Within the past decade, as my reactions toward Lewis Black's comedy slaloms from giggling to amusement and finally to a benign stare, I've come to realize that Black is not so much a comedian as he is a masochistic exhibitionist. His act centers—nay, depends—on Black subjecting himself to things that infuriate him, which he then shares with the world at large on the stage. We're not so much watching someone tell jokes as we are heckling a convulsing sideshow. I suppose both have their places in comedy.
Like many, I first became familiar with Lewis Black through his long-running "Back in Black" segment on The Daily Show. The thing that makes that segment work so well is that Black's rant is contained to one topic, accompanied by video context, and wraps within minutes with either an ending punchline or an accusatory conclusion. It's swift and effective. This format obviously doesn't lend itself too well to the traditional hour-long stand-up performance (and this is 80 minutes long), so we're left with a man raving angrily like a lunatic, occasionally slipping in verbal forehead-slaps in between anecdotes.
In this concert film's opening segment, which is adequately shot in high-definition for that extra definition of rage, Black explains that the reason he chose Detroit to host his newest special is because "if there's anyone as angry as I am, it's the people of Detroit." He's referring, best we can guess, to the demise of the city's auto industry. A fair assessment for those people, perhaps, but what could Lewis Black be so peeved by to match that of Detroit's? He addresses that source of anger early in his act. He assures his fans that worrying about Black mellowing after President Bush's exit—this was shot not long after Obama's inauguration—is crazy, because there's plenty of equal stupidity going on in the world to set him off at any given moment. To prove this point, he went on to shake his famous fingers and froth at the mouth at inexcusable atrocities such as getting old and Twitter.
Far be it from me to accuse Lewis Black of manufacturing his anger, but Stark Raving Black is at its liveliest when the comedian takes a break from indignation and tells a ridiculous story about himself having to perform a USO show with Christian country singer Vince Gill and wife Amy Grant; how he was out of his elements following melodies and tales of Jesus, love and patriotism with his brand of cynical tirades. It's the kind of material where Black's snappy sarcasm—so masterfully deadpan in his praises and yet his quakes give the underlying contempt away—really works. "How could I, a Jew, ever know the beauty of Christian love?" he quips.
While he's been at it for some time ("Back in Black" has been on The Daily Show longer than its current host Jon Stewart), Black rose to prominence as George W. Bush began flexing his Presidential muscles. With a target so ripe, Black was provided a wealth of fuel for his act, and became "mainstream" for it. It was a surreal time; when pointing out common sense was considered a political observation, which suits Black's comedy style. We laughed because we agreed with him and were glad to have a cartoonishly cantankerous frontman to say all that stuff.
It's not that he's run out of political gripes, it's that the climate has shifted and fuming about current problems, pointing fingers (in both senses), doesn't seem as cathartic. Now, Black dismissively trashes both Democrats and Republicans as the same ass-backwards party and bafflingly complains that the technological know-how that gave us the iPhone should be good enough to come up with a viable alternative energy. Certainly not something new to say, and it's all just less pointed commentary, more grandpa's "get a f--king move on, world!"
DVD Bonus Features
The lone feature on the disc is quite literally a bonus feature: it's a 70-minute documentary called Basic Black that digs up his life from back in his underground theater days in 1980's New York, with the framing being the special's behind-the-scenes look. It's actually pretty interesting to learn how Black failed the theater world and recovered by doing stand-up, but ultimately there's not a whole lot going for the doc if you don't want to just celebrate Black's success.
The most revelatory thing in it, I believe, is a peek at the construction of Black's act. We see him on his tour bus, flipping through the news with friends, until he finds something to curse at. Rather than figuring out a joke around the topic, you can almost see the paper pad in his head, noting just the topic as something to lash out against later, with more people around.
"Stark Raving Black" is on sale June 15, 2010 and is not rated. Comedy. Directed by Adam Dubin. Written by Lewis Black. Starring Lewis Black.
