Denis Leary: Why we need him
Rick Florino
Where have all the real men gone?
“We’re here,” exclaims legendary comic Denis Leary with a wide smile. “We shower like once a day, we sweat and we have hair all over our bodies. There are some of us that aren’t going to do all of that metro-sexual stuff, and that’s the bottom line!”
Thankfully, Leary speaks for the guy’s guy. He’s got no tolerance for selfindulgence, pampering, pretense or political correctness, and he tells it like it is in his best-selling book, Why We Suck: A Feel Good Guide to Staying Fat, Loud, Lazy and Stupid. The book is a brilliant, biting and utterly hilarious examination of America, and manhood is on Leary’s mind throughout the entire tome.
He explains, “The female voice can lead to a lot of trouble because guys are willing to do anything women want them to. Every guy has that one friend who shows up wearing clown pants.His friends aren’t really bothered by it because they know he’s going out with a girl who wants him to wear clown pants. In order to get her, he’s got to wear the pants wherever he goes for awhile. At a certain point, you have to go, ‘Sweetheart, c’mon?’ What you see is what you get with men. We’re not going to change. We might change for a little while so women don’t leave, but we’re really meant for a few choice things — blowing stuff up, sex and food. That’s what we do well.”
Leary’s probably better with explosives than the average guy is, but he’s got a lot more going for him. Right now, he’s wrapping up the fifth season of his critically acclaimed Emmy nominated series, Rescue Me. Leary writes, produces and stars in the poignant comedy about a conflicted New York firefighter named Tommy Gavin who battles alcoholism, deals with family dysfunction and fights fires. Plus, aside from being a father of two and a husband himself, Leary’s appeared in countless films, burned up the road on sold-out comedy tours and founded his own charity to aid firefighters, the Leary Firefighters Foundation. He never stops working. However, his heroes never stopped either.
“There’s nobody left like Clint Eastwood,” he sighs. “I love his new movie, Gran Torino. I can’t get enough of the guy. He’s like the last face on Mount Rushmore when it comes to Hollywood. I wish he would keep making westerns. Unforgiven is one of my favorite movies of all time. The first time I saw it, I instantly knew I was going to see it 30 more times, and you don’t get that feeling often enough at the movies.”
Why We Suck elicits a similar feeling. You want to pick it up and read it over and over again because it’s so uproariously funny.However, for Leary there was one good reason to write it.
“Money,” he chuckles. “I have an incredibly busy schedule with Rescue Me. It’s all-encompassing. The publishers came to me and said, ‘We want you to write a book, and we want to give you a lot of money.’ I had never written a book. A lot of my comedian friends have though. There was a competitive aspect to it, but I figured at my age and at this point in my career, why wouldn’t I see if I could do it? I took the money, and then it became like homework. Once there was a deadline, I knew I’d have to fulfill it.”
Leary’s always been one to make lemonade out of lemons though, so in the midst of the writers strike, he buckled down and focused on his book. “After the strike happened, I was home for a solid two or three months. My partners and I, unlike some other people, did not write at all during the strike. I had plenty of time to solely work on the book. I sat there with my dogs and just wrote. When I’d started, I’d never done a book before. One of my writer friends said, ‘Listen, once you start really trying to turn it into an actual book, you’re going to find out that you either love it or you hate it.’ Once I did it, I fell in love with it. Now, I can’t wait to write another book because I enjoyed the process so much.”
Writing became second nature for Leary, and he was able to intertwine his comedy style seamlessly into Why We Suck. Walking around the set of Rescue Me, he continues, “I’m a comedian, and I have a comedian’s brain. It doesn’t matter what day it is, when I wake up I’m always thinking about something. Whether I’m thinking about political news or the human condition, my brain works in a comedy way. This was a circumstance where, instead of saying it on stage, I’d have to write it down, formalize it and turn it into something.”
He crafted a kinetic page-turner that covers everything from growing up in working class Worcester Massachusetts to becoming an A-List comic. He explains, “The freedom in writing this book was I got to simply rant. It’s a cheat for comedians because we’re not real authors. We get to pick 20 subjects and write about any one of them or all of them. It’s not like there’s a plot.”
There is a plot though — it’s all Leary all the time. “I could write about whatever I wanted to. Standup is the only thing I know. Once you get on stage, it’s the most democratic process that exists theatrically. You get up there and say what you want.If they laugh, it’s working. If they don’t laugh, it sucks. I don’t care how good you think the routine is. At 8 o’clock the show starts, and at 9:30 you know if it was good or bad. The book is the next best thing. It’s all of my thoughts and whatever I want to say in a medium where people can carry it around and look at it.”
Thematically, on stage or on the page, Leary’s guns are always aimed at the same pundits. “For me, the theme is always the same — pretentious, politically correct BS. That’s generally the stuff that pisses me off the most. I think that carries over well to the book — politically, pop culture-wise and in terms of raising children. I cut to it quick. Some people think if they say things loudly enough and form an organization they can pass laws based on everything they think people should be doing — whether it’s not smoking in public places or what you should be allowed eat. I think it’s my job to take that down. Most of these people have no sense of humor. For a comedian, there’s no one that makes your blood boil more than a person or a group who has no sense of humor when it comes to the subject they’re involved with discussing in a public platform. I think a sense of humor is a sign of vast intelligence or at least a working brain.”
Leary’s brain is certainly working overtime. He’s always thinking about new ideas and the targets that cause his ire. “It’s the ridiculous behavior that this country has afforded people for so long,” he scoffs. “Denial is one of the funniest things. To me, comedy comes from the seven deadly sins.Whether it’s personal behavior or whether it’s the world at large. Greed, gluttony, jealousy and sloth are where the best comedy lies. There’s no comedy in happiness and perfection.” Comedy does come from a natural place though, and Leary was born for it. “Most comedians come from the working class — at least the ones I’ve liked. That background usually included some kind of heavy oppressive religion that you were supposed to obey the rules of. That’s the breeding ground. Once they tell you, ‘Whatever you do, do not laugh for the next twenty minutes,’ it’s over. There are certain people, myself being one of them, who say, ‘Boy, I’m going to be laughing my [expletive] off now that they told me not to.’ It’s that rebel mentality. It was genetic for me.”
Rescue Me’s forthcoming season is shaping up to be its best yet. “It’s a 22-episode double season, so it’ll run for six months,” he shares. “Having seen this lineup of actors perform for four years, I’ve got to say this is the greatest work that they’ve ever done.I feel like Joe Torre looking at my team’s growth, but they’re all popping. Maybe the writers strike and the potential actors strike scared the [expletive] out of them. They’re working better than they’ve ever worked in the past, which has made us react with the writing. After coming to the end of 22 episodes, instead of running out of stories, we were finding more stories to tell. That’s really all you can hope for.”
About Tommy’s evolution, he divulges just a little bit. “I think it’s finally time for Tommy’s wife to lower the boom. She’s got to say, ‘Either we’re going to get divorced, or we’re going to stay together.’ That’s a big part of what goes on during this season. The two of them try to reconcile. It stems from the basic question that exists in that relationship: are they crazy, or are they so attached at the hip emotionally that one can’t live without the other? Also Tommy’s godson has decided to take his father’s badge number and become a firefighter, which is another big issue for Tommy. It’s full of contradictions in terms of him wanting his godson to have whatever he wants but at the same time knowing how dangerous the job is. Tommy has to figure out whether or not he wants his godson in the line of fire.”
After Rescue Me, Leary’s back to the big screen in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, the third installment of the hilarious hit animated series in which he voices sly, funny saber-toothed tiger Diego. “It’s out July fourth weekend, and it’s another juggernaut,” Leary exclaims. “It is what it is, man. It started out as sort of a lark, and then it basically turned into its own franchise. I have no complaints about it. A lot of my nephews and nieces can’t see a lot of what I do, or any of it, except for A Bug’s Life or Ice Age. Actually I’ve got to be honest, I think this Ice Age is funnier than the first two are, which either means it’s skewed more towards an adult audience or I’m losing my mind [Laughs].”
However, there’s no doubt that it’s the funniest installment yet, since Leary’s chemistry with John Leguizamo and Ray Romano sizzles even more. “John, Ray and I have all known each other for years. John did a lot of improvising on the first one.The filmmakers let him go, and they adapted to that. That set the thing in motion. A lot of the comedy revolves around John’s ridiculous voice, which is one of his fortes. The sloth character does a lot of nonsense, and we have to react to it. That’s the key to the whole series. We’re sometimes the straight men to John’s character.It’s like being in the animated Three Stooges.”
Unlike Moe, Larry and Curly though, Leary is not just here to amuse you.Spend five minutes with him, and there’s no doubt you’ll laugh, however he’ll also make you think. He’ll make you think about politics.He’ll make you think about pop culture. He’ll make you think about the roles men and women play. He’ll make you think about the future. But, most importantly, he’ll make you think before you get too serious — just like his idol George Carlin did. “When George Carlin passed away, they had already decided to give him the Mark Twain award at the Kennedy Center,” says Leary. “He told his daughter that was an award that he was proud of. He was happy that a guy like him would be capable of getting that. He was one of my heroes. We were pulling up to that event, and there were protestors. There were signs about God and Satan saying, ‘God hates gays.’ We were shocked to see these protestors. Then I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a great comment on George’s career.’ He made jokes about God and Satan, and he made jokes asking, ‘Why are we outlawing people’s sexuality?’ All these protesters without a sense of humor thought George was evil, but we were pulling up in tuxedos to honor the guy. I’d rather be in the tuxedo line.”
The tuxedo line isn’t the only place for Leary though. He’s got a spot in the pantheon of great comedians. He continues, “George and Richard Pryor were like Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb. One guy had more records because he played longer, and the other probably would’ve had those records if he’d lived long enough. You don’t have Chris Rock, Jon Stewart or me without Carlin or Pryor. A week before he died, Carlin was still performing and getting his next HBO special ready. It was always about finding the things that were pretentious or outlandish and poking giant holes in them. You’ve got to be born funny because you can’t be taught how to be funny. Within that, you’ve got to have a sarcastic take on life and a certain approach to anyone who tells you what not to do. I hope when I kick the bucket, there are people across the street from the ceremony with those signs. God knows, I’ve done enough anti- Catholic Church material. I’d love to have a nun across the street from my funeral with a giant sign saying, ‘[expletive] Denis Leary, he sucks’.” For now, Leary’s still ranting. “I respond on a cultural and then a political level. I reflect back on the ridiculous things going on in the world and spew back with my take on how ridiculous that stuff might be. I don’t mind making a point. Most of my stuff is tearing down pretension, ridiculous people and events. The point doesn’t come first. I’ve got to make you laugh about it. It’s my rule. Richard Pryor sets himself on fire and almost burns to death in a crazed drug-induced fever. That’s not funny on the surface of it, but when he goes on stage a year later and talks about it, man, it’s one of the funniest [expletive] routines any standup comedian has ever done. That’s the job. As long as they’re laughing, it’s okay to make your political point and your cultural point. I want you to be laughing your [expletive] off first though. That’s my job.”
