Arts 1; Ente tainment Big Screen/Small Screen He began performing stand-up at age 15; by 1991, he was a regular on Saturday Night Live, although the show's 100-hour work week and rock `n' roll lifestyle almost killed him. "After four years, I found myself in the hospital with kidney stones, a bro- ken ankle, staples in my throat from thyroid surgery and tubes everywhere," the 40-year-old said. "I had to make sure to get out of bed in time to get into the wheelchair to make it to the toilet." Promoting Tolerance Rob Schneider: 'I know for a fact Deuce Bigalow is circumcised — because I am." Half-Jewish, part-Filipino comic Rob Schneider's "Deuce" is wild again. NAOMI PFEFFERMAN Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles I ni 8/25 2005 40 n his grossout-doofus comedies, Rob Schneider plays the ultimate shlimazel He gets pummeled, maced, urinated on and tossed about like a hirsute rag doll. Expect no reprieve in his return as America's favorite prosti-dude in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, now in theaters and the sequel to 1999's sleeper success Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. Besides the requisite physical abuse, the "he-ho" will again service "Janes," such as a giantess who dresses him in a diaper and an accident victim with a male appendage in lieu of a nose. It's the kind of raunch-fest made famous by Schneider's mentor and pro- ducer, Adam Sandler, although Sandler's persona is more class clown than class wimp. Both performers have been lambasted for their juvenile, belch-ridden films, but Schneider also has been attacked for turning himself into a human punching bag. Yet, like Sandler, he is among a handful of comics (think Mike Myers) who star in their own name-above-the-title films. As to why he plays a shlimazel, a loser who's the butt of every joke, the actor — who is half-Jewish and part Filipino — said he relates to the underdog. "I love how directors used Jimmy Stewart as an Everyman, • so I like to play a guy who's slightly less than the Everyman," he added. He identifies with Deuce because "things just end up happening to him and he thinks it's going to be great, and it's always horrible," he said. "He imagines his life would be better if he just had this or that, but the way he tries to get it, he makes his situation way worse, and he has to struggle and scrape to barely get back to where he was in the beginning." Jewish Humor The self-deprecating, affable Schneider could be describing his own life — at least until Bigalow grossed more than $100 million. Even Schneider's forebears experi- enced Deuce-worthy humiliation: His maternal grandfather, an Army private, was unceremoniously shipped off to the Philippines after bedding his cap- tain's wife. There, he married a native woman. Their daughter, Pilar, eventu- ally moved to San Francisco; as presi- dent of a club for single parents in 1961, she snatched up and wed the group's only male member, Marvin Schneider, a real estate broker. Because Marvin was a secular Jew who loved comedy, the Judaism in Rob's childhood home focused prima- rily on humor: Mel Brooks' comedy albums and joke-telling at Uncle Norm's. The Jewish humor provided a sur- vival tool for Rob, an anxious child with a stammer that made the girls snicker. "One day, the kids were laughing at me, and I told a stupid joke but it killed, and I've been the funny guy ever since," he said. Four months later, he quit the show; his new work — playing repulsive side- kicks in bad movies — placed him, fig- uratively, "in the career toilet," he said. "I was the least likely person you'd ever expect to become a movie star," he said. That was until his Saturday Night Live buddy Sandler cast him in nine of his own highly successful films and bankrolled Deuce in 1999. The film was inspired by Paul Schrader's American Gigolo, wherein supermodel Lauren Hutton hires an escort, "which was ridiculous," Schneider said. 'Any woman can walk into a bar and get a guy. So I thought, `If there were women who truly needed gigolos, they'd have gigantic feet or have uncontrollable swearing syndrome, and it would be nice if there was a sweet guy who tried to make them feel good about themselves.'" The sequel takes Deuce to Amsterdam, where prostitution is legal, but all the "high-class" gigolos are being murdered. During production there, Schneider peeled off his magenta threads to visit the Anne Frank house, a sober pilgrimage he makes every time he's in Amsterdam. "To me, Anne Frank is the human face of the Holocaust," he said. While critics have denounced his films as demeaning of unattractive women, Schneider insists he uses laughter to advocate tolerance. A Los Angeles Times reviewer agreed in 1999 when he wrote that Deuce "encourages adolescents to respect the dignity of all persons, even the height and weight challenged." Schneider said his persecuted charac- ter couldn't help but have Jewish blood. He added, laughing: "I know for a fact Deuce Bigalow is circumcised — because I am." ❑ Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, is playing in area theaters.