Local comedian Jamie Kaler of ''My Boys'' is finally getting a little more notice

There are a lot of reasons Bostonians might recognize comedian Jamie Kaler. He's a cast member on the sitcom "My Boys," now in its second season on TBS. He's been in dozens of national commercials and guest spots on hit shows from "Friends" to "Will & Grace." And he's a Boston University grad who grew up in Winchester, North Andover, and Hooksett, N.H.

But sitting at a local bar the week before his hometown stand-up debut at the Comedy Connection, he says people are still a bit fuzzy.

"It kind of goes like a wave," he says. "At first, people will come up and they're kind of taken aback. They're like, 'Hey, you kind of look like that dude from that show.' Yeah, I'm on that show."

It's a game he's often played, one that has made him dread people asking what he does. After he lists his credits and gets no spark of recognition, "They end up at the end [saying], 'Yeah, I don't watch that much TV.' " Sometimes, he'll lie to avoid the awkward conversation. "One time I told this woman I pick up bodies for the morgue," he says. "She didn't talk to me for the rest of the flight."

But Kaler might get noticed a lot more in the near future. "My Boys," which also stars comedian Jim Gaffigan and Jordana Spiro, has scored good ratings for TBS and just got picked up for a third season. He should also get a boost Nov. 17, when he officially joins "Blue Collar Comedy: The Next Generation" on TBS.

Kaler isn't surprised to see "My Boys" get picked up so quickly. He cites a positive reaction among critics and says the cast had an immediate chemistry. He also credits the writers for getting to know the cast well enough to write to their strengths. "It was so easy to memorize because it was literally written in the same way I speak," he says.

And while the original "Blue Collar Comedy" cast - Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Larry the Cable Guy, and Ron White - were all Southerners, Kaler isn't surprised that fully half of the new cast, including Maine native Juston McKinnney, is from New England.

The youngest of six kids in an Irish Catholic family, Kaler joined his father and brother in the Navy. He was in the ROTC at BU and spent five years traveling the world as a Navy lieutenant before he finally tried his hand at acting, sketch comedy, and stand-up in San Diego. His Navy pilot father was often doubtful that the entertainment industry could provide a living for his son, even after the younger Kaler called with the news he had landed a cameo on the military drama "Jag" playing a staff sergeant.

" 'Staff sergeant?' " he remembers his father saying. " 'What the hell, you were a lieutenant when you got in. What is wrong with you? You get out and you drop rank.' "

Now he's happy to be talking about silly things he's done or said onstage for strangers and filming his role on "My Boys," even if not everyone recognizes him. He loves acting and he loves stand-up, and when those things get him free tickets to Fenway Park (it's no accident he's playing the Connection a week after the series with the Yankees), he can't complain. "[That] makes everything worth it," he says.