By Denny Patterson
Lewis Black, also known as the king of the rant, will be performing at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts on Thursday, February 6, 2020. Using his trademark style of comedic yelling and animated finger pointing to skewer anything and anyone that gets under his skin, Black’s comedic brilliance lies in his ability to make people laugh at the absurdities of life, with topics that include current events, social media, politics and anything else that exposes the hypocrisy and madness he sees in the world. Best known for his “Back in Black” segment on The Daily Show, Black has received critical acclaim as a stand-up comedian, actor, and author who has performed for audiences across the world. In 2004, he was voted 51st in Comedy Central’s 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time. OutClique had the pleasure of chatting more with Black about his upcoming South Florida performance and style of comedy.
Denny Patterson: Hi, Lewis! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today. Why don’t you start off by telling us what audiences can expect at your upcoming performance at the Coral Springs Center for the Arts.
Lewis Black: Oh, you know, the same happy go lucky comedy. Upbeat, positive, smiley, lots of giggles, kind of silly. I do a lot of prop work now [laughs]. No, who knows what we can expect? Where we are today to where I’ll be then, wow, anything can happen. We could all be in the Coral Springs jail. I think I will be doing the same thing I have been doing over and over during the last 40 years of my comedy life, but constantly finding ways to make it funnier.
DP: Awesome. What do you look forward to the most about every performance?
LB: I really look forward to the after-show dinner, but if I’m lucky, I will get to wander around a little. This is my fifth or sixth time coming to Coral Springs, so I like to wander around the beach for a little bit. A lot of times we roll into towns later, so I only have enough time to take a quick nap, work on some stuff, then do the show.
DP: You are best known for your angry demeanor and belligerent comedic style. How did you find out that this type of humor was your niche?
LB: A friend of mine and I were doing stand up and I wasn’t committed to it at the time. I was just doing it for fun. I was writing plays and such and we were in this space where we would have comedy shows from time to time. I was opening for every show, and my friend would say that every time I’m onstage, I get angry and I shouldn’t be yelling. So, I stopped doing that. Then another friend told me the same thing and I should keep yelling. So, I went back to that. What I really discovered is that I am at my funniest when I’m angry. It’s silly to say, but I found my comedic voice. And let’s not forget sarcasm. I got that from my mother.
DP: What do you do to prepare yourself before going out onstage?
LB: I really wish I could say I do stuff, but I don’t do anything. I literally just look over my notes. I have never really written out an act. I write down notes, random stuff I thought of throughout the day. What I do now, I do a live feed called “The Rant Is Due” after every show. I did it once at Coral Springs, and it has evolved over the years. We have over 150 hours of this and it literally goes throughout the world. When I’m doing a show, I’ll do a 60-70 minute performance, leave the stage for about 30 seconds, then come back onstage and do the live feed in front of the same audience. People down the street can watch the live feed on their cell phones. People in Uganda can watch it on their laptops, iPads, whatever pad they have. The audience will be given instructions about the live feed and if they got a rant they want me to do, they write it down. It doesn’t have to be Coral Springs related, but if they want me to rant about Coral Springs or Florida, I will.
DP: To you, what makes a good comedian?
LB: Point of view. Certain comics, their point of views are silly and goofy. They look at life in a funny way. Then you go to the other end of the spectrum with the comics like John Oliver and Trevor Noah who look at society from a slightly skewed point of view. Either way, as long as its funny. The only thing that’s ever bothered me are the comics who wander around thinking they are funny when they’re not, but they act so confident that the audience laugh because they feel they should. Humor is tough.
DP: What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome in your career?
LB: First was the fact that I thought I would end up in theatre and teaching. I literally changed careers when I was 40. I started to go down that road, and it wasn’t much of a challenge because I was getting paid to tell jokes. Like really? You’re going to pay me to do this? The challenge was learning standup because it took a long time for me to be comfortable up there. That was the first real challenge. The second challenge was learning how to deal with the business in terms of theatre, comedy, acting, and writing. I found it was easier for me to learn comedy than for me to learn the business of comedy or the business of entertainment. From the very beginning, my biggest obstacle was when going to meetings, I had to deal with people I felt were unqualified and did not know how they got the job they have. There was nothing on their resume that should have put them in that seat, and they’re trying to tell me what I should do. Like, are you kidding me?
DP: Are you still doing your “Back in Black” commentary segment on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah?
LB: Yes. I was supposed to do it this week, but because so much is happening with the impeachment, they bumped me. I’m doing more with it than I have in a long time.
DP: For those who are not familiar with “Back in Black,” can you tell us what it’s about?
LB: It’s basically a segment that has evolved over time. It’s about all sorts of different things. When it was The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon thought it was better to talk about certain things when they came from my mouth instead of his. Now that it’s Trevor’s show, Trevor can talk about a topic a certain way and I can talk about it another way. Trevor gets my writing and Trevor gets that I’m funny. Some of the producers initially with Jon didn’t understand or get a grip on that. They would cut lines of my joke and I never fought with them. Other writers who worked on the piece knew it would get a laugh because they knew me.
DP: Do you believe some topics should never be joked about?
LB: No, I believe anything can be joked about. Comedy is a way to talk about things that couldn’t be talked about, it opened a door for me. If it’s a controversial subject, I come at it from different angles. Look at gun safety and gun control. People hear the word control and don’t get what you really mean. People are idiots, they truly are. You can’t say global warming, you have to say climate change. You know exactly what we mean, so stop it with the language. But in terms of gun safety, I came up with what I thought were great jokes. About four years ago I posted one on Twitter. Somebody had written that there’s a gun for every American, and I said if that were the case, apparently, I didn’t have one so that means somebody has my gun. The blowback from people was unreal. People saying I was trying to take away people’s guns and I just went okay, this is not worth it. Nobody is coming to take your guns! Understand? Nobody. Those people are trying to create a Bogeyman. Abortion has always been a hard one for me. Try bringing that up at Thanksgiving. Good luck.
DP: Do you think some comedians are afraid to talk about controversial subjects because of how PC society is becoming?
LB: Some maybe, but most of them I don’t think care. It’s not in a comic’s DNA. They used to arrest comics for crying out loud. Look at George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, etc. They were arrested for language or talking about taboo subjects or saying satiric and barbed comments about the Catholic Church – just to name a few of the infractions that got comics jailed. So, a bit of whining that something isn’t politically correct isn’t stopping most comics. It all boils down to if the joke is funny, really funny. That’s what matters.
DP: What are some rants you have done regarding the LGBTQ community?
LB: I used to do a long one about Rick Santorum, which is way too long to go into here. His take on homosexuality was medieval, to put it mildly. But about 30 or more years ago, I did a Comedy Central Special in a lineup of comics in Tompkins Square Park in New York and I said, “On the list of things we have to worry about, gay marriage is 50th on the list, after, are we eating too much garlic?”
DP: What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects we should be on the lookout for?
LB: You can always go to my website, www.LewisBlack.com, to see what’s going on. You can sign up for email updates and I have some wonderful merchandise, like the bobblehead that swears. It’s really funny and all the money goes to charity. If you don’t want the emails, you can get these rants that come on each week for free. I am also fooling around with some guest spots in certain shows.
For more information and tickets, visit www.TheCenterCS.com.
