Anxiety prone

Denis Leary acts out

by Mark Bazer

The emotional wall Denis Leary erects around himself can be as thick as the tar build-up on his lungs. When he's at his best, Leary's fears and obsessions -- the really big ones like cancer and death -- are cursed at, beat down, and spit upon. Like the Tasmanian Devil let loose from his cage, he practically self-combusted on a politically correct world stage in 1991 with his breakthrough one-man show, No Cure for Cancer. It took the Worcester native cigarette after cigarette, gulp of beer after gulp of beer, and a drenching in sweat to get out all his fuck-yous to a society that had seemed to have outlawed fun. Like the titles of some of the tracks on the No Cure album, Leary ferociously sang the praises of "drugs," "smoke," "meat," and "more drugs." But an anxious look in his eyes, an occasional segue about his dad or son, or the song "Asshole" ("I'm just a regular Joe with a regular job/I'm your average white suburbanite slob") let on that there was much more to him than a narrow-minded reactionary.

"It's a fine line sometimes [between] just out-and-out undiluted opinion and something like the `Asshole' song, which I think has a lot of irony in it," Leary tells me over the phone from the Sony Music Studios, where he and director Ted Demme (No Cure for Cancer, Beautiful Girls) are putting the finishing touches on his new HBO special, Lock 'N Load. "Some people overseas have read that as being a song about big, ugly Americans, where I see it more containing aspects we can all sort of relate to."

The show and a CD (in stores Tuesday) of the same name mark Leary's long-awaited return to stand-up after establishing himself as an actor in Hollywood (though mostly in clunkers). His only stand-up gigs in between have been here at the Orpheum the past two Novembers at the Cam Neely Foundation's "Comics Come Home" benefit for the Neely House, a floor in the New England Medical Center that houses relatives of out-of-town cancer patients. Leary's back again this Saturday to finish up his Lock 'N Load tour at "Comics Come Home III," where he'll host a line-up of comedians with local ties, including Anthony Clark, Jon Stewart, and rising talent Dane Cook. The HBO special premieres the same night.

Expect a calmer, more confident, better-dressed Leary. Missing from Lock 'N Load is the feeling that he's getting a lifetime of anger and frustration off his chest. "I had to write a whole brand new show within two or three months' time. No Cure for Cancer had taken me four or five years to put all the pieces together." The result is less edgy -- Leary no longer looks like a man on a mission and more like . . . well, a comedian. His targets this time around include specialty coffees, microbreweries, Lord of the Dance Michael Flatley, fat people, and Marv Albert. Amusing at times, but not exactly life-and-death issues.

Still, there are definite highlights to the Lock 'N Load HBO special. Imagining himself as the president, Leary announces his domestic policy ("Fuck you!") and his foreign policy ("Fuck you!"). He then pretends to exit the White House, middle fingers extended, doing his daily "fuck-you dance" to his fellow Americans. And he recaptures his original angst best in the topic of his children. Although it's clear that he loves them more than anything in the world, he devotes 20 minutes pondering the question "What the fuck are these things?"

There's less stand-up on the CD. Instead, Leary includes songs ("Elvis and I"; "Luv Barge," a dark take on the Love Boat theme; and his first children's tune, "Life's Gonna Suck") and a couple of skits, including Janeane Garofalo's hysterical parody of Fiona Apple's embarrassing acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards. Interspersed are random samples and goofings-off. "To take a comedy album that's just a re-creation of the live show is really kind of boring. I also felt like it was time for somebody to push the envelope on connecting a lot of the shit that's being done in the music world with the comedy."

This approach works best on the title and final track. Backed by a hip-hop/metal beat, Leary rants and raves, proclaiming himself the leader of a new Lapsed Catholic Church where "sin is in." As a closing video filmed in a former Manhattan synagogue converted to look like a church, it's even more of a rush. Kind of gets you psyched to watch/listen to No Cure for Cancer again.

"Comics Come Home III" takes place this Saturday, November 15, at the Orpheum. Tickets are $20.50 to $100.50. Call 423-NEXT. The HBO special premieres that night at 10 p.m. Leary will also make an in-store appearance Saturday at Newbury Comics in Burlington, 112 Burlington Mall Road, from 1 to 3 p.m. Call 270-9860.