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# Andrew Dice Clay Recalls First Performance At Sheepshead’s Pips Comedy Club
- URL: https://bklyner.com/andrew-dice-clay-recalls-first-performance-sheepsheads-pips-comedy-club-sheepshead-bay/
- Published: 2014-11-12T21:02:21.000Z
- Updated: 2014-11-12T21:02:21.000Z
- Author: Ned Berke
- Tags: andrew dice clay, andrew silverstein, Celebrities, comedy, famous residents, history, pips comedy club, #API-Imported

![AndrewDiceClayOfficial.com](/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/dice.jpg)

AndrewDiceClayOfficial.com

On the eve of the[ release of his new memoir](http://www.amazon.com/Filthy-Truth-Andrew-Dice-Clay/dp/1476734712/ref=sr%5F1%5F1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1414602620&sr=1-1&keywords=andrew+dice+clay&ref=bklyner.com), Sheepshead Bay native Andrew Dice Clay[ sat down with the Village Voice](http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2014/11/andrew%5Fdice%5Fclay%5Fmemoir%5Finterview.php?ref=bklyner.com) and recounted how he got his start in comedy.

The foul-mouthed comedian never intended to be a funnyman; he was a theater geek aiming to be an actor. But to warm up to the stage, he decided to tackle what he called “the toughest club in the country” – Sheepshead Bay’s Pips Comedy Club, formerly on Emmons Avenue.

Here’s what he said about the 1978 experience, and how it led Andrew Silverstein to become the Diceman:

> That night would change my life. September 13, 1978\. When I went on for the first time at Pips, that became my home until I came out to L.A. But I was very prepared to go on at Pips because I came up as a musician, as a drummer, and singer and entertainer. I was more into theater, so when I was thinking about getting on a comedy stage, it was more about having an act already. I didn’t want to “go up there and see what happens,” and I prepared a certain kind of act. I would come onstage as Jerry Lewis’s character from The Nutty Professor and take my magic formula, and turn into the John Travolta character from Grease.

> At the time, Travolta was just the biggest star in the world. I mean, he was coming off the heels of \[Saturday Night\] Fever. We’d resembled each other since he was in Welcome Back, Kotter. We really looked similar; I could do a dead-on Travolta. But when I saw Grease at the Brighton theater in Brighton Beach and I saw him sing and dance, I said, “I have the act. I know what I can do.”

To perfect the act, Dice rehearsed at Kings Highway’s Fly Studios, then watched *Grease* and *Fever* over and over again, jotting down notes on the dance cues. He continues:

> And that night when I went on at Pips, I came onstage as Jerry Lewis. My whole family was there: my parents, my sister, my grandmother, my friend Johnny. It was amateur night, and when I went on as the Nutty Professor, they’re booing me because I’m this nerd: “Get the fuck off the stage!”

> But the club owner knew when to shut the light when I was doing my transition, took my magic formula. When I turned around as Travolta, they went ballistic, like it was Travolta. They were throwing tables over. You talk about a 90-seat club, with the air conditioning right in the ceiling: the toughest club in the country to play. When that would click on it was like a tractor going on. And I got hired to headline that weekend. The owners come over and they go, “Who’s your manager?” I look over at my father and go, “He is.” And that was it. I never came offstage for 10 years, until I made it.

Apparently, the comedian, who will also play a ’70s radio-station magnate in an upcoming Martin Scorsese series for HBO, feels Brooklyn is even worse than the bad, old days of the 1970s.

> Brooklyn was a different world back then, and today it’s even worse. ‘Cause today it’s more bullies. That’s all you read about. And I always hated bullies. I wasn’t a bully in any way. I was tough, I could fight, but I wasn’t with the 15 guys coming over to one guy to terrorize him and kick him in the face. I hate that attitude.

Anyone remember Dice from the old ‘hood? Tell us about his performances at Pips!