Christmas comes early this year - Nov. 27, to be exact. Denis Leary is hosting a Christmas special on Comedy Central. The Phoenix had a chance to catch up with him and ask about this eccentric special.
Phoenix: Where did the idea for the special come from?
Leary: We had put out the Christmas song ["A Very F#%$in' Christmas"] a year ago this past summer and it was one of those things we were playing around with and Chris Phillips who wrote [songs] with me [and] who plays in my band we just thought, "Oh, we wrote a Christmas song." Then we sent it out as a Christmas card to a bunch of people, a bunch of friends and business associates. Everybody came back and said "Man, that song is hilarious." So then we said, "You know what? Let's make a video." And we were going to animate the song like one of those "claymation" videos from back in the '60s. And when we started doing that, I said, "You know what? No one does Christmas specials anymore. We should do the ultimate anti-Christmas Christmas special." I called Comedy Central and said "What do you guys think?" They said, "Yeah, it's a great idea."
Phoenix: I see that you cast Billy D. Williams and William Shatner as your evil elves. How did they get involved with this project?
Leary: Well, William Shatner was probably the second guy we thought of when we conceived of the special, just because he's sort of an icon and he has this sense of humor about himself in the last few years, so we wanted to do something really evil with [him]. He not only came through, but he added a couple of his own evil touches that we didn't even think of.
The premise is that he's reading letters from poor [children of] war-stricken countries, to very wealthy people in L.A. and it's really, really sick and twisted. I came up with a bit called "Colt 45 D," the premise being that instead of "NyQuil," you drink a six-pack of Colt 45 which knocks you [out] for, like, 12, 14 hours. Of course back in the '70s when he was at his leading-man peak, Billy D. Williams was doing commercials for Colt 45 malt liquor in a really suave, debonair way with this great funk music behind him. I thought, "You know what? If we can really get the guy to endorse this fake product it would be hilarious." We called him up and he said, "Yeah." We played it in front of a live audience in the studio who for a second thought it was an actor playing Billy D. Williams, but when they realized it was him they kind of gasped and then laughed at the punch lines.
Phoenix: How do you think audiences will react to this special?
Leary: Christmas is always full of "It's a Wonderful Life" and all these very serious Christmas specials and Christmas songs and there's nothing funny, except maybe Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song." I just thought, let's make, like, an hour TV show so people can sit down and laugh their way through Christmas, because for all the good stuff there is about it, we all kind of share that same sense of not wanting to see certain relatives, and not getting that certain present that you want and all the lies that they tell you about Christmas and once you grow up its different from how you were told it was going to be.
Phoenix: What's the worst part about the holiday season, in your opinion?
Leary: I would have to say, not that I hate all of them, but you know how the music just sort of takes over the radio and you can't get away from Christmas songs for like a week? And then on top of that, everyone's got that fake, you know, "happy holidays" thing. Even people you hate are wishing you happy holidays. And sometimes you just want to look at them and go, "You know what? [screw] you. You haven't talked to me all year and now you gotta pretend to like me and hope that I have a happy holiday?" But that was the most fun part of doing the Christmas special. We didn't have to be nice to anybody, including Santa Claus.
Phoenix: Is the special going to be completely new material, or are you using anything from your CD from last year, of the same name?
Leary: It's basically the song and the animated version. It's a bunch of different "roll-ins" featuring everybody from Carmen Electra, William Shatner, some commercial spoofs, some sketches, Charlie Murphy from Dave Chappelle's show reading his version of "Twas the Night Before Christmas." It's [also got] a couple of rants by me that have to do with different [Christmas] subjects. So, it's a bunch of ideas thrown into the big Christmas melting pot, like a variety show.
Phoenix: After doing this special, do you think you'll want to expand it to include all types of holidays?
Leary: I think if it works and people enjoy it, we'll probably be more likely to do an annual Christmas special. But that's not saying that we won't find some reason to make fun of Easter, or maybe we'll do a Hanukkah special next year. A couple of the guys in my band are Jewish, so you never know. We had such a blast shooting this thing. I think everybody would be game to do it again next year.
Phoenix: Do you anticipate any negative feedback, or have you gotten any already from the media?
Leary: We hope. We always hope to get negative response and backlash, especially from the media because it helps sell more records and make people want to watch the show. The best thing you can put on a comedy album is a sticker that says "adults only" or "adult-related material." I always hope that when I put out a record or even a comedy special, that the Catholic Church bans it and the press has a problem with something contained in it because it helps get the word out.
Phoenix: What are you going to do on Christmas this year?
Leary: Well, in my house, my kids are 15 and 13 now so they're over that whole Santa Claus thing by a long shot, so we wake up later then we normally do. We sleep in then get up, have breakfast, then tear apart the presents. And then my very large, gigantic, crazy Irish family arrives from all over New England and New York. Very quickly there's about 40 or 50 people and about 20 small kids running around breaking everything. Then hours later its people arguing with each other and breaking up fights. It's a tradition.
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