By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent, Updated November 1, 2023, 5:00 p.m.
Boston comic Orlando Baxter has more to celebrate this season than most of us. On Wednesday, he was scheduled to return from Zanzibar after a two-week honeymoon. Then he was planning a couple of days of club shows before performing on the biggest stage of his career. On Saturday at TD Garden, he’ll be doing stand-up alongside Pete Davidson, Bill Burr, Lenny Clarke, Alex Edelman, Rachel Feinstein, Robert Kelly, Marc Maron, Tammy Pescatelli, and host Denis Leary at the 27th Comics Come Home, the comedy showcase that benefits the Cam Neely Foundation for cancer care.
“As a comic,” says Baxter, “when you haven’t been onstage for a few weeks, usually you just jump in and do a show. But this is the show. [It’s] one thing, you know, not having a good set in front of a few people …” Baxter laughs, not completing the thought.
But he’s confident he’ll be fine on the Garden stage. He’s been a staple of the Boston scene for nearly 20 years and has performed in theaters as well as clubs. But it’s still hard to extrapolate from those experiences to a Garden crowd.
“I’m excited to perform in front of that many people,” he says. “I just want the experience of knowing how to adjust on the fly, because, you know, you can’t duplicate that on a regular stage. Like, what’s that laugh going to be like? And how’s that gonna impact what comes out my mouth next?”
