Unless you’re willing to sign your soul away to the reality show devil, there aren’t many second chances in Hollywood. So, for those of you old enough to remember 1980’s scream-com personalities like Sam Kinison, Gilbert Gottfried, and Judy Tenuta, you can exhale a deep sigh of relief that Bobcat Goldthwait has come back from the has-been graveyard on his own terms.

He started a second career as a screenwriter/director back in 1991 with the now cult-classic Shakes the Clown in which Goldthwait unfortunately cast himself as a broken down birthday party clown with, you guessed it, DT’s. Eighteen years later, Bobcat (please don’t call him Bob) admits that Shakes was not his best performance. “I remembered I wrote it with John Goodman in mind. I didn’t approach him. But, in hindsight, I wish I had.”

Bobcat, who was made famous by his onstage Grover-the-crackhead persona, has clearly been humbled by his career choices. “I believe that for the majority of people, I will be remembered as the squeaky-voiced comedian. My career represents how people’s careers end. I already sold out. All the work that you do when you are on the way down, I did when I was 24. I’m very much interested in digging myself out of that hole.”

In digging himself out, Bobcat scraped together the resources in 2006 to direct his second screenplay, Sleeping Dogs Lie, a Sundance favorite about a woman whose life unravels when it is revealed that she had sex with a dog. Funny how that can get people to take you seriously. His third film in the self-destruction trilogy is the new release World’s Greatest Dad, a dark comedy that stars another resurrected 1980’s comedian, Robin Williams.

Indeed, it’s risky to put Mr. Nanu-Nanu in a film entitled World’s Greatest Dad. But, Bobcat has made satire of fleeting fame the centerpiece of his new career. The film, which is about a failed writer who becomes successful only through faking his dead son’s suicide note, has heavy overtones of fame-hating. “The film is a satire because we play it as straight as possible. I see these people as fables, like kid’s stories. Sometimes, when I hear myself talk, I sound like such a pretentious load. In two minutes, you’ll ask me to talk with the Grover voice.”

“I wanted to make Robin’s character someone you can identify with. It’s really about a middle aged guy growing up and being OK with who he is.” It’s OK, Bobcat. No one remembers who you are anyway.

– Kristine Kennedy

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 12:07 pm.