An Interview with Lewis Black

...published in the Indianapolis Star.
What's the difference between doing your stand-up act and doing "The Daily Show"?
Lewis Black: It's all mine. Nobody tells me anything. I used to write (my part in "The Daily Show") with the writers, but now they want to fit it in the context of the show, and I'm not gonna sit there all week and wait around till they figure it out. So it's really become more how I fit into the show.

What's new about this material?
Black: I moved on from what was on HBO to more about gay marriage, the Bible, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the elections, the debates, leadership and uh . . . the privatization of Social Security, which I'll try to explain because nobody knows what it means, especially our president. I mean, nobody knows what it means; both sides don't know what it means. . . . Where do you come up with the idea that because you put it in mutual funds it means the money will increase? What level of stupidity are you at?

How'd you get started in show business?
Black: I was a playwright. I majored in theater at Chapel Hill and I was at the Yale School of Drama as a playwright. Mostly dark comedies.

In terms of how you write, you say you literally have nothing written down on paper?
Black: Well, on tour I'm working like 250 nights a year. . . . I try to add a minute a night of new material -- a minute added is a good day -- so at the end of a tour I have a new show written. But I don't particularly want to be that person that I am on stage all the time.

Was the success of The Daily Show a big surprise to you?
Black: Yeah, of course. You don't really expect it, unless you're an egomaniac. I've always liked what I've done. I felt like I hit a ceiling before The Daily Show, that I hit a point where I said to myself, "OK, this is what I'm going to be doing," which was just wandering around the country doing clubs five or six nights a week, and I thought, "I'd like to get beyond that." And The Daily Show and a bunch of other things lifted me out of that. And I consider myself lucky. There are lots of great stand-ups out there who haven't been given their due.

Are you still writing plays?
Black: No, I don't. I had a play produced in Los Angeles last year -- which is much like the equivalent of speaking about freedom in Stalinist Russia -- and then I'm going to Tampa Bay. They're interested in producing a work of mine. But basically in that regard I'll just try to get produced pieces I've already written. I don't have the time or energy for more.

Describe "Nothing's Sacred."
Black: That's basically a book that gives the reader some sense of how come I have my point of view, where did it come from.

I assume you haven't got much time for a personal life?
Black: You are my personal life. No, I don't have much time for that, which I think is the toughest part of it.

There are guys who do it, and I don't know how.

When does this tour end?
Black: Death. Death is the end of this tour. Uh, it'll probably end in May, and I'll start up again in September.