'My job is to scream, OK?' How Lewis Black found comic gold in raging against the machine

Lewis Black isn't really that angry. He just realized at a certain point that he was at his funniest when he was angriest.

So he became the King of Rant, responding to a world gone mad and the hypocrisy of those who think they're ruling it in apoplectic, finger-waving diatribes.

To brilliant comedic effect.

"If I was acting like that all the time, I'd be dead," he says. "I'd be dead."

And then, of course, because he's Lewis Black, he laughs.

That darkly comic sense of humor proved a perfect fit for "The Daily Show," where his rants rose to national prominence in the '90s, leading to comedy specials on HBO, Comedy Central and Showtime, as he hit the road, averaging 200 shows a year.

Lewis Black brings his Off the Rails Tour to Phoenix

He's back in Phoenix with his Off the Rails Tour on Saturday, Oct. 1.

Like every show he's done in recent years, the night will end with a livestream called The Rant Is Due, in which he reads the audience's written rants.

Those rants are featured on a podcast called Lewis Black's Rantcast, available at lewisblack.com and on his YouTube channel.

In a recent phone call, Black was candid and reflective as he shared his thoughts on ranting for comic effect as the world grows dumber by the hour.

He was also really funny, often slipping into character, from the withering yet clearly playful sarcasm of his response to a simple "How are you?"

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'Every day is just more and more joy'

Question: How are you?

Answer: Oh, delightful. Every day is just more and more joy. Much less anxiety. We're doing so much better as a people.

I really didn't want to worry about nuclear war in my lifetime. But apparently, we have to worry about all the things, again, that I worried about as a child, which is great. Because now I'm an adult, and I can worry better.

Q: Do you remember how to crawl under your desk in the event of a nuclear attack?

A: Exactly. The same instructions in a sense that we were given when the pandemic hit.

Q: How does it feel to be back on the road after lockdown?

A: Very good. And I'd like to believe, like a lot of other people seem to, that it's passed. That everything's in order. It'll be like the flu now. I'd like to believe that. But I don't (laughs).

Q: Are you still being somewhat cautious?

A: I'm still a little cautious. I'm between brains. And that's what drives me nuts. Part of my brain is still in the pandemic. The other part's thinking everything's great. So there's this constant argument.

I'm carrying a mask around on my wrist. I do put it on when I'm inside with people, but I do it about 75% of the time.

People go, "Why do you do that?" Because I had to cancel a ton of shows. And I don't want to be the person who has to cancel again. I don't want to get sick.

Q: Was it hard not doing shows?

A: It was horrible because it had been my life in a lot of ways. I had a primary relationship and it was with the audience. So it was like being divorced or in a trial separation. And I didn't do well, as people don't when they lose a significant other.

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'Did Kurt Vonnegut write this ...?'

Q: How cathartic is this for you? 

A: It's a release. I literally get to get rid of a ton of stuff each day when I'm on stage.

People think, "He likes to talk about political stuff." Well, no, I like to talk about the way politics affects us socially. When I'm yelling, a lot of the time, it's certainly about whatever the idiots are doing.

But some of it might have to do with the fact that I was on the phone for an hour trying to get through to someone to get a prescription and had to listen to a mechanical voice over and over and over again.

We came through the timeframe when we had to learn patience. Now we've come out of the timeframe and we're less patient. It's unbelievable. We're dumb as oxen. And I put myself in that category.

Q: I know you said it's not all politics, but I'm assuming the current political climate has been especially inspiring.

A: It's hard to satirize what's already satiric. You read the front page of the paper, you think. "Did Kurt Vonnegut write this (expletive)?"

And people won't like this, especially out there, but get a grip folks. In New York City, everyone knew for a long time that our former leader was cooking the books, OK? Nine out of 10 New Yorkers didn't want him to be the president of the United States. Got it?

There was a reason. Because we lived with him. And now it's coming to pass that they caught him. Those of us in the city have been waiting a long time, because we're the ones who had to suffer.

Q: Are there topics you're finding especially inspiring at the moment?

A: I finished my last special in May and then had two months off. I'm not one of those people who sits around and writes every day. I write when I'm working. So I stopped. And I shouldn't have.

But one of our great failures as a people — one of the reasons that we're not as great as we know we should be — is because we do everything at the last minute.

It's been how many years dealing with climate change? And now we're going, "Oh yeah, let's do something." "Oh yeah, let's deal with immigration." We've got two sides that argue about immigration who both have let everything fall to (expletive).

Why? Because they didn't deal with it. Now they're going, "I can't believe." Well, because you didn't do it. Now do it.

We respond to a crisis the way a student will respond to having a final exam the next day. Take a little speed, stay up all night and study.

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'I'm certainly not joyless'

Q: When something outrageous happens while you're off for two or three weeks, are you ever like, "It would be great to be joking about this right now"?

A: Nah. I'm not crazy. People go, "Boy, a lot of this stuff has a shelf life." But it doesn't have a shelf life. It literally hangs around like a stink for quite a time. In three weeks, people are gonna still respond the way they would have responded the day of.

And I'm slow in terms of kind of coming up with stuff. I'm slower than most people. I really need the audience to get to the point where I figure out where the funny is.

Q: I read a recent interview where they started a sentence with "While Lewis Black may seem like a joyless human being ..." which struck me as really funny because you seem to be having a great time.  

A: (Laughs) Yeah, I do. I'm certainly not joyless. I saw that. It was funny.

Q: Do you find that there's a perception of you as being angrier than you actually are?

A: There is a sense of that. But I think my audience, which is really smart, gets it.

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'My job is to scream, OK?'

Q: Does reality ever get so crazy or depressing that it's hard to find the humor in it?

A: My latest special was about how I dealt with the pandemic, which was not good. I did not think there was much satiric about it until I got some distance.

Because I thought it was appalling. The way that people acted, the way people were, the whole thing. There was a half-assed form of leadership on both sides. Instead of creating division, they should've come together and figured it out.

I just felt like, "C'mon guys. Can we stop fighting for five minutes? We've got a real problem on our hands" (laughs).

I always thought, since I was 9 or whatever, that if there was an alien invasion, from all the movies I watched and just the thoughts I had about the world, that we would all come together and fight the aliens.

That's what we had. An alien invasion. And we didn't come together.

My job is to scream, OK? I do it in a public space for people who like to hear someone scream. That's the deal. You don't do it at each other.

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On lightening up: 'It's a joke, schmuck'

Q: Speaking of divisiveness and anger, have you seen a change in audiences with people yelling back at you?

A: No. Just before the shutdown, I was getting a bit of that. And now I talk about it from the beginning. I just basically go, "I'm not playing this game anymore."

There are more people in the audience than before who, you can say something and it'll pierce them. They'll be like, "I can't believe you attacked my basic beliefs. God!" It's a joke, schmuck.

I have to explain, "We haven't been out together for a while and if you don't get how a comedy show works, there's a lot of stuff that's gonna be coming out of my mouth and it could be a long night for you."

Q: There's been a lot of talk about the increased sensitivity of the times and the impact that could have on comedy. Do you think there's any truth to people saying pretty soon we won't be able to joke about anything?

A: No. Because people want to laugh. It's the same thing with politics. There's 15% at one edge and 15% at the other edge.

There's a left-wing group that says, "You're not supposed to say this" and there's a right-wing group saying things at times that are just way over the line. And they have things you're not supposed to say to them.

That's gonna pass because 70% of the people out there still get what comedy is. And once again, we continue to respond to the minority.

So just stop it. OK? They're not in charge. The woke are not in charge. The other side is not in charge. So make your comments and then shut the (expletive) up.

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Sam Kinison's 'level of rage was spectacular'

Q: Could you talk about how you developed your approach to comedy?

A: I lived around Washington, so that had an effect. And it took a long time to figure out, but what I did figure out was that I'm funniest when I'm angry. That was the key to it. And everything else followed.

It took a long time to figure it out because it's not a lot of people who choose to do that. So there weren't a lot of role models. Even after Sam Kinison broke.

He was phenomenal. I mean, his level of rage was spectacular. I thought, "Oh, good. They'll get it now." And it still took time. Because I had to figure out how to do it my way. And that takes time.

Partly because I wasn't doing it for a living. I was doing it for fun. I didn't really go on the road until I was 40. I was writing plays.

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The story behind The Rant Is Due

Q: Tell me about The Rant Is Due part of the show.

A: That's the part I'm really pleased with. I think it's unique. I've kind of been surprised that we haven't gotten more attention from it. For about five or six years, after every show, I read rants that are written by the audience.

It started with a Q&A. My tour manager figured out a way they could text me through an iPad. So we started doing that. And it kind of evolved. It was my version of a TV show. A primitive television show.

It evolved into folks getting off their chest what was pissing them off. And I began to read those. It was really great to be able to do that.

Q: I read an interview where you said you'll keep touring as long as you're still learning something. What kind of things are you learning?

A: I've always felt I have to be more insane than what I see. And I've really been pushed to the limit. So it's kind of fascinating to me to find the leverage point on making this (expletive) that really gets less and less funny, funnier.

And as long as I can continue to do that ...

Because during the course of my life, each passing year, it has gotten less and less funny. It's like, seriously? You're gonna reverse the ruling that gave women rights over their bodies?

You're gonna send us back to having to fight for voting rights? Really? We're gonna go back to that period? Are you kidding me? So it's finding what makes that funny. That's what keeps me going. And if I don't find it, then that'll be that.

It's also just what can I do in terms of my performance? What makes it better? Five years ago, it was discovering The Rant Is Due. But I think I'll be transitioning out of doing this. I'll continue to work, but it may not be in this fashion. But that's a few years away.

Lewis Black's Phoenix show

When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1.

Where: Celebrity Theatre, 440 N. 32nd St., Phoenix.

Admission: $49.50-$79.50

Details: 602-267-1600, celebritytheatre.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why comedian Lewis Black thinks people are 'dumb as oxen'