GOAT BOY IS A HARDCORE HEADBANGER

-by Dirt

You all know comedian Jim Breuer from his days on Saturday Night Live in the late 90s. Many of you are probably saying, "Did Jim join a metal band?" or "Why is Metal Dreams doing an interview with a comedian?" Well, the answer is, although Jim hasn't joined a metal band, he is so proud to be a headbanger that he's added heavy metal skits into his performances. Some of you might remember the 'Gunnar Olson - Heavy Metal News' skit he did on SNL. This spawned his more recent dead-on impersonation of AC/DC's Brian Johnson performing "The Hokey-Pokey," something you can check out on Hardcore, which has aired on Comedy Central, and is also available on DVD. Jim phoned us up from his New Jersey home to tell us about his lifelong obsession with heavy metal, his life as a father, his stoner habits, his days on SNL, his Heavy Metal Comedy and Hardcore DVD 's and Smoke & Breu CD, and his October 18th show at the Madison Square Garden Theater [in New York City] with Dave Chapelle.

For more info on Jim Breuer visit:  www.jimbreuer.com

What was the inspiration for Hardcore, your stand-up comedy show backed by a heavy metal band?

Before doing Hardcore, I toured doing this Heavy Metal Comedy show, which was trying to be an 80s metal show meets stand-up comedy. I did the show and Comedy Central saw it. After seeing that, that's what sparked the whole Hardcore thing. We talked and said, "Let's get married, do a movie, do DVD, TV show, record." I don't want to move to L.A. I don't want twenty billion dollars a year. I just want to come home, get high, hang out in the woods, and once in a while put out something that kicks ass.

On Hardcore you do this amazing imitation of AC/DC's Brian Johnson singing "The Hokey Pokey"? It's just so ridiculous it's hilarious.

That's what I wanted. I saw an AC/DC concert, Stiff Upper Lip. It's a traveling Broadway show for metalheads. I thought, "My God, these guys can make anything sound f***in' great! I was at a wedding two days later, and I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if AC/DC came out and did "The Hokey Pokey" and tore shit up." We just tried it and it latched on.

You've got his walk, his voice and all his mannerisms.

It just shows you how many times I've seen him. I think I've seen Metallica twenty times, AC/DC twenty times, Judas Priest about ten times.

You also did a heavy metal bit on Saturday Night Live.

I did. That was one of my all-time favorite bits. I only did it twice. It started getting really popular. It was called 'Gunnar Olson - Heavy Metal News,' and basically I was doing James Hetfield meets Rob Halford. I did a stage dive off the desk. Unfortunately, the second one was two episodes before my career was over there. I had every intention of coming back, but during that summer I got a phone call saying, "Listen, we just had our annual meeting. Oh my God, these head guys don't want you here." I go, "What? Then f***, I don't want to be there. Get me out, I quit." At the time, Goat Boy was taking off. I was movin'.

When you left Saturday Night Live, did you feel that was something that you needed to do?

Big necessity. They didn't want me there. Two guys that were my fighting allies to get me on the show, quit. One went to Seinfeld, the other started writing movies with [David] Spade. The guys that took over never were fans of mine. They were the ones fighting to get me off the show from the beginning. Once they took over they did everything they could to make my life miserable. Who wants to live like that?

Obviously, you're an old school metalhead. I find the metal material hilarious, but do you find that some of the stuff is too obscure for some people.

Very. I can't say Priest or Maiden. They have no clue what I'm talking about. That scares the shit out of me. "What? You don't know Judas Priest, are you kidding me?" Dio, Maiden. They look at you like, "What?"

What do you think of today's heavy music, like Korn?

I like the new Korn. I'm more into System Of A Down, Sevendust.

Growing up, did you do what every other metalhead did, sit in a room and turn the tunes up to '10'?

To me, the greatest thing was waking up, get my friends, we'd go in [the] basement, turn off the lights, put it on as loud as we can, some old Priest, some Maiden, and give a full blown hour and a half concert.

Everybody playing air guitar and air drums?

Everybody. I was always lead singer and Glenn Tipton. To this day, if you watch me do air guitar you will see my hand is imitating Glenn Tipton. He sticks out his pinky.

I only saw the Comedy Central airing of Hardcore, which is only an hour with commercials. Is the DVD version longer?

It's an hour and a half, plus a half-hour of some other shit. On there, there's some stoner stuff that you didn't see on TV. They didn't air any of my stoner material. I talk about being a fat kid. I was 82 pounds in kindergarten. It was embarrassing.

What the hell happened, mom wasn't feeding you right?

I had an Italian nanny. My mom and dad worked all day. My mom worked at the airport and my dad was a garbage man, so they gave me to a babysitter all day. She was hardcore Italian so I'd eat spaghetti and ice cream all day, and then come home and my mom would go, "Did you eat?" and I'd say, "No!" I ended up going to the doctor.

Were you the class clown in school?

I was always the clown. I was the ninja clown. I was the guy in the back of the room who just kind of roughed it up in the back until [the teacher] was like, "What's going on back there?"

Besides having two DVD's, Heavy Metal Comedy and Hardcore, you also have a completely different comedy CD out called Smoke & Breu.

Smoke & Breu is a live album and it's completely different from Hardcore. It's basically everything I could not do on television. On television, I can't talk about going to see AC/DC when I was eighteen trippin' in the parking lot. Check out "The Wizard," it's all about me being seventeen, the first time I ever tripped, and I was waiting on line to buy tickets for AC/DC. You'll f***in' howl! 

I'm assuming your stoner material is based on a lot of experience?

(emphatically) A LOT!

And that hasn't decreased now that you're a family man?

Still A LOT!

Do you have kids?

I do.

That must make that whole experience very interesting.

Sometimes it makes it more pleasurable because it puts me on their level. I'll play Star Wars and dragons for an hour with my 3-1/2 year old. We do make believe doors and tunnels. The neighborhood thinks I'm crazy, but now the whole freakin' neighborhood plays with me. They knock on my door. "Is Mr. Breuer home. You wanna come out and play?"

You're just like a big kid!

That's it. Case closed.

Got any advice for guys with pregnant wives?

You gotta keep bangin' her. No matter how big and nasty it looks, you make her feel like a sex animal. Get her bent over the bed and stick it to her. "Baby, I love your big belly." Catch up on your sleep now. Do you smoke pot? Better look into it.

In every interview that I've seen you do, the interviewer's standard question is about Goat Boy, the character that you did on SNL. Are you sorry that you created that character?

NO! If I go to see a rock band I want to see the hit, no matter how old it is. I know you're on the new stuff but I came to see that. I understand that. I really have no qualms with that.

And you'll always keep the Goat Boy character in your act?

Of course. I've tried many times not to, but they yell it out.

The players on SNL that are most remembered are the ones who had characters, whether it be John Lovitz doing 'The Liar' or Dana Carvey doing 'The Church Lady.' Were there other characters that you tried that didn't work?

Oh my God, millions. [The Goat Boy] was almost like a throwaway to me. Me and my friends would hang out and pretend we had tarrets, and we'd go to a bar and drink and we'd be like, "Hey man, can we have a bahhaaaaaaaahuhhhhhBudweiser?" Of course, if you had a couple other friends drinking that were in on it, forget it, you'd get the whole bar doing it. But when it came, I never would have thought it would hit like that!

And your imitation of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne is side-splitting as well. Diehard Ozzy fans don't like The Osbournes reality show though.

I enjoy it. I understand why they don't want to see it. You don't want to see the blatant truth. Everyone ridicules him now. He went from a Metal God to a goof on TV.

I know you used to appear on Opie and Anthony (a radio show that was here in New York). What do you think of them being taken off the air for getting a couple to have sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral?

I think it's a down dirty shame. I think they got a raw deal. People can focus on that negative but their positives outweighed anything they ever did. Someone with a lot of money and power was pissed off.

I think they thought they could get away with almost anything.

You're right, maybe they thought they could cross boundaries, but I don't think they deserved to be taken off the air because they brought way to much to the table.

Do you have any idea what their plans are?

No clue. I talked with them but they gotta figure it out for themselves, and then I'll be right behind them.

You had the role of a stoner in the movie Half-Baked a couple years ago. Have you had any other movie offers?

I have but I don't work for the sake of working. I get really down on myself unless I show up and knock the ball over the fence. After Half-Baked I got a million other offers…Hey, Dude Where's My Car? They all sucked! Then there were tons of Jim Carey movies. I'm not Jim Carey. Jim Carey's on his own planet.

Jim Carey is very funny but it makes me nuts when he does serious roles like The Majestic.

(laughs) I guess he's trying to change directions

Robin Williams tried to do that too. I don't like that.

I know and apparently no one else did.

I definitely wouldn't want to see you in a serious part.

F*** no! If it is serious, there's got to be a lot of funny in it too. The next movie I do is gonna be serious with some serious funny because I'm a guy who starts out grounded but then I go to lunacy and then I come back.

Your laugh is just crazy!

Yeah, it's either you can't stand it or it's very infectious.

It kind of reminds me of Eddie Murphy's laugh.

Wow. That's funny you said that because I was a huge fan of his growing up and to me that was one of my favorite things. I wanted to be the white Eddie Murphy, until he was caught with a transvestite.

What other comedians did you like when you were growing up?

No one will ever beat Richard Pryor. Richard Pryor and Sam Kinison are the gods of comedy. Raw, brutally honest. The only people that make me belly laugh. I always respected George Carlin [and] Steve Martin, old Steve Martin.

How easy is it for you to come up with new material?

Every day I think. I give myself a headache, I think too much. My new-found mentor [is] Yoda [from Star Wars]. (Doing a Yoda impersonation) Meditate on this, I will.

You're eyes and Yoda's eyes are very similar.

Wow! I never noticed that. I'm so glad I'm not stoned right now because I will think I'm Yoda in twenty minutes. (In a stoner voice) How f***ed up is this? Look at his eyes, now look at mine? (Back to regular voice) I do a lot of meditating. I don't mean meditating like aaaaaaaahhhuuuuuuuuh, Indian style and shit. I get stoned, walk in the woods, f***in' sit down, shit comes to you man.

Speaking of being stoned, I think Aerosmith's best stuff was when they were completely stoned. Ever since they've been sober….

…they suck! Might as well hook up Britny Spears. I get it, they're making a living, so they probably don't care. A lot of my stuff I'll think about it, and then if [I] get stoned, it will open [my] mind to think about it more. There's a lot of positives to getting baked.

Do people in the audience interrupt you at your shows?

Yeah, constantly, and it's always drunks. That's why I say, stick to the weed. Drinking makes you an asshole. I don't like angry drunks. Control yourself if you're a drunk. It makes you stupid and slur your words, say stupid shit, get angry, puke, and make an ass of yourself. You're not gonna do that on weed.

What do you have coming up?

I've got a tour. October 18th I'll be at the Madison Square Garden Theater [in New York City] with Dave Chapelle. Right after the tour, I'm making a half-hour pilot, a sketch show for Comedy Central. We should do that in November/December. If it gets picked up, they're gonna give me ten episodes.

What's the scope of that gonna be?

Sort of like an updated version of the Carol Burnette Show [and] the first guy coming out is 'Heavy Metal Man.'