Patrice O'Neal On Leaving Boston, Plus A Preview of Tonight's Elephant In the Room Special On Comedy Central

When I first spoke with Patrice O’Neal in 2001, he was already in New York, already drawing attention at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal, on his way to better things. His first one-hour stand-up special, Elephant In the Room, debuts tonight on Comedy Central. O’Neal started out in Boston. He grew up on Dorchester and moved to Roxbury when he was 17, and threw himself into stand-up after heckling an act at a club called Estelle’s. He thought he was funnier than the comic onstage at the time. So, unlike most hecklers, he got up and proved it.

O’Neal didn’t leave Boston happy. He got to a certain level as a middle act, and then couldn’t break through the headlining scene and had to leave. A lot of comics from Boston have faced that dilemma. But O’Neal went on a local radio program and spewed a lot of venom at club owners. The way he describes it, he “pretty much had a falling out with everybody in Boston.”

“I officially walked over and tore the paper bridge with lighter fluid and lava shoes,” he told me in 2002, for a story for the Boston Globe. “I’ve had a chance to make amends with certain people. It was just a young black dude lashing out at what he thought was an old white dude thing.”

The scene has changed in Boston since O’Neal left. There is more diversity, there are more women and more minorities in the scene making a name for themselves. Probably still room for improvement, but it seems a vast improvement from O’Neal’s days.

“In Boston, there’s one black or two blacks,” he told me. “There’s always ‘the black guy at the time.’ Jimmy Smith was the black guy, and then Carl Yard and Gerald Bennett was the black guy. I came along, I was the black guy. And then after I left, Dwayne Perkins was the black guy.”

O’Neal told me that he loved Boston. He didn’t want to leave his mother and his girlfriend, but when he left, he felt he was pushed. In a sense, that was probably true, but it was the same for Eugene Mirman, Brendon Small, or any number of comics who had to leave to find a bigger stage. If you’re looking to get the attention from TV or film, the opportunities are few in Boston.

Now O’Neal is a headliner with his own TV special, and by 2002, he had also changed his attitude toward his Boston exit. “I outgrew that whole anger thing,” he said then. “I felt like I was thrown out of Boston. I don’t think that anymore. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. It wasn’t a conspiracy.”

[NOTE: I’ll be addressing the question of why comics leave Boston in a story next month, after the redesign is launched on March 1.]

Onstage and off, O’Neal is gruff and direct. Which is why he has been a favorite on the Opie and Anthony show on satellite radio. He makes no excuses for his point of view. “I have a very misogynistic viewpoint on life,” he told me in 2006. “Somebody has to.”

“On regular radio, it’s so inhibited, you can’t be honest at all,” he said then. “Fuck the swearing, just honesty in general is hard. You’re offending everybody. But cable radio, people are paying for it. You can do anything you want.”

O’Neal likes to use profanity (“Sometimes a good well-placed swear expresses it for you,” he said), he is sarcastic and off the cuff, and he clearly enjoys making people uncomfortable. That applies to O’Neal the comic and O’Neal the person, and it’s what you’ll get if you tune in tonight.

“I’d rather be sarcastic than to just sit around and talk about my favorite cheese, you know?”

Here’s a preview of Elephant In the Room (Comedy Central, 10PM).

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DVD Release: Bruce Bruce - Losin' It! Live In Boston

Bruce Bruce originally came up through the Atlanta scene, but he chose to film his latest special here in Boston, at the Wilbur Theatre. It's called Losin' It! Live In Boston, and it's out today on DVD with bonus footage and an interview. You may even get to see yourself in the audience.

Newbury Comics might be your best bet for finding it without ordering online. A lot of other stores seem to have cut back on orders like this, but Newbury tends stock more stand-up specials, especially when they're new.

Here's a look. First clip is SFW, second clip, NSFW.

"Eating Like A Cow" and "Words"

"What's Sexy To A Man"

Juston McKinney: Stuck in A Middle Class Hole

Juston McKinney started his comedy life in Boston years ago, moonlighting from his job in Maine's York County Sherrif's Department to do comedy. He eventually moved to Boston to do stand-up, before moving off to New York and L.A. Now he has a home in New Hampshire, the state where he was born, within driving distance of this weekend's gig at the Kowloon on Route 1 in Saugus (Dave Rattigan and Donny Soares are also on the bill).

McKinney maintains a high comic profile, touring with Blue Collar: The Next Generation in 2007, and until recently hosting an Sirius-XM show from his home. His new hour special, A Middle Class Hole, will debut in May or June (the date is still being worked out), and will be released shortly after that as a CD/DVD. He also plays the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH on March 6.

A few thoughts from McKinney:

What’s the story behind the name of the special, A Middle Class Hole?

Most of the material on this special comes from my being stuck in this middle class hole, of home ownership, marriage and kids. We saved our money so we could put a down payment on a house. We bought our house in August of 2006, which we now know was the exact peak(to the month!) of the real estate market. My neighbors are in the same situation, no one can move, we live on a cul de stuck.

Do you think the material on the special will surprise people who know you mainly from the Blue Collar tour or from past Comedy Central appearances?

I don't think so. It's still pretty blue collar.

How do you feel about appearing on the Tonight Show as part of Conan O’Brien’s all too brief run?

I was happy I got to do it. I guess I'm part of a small number of comedians who have done the tonight show with both Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien. For whatever that's worth? I guess a weekend at the Kowloon!

How important is the Manchester, NH show on March 6, considering you live part time in New Hampshire? Will that feel like a home town crowd, do you think?

Everything is riding on my Manchester show, if I don't sell enough tickets I may have to put one of my boys up for adoption, I'll even throw in my wife. All kidding aside being a new Hampshire native it is always fun working in Manchester and the Palace is an awesome venue.

Does Boston feel like your comedy hometown, since that’s where you got your start?

Yes I consider Boston to be where I started. Being from New Hampshire and Maine you didn't have any places to get on stage so Stitches in Boston was the first place I ever performed....and bombed.

Will you get back to the radio show at some point?

I loved doing my weekly radio show on Sirius XM and it lasted about a year but it just got to be very time consuming. I would in the future like to do it again when I can find the time.

Do you think you’ll draw some folks from New Hampshire or Maine at the Kowloon, since it’s not far from the northern border?

Definitely a lot of my friends from up north look for a reason to hit Route 1 in Saugus because they go right by a strip club. The only question is whether they end up blowing off my show or not.

Rogan Filming New Special

Newton native Joe Rogan announced on his site, JoeRogan.net, that he will be filming a new one-hour comedy special for Spike TV next week at the Southern Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. He'll be filming two shows, at 7PM and 10PM. For those who find themselves in Columbus on the aforementioned date, you can get tickets here.

No word yet on when the special will air. This will be Rogan's second one-hour special, following Joe Rogan Live!, which aired on Showtime in 2007.