Top 10 comedians from Boston: 7 Lenny Clarke

Comedian Lenny Clarke  courtesy lenyclarke.com

Lenny Clarke is synonymous with the Boston Comedy scene. With his thick Boston accent, Clarke has been a fixture of Boston since the 70s, not just as a comedian but even having a mayoral run in his hometown of Cambridge.

During the heyday of the Boston comedy scene in the 1980s, Clarke was one of the top area comedians. He hosted a local television show called “Lenny Clarke’s Late Show,” which featured other area comics of the time including Denis Leary and Steven Wright.

His early career was even one of the main subjects of the 2006 documentary, “When Standup Stood Out.” Unfortunately he was not one of the area comedians to find the national spotlight during that time. From 1990 on he played parts in numerous televisions shows including “The Job, ”It’s All Relative” and his short lived sitcom “Lenny.” Current he plays the role of Uncle Teddy on “Rescue Me.”

Clarke, much like Leary, has been very outspoken in his support for the local Boston sports teams, specifically the Boston Red Sox and was a part of possible the funniest moment in Sox history. In 2006 Clarke, along with Leary, were in the television booth along with Sox commentators Jerry Remy and Don Orsillo. Upon learning that sox first basemen Kevin Youkilis was Jewish, the duo proceeded to run down Mel Gibson, who had just had his infamous meltdown where he flung anti-Semitic comments at police officers.

While Clarke has not had the mainstream success as a comic that he expected in the 1980s he is as synonymous with the Boston comedy scene as anyone to ever come out of it. He is still a fixture at Giggles comedy club whenever he is in the area.