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| Diamond in the rough Actor spills 'Saved by the Bell' secrets, shares memories The Daily Orange Dana Moran November 17, 2004 Dustin Diamond advocates the legalization of marijuana. No, really - Screech, the nerdy kid from "Saved by the Bell," said that pot is not an aggressive drug, and that it's better than alcohol. "I'd like just once - once in my life - to see someone smoke pot and hit an old lady over the head with a bag of quarters," he said. The stage is Diamond's soapbox, his form of therapy, and last night in Goldstein Auditorium he made full use of it. Diamond, whose appearance was sponsored by Hillel, didn't turn the evening into a night of standup comedy or a masquerade of his "Saved by the Bell" character. From the beginning of his act, Diamond made no bones about the fact that he's not Screech, from his goatee to his use of expletives. He even parodied the crowd, saying that this was not the show they expected. And for many audience members, this prediction came true. "I thought it was OK," said Arielle Smith, a junior fashion design major. "I wasn't really sure what to expect. He kind of talked a lot about himself, but not in a good way. It was awkward to see Screech not be Screech." But Diamond did make plenty of references to the show and some of his ex co-stars, especially Dennis Haskins, who played Mr. Belding and spoke at SU on Sunday. "How many of you came out when you had Dennis Haskins, Mr. Belding here?" he asked, garnering a cheer from many audience members. "It's kinda freaky, isn't it? Woah, it's the chief. He's huge." Though Diamond insulted Haskins' size, he said the two were a great comedic team. On "Saved by the Bell: The New Class," they often saved the show with their relationship; Haskins as the straight man, Diamond as the bumbling comedian. He compared their matchup to duos such as Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello, and said they were always known as the sure thing on the show. "It's all the magic and chemistry that makes comedy work," he said. "All the ingredients and elements are there." Haskins and Diamond started their work together during the original "Saved by the Bell" when Diamond was just 11 years old. He said that at the time, he wasn't thinking about being typecast or what he wanted to do in the future, only that he was a performer and liked being in front of the audience. The money didn't hurt either, especially when the show moved into prime time during "Saved by the Bell: The College Years." Since they worked together for years, Diamond and his fellow cast members got to know each other very well through fights, love triangles and all the ups and downs of adolescence. He said the cast got along like brothers and sisters, but because it was made up of young teenagers, the romantic relationships on screen tended to match what was going on in real life. However, Diamond tended to stay out of them. "I dated a lot of the extras, a lot of the background people, because they changed every week," he said. Diamond's heard the gamut of rumors about the cast, from Zach's beheading in a motorcycle accident to Diamond's family ties to Neil Diamond and Mike D. from the Beastie Boys. He said he's gotten to the point where he's tired of denying rumors and just started admitting to them - so now he can claim he's broken up with Tara Reid and Candace Cameron. But he said the weirdest ones have involved his own demise, including being found drugged out on heroin in a Tennessee backwoods hut, and facedown in a random hotel bathtub. Audience members were eager to learn Diamond's favorite episode of the show, which he said was the prank episode, since every day on set was like work and that episode gave the cast a chance to goof off. While most of the practical jokes didn't cause any physical damage, Diamond played one on Mario Lopez, who played A.C. Slater, involving Ex-Lax in a chocolate milkshake, that definitely taught Lopez a lesson about stealing other people's food. Another member of the crowd asked Diamond if it was hard to stand still when Zack (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), called time-outs during the show, calling a halt to the action behind him. Diamond said listening to Zack's complaining was much more difficult than freezing in place. "Dude, you can stop time, you're gonna be fine," he said. "If I could stop time, I would poop on people I didn't like." Following Diamond's act, many students left the auditorium wondering what exactly they had just experienced. "I didn't see a point to his speech," said Marc Serber, a sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences. "I didn't find a message." Other students, however, were just happy to have seen their "Saved by the Bell" hero in real life. Sarah Gavish, a freshman art design major, gabbed excitedly with her friends as she left with her signed Polaroid photo of the group with Diamond. "He was really, really funny - funnier than I expected him to be," Gavish said. "He was more down to earth and seemed like someone I could hang out with." |
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