‘Rescue Me Comedy Tour featuring Denis Leary’ 4.2.09

c'mon baby light my fire

Last night I the ‘Rescue Me Comedy Tour featuring Denis Leary’ at Radio City Music Hall.  While I am aware of Denis Leary, I really didn’t know much about him, so I was not sure what exactly to expect.  The show started by the president of FX giving a little background about the show ‘Rescue Me’, which I had never seen before.  What happened next was totally unexpected by me.  They played the season premiere (appearing on April 7th on FX) of ‘Rescue Me’.  At first I was really confused as to why we paid $75 a ticket to watch TV, and to be honest kind of pissed.  But then I gave in and started to watch the show and actually really enjoyed it, almost forgetting I had intended to see some stand-up comedy.

But after ‘Rescue Me’ ended, that’s when the real show began (in my opinion).  The curtains opened, showing a full band, complete with back up singers.  Denis Leary rose up from a secret compartment below the stage and began singing a song about celebrities and rehab in a calypso style.  The song was complimented by large video screens featuring, in a karaoke style, the lyrics, as well as photographs of celebrities at their lowest moments.  After that, Leary spoke of critics who felt the ‘Rehab’ song was mean-spirited and mentioned he decided to write a nice song for those critics.  The song made me feel like I was in a lounge in the 1950s and the song was nicely titled “Fuck You” and was great.  He did his set, which was hilarious–mentioning everything from hormones in Hollywood to being caught by two old ladies while jerking off in a jacuzzi at a health spa.

Three other comedians joined Leary for the ‘Rescue Me Comedy Tour’: Nick DiPaolo, Lenny Clarke and Adam Ferrara.  All of which, were absolutely amazing.  It’s hard for me to think of my favorite moments for each of these guys because literally everything each of them said was laugh out loud funny.  The ‘Rescue Me Comedy Tour’ will be going around the country so I really suggest that you reserve your tickets today because the show was just fantastic.  Check out upcoming tour dates here. 

In addition to being a fantastic show, all the proceeds went to The Leary Fire Fighters Foundation, which has donated over $10 million toward equipment that firefighters across the United States desperately need.  Toward the end of the show some brave members of the FDNYjoined Leary on the stage to present him with an honorary fireman’s jacket to thank him for all he’s done to help firefighters.  Leary closed the show by singing his famous song ‘Asshole’, which was wonderful.  Thanks to the magic of the internet you can watch last night’s performance of asshole below!