Spring Break with Rodney Dangerfield,Daytona Beach

Taking Rodney Dangerfield, the bug-eyed tie fidgeting comedian who cracked up audiences for decades with his self-deprecating “no respect” style of rapid fire one liners to Spring Break in Daytona for a week of publicity for his movie “Ladybugs” was a true adventure.

Arriving from Los Angeles on the Paramount jet to Daytona, I took Rodney up to his room, a huge penthouse on the ocean.   There was a large veranda that could hold fifty people, a sunken living room with a full bar, a dining room table which could seat twenty, a king-size bed and the largest bathroom I’ve ever seen.

As he walked up the marble stairs from the bed to a jacuzzi that could hold ten people, a steam shower and whatever else you could hope to find in a first-class hotel room, he asked to see my room.

On a different floor, I had a mini suite that was small but had an ocean view. Once in the room Rodney said “I’ll take it” as I explained that Paramount had paid for his suite months in advance at two grand a night.    He said, “Don’t tell Paramount. Dave, you take my room, I’ll take yours. I’ll kill myself at night climbing those stairs to that bathroom.”

I asked him if he needed anything” he said “yeah two things, I need a bag of weed with rolling papers and two cases of Poland Spring water.”

My mind was spinning with all the trouble I could get into with his palace for a week, as I quickly made one phone call to my good friend, Ron Rice, the owner of Hawaiian Tropic Suncare.   He lived just down the beach from here, so I explained to Ron that I was throwing a party for Rodney.

Well, my lucky 10 guy friends that I invited to the party went crazy, as over sixty Hawaiian Tropic girls started to come through the door.  They loved the odds.

As the party raged on.  I called Rodney a couple of times to get my star attraction to the soiree, but no answer.  Finally, I went to my former room, and he opened the door in a robe, with slippers (his standard attire).  The room was full of smoke, his eyes looked like two rubies up a goat’s ass as he sat at a desk with a huge pile of rolled joints.   Telling him we had a party in his honor upstairs with the Hawaiian Tropic girls, he changed into shorts sandals and Hawaiian shirt, as he handed me a handful of joints.

He needed no introduction as he worked the room getting many laughs, especially with the beautiful girls and then in about an hour, he left to his room.

Hours later I wound up in the jacuzzi with a half a dozen Hawaiian Tropic girls when the phone rang.   It was the hotel manager telling me that Rodney was hanging out at the Disco downstairs and then I needed to get down there quick.

As the elevator doors opened, as with most discos, there was a crowd of twenty people waiting to get in and there was Rodney.

Mind you, this was 1992 when everyone wasn’t carrying a phone with a camera and flash bulbs still existed.   As Rodney lifted both arms for a picture with two college studs, his robe opened, and he was totally exposed.

As the flashes began, I jumped to close his robe and began ripping film out of every camera I could reach and smashing the disposable ones.

Granted that this was only the first day with Rodney.

Every network had a crew at Spring Break, and they all wanted Rodney.   After taping the first appearance, I began to see the consummate professional he really was.  He would do just about anything to promote his movie, but since these shows would all air around the same time, he wanted new jokes for each one.

While we had that gorgeous suite upstairs, he just wanted to brainstorm his shtick, and smoke in his room and I was surprisingly invited.

Over the week he would say “Yo Dave, is this funny?”   At least a hundred times and most of the time I told him that’s not funny (we were both stoned).   He liked that I didn’t kiss his ass.

Yes, he cracked me up a lot, but we needed a lot of jokes.

Hawaiian Tropic had a beauty pageant in front of 5,000 screening college kids at the Bandshell on the beach, and when he hit the stage, Rodney had the crowd in the palm of his hand.   They went nuts!

One day I was on his balcony quite buzzed overlooking all the activities on the beach when I saw a giant crane, where they were bungee jumping.

Stepping back into the room I said, “Triple Lindy”, those kids remember your dive in “Back to School”.   You’re going to bungee jump.

The segment was hilarious of course with the big bosom girls saying, “Oh, I just love a man that bungee jumps”, while Rodney does his famous eyes twitching.

He was all in his harness, shifting his weight from foot to foot in a jittery fashion and for a moment he thought he was really going to bungee jump, but I had a local guy that had Rodney’s build actually jump.  It was hilarious.

One night, we went to an Adult Toy store, where he had me in stitches as he played with all the different devices.  We bought an inflatable doll which he blew up in another segment which was two X-rated for cable.

Most of the stars, which I have taken on tours, you hardly ever hear from again, but a couple weeks after getting back to Los Angeles, I got a call from Rodney asking me to meet him at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where I spent three days working on a funny script that he had hit the wall on.

Somehow, I became good friends with one of the most famous Comic Geniuses of our time.

I used to get my haircut in Beverly Hills once a month, and somehow, every time I would be walking down Rodeo Drive, and I would hear “Yo Dave!”

He came up running and asked, “Did you bring me a joint?”  I never went to Beverly Hills without two joints for Rodney!