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One angry man: Comedian Lewis Black points out idiocy for all of us
By Steve Wildsmith
of The Daily Times Staff
January 15. 2009 [/align]
Lewis Black is the guy sitting at the bar, railing to whomever will listen. Most of the time, he has an audience -- a few fans of his rants and raves who watch, mesmerized, as his face reddens and the veins in his temples throb and spittle flies from his mouth as he speaks, increasingly louder, about all that is wrong with this country.
He pounds the bar, points at the television hanging over the liquor and asks why ... why doesn't anyone else see what the hell is going on? And the thing is, he makes perfect sense -- so much so that a lot of folks would rather pass him by, rolling their eyes and dismissing his diatribe as the venom of a bitter old man.
To pay him close attention ... to ponder the points he makes ... to perhaps share his indignation ... well, that's a little too much for most of us. Our comfortable lives are too routine, too orderly, to be shaken up by a fuming old guy, and so we chuckle at his madness and go on our merry way. But that doesn't stop him from carrying on --¬ because sooner or later, if he can get enough people to listen, then maybe some things will get done.
He doesn't count on it, because that's just who he is -- a cynical comic whose stand-up routine amounts to pointing out the absurdities of government and society and smacking himself in the forehead because no one else sees it and are unwilling to act even if they do.
"All I do with my act is tweak the anger," Black told The Daily Times this week. "Basically, when I come on stage, I'm yelling about what makes me angry. That's really the deal. I start talking about what I'm thinking, and it makes me angry. Of course, I'm not like that all the time -- if I was, I'd be dead! But I can get worked up about it. On programs like 'The Daily Show," I'm a 7; in person, I can go to 12."
Black, who weaves his anger into comedy that's won him a Grammy Award, among other recognitions, will perform his stand-up Wednesday night at The Tennessee Theatre in downtown Knoxville. It's the day after the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States, but does that mean Black will soften his tone? Will it make him more easygoing, more prone to something as mundane as knock-knock jokes or off-color stories? You only has to look at the plummeting NASDAQ and Dow numbers to figure out the answer.
"The thing is, my comments have never been pre-determined by who's been in office -- it's basically about authority, and authority always seems to have a problem," he said. "What's really irritating is this kind of thinking like, 'Oh, look -- we elected somebody of color; therefore we're not so bad! We're back on track!' We're not even close! It's like a Catholic who goes to confession and then feels great.
"Part of it is that the Republicans keep screaming that the solution to everything is business, and the Democrats come back and say that business isn't doing anything. Well, why don't you find the right people to do the job? I've worked in government, but I don't have their bias, and nothing makes me angrier than that bias. Government is nothing more than people -- that's what government is, you morons. And after eight years of people saying, 'The government stinks, but just do it,' at least Obama is saying that government is noble."
Whether it's noble or not, government is populated with idiots and morons, according to Black, and he's been pointing that out since he came onto the national comedy scene in the early 1990s.
Born in Washington, D.C., he fell in love with theater as a kid and pursued a career in drama at the University of North Carolina. It was there that he first tried his hand at stand-up comedy, a calling that, it turned out, he had a knack for. After a time in New York, during which he served as playwright-in-residence for the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theatre Bar, he devoted himself to stand-up full-time in the late 1980s.
It was in 1996 that he was first introduced to a national audience, through a weekly segment for the fledgling Comedy Central program "The Daily Show." It was a precursor to his famous stand-up routine -- a three-minute rant about whatever was bothering him at the moment. It evolved into its own segment, "Back in Black," and today Black continues to make regular appearances on "The Daily Show." He's also taped four specials for Comedy Central, created over a couple of other programs and has recorded several comedy albums -- including "The Carnegie Hall Performance," which won a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 2007.
Over the past decade, he's spread out -- appearing on various late-night talk shows and political programs like "Larry King Live" and "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," penning two bestselling books and developing two HBO specials, one of which was nominated for an Emmy. He's been a regular contributor on "Inside the NFL," been asked to participate in Comic Relief and earned small roles in various TV programs.
Despite his political punditry, however -- and despite the increasing focus in recent years on the part of the media of every move that politicians make -- there's still a woeful lack of action, and that gets Black steamed perhaps more than anything else.
"It's greater scrutiny, but less information -- until last night on '60 Minutes,' I hadn't heard anybody explain to me why the price of gas went up last year," he said. "Really? It takes nine months to figure this stuff out? And why hasn't it produced any action? Because the Democrats and the Republicans started to take themselves way too seriously, like somehow their side has the solution. It doesn't matter what their side thinks -- their job is to figure out what's in the middle!"
Not that politicians take the opinions of a comedian like Black into account -- "I'm off their radar," he says -- but with the souring economy and the growing recession, perhaps more Americans will start to listen more closely. And maybe ... just maybe ... they'll start to hold their government representatives more accountable. Because in today's troubled times, Black said, there's a serious lack of leadership, at least in the current administration.
"Basically, I think, the biggest challenge will be getting people over the fear that they're not going to have anything tomorrow," Black said. "They did a better job scaring us about the economy than they ever did about terrorism; that's what's really spectacular. All I know is that after (Bush) yelled and screamed that we're going to hell in a hand basket, I was in a nice restaurant in New York, and they weren't giving (stuff) away for free. But they really freak people out with their talk. And what's the deal with the first bailout? We give $700 billion to banks, and they're allowed to go out and buy stuff?
"There was no oversight, so now it's like, 'Let's try it again.' I don't care what they say or talk about, they need oversight! You figure out how much is needed, how much is too much, and you do it because that's your job! It's a pain in the ass, but you better figure it out, and don't tell me that with oversight, the economy's not going to function! Just figure it out!"
The phone line crackles as Black's voice gets louder, and it's obvious that while he might amplify his anger on stage, it's no act. He's a seriously angry individual, and the way he tells it, it's for good reason. Sometimes, the laughter it generates comes from righteous indignation and cries of agreement; sometimes, it's just wide-eyed incredulity that a guy can get so worked up over something that so many others seem to care so little about.
But that's not going to stop him from ranting. The faces in government may change, but Black will still be that guy down at the corner bar, finding some new insanity, some different form of stupidity, to rage over.
"Part of it is that laughter provides a kind of insulation from the madness," he said. "What makes comedians different from other pundits is that the most important thing is getting the laugh, and that somehow becomes an attractive way to package information sometimes. It take a lot of the onus off of us, because you can look at both points of view and come up with the thing in between that's funny.
"And sometimes, they make it easy for us. Sometimes, all you have to do is quote them."
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