A lot of people are angry about politics these days, but not many are able to express their rage in a way that can cause uproarious laughter quite like Lewis Black.
The fan-favorite comedian and frequent “Daily Show” guest brings the laughs back to Boston this weekend when his “Joke’s On Us” tour stops for a two-night stay at the Shubert Theatre. Black tells Metro that he has a lot of love for the Hub, as the comic used to do stand-up shows at the now closed Catch a Rising Star club in Cambridge when he wasn’t performing in Chris Durang’s “Media Amok” at the American Repertory Theater back in the early ’90s.
Lewis Black talks Trump, Boston and more
“I got to know a lot of the comics there and watched a lot of the comics,” says Black. “It had a big effect on my work, [as did] the Boston audience.”
While Black always enjoys taking a trip back to Boston, he does have one complaint when it comes to the locals. In particular, he can’t stand their “delusional” beliefs about the weather.
“I was there four months and I saw the sun twice,” Black says of his time living in Boston. “There’s a delusion that all Bostonians suffer from where they go, ‘Oh, we’re having the same weather today that you’re having in New York,’ because I would be yelling about the weather.”
“I’d go get a newspaper and go, ‘No, you see this? See, this what’s happening in New York. It’s five degrees warmer and it’s sunny. Ok? There’s sun there today and we’ve not seen the sun here in four days,'” he adds. “So stop believing that you have the same weather as other people. You don’t. You have the same weather, probably, today as London, England, a–hole.”
Don’t expect the weather to be the topic du jour when Black returns this weekend, though. As expected, the 70-year-old star will offer up his hilarious thoughts on what’s going on in the world of politics, whether it has to do with Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway or the man in the Oval Office.
Although Black has plenty to say about Donald Trump, he insists that his latest tour isn’t all about the president, despite what his critics believe.
“I’ve bashed every president, so it becomes absurd to listen to that nonsense,” says Black. “I don’t really spend a lot of time bashing him. It’s mostly about how he’s bashing us.”
Fans can also expect Black to go off the rails a bit during the “rant is due” portion of the show, where he riffs on whatever topic comes to mind. Black recalls a recent performance where he basically, well, blacked out during a particularly fiery rant.
“I went off for six minutes, I just went nuts,” admits Black. “I don’t even know what I said and none of it is prepared.”
Since there’s so much going on in the world, there’s no telling what might come up during his stay in Boston. Perhaps the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh will come up.
“The first 15-20 minutes of him answering questions, I thought, ‘A Supreme Court justice? I wouldn’t hire this guy to be my divorce lawyer,'” Black jokes.
One person who won’t become a target of his diatribes is Kanye West and his strange relationship with the White House. Black doesn’t plan on covering the rapper, and he believes the media should’ve ignored his recent antics as well.
“It’s not news. It wasn’t news. It shouldn’t been on the news,” Black explains. “When was the last time any of those stations discussed a mental health issue in depth for more than two minutes?”
Overall, Black wishes the media would stop with all the conjecture, where cable news pundits discuss a trivial topic ad nauseam without any actual reporting or thoughtful critiques.
“It’s really becoming about creating a fake story,” says Black. “They can’t get enough of their fake stories.”
If you go:
Nov. 9-10, 8 p.m., Shubert Theatre, 265 Tremont St., Boston, $59.75+, bochcenter.org
