European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 07, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse The diceman says he s still rolling and that s no joke by Betty Webb Mesa Ariz Tribune the stage Persona of Andrew Dice Clay i easy to dislike. But talking to the Man i person is another does t curse he does t yell and he does t say Nasty things about Blacks or women. He even comes across As self effacing refer ring to himself frequently As the Brooklyn he does t even want to discuss his old adversary Irish Singer sinbad o Connor who once walked off the set of saturday sight live in protest Over his appearance. Of no i m not talking about her. No he said. Let s discuss something new but As Clay give him an audience even of one he just goes and so he Breaks his own Rule and discusses o Connor. She s like a Pope bashing anti american Egghead Singer. She s just a confused girl she needs. She needs. You know what she needs. She needs a Nice boy Friend somebody to Clay s voice Lowers he be gins to mutter darkly then brightens and adds she needs some Nice Guy to. Occupy her if All this sounds like a cleaned up version of the old obnoxious trash mouthed Dice Man the comedian re fuses to admit it. He does t want anyone to think he has toned Down the act that Many View ers o Connor among them have called racist sexist ageist and just about any other is , i m not toned Down it s just that it takes time to build on material he said. A comic has to Start in one place and then grow from there. Comedy is brutal everybody knows that. I Don t hold my Tongue at All but i look for other things to make fun of too. You know the older you get the smarter. Well i guess i should t say i m Alt that smart be cause i m the original Brooklyn Dumbo but let s at least say i have More experience now. The older you Pel the More you see and the More you have to think about. But forget about me Ever being . I la always have an Clay admits that the last two controversy filled years have been rough on him. Lie characterizes himself As a Man who has gone through the storm and emerged Wiser and stronger for the experience. Dice shows the world How ridiculous it All is Clay said. You know i take something that s a Little silly like All this . Stuff and build on it to show How dumb it can really get. But i get knocked for that which in t All that fair. Why is it that someone like Eddie Murphy can Tell jokes that rip White peo ple to shreds and that s of but when i Tell jokes that rip Black people to shreds everybody s jumping ail Over me but the question is strictly rhetorical ail Clay in t waiting fur an answer. Instead he tackles another area that has Given him grief. Women love the diceman he said. Yeah they say i m disgusting but whenever i come to town they get together with 40 of their girlfriends and All conc out and Sec me. They know that i know what they re talking about behind their boyfriends Andrew Dice Clay Thurgood Marshall gets a checkup from his wife cos Sec before his supreme court swearing in in 1967. The Day Marshall saw himself in separate but equal by George Stevens special to the Washington Post Imet Thurgood Marshall for the first time Nomarch 22,1991, at Washington s Kenned Center premiere of separate but equal a film dramatizing Brown is. Board of education the supreme court Case that outlawed Segre gation of schools by race. ,1 had tried to arrange meetings with Justice mar shall during the preceding three years when i was working on this film in which he was the Central Fig ure. Despite intervention by friends he chose to keep his distance. We were therefore surprised when his Secretary called to accept the invitation to the screening announcing that the Justice would be accompanied by his wife his two sons and his Law clerks. That afternoon the anxiety a filmmaker feels be fore the first showing of a film escalated to a mild form of panic with the realization that Marshall and Many of his Legal defense fund colleagues who worked on the Brown Case in the Early 50s would be reacting to actors living their lives on the screen and appraising the film for accuracy. In Marshall s Case the actor was Sidney Poitier who bearing Little re semblance to him had set out to capture and reveal his inner spirit and the historian Edmund Morris sat directly behind Marshall and his wife Cissick in the theater during the three hour screening. Morris wrote to me the next Day saying my privilege was More exclusive than most because i happened to be sitting behind Justice Marshall and thus had the poignant experience of seeing that great drama on screen playing Over and around his dark old the audience gathered for supper in the Kennedy Center atrium. I was cheered by word that Sandra Day o Connor announced to the press that she thought it was a wonderful but no word from Marshall. Then i was summoned. He was seated sur rounded by Well wishers through whom i made my Way. He turned to me his voice rising in pitch. What s that about booze ? and poker games he was referring to a scene Early in the film where mar shall joins the Legal defense fund lawyers in a late night office poker game. Or. Justice i said your associates i inter viewed said you used to love your poker games and not in the office he thundered. But this was followed by a smile so i decided even though my research was solid to leave it Lay where Jesus Flung it a useful Maxim that also came from the re search. Someone asked the Justice How he liked Poitier s portrayal. Sidney was better than i was in the court he said. But he got paid More than i Marshall s friends were pleased that he had lived to Sec his Story told. A reporter called his Chambers the next Day and was told i thought it was a great movie. That s the end of the his office re Quested a video copy of separate but equal and we were cheered by a report that the Justice was seen in his Chambers huddled Over a video recorder making contraband copies for his friends. When the going got Tough at the Legal defense fund Thurgood Marshall used to bolster his lawyers by saying that the struggle for civil rights was Wortha now while mourning Thurgood Marshall s death of Jan. 24 at age 84, we celebrate a life of Public service devoted to equal rights for All americans. Ours is a far better country for his having been part of it and because he believed that civil right was Worth a life. Gnome Stevens is the founder of to american film Institute. He Toto and directed Sparata but equal. The first part of which will air on to at 6 55 p m. Get saturday. Page 8 sunday february 7, 1993
