The voice of Gilbert Gottfried is so distinguishable you can practically hear it now: high-pitched and abrasively boisterous, it's like he sucked on a balloon right before he opened his mouth.
It's really no wonder, then, that the cartoony comedian has been both the voice of a duck (remember those Aflac commercials?) and the squawking parrot, Iago, in "Aladdin." But since starting his comedy career at 15 doing amateur stand-up in New York City, before going on to "SNL" and those stints as animated animals, Gottfried has become known for playing a different role: that of your offensive uncle.
When we caught up with the 58-year-old before his gigs at 7 and 10 p.m. Dec. 6 at the Magic Bag, this is how gay it was: It ended with Gottfried (who is straight-married, by the way) asking for a map to all the gay bars and saunas in the Detroit area. We gladly obliged and told him we had a better idea - we'd take him there.
You're appearing at the Magic Bag in Ferndale, where you performed not too long ago. What do you remember of your time here?
Oh god, I'm like one of those characters in a film where the lead character has amnesia - there are these places I go to where I swear I've never been and then I go to the club and realize I've signed their wall.
How much of this show is gonna be about sex?
Well, I can't talk too much about sex because I like to talk about stuff I know about.
But you've never shied away from it before.
Yeah, if I can go for the cheapest common denominator, I will.
Do you find yourself being more of a pervert with age?
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. In fact, I've been arrested a few times for hanging out in playgrounds.
Are you speaking to me from jail right now?
Yes. I'm being fingerprinted, so someone is holding the phone to my head.
Over the years, have you noticed a gay turnout at your shows?
Wow, I've never really thought of it, but it just reminded me of working at a club in San Francisco. My agent said to me, concerned, "They didn't know if you were OK with this San Francisco gay radio station." And I thought, "… as opposed to what?" It's like, "This is Tel Aviv's Jewish radio station." (Laughs)
Are gays a part of your act at all?
Yeah, I make gay jokes. Any group of people I can offend, I go out of my way for.
Back in 2008, you pranked a gay bathhouse on "The Howard Stern Show." I'm guessing that's not the first time you called a gay bathhouse.
(Laughs) Yeah, it's constant.
What was that bathhouse experience like for you?
The funny part about that one - if it's the one I'm thinking of - is the "Stern Show" just chops up recordings of me and then presses the button. A lot of times they have a recording of my laugh, and if they're doing a news report on a horrible tragedy that happened, they'll play my laugh. I won't even be listening to "Stern" that day and I'll go to the Internet and I'll get these outraged tweets, like, "Maybe you think a child being kidnapped and killed is a funny thing but I can assure you I don't," and I'll go, "Oh, they're at it again."
Do you recall ever offending gay people over the years?
I'm sure I have. I think I've offended everybody over the years. If I haven't, then I'm slipping.
You recently said you're not into the vampire fad because it's all too gay.
There's certain things I watch where I think, "This has to be too gay." Like, watching "Mamma Mia!"
Even gay people can handle only so much gay before they need a shot of whiskey and an NFL game.
Or some arm wrestling.
Isn't everything a little gayer these days?
Yeah, it sometimes seems strange. Years ago they would avoid anything gay, and then it got to that point where after a while - needed or not - they'd throw in a gay character. Particularly in romantic comedies, the girl will have to have a gay friend. It's become one of the rules that the two things that the lead girl has in romantic comedies are the gay friend and the unattractive girlfriend.
Do you have a gay sidekick?
Yes! (Laughs) I'm a regular Meg Ryan! What's funny is, years ago, what always interested me is that there were always very gay characters in movies and TV shows, but they just weren't ever referred to as gay. They would be very prissy, very official or faboosh and eccentric, or evil.
You came out last year …
(Laughs)
Not as gay. I'm not done …
Yeah, I was wondering, because I've been keeping it a secret for all these years. The movie studios have been paying me to have it hidden. (Laughs)
You also came out in support of gay marriage in one of the best ways possible with this tweet: "Because of Obama, gay marriage may become legal. I'm appalled, and so is the guy who's fucking me in the ass right now."
So I did come out!
See, exactly. What's your take on all this gay marriage stuff?
I think gays should be forced to suffer as much as straight people do. They deserve the same punishment.
You've done film, television, game shows and "Aladdin," of course. Have you ever played a gay character?
Oh, that's interesting. I don't think I ever have. Although it's funny, there's one part in "Aladdin" where the parrot disguises himself as a flamingo and another flamingo is looking at him and he goes, "Ya got a problem, pinky?" Some gay group complained that that was an anti-gay slur.
You've made plenty of jokes that have gotten you in trouble, including the one about the Japanese tsunami that cost you your Aflac gig. How do these occurrences affect your comedy? Do the filters go up?
The more it happens, the more I get that bad kid feeling. It gives me the urge to say stuff to get people angry even more because I feel like the Internet, it makes me sentimental for old-time lynch mobs. At least with a lynch mob you had to put on a jacket and shoes, leave your house, get your hands dirty, deal with other people and work up a sweat. Now, with the Internet, you can do it at home, on the couch, in your underwear. The Internet has become the new modern state-of-the-art way of ringing someone's doorbell and running away.
When you first started your career, women were not in the forefront of comedy. Now, you look out and see all these successful women who have turned the tables to show they can be just as crude and vulgar as you and other male comedians. What does that feel like? Do you feel like a minority these days?
Yeah, well, I always do. I always feel like I'm left out, like I'm the victim of bigotry in some way. And since I've come out … (Laughs)
But it has become weird with more and more women getting involved in it, and I wonder if now, when women do it, they're trying too hard to be vulgar because they figure that's the way it's supposed to be: "I have to prove I can play in the boys' club."
Is that the impression you get when you see these female comedians?
Yeah, sometimes I get the feeling they're trying too hard.
So your voice is your trademark. How did that happen?
With my delivery on stage, I've just been doing it a long time, and one day you wake up and you go, "Oh, this is good - this is my delivery."
Last year, Howard Stern revealed that your comedy voice isn't your real voice, and I'm just surprised it didn't get out earlier. How did you manage to keep that a secret for so long?
Yeah, I don't know. It's just one of the many things I hadn't come out about. (Laughs)
What else are you keeping in the closet?
You mean while I still play romantic leads? (Laughs) It's a very odd thing in show business that there's a group of actors and actresses that an entire public just accepts as being gay as long as they don't admit it; they're still sort of in the closet about it. These people, if they have actually admitted it themselves and said it to the public, I think it would hurt them as far as romantic leads. If the entire public knows they're gay, but they don't admit to it, they can still be a romantic lead.
I can't believe this is still an issue for actors like yourself.
(Laughs) Even though my first true love is to be in lavish musicals.
