A Republican pot-smoking, binge-drinking environmentalist, Chuck Roy is denver’s comedic eco-genius. That, and he plans to vote for Obama.

Chuck Roy is a conundrum to be sure.

Easily one of the largest men in any given room, Roy stands at a slightly stooped 6-foot, 5-inches tall, his long black hair dumping into the overgrown beard that outlines his face. He is a card-carrying member of the Republican Party who attended his district’s caucus, but is a pot-smoking, binge-drinking, eco-activist who plans on voting for Obama.

Yet, as he takes a familiar seat on a bridge a few feet above the rush of Cherry Creek, there is one thing you can put your finger on in regard to Denver’s Pollock painting of political views: he loves this city and the people in it.

“Denver rocks,” he explains. “I think the people that move here really know that. The people who grew up here have a small-town identity complex. They can’t imagine that Denver could be so awesome. But take Red Rocks; it’s beyond our civilization cool. Why wouldn’t you get a bit of an ego about that?”

As co-host of the eight-week underground BoBo & Blue Show at Comedy Works, Roy and his close friend Josh Blue re-established Denver as a comedy town. A Monday night sketch showcase, Roy, in his role as producer, gave the stage to a slew of fresh-faced local talent while Blue honed his comedic skills.

“In the beginning we used to pour beer all over each other. Blue called it Sammy and Dean,” Roy recalls. “But near the end, the two of us couldn’t even sit in the same room together. I think the show was that powerful. An old veteran trying to establish his post while Josh was learning how to be a big old f---ing star.”

The veteran began doing stand-up in 1992 as a self-described “broke young Republican” who had just flunked out of college and had quit his job as a political clerk for a former Republican congressman who ran Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign. “You could spell it all out as G-A-Y,” Roy says. “I was a closeted homosexual who, all the self-help books will tell you, was climbing very fast up the wrong ladder.”

Burned out and ready for a change, on July 27, 1992 at Dick Doherty’s Comedy Vault in the theater district of Boston, the clean-shaven, 375-pound Republican picked up a microphone and stepped into the spotlight of stand-up. It was a move that would take him from Boston to Los Angeles, landing him a two-year gig as the warm-up act for The Craig Kilborn Show.

Roy’s star was rising fast. He’d made appearances on Will & Grace and 3rd Rock From the Sun. He was touring the country, performing alongside Kathleen Madigan and Anthony Clark — members of America’s next group of great comedians. Eventually his travels led him to Denver and into the Comedy Works.

“You play Uncle Funny’s in Davie, Florida, and other comics roll their eyes and chalk it up to earning your stripes. Every time I’d get ready to play Comedy Works, they’d grab you and go, ‘don’t f--k that up.’”

Roy explains he moved to Denver after reading Natural Capitalism, a book that would cause the comedian to tire of the L.A. lifestyle. Written by Paul Hawken and Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, the book advocates accounting for the environmental impact that capitalism has on our economy. Roy, struck by the premise, has begun an environmental comedy series called the AlternativeEnergy.Com/edy Show and speaks openly about the disparity between urban and suburban life while collecting money for Colorado Youth For a Change.

“I think Denver is a good and vibrant city. But in America we have to make a choice, either to keep going in the direction of central banking, or to talk to each other and find a common truth,” says Roy. “When I walk into a bar in Denver where people don’t know what I do, that’s where I find some authenticity. The crowd and I learn to adapt to one another.”

Roy, who claims to keep his political views out of his act, is much more candid in person, flying through a series of rants on everything from outdated school textbooks — “Full of men and savages”— Highlands Ranch — “Built with adjectives” to Christopher Columbus “All he had was the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa Costco.” And what does he think about the 2008 DNC?

“If you’ve been a delegate at a million conventions, this is the city to break out of your box,” he says. “If the Democrats think its time for a change, then this is the city to do it in. But it’s going to take some time. It can’t happen overnight. When we have a black Republican and a woman Republican duking it out for the nomination we might have seen some change. Until then, I don’t know if the Left really gets it.”