Interview: Nick Di Paolo — Patriot and a Comic

I’ve been a fan of Comedian Nick Di Paolo ever since seeing him on Comedy Central’s “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn“ some 7 or 8 years ago. His humor was cutting, politically incorrect, and truthful. In fact, it’s been through listening to Di Paolo that I’ve learned that good comedy is funny because it’s based on truth.

However, Di Paolo has another quality which may be even more valuable than his ability to make people laugh, and that’s his love for this country. He supports the troops, he believes in “American Exceptionalism,” and he understands the dangers that lurk behind the current administration’s attempts to Europeanize the United States of America. Thus it goes without saying that it was a thrill for me to interview Di Paolo for BigHollywood, as it presented me with an opportunity to enjoy the best of two worlds: one of stomach-cramping laughs and one of pride in America.

AWR: Compared to other people in the entertainment industry, your views are often labeled conservative or libertarian. Did something happen in your life that drove you toward a more patriotic position – a greater appreciation for this country – or have you always held such convictions?

Di Paolo: That’s a good question because I grew up in the Boston area, which makes my views even more interesting. Maybe I was just rejecting liberalism more than most because I was sick of seeing Ted Kennedy speak on the local news? (Di Paolo laughs) Actually, it wasn’t a conscience effort. I was just raised the right way and, in addition to that, the left’s views don’t make any sense to me. Evidence seems to refute everything they believe in.

Ultimately, I guess I didn’t let television or my college education get in the way of clear thinking.

AWR: Although you grew up in the Boston area, you’re in New York now. And since you’re now not only a proud American but also a New Yorker, I think readers of Big Hollywood would like to know how September 11, 2001, impacted you? 

Di Paolo: I was living on the top story of a building in Queens when that happened. I had a fog-glassed window in my bathroom that I usually kept open, but when I got up to use the bathroom around 9 or 9:30 on the morning on September 11, my girlfriend had closed the window. Anyway, I went back to bed and slept until about 11:30 in the morning, like a typical comedian.  When I finally got up, I had about 20 messages on my answering machine, all of which were directing me to turn on the television and see what had happened.

After seeing the scenes on the television, I ran into my bathroom and opened that fog-glass window, because I used to see the World Trade towers out of it. But when I opened it, all I saw were black plumes of smoke. I was in shock.

A lot of comedians in New York used to make jokes about Middle Eastern cab drivers being terrorists and stuff, which some of them were. And I remember on the night of September 12^th, just one night after the attacks, I heard Middle Eastern music coming in from outside so I looked out my window and there was a Middle Eastern guy with his cab parked in the middle of my street, with all four doors open, and he was dancing – celebrating – the destruction of the twin towers. I was so angry that my hands shook, but I knew that if I went down and confronted him I’d be the one they threw in jail.

To see him dancing and celebrating made me sick. But it helped me realize that they were here: that the enemy was among us.

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AWR: I’ve always recognized that a problem with liberalism is that it ties men’s hands so that they can’t be men. In a better world, one without the constraints of liberalism and the subsequent concern over giving offense, you could have gone down and confronted him for standing on American soil and celebrating the deaths of 3,000 Americans.

Di Paolo: Absolutely. And now that Obama’s been in office I’ve noticed the pressure to be politically correct, to be nice to our enemies, etc., is bigger than left and right. It’s bigger than Democrat vs. Republican. I don’t know who’s pulling the strings, but while they ask us to turn the other cheek somebody wants to turn this great country in a socialist failure like we see in other parts of the world.

And is there a country out there that likes us? I’m so sick of reading about how Putin or Hugo Chavez or the Palestinians or Europe is badmouthing us. Nobody has anything good to say about this country, and it seems like Obama is a dream come true for these people because he’s more than happy to help them execute their plans.

But what people don’t understand is that this country, with capitalism and all, was never meant to be like the rest of the world. We’ve got all these socialists pushing equality but they’ve failed to grasp the fact that in our country, a country with true liberty, some people are going to soar higher than others. Things weren’t meant to be equal.

Yet people don’t seem to understand that. Instead they want us all to live in mediocrity.

AWR: Moving away from strictly political questions, let me tee one up for you by asking who, in Hollywood, is really getting under your skin right now?

Di Paolo: It’s so funny. I’m in the business a little bit, but I’m not as big a player in Hollywood as I’d like to be. So I’m just sick of the same people that everyone else is sick of.  People like Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, who really aren’t in the news that much anymore, or Sting and Sir Paul McCartney.  (Di Paolo laughs) I call him “Miss” Paul McCartney. Every time I hear McCartney blabbing I think to myself: “Why is that stupid old lady talking? He’s not even from here.”

Of course there’s Rosie O’Donnell, who I actually met while doing “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn” and I wanted to like her. But then I heard her come out and say that one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter and that was that.

And there’s Alec Baldwin, but he’s different for me. His politics make me sick but I think I’d like him if I met him. Remember, I’m a guy who tells jokes for a living and I’ve got to admit that Baldwin is hilarious. He’s funny in movies and when he’s on shows like David Letterman. And this goes to the point that I’m not like people on the left. I find that people on the left, if they don’t agree with your politics, they’ll hate you personally. I can separate the two. But I find they seem to have trouble separating them.

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AWR: I’m thinking about the fact that you don’t hide your atypical Hollywood convictions, and I wonder if there’s a certain one of those convictions that, when you bring it up in your performances, draws a warmer applause than expected?  For instance, are their people who wouldn’t laugh at Obama two years ago who are now busting out laughing every time you bring him up?

Di Paolo: It’s definitely become easier over the last year or so to make fun of Obama, all because he’s done such a horrendous job.  And what I’ve learned more than anything is that when I do jokes that push the envelope a little bit, either racially or in the arena of political correctness, the people who get quiet are the white people in the audience. It’s funny, when I talk about black people or illegal immigrants or whatever, those people are laughing, but the white people are silent because 30 years of politically correct television has brainwashed them.

What the white people who sit silently at my shows don’t understand is that I don’t hate Obama personally.  I just hate what he stands for politically, because I believe in “American Exceptionalism.” But there seems to be a concerted effort against this country from within, and there are even some Republicans in on it.

AWR: I was doing some research on Keith Olbermann this morning. Particularly looking at the way he lambasted George W. Bush for playing golf while we were at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet he has fallen silent when it comes to criticizing Obama for playing golf while we are still at war in both those places, with illegal immigrants pouring into Arizona and oil washing up on the shores of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. What do you say to people like Olbermann (and other entertainers) who were so eager to go after Bush but are giving Obama a pass for the same things they criticized in Bush?

Di Paolo: These people have no moral compass. Zero. They are so arrogant. And it’s hard for me to judge Olbermann in particular because I saw him twice and I almost threw up. He’s such an arrogant dork that I haven’t watched him anymore.

See, I’ve criticized people on the left because they haven’t listened to Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin but I can see their point sometimes, if they feel as strongly about Limbaugh and Levin as I do about Olbermann. However, the kind of hypocrisy seen in Olbermann is not something I see that much on right. It’s something that usually characterizes the left. I’m not saying someone can’t find a few cases of such arrogance on the right, but such cases aren’t the norm. People on the left are just so arrogant. They think they’re so much more enlightened because they went to an Ivy League school or whatever.

And Olbermann is such a blowhard. Like others on the left, he is so closed-minded. When you meet someone on the right that’s close-minded that’s one thing, but it’s the people on the left who claim we ought to be so open minded and liberal, and then they turn out to be so close-minded and intolerant of other ideas.

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AWR: If I’ve learned anything about the left it’s that they’re tolerant of everything except the things they won’t tolerate.

Di Paolo: Exactly.

AWR: Last question. What do you think about actors and actresses in Hollywood who were so outspoken against the War on Terror under Bush yet, in a throw back to the Vietnam War, continued to cover their own liberal butts by giving lip service to the idea that they somehow still supported the troops?

Di Paolo: I laugh at the notion that you can be for the troops but against the war. How can you be for the troops but against the war? That’s like saying I like tomato sauce but I’m not for tomatoes. It makes no sense. It’s just another way for them to talk out of both sides of their mouths.

I watch those Sunday morning news shows and I don’t know if it’s just my imagination or what, but it seems to be very difficult to get a straight answer out of liberals. When asked something, they immediately evade the question or begin rationalizing, as when they say, “I support the troops but oppose the war” or whatever.

Liberals can say they support the troops all they want, but they’re probably not going to go up to a soldier in an airport and thank them. I just really don’t believe that’s something they would do.

AWR: You are so right on. Thanks again for taking time out of your schedule to talk to me for BigHollywood.

Di Paolo: It was my pleasure.

Readers of BigHollywood who was to learn more about Nick Di Paolo and his upcoming appearances can do so by going to his website, www.nickdip.com.