Feb 22, 2008

A real card with staying power

Spade looks to up his game, grows as an entertainer

By Paul Freeman / Entertainment Writer

David Spade is America's favorite wise guy (in comedic, not mob vernacular). In conversation, his appealing on-screen smugness is replaced by an endearing vulnerability.

The razor-witted comedian performs Monday and Tuesday at Cobb's Comedy Club in San Francisco. While the WGA writers strike was providing a rare dollop of free time, Spade ramped up his stand-up schedule. "It gave me a chance to pick and choose a few fun places, and I haven't been in San Francisco for 10 years," Spade said. "So I thought I'd roll up there and rock out."

His material proves crowd-pleasing. "It's nothing too deep. I talk a little bit about Hollywood, my Mom, going to concerts, Las Vegas, my travels - whatever my real life is. I just exaggerate it, make it even stupider than it is," he said.

When he started in stand-up, Spade followed the Bay Area scene closely. He was an avid reader of the local publication "Just For Laughs." He yearned to compete in the annual comedy competition, but never had the opportunity.

"I was just another crummy middle act. There were better guys doing it. But you never know. I remember auditioning for that HBO 'Young Comedians' special every year. Actually being a young comedian, I thought I had a chance," Spade quipped. "But it was like I'd lose out to Richard Belzer."

After Spade's years of sustained success in Hollywood, it's difficult to imagine him scrambling for a forum. He still takes nothing for granted.

"You never really relax. I see why everyone's crazy around here. You never get a feeling that everything's going to be OK. It took me all of 'Saturday Night Live' and then probably the third year of 'Just Shoot Me' before I thought I might actually be able to stick around."

Not all reviewers were kind to Spade during the "SNL" stint that made him a star. "(The press would tell) us that when (John) Lovitz, Jan Hooks and Phil (Hartman) were there, that's when it was funny ... and we suck. When you read that every day, you can't get that excited. Then we leave and they go, 'When Spade and Farley were there, that's when it was funny' ... and 'Will Farrell sucks.' Then when he leaves, they're like, 'We want Will Farrell.'"

Spade said there were always whispers that "Saturday Night Live" would be canceled and that he would be dropped. "I finally felt like I did OK there towards the end," he said. "Then, after that, you're back to zero. You can just disappear."

Instead, Spade reappeared in "Just Shoot Me," now playing in rerun on TV Land. After a precarious launch, the sitcom proved to be a solid hit. When that happy run ended, Spade again looked for opportunities.

He has starred in movies like "Joe Dirt," "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" and "Benchwarmers" that audiences embraced, though critics did not.

With the writers strike, Spade's insecurity resurfaced. Would his new CBS series "Rules of Engagement" be a casualty of the inactivity? He sees a positive side to all of the uncertainty.

"It keeps you from getting too cocky, too complacent. I can't be the a--hole at work, demanding everything, because I realize how easily you can be replaced," Spade laughed.
A few days before this interview, Spade learned "Rules of Engagement" is coming back for additional new episodes this season. He's glad he originally gambled on this sitcom.

"It was another situation similar to 'Just Shoot Me' where I had to make a quick decision. They'd already made the pilot without me. They liked the show, but wanted to tweak it a little bit. It's like, do you want to be the fifth lead on a show that's clearly about two married couples? And the answer is, yeah, that's okay.

"I don't even know if I would want to be Joe Leading Man. When you do that on a TV show, your character has to drive everything. When an episode revolves around my character, it's always harder, because everyone else is buzzing around me, doing their jokes. On 'Seinfeld,' you've got Kramer coming in, being funny. So maybe I'm better off doing those kind of parts ... at least for now."

Spade would welcome the chance to stretch as a performer. "In the future, I don't think I'll be the single, running around, horny guy - that's clearly my thing I do on these shows. It's tough, because you can't really shake the system. Like Sandler, doing 'Punch Drunk Love' - it takes a while before you can branch out a little bit. In the meantime, I try to do the best I can at what I do."

Online, you can check out Spade portraying Daniel Day-Lewis in the sharp, satirical trailer "There Will Be Oscars." "Even in that three minute-video, it was fun to do something a little different."

Because of the roles he usually plays, the public assumes Spade is a serial bachelor who runs through a succession of actresses, models and Playmates.

His "Just Shoot Me" and "Rules of Engagement" characters are mere exaggerations of Spade. "It's only funny if you make an extreme version of that guy," he said. "I have a friend that I base that on, more than myself. He's in a band at night and he's a super skirt chaser, lies and says stupid s--- all the time."

Paparazzi prefer to snap photos of Spade when he has a beautiful young woman by his side.

"I have a little house in Malibu. It took my whole life to buy this house on the beach. And now they're camped out. The second I step out on the sand, there they are taking my picture. I look like s---, which they don't mind saying, in capital letters. And I can't invite friends over who are girls or friends' wives. If I walk on the beach with them, you can't explain to everyone who it is. So I don't go on the beach as much anymore. I might sell the place. When you're so conscious of it, it's not as fun.

"It couldn't be more awkward, like on a first date. Her friends and your friends see photos in print and want to know what's going on there. Really nothing's going on yet. You haven't figured it out yet. Maybe you break it off right away, because it's already weird."

But Spade says celebrity is worth the complications that come with it. He recalls chatting with Brad Pitt several years ago. "Even then, all that paparazzi stuff was so horrible for him, at a level mine doesn't even compare to. He was cool about it - 'It's the business I want to be in, I love it, I can deal with all that other stuff.' So I thought, if he can deal with it, what am I complaining about?"

Spade's pokes at celebs like Pitt on "Saturday Night Live" were so funny because "there was only People magazine (at the time) and everyone was nice," he said. "Now Entertainment Weekly and those TV shows have turned snarky and all the magazines are mean. So I kind of blend in.

"I might actually see these people I'm kidding, so I try to keep it funny and clever, not just a kick in the balls. And deserved. Like if they're doing something, you make fun of it. I don't go out of my way to kick anybody."