The 'Common' Man

He may have a hit sitcom, but Anthony Clark hasn't gone Hollywood. The lanky star of NBC's Boston Common is keeping a toehold in his adopted hometown, where he'll be doing stand-up this summer, during his series' hiatus. ''I had this huge cult following in Boston before I was known anywhere,'' says Clark, an Emerson grad who took up comedy in the mid-'80s. ''I got my confidence there.'' On June 21 and 22, Clark returns to perform at Faneuil Hall's Comedy Connection, which he co-owns. Though the Virginia-born Clark, 33, was trained as an actor — he was in the films Dogfight and The Thing Called Love with his friend River Phoenix and appears in the Sean Connery actioner The Rock, due this month — he's never given up on stand-up. ''It's a hard thing, but I'm kind of from the Seinfeld school. Give him two nights off and he's at a club,'' says Clark. ''I'm like a junkie for it.''