Jim Breuer’s career is more than half baked. Best known as “Goat Boy” on Saturday Night Live and his starring role in the 1998 cult-stoner Half Baked, comedian Jim Breuer is proud to say that he’s (legally) grown his career beyond the realm of farm animals and inebriates.
Two years ago, Breuer decided to leave his Carlin influences behind in favor a more Cosby-esque approach, writing comedy that appealed to a family audience – in other words, the audience Half Baked fans became.
Breuer’s current stand-up tour, "Cheaper Than Therapy," at the Tampa Improv April 23, centers around his real-life experiences — those of being a father to three little girls (“That’s a kid’s job once they start walking — just looking for death”) and husband to a slightly larger one. Now living in “Bumfuck, New Jersey,” Breuer says inspiration also comes from the deer that poop all over his yard and his experience of caring for two elderly parents.
But despite the mind-altering habits of his past, not all is lost from Jim’s former self. He still rocks out, still talks to Metallica, and still tints the windows of his minivan.
CL: If James Hetfield (of Metallica) was a dog, what kind of dog would he be and why?
Jim Breuer: Oh, he’d be a … probably a black German Shepard, because it’s something that looks like it’s loyal, faithful, honorable, but yet can chew you to pieces at any moment if you cross him or any one of his family, or anyone that’s around him.
Do you have that reverential fear when you’re standing in front of him, like, “Oh God, if I say the wrong thing he’s going to rip me to shreds like a dog?”
Yeah, he definitely has that. When I first met him, my first impression was — yeah, exactly, there’s that black German Shepard. If I make the wrong move, I can get snapped at.
This article appears in Apr 14-20, 2010.
