Comedian's pitches hitting their mark

Dunn brings local flavor to Olympia commercials

Jimmy Dunn, who lives in Hampton, N.H., played baseball in Beverly as a boy and has done stand-up for nearly 20 years. (Evan Richman/Globe Staff)

When Jimmy Dunn was 7 years old, his father took him to Fenway Park for the first time. He was hooked immediately, becoming a loyal Red Sox fan. A few years later, in his early teens, Dunn found the George Carlin records that would turn him into a fan of comedy.

Now, Dunn makes a living as a stand-up comedian, and you can see him on NESN during Sox coverage in a popular series of commercials for Olympia Sports. If you've watched NESN this season, you have seen Dunn as a cabbie with a variety of passengers in five different promos: three shirtless guys on their way to the game, or a little boy with a cap and glove, or even Sox pitcher Justin Masterson.

The campaign happened almost by accident. Dunn, who grew up playing baseball in Beverly and lives in Hampton, N.H., had entertained at a golf tournament sponsored by Olympia for seven years. At the most recent tournament, he was making fun of the company's campaign on NESN.

"They ran the same commercials three or four times during every Red Sox game," he says, "and I'm one of the few guys who pretty much watches every single Red Sox game. I was just giving them a hard time, saying, 'Hey, man, you guys should make some funny commercials.' "

They not only took him up on the offer, they allowed him to write the spots and bring along his fellow comedians. "I know the funniest people in New England," says Dunn. "I know every funny person from working in the clubs. That was the cool part. I got to cast them after I wrote them."

Linda Hogan, marketing manager at Olympia, says the commercials went over well within the company, and that it plans to work with Dunn next year on another campaign. "He knows what will get the reaction we were looking for in the market," says Hogan. "His impeccable timing of the lines were what made the spots funny and memorable."

Boston comics such as Tom Dustin, Paul Keenan, and George Hamm got to go for a ride with Dunn and get a bit more exposure. Dustin, an Everett native who still lives there, said the spots were fun to shoot, and he even got noticed in traffic on Route 1 by a guy who pulled up and asked him to roll down the window. "He goes, 'You're that guy from the Olympia Sports commercial,' " says Dustin, "which completely made my day."

Dunn thinks Boston is full of talent, and doesn't understand why he doesn't see more of his fellow comics on television.

"I'm trying to get the word out to other companies," he says. "Don't hire these ad agencies from New York that hire guys to do fake Boston accents. . . . I hate when I hear fake Boston accents on the radio."

Dunn has carved out a nearly 20-year career doing stand-up and appearing in bit parts in television and movies.

Mostly, though, he has stayed local, as a correspondent for NESN and the voice of the matchmaking show "Sox Appeal."