Checking in with Adam Sandler

Once known as Cajun Man and Opera Man on Saturday Night Live, Adam Sandler left SNL four years ago for Hollywood. His first starring film, Billy Madison, became a cult hit. All-night Sandlerfests replayed his two X-rated albums. Were his records profane? Scatological? No. They were fucking dirty, and both went platinum. His star rose higher in 1995 when his goofy golf comedy, Happy Gilmore, shot on a $12 million budget, earned $40 million. Another film, Bulletproof, became number one at the box office. The Wedding Singer, co-starring Drew Barrymore, earned $80 million. In 1998 he released a third album, What's Your Name? Last November, The Wateroy opened with an astounding $39 million weekend. We sent freelancer Kevin Cook to talk with filmdom's newest cash cowboy.

[Q] Playboy: We heard you were hired for SNL when you humped a chair. Lorne Michaels saw you satisfy the office chair (continued on page 165)Adam Sandler(continued from page 93) and said, "Now that's funny." True?

[A] Sandler: It's true that I have humped chairs, but I auditioned for the show. So that's a lie, unless it really happened and I blocked out the memory.

[Q] Playboy: What are the highlights of your non-show business employment?

[A] Sandler: I lost a job in a drugstore for miscounting pills. Then I lied to get work as a waiter. I said I had restaurant experience, but after a couple days the manager says, "You don't know what you're doing." Demotes me to the kitchen. Now I'm working with Brazilian guys who speak only Portuguese. I kept trying to make them laugh. I took a hunk of filet mignon--before you slice it, the filet is a long piece of meat--put it up to my mouth and did Groucho Marx: "That's the most ridiculous thing I ever heard." Manager walks in and sees me. "Adam, you're fired." My next job was singing in New York subways.

[Q] Playboy: What subway stop has the best acoustics?

[A] Sandler: Christopher Street. I liked it because my friends would go by and say, "What the hell is Sandler doing now?" I'd open up my guitar case and sing Beatles tunes. You could make $20 an hour that way. When I got to $20 or $25 I'd buy food and go write some comedy.

[Q] Playboy: Ever meet a Beatle?

[A] Sandler: When Paul McCartney did Saturday Night Live we duetted on Red-Hooded Sweatshirt, one of the first songs I ever sang on the show. Well, I make a bigger deal of it than it really was. Paul just sang "Dip dip dip," but he sang the shit out of it. And Linda sang "Shama lama ding dong."

[Q] Playboy: That's one of the few Sandler tunes that doesn't get bleeped when it's played on the radio. There's a love song on your first album that goes, "Pull up my scrotum,/And take the shampoo bottle/Out of my ass./Pretend I'm the pizza delivery guy." Modern mood music?

[A] Sandler: When I tour colleges with my band we look out and see couples slowdancing to that song. It makes you feel like Johnny Mathis. I'll be singing, "Make me push my dick and balls back between my legs, call me an ugly woman," and they're gliding along together. It's demented, but touching.

[Q] Playboy: Your backup band is called the Goat Band. A goat appeared on your platinum second record: a foulmouthed goat tied to a pickup truck, looking to score some weed and concert tickets. Explain.

[A] Sandler: When I first came to Los Angeles I used to drive past a goat in Van Nuys. Every day this goat is standing in a pickup. You start to wonder--what's his story? So one night my buddies and I were driving to a Beastie Boys concert. We pass the goat and I start doing his voice: "Fuck me, I'm stuck in this truck." I decided the goat was from Europe. He gets beaten by the old man who brought him here, but the goat never gives up. He loves flowers. To me, there's an Anthony Quinn feel to him. I did five minutes of the goat on my record and the people who buy my albums--guys from 12 to 30 years old, mostly--got heavily into the goat. I had to include The Goal Song on my third album to give the goat's life story. I had to tell the whole saga so his fans could sleep at night.

[Q] Playboy: Do fans send you goat stuff?

[A] Sandler: Gibson sent me a special goat guitar to take on tour. It may be the first musical instrument shaped like a goat. I might smash it onstage sometime. But first I want to see if it's insured.

[Q] Playboy: Your records feature severe beatings of schoolteachers. How did you get the sound of the Spanish teacher's skull being smashed?

[A] Sandler: Celery. You snap a stalk of celery. We also stepped on some other vegetables.

[Q] Playboy: What do you consider to be your cinematic influences?

[A] Sandler: I have seen Caddyshack 300 times. It's the reason I got into comedy. Mel Brooks was a huge influence, too. I couldn't believe how hard my dad laughed at the 2000 Year Old Man album, and I loved anything that made my pops laugh. Young Frankenstein was the first movie I'd quote lines from. I couldn't get enough of High Anxiety and Blazing Saddles.

[Q] Playboy: Blazing Saddles' famed fart scene--right, up your alley?

[A] Sandler: There are different styles of fart jokes. On SNL we had Kevin Kline playing a fantastic lover who had a stomach problem. The guy farts and ruins the mood. It's like the farting hypnotist on my record--it's funny in context. I don't like it when the noise itself is the joke.

[Q] Playboy: Do you prize a good pee?

[A] Sandler: Always have. I remember my dad peeing when I was little. I'd respect his privacy and look the other way, but I listened. He was a big, big man. Sometimes he'd have a long, minute-and-a-half flow and then I'd high-five him. "Good pee, Dad!"

[Q] Playboy: You had a pee riff with Damon Wayans in Bulletproof. Did you do a lot of ad-libbing?

[A] Sandler: That's something guys think about. If you pee on yourself it's not so bad, but if I pee on you, that's bad. If I get an animal to pee on you, or a whole farmful of animals peeing on you all at once, that's worse.

Another ad-lib was when I said a video was "Seventies porno--you can tell because the guy's dick has sideburns." Today's porn? I'd say there's less of those nice wa-wa jams in the music, probably less drugs and more fake genitalia. But that's just a guess.

[Q] Playboy: Most of your movie comedy is sports-related. Are you a sports fan?

[A] Sandler: I met Eric Lindros recently. He's a big, tough guy. I shook his hand and the whole time I was thinking, "You're not hitting me. Thanks for not beating the piss out of me."

I think being a fan isn't healthy. It teaches you to hate the other team. But growing up I was a big Jets and Knicks fan. One of my best memories is going with my family to see the Knicks in the Walt Frazier and Earl the Pearl years. I'm a little kid at the Garden, and one night I get to shake Phil Jackson's hand. This giant hand dripping with sweat. All the way home I kept looking at my hand saying, "Wow!" But there was something weird there, too, because I was also smelling it. I'm just a kid but now there's this hardworking ballplayer odor on me. I thought, Geez, I really need to wash my hands.

[Q] Playboy: In Bulletproof, Wayans handcuffed you to a toilet after he used it. We saw your disgust in a shot from below, inside the bowl. Was it the first time a film had the P.O.V. of human feces?

[A] Sandler: I'm sure it's been done. Scorsese probably did it, but maybe it landed on the cutting room floor.

[Q] Playboy: What's your first memory of SNL?

[A] Sandler: Sitting with Tom Hanks ten seconds before the lights come up on my first skit on the air. I said, "I might faint. There is a good chance I'm going to faint." Hanks looks over, real concerned, and says, "Well, don't."

[Q] Playboy: What is your view of penisenlargement surgery?

[A] Sandler: If a guy has trouble changing in front of the boys at the golf club, there's a new tool for him. He can say, "Look here, fellows, I hit puberty late. I just turned 55 and all of a sudden it grew."

[Q] Playboy: Were you a typical college student?

[A] Sandler: No, and NYU isn't a typical college. You have no campus and no marching band. There's not much school spirit. I was a comedian in the Lee Strasberg acting program. Everyone else was pretty intense, whipping out the names of playwrights. We're all supposed to go onstage and dig out our emotions. At that time I couldn't even look another person in the eye. I'm thinking, Once I dig out my emotions, where do they go?