Adam Sandler in a still from his latest release You don’t mess with the Zohan

Adam Sandler, Hollywood’s poker-faced stand-up comic will have you cracking up in no time at all. Quizzed on his similarity with the protagonist of his latest release, You don’t mess with the Zohan, he wisecracks: “Well, I created Zohan, so there are bound to be some similarities between us. I’d love to say I also get a lot of female attention (like him), but I don’t think it’s good to lie.”

The movie, released in India this month by Sony Pictures, has Sandler playing a counter terrorism army commando in Israel who fakes his own death in order to pursue his true calling — to be a hairstylist in New York.

Also keeping his platter full at the moment is a fantasy comedy film called Bedtime Stories and another called Funny People, where he will finally play the role of a stand-up comedian along with Seth Rogen. In a first of sorts, Sandler will also venture into the horror/thriller genre with a new wing of his production company called Scary Madison.

But the bungler par excellence who kept you in stitches in hits like Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy and Mr Deeds, claims to have a serious trait to share with Zohan as well. “Zohan believes in following his dream and prizes creativity a lot,” he explains.

And that is exactly what he did while preparing for his role. “I had to work on acquiring an Israeli accent to add authenticity to my character. I guess you understand how difficult it is for someone who has been speaking English in a different accent all his life,” he points out.

But the most difficult part, as Sandler would have you believe, was not the accent or acquiring a new hairstyle. It was getting into shape. No one had minded those jiggly bits when he enacted some of the goofiest roles ever, winning over millions of viewers with his sloppy grin in movies like The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates and Big Daddy.

However, comedy was serious business this time in You don’t mess with the Zohan. The character of an army commando demanded that he possess a fabulously toned physique. “The day I started getting in shape was as bad as it could be, because the night before I was like, ‘Oh, God, it starts tomorrow’ and I went pretty crazy,” he muses.

But as always, he pulled off this feat without pulling a muscle. In the movie, the hairdresser Zohan, with his sculpted hotbod, gives it all at the New York salon — right from exotic sexual services to chic haircuts — to senior American ladies.

In fact it would be foolhardy to compete with Sandler in the commitment department. He kept on scrutinising the script of Don’t mess with the Zohan to avoid loopholes and racial slurs simply because sensitive communities like the Palestinians and Israelis were represented in the film.

“Robert, Judd (co-writers Judd Apatow and Robert Smigel) and I had to go over the script so many times, just to ensure that we weren’t saying anything stupid and hurting sentiments of any one. You could potentially look really foolish if you don’t commit to something,” he offers by way of explanation.

But in a departure from real life, Sandler is, in fact, asked to look foolish in his films. The brief, almost always, is to make people happy without thinking too much about anything else.

Sandler with co-actor Shulie Cowen in the movie

In his next project, Funny People, directed by Judd Apatow, Sandler gets to play a stand-up comedian aided by a script that’s believed to be filled with chortles. He is cast here with other celebrated stars like Eric Bana, Jason Schwartzman and Jonah Hill.

But one of his films in the pipeline titled Bedtime Stories directed by Adam Shankman has something different to offer. “I play Skeeter Bronson and my life is changed forever when the bedtime stories I tell my niece and nephew start to mysteriously come true,” he says.

Unlike the in-your-face comedy films that the gagman is associated with, Bedtime Stories stretches the imagination and plays with the art of storytelling. Sandler’s character is shown to take advantage of the magical phenomenon trying to weave in his aspirations and dreams into the stories that he narrates.

The neatest twist in this film comes from the narrative contributions that the kids make to Skeeter’s tale as they hear it, letting his actual life go into an outlandish spin. “It’s something new for me. I hope my fans like it,” wishes Sandler. The movie is expected to have a theatrical release in the US this Christmas.

Interestingly, this funny man’s life has also had a magical quality to it. Hollywood’s jokesmith had learnt quite early in life that he had to work his way up, and that the way was quite slippery too. The man who flagged off his career with his stand-up comedy act at a Boston club knew that he had boarded a long haul flight.

In fact, his debut movie Babes Ahoy had such pedestrian content that it never released until much later when Sandler’s name was enough to ensure theatre occupancy.

But Sandler ploughed on until films like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore had elicited loud guffaws from a huge chunk of the American viewers and his bankers, though not from serious film critics.

He tried to break the ice with the critics with Punch Drunk Love, a movie about a small-time entrepreneur embarking on a relationship with a mysterious woman. “My character in the film, Barry, is so much like the regular guy who has grown up amidst a lot of dominating women and he needs to find an outlet for all his pent up rage and frustration. Barry was so real, and maybe that’s why the audience could connect with him,” says Sandler.

A ‘regular guy’ he is. That is when he’s not juggling his multiple roles as a script writer, musician, producer and actor while keeping all the balls in air. But he clearly has a favourite. “Acting is my priority because it’s something I love doing,” he says.

Even then he makes it a point to siphon off a great slice of his day for his wife Jackie and daughter Sadie. “Whenever I feel the need to unwind, I stay at home with Jackie and Sadie, listen to some music, cook and eat together, read a little and we play some game together,” he says.

Life seems to be pretty simple for this lovable loser of the silver screen. Or is it? “In my experience, comedy is a tough business. (But) I get such an awesome kick out of spreading cheer and laughter in people’s lives,” sums up Sandler.