Depending on your age and sensibility, you either found Tom Green's comedy utterly hilarious or unfathomably puerile. His eponymous show, which ran on MTV from 1999, saw this gangly Canadian out to annoy the population of North America, sticking his camera in people's faces and doing dumb stunts, thereby providing a blueprint for the Jackass boys and a generation of foolish YouTubers.
Having found fame through the show, Green moved to the big screen, appearing in a few movies in the early 2000s. He popped up in Charlie's Angels (and married co-star Drew Barrymore) and his own absurdist movie Freddy Got Fingered -- a film several critics believed among the worst ever made. Things cooled off before Green appeared on the 2009 season of Celebrity Apprentice, only to be fired by Donald Trump after waking late following a drinking session with Dennis Rodman.
Recently Green had the dubious pleasure of a stint in the US Celebrity Big Brother household, which he described as an "agonising and surreal place". He took the gig to update the public's perception of his comedy and to raise his profile before hitting the stand-up circuit.
Green spoke with Life ahead of his Asian stand-up tour, which lands in Bangkok this month. He was curious about Thailand as this will be his first visit.
"I've seen The Hangover. Is it just like that?" Green joked, on a phone interview from his LA home. "I'm sure that's a stereotypical thing people might say but that's not really what I'm excited about. I'm excited to come see the people and the food, and maybe some beaches."
Despite being a Thailand first-timer, he'll be dropping some local material into his set.
"I read as much as I can online to get a quick overview [of a country] and when I get into a city I immediately begin asking questions. As soon as I'm in the car from the airport I start asking locals questions about what's going on, what's controversial and what's funny here right now."
Having spent his teens doing stand-up, he's returned to the stage -- a now 47-year-old comic trading in observational humour rather than pranks. He interrupts a question on how his audience has adapted to a more mature Tom Green.
"I'm always careful to use the word 'mature'. It doesn't sound like a funny word. And just because I'm old doesn't mean I'm mature. I'm definitely talking about adult subject matter but I'm not up there preaching about politics. I get very silly on stage."
With pranks ranging from painting a pornographic image on his parents' car to drinking milk directly from a cow's teat, does he regret any of his stunts?
"No. When we were making the Tom Green Show I'd sit down with my writers and we'd say, 'Let's think of something that I would regret, and then let's go do that'. It was about trying to do the most outrageous thing, but in an absurd way."
With such a varied career, including a well-received one-hour MTV special on his recovery from testicular cancer surgery (which inspired the title of his autobiography, Hollywood Causes Cancer), Green has a lot to reflect on.
"I look back at some of the things on the show and can't believe I had the balls to do that. And at the time I actually did have balls. Now I just have one."
Tom Green plays the Lancaster Hotel, Bangkok, on April 20. For details, visit http://comedyfest.asia.
