When I was first asked to interview Gilbert Gottfried, I said yes but was nervous as hell.

Almost immediately, I had flashbacks to Gottfried in Problem Child. All I could picture was him leaning into the camera and screaming with that distinctive squawky voice.

I couldn’t help but wonder if he would yell at me.

After all, his realm of raunchy comedy is an acquired taste and I was curious if that persona translated to the way he gave interviews.

“I’m not sure if I’ll ever really know if I made it,” Gottfried humbly confesses when I ask about what he defines as his big break.

“I think I was just too stupid to stop trying.”

Claiming to be too stupid proved to be Gottfried’s calling card throughout the interview, especially when I asked about his ambition to pioneer a comedy genre that was sure to meet a lot of resistance from the critics.

It left me puzzled.

Surely, someone who actually thought they were stupid wouldn’t be destined for such success. I wondered if this was actually his disclaimer so that he could get away with pushing the envelope, something he mastered at an early age.

At just 15, he began doing stand-up at open mike nights in New York City.

“Back then, I didn’t know if I was good enough to be doing this,” he says. “No one was really doing comedy back then, so I think I became known by default.”

Whether it was luck or a stroke of genius, Gottfried has gone on to shape an entire industry with stints at MTV and NBC, along with a laundry list of box office hits.

Now, he’s adding author to his resumé.

Rubber Balls and Liquor(apparently the dirty version similar to the jinx, “you owe me a coke”) is not only the name of this recently published book, which is described as part memoir, part bathroom scratching, but it’s also the name of his comedy tour.

Gottfried is appearing at the Yuk Yuk’s Century Casino Jan. 27-28. Tickets range from $12-$19 and are available via yukyuks.com.