Tom Green at Comix: Jack-of-all-trades comedian tries NYC stand-up on for size

He’s known for dangling a mouse from his mouth in the movie “Road Trip,” for painting a pornographic scene on his parents’ car in his MTV program “The Tom Green Show,” and for singing ludicrous lyrics in the one-hit wonder “The Bum Bum Song.”

Now, Tom Green has yet another accomplishment to add to his colorful career: becoming a world-touring stand-up comedian. Hot off the heels of his current Internet talk show “Tom Green’s House Tonight,” Green is performing at Comix in New York as one of the last stops of his tour.

“Stand-up comedy is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Green said. At the age of 15, he started performing at comedy clubs in his native Canada. Now, after completing about 200 shows in Canada, the United States, Australia, and England on his world tour since January, Green is well on his way toward realizing his childhood dream.

“People coming to see my show are going to see something that’s really been 20 years in the making,” he said.

“It’s a silly show,” Green admitted. “I talk about stories from my early days on MTV, stories from behind the scenes of ‘The Tom Green Show,’ and re-enact some funny things from ‘Road Trip.’” He also enjoys poking fun at technology—especially Facebook—and other changes in society. Green said that audience members can expect a “very fast-paced, high-energy show.”

Onstage, Green’s comedian and rapper personas intertwine. “I’m performing my stand-up almost as if there’s a beat there that nobody can hear but me,” Green said. “I’m rapping the punch line almost on a rhythm.”

While Green is returning to his roots with stand-up comedy, he has not forgotten about the path he took to get there. Green broke into the American media scene with “The Tom Green Show” on MTV, in which played hilarious pranks on his not-amused parents. “I like doing the pranks on my parents, just because of the realism and honesty of it,” Green said. “My parents were really mad, and it was a fun situation.”

In addition to the Slut Mobile stunt, which involved painting an X-rated scene on his parents’ car, another of Green’s favorite pranks includes painting his parents’ house plaid while they vacationed. On another occasion he hung an unauthorized painting in the National Gallery of Canada, then proceeded to vandalize it in front of shocked onlookers.

The show came to a halt, however, when Green was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2000. After successful treatment, he made “The Tom Green Cancer Special,” an hour-long MTV documentary that followed Green throughout the treatment process, including the surgery. “It’s a physically traumatic and painful experience,” Green said. “You realize that life is fragile, and you have to enjoy being in the moment, because you don’t know when it’s all gonna end.”

Green’s optimism was validated when he returned to the Hollywood silver screens with the movie “Freddy Got Fingered,” which he directed, co-wrote, and starred in. Green played Gordon, a 28-year-old with a bizarre sense of humor who moves back home and doesn’t seem to grow up.

“It was such a surreal experience, having the opportunity to direct a major, $18 million production with 20th Century Fox,” Green said. “The goal was to make one of the craziest films we could make, and I really think we accomplished that.” Indeed, the unforgettable scene in which Gordon ties sausage to his fingers, bangs on the piano, and chants maniacally, “Daddy, would you like some sausage?” reaches new heights of outrageousness.

Today, Green has shifted gears with his Internet talk show “Tom Green’s House Tonight.” “It’s the number-one rated, longest-running online talk show in the history of the Internet,” Green said. The show was initially subject to a number of prank calls, which Green actually found funny; “It was sort of what the Internet is all about—you want to have an irreverence to it.” Now, the webcast keeps up the same spontaneity with celebrity guests and Skype callers.

Even though his projects have accumulated plenty of criticism and Razzie Awards over the years, Green remains unfazed. “The more criticism I get, the more successful I feel,” he said. “People don’t tend to criticize things that are not successful.” A bold assertion indeed, but with a year-long comedy tour under his belt, Green certainly has the right to make it.