Lewis Black (Photo courtesy Lewis Black)
Grammy Award-winning stand-up comedian Lewis Black is known for his unique delivery, ranting about topics from politics to current events, often incorporating yelling and finger pointing. It’s why he created the podcast “Rantcast,” which is comprised of livestreamed segments where he answers submitted audience questions, often in an excited fashion, from stops on his comedy tours.
He received his sixth Grammy nomination for his latest comedy album, “Thanks for Risking Your Life,” which was his last live performance prior to the pandemic shutdown. Black also continues to appear on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show” for his popular “Back in Black” segment, a staple of the show since its premiere in 1996. Black is also proud to be on the advisory board of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York (Lucille Ball’s hometown), which serves as a comedy museum and archive.
A longtime supporter of the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library in Indianapolis, which is dedicated to the late author, Black became its board chair this year and says the museum is, “well worth looking up, especially for folks out there who are Vonnegut fans, because he’s quite something.”
Black will appear in Richmond, Thursday, May 5, at the Dominion Energy Center’s Carpenter Theatre as part of his “Off the Rails” tour. We caught up with the comedian via phone while he was traveling to talk about his rants, cancel culture and how the pandemic made him realize he was “old.”
Richmond magazine: Do you have any new projects?
Lewis Black: The one big project that I continue to do is the “Rantcast” that comes out weekly, but it’s really the basis of “The Rant Is Due,” which is a livestream that goes out every night I perform. So when I’m in Richmond, I’ll do the show, and afterwards I come back and I do what is essentially a different show written by the audience that’s either sitting in the room with me, who are viewing, or people who have sent in stuff from Richmond, people who have sent in stuff from the state of Virginia, and I put together the rants that I think will work together well that they’ve written, and it goes to a livestream throughout the world.
RM: Do you prep “The Rant Is Due” comments ahead of time, or are you riffing?
Black: Mostly, really, literally I go up there, read it and respond within the moment, so it’s kind of improvised. I would say mostly improvised because it also depends on the audience reaction. So, if I read something about the town and it’s about somebody that’s on the board there or someone who’s on either the education board or city council representative, and I’ll read it and I’ll go, “Did this guy, really, did he really say it?” And they’ll go, “Yeah, he really said it, he sucks.” They’ll respond in some fashion, and then I’ll respond to that, so there’s a certain amount of interplay between the audience and [me]. In some cases, I’m really learning for the first time about what’s going on there. When I get to the theater, I do get a newspaper from the area for that day so, I guess it would be the Richmond Times [Dispatch], so I’m looking to see what’s going on and take a look at that, and if something really strikes me in that, I’ll walk out onstage and say, “What’s going on here?”
RM: For you, are there any topics that are off limits?
Black: The topics that I’ve deemed off limits are the ones that I have not come up with a joke for, and if I have the joke and I think the joke works, then I’ll do it. And some things now I just go, “I’m not gonna talk about this now,” because it’s not worth the nonsense that might follow. This is like something that people are going to be upset about for another two months and then it’s gonna pass, so I don’t need to feed the brush fire, and I would say before the pandemic that wouldn’t have been the case, but that’s partly because there’s so much living on social media still that it becomes its own nonsense.
RM: What’s your take on "cancel culture" in relation to stand-up comics?
Black: Part of me feels like this is a phase we’re going to go through. There are people who are going to be upset about stuff, partly what’s amazing to me is that somebody will say something that was directed to the audience that’s performing for that night, and then these people came to see it and to hear it and somebody didn’t like it, and they go, “Oh, I can’t believe he said this,” and then it’s repeated 12 million times. It’s so bad, what was said was so bad, then let’s say it another 12 million times so we really know how bad it is. That’s where it gets a little, to me, kind of out of control, because if it’s bad, then don’t repeat it, it wasn’t meant for you in the first place. A lot of the times what upsets people — it’s a joke, OK, if people laughed, then chances are the comic is going to continue to use it, the audience is the final arbiter, and there are people who, if you need certain rules for a joke to work, you’ve moved into a different realm, and I don’t call that realm comedy. Then there’s things I won’t say. I have no desire of doing homophobic and other kinds of racial [jokes], it isn’t what I do, and [other] people are going to test those certain boundaries.
RM: What topics will you cover during your “Off the Rails” show?
Black: The last show I did was before the pandemic, and it was turned into a special called “Thanks for Risking Your Life,” and this one is really what happened after I went home and locked myself in my apartment for 12 weeks and just about how crazy I went, and it’s really my response to what happened during the pandemic. … The audience seems to really kind of connect to it, and they see my travails as funny because, basically, it boils down to the pandemic came, and I didn’t respond well, which makes it funny.
RM: When you say you didn’t respond well, is that because you had to stop everything?
Black: Yeah … in many ways I’ve chosen my career over a relationship, … and so the audience is my primary relationship. So I was in a period of separation, and also, I was in what was essentially solitary confinement for 12 weeks, and there’s a reason that solitary confinement is a punishment, and anybody who has watched my comedy can’t imagine what it’s like being locked up inside my head for 12 weeks by myself; it was really too much.
RM: Were you in solitary confinement in New York?
Black: Yeah, I was in my apartment. And also, I would have [stayed in place] wherever I was because I was just going to be safe. I was not gonna see anyone, once you’re in the sights of COVID, once I learned that I was too old, which I didn’t know — until COVID showed up I didn’t think I was old, then they said, “Well, you’re old, and you have to really protect yourself,” and I had an underlying condition, so those two made me really push for [being safe], and I wasn’t ready to go yet, so I kept hidden and washed everything with Clorox and hoped that I didn’t poison myself with that. I would make it through COVID but die of Clorox poisoning.
RM: You’ve also done a considerable amount of voice-over work; do you have any favorite roles?
Black: The main is “Inside Out” [the Pixar animated film where Black played the role of the emotion Anger]. “Inside Out” was really a gift that’s just pretty remarkable.
RM: When you say it was a gift, is that due to the whole experience of being able to work with Pixar?
Black: Yes, being able to work with Pixar, being able to watch that creative process, it takes them five years; being privy to going behind the scenes there, which is tremendous; and they serve a great lunch.
RM: There’s lots of ways for people to get their Lewis Black fix, from your television appearances to your podcast and streaming specials, but what makes your live stand-up show worth experiencing in person?
Black: Because I’m writing in front of the audience, because … being able to perform again, the audience has given me a gift of being creative onstage on a level that I never thought I’d have that kind of artistic freedom. They seem to give me some space to do that without severe judgment. … But it’s also being able to be direct with the audience. If they don’t like something, if they don’t like a joke, I go, “Boy, that’s my fault,” or “Sorry, that worked the last two nights, and I guess Richmond isn’t up to snuff,” so I can go after the audience, but kidding. That’s the most important, it’s the relationship with the audience that you don’t get from watching a Zoom comedy or a special, all of that has been cut and edited and trimmed and pasted to look as good as it possibly can. The interesting thing about going to a live show is that you also get more than the nuts and the bolts.
Lewis Black will perform at the Dominion Energy Center’s Carpenter Theatre during his “Off the Rails” tour, Thursday, May 5, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $39.50 to $65.
