Lewis Black Talks Politics, Sex To Mason Crowd

Story by Broadside Copy Chief Kerry Sheats. Photos by Student Media Photography Manager Courtney Erland.

Saturday night, Lewis Black released a colossal tirade of criticism and anger on a more than willing audience at the Patriot Center. Performing to a packed house, Black ranted about politics, sex and anything else that struck his fancy. But before the audience could be entertained by the social satirist, John Bowman came on stage to get everything started.

Michigan native Bowman came on stage a few minutes before eight, ukulele in tow. Strumming a few chords, he discussed everything from George W. Bush to Las Vegas, saying that “Bush is his own bobble head,” and “Why do parents take their children to Sin City?” Before introducing Black, he did a fantastic impression of him, angry finger-shaking included, and even said that Black and Colin Powell were the same person.

Then, Black came on the stage to thunderous applause. Due to this being an election year, the main topic of the evening was politics: “Anyone who has lived in the past 10 years, and isn’t on antidepressants, needs to seek counseling,” he said. Being a socialist, he criticized both the Republicans and the Democrats, saying, “For the past eight years, the Republicans have been farting and the Democrats have been breathing it in.”

Black also discussed his parents, saying that he gets his sense of humor, “if you can call it that,” from his parents who are both 90 years old. When Black’s book Me of Little Faith hit The New York Times best-seller list, his mother said, “Who knew there were that many idiots out there?”

Black himself is 60 years old. When a few audience members started to applaud that, he stopped them saying, “Aging is not an accomplishment. You don’t applaud aging.” He also mentioned that birthdays are merely celebrations of being one year closer to death. Black said that, every year, he wishes on the birthday candles to “live forever,” because nobody knows what’s out there, saying that “we could all be ticks.”

One of his biggest hits of the night involved the story about Black losing his virginity. After explaining the hassles of record players to the mostly college-age audience, he divulged this tidbit of information: because of a scratch in a record, “I lost my virginity to the same line over and over and over ... ‘lay lady lay, lay lady lay, lay lady lay.’”

During his bit about the record player and record albums, Black mentioned the iPod and Apple, saying that “Apple is run by aliens, because if it was run by humans, we could have solved world hunger by now.”

A few times throughout the night, he would get caught up in his tirade and lose his train of thought, but he never failed to entertain. There were a couple of jokes that got minimal laughs, but he followed them by saying “I knew that wouldn’t get laughs, but I wanted to say it anyway,” which made the audience explode with laughter.

Black also sought an opportunity to talk about the financial crisis. He blamed it on the Christians, saying that “you people didn’t buy enough shit last Christmas.” Being Jewish, he said that it was “the first time you can’t blame it on the Jews.”And because the Christians didn’t buy enough stuff last year, Santa has a stronghold on the economy, according to Black.

He also encouraged others to follow in his path: “When you get to the polling booth, and you see Obama and McCain, and you’re unsure, just vote for Santa—I’m doing it.”

All in all, both Bowman and Black put on a hilarious show. Between ragging on Sarah Palin and their outrageous stage presence, there was something for everyone to enjoy—I myself was in tears within the first five minutes. Lewis Black may be 60 years old, but as long as he keeps screaming and shaking his finger, people will laugh.

• Want to get inside the head of the angry comedian? Check out Broadside's interview with Lewis Black.