Conan O’Brien and Dennis Leary share Worcester reminiscences on podcast

In a basic instance of when comedians collide, Conan O’Brien and Denis Leary let it rip about their childhood reminiscences of Worcester and what it was like rising up Irish Catholic. 

On a latest podcast episode of “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend,” O’Brien, the previous late-night discuss present host, talked probably the most he ever has publicly about his personal reminiscences of Worcester, whereas Leary talked probably the most about Worcester since promoting out the Mechanics Hall again in April 1993. 

Leary grew up in Worcester; O’Brien was raised in Brookline however spent a lot time within the metropolis, visiting kin. His mom graduated from South High School.

(Recording accommodates sturdy language.)

All within the household

Proving early and sometimes that sarcasm is Worcester’s largest signature import, the present’s introduction instantly advised listeners that this was not going to be your common podcast.  

“Hi, my name is Denis Leary and I feel like I could give a (expletive) about being Conan O’Brien’s friend ’cause I’m already his (expletive) cousin,” Leary mentioned.  

“It’s true,” O’Brien shrugged. “It’s true. It’s true.” 

Turns out that Leary and O’Brien are third cousins who share sturdy Irish Catholic roots. 

“I didn’t even know this, but a number of years ago, you said, ‘Hey, I’m your cousin. We’re related,’” O’Brien mentioned. “I think you didn’t know it either.” 

“I had no idea,” Leary interjected. 

So the comedians independently regarded into it and, positive sufficient, they are. 

Shared Worcester roots

O’Brien’s dad and mom, who have been born in Worcester, died three days aside. Thomas O’Brien, 95, a health care provider who grew up in Millbury and Southbridge, died Dec. 9, 2024. Ruth O’Brien, 92, a graduate of South High in Worcester, died Dec. 12, 2024. 

Leary is a Worcester native who attended the previous St. Peter’s High School, the place he performed hockey and soccer and acted in such productions as “Kiss Me Kate.”

Leary’s cousin, Jeremiah M. Lucey, was considered one of six firefighters who died within the Worcester Cold Storage and Warehouse Co. constructing fireplace on Dec. 3, 1999. A second firefighter, Lt. Thomas E. Spencer, was a schoolboy chum. Deeply saddened by the losses, Leary launched the Leary Firefighters Foundation.

“You’re from Worcester, Mass. All my people are from Worcester, Mass.,” O’Brien mentioned. “My father’s side of the family is from just outside Worcester. My mother’s side of the family is from Worcester. So the Reardons [from his mother’s side] are from Worcester. The O’Briens are from, like, towns outside – Millbury, Sturbridge … And my grandfather [Officer James Francis Reardon] was directing traffic downtown in Worcester, and that was the job he had.” 

‘It’s Worcester, and that is what you do’

Establishing their relationship and shared experiences with one another, O’Brien and Leary ragged on considered one of O’Brien’s favourite targets, the previous Higgins Armory Museum. 

More: Conan O’Brien liked this Worcester museum as a child: ‘Greatest days of my life.”

“I used to go and hang out with my cousin there [in Worcester] when I was growing up,” O’Brien said.

“There was one thing to do and one thing only … For some reason, there was a museum of armor … It was not even that well curated … It was a big, old office building that hadn’t been used since it’d been shut down in like 1920, and they filled it with armor that they didn’t clean … Most of it wasn’t on a mannequin … and it looked like a hoarder’s attic of armor. My aunt would be like, ‘Go see the armor! Why don’t you go see some armor?’ And literally, like, ‘We did that yesterday.’ ‘Do it again!’ And because it’s Worcester. And that’s what you do.” 

On Polar Park

Leary moved his consideration to Polar Park and doubtful distinctions from the previous.

“Polar Park, nice little ballpark in downtown Worcester, and they have a minor league hockey team. So things are looking up,” Leary mentioned. “When I was growing up, and some people are still bemoaning this, [Worcester] was the ‘Heroin Capital of New England’ for a while when I was, like, a teenager. … I think it’s now Lowell … So we don’t even have that.” 

‘Everyone in Worcester is gonna go crazy’

While O’Brien professed his undying love for the city, he said people in Worcester are “Worcester-centric” and think nothing else exists. Yikes! 

O’Brien said that when he was booking his first guest for his late-night talk show that replaced David Letterman on NBC, his uncle recommended former Holy Cross and Boston Celtics great Bob Cousy, who still lives in Worcester. 

“I’m in Worcester visiting my uncle, Jim Reardon. We called him Gavin … And Uncle Gavin said to me, ‘I know who your first guest should be.’ … And I said, ‘Who?’ And he said, ‘Bob Cousy,’” O’Brien recalled. “I said, ‘I don’t know if it’s going to work for the first show,’ and he’s like, ‘What are you talking about? It’s Bob Cousy! It’s Bob Cousy! Everyone’s gonna go crazy.’ Yeah, everyone in Worcester is gonna go crazy.” 

Leary joked about how Cousy lived in what his parents used to call “the nice section of Worcester.” 

“You know when your parents were driving around and look at houses that you’re never going to live in, after Mass on Sundays? ‘Cause we lived in Main South. We lived in an apartment in a two-and-a-half decker, not even a three-decker,” Leary recalled. “So my father would drive us by Bob Cousy’s house in the nice neighborhood. He was like, ‘Bob Cousy’s house,’ and we’re like, ‘Yeah, we know. We’d go by it every Sunday.’” 

O’Brien also spoke about growing up Irish Catholic in Central Massachusetts and how his mother would sometimes tell Conan and his siblings that they were a better class of Irish Catholic.

O’Brien said she wasn’t fooling anybody, especially her children. 

“I’d say ‘Mom, what are you talking about?’” O’Brien said. “And also, I’d look in the corner, there be, like, a ham hanging on a rope and my brother Neal was hanging off of it like a bear in the woods … We would have potato fights. There was nothing about us that was at all respectable in the way that we behaved, but she was just willing it to be so.”