I’m just wondering how big of a Star he was back at his peak? Was he a household name?
shareI remember Dice SKYROCKETED to fame in the summer of 1989. He released a comedy album "Dice", which was very popular. He starred in the HBO comedy special "The Diceman Cometh", which really cemented his star status, it seemed EVERYBODY watched this special. He even had a movie from the previous year called "Casual Sex" that HBO promoted pretty heavily, not a huge hit but it still got Dice's name out there with the public even more. The man was simply on fire all through 1989 and a good chunk of 1990 when his movie "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane" was released he went on as guest host on SNL, which honestly was kind of a dud. I think Dice was so big he even did well at Madison Square Garden, probably not the main venue but one of the smaller ones but still, it's Madison Square Garden.
In short, Dice was a huge crossover star, similar to John Belushi as he was selling comedy cassettes/CD's, movie tickets, VHS sales, concert tickets, possibly even HBO subscriptions. But man, he disappeared overnight, by the summer of 1990 he was mostly forgotten. Because of political correctness Dice was considered untouchable for awhile and I think he went through several marriages, went broke, and was lucky to make somewhat of a comeback.
Maybe the first celebrity cancel culture victim to return to the mainstream?
I loved his stand up.
My friend would always come by while I was eating lunch and say What'cha got in the bowl, bitch?
It was so funny.
Ford Fairlane was amazing in its time.