Comedy In Las Vegas Tonight: Lewis Black

Fame came relatively late to Lewis Black. Smart, well-educated and possessing the everyman outrage at our world — or, at least, the outrage every man and woman ought to possess — Black today is one of the most popular stand-ups around.

And with good reason. He takes no prisoners and — even though one suspects he is partisan underneath it all — he takes no sides. And, he is angry, using his act as a kind of wake-up call to his audience to get outraged along with him.

Sunday night at the Danny Gans Theater in the Mirage Hotel and Casino was no exception when his Let Them Eat Cake tour was in Las Vegas.

His style, as anyone who’s seen his Back In Black segments on The Daily Show or on his Comedy Central show, The Root of All Evil, can attest, is bombastic. His wit may be subtle, but his delivery is loud — very, very loud. His personal tics punctuate and underscore his outrage and the clear impression is that the world today is driving him c-r-a-z-y.

Black once said he doesn’t write his act, he just talks about something that makes him angry and keeps talking until he moves on when he feels a stroke is possible. Some samples:

‘Anyone who calls themselves a Democrat or Republican after the last 20 years is hallucinating without drugs,” he declares, rather late in his act, and proceeds to evaluate the candidates.

McCain? “Why didn’t you nominate him eight years ago when he was still sane?”

Obama? “He’s selling hope. He’s full of hope. He lactates hope.”

He left Joe Biden alone, but his opinion of Sarah Palin is pretty much unprintable.

The energy crisis is, he confesses, his fault. He made enough money to buy a tour bus and the price of gas escalated immediately. As for ethanol?” Good idea — take food and turn it into fuel. We have enough food.”

Pop culture is also ripe for discussion. Dr. Phil? “Wow! [Watching Dr. Phil] was the only time I realized heroin is an alternative.”

Having turned 60 on August 30, Black took a few minutes to ruminate on age, declaring 60 is old. “It’s Labor Day. When you’re young, Christmas is months away. But, when you’re 60, it’s tomorrow.”

He also talked about his parents. “Dad is 90. Mom will be 90 next week. I get my sense of humor from them. When my book (Me of Little Faith) hit the New York Times bestseller list, my mother said, “Who knew there were that many idiots out there?”

As he usually does, Black came onstage with a newspaper and a few notes, but never referred to them apparently having enough to say without needing these additional resources.

Opening act John Bowman is very funny, too. The audience gasped when he opened with a discussion of Hurricane Gustav forecasts. But the laughter came quick and loud when he used his right hand to imitate that kind of whirling wheel graphic used on weather forecasts and discussed how we watch this for hours on end. He was dead on fun to watch.

The Danny Gans Theater at the Mirage (www.mirage.com/entertainment) has for the last year or so had a regular late-night comedy series featuring Jay Leno, Ray Romano, Brad Garrett and Kevin James, among others. They’re a welcome addition to the Las Vegas landscape for, as wonderful as a Cirque du Soleil show can be — and there are plenty to choose from in Las Vegas — some comedy is always welcome. Hopefully, Lewis Black will be added to that list of regulars.

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