David Spade took the time to succeed, no matter how slowly
Mirage headliner David Spade’s new movie role is the opposite of his real life as a movie star/ladies’ man.
In Netflix’s “The Do-Over” (premiering May 27), Spade portrays a regular guy who squandered his potential and became an unhappy bank manager.
In real life, Spade was a high school nerd, turned community college dropout, who slowly earned great fame.
“I was always in chess clubs, and spelling bees,” he says. “I was a nerdy numbers guy that could have gone on to be a very solid accountant or bank manager.”
What happened?
Spade, raised in Arizona, saw a stand-up comedy show at age 18. A month later, he tried his first gig as a comedian, which convinced him to pursue it full time.
“It wasn’t even that big of a gamble, because I had nothing. I was just broke, and going to Scottsdale Community College when I started. The future wasn’t looking great,” Spade says.
“I think I made $80 a week, and that covered my meager little bills,” he says. “I said, ‘OK, I can quit my job and school, and just do this. If I can do this for $80 or $100 a week, then I’m successful, because I’m doing what I like.”
It helped that he was young and uncluttered by expectations from friends or family, since his mother was always working, and his friends didn’t care.
“I didn’t have a lot of haters to keep me down. That might be the key,” he says. “When you’re older, everyone’s like, ‘You’re going to throw away your job at Bennigan’s?’ It’s like, ‘Oh, how dare I.’”
Spade, 51, told himself he’d try comedy a year, and if it didn’t work out, he might go into advertising.
“My advice to people who give it a year: If you like it, don’t put on that time constraint. Just say, ‘I’m doing it for my life,’ because a year later, I was doing 2 percent better, not 90.”
A year after that, he was doing “4 percent better.”
“It takes a long time,” he says.
Spade just kept plugging along, eventually leading him to “Saturday Night Live,” “Just Shoot Me” and “Rules of Engagement” on TV, and the movies “Joe Dirt,” “Grown Ups” and this latest Adam Sandler-produced “The Do-Over.”
On Friday and Saturday, Spade and Ray Romano will put on a double-bill show in The Mirage hotel ($69-$87).
By the way, the job he quit to go into comedy was working in a clothing store with his brother Andy and his wife, the future fashion designer Kate Spade.
“Just picture that store,” Spade says. “They spun the clothing store off into millions, and I spun this off into stand-up.”
He rejects his reputation for pairing up with female sex symbols.
“Oh yeah. Look at me go. I’m a real DiCaprio. They’re all nipping at my heels,” Spade snarks about his mating success, despite former relationships with women such as Heather Locklear, Lara Flynn Boyle, Tara Reid and Playmate Jillian Grace, with whom he shares a daughter.
When I confront his humility, he says, “I mean, sometimes, it falls into place.”
FILTER NO FAN OF KANYE
Filter’s Richard Patrick has been known for sing-screaming “Hey Man, Nice Shot” for 21 years, and he still yells in songs, even though he’s happier than ever.
“If I wanted to write like how I felt now, everything would sound like ‘A Beautiful Day’ by U2,” he tells me.
“I would literally, constantly be (singing), ‘I can’t believe my daughter’s doing good in school. Yeah, it’s great! I’m doing a movie score, and it’s working! … And they’re paying me!”
Well, wait. He says he’s happy, but he still belts out his upsetness about the world on Filter’s new album, “Crazy Eyes,” because the other side of Richard Patrick exists, too, the political, atheist talker whose stomach was turned by Ted Cruz.
“‘Fight the Power’ by Public Enemy is the (kind of) rap I listen to,” and not Kanye West with his Kim-Kardashian-on-the-back-of-a-motorcycle pose, Patrick, 48, says.
“I don’t (expletive) care how great you are, Kanye. To me, you’re just some (expletive) guy who puts rhymes together. Big (expletive) deal. You’re nothing. You’re not saying anything,” Patrick says to Kanye through me.
“We don’t have to mention his name on the record,” the Massachusetts native says before immediately reversing that reservation and saying, “Mention it. That’s my thing. I’ve always been outspoken. I don’t hold back.”
So yeah. Patrick can be happy with his wife and children, yet upset with the world.
“Believe me, there’s a lot of happiness in my music, but I still want to make (the world) better, make it right, in my lyrics,” he says.
Not all metal singers are as forthright as this, he says.
“I see bands, and they’re just (expletive) evil. They’re like, ‘I’ve got my car, and I made this much money, and all I do is talk about how sad I am, haha.’ There’s a lot of disingenuous (music) out there.”
Why would disingenuous people go into metal?
“If you look at the research, heavy metal has the most loyal fans,” he says.
Filter rocks Brooklyn Bowl Wednesday with Orgy, Vampires Everywhere, and Death Valley High ($20).
WATER, WATER
Carlos Santana and reps from the House of Blues on Monday delivered 8,400 bottles of water, and 500 refillable water pouches, during a water drive for the homeless community of the Las Vegas Rescue Mission.
Santana moved to Las Vegas in 2009 to become a resident performer, and he has been active in local charities, especially assisting homeless people, ever since. His band performs at the House of Blues on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and other days through May.
The Mission typically houses 120 to 150 people in dorms and helps many find jobs, classes and addiction recovery.
SIGHTINGS
Brazil’s retired soccer hero Ronaldinho, after playing a Saturday game at Sam Boyd Stadium, partied Saturday night at Wynn’s new Intrigue nightclub, a day after partying at Encore Beach Club.
DJ Kygo sprung out in song while playing piano during an invite-only VIP opening of Tao Group’s new Beauty & Essex restaurant-bar in The Cosmopolitan hotel on Saturday. Among stars there during a JetSmarter promotion: Anthony Mackie, Derek Hough, Ellen Pompeo, Shanina Shaik, Jaime King, and Jermaine Dupri.
“Cupcake Wars’” Jonathan Bennett, who played Lindsey Lohan’s crush in “Mean Girls,” took family and friends to Sunday brunch in the Palazzo’s Lavo. He’s in town rehearsing to be in the upcoming summer “Baz” show in the Palazzo. Foodie alert: He ate oysters, grilled tuna and mac and cheese.
Doug Elfman can be reached at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman. On Twitter: @VegasAnonymous
