For a comedian who strives to be more over-the-top than the people he skewers in his routines, things are getting tougher for Lewis Black.
“I try to be even more outlandish than the stuff I talk about, and people are really pushing my mettle. I mean, I wake up and watch Ted Cruz announcing he’s running for president. What reality is he living in?”
Black is being interviewed just two days after the release of a video of a North Charleston, S.C., police officer shooting and killing a man.
If you go
* What: “Lewis Black: The Rant Is Due: Part Deux” * When: 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2 * Where: Tivoli Theatre, 709 Broad St. * Admission: $36.50-$56.50, $26.50 with college student ID * Phone: 423-642-8497 * Website: www.ChattanoogaOnStage.com
“Just when you didn’t think the police shootings couldn’t get any more bizarre, they did,” he says.
And, he points out, it happened in a state where the voters chose once-disgraced former Gov. Mark Sanford over Stephen Colbert’s sister, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, in a congressional election. Sanford, you might remember, was caught in a lie after telling people he’d been hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was in fact having an affair in Argentina.
“So when I performed there, I yelled at the audience for 10 minutes. ‘What is the matter with you people? I don’t care if he was running against a chimp. You could actually shave a chimp or an ostrich and it would be more interesting to watch on C-Span.”
Black returns to Chattanooga for a show Saturday night, May 2, at the Tivoli Theatre. The Grammy Award-winning comedian known for his angry face, routine and style, will present “The Rant Is Due: Part Deux.”
Black says he is fairly active on his website, lewisblack.com, and on social media, but he believes the sites actually make it harder to let people know he is coming to their part of the country.
“I do all my Twitter stuff, but what it’s done is made it harder to sell tickets,” he says. “I’ll be in Chattanooga, and I will have five people, I guarantee it, come up and say, ‘What are you doing here?’
“When I started 25 years ago, you did the papers, and it guaranteed people would be there. Now, there are so many things, and it’s impossible to get people to focus on all those facets.”
Black recently lent his voice, and rants, to the animated film “Inside Out,” which also stars Amy Poehler, Bill Hader and Mindy Kaling.
He’s deciding whether his next project will be a book or a play.
“I’d also love to get a new CD or album out,” he says.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6354.