Anthony Clark, 1964–2026: his movies, TV shows and stand-up

Anthony Clark movies and TV shows

55 credits: his series, films, stand-up on television, talk shows, specials and stage. The small numbers lead to each credit's sources at the foot of the page.

Television series 7

Films 12

Stand-up on television 12

Talk shows and guest spots 11

Specials, awards shows, TV movies and stage 13

His stand-up: from Lynchburg to Boston to Aspen

Clark was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on 4 April 1964, grew up near the Blue Ridge Mountains and at 12 moved to a tobacco farm in Gladys, south of the city. He found the stage early: Li'l Abner in fourth grade, the title role in The Music Man in fifth, Calamity Jane in sixth. In high school in Lynchburg he was the class clown and was voted comedian of the year.⁸⁴¹⁰³¹

In early 1983 he arrived in Boston to study at Emerson College, his ticket out of small-town life. There he joined the student comedy troupe This Is Pathetic with David Cross, Laura Kightlinger and Mike Bent, and Denis Leary was his comedy-writing professor. He graduated in 1986 with a degree in mass communications.⁴⁴²¹²⁸

His first stand-up set came at about 20, during a summer doing stock theatre in Atlanta: David Cross talked him into it, and he went up at the Punchline. By his senior year he was making a name for himself in Boston's clubs. In 1986 he won the American Collegiate Talent Showcase and was named the best college comedian in America; the next year he reached the finals of the WBCN/Stitches Comedy Riot.^1213438

By 1992 he had his own show at Play It Again Sam's, headlined Boston's major comedy clubs, spent five or six months of the year in the city and toured college campuses the rest. Cable spread his name: MTV's 5 Funny Guys in 1989, four appearances on MTV's Half-Hour Comedy Hour, Showtime specials and A&E's An Evening at the Improv. That year Paul Barclay, owner of the Comedy Connection clubs, called him the next big star to come out of Boston.³⁸

His act came from real life and his rural Virginia roots: Oklahoma's licence-plate motto, a suburban laundromat, California earthquakes, his own family. He was known for laughing at his own jokes on stage, which Mike O'Malley remembered too: a comic laughing along with the audience at the absurdity of his own stories.³⁴¹³⁷

On 11 January 1995 he did stand-up on Late Show with David Letterman. That March he was one of five comics on HBO's Young Comedians Show from the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, hosted by Garry Shandling: Dave Attell, Eric Tunney, Dave Chappelle, Clark and Louis C.K.. Introduced as the college entertainer of the year, he did his Oklahoma material and a bit about his Los Angeles gang, the Lemon Slushies. He was the first of the five to get a big break, a run on Ellen that autumn, and by his own account the week after the special he was offered shows by everybody.^3329431

Boston kept him. He headlined the Comedy Connection at Faneuil Hall every New Year's Eve, still in 1999. He was on the bill of Comics Come Home II in 1996 with Bill Burr, Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle, Nick DiPaolo, Steven Wright and Colin Quinn. Nick Swardson opened for him for years, and Dane Cook and Jay Mohr came up beside him.^431230447

He kept touring while he made Yes, Dear: in 2001 audiences paid $25 to $35 a ticket. CBS's biography of him notes sold-out audiences at Carnegie Hall, and in 1998 he performed for President Bill Clinton at A Gala for the President at Ford's Theatre, broadcast on ABC.^1318831

Anthony Clark on comedy, in his own words

Comedy comes from real life to me. I see it every day.

I try to say something in my comedy. I don't only try to make people laugh, I try to have a message in some way.

The Boston market is very competitive, but that's what makes it one of the best. When you can do it here, you're ready for New York and then Los Angeles.

I had never felt like, 'Oh my gosh, I am good at something' until then.

There's nothing like it. There's nothing more fun in the world.

It could all end tomorrow, and I would still have had the greatest life ever.

I think I love stand-up because the reaction is immediate. … There's no director. There's no writer. No producer. There's just you.

I started out as a stand-up, and I'm like the biggest fan in the world. It's an art form that's never going away.

I came from the comedy-club circuit, and I know that struggle. I used to sit at the bar at Catch a Rising Star in New York with Adam Sandler, Chris Rock and Jon Stewart, begging to be put on.

Yes, Dear was on for six years. I'm very proud of that.

From Boston Common to Yes, Dear

Boston Common was written for him. After the HBO special he asked his best friend from Emerson, Max Mutchnick, and Mutchnick's partner David Kohan to write something; Castle Rock passed on their first idea but took a second drawn from his own move from Virginia, and sold it to NBC. He played Boyd Pritchett, a Virginia farm boy who drives his sister to college in Boston and takes a handyman's job at the student union. NBC put it at 8:30 on Thursdays, between Friends and Seinfeld, in 1996, and it ran into 1997. The writers wove his stand-up into the scripts, earthquakes and Oklahoma licence plates included.⁴⁴²¹

Next he co-starred with Dan Aykroyd in ABC's Soul Man (1997–1998) as the Rev. Todd Tucker.⁵⁸

Yes, Dear, created by Greg Garcia and Alan Kirschenbaum, premiered on CBS on 2 October 2000. Clark played Greg Warner, an uptight vice president at a television studio, whose home life with his wife Kim (Jean Louisa Kelly) changes when her sister Christine (Liza Snyder) and her husband Jimmy (Mike O'Malley) move into the guest house. All four leads had Massachusetts roots. He said later that his management challenged him to prove he could play a man so unlike himself. In its second season the show drew about 14 million viewers a week and routinely won its time slot; it ran six seasons and 122 episodes, to 2006. The role brought him a Prism Award nomination in 2003 and, with Jean Louisa Kelly, a Young Artist Award nomination in 2004.^{144546110132824}

Last Comic Standing, Ambiguous and after

Clark had been one of the celebrity judges at Last Comic Standing's Las Vegas finals. In 2006, after Yes, Dear ended, he hosted the show's fourth season on NBC: 12 episodes from 30 May to 9 August, won by Josh Blue, with Ty Barnett the runner-up. Afterwards he said he would not be back as host, and that finalists who had no reputation before the show were headliners now.^108152512

That autumn he was back on the road, returning to his stand-up roots. He returned to Boston's Comedy Connection after seven years away, played the Cabaret Theatre at Mohegan Sun on 4 and 5 December 2006, and on 11 October 2007 joined Bill Burr, Denis Leary, Steven Wright and Eddie Brill for Emerson's 30 Years of Comedy at the Cutler Majestic Theatre.^12114742

He played the Just for Laughs festival in 2010. His hour Anthony Clark: Ambiguous, his first stand-up special in nearly eight years, which he wrote and executive produced, was taped on 26 August 2011 at the Laugh Out Loud Comedy Festival, directed by Scott Montoya, and first shown on Showtime on 14 December 2012.^32172616

In 2012 he starred as Jack in Marc Fusco's comedy My Uncle Rafael, and in 2020 Barry Katz's podcast Industry Standard ran the best of their conversation about his career. After Yes, Dear, Mike O'Malley wrote, he invested his money well and essentially retired; his manager has said he spent those years buying and selling real estate.^2827648

Watch Anthony Clark

Each from its official channel or its producer's own page.

• Late Show with David Letterman, 11 January 1995: “Anthony Clark's Family Is A Comedy Show Of Its Own” ↗ Letterman's channel, 5 minutes 44 seconds³³
• Late Show with David Letterman, 2 September 1996: “Remembering Anthony Clark” ↗ Letterman's channel, 4 minutes 53 seconds³⁴
• His set at the Just for Laughs festival, 2010 ↗ Just For Laughs' channel, 4 minutes 30 seconds³²
• Anthony Clark: Ambiguous, part 1: “Flight attendants and the Irish” ↗ the channel of LOL Comedy, which made the special; 11 minutes 4 seconds⁴⁹
• Anthony Clark: Ambiguous, the whole special, on Prime Video ↗ 49 minutes¹⁷
• Alan Jackson, “The Talkin' Song Repair Blues”, with Clark and Mike O'Malley ↗ Alan Jackson's official channel⁴¹
• Industry Standard with Barry Katz: “Anthony Clark (Best of, Part 1 of 2)” ↗ 11 February 2020, 45 minutes²⁷

Career timeline

1. 1964Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on 4 April⁸
2. 1983Starts at Emerson College in Boston⁴
3. 1986Graduates from Emerson; wins the Top College Comedian Award⁸
4. 1987Finalist in the WBCN/Stitches Comedy Riot³
5. 1989MTV's 5 Funny Guys⁸
6. 1990The Grapes of Wrath on Broadway⁸
7. 1991His first film, Dogfight⁸
8. 1995Late Show with David Letterman in January; HBO's Young Comedians Show in March; Ellen that autumn³³²⁹¹⁹
9. 1996Boston Common on NBC; The Rock; Comics Come Home 2⁴⁸³⁰
10. 1997Soul Man on ABC; hosts Comedy Central's Comic Cabana²²⁸
11. 1998Performs for President Clinton at Ford's Theatre⁸
12. 2000Yes, Dear premieres on CBS on 2 October¹⁴
13. 2003Prism Award nomination for Yes, Dear⁸
14. 2004Young Artist Award nomination with Jean Louisa Kelly⁸
15. 2005Alan Jackson's “The Talkin' Song Repair Blues” video⁴⁰
16. 2006Yes, Dear ends after 122 episodes; hosts Last Comic Standing²¹⁵
17. 2007Emerson's 30 Years of Comedy, Cutler Majestic Theatre⁴²
18. 2010The Just for Laughs festival³²
19. 2012Anthony Clark: Ambiguous on Showtime; My Uncle Rafael¹⁶²⁸
20. 2026Dies on 10 November, aged 62¹

What they said about Anthony Clark

He was so unique — one of those comics who is laughing along with you at the absurdity of his stories and observations.

One of the funniest and most talented stand-up comedian/actors I have ever had the pleasure of watching.

It's a sad day, and I'll miss him very much.

He was a massive stand-up out of Boston, and I opened for him for years.

He was one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen.

Never saw anyone destroy like Tony at Stitches in Boston.

Comedians who shared his stages

• Garry Shandling hosted HBO's 1995 Young Comedians Show²⁹
• Dave Chappelle on HBO's 1995 Young Comedians Show and Comics Come Home II²⁹³⁰
• Dave Attell on HBO's 1995 Young Comedians Show²⁹
• Louis C.K. on HBO's 1995 Young Comedians Show and Comics Come Home II²⁹³⁰
• David Cross his Emerson troupe-mate, who talked him into his first set⁴²¹²
• Denis Leary his comedy-writing professor at Emerson⁴
• Nick Swardson opened for him for years⁴⁴⁷
• Dane Cook came up beside him at the Comedy Connection⁷
• Jay Mohr saw him at Stitches in Boston, and hosted Last Comic Standing before him⁷¹⁰
• Bill Burr Comics Come Home II, 1996, and Emerson's 30 Years of Comedy, 2007³⁰⁴²
• Steven Wright Comics Come Home II, 1996, and Emerson's 30 Years of Comedy, 2007³⁰⁴²
• Josh Blue won the Last Comic Standing season he hosted²⁵

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