Lewis Black: the king of quivering indignation.
Lewis Black is not the sort of man you’d want as an enemy. His withering, painfully hilarious critiques of everything from brain-dead politicians to bottled water and milk continue the fired-up, free- speech tradition of stand-up comedy (think Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, David Cross) while reaching millions via Comedy Central and his numerous film, TV and writing projects.
We chatted with Black in advance of his Sunday, Sept. 20 set at CU- Boulder’s Macky Auditorium ($20 for students; $35-$40. TicketsWest) about his college fan base, busy schedule, Comedy Central projects and why — and how – America has changed over the last few years.
Playing colleges, as you are in Boulder, is always a fertile market for comedians, but you seem to have a stronger connection to college audiences than most. Why is that?
I would think its no doubt because of what has been my high visibility on Comedy Central. They play my specials and my show, “The Root of All Evil.” This and my long run on “The Daily Show” has no doubt helped me find the college audience. I think the strong connection is based on the fact that I express my frustration and if anyone is truly frustrated it’s a college student. It also could be this: one of the things many college students say to me is, “You’re just like my father, only you’re funny.” Finally, it may just be that I stopped growing emotionally when I was 21.
Will we be seeing another season of “The Root of All Evil,” and if so, what kind of topics and comedians can we expect? I know you’ve already shot nearly 20 episodes for that, which is pretty good in and of itself.
I wish we were seeing another season. Comedy Central decided we didn’t have the numbers they wanted for the show. Of course the second season we were on, they chose to air it in the summer, when most of our audience, and the demographic they wanted don’t watch television. Good idea, huh?
You’ve got four shows listed as “in production” on your IMDB.com profile under roles for “yourself.” Have you been busier than usual lately between stand-up dates?
It seems as if I am always busy. I have been very lucky, if its not one thing, its another. Never trust IMDB.com completely. A lot of the time, its a wish list of what producers hope will come to pass.
One of those movies is “America the Punchline,” which uses comedy to explore how the world perceives our country. In your travels have you seen that perception shift at all in recent months?
I have toured my show through Canada and Europe during the past year and have worked there over the past nine years. There has definitely been a perception shift. They couldn’t believe we elected Bush once, let alone twice. And that we followed him with Obama has boggled their minds. It certainly changed the way they looked at us. They trust us a lot more now. Now that we are actually listening to them again and aren’t treating them like idiots. Even the French were sincerely friendly. Talk about a change.
If you had to pick one word or phrase to characterize the current political climate in the U.S. right now, what would it be?
Ignorance of the highest order and magnitude imaginable.
Tell us a little bit about your opener at the Boulder date, John Bowman.
John is one of the funniest people I have ever known. His humor is incisive, intelligent and blistering. He takes more risks on stage than most comics would ever dream of. He was a writer on “The Root of All Evil” and should have been one of the prosecutors if Comedy Central would have listened to me, but why would they do that. He also won an Emmy for his work on my segment of “Inside the NFL” on HBO and was nominated for a second the next year.
If this weren’t enough, he is a brilliant actor. He has been my opening act for six years and he just finished his first stand-up special for television which should come out in the next six months or so.
Get more information on Lewis Black’s show at the Macky Auditorium website.
John Wenzel is the editor of the Get Real Denver, co-editor of Reverb and an arts and entertainment reporter for The Denver Post. His book “Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny” was recently published by Speck Press/Fulcrum.
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