| Tell Me A little Q&A The Buffalo News Mark Ciemcioch July 22, 2005 His name is Dustin Diamond, but you may know him better as Screech, the ubergeek on the late kids' series "Saved by the Bell." His take on one of pop culture's most memorable nerds is one of the many topics Diamond riffs on in his stand-up comedy act, which continues at 8 and 10:30 tonight and Saturday night in at the WitzEnd Comedy Club, 117 W. Chippewa St. Call 854-2853. "I guarantee a great show," Diamond said by phone this week. "I don't disappear after the show either. I'll come out, take Polaroids, and for $50, people can kick me in the junk. It's a good time, but no cleats." In addition to comedy, he also dished what happened after Ron "Horshack" Palillo told Diamond not to punch him in the face on "Celebrity Boxing 2" and why there may be a potential market for "Celebrity Chess Showdown." How did you get into stand-up comedy? Comedy has always been a favorite of mine. Most people in this line of work start up in stand-up comedy and then work their way into movies and TV. I was in TV first, and so it seemed a logical progression to reinvent myself after the show ended. I could write my own material and go up there to pay my dues in starting a new craft. Obviously, after doing 10 years of "Saved by the Bell," people are going to have me as that character pretty imbedded in their minds. Screech is a geek icon. What are the pros and cons of being known as Screech? Believe it or not, there really aren't a lot of cons, so it's mostly pros. People know me, and it opened a lot of doors for me. I guess the only cons would be that most people in the entertainment industry want to be huge and famous. Guys like Corey Feldman and Corey Haim were hot for a while, and now people can't stand them. They have nothing else they can do other than the little piece of acting they did. That's one of the biggest cons of the entertainment industry - you can be loved and forgotten quickly, so you constantly have to reinvent yourself. You've had an interesting career path, as you've involved yourself into stand-up comedy, professional wrestling and chess tutorials. I had a couple of professional wrestling matches that I was involved in, but I was never a professional wrestler. I was a fan back in the heyday, and it was what it was. As far as the chess goes, I'm a chess master. I've done a lot of work with inner-city kids who don't have male figures in their lives. Maurice Ashley, a grandmaster in chess, started the Harlem Chess Center, where they get celebrities to spend times with the kids. There's a lot of strong celebrity chess players out there that don't tout it very much (like) Peter Falk, Drew Carey, Wu Tang Klan and Will Smith. How difficult was it to knock out Horshack? I don't like those reality shows. I've turned them down a bunch of times, but then I said, "This could be funny. This could be really funny." They wouldn't tell me who they would pair me with, so I thought it was Urkel. They said it wasn't him, so I wanted Bea Arthur. They said Horshack. The guy was not friendly at all. I'm thinking we can make this good TV by chasing each other around. Ron Palillo sucker punches me right off the bat. I'm trying to avoid his face, like he said, and he pops me right in the chin. Now I'm thinking he must have slipped. I let it go and he pops me again. I gave him a love tap back, and he spun around looking like he wanted to eat my kids. |
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