Lenny Clarke

Today on The Neil Haley Show, Neil "The Media Giant" Haley
interviews Lenny Clarke.


Lenny Clarke famous for his thick Boston accent. During the
1970s, as related in the Comedy Central roast of Clarke's friend
Denis Leary, Clarke ran for mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts.
When asked by Leary what his platform was, Clarke replied "Fuck
the Kennedys". Clarke had buttons and bumper stickers made with
this slogan on them. In an attempt to spark interest in his
campaign, Clarke stole a Boston bus and began driving it around
until he realized it was just him driving a bus. Clarke then
began to pick up random people and drop them at their doors.
Clarke was the most famous "saloon comic" in Boston during the
1980s, the heyday of the Boston comedy scene. The DVD release
When Standup Stood Out (2006) details Clarke's early career and
affiliations with other famous Boston comics, such as Steven
Wright and Denis Leary, his good friends. In 1980, Clarke wrote
and starred in a local television show Lenny Clarke's Late Show
featuring Wright and Leary, in collaboration with Boston comedy
writer Martin Olson. Clarke and Olson were roommates, and their
apartment, known by comedians as "The Barracks", was a notorious
"crash pad" for comics visiting Boston, and the subject of a
documentary film as Clarke and Leary explain in When Standup
Stood Out. Since his early days in Boston, Clarke starred in his
own short-lived network sitcom Lenny (1990), and in such TV shows
as Contest Searchlight, The Job, The John Larroquette Show and
It's All Relative and movies like Monument Ave., Fever Pitch and
Southie. As of 2006, Clarke appears in the recurring role of
Uncle Teddy on the FX comedy-drama Rescue Me.