Friday, September 26, 2003  

Hicks v. Leary; Leary v. Rogan

First, a big thank you to the mystery guest who emailed me the MP3 of the Stern show where they compared Leary and Hicks back to back. Information wants to be free! (Note: yes, I see the irony in using a questionably copied and distributed sound clip as a launching pad to decry joke theivery, so you don't need to point it out).

So straight out: Leary's a goddamn thief. Not only is it crystal clear, but it's taken as a given throughout comedy, most enthusiastically here in Boston where he cut his comedy chops. A certain well-known headliner was tremendously ripped off by Leary back during the No Cure For Cancer days (said headliner actually buried the hatchet with Leary about a week before Rogan went public with all this; how's that for bad timing?). The bits aren't word for word, though they're all close enough that I think a comic in a club would get a talking to. More than that, Leary's No Cure stuff is so obviously Hicks-as-interpreted-by-the-Boston-style. It's chemical, man: Hicks + Boston Comedy = Leary. Hicks was wry and ironic, but Leary Bostonized it and made it in your face and high energy and devoid of soul. And that's pretty much Boston comedy, kids. High on craft, short on oomph. The general word is that Leary left doing one act, went to London, where Hicks was huge, and came back doing his No Cure Shtick. The timing is what's most suspect.

So it's axiomatic. Leary's a thief, and I'm glad he helps firefighters and Cam Neely and whatever other causes he supports, but he stole the jokes that made him famous, so frankly, fuck him.

My respect for Rogan, however, has shot through the roof. I've always dug him, but by god, he took the chance to call Leary out and get Hicks a little of the public vindication he always deserved, even Stern's handling of it was pretty anticlimactic.

Leary's an idiot to try to call Rogan out, by the way. Rogan's a world-class kickboxer and he studies Brazilian Ju Jitsu with the Gracies; Leary's two-pack-a-day habit would seem like a real poor choice real fast. It'd be like Faces of Death.