Interview: Andrew "Dice" Clay

Andrew "Dice" Clay headlines the Nokia Theater Times Square on Friday, January 16. Tickets are still available here.

"Me and my wife broke up in 2002 but since then I've gone through 26 mattresses. It's like these beds can't take a beating. And these chicks aren't even fat."

Andrew "Dice" Clay, the loud-mouthed, MTV-banned comedian who's been mostly M.I.A for more than a decade since his starring role in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (not ringing a bell, right?), is starting to play nice, sort of. After his failed 2007 reality show Dice: Undisputed, Clay's touring again--he comes to the Nokia Theater on Friday, January 16--and in March he'll be on the latest season of Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice.

We recently spoke with the self-proclaimed "undisputed heavyweight comedy king of the universe," who talked about what he's been up to, his kids, and going through 26 mattresses in seven years. We're not calling this a comeback, but the Diceman sure is. --Araceli Cruz

What have you been up for the past ten years?

These past ten years have been a crazy ten years. I went through an awful divorce. When me and the wife split, it was more than an obligation I felt to bring up the kids than worry about career moves. I wanted to raise them [14 year old Dillon and 18 year old Max] and they turned out to be spectacular boys. They were touring with me this summer. They have the band L.A Rocks. They're the Guns N' Roses version of the White Stripes.

Your kids are pretty tame, right? Compared to you of course.

As people, they're very clean-cut, nice kids. My 18 year old Max is doing stand up already. The way they are is completely different from what they perform. They follow their own career instead of what their father has done. My image as a rock comic, let's say, is a big image. It's flashy and it is like rock-and-roll, but that's not who they want to be. My son is a comic and I say he's almost like Seinfeld. But with an edge.

Didn't you have some beef with Jerry Seinfeld?

Seinfeld, I think, is phenomenal. If I had to pick a comic that is one of the best in the clean genre I would say Seinfeld. The thing is, years ago, I had a problem with him. What happened was that when my career took off, all these comics that I knew wanted to steal the spotlight for three-and-half seconds and were bad-mouthing me. These were the same guys that I'd sit down at the diner with and have coffee and guys I started out with. But this was many years ago... you know, he's [since] apologized.

But I respect people that reach that potential. Anybody can do something good once, but I've had a tremendous rollercoaster ride. But to get this kind of resurgence...and I'm not supposed to say certain things, but selling a book, and having that book turn into a gigantic movie with gigantic actor who wants to portray Dice--and I mean that's a big deal.