The comedian also has a new play running in New York City.
Lewis Black Lewis Black is having a hectic month. He had a play and a new Broadway show open within four days of each other, and is now taking a shorter version of the Broadway vehicle on the road.
That show will make a stop at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton on Friday. Black called to talk about his latest ventures from the set of "The Daily Show," where he had be summoned to do a last-minute bit that he wasn't expecting.
You have both a new play, "One Slight Hitch," and a Broadway show out at the same time. I suppose that's both heady and hectic for you. What's it been like?
It's been great, but the play opened October 5 and the Broadway show opened October 9 so it's been like let's see how thin I can spread myself. But it went great. Both of them went very well.
I've read that the play is a romantic comedy. The comedy part seems to fit you but what about the romantic part? How did that come about?
I started writing it 30 years ago when I was a young playwright and I knew that if I didn't come up this something that was vaguely commercial was going to spend most of my life starving to death. So it was written as a commercial play. It was based on something that happened to me, and then I expanded upon it and it seemed like a good story and the funny story and it would be audience-friendly. And it's an old-fashioned comedy.
Let me jump to the political scene, because that's what people like to hear about from you. Being the incumbent, President Obama was a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination but the Republican race was wide open for a while. From a comedian's point of view, are you happy with Romney, or would you have preferred somebody else?
When you look at the other seven candidates, except for maybe Huntsman, well, I looked at them from a playwright's point of view and said, "Boy, I wish I could write fictional characters like them." They were unbelievable. What both the Democratic and Republican parties need to do is that if someone doesn't have the credentials to be president of United States' especially during a time of crisis--and we're still sort of at the end of an economic crisis right now--you vet them. If their credentials or resume sucks, you tell them don't waste our time. There is no time to be wasted now.
Well, speaking to that: Did you think here in 2012, we'd be electing people who basically deny hard scientific facts?
It's staggering. And it makes me wonder if I'm really here in the 21st century or if it's possibly the 15th. That's why we have scientists. You cannot treat your scientific community as if it's a coven of which is. There was that North Carolina representative who basically wanted to shut down the funding for the North Carolina environmental agency, or maybe it was the EPA, because he said that scientists spend too much time reading. I mean, you read this stuff and you go "Wow." And then they wonder why Republicans are funnier.
I recall you've said that Democrats aren't funny and Republicans are funnier.
Look, the Democrats aren't funny. They're creepy, a lot of them. The Democratic Party is like a giant tortoise that's lying on its back trying to flip over.
Well, that goes along with what you said before which is that the Republicans are the party of bad ideas and the Democrats are the party of no ideas. Given that, do you think it really matters who wins in November?
The only one I find disturbing-- the thing I'm not comfortable with--is Paul Ryan being a heartbeat away. Because he's based his political and economic philosophy--and he's repeated this time and again--on Ayn Rand. And I have to say, you don't base something like that on fiction. Okay? These are made-up characters, it's a made-up world, and so you think that individuals are more important than the group? She set it up in her fictional world to be that way. So she has manipulated you, you idiot. So for me, if you're going to base your philosophy on fiction I'd be much more comfortable if it were Harry Potter.
Did you watch any of the conventions and if so, what did you think of them?
I felt that it has to stop. It's antiquated. It's like watching dinosaurs dance. We don't have time for this anymore and you don't--in the midst of economic troubles when many Americans are having trouble making ends meet--you don't spend four days showing the American people how to really waste money. They are some of the most frivolous events I can imagine. I don't like pep rallies and pep rallies for politicians give me eczema.