BOSTON – Denis Leary is going to cry.
It’s not really a matter of if, more a matter of when. Leary knows that, at some point, probably during Cam Neely’s yearly speech at the 30th annual Comics Come Home comedy benefit, his chest will start to be heavy, his eyes will start to leak, his emotions will start to run over.
“I know Cam’s speech at the beginning will be very touching and heartwarming because, remember this all started because of his parents passing away due to (cancer) and so that’s the motivation,” Leary told NHL.com Friday by phone. “He’ll mention them and that will be a very emotional thing for him and that becomes emotional for me and that becomes emotional for the rest of the people backstage.”
So Leary has an idea.
“I’m actually wondering if I shouldn’t just have a moment where we just bring out all the comedians, we all cry for a second, the crowd cries, get it over with, get back to comedy,” Leary said. “It’s the third decade. It’s going to be an emotional thing.”
It was just over 30 years ago that Neely, approaching the end of his NHL career, went up to Leary at a benefit event for pediatric AIDS at UMass Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts, and asked if he would consider doing the same for his charity, The Cam Neely Foundation. Neely, after all, had always been a comedy guy, attending shows in the area during his career with the Boston Bruins, preferring live comedy to movies.
“Literally, the plan was to do it once, just to draw attention to Cam’s foundation because he was just announcing it with the idea that he would build the Neely House eventually,” Leary said. “So the idea was that we were just going to do this one-off gig and get a lot of attention and publicity so that people would become aware of the idea and the foundation itself.
“So, it was a one-off, and here we are 30 years later.”
As Neely said, “Never in my wildest dreams did I think 30 years.”
For the milestone show, on Nov. 7 at TD Garden, a bevy of big names -- Lenny Clarke, Jimmy Fallon, Leslie Jones, John Mulaney, Ray Romano and John Stewart among them -- will gather for the longest-running comedy benefit show in the country, a show that has raised nearly $20 million to help, support and comfort cancer patients, part of the nearly $40 million the foundation has raised overall. It’s all a tribute to Neely’s parents, Marlene and Michael Neely, who were diagnosed with cancer within six months of each other in 1986. Marlene died of colon cancer in 1987; Michael died of a brain tumor in 1993.
“Everything is in memory of them,” Neely said. “Not growing up in the Boston area but being here for 40 years now it’s home and it’s kind of, I’ve brought them to Boston, in a sense.”
The Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care was established in 1995 and has touched thousands of lives, including at The Neely House at Tufts Medical Center, a bed-and-breakfast accommodation that has housed cancer patients and their families while undergoing treatment, providing more than 7,000 family night stays. There is the Marlene Neely Center for Digestive Health, the Michael Neely Center for Brain Tumor Care and Research, the Neely Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic -- and much more.
“We hear from the clinicians, the doctors, the nurses at the hospital just what a difference we’re making with what we’re doing over there and how much of an impact that we’re having, whether it be the care being given to the patients, various pieces of innovative equipment that we’re purchasing, allowing doctors to do what they do,” said Andy Osofsky, the director of operations and special projects for The Cam Neely Foundation. “…From the patients, we get another perspective, how we’re directly affecting their lives.
“I think it really puts into perspective everything that we do, just how important it is. When we see the impact it’s having, that’s what keeps us going, knowing all the good we’re doing, all the people we’re helping. That’s really the driving force behind what we do.”
Every so often, Neely and wife Paulina will head over to Tufts Medical Center, to meet families, to see patients. And each time, it pushes them.
“It’s the trips to Tufts Medical, when you actually get a chance to talk to some of the patients and families that are benefitting from it, it really, really hits home,” Neely said.
He recalled one woman he met whose husband was a patient who, after a few days of being there, started to understand the freedom that Neely House afforded her. As Neely said, “She realized, wait a minute, I don’t have to get dressed, I don’t have to put my makeup on, I can put my slippers and bathrobe on and walk through the halls and see my husband. I don’t have to worry about parking, all the other stuff that is very stressful throughout the course of a day for people when they’re trying to be supportive for their loved one.”
There was another woman, whose son was getting treatment, who could see his room out of the living room window.
When his light went out, as she told Neely, she could go to bed.
“There are all these amazing stories,” he said.
There are common spaces where families can talk to other families that understand what they’re going through, including a TV room funded by Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, in addition to personal rooms, complete with kitchenettes.
And so much of what is there is because of Comics Come Home.
“I’m very humbled to have Denis still wanting to do this and still kicking (butt) when he gets on stage and getting the type of talent that he gets,” Neely said. “What we’ve been able to do to help cancer patients and their families is really ultimately what’s the most gratifying out of the show.”
But it’s not just personal for Neely, it’s personal for many of the artists and performers, for those in the audience.
Jimmy Fallon’s father stayed at The Neely House while he was being treated for cancer. Clarke’s wife spent time there too. But it was Boston comic Joe Yannetty whose battle and recovery is most closely tied to Comics Come Home.
The comic was diagnosed with Stage 4 squamous carcinoma in his throat in February of 2014, which got bad enough that, as Leary said, “We were worried about whether he would make it.”
“Then I got a phone call saying that not only was he doing better but he was getting his voice back and he was wondering about getting back on stage,” Leary recalled. “He gained some weight, he got his voice back, he went on stage and did a 12-minute set about his diagnosis and his recovery from cancer, but absolutely laugh-out-loud, like just tears in your eyes crying laughing at his discussion of what he went through. Cam and I were both like, ‘Are we ever going to get a set that matches up to the cause like that?’”
The show has expanded so much over the years, from its origins at the Orpheum Theater to a run at Agganis Arena at Boston University to its current home at TD Garden, where it moved 10 years ago.
“The growth from the Orpheum when eventually we were turning people away to go to Agganis where it was selling 6,000 seats at the time and then for the 20th, Denis goes, ‘Do you think we can get the Garden?’ And I said, ‘I think there’s a good chance we can get the Garden, I’m just concerned, can we sell it out?’” Neely said.
“‘He goes, ‘Oh, we’ll sell it out.’ So here we are now, 10 years at the Garden.”
So much of this show -- this one-off that has now run for 30 years -- has been unexpected, including surprise appearances that even Leary, who books it, didn’t anticipate.
“All of a sudden Ray Bourque and Bobby Orr are showing up at shows and you’re like, you know what, this is not bad,” Leary said. “Roger Clemens. It’s crazy. … There was one show at the Orpheum where we had Phil Esposito, Bobby Orr and Johnny Bucyk backstage saying hi to the comedians. Then they were the bartenders at the backstage bar for about half an hour. The comedians were like, ‘Is that Phil Esposito and Bobby Orr behind the bar?’
Leary laughs.
“It’s been a dream that, again, just keeps coming more and more true and getting bigger and bigger as time goes by,” he continued. “I love it. I love doing the show. I love being involved in the foundation and I love being involved with The Neely House.”
