Lewis Black

About Lewis Black

Lewis Niles Black (born August 30, 1948) is a Grammy Award-winning American stand-up comedian, author, playwright and actor. He is known for his comedy style which often simulates a mental breakdown or rant, ridiculing history, politics, religion, trends and cultural phenomena. He hosts Comedy Central's The Root of All Evil and makes regular appearances on The Daily Show delivering his “Back in Black” commentary segment. When not on the road performing, he resides in Manhattan and also maintains a residence in Chapel Hill.

Black was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Jeannette, a teacher, and Sam Black, an artist and mechanical engineer. He was raised in a middle-class Jewish family in Silver Spring, Maryland, graduating from Springbrook High School in 1966. He was exposed to playwriting as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was also a brother of Pi Lambda Phi International fraternity. The "Lewis Black Imperial Stout" is brewed and served at The Top of The Hill bar in Chapel Hill. He earned a Masters in Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama in 1977. Originally, his career was in the theater as a playwright. He served as the playwright in residence and associate artistic director of Steve Olsen's West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theatre Bar in Hell's Kitchen in New York City, where he collaborated with composer and lyricist Rusty Magee on hundreds of one-act plays from 1981 to 1989. Also with Rusty Magee, Lewis wrote the musical The Czar Of Rock and Roll, which premiered at Houston's Alley Theatre in 1990. Black's stand-up comedy began as an opening act for the plays as he was also the master 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.

Lewis Black's style of comedy is that of a man who, in dealing with the absurdities of life and contemporary politics, is approaching his personal limits of sanity. Sarcasm, hyperbole, profanity, shouting and trademark angry finger-shaking bring emphasis to his topics of discussion. He once described his humor as "being on the Titanic every single day and being the only person who knows what is going to happen." He claims that he doesn't write his jokes down, he merely starts talking about something that makes him angry until he has to move on before he has a stroke.