Lewis Black
Black in 2007
Born	Lewis Niles Black (1948-08-30)August 30, 1948 (age 77) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Education	University of Maryland, College Park University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (BA) Yale University (MFA)
Comedy career
Years active	1970s–present
Medium	Film stand-up television
Genres	Black comedy news satire observational comedy political satire
Subjects	American culture American politics current events pop culture
Website	lewisblack.com

Lewis Niles Black^[1] (born August 30, 1948)^[2] is an American stand-up comedian and actor. His comedy routines often escalate into angry rants about history, politics, religion and cultural trends.

He hosted theComedy Central seriesLewis Black's Root of All Evil and makes regular appearances onThe Daily Show delivering his "Back in Black" commentary segment, which he has been doing since 1996, whenThe Daily Show was hosted byCraig Kilborn.^[3] He was voted 51st of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time by Comedy Central in 2004 and was voted 5th in Comedy Central's Stand Up Showdown in 2008 and 11th in 2010. In 2015, he appeared as the voice of Anger in thePixar filmInside Out, a role he reprises in the2024 sequel.

Lewis Black is also a spokesman for theAruba Tourism Authority, appearing in television ads that first aired in late 2009 and 2010. He has served as an "ambassador for voting rights" for theAmerican Civil Liberties Union since 2013.^[4] Since 2022, he has also been on the board of directors of theKurt Vonnegut Museum and Library. He had been an honorary member of the board for about 10 years before that.^[5][6]

When not on the road performing, Black resides inManhattan but also maintains a residence inChapel Hill, North Carolina.

Lewis Black was born on August 30, 1948, in Washington, D.C.,^[7] the elder son of Jeannette Black (née Kaplan; 1918–2022), a teacher, and Samuel Black (1918–2019), an artist and mechanical engineer.^[8] He had a younger brother, Ronald, who died of cancer in 1997 at the age of 47.^[9]

He is Jewish and was raised in a middle-class Jewish family in theBurnt Mills neighborhood ofSilver Spring, Maryland.^[10] His grandparents emigrated fromChornyi Ostriv in Ukraine andBiałystok in Poland and his paternal grandfather was originally named Leib Blech, later changed to Louis Black.^[11] Black graduated fromSpringbrook High School in 1966.^[12]

Black recounts in his bookNothing's Sacred that he scored highly on the math section of hisSAT exam and later applied toYale,Princeton,Brown,Amherst,Williams andGeorgetown. Every college he applied to except Georgetown rejected him, but by that point he had decided he did not want to go there, so he attended theUniversity of Maryland, College Park for one year before transferring to theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There, he studied playwriting and was a brother ofPi Lambda Phi Internationalfraternity and a member of Student Congress.^[13] After graduating in 1970, Black moved toColorado Springs with a group of performers based in Chapel Hill, purchased an old log cabin theater and attempted to establish a theater company. Calling themselves the Homestead Arts Theatre, the group performed regionally at parks, schools, and prisons, but were unable to open the theater due to code violations.^[14][15] He eventually returned to Washington where he worked at theAppalachian Regional Commission, wrote plays, and performed stand-up comedy at the Brickskeler inDupont Circle.^[2]

He earned anMFA degree at theYale School of Drama in 1977, and was married for ten months when he was 26 years old.^[2][16]

Black's career began in theater as a playwright; however, he has stated that he was always doing stand-up "on the side."^[3] He served as the playwright-in-residence and associate artistic director of Steve Olsen'sWest Bank Cafe Downstairs Theatre Bar inHell's Kitchen in New York City, where he collaborated with composer and lyricistRusty Magee and artistic director Rand Foerster on hundreds of one-act plays from 1981 to 1989.^{[citation needed]} Also with Magee, Black wrote the musicalThe Czar of Rock and Roll, which premiered at Houston'sAlley Theatre in 1990. Black's stand-up comedy began as an opening act for the plays; he was also themaster of ceremonies. After a management change at the theater, Black left and began working as a comedian, as well as finding bit parts in television and films.

Black lists his comedic influences asGeorge Carlin,Lenny Bruce,Richard Pryor,Lily Tomlin,Bob Newhart andShelley Berman.^[17]

In 1994, Black appeared onA&E's An Evening at the Improv.^[18]

In 1998, Black starred in his first comedy special on the seriesComedy Central Presents. He starred in two additional episodes of the series in 2000 and 2002. He starred in another special for the network in 2002, titledTaxed Beyond Belief. In 2004 and 2005, Black hosted theWorld Stupidity Awards ceremony at Montreal'sJust for Laughs comedy festival. In 2004, he had anHBO stand-up special titledBlack on Broadway. Black hostedComedy Central'sLast Laugh '07, which aired on December 2, 2007, along withDave Attell andD.L. Hughley.

In 2006, Black performed at theWarner Theatre in Washington, D.C. for an HBO special,Red, White, and Screwed. It aired in June and a DVD was released in October. When explaining his choice of venue, Black said that "some asshole" was paid to count the number of times the word "fuck" was said in his previous HBO special,Black On Broadway, and that the original location, theKennedy Center, wanted him to cut back on its use. Black was told the number was 42, when actually it was approximately 78.^[19]

Black received a 2007 Grammy Award for "Best Comedy Album" for his albumThe Carnegie Hall Performance.^[20] He hosted the Comedy Central television seriesThe Root of All Evil in 2008. The show pitted two people or pop-culture topics against each other as a panel of comedians argued, in the style of a court trial, which is more evil, e.g., "Paris Hilton vs.Dick Cheney" and "Internet Porn vs. YouTube". After hearing arguments from both sides, Black, acting as judge, made the final decision as to which is more evil.^[21] In 2008, Black hostedHistory of the Joke with Lewis Black,^[22] a 2-hour comedy-documentary on The History Channel.

Comedy Central's "Stand-Up Month" in 2008 featured specials originally presented on HBO by Black, along with programs featuringDane Cook andChris Rock. That year, as part of Comedy Central's "Stand-Up Month", Black's routine finished at #5 on "Stand-Up Showdown 2008", a viewer-based countdown of the top Comedy Central Presents routine. In 2009, Black filmed two shows at theFillmore Theater in Detroit, Michigan. These were the basis for the concert filmStark Raving Black, which appeared in theaters for a limited time in October, and was released on video the next year.^[23] At the end of 2009, Black returned to the History Channel to hostSurviving the Holidays with Lewis Black, in which he discussed the year-end pressures of Thanksgiving, Channukah, Christmas, and New Year's.

In 2011, Black filmed two shows at theState Theatre in Minneapolis, Minnesota.^[24] The shows were used for Black's comedy specialIn God We Rust. The special premiered onEpix HD.^[25] An extended and uncensored version of the special was released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 11, 2011.^[26]

In August 2013, Black recorded his ninth stand-up specialOld Yeller: Live at theBorgata.Deadline reported that Black and the company that was releasing the stand-up special,Image Entertainment, would later air it in the form ofpay-per-view andVOD, making it the first comedy special to air simultaneously on all cable, satellite and telco platforms.^[27]

In October 2020, Black released his fourteenth stand-up special,Thanks for Risking Your Life, live at theFour Winds New Buffalo casino.^[28] The special was filmed at the start of theCOVID-19 lockdown and reflects that in material.^[29]

Black appeared in episode 25 "Aria" (1991) ofLaw and Order as porn director Franklin Frome,Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episode "Obscene" (2004) as ashock jock, and inThe Big Bang Theory episode "The Jiminy Conjecture" (2009) as Professor Crawley, anentomologist. He also released his autobiography,Nothing's Sacred, in 2005. Since November 9, 2005, Black has been making appearances in small segments onThe Weather Channel. In December 2005, he appeared in an animated holiday specialThe Happy Elf, as the voice of the extremely tightly wound elf, Norbert.

In the filmAccepted, a film about high school graduates who create a college when they fail to get accepted into any, he played Dean Ben Lewis of the school "South Harmon Institute of Technology". He also appeared in the 2006 filmsMan of the Year andUnaccompanied Minors. Black hostedComedy Central'sLast Laugh '06, which aired on December 10, 2006.

Black was the voice of "Manobrain" during the third season of the Cartoon Network seriesDuck Dodgers. He was the inventor of a diet pill which was stolen while he was in college. He blamed the theft on his college friend Dr. I. Q. Hi, not realizing that the actual thief was Duck Dodgers. The theft set Manobrain on the path of evil.

He provided the voice of the Deadly Duplicator in four episodes of theAdult Swim showHarvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and in thevideo game based on the show.

Black provided the voice ofoxpecker Ted in theMy Gym Partner's a Monkey episode, "Hornbill and Ted's Bogus Journey". The character is portrayed in the same fashion as his comedy shows, though without profanity. In addition, the bird's clothes, looks, and mannerisms resemble his.

He also voiced Mr. E/Ricky Owens inScooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and forTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles played a middle-aged man named Vic who is kidnapped by the Kraang and mutated into a spider-like monster called "Spider-Bytez" by Michelangelo.

Black voiced Anger in thePixar filmsInside Out andInside Out 2.

He also guest starred as the voice ofSanta Claus in theSpongeBob SquarePants episodes "Goons on the Moon", "SpongeBob's Road to Christmas" and would reprise the role in spinoff seriesKamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years.

On June 18, 2007, he sat in withSouthern rock/Jam bandGov't Mule at the 6th annualBonnaroo music festival, where he had performed earlier that weekend, for what was to be a quick joke. A member of the audience threw a bottle at Black, whichstruck him. Black was upset and he encouraged the audience to boo the heckler before leaving the stage in disgust, while shouting obscenities at the heckler. This act was seen in an episode ofLewis Black's Root of All Evil titled "YouTube vs. simply".

On June 29, 2007, Black gave a benefit show atSpringbrook High School, his alma mater, in the school's auditorium for 1,100 alumni, faculty, and students. He performed in his usual style, stopping at points to remark how good it felt to use that language on that particular stage. At the end of the show he was given a Springbrook football jersey, and cursed at one teacher for giving him a B and causing him not to graduate first in his class.

In mid-December 2007, Black went withRobin Williams,Kid Rock,Lance Armstrong andRachel Smith, Miss USA 2007, on aUnited Service Organizations trip to support the troops inIraq andKuwait. The last show was on December 22 at the U.S Naval Station in Rota, Spain. In 2008, Black went on tour to promote his bookMe of Little Faith.^[30] Black did a stand-up tour called "Let Them Eat Cake", with material from that tour being featured on his comedy albumAnticipation. Beginning in January 2010, Black embarked on a new tour called "In God We Rust".^{[citation needed]}

In 2000, Black and fellow comedianJim Norton were arrested for their involvement^{[clarification needed]} with "The Naked Teen Voyeur Bus",^[31] a specially designed bus withacrylic glass walls containing numerous 18- and 19-year-old topless women. This bus was driven aroundManhattan while reports about it were broadcast on theOpie and Anthony radio show.^[3] The radio station management did not inform the O&A show that the bus's route was also the route that PresidentBill Clinton was using that day. Twenty-eight hours after their arrest, Black and Norton were released. Black appeared onThe Daily Show the following night where he stated he was exercising his constitutional rights. He then joked that the location of this particular right was unclear, but that it was "between 'all men are created equal' and 'don't shit where you eat.'"^[32]

• Nothing's Sacred (2005)
• Nothing's Sacred (audio book) (2006)
• Nothing's Sacred (softcover version) (2007)
• Me of Little Faith (2008) (New York: Riverhead Books –Penguin Group) 240 pages,ISBN 978-1-59448-994-5.
• Me of Little Faith (paperback version with added content) (2009)
• I'm Dreaming of a Black Christmas (2010)
• One Slight Hitch (Play,Dramatist Play Service) (2013)

• Unleashed (compilation of his four Comedy Central specials plus his appearances onThe Daily Show: Indecision 2000) (2002)
• Black on Broadway (2003 HBO Special) (2004)
• A Pair of Lewis Black Shorts (Sidesplitters: The Burt & Dick Story andThe Gynecologists) (2006)
• Red, White, and Screwed (2006 HBO Special)
• History of the Joke with Lewis Black (2008 History Channel special)
• Surviving the Holidays with Lewis Black (2009 History Channel special)
• Stark Raving Black (2009)
• In God We Rust (2012 Epix Special)
• Lewis Black: Old Yeller - Live At the Borgata In Atlantic City (2013)
• Black to the Future (2017)
• Thanks for Risking Your Life (2020)

Wikiquote has quotations related toLewis Black.

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• Official website
• Lewis Black on Twitter
• Lewis Black on MySpace
• Lewis Black atIMDb
• Appearances onC-SPAN
• Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Lewis Black (TV Interview)
• Lewis Black Interview onNPR'sFresh Air (April 7, 2005)
• Lewis Black Interview onNPR'sTalk of the Nation (January 29, 2003)
• Lewis Black Interview with theVillage Voice (September 23, 2008)
• Onion A.V. Club Interview
• Lewis Black Interview by Maurie Sherman
• Stand Up! Records
• Lewis Black Interview, Real Detroit Weekly (November 13, 2007)
• "Straight Talk" Interview in Submerge Magazine, (Sept. 2008)
• Lewis Black rants about Michele Bachmann, Farmville, Twitter – Citypages.com 5/4/2011

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