Dice Rules
Seven Arts · 1991 · 87 min
A stadium-sized document of Dicemania at its absolute peak.
At the absolute peak of his fame in 1990, Andrew Dice Clay became the first stand-up to sell out Madison Square Garden for two consecutive nights. Dice Rules is the document of those shows, capturing a massive cultural phenomenon at its most polarizing. It operates as an arena spectacle of shock comedy, fueled by a crowd of 38,000 fans screaming every profane nursery rhyme right back at the stage.
The theatrical release notoriously opens with a thirty-minute narrative short called “A Day in the Life,” showing a timid, pre-fame Clay getting bullied until a studded leather jacket transforms him into the Diceman. Once it transitions to the MSG concert footage, the act leans heavily into the aggression that made him famous. The material was controversial enough that 20th Century Fox dropped the distribution, leaving it to open in just forty theaters via Seven Arts. It also became the first movie to earn an NC-17 rating strictly for language. Roger Ebert gave the film zero stars, noting the audience’s blind devotion felt closer to a fascist rally than a comedy show, and the project ultimately earned multiple Razzie nominations.
The set list
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Mocking cancer patients who have had tracheotomies
Imitates the magnified whisper and air-stream throat speech of individuals using battery-powered voice devices
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Attacking and degrading women in the audience
Delivers aggressive insult lines such as 'Hey, honey, who erased your face?' and 'Be the pig that you are'
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Opening crooning musical number
Sings a Clay original song to the arena before launching into his stand-up set
How it plays
- Tone
- Deliberately offensive, vulgar, abrasive, crude, and shocking
- On stage
- The Diceman: a cartoonishly hyper-masculine, strutting, sneering street-tough caricature clad in a studded leather jacket
- Pace
- Aggressive, woodenly recited delivery, strutting and sneering across the arena stage with rock-star bravado
- About
- Misogyny and relations with women, Physical disability and illness, Homosexuality, Ethnic and minority groups, Crude sexual behavior
What the critics said
Overwhelmingly negative; critics including Roger Ebert and Janet Maslin condemned the film as hateful, unfunny, and devoid of comedic insight, with Ebert awarding it zero stars and Gene Siskel listing it among the year's worst films
In the room: Frenzied and worshipful arena crowd pumping fists, chanting Clay's name, and treating the set as group therapy, though reviewers noted visible empty seats
Backstory
Filmed during his peak arena success; 20th Century Fox dropped the film after controversy and studio attempts to rebrand Clay, leading to distribution by Seven Arts and widespread theater chain bans by Loews and AMC over misogynistic and offensive content
Details
- Released
- Taped
- 1990, Madison Square Garden, New York City
- Runtime
- 87 min
- Where
- Seven Arts
- Director
- Jay Dubin
- Honors
- Nominated for Worst Picture at the 12th Golden Raspberry AwardsNominated for Worst Actor (Andrew Dice Clay) at the 12th Golden Raspberry AwardsNominated for Worst Screenplay (Andrew Dice Clay and Lenny Shulman) at the 12th Golden Raspberry Awards
- Topics
- Before
- The Day the Laughter Died (1990)
- After
- 40 Too Long (1992)
More from Andrew Dice Clay
-
40 Too Long
Def American Records · Album
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The Day the Laughter Died
Def American Records · Album