CityLife

Despite US' renaissance, Lewis still has plenty to rant about

BLACK HUMOUR: Lewis

LESS so over here – for the time being at least – but certainly back in his native US Lewis Black is well known for his irascible rants.

From religion to politics, Black questions everything and thrusts forward his own opinion.

But in trying to pinpoint the reason for his naturally probing demeanour it turns out that the answer lies at his mother’s feet.

“It’s probably my mother who taught me to question authority... although my father taught me to be sure of my facts and feelings before I shot off my mouth.

"We used to watch the TV news with dinner and it used to set my mother off. 

"She would yell at the TV and whenever Nixon was on you wouldn't want to be in the room,” he recalls with fondness.

When you see how much Black gets all fired up about something, it’s surprising that he always finds something to get so passionate about.

Aren’t there moments before a gig when he feels a bit too mellow to be bothered to be angry?

“There is always something. Always. Irritation in the United States is an endless river,” he reassures grimly. So what’s the latest irritation?

“The idiotic fallacy that somehow we can't have alternative energy.  That it eludes us. That it’s just not possible. Idiots.”

While his rants were inspired by his mother, Black’s interest in performing was piqued by the patriarch of the family, “my Dad is really the one who got me into going to the theatre and as a result, my becoming a playwright. The two of us went to about ten or twelve plays a year. My mother also was an avid theatregoer.

"They still go when they get the chance.”

So off the young Black went to sign up at North Carolina University and then Yale Drama School, since then he’s been the playwright in residence at West Bank Café’s Downstairs Theatre Bar in New York and has written over 40 plays over the years.

But it was while at college that he first tried stand up, the evitable result of an interest that had developed very early on in his life.

“From the time I was a kid, I always found stand-up comedy and comedy in general to be fascinating.

"Laughter is just such a mysterious thing.

"I watched countless hours of comedy. Every week the Ed Sullivan show had on a different comic and they all had a completely unique sense of humour. Comedy was always like my hobby. Some folks collected stamps, I collected comedy albums.

Lucky gamble

"I began trying it myself while still in school, really just to see what it was like.  As I got older, I saw it as a way to get my writing out there, since play production is a lucky gamble at best, but I could stand-up practically anywhere and shoot my mouth off.”

Over the years he’s combined a career featuring stand up, writing plays and acting - including co-starring with Woody Allen in Hannah and her Sisters but comedy remains a passion and he’s looking to stretch out.

His forthcoming dates in London on the Southbank in the Udderbelly – the big purple cow - and his only date in Manchester at the Comedy Store aren’t his first over here.

He’s performed in London at the Comedy Store and at the Edinburgh Fringe. Though that was a while back.

“It’s been a long time and hopefully I am a more accomplished comic. I'd better be. I haven't planned much,” he laughs. And it is his first time in Manchester so that’s a first on this mini tour.

“I’m excited about it. It’s always nice to play a new city.”

In between his gig in Manchester and his London gigs he’s not just performing in a new city but a whole country - Sweden.

“I am very excited to be performing there, and hope to also perform in Denmark and Finland one day. I would like to perform throughout Europe if it is possible. I think there's nothing better for a comic than to perform in as many places as possible.”

Meanwhile back in the States things are looking up on the politics front. There’s a great sense of optimism about the Obama era as Black acquiesces.

“After eight years of a president who barely had time for us, let alone time to talk to us, it’s refreshing that Obama actually knows we exist. 

"It’s nice to know what your leader is thinking and why they are thinking it, even if you disagree with them.

"Bush scared a good majority of Americans as much as he scared the world. He made us stupid.”

So maybe politics will be less fuel for ranting in the near future, but as Black has pointed out already they’ll always something that will get his goat so there’s no danger of him running out of material just yet.