Rickles gets a jolt from Emmy win

By VANESSA FRANKO

The comedian has found a young audience.

Since his Emmy win on Sunday night, Don Rickles has been fielding calls from all over.

“I’m so tired of saying, ‘Who are you? What is your name? Where do you live?’ ‘I live in Scandinavia. I’m a fisherman. I heard about you, I must talk to you.’ The phone doesn’t stop, it’s ridiculous,” Rickles said, immediately going into his trademark rapid-fire wit in a telephone interview.

Rickles won for the HBO special, “Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project,” a documentary about the comic best known for his acerbic humor.

“I knew it was a wonderful piece of work, but I never dreamed I would win an Emmy with it,” Rickles said about winning for Best Individual Performance in a Variety or Musical Program. “It was just a joy. At my stage in my career I’ve done everything — did it, done it, had it — besides, I never had an Oscar and now I have an Emmy.”

Earlier this month, he graced the comedy-issue cover of Rolling Stone, putting him at about the buzz level of Zac Efron. And like the “High School Musical” star, Rickles has a Disney contract, too.

He voiced Mr. Potato Head for the “Toy Story” series and is working on the third installment.

“I don’t do jokes. I do attitudes, see,” Rickles said. “And everything I do is connected with people and things around us. So the young people really get it with me and more and more of them have come to see me over the years and now they’re really coming to see me, which is great. At 82, all of a sudden I’ve still got a young audience.”

Before Sarah Silverman, before Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, before the age of catching comedy in byte-sized torrents on the Internet, Rickles started out doing his act in unsavory striptease joints.

“I think today is a breeze compared to my day,” Rickles said, pointing out opportunities for those starting out with the sheer number of comedy clubs and television venues.

A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Rickles was in a class with Anne Bancroft, Tom Poston, Jason Robards and Grace Kelly, harboring a dream to get on Broadway. It never materialized, despite reading for role after role.

“Then I started to do comedy in different places, getting up on my own. And suddenly I became what I am today, a guy with a wife with jewelry,” Rickles said.

He credits Frank Sinatra for his big break and getting people to come see him.

Johnny Carson brought him into the homes of millions with frequent spots on “The Tonight Show.”

He also gave him the moniker “Mr. Warmth,” which Rickles still holds dear. He was a frequent guest at the Friars Club roasts of celebrities, skewering everyone. And he never worked blue, keeping his razor wit clean for his 50-plus years in comedy.

Even when political correctness swept the nation, that didn’t stop Rickles from doing what he does best — poking fun at ethnicities, shapes, sizes and everything else deemed sacred cows in regular society.

“I was doing politically incorrect before anybody,” he said. “I always came out and did this because it was part of my personality.”