By Barbara Hoffman New York Post, Page Six October 28, 2016
“I’ve always been kind of an idiot savant,” Gilbert Gottfried tells The Post. “Well, more idiot than savant. I was one of those people who always remembered the names of character actors and makeup men.” That gift goes back to elementary school in Brooklyn, when his teacher threw out initials, asking students to name the celebrity — as in BH for Bob Hope. One day the initials were “OS,” and young Gilbert shrieked, “Onslow Stevens!”
“I’ve always been kind of an idiot savant,” Gilbert Gottfried tells The Post. “Well, more idiot than savant. I was one of those people who always remembered the names of character actors and makeup men.” That gift goes back to elementary school in Brooklyn, when his teacher threw out initials, asking students to name the celebrity — as in BH for Bob Hope. One day the initials were “OS,” and young Gilbert shrieked, “Onslow Stevens!”
“He was an old character actor,” says Gottfried, 61, “but everybody turned around and looked at me, like, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ ”
Trivia has served the comedian well: Since 2014, he’s hosted “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast!,” a weekly celebration of old-time TV and film. On Tuesday at Carolines, he’ll record a podcast with Whoopi Goldberg, a friend from his “Hollywood Squares” days.
“I remember watching the show thinking, ‘This must be the bottom of the barrel of show business,’ ” says Gottfried, who nevertheless found himself in one of those squares in 1998, squawking, “You fool!” at unwary contestants.
He’s far gentler with the actors, comedians and writers he interviews for his podcast, people Gottfried admires and is often surprised by. “Adam West, TV’s original Batman, said he and Frank Gorshin, who played the Riddler, were once kicked out of an orgy together,” Gottfried says. “I think because they weren’t taking it too seriously.”
From Sonny Fox, host of the ’60s children’s show “Wonderama,” Gottfried expected stories about “cute kids”; instead, Fox recalled his time as a prisoner of war in WWII. And actress Lee Grant told how, just when she started to become famous, she asked the mayor of Los Angeles to let her shave a few years off her driver’s license: “And I guess the mayor was a fan of hers, because he let her do it!”
Most of Gottfried’s guest list skews old — sometimes fatally so.
“We were after Jack Carter, the stand-up comedian, and he agreed to do it, but then he died,” Gottfried says. “When we were first forming this [podcast], I was going to call it ‘The Before It’s Too Late Show!’ ”
( I have become a big fan of podcasts since I dropped cable. I listen to a couple of comedy ones all the time. Anthony Cumia because we have the same world view. Bob Kelly's "You Know What Dude" because he has all the new comedians on that you never heard of but will be famous in another year or too. He is a lot like Opie and Anthony used to be by introducing new really funny guys. Gottfried is hit or miss but when he is on it is hilarious. Joe Rogan and Jay Mohr both do really good interview podcasts. Now most of them require that you sign up and pay a monthly fee which is crazy. You can see the best of them on Youtube and not pay anything. I am tied of paying through the nose for entertainment. The only one I pay for is Cumia because I want to support what he is doing. The others I follow through Youtube. It is an excellent alternative to cable or satellite radio or some other very costly addiction. When you add the subscriptions to Hulu, Netflicks and Amazon Prime I get everything I need for about $25 instead of $135 that cable cost me.)
6 comments:
"Detectors" was so good we decided to watch two episodes instead of just one. We had planned on stretching things out because there are only 13 episodes, total, according to Wikipedia.
Anyway, that came to mind because of "asking students to name the celebrity." In one of the episodes, they went to the pub for quiz night. The MC didn't know (or care about) the difference between astronomy and astrology.
Our team did poorly.
I thought Gilbert was up there in my age bracket but apparently he's a youngster like Sixty and Troop.
I listened to that podcast with Sonny Fox when I was still on Twitter. I followed Gottfried (German for fried God) But I didn't know who Sonny Fox is. Still don't. It is a very good interview. And Gottfried really does know a lot of that type of stuff. And he still is the best Aflac duck. And what good is a joke if it's not in poor taste? Not funny, that's what.
* I was talking to my Japanese real estate agent and asked him there's a school in the area (you can see where this is going) and he said, "No, but just wait. One will be floating by soon enough."
* I asked a Japanese girl to have sex with me. She said, "Sure. But you have to sleep in the wet spot."
* I fucked a girl in Japan and she said, "I feel the earth move and my feet are getting wet."
* Japan is really advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them.
* I just split up with my Japanese girlfriend. But like the Japanese say, "There'll be another one floating by any minute."
* My Japanese doctor told me to stay healthy and drink 50 million gallons of water a day.
* What do Japanese people have in every apartment? Flood lights.
* My book was released in Japan. It made quite a splash.
* Japan called me today and told me, "You know those jokes of yours might be funny in the U.S. but over here they're all sinking.
What? Too soon? Come on! That shit is funny. And they fired him. As if Aflac didn't know what they were getting when they hired him. As if they hadn't seen any of his standup. He's hilariously evil. Because you just want to punch the rotten little shit or throw your drink at him. It's who he is.
See? His mind just rifted on anything wet, any common phrase or saying, axiom or addage with the word flood, damp, moist, float, sink, shake, tremble, splash, swim, sink, water, storm, and link it with Japan. Boom, he's fired for being too sick and too inconsiderate.
* I decided to take up surfboarding in Japan but I didn't expect the surfboard to be somebody's house.
* I took up learning Japanese language but just wanted to get my feet wet, not the full immersion.
* The picture on our box of salt says when it rains it pours, but in Japan their soy sauce label says when it sprinkles it floods the whole city.
* My Japanese girlfriend told me to go down to the basement and bring up a package of tuna and then handed me a speargun.
* I went out to my Japanese girlfriends mailbox to pick up her mail but the tide took it out.
* I asked my Japanese accountant what my bank account looked like and he said we're a bit underwater.
* My Japanese girlfriend is very naïve. I told her, "You know, you're really wet behind the ears."
Like that. Except more professional.
While I agree that cable is a totally useless rip-off, for a guy with a net worth in the millions, what a cheapskate.
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