Weymouth Native Performs Stand Up at Hanover Restaurant's New Comedy Nights

For more than 20 years, Jerry Thornton has been a Boston area comedy scene favorite, not only as a voice for longtime, diehard Red Sox and Patriots fans, but also for those who grew up in area suburb towns such as Weymouth.

No small coincidence on the latter note, as Thornton has his own fondly remembered days growing up in Weymouth.

Of course, when the worlds of Boston sports and standup comedy come together, the result is often a volatile, hilarious mix. Expect all this and more if you’re heading to Quan's Kitchen restaurant, Route 53, Hanover, this Friday, December 7. The venue will debut its new monthly standup Comedy Nights series, with Thornton as one of the featured comics.

Thornton has been a regular on the New England comedy club circuit - particularly Boston and the South Shore - since winning WBCN’s Boston Comedy Riot competition in 1991. In the sports forum, he has appeared in HBO's Emmy-winning Curse of the Bambino in 2003, and is a weekly guest on the top-rated Felger & Mazz 98.5 Sports Hub talk-radio show. Jerry’s observations and musings on Boston sports can also can be read daily on BarstoolSports.com.

Thornton, who now lives in Hanover, is the first to tell you that his Weymouth upbringing truly shaped his grown-up careers as a standup comic and sports media personality.

 “I grew up in South Weymouth in the 70s and 80s,” said Thornton. “I’m in my forties now, and the more I think of it, the more I feel that Weymouth was the perfect place for a comic to grow up.

 “In Weymouth back then, you basically had a predominantly Irish-American, working class town, with a lot of older people who had moved out there from the city. And growing up there, you found it just a hilarious, dysfunctional town full of bizarre characters. Especially by comparison to, we thought, people in neighboring towns like Norwell, Cohasset, and as we called them, Cha-Chingham and De-Luxbury.”

The comic added that in his formative days, he thought that he was actually one of the least funny people he knew.

“In Weymouth, no one was ever especially rich or bright or good-looking, and usually the only way to make friends was to make others laugh. So almost everyone I knew tried to be a character in one way or another. I for one wasn’t a good athlete or especially good student, but I was able to make friends with the ‘cool’ kids because I made them laugh,” Thornton said.

Thornton might not have himself been an athlete, but he found a refuge as a Red Sox and Patriots fan.

“In high school and middle school, and then on into college, pretty much my whole life was following the Red Sox and the Patriots, and going through what was like the eternal pain, misery and humiliation of being a Red Sox and Patriots fan," Thornton said. "Until both teams finally started winning championships in the 2000’s, that’s what you’re life was basically like as a fan. Curse of the Bambino was made in 2003, the year before the Red Sox finally broke the 86-year curse, was about that painful history. And I as well as others got to appear and talk about it candidly and amusingly."

Other comics on the Quan’s Kitchen bill include Jon Pierce, of Hanover; Chris McCabe, of Scituate; and Chris Hughes, of Andover. Also appearing is Annette Pollack, who is additionally co-producing the Comedy Nights series with her Braintree company, A's Comedy Asylum, in association with Upper Entertainment promotions, a Hanover entertainment company.

The Comedy Nights debut is the only show on a Friday night, with subsequent monthly shows on the last Saturday of the month.