After a health crisis, Lenny Clarke to lead triple bill of comics at Tuckerman Hall

Stand-up comedian and actor Lenny Clarke, known as the "Bad Boy From Boston," has often performed in Worcester, including benefit shows for the families of fallen firefighters and police officers.

"I love Worcester. I used to go to Coney Island to get a hot dog. I absolutely loved that place," Clarke said during a recent telephone interview speaking in his familiar, gravelly Boston accent. He asked if George's Coney Island, at 158 Southbridge St., was still open and was happy to learn it is doing well. Worcester has "great people and the worst weather. You get up everything up there, tornadoes," observed Clarke, 70, who said he was sitting on the porch of his home in Martha's Vineyard.

Area venues where Clarke has performed stand-up comedy include the former Plum's at the now demolished Worcester Center, Mechanics Hall, the Palladium and The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts. "I've played them all," he said.

A new milestone

Still, his latest show in Worcester will be a first. He'll lead a comedy triple-header at Tuckerman Hall, Tuckerman and Salisbury streets, on July 11 featuring Clarke and fellow legends Boston comedian Steve Sweeney and Jimmie "JJ" Walker, perhaps best known for portraying James Evans Jr. (J.J.) on the CBS television series "Good Times." 

"I've never played there," Clarke said of Tuckerman Hall. The elegant concert hall, built in 1902 for the former Worcester Woman's Club, is home of the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra, but is now starting to become a comedy venue. Worcester comedian Jimmy Cash did three shows there in March.

'Live every day like it's your last'

Clarke has been busy, including a recurring part on the NBC television sitcom "Extended Family" that was canceled in May. He's in the movie "Art Thief," based on the 1990 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist. Clarke said he plays "a very bad man."

But with all these shows and appearances, "I'm playing with house money," Clarke said.

"Frank Sinatra said 'Live every day like it's your last, because one of these days you're gonna be right,'" he observed.

In 2020, Clarke suffered what he said was a major stroke, later followed by a minor heart attack and a major heart attack.

The stroke occurred when when one of Clarke's hands was numb and stayed numb, after he woke up at his home in Martha's Vineyard. Concerned with what was happening, Clarke called a friend and asked, "Am I making sense?" He joked that the friend said, "Even less than normal."

Clarke took a couple of aspirin and drove himself to a local hospital, out of a worry that an ambulance may not be able to find his home because of its location. At the hospital nothing he was saying was making any sense, he said. He was airlifted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. A carotid artery was cleared up. Subsequently, he had a minor heart attack and then a major heart attack while in Vail, Colorado. But he said that he's doing well now.

"They say treat your body like a temple. I treated mine like an amusement park," Clarke said.

At one point, he weighed 388 pounds. He was able to get his weight down to 188 pounds, and now he weighs about 208 pounds, he said. "Eating right I kept it off," Clarke said.

The big weight loss occurred before his stroke, which may help account for his ability to have survived and bounce back. "The doctor said that, and the fact that I took an aspirin," Clarke said.

'Bad boy From Boston'

The oldest son in an Irish Catholic family from Cambridge, Clarke has been called a working-class comedian who works hard for a laugh. In earlier interview with the Telegram & Gazette he recalled, "When I was a kid I was gonna be a cop, but I would probably have arrested most of my friends and family." 

Clarke made his name and "Bad Boy From Boston" nickname as part of the thriving Boston comedy scene of the 1980s. Also part of that scene was Worcester native Denis Leary, and the two are friends. Clarke has done fundraising efforts on behalf of the Leary Firefighters Foundation, which was established by Leary after the December 1999 Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. warehouse fire. Clarke also had a recurring role in Leary's acclaimed TV FX comedy-drama "Rescue Me" which ran 2004 to 2011.

Clarke got his first big break when late comic Rodney Dangerfield cast him on the HBO special “Nothin’ Goes Right” in 1988. Later, Clarke worked with the legendary comedian on the movie “Meet Wally Sparks."

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Other movies in which Clarke has appeared include "Fever Pitch," "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," "Me, Myself & Irene" and "There's Something About Mary."

On television, besides "Rescue Me," Clarke had his own CBS sitcom "Lenny" and has been in sitcoms such as ABC's "It's All Relative."

When "Extended Family" was cancelled, "I was so heartbroken. I was telling people I was the second-oldest guy on TV (next to Tom Selleck on 'Blue Bloods'), " Clarke said. "Blue Bloods" has been canceled as well effective in December, and Clarke said he was surprised to hear that Selleck has financial woes. Clarke joked that he thought, "Why don't you (Selleck) get one of those reverse mortgages?" (Selleck has done television advertisements for a company offering second mortgages.)

'There is something for everyone'

Asked if his stand-up shows are scripted in advance, Clarke said, "Absolutely not ... I've been doing it 50 years now and I've never done the same show twice." He added that since his stroke he's talked with his doctor about short-term memory loss: "I said to my doctor, 'Is that the one you need?'"

Clarke will speak about his health experiences in his stand-up act. Meanwhile, "I stay away from politics," Clarke said. "If you talk politics, you're gonna lose half the crowd. Especially at this time of life, if you express your opinion now they hate you. I don't want them to hate me."

However, Clarke has been outspoken about his dislike of what he describes as"political correctness" for a number of years.

"It's so tough. If you say anything, people get offended. One time someone said, 'You're Lenny Clarke. I'm offended.' I said, 'I haven't even said anything yet' ... I get my energy from the crowd. My job is to make you laugh. It's so difficult nowadays. Every single thing I say I'm trying to self-edit myself on stage. There are people who get upset just for the sake of getting upset. They like to be miserable, I guess. I find myself making people laugh against their will," Clarke said.

"I don't consider myself funnier than anyone, but I am insane. I've been able to make a good career being insane. I want you to feel better after you've seen me. I just say things that people seem to laugh at."

For the show at Tuckerman Hall with himself, Sweeney and Walker, "there is something for everyone," Clarke said.

Walker and "Good Times" can be seen on TV somewhere around the world to this day, Clarke said. Sweeney and Clarke go back to their comedy days in Boston in the 1980s.

After seeing Sweeney perform for the first time, Clarke was so impressed he wanted to be friends. When they met, Sweeney responded, "'If you want to be my friend, leave me alone,'" Clarke said.

"We've been friends over 40 years."

Lenny Clarke, Steve Sweeney and Jimmie 'JJ' Walker

When: 7:30 p.m. July 11. Doors open 6:30 p.m.

Where: Tuckerman Hall, 10 Tuckerman St., Worcester

How much: $40. Eventbrite.com