Bobcat Goldthwait will just keep doing what he wants, with great results

“I’ve just always kind of done what I wanted to do on a lot of levels and I don’t think people can understand that, and I don’t care that they don’t.”

Bobcat Goldthwait is more than just the guy from Police Academy, I assure you. Despite what some people may think to the contrary.

“I was in Fort Wayne and a guy yelled up this weekend during my set because I don’t think he liked my politics,” recalls Goldthwait over Zoom during a recent interview. “And he yelled out ‘The only thing people know you from is Police Academy and that was 35 years ago” which is all true. But it doesn’t mean I’m not happy (Laughs). I don’t think it hurt me as much as the guy was hoping it would.”

“If I hadn’t had a career making movies, even if it was really small and only a handful of people are aware of it, I think that would have really hurt. But I know the truth.”

The truth is that Goldthwait is managing to keep very busy these days. A few years ago, he moved from California to a suburb of Chicago, where he is now the self-proclaimed “King of DuPage County.” Once he moved, he started doing a weekly show at Chicago’s famed Lincoln Lodge. It was during these shows – which often featured stream of consciousness discussions from Goldthwait – that he started to formulate a new hour.

Last week, Goldthwait released a new stand-up album, Soldier For Christ. The album came about because Goldthwait’s friend, Eugene Mirman, asked him if he wanted to do an album on his new label, PGF Records, which is distributed by Sub Pop Records. But Goldthwait didn’t want to do his road act for the album. He didn’t want to do an album that was just his tightest “greatest hits”. He wanted to have fun with it.

On the album, Goldthwait has taken on a different form of stand-up than what he’s done before. Goldthwait wanted to do more of a storytelling type format. The album features stories of Bobcat Goldthwait’s life, including moving to Chicago, an infamous run-in with Nickelback while directing Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and his relationship with his persona.

That persona – you know, the one where Goldthwait screams at the top of his lungs – has long-been retired, much to the chagrin of some fans who may come to his shows and expect him to still be that guy. Fans will approach him and ask him to either do the voice or will do the voice to him. Once, he even had a doctor tell him “You Know, I do an impression of you,” right before surgery.

“It’s funny that did happen,” recalls Goldthwait with a laugh. “That happens a fair amount and it’s done with enthusiasm and love. They’re not trying to be an asshole, I think they think I’ll yell back like a mating call or something but the only times it seems to happen though is when I’m a captive audience, like I couldn’t get up (Laughs).”

“Kimmel, that’s his favorite joke,” Goldthwait adds. “When I would be directing the show and use the voice of god mic during a commercial, I’d talk to him and he’d just go, ‘Do the voice!’”

As we talk over Zoom, I can’t help but notice his background. It is something from pop culture heaven. It’s a mix of wonderfully random artifacts – he shows off a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots set and Tales From The Crypt artwork – and posters of some of his own films, including Sleeping Dogs Lie and Call Me Lucky. He does have a Shakes the Clown poster, which like so much in Goldthwait’s life, has a fun story attached to it.

When Goldthwait relocated a few years ago to a house in the woods, it was only then that he finally gave into the pressure to hang up posters of his own work. Only thing was, he didn’t have a poster for Shakes the Clown. So he went on eBay, bought the poster, then took the poster to get it framed without ever looking at it. Once he got it back, he realized he spent $40 on his own autograph.

Speaking of autographs, should you ever see Goldthwait and want him to sign your Police Academy poster, you may be in for an unexpected surprise.

“I’ll let you in on a secret,” he admits with a laugh, moving closer to the camera as he is ready to let me in on said secret. “If you give me a Police Academy thing to sign, I haven’t spelled my name correctly in years on a Police Academy thing.”

Despite his initial reluctance to hang up posters of his directing work, it was Goldthwait’s work as a filmmaker that sort of breathed new life into his career and allowed him to be much more than that guy from the 80’s that screams. Every piece of work he puts out – particularly 2009’s World’s Greatest Dad with Robin Williams and 2012’s God Bless America – have infused within them Goldthwait’s signature brand of dark comedy. He has mastered the art form of the modern dark comedy, having audience members on the edge of their seats in a way that invokes cringe, but you also can’t look away.

“If I did have a bit of a formula,” he says of his approach to directing, “you go into the movie and kind of have expectations of what you’re gonna see and then midway it shifts, you know?”

He continues, “Like you go see Call Me Lucky and you think it’s gonna be a documentary about this comedians’ comedian you’ve never heard of. And then it just takes this whole shift and you learn about Barry taking on pedophiles online and ending up on the floor of the senate. So I like that. I like people thinking ‘Oh it will be this kind of film,’ and it changes. I also like to dig a hole at the beginning and try to get myself out of it.”

It all makes sense that Goldthwait should have turned out to be such a great director, having been such a film buff going all the way back to his childhood. Mel Brooks was an early influence. He had been a fan of the 200 Year Old Man albums, but after seeing Young Frankenstein, he went right back to the counter to buy another ticket. The only other films that have caused him to do that are What We Do in the Shadows and Everything Everywhere All At Once. The combination of those three films having mesmerized Goldthwait should tell you everything you need to know about him right there.

As we’re talking about films, I mention that my favorite of his work would be World’s Greatest Dad. The film sort of explores how we re-examine people after they’re gone. In the case of the film, you’ve got a perverted high school student that nobody likes. When he’s dead, he becomes beloved, with everyone in school wearing his picture on their shirt.

Goldthwait directed Robin Williams in the film, who was Goldthwait’s best friend dating back to the 1980’s, when they met in the kitchen of a comedy club in Boston. After reading the script with the part of the principal in mind, Williams instead asked to play the lead.

“In the middle of Worlds Greatest Dad, I came up with this idea that Robins’ looking at porn at a newstand and he starts crying and Krist Novoselic from Nirvana ends up playing the newstand guy,” Goldthwait shares with me. “Since I was in Seattle, I called Kris up saying I wanted him in the movie because he’s funny. What I didn’t know is that he had moved from Seattle and he flew his private plane in. So I say to Robin ‘We don’t have a permit for this scene.’ And he’s like ‘What do we do?’ So I go, ‘Run!’ (Laughs).”

It was this story that had Williams refer to Goldthwait as ‘Bob Wood,’ a tip of the hat to the notorious guerrilla filmmaker Ed Wood.

“I said to him ‘You can’t make art in a mansion,’ Goldthwait continues. “He goes, ‘So what does that mean? I have to get rid of my mansion?’ I go ‘No, no. You’re just gonna have to stay in a chain quality hotel while we make this movie.’ And he said he could do that.”

Goldthwait has made it a goal to work with his friends as much as possible. As mentioned before, Eugene Mirman put out his new album. On that album is two songs that he recorded with his best friend since 6, Tom Kenny, who is perhaps best known for his work as a voice actor. These were songs that they recorded when they were 16 that used to get airplay on a local radio station in Syracuse. Goldthwait recently asked the DJ, Dave Frisina, if he still had any of their songs. He did, and so they wound up on the album.

The idea of working with friends is a parallel, Goldthwait says, with another old friend, Adam Sandler. Goldthwait has known Sandler – who co-stars in Shakes the Clown – for years, and he even opened for Sandler recently in Kansas City.

Like Sandler, Goldthwait always goes out of his way to work with his friends on his various projects.

“In a way I take his model to an extent,” Goldthwait adds. “Critics will attack my movies, but it’s like it doesn’t matter. I’m gonna make another one. You can’t stop me. I feel like Adam is like that too.”

Goldthwait is indeed as busy as he says. The week before we spoke, he had just completed work on three different scripts. One, he teases, involves aliens. Simultaneously, he will keep doing stand-up dates all throughout the country. If you see him, though, please just don’t ask him to do the voice.