COMEDY
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Mellowing
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Don’t expect an anti-croissant rant by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR
Apparently it’s about hockey pucks. Leary isn’t thrilled that the Habs beat his beloved Bruins with such ease this spring. “I think it was like ’71, the Bruins didn’t take them seriously enough,” says Leary, who counts Bruins greats Bobby Orr and Cam Neely among his “best friends.” But there could be more to it. Leary, a Just for Laughs repeat visitor, can’t name a single street in our city. “I just know the hotel and the hotel bar,” he says. But that didn’t stop him from incorporating a maniacal anti-croissant tirade in his early act, a scene in which he frantically panics over the fact that French is spoken so close to the States. Leary won’t say whether he’ll revisit these sentiments when he hosts a Just for Laughs gala on July 20 , instead promising “lots of surprises” when he hits the stage. Leary watchers might have remarked that the uncompromising loudmouth with chronic rants in his pants, who once deemed Hemingway insufficiently macho and approved of his own father’s manly heart attack, has apparently mellowed-out. In January, Leary was shaken by another sudden death, that of longtime associate and friend Ted Demme, 38, who collapsed and died while the two played in a charity basketball game in California. Traces of cocaine were found in the film director’s body. “It’s really very sad,” says Leary. “He had two young children. It’s sorta like that baseball player Darryl Kile who just died. People should really check their health out, when you turn 40 or so. It’s important to make sure you can avoid preventable stuff like that.” Leary even cut down on his old passion, smoking. “I’m down to about a pack a day—in fact, I hardly smoked at all on stage during the last tour.” Leary also belies his onstage trademark tributes to recklessness with work for several charities, including a fund for firefighters, inspired by the 1999 death of his cousin. But don’t pester him about his philosophical 180 from fast-talking danger-lover to caring family man. When probed about the apparent transformation, Leary gets prickly and repeatedly refers to his ’97 standup flick Lock ’N’ Load. “It’s all explained in that film,” he says. The 45-year-old cousin of Conan O’Brien dismisses the idea that comedy has become trickier after September 11. “That idea was bullshit from the start,” he says. “Within a few days people were making jokes about the situation. We did a version of ‘I’m an Asshole’ where we made Bin Laden the asshole and the crowds really enjoyed it,” says Leary, a Democrat who nevertheless credits President Bush with doing a “a fantastic job.” Leary believes he would have become a truck driver had it not been for comedy, which has provided a venue for his favourite targets, among them his former clerical schoolmasters. “I’m no longer associated with the Catholic church in any way,” he says. “It’s really just big money making scheme.” But just as he’s expected to shelve his croissant rant on this whistle stop, Leary might be biting his tongue about his anti-Catholic views at his next destination. “I’ve got Irish citizenship, I spend a lot of time there,” he says. “I’m going there after this is done.” : Denis Leary hosts the Loto-Québec gala, July 20, Theatre St-Denis >> Stage Listings |
So what
does wisecracking Boston funny guy Denis Leary think when he hears the
name of the city where he’ll be hosting an upcoming comedy gala?
“Not good things!” he says.