Andrew Dice Clay is back on tour — and he’s got something to say about anti-vaxxers

After a one-hour conversation with Andrew Dice Clay last year where we covered every topic but the theory of relativity, there was still a question that I did not ask.

“What do you think of the #MeToo movement?” I asked the comedian on the phone recently.

“Yeah, I’m not answering that,” he said. “I just really don’t want to give away anything that may be in my act.”

That doesn’t mean the subject is guaranteed when Clay takes the stage. It doesn’t mean it won’t.

No comic ever received more visibility for using women as a subject like Clay did back in the late ’80s and early ’90s. While his routine has changed considerably since then, he’s still a comic who doesn’t go by a set list for a show.

Everything is in bounds, “It really just depends on the crowd,” he said.

Take the COVID vaccine, and specifically those people who refuse to take it.

“It’s just dumb, it’s how I look at it,” he said. “Talking to friends of mine, they got the offshoot of the fungus. It’s like a bad virus.

“You know, we took a flu shot, and we all grew up with that. Now this is a lot harder to understand because we are all going through this together. Something like this hasn’t happened since 1918.

“I don’t know why people fight it. ‘I’m not getting this or that,’ or whatever. Half get it, and half don’t. Let’s just get rid of it.”

Having attended his show at Gilley’s last September in Dallas he is not the same comic who 25 years ago blasted audiences with his trademark four-letter filled nursery rhymes and his often blistering take on women.

Clay, 63, is more of a conventional comic now who sounds like he has rehearsed nothing, but obviously has. His voice, that Brooklyn accent, timing and fearlessness with an audience set him apart from other comics, and it makes him perfect for smaller clubs.

He is currently touring throughout the country, and will be at Hyena’s Comedy Night Club in Fort Worth on Aug. 17 and 18.

He’s also not just standing on stage collecting a check because he can’t think of anything else to do. He still sounds like a guy who wants to prove it, and earn it.

“I probably told you the last time, ‘I say I am the greatest but then you have to go on stage and actually prove it,’” he said in a phone interview. “It’s like Muhammad Ali, how many times was he the champ’? I always liked him because of his boldness and his personality.

“If you are going to say you are the greatest, you have to prove it.”

Quantifying who is the world’s greatest comic is a fool’s errand.

But Clay has lasted for decades in an industry where fame is often measured in 15-minute increments.

There is a film crew following him around for a documentary on his life called Behind the Leather. It should be out next year.

“I said, ‘Just pay me a ton of money and I’ll do it.’ They made me an offer and I said double it, and the next day they did,” he said. “It’s going to take longer to do the contract than to make the movie.

“You know, my business is great when I’m on stage, but it’s a pain in the ass.”

And just like that the Dice Man is off. Off to another show.

He’s not sure what the topics will be, but he knows nothing is off limits.