“I don’t know how Lenny [Bruce] would have fared in a marathon,” says Luke Kirby, the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” actor who plays him. “He was kicked out of the Navy for dressing up as a WAVE” — a woman’s naval reserve — “so maybe he’d have worn a dress!”
For Nov. 3’s TCS New York City Marathon, Kirby won’t be in uniform, women’s or otherwise. But he is running for people in the military: Arts in the Armed Forces, the nonprofit group actor Adam Driver founded 11 years ago with his wife, Joanne Tucker.
The couple met at Juilliard, where the future Kylo Ren studied acting after a two-year stint in the Marines.
“Adam saw parallels between the teamwork and discipline of the conservatory and the intense military training he came out of,” Tucker tells The Post. “He wanted to give back.”
Paul Sparks stretches after running a 5K to benefit Arts in the Armed Forces.Gregory P. MangoThe group brings free live theater to active-duty service members, veterans and support staff around the world. At the same time, the actors — Ben Stiller, Samira Wiley, Rachel Brosnahan and Laurence Fishburne among them — spend a few hours training alongside the soldiers, to understand what military life is like.
While Driver’s “definitely a runner,” Tucker says, he’s been working so much, he hasn’t had time to train. So she, Kirby and “House of Cards” star Paul Sparks are running for him. So far they’ve raised some $20,000.
“I’ve always been a runner, but more of a half-hour maintenance jogger,” says Tucker, who uses the NYRR Virtual Trainer app to jump-start her training. “They email me every night about what I need to do the next day. I just ran 17 miles last Sunday!”
Kirby, 41, says he started running about two years ago, “without any intention of running a marathon.”
“I got an app [Nike Run Club, or NRC] that had a kind of internal coach, and for the first time in my life, found myself able to run further than ever before,” he tells The Post breathlessly, after running around a lake near his family’s home in Newfoundland.
At home in Brooklyn, Kirby often runs eight miles through Prospect Park wearing as little as possible. “The fewer the clothes, the better,” he says. “I’ve gotten confident wearing short shorts. I spent the first 40 years of my life being ashamed of my legs, and now my wife says she wishes she had them.”
Joanne Tucker and Adam DriverPatrick McMullan via Getty ImageHe often listens to Lou Reed’s “Take No Prisoners” album. “A 12-minute version of ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ gets in a lot of miles.”
Sparks says podcasts get him through his 19-mile runs, which start at his East Village home and sometimes take him over the George Washington Bridge.
“I like to listen to cycling races, like the Tour de France,” he says. “It’s usually two Australian guys talking about how the race is going that gets me over the hump.”
This will be the “Boardwalk Empire” actor’s second NYC Marathon. He ran the 2010 race in three hours and 50 minutes, but finds it hard to train now that he has two children with his wife, actress Annie Parisse. They used to run together, he says, “but now she’s gone full-on yoga. Occasionally, I con my 10-year-old into going out on his bike, and he’ll ride alongside me.”
Sparks, 47, started running 10 years ago, when he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. An endocrinologist told him that exercise could help him manage his blood sugar. “I figured I could always run,” Sparks says. “All you needed was shoes.”
He fills his fanny pack with Chia bars, usually dipping in around mile 10. “I’ll eat small amounts until I just can’t eat anymore,” he says. When he’s not running, he loads up on protein, vegetables and water.
Having seen what theater could do for the injured soldiers at the Walter Reed hospital, Sparks is glad to be supporting Driver’s charity in other ways. Plus, he just loves the NYC Marathon.
“It’s amazing to run up these streets, on Fifth Avenue and into the park,” he says. “As I approach 50, it’s like, ‘I’ve still got it. I can still do this!’ ”
Luke Kirby hangs with the troops before a reading of “True West” at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.Jennifer Emerling


