Comedian Lewis Black Brings His ‘Joke’s On Us’ Tour To San Diego

Speaker 1: 00:00 In a world where there is seems to be no consequences, no judgements, no righteous anger anymore. There is still one place we can turn to comedian Lewis black, his outrage over stupid things, terrible people. And a Starbucks across from a Starbucks has made him a beacon of sanity and hilarity for countless audiences. You've seen his comedy specials, his spots on the daily show. Now Lewis black brings his the jokes on us tour to San Diego this Saturday. It's my pleasure to welcome Louis Black and Lewis. Thanks for joining us. Speaker 2: 00:37 My pleasure. Thank you. Speaker 1: 00:39 Sometimes watching you perform, I get a little nervous for you. Like are you actually going to explode? Should we worry about your health? Speaker 2: 00:48 Uh, no because my um, blood pressure's perfect actually. It's scarily everything else is probably rotting, but my blood pressure's spectacular. Speaker 1: 00:58 Is that, do you think because of your app? Speaker 2: 01:00 I think it helps and also because I've been doing it for so long. If somebody at one point did a thing where they got me, put me on a blood pressure thing and then got me excited and my blood pressure go up, and then to watch how fast it would go back to normal and it goes back to normal really quickly. So there must be something good in it. And I think probably getting, you know, as they, you know, getting all of this stuff out of your system helps because it's not just getting this stuff that bothers you on the big scale out. It's the stuff that, you know, the phone calls you make to the, uh, to the cable people or to the, you know, the, where PG and E, uh, to those people. Speaker 1: 01:42 Now there's a promotional photo for your tour where you're holding up a newspaper with the headline. Government makes comedians obsolete. And I'm wondering, is it harder to do comedy now in this environment? Speaker 2: 01:55 Well, it's, it's not really a, it was harder to kind of find a through line more than it was before because people on both sides were crazy, uh, from the very beginning. And so, uh, people who, uh, felt that they, that their candidate, you know, the people who didn't want him to be president were nuts and felt like the world had come to an end of the people who want him to be president. Uh, wanted me to talk about, uh, president Obama or Hillary. I mean, it was insane. And, uh, so I, um, it took a while for me to figure it out, but I finally did and I'm really happy with what I've come up with. I mean, I said for the very beginning, I said that it's how do you satirize what's already satiric Speaker 1: 02:43 and so you decided to stay away from it. Speaker 2: 02:45 I've stayed, I've always stayed away from the presidency of the president's. He's never interested me. I still think within the midst of all this madness that he is a problem in his own right, but the problem or are those two houses of Congress and have been for quite some time because they, for the longest time, they are not doing the job that they should be doing. It's appalling. It's just appalling. There are no adults in the room. And there haven't been for quite some time. [inaudible] Speaker 1: 03:16 what are the kinds of topics that get under your skin? Speaker 2: 03:19 Oh yeah. Anything that has to do with outright stupidity, um, marches completely to the, to the front of the list. And it could be, um, is, it could be it just watching a, um, like during the hurricanes in on the East coast, uh, it watching these, uh, these people stand down in is a hurricane approaches and, and they're standing in an area yelling for people to leave the area while they are standing in the area. That doesn't help that kind of madness. It doesn't help. The education drives me nuts. The fact that we can't seem to educate anybody anymore. I find that to be appalling. Uh, uh, the, uh, anytime I hear somebody telling me it's not just him, it's been all through my life. It's the greatest economy ever. That's like really, cause the only people who ever say that are people who were, um, rich or politicians, you never hear a middle class person go, wow, I can't imagine it's my, my 401k is so good and it has a 401k. Speaker 1: 04:29 Okay. When you do see something or you read something that just makes you crazy, how do you start creating that into your act, into comedy? Speaker 2: 04:39 Nope, it's pretty easy because what I do is just get angry and then I go on stage and just start yelling about it. And then once I start yelling about it is where I start to find the nugget that will basically be become the uh, uh, the, the point that I'm going for. And uh, so I usually I start with the screaming and then go to the being being a little more quiet about it and then working from that point back to the yelling. But it always starts with yelling. Speaker 1: 05:09 Now as far as your, of your standup back, you read emails that are sent to you from the audience, then you do sort of a comedy improv on the answers. What's that been like for you? Speaker 2: 05:20 We call the, the, the emails that come in from the audience. And I do, I've been doing it for a long time now. We call that the rant is due and it's been really great and satisfying and terrific. And, um, gives me a lot of hope. The writing that's coming in, some of it is really, uh, exceptional on levels. You can't imagine a lot of the times they're, they clarify more than others. Uh, a problem that we might be having that as a group is the people. Um, they also, uh, I get stuff from, you know, real specifics from who were dealing with, um, healthcare problems or health insurance problems. And those are a lot clearer than having some schmuck politicians stand there and go, you know, I met Harry Peduto and this is, this is actually much better because someone real is telling you a real story. Speaker 2: 06:16 Um, then there are people, I get a lot of stuff from the military and how, uh, how that, how that's not working out, you know, in terms of, uh, the, the way in which they're treated after they come back. Um, in terms of the kind of services that they deserve in the services they actually get. And that whole kind of nonsense, you know, Oh, you know, we thank you for your service. Or, you know, how many flags can you roll out on a football field and uh, and yet you don't do really the basic things that have to be done for them and people write about that stuff and that and that. I get it from both sides. I think it's been great because I've been allowed to yell about things for the last 30 or 40 years and now I can yell for other people. And what's truly great when we come down to San Diego is hopefully 90% of that show will be written by and about Californians or people who live in San Diego, Speaker 1: 07:10 you know, we tend to be a pretty mellow bunch here in San Diego. It might take some effort to get us riled up. Speaker 2: 07:17 Oh, I don't think so. The ones who, uh, who act like they're mellow, right? They're simmering below the surface. Speaker 1: 07:26 I think you've got that right. I've been speaking with comedian Lewis black. He brings his, the jokes on us toward true the bell Bowart theater this Saturday night. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your taking the time, Louis. Thank you. Speaker 2: 07:40 Well, I really appreciate it and I liked talking about the, the rant. That really is a big help to us, so thanks. Speaker 1: 07:46 You can send your rant to Louis black.com there. You can also watch a live stream of the rant on Saturday.