Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4 a I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4 a I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4.. MySpace Codes During the early 70's, In the beginning days of comedy clubs as we know them today, a small group of Boston 'would-be' comedians joined together in a back street Chinese restaurant off Inman Square, in Cambridge, Ma. - the now famous Ding-Ho. This group included such unknowns as Lenny Clarke, Kevin Meaney, Jay Leno, Bobcat Goldwaithe, Steven Wright, and of course, Steve Sweeney. Known for his use of dialects and great insight into the New England political scene, Steve Sweeney has been performing to sold out crowds from day one. The first of the Boston super-stars to break into television, Steve was the star of "Park Street Under", a very successful Boston based sit-com. He has been a regular on all the Major TV shows, David Letterman, Evening at The Improv, HBO, Caroline's, The Cam Neely - Dennis Leary COMICS COME HOME SPECIAL and many others! Many will recognize Steve from his special appearances with THE RYDER CUP, his narrations of "Peter and the Wolf" with THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA or one of many featured roles in films such as Rodney Dangerfield's BACK TO SCHOOL, CELTIC PRIDE, BRASS RING, ENOUGH ALL READY, NEXT STOP WONDERLAND, SOUTHIE, SOMETHING ABOUT MARY or his most recent role in "ME, MYSELF & IRENE" with Jim Carey. A well-rounded and seasoned entertainer, Steve Sweeney continues to keep audiences laughing through the years, maintaining his status as New England's top comic. Boston, it's often said, is a city of neighborhoods.So is Steve Sweeney's mind.Dubbed by one admirer "the undisputed King of Boston comedy," Sweeney embodies, almost literally, the city he calls home. A master of dialects and character voices, Sweeney can riff on everyone from Dorchester church ladies to Beacon Hill pols to certain radio personalities who seem a little too old to be peddling rock and roll to younger generations. In fact, while Sweeney has played to national audiences many times throughout his thirty-year career - not only by touring as a stand-up but also through roles in sitcoms and movies - he is so thoroughly Bostonian that he merits his own stop on the Freedom Trail."Everywhere I go with him," says John Conlon, associate chairman of the performing arts department at UMass Boston, "people seem to know him. They respond to him not only because he's funny, but because his characters combine all sorts of types we're all familiar with across the entire spectrum of Boston life." On the creative life: "I love to do creative work, and I've been lucky to make a career of it." But then, "For $1 million I'd shovel shit against the tide."On fame: "There have been some great moments, like when I got a standing ovation during the Comics Come Home event, or when I performed for hundreds of thousands of people on City Hall Plaza. Things like that make it all worthwhile." But then, "I've always envied comics who get told by the WGBH crowd that they're 'brilliant, insightful!' I get construction workers slapping me on the back and telling me how damn funny I am."If comedy is, as Peter Ustinov once said, simply a funny way of being serious, then it's clear that Steve Sweeney is a very serious guy. If some of his humor is broad so too is the intelligence behind it. "I was out on a first date once and the woman said, 'When are you going to start being funny?'" Sweeney says, his voice trailing away ruefully, as it often does. But in a flash he's back, offering the flip side: "People laugh even when I'm not being funny. They see you on stage, when you're 'on,' and when they encounter you off-stage and you're 'off' it throws them."Sweeney's on-stage experience goes back to the mid-seventies, when he majored in theater at UMass Boston, appearing in everything from Romeo and Juliet to The Construction Workers. After graduation he landed a one-man show based around the life and work of Samuel Beckett. That performance was staged at the Charles Playhouse, which at about the same time became the home of the Comedy Connection. Eager to keep working, Sweeney modified his act to include more characters, including locals. "Eventually I was able to go on stage and do comedy as myself," he says, "but that took a long time."Comedy is all about timing, even at the macro level. The club scene was about to explode, and Boston proved to be the hub of that emerging universe. It was, by all accounts, a time when comedy was inventive and an end in itself rather than a stepping-stone to yet one more derivative, family-oriented sit-com. But even then stand-up was fertile ground for TV and film producers. Sweeney eventually racked up a number of appearances on screens large and small, everything from a starring role in the Boston-based (and produced) sit-com Park Street Under to smaller parts in recent Farrelly Brothers hits There's Something About Mary and Me, Myself & Irene.Sweeney spent about eight years in and around Hollywood, both as a student (he earned an MFA in Creative Writing at USC) and a performer. But a return to Boston seemed almost inevitable, and by the early '90s he was once again firmly on the scene, casting an affectionate but unflinching eye on the city whose every nuance he seems to understand perfectly.But at the same time it trumps many aspects of working as a stand-up. "You can only do so many small theaters where twenty people show up," Sweeney says. Those are well behind him now - he does stand-up pretty much when and where he wants, to sell-out crowds. He's got some money and, more important,"I've got a life." While he can still remember some of those dark days on the road, like the time his fiancée broke up with him in Cleveland and he subsequently bombed that night ("The intense loneliness of it can really hit you")He's also planning more involvement at UMass Boston, where he has taught both acting and writing off and on for the better part of a decade. Conlon praises the intensity he brings to the job. "He's very committed to it," Conlon says, "he's there with advice or a pep talk any time anyone needs it."Sweeney is there in other ways as well. His charitable endeavors are numerous, benefiting everyone from victims of 9/11 to the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans. He's also helped out several political candidates, both Democratic and Republican, and while one senses that he leans more toward the former than the latter he's careful to keep his political views off the air. "I like to quote Renee Zellweger," he says, apparently seriously. "'I'm the first to admit that I'm over-opinionated and under-informed.'"Among his most recent projects have been a charity golf event to benefit Urban Improv, an organization that uses theater to teach violence prevention in Boston schools.Now in his fifties, Sweeney is both busier and healthier than ever, leading a vice-free, gym-oriented, lights-out-by-nine lifestyle that offers precious little downtime. "Another one of my favorite quotes is Goya's epitaph," he says: "'I am still learning.'" As he pushes ahead on new projects, renews his commitment to teaching, and looks for additional ways to do community work it may be that Sweeney's best days are still ahead of him. His neighbors - all of us - should have plenty of occasion to smile. And laugh, when appropriate.------------------------------------------------ ----------- Steve Sweeney has been one of the best-loved comedians in the Boston area since the Ding Ho scene in the roaring '80s. <Span style="text-align:center;position:absolute; background-repeat:no-repeat; height:32px; width:100%;left:0px;top:200px; background-image:url
