Talk:Denis Leary
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Request for information: It's certainly true it has been said that O'Brien & Leary were cousins, but unless it's further specified it's fairly meaningless, and I suspect they may be more distant cousins than first cousins (Conan's parents are Thomas O'Brien & Ruth Reardon, Denis's parents are John Leary & Nora, so unless Nora's maiden name is O'Brien or Reardon, they're not first cousins). Does anyone know the actual relationship? -- Someone else 00:51 28 May 2003 (UTC)
- It was discussed on Late Night a few years ago. They're distant cousins through marriage; they do not share any blood. They did not know each other growing up (O'Brien's from Brookline, while Leary's from Worcester), and O'Brien didn't know about the connection until Leary discovered it and told him. They do live fairly close to each other in Connecticut (O'Brien has a weekend home in Washington and Leary's main home is in Roxbury), but they aren't extremely close outside of their professional connections. In any case, calling them "cousins" gives the wrong impression; it should be "distant cousins through marriage". I wrote it as "cousin through marriage" in O'Brien's article, but I'm going to add in a "distant" there as soon as I'm done correcting this article. Beginning 22:01, Jul 20, 2004 (UTC)
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[edit] Material theft
Okay. Here's the deal. Denis Leary and Bill Hicks both arrived in NY in the late 80's - ask Bill Scheft - monologue writer for David Letterman and at that time the host of Catch A Rising Star's new talent night. Bill said to Denis and Bill - seperately - you guys gotta meet each other. Then came the onslaught of ny club owners ALREADY and IMMEDIATELY telling Bill and Denis that their acts were too similar. FROM THE FIRST DAY THEY MET. Then, Caroline Hersch - owner of the famed comedy club Caroline's - started booking Bill and Denis as CO-HEADLINERS - meaning at the 8 o'clock show one guy would open and during the 10 o'clock show the other guy would open - Bill Scheft actually hosted several of these gigs - both Bill and Denis killed doing the exact same mnaterial people now accuse Denis of stealing. Anyways - here's the facts - they were friends and comrades in arms against the comedy 'disco' bullshit of the times plus - Denis has a comedy band that includes three guys who were in his band at emerson college in 1975 - so the idea that he ripped off music from bill hicks is just another ridiculous conspiracy - denis had a record called punk baby / mailman that came out in 1979 - ten years BEFORE he met bill hicks. do your fucking homework. this stroy flies because bill hicks died a tragic early death and denis did the awful disservice of becoming famous. Who wrote his HBO special Lock 'n Load? Who wrote the movie 'Monument Ave.'? Who co-wrote all 19 episodes of the ABC sitcom 'The Job'. Who wrote the movie 'Blow'? Who writes 13 episodes of 'Rescue Me' every year. Who wrote 'The Asshole Song' and 'Fuck You' and 'The Mel Gibson Blues"? I guess Bill's been pretty busy from the beyond. Grow up. Bill was pissed that Denis made it before he did. It's a shame he didn't live long enough to prove just how different he and Denis's talents were. Check the facts - the real facts. Check them deep. Stop ignoring reality in order to fuel yr own fantasies. Denis and Bill - I saw them live in 1989 at a club in Greenwich Village - were - at that time and even now - startlingly original comics. I watched them both rant and rave about elvis and god and jim fixx and smoking and i laughed my ass off. Denis didn't rip bill off. Bill didnt rip denis off. they complimented each other. bill died. denis didn't. get over it. or - is bill supplying denis with all the funny shit he says on leno lettermen elllen oprah etc etc.
I have provided the release yearon Leary's album which allegedly contains stolen material, and the Hicks album and video from which the material was allegedly stolen, as the claim that Hicks recorded the material before Leary is obviously central to that allegation.
By the way, that was me. --Thedangerouskitchen 03:36, 14 Aug 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Recent edits
Alistair M: Hi there! Unfortunately you altered my comments so they became completely factually inaccurate! (For a start, Joe Rogan clearly states that he wasn't aware of Denis Leary before his reinvented stage persona). Also, it's clear from the number of people that have heard the infamous NCFC "joke" (that was popularized after Hick's death) and Tim McIntire's own comments, that Tim McIntire did not invent that joke. Therefore there must be other people within the comedy industry who felt the same way (two of which are mentioned further down in the same article, for example). With this in mind, please do not limit the statement to being attributing to just two people (ie "these two comedians believe x and y") when there's a wealth of evidence that they are not the only two people in professional comedy circuit with this view, (hence they are only being used as an example).
Finally, you must understand that the allegations of plagiarism stemmed from Leary's change in on-stage persona, not just the actual material that he allegedly stole. In fact, the alleged verbatim material theft occured after Leary had already reinvented his on-stage character, and only cemented many people's view that he had stolen Hick's act. (You have to remember that a stage persona/act and who you are in real life are very different things!) Please do some research on the timeline and nature of the actual allegations. Thanks a lot. Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker 01:29, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
- You need to read the box at the top of this page. The one that starts "This article must adhere to the policy on biographies of living persons." AlistairMcMillan 06:01, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
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- Please stop altering the original document back and forth! If you disagree with the edits then please let's discuss them here. I've already explained that Tim McIntire and Joe Rogan are not the only comedians/industry insiders who felt the same way (two more are mentioned further down in the same article, for example!). Plus since Tim McIntire admits to not inventing the industry joke, there must be at least one additional person who told it to Tim in the first place. That makes a grand total of at the very least, five people, meaning that your edits to change it to say "only x and y believe z" is misleading and factually inaccurate.
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- I'm not saying that further edits are not necessary to bring this part of the article up to scratch, but I feel your edits are coming from a personal angle, rather than a detached editorial point of view.
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- If you feel like something can be done to improve the quality of this part of the article, then please let's discuss it here, as I agree it's not perfect. Thanks. Johnny "ThunderPeel2001" Walker 13:15, 4 November 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Picture
He looks like a deranged insect in this picture, can we get a new one?
[edit] Movies?
Virgin Suicides, I can't remember him from that movie (I did however watch it with just half an eye), but more interestingly I can't find him on IMDB either. Whilst not entirely an authorative source, it certainly sounds curious that they would forget such a "mainstream" actor in such a "mainstream" movie...
04:22, 10 August 2005 (UTC) -andreala
American radio is concerned about the right wing and christian audience? Who wrote this drivel? --adembroski 20:34, 25 Oct 2005
[edit] "Similiar"
In the course of using Google to search for the typo "similiar" (which should be: 'similar') I came upon this page, and made my correction. I didn't notice I was correcting quoted text (Sorry!), and have since reverted my edit. However, if the indented section under the "Material Controversy" header is indeed a quote, I suggest placing a sic sign after the quoted typo. It's exact location in the text is here: "[...]that sounded incredibly similiar to old Hicks[...]". Sorry, again! --Dzhatse 00:07, 6 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Clarification Needed
Here are two consecutive sentences which may be contradicting each other:
"The friendship ended abruptly as a result. Leary has said he wanted to patch things up before Hicks died in 1994, though this confession happened several years after Hicks' death.
While it has never been proven conclusively that Leary actually leeched any of his jokes from other comedians other than from Hicks (a claim which he fiercely denies), some comedians (notably Joe Rogan and Greg Giraldo as pro-Hicks comedians against Leary) and especially fans loyal to Hicks consider aspects of Leary's act and persona to be stolen."
What is this saying? The first sentence seems to be saying that Leary confessed to stealing Hicks' material, but the second sentence makes it unclear as to whether Leary is fiercely denying having stolen Hicks' material, or fiercely denying having stolen OTHERS' material... if it's latter, wording is confusing and the statement that these claims are coming from "pro-hicks" comedians is part of the reason for the confusion, making it seem like a reference to Hicks' material being the allegedly stoeln material in question.
If it's the former and Leary is fiercely denying having stoeln Hicks' material, then these two statements need to be reconciled as they are totally oppositional.
- Surely Leary could just have wanted to kiss and make up regardless of any guilt? Orbtastic 20:50, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
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- I read it to mean that he confessed that he wanted to sort things out with Bill Hicks, not necessarily that he was admitting to stealing his act. It doesn't seem to be a contradiction to me, but some sources would help! ~~
[edit] "Selfish" - opinion or fact?
This line:
This new fund was established because the families of the Worcester fire were selfish and did not want to include New York families into the fund; as a result Leary created a separate fund for New York.
Is including the description of the familes being "selfish" based on fact or rumor/opinion? It doesn't seem appropriate if it's merely the opinion of the author for the families could have perfectly valid reasons behind their decision.
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- MTV REMOTE CONTROL***
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What was not included in this article that Denis Leary along with Adam Sandler and Colin Quinn were bit players who did sketches for the MTV game show, Remote Control in the late 80s and early 90s.
[edit] Libertarian?
The article is in the "Libertarians" category, though there is no mention of Leary's being a libertarian in the article itself. Apparently he described himself as such on the Tom Snyder show in 1998. [1] I considered incorporating this into the article, but there was no obvious place to put it. Perhaps a "Trivia" section should be created? dbtfztalk 02:02, 29 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] No talk about hockey!
There is no talk about hockey in his life - which is something he's always been very vocal about. He's even mixed hockey into his show, Rescue Me.
He is a HUGE hockey fan, the Bruins (I think but maybe it's the Rangers), he's done a video of some sort with Wayne Gretzky, and has a yearly celebrity hockey game that he does for a charity (or probably his firefighters foundation).
-- He's a Bruins fan. There is no possible way he would ever be a Rangers fan, and he has a close relationship w/ Bruins legend Cam Neely.
[edit] Bill Hicks section
I gotta say there's narry a source here for these allegations and it goes on way too long thus I'm tempted to cut the entire section. Am I wrong to do so? Jolomo 03:23, 2 June 2006 (UTC) I tend to agree that this section should be cut from the entry. Speculation has it's place, but when you going into such detail without citing any sources things become confused.
- I'd like some (any) evidence of material theft. There doesn't seem to be any similarity at all between the acts. Milo99 00:27, 9 July 2006 (UTC)
Nice try, Denis. The evidence was cited. What do you need, the videos played back 30 times like the Zapruder film in JFK?
- No, I just think the article could use some specific examples. What evidence has been cited? They both did material on Jim Fixx? Similar jokes/quotes from both acts would be useful. Milo99 12:01, 10 July 2006 (UTC)
I agree. Since we're talking about performers, the best evidence is comparing video footage. This way you can see the similarity of presentation as well as the words. It's not as compelling of a demonstration with just comparing words although that will probably have to suffice for now. Give me a week and I'll put together a text comparison and timeline. Time willing, I will put together a video presentation and host it on YouTube.
- The only part that really bothers me about this section is the claim that Hicks and Leary were friends BUT THEN Hicks heard No Cure for Cancer and ended their friendship. Is there a citation for this? MrBlondNYC 18:48, 27 July 2006 (UTC)
I've cleared up some of the confusion: No-one was *just* accusing him of stealing material (which would seem petty), but of rather stealing his Bill Hick's ACT (ie. his stage persona, the "angry comedian" who talks about similar topics). No-one could argue that there's a similarity between the two acts, in fact many people I've shown Bill Hicks to have said "have you heard Denis Leary? Because you'll probably like him, too!". I just assumed they were cut from the same cloth, so to speak, but when I learned the *real* accusations (that he stole Bill Hick's whole act), it made more sense why people thought he stole from Bill Hicks. Just to clarify: In 'No Cure for Cancer' Denis Leary showed a whole new "angry" stage persona that he had never used on stage before. Not only did this stage persona talk about a lot of the topics (if not *all* the topics) that Bill Hicks discussed, he also used much of the same material. Before NCFC he was a lot more mild mannered and didn't cover the same topics as Bill Hicks. Those who knew him back than were shocked by the transformation, which is why many comedians, and those who knew Bill Hicks, started to accuse him of stealing Bill's act.
It should be mentioned that although Bill Hicks thought Denis Learly had stolen his act, he didn't bother persuing any legal action. Bill wasn't that type of guy, and simply wanted to get on with his act, although he did comment on it in public.
- Not only did Leary steal Bill Hicks "act", he stole his jokes and ideas, almost word-for-word. Do your own research --- get some CD's and compare it. Denis Leary's entire career consists of semi-refabrications of Bill Hicks (changed so little that even a moron can tell it's stolen) interspersed with some cursing. Hey, I love Leary's work on the excellent "Rescue Me" and hope the show NEVER goes off the air, but until he admits to ripping off Bill Hicks, he will always be waiting for the other shoe to fall, whic is the day that "60 minutes" takes him to task on his theivery -- right now, only the comedic world knows about it, plus all of Bill Hicks' fans.
