My Boys star comes home

“This whole weekend’s been a little painful,” said Jamie Kaler (of the TBS comedy My Boys), over coffee in the lobby of the Hotel Commonwealth.

With two devastating losses to the Yankees, the Red Sox didn’t exactly give Boston University alum Jamie Kaler a warm welcome back to Beantown when he flew in early to catch the games before his performances at the Comedy Connection this weekend.

But at least his experience with many a disappointing Sox season prepared him well for playing a Chicago Cubs fan on TV.

Questionable Sox season aside, the New Hampshire native loves returning to his college stomping ground. “If I drank every drink somebody’s bought me I’d be dead,” Kaler said.

Kaler reminisced about being a resident in Myles Standish Hall. “I lived in the corner suite, the five-bedroom suite that’s really hard to get into,” he said. “I was in there for two years, and it was epic.”

After graduating from BU with a degree in Political Science, Kaler didn’t get involved in acting or comedy until after he spent a few years in the U.S. Navy.

And once he started doing standup, it was a while before he felt he had it down. “It just takes a long time to learn how to be comfortable on stage — to be yourself,” he explained. “After maybe six or seven years you start to go, I could be good at this — this could work.”

He spent several years doing guest work — including a recurring role on Will ‘ Grace that allowed him to work with Gene Wilder — but ultimately found it unsatisfying.

“The worst thing about being a guest star is that you’re there for the week and at the end of the week you almost feel like part of the family,” he said, “and they’re like, ‘See you later.'”

But he finally found a “home,” so to speak, on My Boys, about a female sportswriter and her gang of guy friends. He said he loves working with the rest of the poker-playing gang, especially fellow comic Jim Gaffigan, and credits creator Betsy Thomas for the solid writing that holds the show together.

“Everybody holds their own at that table,” he explained. “Honestly, that’s why the show works. Right from minute one we had a great chemistry.”

Kaler said the four shows he will perform at the Comedy Connection this weekend — two Friday and two Saturday night, as part of a tour that continues into November and ends at with an appearance at the Vegas Comedy Festival — would be happening if not for the success of My Boys.

After this stint in Boston, he insists he’ll give up watching the Red Sox. “It’s not worth the fun,” he said mournfully. But let’s face it: Kaler is a New Englandah, and he’ll always love his own Boston boys.

Kaler has a great time on My Boys, but insists he doesn’t know what’s going to happen next in the story. The second season just ended last week with a cliffhanger, leaving viewers wondering who PJ’s mystery mate is on her trip to Italy. Kaler believes the writers wanted to tease the network with a “you-better-pick-us-up-or-we’re-not-going-to-tell-you-who-it-is” ending.

Luckily they won’t keep fans in suspense for too long; the show is set to come back next March. “I would be really surprised if I was on the plane, but I keep trying to spread the rumor everywhere I go,” Kaler said. “Because it would just build this tidal wave of publicity, and then people would finally go: ‘We want him on the plane!'”