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The Diceman Cometh Back

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Andrew Dice Clay is making a career comeback as he appears in a supporting role in Woody Allens latest film, “Blue Jasmine”
Andrew Dice Clay is making a career comeback as he appears in a supporting role in Woody Allens latest film, “Blue Jasmine”
Andrew Dice Clay, the foul-mouthed comedian whose concerts sold out arenas across the country in the 1980s, has found a career resurgence, thanks in part to Woody Allen.

Clay, born Andrew Clay Silverstein, has a supporting role in Allen’s latest film, “Blue Jasmine,” which opened last week. It’s his first film role in 12 years. In the role of Sally Hawkins’ blue collar ex-husband, the crass comic’s appearance might be a surprise to some, especially with his character’s vanity-free gray hair.

“You know what? I’m not 20 years old anymore!” Clay said with a laugh. “I do color my hair, and they did enhance the gray, but I was like, ‘Oh, man!’”

Allen rediscovered Clay along with the rest of America when he played a version of himself as a comic looking for a comeback in a five-episode arc on “Entourage.” Coincidentally, it triggered his own comeback, which Clay prefers to call “a resurgence.”

“It’s an unbelievable thing to me,” he said. “I’ve always had belief in myself, belief that I could come back, and I’ve always sort of marched to the beat of my own drum, but to get this movie and to work with all these people – Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Sally Hawkins –some of the greats, I’m nothing but humbled by this experience.”

These days, Clay, 55, knows from humble. Three years ago, “during the recession,” he was down on his luck and in need of cash, so he headed to Las Vegas to try to his luck at blackjack. “It was a tough time,” he said. “Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

During his gambling spree, Clay earned a little over a million dollars, but it was easy come, easy go.

“After I took care of some bills and bought some cars, I lost most of it,” he said. “I call it the summer of ‘The Hangover,’ because it was just a party.”

By the end of that summer, Clay was broke again.

Strangely enough, “that whole thing led to ‘Entourage,’” Clay said. While lamenting his lack of funds with his son at a local Starbucks, the comedian ran into an old friend, who connected him with a mutual friend the very next day: “Entourage” creator Doug Ellin. And with the extended arc Ellin gave him, Clay was once again in demand.

“I was like, ‘You know what? I’ll just rebuild my standup career,’” Clay said.

A Showtime comedy special followed, along with a residency at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. “And through all this, I get the call that Woody Allen wants to meet with me,” he said. “I thought my manager was messing with me!”

Clay met with Allen on Park Avenue – a location seen and cited in “Blue Jasmine” as the most desirable of New York addresses, one that means wealth, class and elegance to the titular and very status-conscious character Jasmine (played by Blanchett).

“We spoke about comedy, where we both started out, where we both grew up” in Brooklyn, Clay said of his meeting with the director. “And I couldn’t believe it. He’s one of the people in Hollywood I have a lot of respect for, because he’s done movies that have made me laugh, ‘Broadway Danny Rose’ being one of my favorites.”

Allen explained that he wanted the comedian/actor to do something meaty for him. Up until now, Clay had a spotty film career, the highlights being a cameo as Jon Cryer’s friendly bouncer in 1986’s “Pretty in Pink,” a part as Lea Thompson’s macho suitor in the 1988 raunchy comedy “Casual Sex?” and a starring role in 1990’s “The Adventures of Ford Fairlane.”

Clay is currently working on his autobiography, “The Filthy Truth,” which he is writing with David Ritz.

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