ENTERTAINMENT
I GOING PLACES
RITA CHARLESTON
Special to The Jewish News
WEEK OF DEC. 16-22 'wR
C
omedian Gilbert Gottfried
sometimes startles his audi-
ence with the unthinkable:
"I had dinner the other
night with Charles Manson.
In the middle of the meal he said to
me, 'Gilbert, is it hot in here or am
I crazy?' "
At other times, Gottfried might
break out into an odd combination of
unimaginable impersonations: Elmer
Fudd as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse
Now or Jack Nicholson as Alice in
The Honeymooners.
He's also known for his black-
humor: "I was once on a plane that
crashed in the Andes. But I never ate
a soccer player. Oh sure, I brought one
along just in case."
And no one is surprised if he
throws one in just for the heck of it:
"Back in the 1400s people used to sit
around saying, 'Boy, this is a long
time ago?' "
One of the most innovative and
unusual comics in show business to-
day, Gottfried is anything but your
average stand-up. "That's because the
average stand-up comic is funny," he
laughs.
But, contrary to his appraisal,
Gottfried is as funny as the rest of
them. In fact, once you get past his
strange material and mannerisms,
you realize he's funnier than most.
You'll never hear Gilbert Gott-
fried doing a typical one-liner. His
brain just doesn't seem to work that
way. Instead, he's partial to the off-
beat; ramblings and rantings that
may seem randomly selected but are
actually carefully orchestrated. One
night his list of impressions might in-
clude Lou Costello in Citizen Kane
the next, Chico Marx in 12 Angry
Men.
For Gottfried, no topic is taboo,
from Nazism to Kent State to the
Kennedy ,assassination. Even the
Lindbergh kidnapping: "Charles
Lindbergh told me, 'Gilbert, it's so
hard to get a good sitter these days? "
Finesse is a foreign word to Gott-
fried. And just in case he goes too far,
he supplies his own on-stage critic in
the form of his alter-ego named Mur-
ray — an old man who dons huge
eyeglasses, speaks with a thick Yid-
dish accent, and is the first one to
shatter Gottfried's confidence by ask-
ing, "What kind of joke is this? It's not
funny."
Gottfried was raised in Brooklyn
and says he grew up "wanting to be
a non-entity, a lumberjack and a
brain surgeon," although not
necessarily in that order.
Instead, he began performing
stand-up comedy. as a 16-year-old in
Greenwich Village. Sixteen years
later, Gottfried has perfected a perfor-
COMEDY
COMEDY CASTLE
2593 Woodward, Berkley, Carol
Siskind, today and Saturday;
Tom McGillen, Tuesday through
Dec. 23, admission. 542-9900.
THEATER
Gilbert Gottfried began his comedy career at age 16 in Greenwich Village.
ddball
Comedian Gilbert Gottfried's humor
ranges from black, silly to weird.
mance that is anything but
stereotypical.
He usually opens his act by in-
sisting his audience quiet down and
stop clapping long after the appluase
has ceased. "Stop it! Stop it! Please
stop it!" he cries. "You're getting gid-
dy. And when you get giddy, the next
think you know, you poke somebody's
eye out!"
As many people in the audience
laugh, there are others who look
around obviously perplexed, wonder-
ing what this man, with his eyes
tightly shut, is talking about.
"Lots of people wonder what I'm
talking about," Gottfried admits.
"That's okay. Sometimes, I don't even
know what I'm talking about. I don't
even know where my ideas come from.
I guess if I knew I'd be in severe trou-
ble. It just oozes out- of somewhere."
Does Gottfried admire anyone?
"That's a tough question," he
answers. "Actually, I'm pretty much
in awe of myself most of the time."
Describing himself as short and
Jewish, Gottfried admits he, too, has
noticed an overabundance of Jewish
comics. "Yeah," he chuckles, "I think
Nixon was looking into that at one
point."
Perhaps building on his own
background, Gottfried talks a lot
about Jews in his act. A prime exam-
ple might be when he discusses
Shylock in Merchant in Venice. Says
Gottfried, "People think they should
love Shakespeare because he's anti-
Semitic. It's a common belief that
every great writer has to be anti-
Semitic — Shakespeare, Dostoevsky —
in order to write truly great stuff. So
HILBERRY AND
BONSTELLE THEATERS
Wayne St. University, Detroit,
Romeo and Juliet, now through
Jan. 28; A Christmas Carol, now
through Sunday, admission.
577-2972,
THE THEATER COMPANY
Smith Theater, University of
Detroit, Servant of Two Masters,
now through Sunday, admission.
9274130.
VAN DYKE HOTEL
31800 Van Dyke, Warren, dinner
theater, An Old-Fashioned
Holiday Revue, Saturdays
through Dec. 24, admission.
939-2860.
FISHER THEATRE
Fisher Bldg., Detroit, Lily
Tomlin, "The Search for Signs of
Intelligent Life in the Universe,"
now through Dec. 22, admission.
872-1000.
GREENFIELD VILLAGE
Dearborn, The Wizard of Oz, now
through Dec. 30, admission.
271-1620.
BIRMINGHAM THEATRE
211 S. Woodward, Birmingham,
I'm Not Rappaport, now through
Sunday, admission. 644-3533.
STAGECRAFTERS
415 S. Lafayette, Royal Oak, The
Folley of '45, today through
Saturday, admission. 541-6430.
MUSIC
DETROIT SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Ford Auditorium, Nutracker,
Tuesday through Dec. 31,
admission. 567-1400.
JEWISH COMMUNITY
CENTER
6600 W. Maple, West Bloomfield,
four Israeli performers play
violin, piano, flute and cello,
Tuesday, admission. 661-1000.
ART SHOWS
TROY ART GALLERY
755 W. Big Beaver, Troy,
"Holiday time at Troy Art
Gallery," with gifts of art
available, now through Jan. 7.
362-0112.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
61