LEWIS BLACK

'Lewis Niles Black' (born August 30 1948) is a Grammy Award-winning American stand-up comedian, author, playwright, and actor. He is known for his comedy style which often simulates a mental breakdown or rant, ridiculing (mostly American) history, politics, trends, and cultural phenomena. He makes regular appearances on Comedy Central's ''The Daily Show'' delivering his “Back in Black” commentary segment. He currently lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Contents

Biography

Early life

Comedic style

Recent career

Published works

Media releases

CDs

DVDs

Selected acting roles

Footnotes

External links

Biography

Early life

Black was born in Silver Spring, Maryland to a middle-class Jewish family.^[1] He was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland, graduating from Springbrook High School in 1966. He was exposed to playwriting as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was also a brother of Pi Lambda Phi International fraternity. He earned a Masters in Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama in 1977. Originally, his career was in the theater as a playwright. He served as the playwright in residence and associate artistic director of Steve Olsen's West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theatre Bar in Hell's Kitchen in New York City, where he collaborated with composer and lyricist Rusty Magee on hundreds of one-act plays from 1981 to 1989. Also with Rusty Magee, Lewis wrote the musical ''The Czar Of Rock and Roll'', which premiered at Houston's Alley Theatre in 1990. Black's stand-up comedy began as an opening act for the plays as he was also the master of ceremonies. After a management change at the theater, Black left and began working as a comedian as well as finding bit parts in television and films.

Comedic style

Lewis Black's style of comedy is that of a man who, in dealing with the absurdities of life and contemporary politics, is approaching his personal limits of sanity. Sarcasm, hyperbole, profanity, shouting, and trademark angry finger-shaking bring emphasis to his topics of discussion. He once described his humor as "being on the ''Titanic'' every single day and being the only person who knows what is going to happen."
Black describes his political affiliation as such:
"I'm a socialist, so that puts me totally outside any concept ... the Canadians get it. But seriously, most people don't get it. The idea of capping people's income just scares people. 'Oh, you're taking money from the rich.' Ooh, what a horrifying thing. These people really need $200 million".^[2]
As a political comedian, Lewis Black is also not without negative response and criticism. However, his rage-like comedy style often defuses potentially difficult situations. In Konocti, California, when a drunken heckler shouted, "Three thousand dead children!" in the middle of a Dick Cheney rant, he spent ten minutes yelling angrily at her until she left. He said, "That's definitely on my list of top 10 weirdest heckles."
Black lists his comedic influences as George Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin, Bob Newhart, and Shelley Berman.^[3]

Recent career

In 1998, he starred in his first comedy special on the series ''Comedy Central Presents''. He starred in two additional episodes of the series in 2000 and 2002. He starred in another special for the network in 2002 titled ''Taxed Beyond Belief''.
In 2000, Black and fellow comedian Jim Norton were arrested because of their involvement with "The Naked Teen Voyeur Bus", a specially designed bus with acrylic glass walls that contained numerous (18 and 19 year old) "teen girls". This bus was to ride around Manhattan while being broadcast on the "Opie and Anthony" radio show. Unfortunately, management at the radio station failed to inform the O&A show that the route the bus was planning on taking was also the route that the President was taking that same day. Twenty-eight hours after the arrest, Black and Norton were released. Black appeared on ''The Daily Show'' the following night where he stated he was exercising his constitutional rights. He then joked that the location of this particular right was unclear, but that it was "between 'all men are created equal' and 'don't shit where you eat.'" Additionally, at a fundraising event for New York Attorney General candidate Mark Green on June 28 2006, Black talked about how he was unable to make a previous fundraising event for Green because the arrest occurred on the very night of the event.
Since 2003, Black has hosted the World Stupidity Awards ceremony at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival for the three years the awards have been presented. The Montreal Just For Laughs festival is the largest of its kind on Earth and is by far the most prestigious.
In 2004, he had an HBO stand-up special titled ''Black on Broadway''. That same year Black appeared in an episode of '' as a shock jock. He also released his autobiography, ''Nothing's Sacred'', in 2005. Since November 9 2005, Black has been making appearances in small segments on ''The Weather Channel''. In December 2005, he appeared in an animated holiday special ''The Happy Elf'', as the voice of the extremely tightly wound elf, Norbert.
Lewis Black played the character of the Deadly Duplicator in '', on Adult Swim. He appeared in four episodes before the show was cancelled.
On April 21 2006 Lewis performed at the Warner Theatre in Washington, DC for an HBO special, ''Red, White, and Screwed''. It aired on June 10 2006, and a DVD was released October 3 2006. Towards the beginning of the special, Black states that "some prick" was paid to count the number of uses of the word "fuck" from his previous HBO special, Black On Broadway. Black was told the number was 42, when actually it was around 70.
In the film ''Accepted'', a film about high school graduates who create a college when they fail to get accepted into any, he plays Dean Ben Lewis of the school "South Harmon Institute of Technology" or S.H.I.T. and as the Dean, he talks about his views of the world. He also appears in the 2006 films ''Man of the Year'' and ''Unaccompanied Minors''. Black hosted Comedy Central's ''Last Laugh '06'', which aired on December 10, 2006.
On February 11, 2007, Lewis received a Grammy award for "Best Comedy Album" for his album ''The Carnegie Hall Performance''.^[4]
On June 18 2007 he sat in with Southern Rock/Jam band Gov't Mule at the 6th annual Bonnaroo music festival where he had performed earlier that weekend, for what was to be a quick joke. A member of the audience threw a bottle at Lewis, which struck him. Black was upset and he encouraged the audience to boo the heckler before leaving the stage in disgust, while shouting obscenities at the heckler.
On June 29, 2007 Lewis gave a benefit show at Springbrook High School, his alma mater, in the school's auditorium for 1,100 alumni, faculty, and students. Black performed in his usual style, stopping at points to remark how good it felt to use that language on that particular stage. At the end of the show he was given a Springbook football jersey and cursed at one teacher for giving him a B and causing him not to graduate first in his class.
Lewis Black does the voice over for the oxbicker bird on Cartoon Network series ''My Gym Partner's a Monkey''. The character is portrayed in the same fashion as his comedy shows, though without the profanity. In addition, the bird's clothes and mannerisms match those of Black himself.

Published works

★ ''Nothing's Sacred'' (2005)

★ ''Nothing's Sacred (Softcover Version)'' (2006)

★ ''Nothing's Sacred (Audio Book)'' (2006)

Media releases

CDs

★ ''The White Album'' (2000)

★ ''Revolver'' (2002)

★ ''The End of the Universe'' (2002)

★ ''Rules of Enragement'' (2003)

★ ''Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues'' (2005)

★ ''The Carnegie Hall Performance'' (2006)

DVDs

★ ''Unleashed'' (compilation of his 4 Comedy Central specials plus his appearances on '') (2002)

★ ''Black On Broadway'' (2003 HBO Special) (2004)

★ ''A Pair of Lewis Black Shorts'' (''Sidesplitters: The Burt & Dick Story'' and ''The Gynecologists'') (2006)

★ ''Red, White, and Screwed'' (2006 HBO Special)

Selected acting roles

★ ''Hannah and Her Sisters'' (1986)

★ ''Jacob's Ladder'' (1990)

★ ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'' TV series (1990-1991)

★ ''Law And Order'' "Aria" (1991)

★ ''The Hard Way'' (1991)

★ '' "Deception" (1997)

★ '' "Obscene" (2004)

★ ''The Happy Elf'' (2005)

★ ''Accepted'' (2006)

★ ''Man of the Year'' (2006)

★ ''Unaccompanied Minors'' (2006)

★ ''Farce of the Penguins'' (2007)

Footnotes

1. Lewis Black Is One Angry Comic
2. Black's commentary
3. Black's influences
4. Grammy Awards

External links

★ Lewis Black's Official Site

★ Lewis Black's Stand Up Comedy Acts a small video collection

★

★ Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

★ InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Lewis Black (TV Interview)

★ Lewis Black - The Less than Official Website

★ Interview with Black on NPR's ''Fresh Air'' (April 7 2005)

★ Interview with Black on NPR's ''Talk of the Nation'' (January 29 2003)

★ Onion A.V. Club Interview

★ Interview with Lewis Black by Maurie Sherman

★ Lewis Black MySpace Page

★ Stand Up! Records