Gottfried back in S.F. as film gets raves
There were quite a few people trying to build the momentum for “Gilbert,” an upcoming film about the life of comedian Gilbert Gottfried.
But Gilbert Gottfried was not among them.
“The filmmaker, Neil Berkeley, came to me and said, ‘I’ve always dreamed of doing a Gilbert Gottfriend documentary,’ ” Gottfried remembers. “And I said, ‘You should set your dreams a lot higher than that.’ ”
Gottfried, who is set to
perform four shows at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 13-14, was trending in the wrong direction a few years ago, when a few controversial tweets in the wake of a tsunami in Japan seemed ready to sink his career for good.
But he has bounced back to his greatest popularity since the early 1990s, voicing Jared Kushner on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver,” cohosting a popular podcast, and now starring in a documentary based on his life, which is expected to open in November in the Bay Area.
“Gilbert” tells Gottfried’s life story, including his rise as a comic, conflicting career niches as a quick-to-offend standup and the voice of a popular Disney character, and his surprise turn from confirmed bachelor to bedtime story reading fatherhood.
But the entertainment is in the details. Comedian friends including Bill Burr and Anthony Jeselnik speak lovingly of Gottfried’s cheapness, as illustrated by scenes of the multimillionaire washing his socks in a sink and then taking hotel soaps and slippers home with him — storing the freebies in giant tubs under his bed.
Gottfried is a quirky presence in “Gilbert,” but also endearing when seen with his wife, Dara Kravitz, and children. Throughout the film, which has received raves this year on the festival circuit, fellow stand-up comedians speak with admiration about his willingness to push comedy envelopes at risk to his career.
Gottfried appreciates the tributes. Still, he describes the filming of “Gilbert” as pure misery.
“I hated every second of him following me,” Gottfried says. “I’ve seen the film a few times, and I hate sitting there watching it. It’s gotten terrific reviews, but to me, watching my own life is like something you do when you die and go to hell.”
The center of that hell arrived in 2011, after a series of controversial Twitter dispatches by Gottfried in the wake of a Japanese tsunami (“I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, “They’ll be another one floating by any minute now”) got him fired from his most lucrative job voicing the Aflac insurance company duck.
Gottfried says comedy gigs also were canceled, including at least one in San Francisco.
But the gigs eventually returned, and now he says fans actually seem to want the tasteless Gottfried even more than the neurotic but PG-rated one that voiced Iago the parrot in “Aladdin” and its sequels.
“I find out about tragedies around the world, from people on the Internet notifying me ... Like saying, ‘Hey, how come we haven’t heard a joke from you about such and such?’ ” Gottfried says.
In 2014, Gottfried launched his podcast, “Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast,” which has become a hit, blending topical comedy with a guest list including comedy legends such as Norman Lear, Dick Van Dyke and Carl Reiner.
Throughout it all — the controversies, the comeback, the documentary — Gottfried says his sense of humor hasn’t changed, a fact that is clear in “Gilbert.” The difference now is that he’ll tell his wife or a friend, or an adult crowd coming to his comedy show, instead of pushing send on social media.
“I always say now, ‘I think twice now before I say anything, but I say it anyway,’ ” Gottfried says. “If I feel like I’m not supposed to say it, then I really want to say it even more.”