Crimmins Occupies Boston

Barry Crimmins is back in town today for a run of shows, including the Roast of Barry Crimmins, part of the Boston Comedy Festival schedule tonight. A bunch of Crimmins' old friends, and a few newer ones, will be on hand at the Charles Playhouse Lounge for that, including Steven Wright, Steve Sweeney, Jimmy Tingle, Tony V, Dan Wasserman, Mike McDonald, Niki and Lainey of The Steamy Bohemians, Randy Credico, Billy Bob Neck, and John Ennis. Before that, though, he'll be out at Occupy Boston at 4PM to address the crowd.

On Saturday, you'll get to see Crimmins at his best, doing a headlining set at the New England Folk Music Archives in Somerville, at the Arts at the Armory Space on Highland Ave. That show is the official kickoff of Crimmins "Occupation: Occupation" tour. It'll be his first full-length show in Boston since last year's shows with Erin Judge and Dennis Perrin at Mottley's. Billy Bob Neck and Tim Mason are also on that bill.

And if you want to see Crimmins one more time before he heads out of town, he's part of a phenomenal bill for the Friend of Mine: Tribute to Bill Morrissey show at the Somerville Theatre on Thursday, November 17. I'm not sure if this is the complete line-up, but so far that show will include Peter Case, Shawn Colvin, David Johansen, Mark Erelli, John Gorka, Peter Keane, Fred Koller, Cormac McCarthy (the musician), PAtty Larkin, and Pete Nelson. The night will be hosted by Cliff Eberhardt and David Dye. Mr. Morrissey died of heart failure in July. It's easy to see his influence, as a musician and as a friend, just by looking at that list.

We're lucky to have Crimmins for so many shows, and that he's still standing to do them after a recent accident precipitated by his dogs, Lettie and Lu, trying to draw and quarter him on a walk near his Upstate New York home. Here's Crimmins' recounting of that story, and a bit more about the shows, from his blog.

Jimmy Tingle In Lynn, Jimmy Tingle's American Dream

Jimmy Tingle play the Lynn Community
Coffee House Friday

Having moved to Lynn in 2006, I like to promote shows going on in my own backyard. Friday, Jimmy Tingle will be kicking off the Lynn Community Coffee House at St. Stephen’s Church on Common Street. There is a heavy community angle to the show, which will also feature works from local artists and a silent auction to benefit ECCO, an organization that helps to create jobs for Lynn youth.

Jocelyn Almy-Testa, one of the organizers of the event, hopes will help the city develop more of an arts and entertainment scene. “I think events like this, and also other things going on in the city, like The Lynn Auditorium programming, events being held at LynnArts, Walnut Street, and Arts After Hours, are all contributing to an environment in which people see Lynn as a place to go to have meaningful experiences, and quality entertainment options,” she says. “It helps commerce, helps our quality of life, gives people a chance to enjoy themselves, and overall brings the community together in a positive way.”

Tingle ran Jimmy Tingle’s Off-Broadway Theater for five years in Somerville, and he knows what a good venue or show can do for the local economy. “It helps the performers, it helps the local community, it helps the church, it helps all the people who benefit from the church, and it helps the local economy in a big way,” he says. “For every one dollar that is spent on an entertainment ticket, three dollars is spent in the surrounding neighborhood.”

Don White, one of the other organizers of the event, will host the show.

Tingle’s documentary, Jimmy Tingle’s American Dream, just won best documentary at the Independent Film Quarterly Film and New Media Festival last month. He’s looking to tour more festivals with the film this year. Here’s a quick preview:

The Boston Comedy Interview: Jimmy Tingle on the top news stories of 2010

Jimmy Tingle at the Regent Theatre

If you want to catch up on the news stories of 2010, you could do worse than going to see Jimmy Tingle’s shows this week and next week at the Regent Theatre in Arlington. Tingle has been delivering his social and political commentary around Boston since the days of the Ding Ho in the 80s, when he transformed himself from a bartender and street performer into a satirist.

We have covered his activities over the summer, graduating with a masters in public administration from the Kennedy School at Harvard. But Tingle is back to performing and stand-up comedy, and will soon be promoting his new documentary, Jimmy Tingle’s American Dream, for which he interviewed, among others, Howard Zinn, Robert Altman, Barry Crimmins, and Sean Hannity.

Tingle is at the Regent tonight, New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, and January 2. You can also donate part of your ticket price to charity by tacking on an extra five bucks, which Tingle will match and donate to any one of a list of charities you can find on his site here.

I had a lengthy conversation with Tingle earlier this week on some of the bigger news stories, and his own plans for the coming new year.

How are the shows going at the Regent so far?

Good. I just did one last night. They’re going well. It’s good to be back there. The audiences are great. It’s a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun last night. I’m looking forward to tonight and the rest of this week and then New Year’s Eve. It’s good to just be performing again.

How long had it been? I know you’ve done some stuff over the summer.

Yeah. I did some stuff in Wellfleet over the summer. I’ve been out there. But when I spent the year at school I really didn’t do any public gigs for a year or ten months. A certain thing here and there, a private gig.

Do you feel like there’s been any rust?

No. I wouldn’t say so. I’ve been going to the Hong Kong [The Comedy Studio] a lot. That’s just doing ten minutes. There’s sometimes rust there because you’re just breaking out new stuff all the time, trying to anyway. So that’s probably the bumpiest ones that I have. But when I do these hour or ninety-minute shows or whatever, the bumpiest bits are sandwiched in between other stuff so it doesn’t seem as rusty.

We talked about this over the summer after your graduation. You felt it would affect your comedy to have gotten the degree. How do you find that now that you’ve gone back to gigging and you’ve got a few under your belt?

I think it’s really helped, actually, to get away from something and go back to it. It helps with the writing. Because you’re in school, you’re on deadline, and one thing about comics, most of us are not on deadlines. Unless you’re doing a radio show or a TV show where you’re on deadline that week. But if you’re a freelancer, you have to discipline yourself. I’ve always worked better when there’s a compelling reason to write or to come up with stuff. So I think that the school experience helped with the discipline more than if I hadn’t done it. And also broadened the perspective, so the commentary may become a little more knowledge-based, I think.

Are you writing more now than you did before, do you think?

I don’t know. I think I probably am.

Do you feel there’s more new stuff in this show than there would have been without it?

Oh yeah. Definitely.

I wanted to get your thoughts on a few of the major news stories of the year.

Sure. One of the things is, as we speak, the Senate is debating the START Treaty. A lot of the Republicans, they’re opposing the START Treaty. I heard one of them, I think it was Lindsey Graham, say the holidays is not the time to negotiate the STARTY Treaty. Yes, you don’t want to confuse reducing the threat of nuclear war with the birth of Christ.

They always say, there’s a window of opportunity for bipartisanship, and as soon as Obama starts climbing through the window, they go, “There’s a black guy coming though the window! Shut it!”

What was your take on Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Are you surprised that that went through?

I’m not surprised that it went through because in my opinion it’s the right thing to do. But also, it benefits the Republican party, even the moderate Republicans, it benefits them because there’s millions and millions of gay people in the country, and a lot of them are Republicans. The Log Cabin Republicans, for example, support it.

So I’m not surprised that it went through. I think that as time goes on, a lot of the people will probably ashamed of their vote that voted against it. I think ten years from now, we’ll look back after everything settles down and settles in and it shakes out and it’s no big deal, I think the people that voted against it will feel a sense of regret. It’s like voting against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

It did seem like there was a sudden change in the amount of people who came out supporting the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in the past few months. And I don’t know if there was actually a sea change, or if nobody had bothered to talk to these people before.

No, I think the culture has changed. The culture is different than it was fifteen years ago when it first came in. It just has. Dick Cheney supports gay marriage because his daughter’s gay. Ted Olson supports gay marriage. I’m not sure what his motivation is but he’s a pretty heavy-duty Bush supporter, I think he was the Solicitor General under Bush, lost his wife in 9/11 on the plane in Pennsylvania. It’s just a sea change in the country, a cultural change. And it’s reflected with the moderate Republicans. And also it helps them, it helps them with their own constituents, many of whom are gay.

But of course, they always have a caveat. I’ll support it as long as it doesn’t interfere with military preparedness. How is it… “We have to take the hill.” “Yes, Captain, but first, one question – will you marry me?” “Of course I’ll marry you! Burt first, let’s take the hill!”

“It’s the perfect setting.”

Exactly. So you have that, and that’s progress. And I think they’ll probably get the START Treaty through, that’s going to be progress.

What do you think of the nature of bipartisanship in Congress right now? It seems to be one of the nastier times. One side says, we’re just digging in for what we believe in, and the other side will say they’re not compromising.

I think things are going to change after the New Year. We’ll see what happens. Let me just say that.

Do you have a sense of what you think will happen?

Here’s an example – the earmarks. The brouhaha over the earmarks. The people who are opposing the earmarks, let’s just say the economy is not doing as well as everybody hopes it’s going to do. So then you take all of these federal projects out of all these congressional districts around the country. That’s less jobs. It’s less employment. It’s less business activity. It’s not going to be good for people. Yes, you technically save eight billion dollars, but you also lose a lot of economic activity in a lot of congressional districts around the country.

And it might look good on paper to say “no earmarks,” but I think the residual effect of that is, there’s less work, there’s less employment, there’s less growth, there’s less infrastructure repairing and new construction. And I think after a year or two of that if you go to your constituents and say, we’ve reduced the deficit by eight billion dollars, but the bridge or the tunnel or the highway still needs to be repaired, I don’t think that’s a recipe for re-election. I don’t think it’s something that’s going to encourage people to say, yes, we want two more years of this austerity measure in our congressional district.

So I think what may very well happen is that the novelty of less government in congressional districts around the country is going to wear off quickly when the people – the people, not the members of Congress but the people in those districts – have to actually feel the results of having less economic activity in their districts.

There’s also the back and forth about Obama himself. The left feels that he’s compromised too much and the right is trying to say he has not compromised on anything, that he’s too far to the left.

The right’s not going to say anything positive about him at all. That’s their whole strategy, to demonize, demonize, demonize. That’s been their strategy since he got in.

Does that make legitimate criticism of Obama more difficult?

It just makes it harder to discern what is legitimate criticism and what isn’t. If everything with the guy is wrong, then what’s really wrong is not going to be apparent because they don’t like anything. How can you not like the fact that General Motors is on the rebound after the infusing of government money and restructuring. And they paid back most of the money. A major American company is up and running as a result of that particular investment or bailout or whatever you want to call it.

You know what it is? It seems there’s a lack of authenticity and a lack of honesty. And that’s the biggest thing about the bipartisanship. People aren’t intellectually honest. If you have to side with your “quote” side or your team regardless of the weight of the argument, but because your team either put forth that argument or is opposed to that argument because it was put forth or opposed by the other side, then there’s an intellectual dishonesty there.

It does seem that all of that is positioning for the next election. The talk about actually solving problems seems to be secondary to, how do we get elected next time. And that’s probably nor something that’s a huge change from the way it’s always been. But it feels worse now for some reason.

Yeah. I think everybody would say that. From what I’ve read and heard and from what people have said, I think that’s true. But you’re also dealing with 65 new members of Congress coming in for the first time. Many of these people have never held public office. It could be a breath of fresh air. Who knows? So that’s a wild card, as well.

Do you have any official opinion on the Tea Party?

Let’s see what they do. I like the fact that people get involved and get active in their neighborhood and their government, and that they’re active and people are engaged in the political process. I think it’s healthy. I think it’s been a healthy thing, basically, for the country to have more political engagement. We’ll see.

Sometimes I wonder, is it really deficit reduction or is it really stopping Obama, and deficit reduction is another excuse to stop Obama. And also to deny the continued funding of social programs. One of the things about the deficit is, they say the deficit is the number one thing, and you say, do we have money for the hospitals, do we have money for the schools, do we have money for education, do we have money for this and that program, no no no no no because that’ll increase the deficit. That’ll increase the debt. So it can be used as a weapon to squash social programs and social spending that some people don’t like.

What would you say is a legitimate criticism of Obama? Is there anything out there that he deserves to be criticized for?

I think it’s really effective when he’s aggressive, and he think he should have engaged on Fox Television. In the early days, he made a decision not to go on Fox, and I think it was a mistake not to go on Fox. Because he can sit down with Bill O’Reilly one on one, just like he sat down with other people, and he knows the nuances of the policy way better, in my estimation, than any of these commentators who are going to grill him on a policy. I think he would do himself well to dispel their arguments to their face on television. And I think that takes the wind out f their sails. And by not going on there, they have the open field. They can do whatever they want.

And I feel the same way about talk radio. The Democrats… you have to engage your critics. And I think direct engagement earns their respect and I think it also allows your supporters to see you defend your positions. And I think it’s a mistake for the Democrats not to engage on talk radio and not to engage on Fox, given the opportunity to do so. It’s one thing if they don’t invite you. But if they invite you and as a matter of principle because you don’t like what they stand for you don’t go on, I think you’re ceding the territory. And I don’t think it serves a good purpose because it’s just the drumbeat of the message.

If he went on Sean Hannity and talked about being a Marxist, being a socialist, he could just lay out the agenda and explain why it’s not socialism. And Fox could play that a thousand times, and it would sink in that what he’s proposing is not socialism, when you bail out Wall Street. But by not doing it, you cede the territory and it’s wide open. On a whole host of issues, to go on there and sell health care on Fox, or the bailouts, to make your arguments just like you make your arguments on the other stations.

It’s part of a bigger problem of messaging. When he went to the Republican retreat in, I don’t know if it was his first six months, but he was great. They asked him questions and he was able to engage every single question. And he did himself a great service. They never invited him back, but he was dynamite. Because he’s very smart and he’s articulate and he’ sincere and he’s authentic in what he’s trying to do, and he can lay out the argument for the other side to hear. The reason I support Obama and the Democrats is because on most of the issues, they’re right. In my estimation.

So you feel their faults have mainly been strategic ones.

I think the health care thing, the idea that you have to buy insurance, I think is what freaked people out. Because in Massachusetts, it was less of a shock because we went through a debate in the state about it. The legislature, Romney, it was bipartisan. It was a Republican governor and a Democratic legislature that came up with this Massachusetts system where you’re going to cover everybody in the state and everybody has to buy it. But it was debated, it was laid out.

When Obama got there, they were imposing it from the top down on states that had no such debate. So people freaked out because a lot of people don’t have insurance because they can’t afford it. Or they were happy with what they had. It scared people. And not getting a public option led to the next phase of this thing where you have to buy insurance.

But I think he was bending over backwards to accommodate insurance companies and the business community and stay true to free enterprise and not be portrayed as complicit in the “quote” government take-over of health care. And in doing so, he still got slammed on the issue. It didn’t stop them from saying [it was] the government take-over of health care. But they didn’t have the government take over health care that he was paying the price for. He’s paying the price for socialized medicine without the socialized medicine.

Everything seems to be pushing towards presidential electoral politics, as well. What are your feelings on what 2012 might bring?

I don’t think Obama will be challenged as a Democrat, and I think he’s going to be able to, at the end of the year, say listen, we passed health care, we ended Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, we got a START Treaty, we extended the unemployment benefits. So there’s some positive things that he’s done. I don’t think he’s going to be challenged from the left in the party.

And the Republicans, who knows who they’ll put up. I don’t think Sarah Palin is a favorite in the party. She quit halfway through her first term and she does not have the backing of the Republican establishment from what I can see. But she’ll be a factor because they’ve figured out a way to message without actually doing interviews with a lot of people. It’s a form of entertainment. On her reality show, when she said, I’d much rather be up here and out in the wilderness being free than some stuffy old political office in Washington. And you know what, Sarah? Millions of people agree with you. Half of them are in the Republican party.

What about locally? We had an election here that bucked the trend for the rest of the country. What do you think happened there?

The people of Massachusetts, I think most of them like the state of Massachusetts, and although there’s big problems in certain areas of one-party rule, there’s definitely an issue with that, I think most of the people in Massachusetts are Democrats for a reason. And they support the principles of the Democratic party that are more politically progressive than the principles of the Republican party. I think that has a lot to do with it. And also they outnumber the Republicans two to one or three to one.

And we faired well relative to the rest of the country and the economy because of the universities up here. It’s not good when the economy is bad for universities but at least they’re not shutting down and moving. That sustains us through economic hard times, unlike a lot of other places that don’t have that advantage. So our unemployment was less. We actually had more job creation, we’re in the top five states in the country, I believe, since 2008, I think. So we had some things going for us here.

And what will you be up to in 2011?

My film, Jimmy Tingle’s American Dream, is done and I look forward to getting that out there in 2011. It’s a documentary, about 70 minutes long. We’re putting it in film festivals. We’re trying to generate some interest. I’m psyched to get it out this year, and I’m psyched to get around the country and around the world with the film.

What would you say is the synopsis of the film for those who aren’t familiar?

It’s basically the American Dream, what does it mean, seen through my eyes as a comic and an entrepreneur and a business owner who had a theatre. And interviews with other people and their interpretation of the American Dream, focusing on, what is the American Dream, what are the components of it, and what do we stand for as a country, what do we stand for as a people. Obviously there’s humor involved, there are performances involved. And a lot of interviews with a lot of great people.

The BC Q&A: Jimmy Tingle, Harvard grad

Jimmy Tingle has held a bevy of titles in this town. The Cambridge native was a bartender at the old Ding Ho, where he eventually earned the title of stand-up comedian. He was a street performer who used to play his harmonica out in Harvard Square. He once did the “Andy Rooney spot” on 60 Minutes II. For five years, he was a theater owner and manager, running a space in Davis Square that hosted comedy, music, plays, and sometimes a talk show, which he hosted. You can also add faux presidential candidate, from the title of his last one-man show.

For the past year, Tingle dropped all of his other titles and picked up the title of student, earning his masters in public administration from the Kennedy School in Harvard. Tonight at Bull Run in Shirley, Tingle returns to performing again. He’ll likely be the same Jimmy audiences here have seen over the years, delivering his politically and socially minded material in his distinct, polished cadence and Boston accent. But he’s hoping to approach his comedy a bit differently, in accordance with his new degree.

I spoke with Tingle by phone from his Cambridge home earlier this week.

So what made you decide to go back to school?

Let’s see, why did I go back to school? I just wanted to do something different. Nick, I just felt like I wanted to get a tune-up. I just wanted to challenge myself with something else besides performing.

How did you settle on Harvard and public administration?

Well that’s where I live, I live in Cambridge. I’ve lived in the shadow of the Kennedy School my whole life. I’ve been studying, I’ve been familiar with the topic over the years. As you know, my act deals with a lot of this stuff all the time and keeping up with what’s going on in the world, and I just said, you know what? This would be a great place to go.

I kept running into people that went there. Friends of mine, colleagues. And I just thought it would be a really good thing to do. Intellectually, career-wise, on a personal level. That’s really what I wanted to do. I wanted to figure out new ways to think about the same subjects. New ways maybe to use my entertainment skills for something beyond entertainment. I had a lot of ideas. Once the theater closed I just wanted to do something different.

How did you mix with the student population there?

Oh, great. You know what? I had a ball. I just love the students. The people are great. They’re just smart. Down to earth. Really very committed to improving society in their various fields. The student population is so diverse. It’s everybody from military, and Navy SEALS and helicopter pilots to Green Beret types, special forces and national security types all the way to people who run non-profits in Afghanistan and Iraq and U.N. workers. You’ve got people from all over the world, you’ve got Israelis and Palestinians mixing for the first time sometimes. It was just beautiful. It was just a fantastic experience.

Was there anything that surprised you about it?

What surprised me the most was how important and how unique and how influential popular culture is in the world of – or can be – in the world of academia. When you step out of what you do, you realize the significance of what you do. That’s what my take away was. I said, wow, what I do is really different. Not everybody does this. Not everybody can do it. And it’s really unique and it’s really special. And I can do a lot of good with it.



Did you get recognized in class frequently? Were people surprised to look over and see you sitting next to them?

You know what? I thought I’d be going to like another country. I felt like no one’s going to know me. I get in there, many of the teachers had been to shows. All of the deans had been to the shows. I couldn’t believe it. They all knew me.

Was that awkward? “Hey! I’m a big fan! By the way, you got a D on your paper.”

No, but the staff, a lot of the people who worked there, you know, from the police department to security to the clerical workers, I just knew a lot of people. Harvard employs, you know, twenty-five thousand people. Well, I don’t know the exact number, but I think it’s one of the largest employers in the area. I know it’s one of the largest, I don’t know if it’s the largest. A lot of these people are local.

So many of these people have been to the shows over the years. Especially the professors and the deans and people like that had come to the shows. I was really surprised. Not so much the students, although some students had, the Americans had. So that was really surprising to me. Because I really wasn’t going there as a comedian, nor did I want to. I was never “on” during class. I was never trying to be funny. I was just there to listen and to learn and literally to try to get through the material, just like any other college course.

How long were you there?

It was a one-year program. So I started in July, we had started summer school in July of ’09, and we finished May 27 of 2010.

So what now that you have this? What’s the next step?

I don’t know, Nick. I’m really going to focus on these performances. I’m going to focus on using comedy, hopefully, for more than just entertainment value. I’m not sure how, but that’s kind of what I’m working on now.

Is there anything immediate that you can think of that your studying will change about your performance?

I think it’s opened me up to a better discipline of reading, writing. It’s broadened my perspective on how the world works. It broadens your perspective of how the country works, how the world works. Just the diversity of opinions and the diversity of mindsets. You get exposed to people from other countries who are there at the Kennedy School trying to improve water purification in Africa or bring electricity to parts of Asia, to reduce poverty in Latin America. And the challenges that they face are huge. We have our own challenges, but they’re not those types of challenges.

You have people who are there from Israel and Palestine. Their challenges are literally life and death, and their politics matter and change of policies matter to people in profound ways. The same with the African countries. It puts America and the world into perspective in a very real way that you don’t get from just newspapers. Although, just being familiar with all these different scenarios over the years by reading newspapers and paying attention to the news, then you start to put human faces on these situations. And that’s something you don’t get from newspapers – the human connection.

Is it going to be an adjustment going back to performing after having spent the last year mostly on studying and schoolwork?

I don’t think it’s going to be a big adjustment at all. It’s like getting a tune-up. It’s an intellectual tune-up. You know? Maybe not a comedic tune-up. But an intellectual one. And it’s a rest. A rest from performing. It’s a break from being onstage, it’s a break from saying what you think. I loved being in the audience. I loved being in the audience and being intellectually engaged and intellectually stimulated by people who are not trying to entertain me. It’s not entertainment. And I love that.

I just want to be exposed to more ideas. The biggest thing’s going to be how to maintain this intellectual stimulation and not just retreat back into the old patterns. I just need new challenged. Really, I went to school for a new challenge. I just had been performing for more than thirty years, I had run the theater, I had done national television, and I just said, I think I can do more. I think I can learn more. That’s really why I went back to school.

One of the challenges I think would be incorporating that intellectual vigor into something that can still appeal to a broad audience. I’d assume you don’t want to go up and cite case studies and things.

Yes I do, Nick. I want to cite some case studies. [Pause] No. I’m kidding. But you know what I do. It’s fascinating to me how well-received what I do is at Harvard. That was really surprising to me. In a good way. They really enjoyed my sense of humor when I did perform. I just did a couple of things. Or even the commencement speech, for example. It was just really well received. It’s unique. And it put what I do in perspective with the rest of society, and literally, the world.

What you do can reach people more immediately than what someone who’s studying in the same program as you are might.

Absolutely. I mean, the commencement address that I did at Harvard, they’d never seen anything like that.

Being more of a blue collar guy, was there a culture shock at Harvard?

Not for me, Nick. I was myself. And I think there was a great appreciation for people for who they are. I mean, a blue collar guy in America is the top one-tenth of one percent in the history of the world in terms of living standards. So you’re there with people from Rwanda who were there during the massacres. You’re there with people from the Congo who are fighting diseases that we eradicated a hundred years ago. So it’s not like you’re disadvantaged at all if you’re an American. In my opinion.

You’re dealing with people who grew up in South Africa where it was against the law to go to school if they were black, or in Latin America where there were the wars from the 70s and the 80s and the 90s, and people from Mexico who are politically connected who are literally under death threats from drug dealers. So to put the human face on all these different trends and all these different issues was just a very eye-opening experience.



I would think all of this would fuel speculation that you might try for a political campaign that’s a bit more serious than your last run for president.

If I were to run, it would be more serious than my last one. [laughs]

That’s kind of a cagey answer.

Yeah. [laughs]

Okay, maybe I should be more direct. Are you considering actually running for an office?

I’m not. I’m not. But when I went there, you can’t go there without that being one consideration. You know, after doing comedy for almost thirty years, I start to think, is this what I want to do for the rest of my life. And I think the Kennedy School, going there and being exposed to hardcore policy, hardcore political people, hardcore policy wonks, that’s what they do. Many of the people in there will be future senators, congressmen, mayors, presidents of countries.

President Calderon of Mexico came to do our class day speech. He was a Kennedy School student. We was a graduate of the Kennedy School. Bill O’Reilly on Fox News is a graduate of the Kennedy School. The head of the United Nations now, the secretary general of the United Nations is a Kennedy School graduate. That’s what they do. So you can’t be there without considering a career in politics. I didn’t go there because I said, I want to switch careers and go into politics. That’s something I might want to go into someday. I don’t know. I still don’t know. But I’m not getting signatures right now for a public office.

What about the question, is this what I want to do for the rest of my life? Did it confirm for you that you want to keep doing comedy?

I think that I want to bring it up a notch or two. I want to go to a different level with it. I definitely want to bring it to a more significant level, a level that is more challenging to me, personally. I need to stretch intellectually, continue to grow intellectually, creatively, professionally. That’s really what I want to do.

Jimmy Tingle on public transportation, literally

In this video, Jimmy Tingle takes one of the bits from his new CD, Humor for Humanity: Jimmy Tingle for President-The Funniest Campaign in History, on the road. And on the T. And all over the place.



Also, Tingle's run at the Regent Theatre continues tomorrow, part of his "Laughter Stimulus Plan." And since it's Mother's Day weekend, he's offering a free tickets for mothers if you call 781-646-4849 or buy them in person at the box office, if you mention the Tingle e-mail list (you can sign up for that on his site). Show starts at 8PM Saturday.

Random Notes: Jimmy Tingle, Joe Wong on Letterman, Tmomy's to Open in May, Robby Roadsteamer Pilot

For those who don’t do digital downloads, Jimmy Tingle for President: The Funniest Campaign in History is now out on good old hard copy CD. Tingle has been offering the album as a download for a couple of weeks. (You can hear a track, “Cafeteria Catholic,” here).

Tingle has been editing the project for a while now, putting together the best from his shows at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown last year, taking out specific references to the race for the presidency that would date the material. He’ll celebrate the release of the album with a show tomorrow at the Regent Theatre in Arlington (he’ll also play shows there in May and June).

Joe Wong on Letterman

Boston’s own Joe Wong is tentatively set to record a set for the Late Show with David Letterman Monday, which would air next week. Letterman comic booker Eddie Brill, recently in town for auditions for his Great American Comedy Festival, has been working with Wong on his set, and Wong gave a preview of it Sunday at the Comedy Studio.

Tommy’s Comedy Lounge to Open in May

John Tobin and Frank Ahearn completed paperwork this week to open a new club in the Charles Playhouse on May 2. The name “Tommy’s Comedy Lounge” comes from Thomas Wignell, the 18th century actor and humorist for which Tobin also named the Thomas Wignell Award, presented to comedians chosen for the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame, another of Tobin’s projects. The club will run Thursdays through Saturdays, and reach out to college comedy groups for Thursday night shows.

New Pilot from Robby Roadsteamer

Robby Roadsteamer posted his pilot for a new show on the Boston comedy scene, called “Quiet Desperation,” this week, with an assist from Shaun Bedgood, Mehran, and Tom Dustin. And a new character from Chris Coxen, Renaldo. He’s a singer. Kind of. And he’d like to free women from… well, just watch this.

Jimmy Tingle Back At the Regent Tonight

Anywhere comedy can possibly be performed in Boston, Jimmy Tingle has played there. When I spoke with him Friday, he was on his way back from a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast gig in Lowell (who has the energy to be funny at breakfast?). Since Tingle’s Off-Broadway Theatre in Davis Square closed in 2007, he has been taking advantage of his ability to travel a bit more, locally and beyond.

“Now that I’m not doing that anymore, I can play around town and I really love it,” he says. “It frees me up to do things around the country and it’s just great to get in front of new audiences in new towns.”

Tingle heads to the Regent Theater tonight to play a show with no specific theme or title, which is also unusual for Tingle these days. “I’ve been so married to the one-person show thematic format of it – I’ve done American Dream and Tingle for President – I’m calling it just Jimmy Tingle in Concert,” he says. “It’s just a fun show. It’s highlights of other shows and new stuff. They were calling it the Laughter Stimulus Plan, but it’s not a brand new show based on economic theory. We’re having a ball. It’s just fun to be loose.”

Tingle is doing a monthly show at the Regent, booked through June. It’s a comfortable environment for Tingle. He produced several shows there when the venue opened in 2001, and is now co-producing this show with the Regent. He enjoys working with the Regent staff, and gets to play a bigger room on a regular basis, all without the grind of owning his own space. Plus the Arlington location is close enough to attract some of the old Off-Broadway crowd. “I do a high profile gig once a month in town, it’s a public event,” he says. “It’s really good. It’s a reasonable price. I like the arrangement very much.”

Tingle is also readying his new CD, Jimmy Tingle for President. It’s available now as a download, and will be available on CD April 14.

Tingle on casinos in Massachusetts:

Shows This Weekend

Three shows this weekend deserve a special highlight. Tonight’s line-up at The Gas at Great Scott is solid from top to bottom – Anderson Comedy hosts Chris Coxen, Josh Gondelman, David Grabiner, Lamont Price, Robby Roadsteamer, MC Mr. Napkins, The Steamy Bohemians, and Mehran. Not bad for five bucks… You may not have heard much about it, but there’s a benefit show with a great line-up tomorrow at the Wilbur at 2PM, with Ira Proctor, Jim Lauletta, Tony V., Jon Lincoln, Dan Boulger, Mike Hanley, Jon Porch, Ahmed Bharoocha, and Roman Pierce. Proceeds benefit a family that lost their father to suicide… Also Saturday, at 7PM, is a great show for comedy and rock and roll fans. Jimmy Tingle is emceeing a show with Mission of Burma and the Neighborhood at the Somerville Theatre. Proceeds will benefit the Center for Arts at the Armory.

Tingle Adds A Saturday Show at the Regent

For those who couldn't make it out on New Year's Eve because of the weather, Jimmy Tingle has added another show at the Regent for Saturday, January 3 at 7:30PM at the Regent Theatre. (Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St., Arlington. 781-646-4849)

Here's a bit from Tingle's latest show, Jimmy Tingle for President, on public transportation.

Tingle In the New Year

Jimmy Tingle has had a full year’s break from being a theater owner after his Off Broadway closed down, and he spent it playing clubs and theaters, re-sharpening his comic skills. The coming year will be busy for Tingle, who is working on the release of a DVD and CD release of Jimmy Tingle for President (he’s shooting for a mid-January release for both). The shows are drawn from his run at Watertown’s Arsenal Center for the Arts earlier this year.

“It’s basically my platform,” he says. “It’s fun. But it’s stand-up and it’s the platform, there’s audience participation, there’s a question and answer session with the audience.”

If you’re wondering why he’d release a “For President” album after the election, Tingle says the material was never about a single, particular campaign (other than his own). “It’ll make sense in a year, it’ll make sense in two years,” he says. “It’s not about McCain or Obama or Bush, really. It’s about ideas and it’s about ideas for a comedic run for the presidency.”

Tingle is also working on a new show and a new movie (based on his American Dream show). In the meantime, you can see him at the Regent Theatre Saturday and New Year’s Eve.

John Tobin on the new Boston Comedy Hall of Fame

There is a hall of fame for just about everything these day. Every sport has one, every form of music. So why not Boston comedy? Boston City Councilor John Tobin asked a similar question in a conversation with his friend, Spark Capital’s Todd Dagres. The two decided to create the Boston Comedy Hall of Fame, which will induct its first member, Steven Wright, at a local all-star ceremony at Showcase Live on December 15.

Wright was an obvious choice. The Boston scene was already swinging when Wright made his first appearance on “The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson” in 1982, but his obvious talent led people to start looking for talent here. And since Tobin was looking for a comedian who “has made significant and lifelong contributions to the art of stand-up comedy,” Wright was perfect. “That was easy and unanimous,” he says. “Steven Wright is the obvious first choice in a long line of future inductees.” He adds that if Wright hadn’t agreed to it, they wouldn’t have gone forward.

The line-up for the show reflects Wright’s importance in the Boston comedy community. Tony V. will host the ceremony, which will include performances by Don Gavin, Barry Crimmins, Steve Sweeney, Mike Donovan, Mike McDonald, Lenny Clarke, Ken Rogerson, and Jimmy Tingle, with a video from “When Stand Up Stood Out” director Fran Solomita.

For now, there will be no brick and mortar Boston Comedy Hall of Fame, but Tobin says he “would love to see it at some point be a part of a larger complex dedicated to the history of Boston entertainment.” Wright will receive an Oscar-sized statue (to go with his actual Oscar) called the Thomas Wignell Award, named for a 19th century actor considered by some to be the first stand-up comedian.

Tobin, a co-founder of the Boston Comedy Festival, has always been a comedy fan and looked for ways to contribute above and beyond his duties as a City Councilman. “It’s just something that I have always been passionate about,” he says. “Comedy has had a big role in shaping me and I have nothing but admiration for the men and women who work hard and lend their voices to making people laugh and think.”

Tobin and Dagres have set up the project as a not-for-profit under the banner of “Stage Source,” which will set up a fund for comedians who fall sick and need assistance. Tobin is the executive director and Dagres is the president of the board, which Tobin expects to expand after this year’s ceremony.

Watch www.BostonComedyHallOfFame.com for future developments.