Andrew Dice Clay on ‘Dice’ and How He Pleases Women

It takes approximately two minutes of speaking to Andrew Dice Clay before he starts a routine. “I was just in New York,” he says in the same stentorian, street-tough voice that narrated his filthiest nursery rhymes at a sold-out Madison Square Garden in 1990. “It was so cold. I hate fuckin’ bundling up, like. You know how you got to do it – the fuckin’ scarf with the hat and the bullshit. But, you know, I love New York. I’m a Brooklyn boy.”

Dice is now home in L.A. where it’s close to 90 degrees – a temperature shift he calls his “reward” after facing the Big Apple’s 40-degree blizzard – and he’s in a good mood. This past Sunday his new sitcom, Dice, premiered on Showtime and the first season’s entire six-episode run became available via the network’s on-demand portals. It depicts the shock comic as he’s never allowed anyone to see him before: himself.

Each episode, overseen by creator Scot Armstrong, presents Dice having to come to terms with his onstage persona in various awkward, Curb Your Enthusiasm­–style situations. He not-so-carefully delivers a speech at the wedding of two men. He coaches Adrien Brody on how to play the Dice character as a method actor. He comes to terms with one of his old Brooklyn pals becoming rich and trying to change the dynamic of their friendship. It’s Dice getting his comeuppance and, with a cast that includes Natasha Leggero as his girlfriend, Kevin Corrigan as his best friend “Milkshake” and his real-life sons as his sons whose music career he’s threatening, it’s hilarious.

Clay spoke with Rolling Stone about his onscreen and off-screen identity crises.

What appealed to you about doing Dice?
Well, they brought on Scot Armstrong. He [wrote] some of the few comedies that I love, like Old School, which is one of my absolute favorites. When he sent me the script, I said, “This guy’s got my voice.” I didn’t want him just capturing the guy onstage — I could do that. With Dice, they show all the different levels of where I can go. I’m getting to act scenes. I’m getting to do what I truly like whether it’s vulnerable, whether it’s volatile, whether it’s funny. I came into comedy to become an actor. And then my crazy career happened.

What about the casting appealed to you?
I love Natasha [Leggero]. She’s in my face; she’s like my wife Valerie. I only go with strong women, who have some balls because I’m a lot to handle. I am from Brooklyn. I am loud. I can’t go with a meek personality.

What percentage of the show is actually like your real life?
You know the episode where I’m on the party bus and I get in a fight? The guy’s saying nasty things about Joan Rivers, OK, who I was friends with and I love. That’s based on a true story.