Deuce Is Loose

He's best known, perhaps, for yelling his catchcry “You can do it!” in Adam Sandler's movies and for his two-time turn as the world's most famous man-whore, Deuce Bigalow – but comic actor Rob Schneider, like most comedians, did start out doing stand-up. That all changed around 1988 when Schneider scored a gig on Saturday Night Live, and TV fame beckoned, then Hollywood called. Stand-up fell by the wayside for Schneider – but now, after around 20 years off the stage, he's learning to re-embrace the joys of the microphone and spotlight. For Schneider, who turns 50 next month, it's all about challenging himself.  

“There's no shortcuts in stand-up,” he says. “You can't hide behind whatever you've achieved in your life, whatever movies you've made... You've got two minutes to be funny and that's it. You've got to prove your worth. And it's all about creativity – if you can get an audience to tune in to your point of view and subvert them with some weird idea, it's a fun night.”

Schneider says his return to stand-up sees him as a very different kind of comedian to the 20-something starting out in the '80s. He no longer does his impressions: “I don't do any of those any more. That's easy – the toughest thing you can do is talk about yourself, to be vulnerable,” he says. “I'm kind of talking about what happens in life – the change from being in your 20s to being in your late 40s when you start to realise that some things are no longer a possibility for you, and some things no longer work as well as they used to. Everyone can relate to that. I look at 20-year-olds who come and see me and I go, 'You can't relate to any of this, can you?' but they still laugh at it. It's still funny.”

Schneider married two years ago and his daughter is about to turn one, but despite his busy family life he's still ticking career boxes. He put out his first stand-up comedy album (“I wanted to wait until there was no money left in the music business,” he quips), recorded a song, made a TV stand-up special, and recently starred in his CBS sitcom, Rob. Returning to the stage is just a logical progression.

“In a way I feel like stand-up is a chance for me to start over, to reinvent myself,” he says. “From that, I want to do another TV sitcom about what's happening in my life and in my career. I want to do a few more movies, too, but the movies I want to make now are different. I wouldn't make the kind of movies I made before; I couldn't, because I'm not the same person. It's not like I'm not proud of the movies I made – I just wouldn't do it again. I'm going to be 50. I'm not as interested in the same things I was back then.”