's onscreen you're always looking at him. I also like Paul Giamatti, who was in American Splendor.

YOU'RE A CULTURAL ICON. DO YOU FEEL AS IF YOU'VE FINALLY GOT SOME RESPECT? Maybe other people feel that way. I don't picture myself as anything. I could never be a big shot. When I go into a hotel and a bellhop grabs my bag, I feel like I should be carrying it. I'm just one of the masses. I know that people like me, but I don't lay it on so much.