Fans of the Walsh Brothers, who will perform this weekend at Jimmy Tingle’s Off-Broadway Theater (Friday 7 p.m., Saturday 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., tickets $15, $7 students go to jtoffbroadway.com for more info or call the box office at 617-691-1616.), should hold out hope that someone taped their first performance together. From the way they tell it, it seemed to have all the elements of a classic Walsh Brothers routine: props, characters, a surreal setting, and sensitive subject matter. The only problem was, it also had the Mayor of Boston hiding his head under his table.

“We worked at the State House, as pages,” said David Walsh, the elder half of the comedy duo. “This guy who knew us from Charlestown was an aid to [then-Senate President] Thomas Birmingham. He found me and said ‘Stephen, I want to talk to you.’ He’d never get our names right.”
“He took me to Birmingham. And we got this set at this mini-Southie breakfast, a Battle of Bunker Hill parade breakfast thing.”
“Three-plus hours, bad street jokes.” added Chris Walsh.
“And I told Chris that we needed to do this show, and we had to do political jokes,” said David.
“I was like well ‘I don’t have to do anything.” said Chris. “Anyway, we don’t do political jokes.”
“Birmingham wanted us to talk about Charlestown. And his aide kept calling and calling saying, ‘You have to write about DeNucci, about the Speaker, he’s gonna be there,’” said David. “While we’re writing jokes, I’m getting phonecalls, saying the Senate President’s going to call you. You can run the jokes by him.’ So I’m running the jokes by this guy, and he’s laughing.”
So far, so good.
“So the day comes, and this breakfast has been going on, and there’s been street joke after street joke. Fours hours into this thing, the parade has begun, and we’re closing. ‘Here’s the Walsh brothers!’ said David.
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino was there,as well as then Speaker of the House Thomas M. Finneran, David said.
“Now, Menino was in battle with firefighthers at the time. The firefighters were outside picketing,” said David.
“It was a contract renewal thing, and they had followed him to all his public appearances. So for our opening joke, Chris is outside in the hall, in a toy firefighter outfit. And I can see him from the stage, looking through this little portal window in the door. All the firefighters are like “Menino sucks!’ outside. The room is filled with banquet tables, and Chris is all the way in the back. I went on and said “I have to perform alone today, because my brother refuses to perform.’ So Chris comes in, taking two full minutes to make it to the stage. It’s like a Benny Hill sketch in slow motion,” he said.
Chris said, “ Dave is just standing on the stage waiting for me. And so it’s quiet for like two minutes straight.”
“Menino, who is right in front of me, sees Chris, and puts his head down, below the table. he was miserable,” said David.
“Yeah, he didn’t look up once,” said Chris. “Usually it’s a good sign if someone does that once, then looks up and laughs, but no.”
“So I finally say ‘Why won’t you perform?’ and he says ‘I won’t perform without a contract.”
Cue the silence.
“And we just looked at each other, and you could see it in our faces. It was terrible. Except Finneran was the only one laughing. We realized we did not have the chops to roast these people.
“It was like ‘I am the mayor of Boston,” said Chris. “’Who are these kids shitting on me?’”
Since that inauspicious beginning, the Walsh Brothers have evolved into an elite team, blending stand-up and sketches, evoking comparisons to Monty Python’s Flying Circus. And they have built a fanbase that will no doubt turn out in droves this weekend, so grab your tickets as soon as possible.