"What other people think of you is none of your business," says Harvey Fierstein, passing on the advice of a friend keen to relieve the self-consciousness and insecurity that is the average artist's mental lot.

It's a dictum that has stood Fierstein in good stead, having come across more than his fair share of disapproval and opprobrium in his long, colourful career that has seen the veteran actor, singer, writer, stand-up comedian, Oscar-winning documentary film-maker, and gay rights activist become one of America's most popular personalities.

Hollywood buffs will know Fierstein as the token gay hairdresser type in films such as Mrs Doubtfire, Independence Day, and Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (he reveals that he also did a scene with Danny Aiello in Annie Hall, one of your correspondent's favourite movies of all time, that was left on the cutting-room floor).

But cast a roving eye over the New Yorker's CV and you ll find a man who has written and starred in his own stage plays and who co-writes and performs risque faux-cabaret vignettes guaranteed to ruffle the homophobic feathers of the American Right.

The fruits of his comedy labour can be found on his 1995 CD, This Is Not Going To Be Pretty, a recording of a performance in New York's legendary Bottom Line club that features dramatic monologues, stand-up comedy and unforgettable musical styling .

The back cover photo says more than a thousand words: we see our hero with the Stars and Stripes draped over his torso in the style of a Roman toga, while his right hand he is wearing bright yellow rubber gloves - strategically placed on his crotch. He is smiling.

Fierstein brings his lippy revue to Dublin's HQ this week Wed 11th and Thurs 12th August and according to the man himself, his audience, at least in the States, is half gay, half straight. His voice is huskier than Marge Simpson's ugly sisters but it conveys sentiments that are both warm and philosophical.

Being openly gay, have you experienced much prejudice in your time in Hollywood?

"I was just talking to Ellen DeGeneres about this she was saying how hard it is to get openly gay actors in her programme. She's come across a wall of intolerance. But you can t let it get it you. Like the Stephen Sondheim song says, you have to just move on. There's no point in worrying about it."

Do you get extreme reactions from your audience?

"I would feel really awful if at least one person didn t go to management and say, 'what the hell is that about?' I'd feel I didn't give them a show."

Do you see your role as a professional disturber of the peace?

"No, I m a professional human being. The reason why people identify with what I do is that I'm generally as confused as everyone else about what it means to be a human being."

You wear so many different artistic hats: actor, writer, stand-up. How come you've diversified so much?

"The world is full of interesting things where you open the door and there is every possibility outside that door. . . at least in my life: I do realise that there are places in the world where the opportunities don't exist. But in most people's lives, they do exist. I think the greatest sin is to not experience life; to do only one thing with your life. I always say that there are only two kinds of people that do one thing with their lives and are incredibly boring and that's reporters and politicians.

"The rest of us actually do have choices. I always say that life is as interesting as the number of times that you're willing to say yes to it. Because on a daily basis the phone rings and there are people asking you to do things and, most times, we're either too lazy, too comfortable or too scared to say yes to the everyday challenges that come up. But you never know where it s gonna lead to."

Was there a chain of circumstance that led to your career in the entertainment sphere?

"When I was a kid, an arts student, one of the other kids asked me to come to this church in Brooklyn to help make posters for a little theatre company. I said yes and the next thing I knew I was designing sets for that company. Then I was acting. . . I never wanted to be in the theatre or in showbizness.

"I couldn't write or spell. I'm very dyslexic. I would never have written. Somebody said to me, 'why don't you write?' and I said 'I can't spell'. He said: 'there are people that get paid four dollars an hour to correct your spelling'. So I say that to college kids all the time, especially with all these computers with their spellcheck facilities: there's no excuse why everyone hasn't written a novel.

"Everybody that I meet tells me that they have an idea for a movie, a play or a novel. The difference between them and the successful writer is that the successful writer didn't go around telling everybody he has an idea. He sat down and did it. But 99% of the world will never sit down and do what their heart tells them to do."

The first notable project you worked on was Amdy Warhol's play, Pork, in the 1970s. What was it like to work for Warhol?

"Andy would just come by and giggle. He didn't do any work at that time; he had other people do it for him. When I was starting high school, he had a little movie theatre called The Garrick and I worked there selling tickets and as an usher. I really looked up to him. Then I got to do that first play. I was 16 going on 17. I wasn't allowed travel with it to London because I was a minor. But it saved my career because everybody who did go to London with Pork nobody really ever heard of them again!

"I stayed home, got cast in another play which introduced me to a couple of writers who became playwrights who wrote for me for the next couple of years, and then became the people who told me that I should write . . ."

Tell me about your part in Annie Hall.

I'm not actually in it, Woody cut me out. It was the first movie I ever did. I was a kid, maybe 18. It was a scene with Danny Aiello. It was all improvised. The role was written for this old man and this big thug so Woody put me in as the old man instead. It was very funny. I remember going to the movie theatre to see it and all of a sudden the movie was over it never appeared.

"I was really broken-hearted and didn't hear from Woody for, like, 18 years. Then I got a call to say that Woody wanted me to do a role in Bullets Over Broadway. So I go down there and I do it. He's just so peculiar. He certainly says hello and all that; he's friendly enough in that way. But there was no real recognition that we'd ever met before.

"And you know the way he always works with the exact same people? So I grabbed his cinematographer and I said, 'is he gonna act like we never met before? Does he not remember I did Annie Hall?' And the cinematographer said, 'oh no, are you kidding? Woody laughs about that scene all the time.' So I said, 'why did he cut it out of the movie?' He said it just was 'too funny in the wrong kind of way'.

"So I did Bullets Over Broadway and never heard from him again. If he needed me, I'm sure I'd hear from him in a heartbeat. That's just the way he is. It is a little self-centred the way he runs his life."

You also appeared in The Simpsons.

That was a lot of fun. They're very talented, sweet people. One of my heroes was Jim Brooks because I always loved the Mary Tyler Moore show. I only did one voice: there's an episode where Homer grows hair and he becomes an executive and they hire him an executive secretary who then saves his life. And that was me."