Grown Up Rob

“I’ve realised that you need three things to travel in India – good brakes,a good horn and good luck,” quipped actor-writer-producer Rob Schneider. Dressed in a business suit,the formal look offset by his grey and white golf cap and yellow-framed sunglasses,Schneider made us smile all through our tete-a-tete on Wednesday at the Westin,Koregaon Park. He was in the city for to perform at the Black Dog Comedy Evening.

The actor’s plan for his Pune performance comprised themes like mythology,traffic and interpersonal relationships. His favourite comedy category is slapstick. “I make silly movies for the child inside me. That child is growing up now,” he says. His latest television production,titled Rob ,has aired four episodes and is on its way up the TRP charts. Rob ,based on the narrative of a newlywed man who finds it difficult to let go of his bachelorhood and cannot adjust to his Mexican in-laws,is almost an autobiographical representation of Schneider himself. “Rob is not exactly my life but it is influenced by it somehow. I’m married to a beautiful Mexican woman,who is much funnier than I am. I am enjoying my married life. The only cultural change is that there’s Mexican food cooked in my kitchen,which has added 10 pounds to my weight,” he says with a smile.

The silver screen is where his passion lies; stand-up comedy and television follow next. “If Shakespeare were alive,he would be making movies. It is an expensive art form,but a wonderful one,” says the funny man,who has shared much screen space with Adam Sandler over the years and also received much credit for Grown Ups (2010). “I love playing different characters and Adam lets me do just that. My favourite film with him was 50 First Dates but I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment with him. I have seen him mature to be the good dad that he is now,” says Schneider.

Comedy should never be used to offend anyone,he says. “Like William Blake,the poet who burnt his work to prove that he wasn’t writing to please people around him,I have ‘unlearned’ to please everyone around me and be less judgemental.”