Dice Takes Us Behind the Scenes on Working With Scorsese on Vinyl

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In a recent episode of Ron Bennington’s brilliant Unmasked interview series, the radio host sat down for the second time with comedy legend Andrew Dice Clay to learn more about the inner workings of one of comedy’s most well known characters.

While speaking about the comic’s career as of late, the two got onto the topic of Dice’s role in the HBO original series, Vinyl. The show, which is executive produced by Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, is a period drama following the trials and tribulations of American Century Records’ founder Richie Finestra in the 1970’s. Dice plays Frank “Buck” Rogers, a sleazy radio station owner among a slew of other sleazy industry types that Finestra has to hold court with as he tries to save his business.

On the topic of being cast in the role, Dice admitted that he was completely unaware that he had even gotten the part until his wife sent him a cryptic text about it. Dice’s wife, Valerie Vasquez, had texted the comic asking if he’d spoken to his manager, Bruce Rubenstein, concerning Dice that there might be something wrong. It wan’t until he was moments away from stepping onto the stage at the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas that his opener, Eleanor Kerrigan, broke the news to him that he’d gotten the part.

Dice admitted that the news definitely shook his nerves. “It really did flip me out, I went on stage and was thrown back, I had to tell the audience, I go ‘I gotta tell you, I just got this fuckin’ thing you’re never going to believe,’ like I’m talking to one other person, but it’s a theater full of people . . . I’m like asking a guy in the front row ‘Joey, do you believe this? I got fuckin’ Scorsese now, what am I going to do with this here?’”

Talking about his acting process, Dice says he acted in one of his first scenes on the show “stoned out of [his] mind.”

“Number one, I had to — I didn’t have to do it this way — but I did the entire part just stoned out of my mind. So I made damn sure I learned my lines, because this guy was in a lot of pain, the character I played in the show, and I wanted to go as deep as that guy would go.”

Yup, you read that right: Dice got baked in order to feel the full intensity of his character, and says “it got to the level where I’m on the set, and Marty’s coming over to tell me something, and I’m going ‘Not now, I got this!’ and he’s going ‘But Dice, I’m the director, this is what I do!’”

He goes on to gush about the experience of working with Scorsese, Bobby Cannavale, Bo Dietl, and the rest of the cast, saying that “all we did was laugh on that set.”

This is just a couple minutes of an hour long interview, so there’s much more gold like this to be found. Fans who’d like to check out the full interview should keep an eye on SiriusXM On Demand, the exclusive home of Unmasked.

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Bill Tressler

Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.
Bill Tressler
Bill Tressler
Bill is a writer and comedy enthusiast from New York. An avid gamer and podcast fan, he strives to always toe the line between charming irreverence and grating honesty.