Asked where he gets the shrill, whiny voice that is his comic trademark, Gilbert Gottfried gives a punchline response.
"It comes from my diaphragm."
And why is the familiar nasal drone absent during the telephone interview about his upcoming London appearance at Yuk Yuk's?
"It's my day off," explains the surprisingly soft-spoken Gottfried.
The Brooklyn, N.Y. native who, at age 16, started doing stand-up routines at small clubs "for no money," now stars on Hollywood Squares and is a regular on late-night talk shows and the North American comedy club circuit.
"I never had any big career plan or goals when I started out. Things just sort of happened by accident. What was the attraction of comedy? Ya got me. I just thought I was too stupid to do anything else."
He has no desire to follow the example of his fellow comics -- the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne, Ellen Degeneres and Tim Allen -- who became stars of their own sitcoms.
"Nah. I'd rather do guest shots on other people's shows. It's a lot less work and you don't get blamed for anything."
Nor does the funny man have any ambitions to do serious acting, "though maybe I could play a gunshot patient on ER."
Gottfried first drew wide public notice as a cast member of Saturday Night Live.
"I was the only person in the history of that show who didn't do drugs with John Belushi," recalls the performer, who was actually in SNL's 1980-'81 ensemble led by Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo.
That TV exposure led to movie offers for Gottfried, who became dubbed the "King of Quirky Roles." He was cast as an eccentric accountant in Murphy's Beverly Hills Cop II; the maniacal shock jock in The Adventures of Ford Fairlane; the obnoxious adoption agent in Problem Child and Problem Child II and he has played an assortment of amusing and annoying characters.
The comedian supplied his voice for Iago, the wisecracking parrot in the animated 1992 Disney hit film Aladdin and its 1996 follow-up, Aladdin & The King of Thieves, and calls those assignments "my biggest movie moments."
Gottfried has also starred in two of his own Cinemax TV specials, Caught in the Act and Greetings from Gilbert and was nominated for an Ace Award for hosting Up All Night, a USA Network show featuring B-movies.
Though he's made a living portraying an impish, fast-talking malcontent, the off-stage Gottfried is unassuming and self-effacing.
"I was in Los Angeles last week in a cab taking me from a taping of Hollywood Squares to my hotel. The driver asked me how I was doing. I began complaining about the lousy day I was having. Then it occurred to me. 'Hey! I just got paid a nice bit of money for doing five little jokes on a TV show. What do I have to complain about?' "
The comedian returns to his cynical pose when detailing the game plan for his London appearance.
"It will be my usual show. I'll spend the first five minutes trying, and failing, to say something funny. Then, somebody in the crowd will get mad and throw a chair at me. A big brawl will break out and the whole club will have to be cleared."
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