E-Mail This Article to a Friend Laugh attack A big-time comedy caucus bum-rushes Boston in time for the DNC BY TED DROZDOWSKI

The only difference between Bush and Kerry is that Kerry probably did better in college," says comedian Lewis Black of this year’s presidential contenders. "We don’t know anything about Kerry other than that his head would look good on a quarter."

By the time Black and his friends have wrapped up the Unconventional Comedy Convention series — which will also feature Janeane Garofalo, Barry Crimmins, Mort Sahl, A. Whitney Brown, and Jimmy Tingle — at Tingle’s Off Broadway in Somerville, the heads of both presidential contenders will have been served up on platters dozens of times. The month-long string of shows kicks off this Wednesday at Tingle’s intimate 200-seat theater in Davis Square with veteran political humorist Mort Sahl, who plays through July 11. Garofalo headlines July 24 and 25, and Black arrives on the 25th, the weekend of the Boston Social Forum’s progressive caucus at UMass-Boston. Tingle takes over on July 26, the DNC’s opening night, with "All Politics Are Loco!", a tribute to the late senator Tip O’Neill and the Democratic Party that runs through July 31.

Tingle says he put the series together to "bring Massachusetts people who are never going to get into the convention into the spirit of the convention in a fun way." Former lieutenant governor Thomas P. O’Neill III will introduce Tingle’s week of performances. "He’s a funny bastard," says Tingle. "He’s not going to perform, but he’s a funny guy." So is Tingle, who after years in the stand-up trenches redefined his brand of comedy and has earned an international reputation as a political humorist.

As for Black, who also plays the Comedy Connection at Faneuil Hall on July 27, this is a reason to return to the city where he honed his comedy chops in the early ’90s while also appearing in an American Repertory Theatre New Stages production (Christopher Durang’s Media Amok) at the Hasty Pudding. "I think of Boston as my second comedic home," the New Yorker says. "I got to know a lot of Boston comics like Jimmy [Tingle], Barry [Crimmins], Tony V. Cross Comedy — David Cross’s group — was there, and Boston has great audiences. I’m not just blowin’ smoke."

But Black, who at 55 has become the king of ranting social commentary via his "Back in Black" segments on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, says he’s not sure he has the energy to survive convention fever. "It’s because of the level of irritation I have with the Democrats and Republicans for throwing self-congratulatory parties after the four years we’ve had with them. That takes a lot of balls."

A graduate of the Yale University theater program, Black came to comedy after decades of struggling as a playwright. He draws on his experience as the author of 40 plays as well as his stage and screen acting to tread a line between anger and an original brand of exasperated everyman charm in the monologues he writes and performs. When he loosens his tie and slides into a beleaguered tone to rail against everything from the whitewashing of the late Ronald Reagan’s checkered reign to the vapidity of celebrity journalism, we love him. But when Dennis Miller raves these days, he’s annoying as hell. What’s the difference? "Dennis has picked up a political ideology as of late, which he wears on his sleeve. My problem has always been with authority of any kind. I focus on whoever’s in charge of anything and go after them."

As for his own politics, Black says he’s "worse than liberal. I’m a socialist. We’ve got no party. I might as well say I’m in the Vegetarian Party."

"The Unconventional Comedy Convention" runs July 7 through 31 at Jimmy Tingle’s Off Broadway, 225 Elm Street in Somerville; call (617) 591-1616, or visit www.jtoffbroadway.com. The line-up includes Mort Sahl July 7 through 11; Barry Crimmins July 16 through 18; A. Whitney Brown and Jim Morris on July 22 and July 23; Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder on July 24 and 25; Lewis Black on July 25; and Jimmy Tingle’s "All Politics Are Loco!", with special guests, July 26 through 31.