Bobcat Goldthwait lives in the western ‘burbs now and celebrates a new album at Lincoln Lodge
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The Chicago area is peppered with talented people and one of the latest to join this crowd is Robert Francis Goldthwait, tucked into a quiet and pleasant Western suburb. “I have come to like it very much,” he told me. “I came here three years ago after living for 35 years in California because my girlfriend wanted to be near her parents. That’s three years … Three winters and I made it through.”
Perhaps you know this person as Bobcat, a name he has carried through a more than 40-year-long career as a comic, actor, writer and director. Whatever opinion you may have of him is likely based on some of the antics and sounds that have punctuated this long career and helped to define him.
Maybe you remember him as the odd-mannered, loud, raspy-voiced character Zed of the 1980s “Police Academy” film franchise; the screeching voice, grunts and oddball manner that was his stage persona in stand-up routines in clubs and TV specials; as the opening act for such rock groups as Nirvana, or watched him set fire to “The Tonight Show” set in 1994.
“I’ve always been battling this perception people have of me,” he said. “But I can’t get upset with people if they’re only aware of a small part of my body of work.”
He has new work. He is writing. Movies are in the early stages. And he is celebrating the release of his first CD in decades, titled “Soldier for Christ” Wednesday night with a sold-out performance at the Lincoln Lodge, along with Russian American comic/actor Eugene Mirman. Proceeds from the ticket sales will benefit The Trevor Project, which provides crisis support services to LGBTQ young people.
“This is nothing like a ‘great hits’ collection,” he says. “I have been performing with some regularity at Lincoln Lodge (where the new CD was taped live) since I moved here. I had been away from stand-up for some time and realized I missed it. Even though some people come to the show wanting to see the ‘old Bobcat,’ I wasn’t interested in doing that. I’m not a nostalgia act.
“These shows aren’t polished and there’s a freedom in that. I hope a listener, an audience, can sense that I am having fun. This is the first time I am just telling stories, opening up about who I am.”
It is a fine, refreshing CD, a freewheeling collection of thoughts on politics, family, his personal life and these precarious times. You can almost hear wheels turning as he talks. “There is really something exciting while I am performing and a new thought just comes into my head and I go with it,” he said.
Goldthwait is a child of Syracuse, New York. He was a comically precocious kid, hosting performances in school to make his friends laugh and hitting the local comedy clubs by the time he was 15. He performed in the club scene in Boston and fame came quickly. He first appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman” when he was 20, about the same time he gave up booze and drugs for keeps. The next years were an almost nonstop series of sold-out shows and big-time fame.
“It all happened so fast,” he said. “It was really an exciting period. Venues always changed and so many of them. There was always a place to perform.”
He became a big hit in the “Police Academy” films but his movie resume contains a lot of good, bad and ugly. Remember 1988′s “Hot To Trot,” about a talking horse who gives investment tips? Films of his making are much better, the first that he wrote, directed and starred in was “Shakes the Clown” in 1991. He’s also directed stand-up specials and such offerings as “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
He would work with his best friend, Robin Williams, in 2009′s “World’s Greatest Dad,” which he wrote and directed. The two had met in the kitchen of a comedy club in the early 1980s and formed a bond that would last until Williams’ death in 2014.
The night before filming was to begin on that movie, Goldthwait had a small crisis of faith, wondering what might happen when he offered advice to Williams. What was he going to say? “You were in ‘Police Academy’ and I have an Academy Award?”
At eight minutes, the longest of the 21 cuts on “Soldier for Christ” is about their relationship. It is touching, tender, honest and very funny.
Much on this CD is. Goldthwait is pleased with it and his new life here.
In part, that’s because he has old friends in these parts. One is actor and writer Tim Kazurinsky who met Goldthwait when they were in the cast of “Police Academy 2.”
“I was the milquetoast lamp store owner and he was a punk gang leader mugging me at an ATM,” said Kazurinsky. “First thing he said to me was, ‘I’m gonna spray mace into my mouth ... then kiss you on the lips.’ I believe the director had no idea this was gonna happen. Thankfully, it was fake mace. And everybody on set howled. Bobcat and I have been best pals ever since.”
He talks of Goldthwait’s tender side, offering this example: “I recently worked on a new Greg Glienna film called ‘The Road Dog,’ which stars Doug Stanhope. I asked Doug if he knew my friend Bobcat. Doug said, ‘No. Never met him. But last year, when my wife was sick, near death, two deep dish pizzas arrived at my house, courtesy of Bobcat.’ Luckily, Doug’s wife is alive and well. As is my friendship with Bobcat.”
In conversation, Goldthwait was smart, reflective, frank and funny. We talked about the changing face of comedy during his career, a costume party he once attended at Prince’s house, his friendship with David Bowie and the “joy of connecting with audiences again.”
He’s had quite a life and career and is pleased to be still creatively at it.
As he put it, “I’m a VHS comic in this TikTok world.”
