Back in Black: The Lewis Black Edition

Lewis Niles Black,  Born August 30, 1948

Lewis Black was born in the nation’s capital, or Washington D.C. for the geographically deficient; his father was an artist/mechanical engineer named Sam, and his mother was a teacher named Jeannette.  He was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland and attended Spring Brook High School, from which he graduated in 1966.  Black became interested in playwriting as an undergraduate at UNC Chapel Hill, and graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts from Yale University in 1977.  His career started as a playwright at a theatre bar in New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen, and he collaborated on numerous one act plays from 1981-89.  The roots of Black’s stand-up act also began during this time, because he performed as the opening act and M.C. for these plays.

Lewis Black had some bit parts in several movies (including a doctor in a weird ass movie called Jacob’s Ladder) and commercials before hitting it big as a comedian.  He received his first notable comedic role in 1996 on a new Comedy Central series called The Daily Show; Black served as a faux correspondent on the mockumentary-style news show, and continues to do a segment every so often called Back in Black.  This undoubtedly helped him land his first comedy showcase, which came in a 1998 edition of Comedy Central Presents. Lewis’s act proves that he is a natural born hater, and cites other ”angry” comics (namely George Carlin and Lenny Bruce) as his biggest comedic influences.  He also claims that he never writes down any of his material, but ”merely starts talking about something that makes him angry until he has to move on before he has a stroke.”  Since 2000 he has released four DVD specials and seven comedy albums; his performance at Carnegie Hall earned him a Grammy for Best Comedy Album in 2007l.  If you would like to learn more about Mr. Black, check out his Wikipedia page. 

His 2004 HBO comedy special Black on Broadway (sorry it’s split into 6 parts, but I couldn’t find the full video…and language is most assuredly NSFW): 

Here are the YouTube links for his most recent HBO comedy special (2006) titled Red, White, and Screwed:

Part I, Part II, Part III, IV, V, VI