Coming 2024 Holiday Season:

Read a behind-the-curtain story as to what it was like to interview Dustin Diamond in my soon-to-be-released book, Behind The Curtain: The Mistakes, Lessons Learned & Triumphs of Interviewing Celebrities.

2010 Interview:

Best known to the world as Screech from NBC's Saved By The Bell, I had the fortunate experience of interviewing Dustin Diamond on June 4, 2010 when I attended the hit Off-Broadway show, The Awesome 80s Prom.

During our time together, Dustin was humorous with his jokes, personable in how he talked with me, and kind in his manner.

Dustin will be guest starring in The Awesome 80s Prom through August 28, 2010. 

For some good '80s music and a fun night out with your friends, head on down to Webster Hall (125 East 11th Street) in NYC and dance the night away with Dustin and the rest of The Awesome 80s Prom cast. 

In this interview, Dustin answered my call to reveal:

• His inspirations
• Unusual talents
• The weirdest thing he's read about himself
• Who he considers to be his hero
• So much more

Dustin Diamond and Adam Rothenberg in 2010
The Awesome 80s Prom NYC

1. Who inspired you to become a performer? I really just fell into it. I got into the business at eight years old, and at eight years old you are not really forming opinions of "Who do I want to be when I perform?" so I can't really say anyone inspired me.

2. Who is the one person you haven't worked with that you would like to? There's a few...Gary Oldman because I think he is one of the greatest character actors there is. Rowan Aktinson because he is a brilliant comedian. Ben Elton or Richard Curtis both British writers for comedy, and I like British humor. Mike Patton, as far as music, I think he's a genius.

3. If you could dream about anyone while you sleep, who would it be? I was never one of those people who felt they could control their dreams, I was always just along for the ride. My dreams are always awkward, but if I had a choice, I would want a dream that makes sense and I want to be able to remember my dreams when you wake up because there are some really awesome things that happen in dreams that you never get to capture anytime after.

4. Who do you consider to be your hero? For comedy, it was George Carlin, but early George Carlin. He was such a pioneer. My hero for character acting is Gary Oldman. My inspiration for music is Mike Patton, but there are a lot of others too.

5. Do you have any strange or unusual talent that no one knows about? None that are G rated...just kidding. I'm double jointed and can flex my thumb back. You know how people can move their head and not their body, well I can move my body side to side while keeping my head still.

I have perfect pitch too. I can't play the piano or sheet music, but if I hear a note, I can isolate it on a scale. I can identify where they fit on the scale, even though I've had no formal music training.

I also retain a lot of useless information which I can recall later, but it never comes in handy for Jeopardy. It's never the stuff I actually know. I'm more like Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. There are questions in the $50,000 range or the million dollar question I can answer every week.

6. Favorite TV Show? Blackadder, a British TV Show.

7. Favorite way to stay in shape? I don't know. I don't really worry about it too much. My metabolism isn't as perfect as it was when I was 20, but it's not let me down yet.

8. Boxers or Briefs? Boxers all the time. I wore briefs briefly :)

9. Favorite website? TASVideos, Speed Demos Archive, or Speedruns. I like video games and these websites are where people will play through old games flawlessly, you know without dying. For example someone played Super Mario Brothers in about five minutes flat. They went through it all the way just running and jumping without killing an enemy. They ran through it continuously by holding down the right button and just pressing the jump button when needed. I could never get through some of these old games, so I can go back now and watch them, which is pretty cool.

10. He-man or She-ra? He-man because that was the era and She-ra was not around yet. I had all the He-man toys like Castle Greyskull, Panther, Battlecat, etc...

BONUS QUESTIONS:

11. Favorite ride at an amusement park? Oooh...Haunted Mansion or Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland. Indiana Jones was pretty cool too.

12. What's the weirdest thing you've read about yourself and where did you read it? I read all kinds of weird things about me on the internet. There was one website that said I died in New Zealand. There was another one that I was supposedly on the back of a motorbike with Mark-Paul (who played Zack on Saved By The Bell) and we were beheaded during an earthquake, a freeway collapse.

There have been a lot of "I died" websites which is really strange and kind of morbid. There are also hundreds of fake websites, Myspace pages, Facebook pages, all claiming to be me. People go to these sites and ask questions and then the sites respond in horrible ways claiming to be me which is terrible because those sites are not me...

More Dustin Diamond Interviews:

2014 (Click Here): Opening Night Video Interviews with the Cast of Bayside! The Musical! A Saved By The Bell Parody Musical

Dustin Diamond, Photo Credit: Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank
NBCUniversal/Getty Images

More on Dustin Diamond:

In addition to Saved By The Bell, Dustin has appeared on such game and reality shows as The Weakest Link, Celebrity Boxing 2, Celebrity Fit Club, and Professional Wrestling. He starred in the 2003 film Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star and is a frequent commenter on TruTV's The Smoking Gun Presents: World's Dumbest....

Dustin is also an accomplished Stand-Up Comedian performing around the country, with a quick-wit and good stage-presence.

Most recently, Dustin wrote the book Behind The Bell about his days on Saved By The Bell.