Spade’s sarcasm still has bite
Ex-SNLer keeping busy with movies, books and touring with ‘clownterage’
If there is one consistent feature to the characters comedian David Spade has created, it’s their razorsharp sarcasm. Whether firing off barbs as viper-tongued executive assistant Dennis Finch in Just Shoot Me or performing in skits on Saturday Night Live, the man has a way with his deadpan delivery.
To some degree, he shares this with his former SNL castmate Adam Sandler. The idea of the two appearing onstage together trading barbs at the Orpheum Theatre is no hard thing to imagine.
But Rob Schneider is also on the bill with Sandler and Spade. Where does Deuce Bigelow, Male Gigolo fit in?
“We actually gang up on Rob the most, no matter who else is on the bill,” said Spade. “He’s just such an easy target walking around backstage like a Sherpa wearing six coats and carrying a bag of jelly beans, vitamins, bark from a tree, telling you what to do to be vegetarian and healthy without getting shots. We have our very own Jenny McCarthy.”
Spade goes on, listing the yoga mat and more, proving that one feature of crafting his particular brand of wit is to be hyper-observant of everything around you to bring it up with expert recall when it suits the gag. He says that working with all of his old SNL mates — Norm Macdonald and Tim Meadows also have been guests on Sandler’s shows — means that there is always a comfort level coming into the show. That suits him just fine, too.
“The truth is standup is really hard because you are going from Houston to Windsor to somewhere in South Carolina and everywhere else by yourself and it’s really lonely,” he said. “When we are out together, it’s much easier. When I’m with Adam and Schneids, we can tell jokes and keep it lighter. It really always depends on what our shooting schedules and other requirements are when the call comes in.”
Most recently, Spade did a “little bit” on a show called The Mayor, which got canned after five episodes. This is the reality of the business for those with winning track records and beginners alike and Spade says that’s why it’s common to keep a lot of things on the go at once.
“I’m presently putting together something like a showbiz type of show about social media and if it happens, that’s next after a Netflix film coming in June about getting into a fight with my son’s best friend’s dad,” he said. “It’s stupid, fun and I actually fight, which is weird. But after that, there is the standup and I think I might write another book.”
David Spade is Almost Interesting: The Memoir was published by Harper Collins and was well reviewed. Spade says that it was a different place to come from than writing for skits or films. It was one of the hardest projects he had done to date.
“I’m not going to go with a ghostwriter or even an editor that might make rewrites or suggestions because it just didn’t feel real,” he said. “But the thing is books are incredibly long and I’m used to far shorter word counts. At one point, I was at around 18,000 words and I handed it in feeling really great and then the publisher explained, “No, we need 80,000.” It took me a while, but the second one is almost done.”
Conversely, doing the audio recording of the book for people was old hat. Spade admits he was somewhat unfamiliar with the whole audiobook thing. But it felt like recording “a really, really long standup” and came easily. He likes the whole idea of someone enjoying the chapters while they go quietly insane in L.A. traffic or the equivalent.
“Maybe I’ll go right to audio for the next one because we sold an unusual amount of those the last time around,” he said. “That might be just right for me.”
Given his connection to Sandler and that comic’s contract to produce feature films for Netflix, Spade is likely to appear in a lot of upcoming films like he did as General Custer in the 2015 Sandler and Tim Herlihy feature The Ridiculous 6.
“It’s so busy right now that way and I hear that Vancouver is booming and a really great place to work,” he said. “I’ve only been there once before at a casino show, but I expect I may be up there working sometime soon. Or I guess I’ll be playing Grand Forks, where my friend’s parents live.”
These days, when he’s out of town, he locks his home down like a vault. Last year, he was one of the many victims of the “Hollywood burglaries,” which saw everyone from Kendall Jenner and Chris Brown getting hit by criminals the police described as “pros.”
“Oh yeah, they had the cameras and alarms cut, were in my home, stole my entire safe and a lot of other stuff and now it’s waiting to see when those rare one-of-a-kind photos or other mementoes go up for sale. It’s really, really uncomfortable to imagine someone coming into your place that easily and — honestly — makes you feel somewhat unsafe for all the security.”
The cops did make him laugh on the scene.
“The asked me, ‘Do you know anyone who might need some money?’ ” he said. “I was, like ‘In my clownterage of friends? Next question.’ ”
Once again, he never misses the chance to fire one off.