Lewis Black doesn't pull punches, including those he throws at his own profession. One of the first topics he confronted the near-capacity crowd with at Calvin Theatre Friday was the concept that "laughter is the best medicine." "Let's clear that up," he deadpanned. "I'm a comic, not a pharmacist. It's important to get this straight. It turns out that medicine is...
Lewis Black doesn't pull punches, including those he throws at his own profession.
One of the first topics he confronted the near-capacity crowd with at Calvin Theatre Friday was the concept that "laughter is the best medicine."
"Let's clear that up," he deadpanned. "I'm a comic, not a pharmacist. It's important to get this straight. It turns out that medicine is best medicine. That's why they call it medicine."
He then went on to advise the audience that if they had diarrhea in January, "Don't try laughing."
But Lewis' targets spanned a wide spectrum throughout the evening, ranging from healthcare to Attention Deficit Disorder to Facebook. On healthcare, Black took aim at the name "Obamacare" as ridiculous and inaccurate.
"It's not the care and feeding of Obama. It's healthcare," he grumbled.
He then questioned why conservative Christians opposed it. He has been told he lives in Christian country, he said, and it seemed to him that Jesus wanted people to take care of one another.
"Maybe I didn't read part of bible where Jesus said take care of you neighbor, but just don't take his temperature," he said.
While some people think states should be in charge of healthcare instead of the federal government, Black said this was the opinion of "people who have not traveled."
"There are some states that shouldn't be states. They should be territories," he said before skewering Mississippi. When the audience had a muted response to his Mississippi insults, he made fun of the Happy Valley attitude and screamed, "Leave Valhalla and go see something!" The crowd enthusiastically took the upbraiding with good humor.
Referring to Facebook, he called joining it the biggest mistake of his life. When he awoke to 100 friend requests the morning after he joined, he was shocked.
"Who are these people? I don't have money to hire a private investigator to follow them all around to find which one is a stalker."
He also roasted Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for saying Facebook was like the invention of the printing press.
"The printing press? The printing press raised the consciousness of the world. It made the world smarter, " he said exasperatedly. "What do I get from Facebook? That Missy has irritable bowel syndrome."
His take on ADD was particularly incisive.
"We give our children speed and don't allow adults to smoke pot," he said.
"You don't give kids speed, you give it to me. I've gotta get stuff done."
Black ended with a hilarious political diatribe in which he bemoaned the inefficiency of government over the past 12 years, especially compared to government when he was young.
"When I was a kid, they got things done," he said, taking a beat, then adding, "Because they were drunk. Think about that: drunks got more done."