I don’t think Obama and Rev. Al are playing to exactly the same audience, though.
Coming from someone who knows his girlfriend’s father (not someone I particularly like, but I’m still on a first name basis with him), I’d say you misspelled “ass”.
Writer Neil Gaiman has mentioned that one of the reasons he started his popular blog was to counter some of the weird ideas his fans had about him. Some people apparently assumed that he had basically the same personality as the hero of the Sandman series, which (luckily for Gaiman’s family) is not the case at all. Gaiman really does wear all black all the time, but comes across in his blog, interviews, and public appearances as a pretty cheerful, considerate person and not at all gloomy or morbid.
These days you are probably more likely to hear Gaiman fans gush about how NICE he is than speculation about his supposed Byronic nature. I’d heard a lot about how nice he was at book signings and such and was not especially impressed, because I figure it’s not that hard to seem nice when all you’re doing is signing autographs. But I met Gaiman briefly at ALA a couple of years ago, and he really is very nice. I was having him sign something for my sister, and after he signed it he stopped, looked at where he’d written her name, and said “Oh, that’s not very good, it looks like I’ve written [word that’s one letter off from my sister’s name]” and went back and corrected it so it clearly was her name. He had already done a lot of signing that day and was going to be doing a lot more, so I was impressed that he still cared about his penmanship when it came to dedicating his signatures to people.
This is who I was going to mention too. The stories you may have heard about Iggy Pop’s epic drug use and bizarre, self-destructive behavior in the '60s and '70s are mostly true, he wasn’t just playing a part onstage. Some of his behavior may have begun as “all a part of the show”, but as a young man he allowed it to bleed into his real life. But he’s always been an intelligent person and since he got his substance abuse issues more or less under control he’s apparently been far more stable and well-mannered than one might guess.
He also seems to be quite well read, and apparently enjoys studying up on academic subjects that are of interest to him. Here’s Iggy on reading Roman history. I’ve heard that he collects art, and I once saw an interview where he digressed for a moment onto the subject of Renaissance art (he was making a comparison to the evolution of popular music). It didn’t sound like BS to me, I think he really understood what he was talking about.
Penn and Teller. Penn plays massively obnoxious, but I had a great time talking to him after a show, and he signed a huge stack of comic books that he’d worked on for a friend of mine. He was almost humble, if one can believe it. Teller plays silent…but he was a great guy to talk to as well, with a sly sense of humor. Somewhere I have a picture of him mimicking my facial expressions.
Zappa was not a big drinker–caffeine and nicotine were his drugs of choice–but he was not a teetotaller, either. He was known to have a beer now and then; during his last years there were weekly margarita parties chez Zappa; and there are some weird road stories from the '70s (which I take with a grain of salt) about him being seen guzzling Johnny Walker straight from the bottle with no apparent effect.
To say he “scammed” anyone is unfair. He did cut off the original Mothers’ income with no notice when he broke up the band, and he was not generous with composing credits (Don Preston in particular may have a legitimate beef in this department), but I don’t believe he ever actually cheated anyone. It’s worth noting that the sidemen who grumble about their treatment at Zappa’s hands are the ones who never really made it on their own; those who went on to successful careers, like Adrian Belew and Steve Vai, speak about their former boss in glowing terms.
To me he comes off less as a weasel, than as an occasionally cold character. Zappa in his own biography noted that he eventually decided that all people he knew fell into two categories - family and employees. Not a big believer in the life-affirming power of friendship, he ;).
In part this seems to have been engendered by decades of playing the adult ( as he seemed to see it - though lord knows he pulled plenty of juvenile stunts himself ) to generations of feckless, perpetually adolescent, back-biting musicians. But there are hints that there was always a fairly authoritarian cast to his personality.
Which I’d say didn’t make him truly weird, so much as somewhat eccentric. Great talent, agile mind, but perhaps not the sweetest human being.
I’ve wondered if Andrew Dice Clay is one of those guys with an on-stage persona that is totally made up and he’s a completely different person, or if that’s him.
I have heard that his on stage persona is different than his every day personality, but don’t have any cites either way.
A friend of mine in the Jim Rose Circus told me that he hung out with them in Vegas and that one thing you notice compared to Teller’s on-stage persona is that you can’t get him to shut up.
When Manson was dating Evan Rachel Wood they came back here to her hometown of Raleigh and everyone was kind of surprised he was normal. They expected him to wear his makeup for some reason but of course he did not.
I also heard he plays a great game of golf. REALLY great.
I have no firsthand knowledge, but Roseanne Barr once told interviewers that, far from being a tough guy, Andrew Silverstein (aka Andrew Dice Clay) was pretty much a Mama’s boy offstage.
I’d guess that he goes out to visit the audience fairly often, since he did it during intermission when I saw them in Princeton. I don’t remember if he did it when I saw them on Broadway, but there wasn’t an awful lot of room to mingle there.
Which begs the question: Why would he choose a public persona of a totally unfunny prick?
Al is pretty open about his disdain for flying. I’m not sure if it’s a phobia/anxiety or just a dislike of the experience, but that may well have colored his attitude or the vibe that he was putting off that day.
I hope so! I don’t know why but I like the idea of Weird Al as a nice guy. I’m not a huge fan, though I enjoyed his videos back in the day, but he’s just always seemed classy.
John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten. He even looks intelligent, and in his interviews he is droll and funny.
I’m not really sure if he counts as weird, but one heavy metal singer who doesn’t fit the stereotype in his private life is Boeing 757 pilot, fencer, writer and Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
Lewis Black is also very much a nice guy, and seems genuinely surprised that people like him as much as they do. I met him after a stand-up show and he seemed humbled by all the attention and positive comments.
Well, you and I might not think he’s funny, but at the height of his popularity, he was selling out Madison Square Garden.
Years ago, I saw some ancient footage of him trying to be a zany Jerry Lewis clone, in his early days. That gimmick didn’t work, so he tried another one.
Some people here have undoubtedly seen old footage of young Danny Whitney, who tried to be a conventional standup comic before he came up with the Larry the Cable Guy schtick. It’s always strange to see what a comic was doing before he came up with his most famous persona.