Jim Norton, who plays at the Wellmont Theatre on Saturday night, says that if Charlie Sheen was a comedian, "he'd be me."
In an interview with Patch, Norton—best known as a stand-up comic who appears on the "Tonight Show" about once a month—complained that Sheen has gotten a bit of a bad rap.
"I don't agree with everything he says or does but I really admire the guy's honesty," Norton said. "People say they like the truth but they really don't if it's not what they want to hear."
In fact, Norton talked a lot about Sheen, perhaps because he'll be drawing some of his comic material from Sheen's life during his show at the Wellmont on Saturday night at 8 p.m.
When asked if he
really is like Sheen, Norton said that: "The difference between me and him is that I've been sober since I was 18 and I'm now 42. I was turning into one of those afterschool-special kinds of kids and so I had to stop."
Norton said he couldn't believe a reporter asked Sheen why he likes "porn girls."
"How can anyone ask him that and consider it journalism?" he said. "You don't ask a man that. What do you expect him to say?"
"What about all these politicians who legislate against homosexuality and actually they are gay?" he said. "Why don't people go after them?
"At least Charlie is honest and people should give him that much," he said.
Norton said that not only will he talk about Sheen on Saturday night, but he'll also pick apart the lives of Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson, and examine world affairs in general.
"I'll also be talking about my own dysfunctional stuff," he said.
Norton, heard on Opie & Anthony on XM Satellite radio, also has appeared on FX's "Louie" and HBO's "Bored to Death."
Although he now lives in New York City, he grew up in Edison and says he's still a Jersey boy at heart.
"I'm prone to depression like most New Jersey people," he said.
So why did Norton move to Manhattan?
"If I had to sit in the Lincoln Tunnel traffic one more time I was going to commit a murder and wind up in prison," he said.
Even so, he played a Jersey boy in "Crooks," a straight-to-video release about Bayonne postal workers stealing stamps.
All in all, Norton is hysterical, even on the phone. At one point, the connection cut out. When he called back he said, "sorry about that ... sometimes it's hard when you have an iPhone to get service in a little town like Manhattan."
Norton said he's played the Wellmont before and that he tries to do at least two or three gigs in New Jersey each year.
"I don't want to do too much because I like to have a lot of new material before I come back," he said.
Norton said he would love to do another HBO special and that he continues to enjoy his work on the "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
"Jay is phenomenal and no one treats comedians better than him," he said. "He's fun to work with and he lets you be edgier than other shows."
Although Norton's favorite TV show is "The Wire," he said he also respects comedies like "South Park."
"I respect it because the show attacks everyone the same ... they attack every race and religion and ideology," he said. "And that's what comedy is. It should take off the gloves. Everyone is fair game."
