{"id":2436466,"date":"2019-01-29T01:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T08:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=296231"},"modified":"2019-01-29T01:00:06","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T08:00:06","slug":"comic-rob-schneider-returns-to-aspen-for-two-nights-at-belly-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/comic-rob-schneider-returns-to-aspen-for-two-nights-at-belly-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic Rob Schneider returns to Aspen for two nights at Belly Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rob Schneider<\/a> broke into show business as a stand-up comedian but gave it up for more than 20 years after \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d made him a star and got him a foothold in television and film.<\/p>\n

Now he\u2019s back onstage, courting controversy in a rhetorical bomb-throwing act that rails against political correctness, what he calls \u201cDemocratic liberal McCarthyism\u201d and aims to make uptight audiences laugh at themselves.<\/p>\n

Schneider, 55, made his Aspn debut last February and returns for a two-night run at Belly Up on Tuesday and Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started doing stand-up again, I thought, \u2018What the hell am I going to talk about?’\u201d he sald last winter during his first swing through Aspen. \u201cAnd here it is. It\u2019s like the 1950s all over again in the sensibility in the audience, the attacks on thought and ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, Rob Schneider, best known for playing \u201cDeuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo\u201d and the \u201cYou can do it!\u201d guy from \u201cThe Waterboy\u201d and the \u201cMakin\u2019 copies!\u201d guy from \u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d is a fierce free-speech advocate and cultural critic with a keen eye for the absurd and hypocritical.<\/p>\n

His public stances have led to some friction, including an odd Twitter feud with Seth Rogen. But the heated political landscape of the Trump era and what Schneider calls \u201cthe war on language\u201d is fertile ground for comedy.<\/p>\n

\n

Recommended Stories For You<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a weird time socially, culturally, politically and linguistically,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a freaky, weird time.\u201d<\/p>\n

He plays with audiences\u2019 expectations around political correctness, getting laughs by warning crowds that they may be taped laughing at the wrong thing. He has a joke about Syrians pining for the Obama era when they were \u201cbeing bombed by a tolerant and well-spoken president.\u201d Schneider reserves much of his venom these days for liberals, but he\u2019s an equal opportunity offender across America\u2019s red state-blue state divide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Chomsky-ite,\u201d he said. \u201cAnyone who attacks me as a conservative doesn\u2019t know me. \u2026 I always s-t on the people complaining the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a time when everyone else is bashing Donald Trump, Schneider is more interested in finding laughs by going after Trump\u2019s critics and what he sees as a dangerously oversensitive political left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republicans admit what they are \u2014 selfish, self-centered, narcissistic, out for themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re not interested in ruining language, whereas you have the crybaby liberals who are just ruining the language and the culture, and it\u2019s all in the guise of openness and tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Schneider is disappointed in the partisan turn that \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d has taken since Trump\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve lost their center,\u201d he said. \u201cThe whole point of political comedy is to keep the audience guessing where you are, where your loyalties lie. My loyalties lie in the joke. My loyalties lie in showing the absurdity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSaturday Night Live,\u201d he argued, has usually had similar loyalties. He pointed, as an example, to brilliant sketches during the 2008 Democratic primary that lampooned the media\u2019s pro-Barack Obama leanings and harsh treatment of Hillary Clinton. But he\u2019s uninspired by the way the show has piled on President Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my mind, there\u2019s zero courage in attacking Trump,\u201d he said. \u201cAnybody could do it. \u2026 He makes it too easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Alec Baldwin\u2019s burlesque Trump impression, Schneider believes, is undercut by Baldwin\u2019s activism off camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow Alec Baldwin tweets about how much he hates Trump, it hurts the bit,\u201d he said. \u201cThe laughs are not rewarding when you\u2019re preaching to the choir. If I can make liberals laugh at themselves, that\u2019s really rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider said his old friend and \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d cast mate Chris Rock convinced him to go back to stand-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018If you do this you could be the best at it,’\u201d Schneider recalled. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what excited me. But to be the best at it, you can\u2019t just go out once a month.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he\u2019s been touring a ton in recent years, beginning in small, out-of-the-way clubs where he tried to get his chops back, and building steadily to more high profile gigs like his recent world tour with Adam Sandler.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt terrible for the audiences in the beginning,\u201d Schneider said, recalling his slow and clumsy start in Kentucky and Florida, where he did his first stand-up sets in decades. \u201cIt\u2019s taken me eight years to get where I am now, where I feel like I am one of the best comics in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

IF YOU GO \u2026<\/p>\n

Who: Rob Schneider<\/p>\n

Where: Belly Up Aspen<\/p>\n

When: Tuesday, Jan. 29 & Wednesday, Jan. 30 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

How much: $38-$100<\/p>\n

Tickets: Belly Up box office; bellyupaspen.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rob Schneider broke into show business as a stand-up comedian but gave it up for more than 20 years after \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d made him a star and got him a foothold in television and film. Now he\u2019s back onstage, courting controversy in a rhetorical bomb-throwing act that rails against political correctness, what he calls […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2436466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 21:48:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2436466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2436466\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2436466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2436466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2436466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}