Lewis Black
Appearances
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Because she couldn't believe that I... The fact that I got into a major drama school. I went to the Yale School of Drama, so that had a big... That's a big hoo-ha. And so that didn't have any effect. She still didn't believe it. My father was like... All in. Great. You want to do this? Do it. Don't worry about her. Basically, it's your life.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
This is a remarkable story. My father was a mechanical engineer. He worked for the government, the federal government. He didn't go... When World War II came, he had just graduated from college. Instead of being drafted or conscripted, they took him into... They wanted him to work for the Department of the Army designing... Or the Department of the Navy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It would be stand-up because it – I wanted to be a playwright. And along the way, I kind of, because I was doing that and it was at a drama school, I learned from the actors there. So I started to perform more and be in plays more. So I mean, but you know, so it was, I was writing plays and then acting in shows. And I thought, and I never wanted to direct. But that was the thing about standup.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
He was going to go to the Department of the Navy and design weapons, undersea weapons, but mainly sea mines. And then he... did that and the war ended and he he wanted to get into design, you know of other you know, like, you know washing machines anything that you know that we were producing and he would kind of go to these places and at that point there was
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
your family may have experienced here, you know, there was an anti-Semitism. So he would go in for the interview and because he doesn't, the name is not, Sam Black is not a, you know, you don't go, you know, it's not like Steinowitz. So there was no tip off. And he would go in, do an interview, the interview would be great, and he wouldn't get the job. And he just kind of went.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It was the early 50s, so it was a tough road to hoe then. So he stayed with the government. And he felt comfortable about sea mines because they're a weapon that defends you. It's not an offensive weapon. And he worked on defensive weaponry. Protect instead of attack. Exactly.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah. And so he comes out, you know, and we're involved in all sorts of things, and we would, you know, whatever wars were up. But, you know, it was about mining harbors for people to protect themselves. So he and my mother have a huge argument about – whether the Vietnam War is legitimate. Is this really a legitimate war? Are we, you know, they keep referring to the Geneva Accords.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And so my father sits down, and it was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution was based on the Geneva Accords that were signed and whatever. And he says, I'm going to find out if this is legitimate. And so he reads this little, nobody read the, nobody read the Geneva Accords that I knew of anywhere. Nobody, we talked about it in school, but nobody.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I'm in, now I'm in college and he's, I mean, he reads it and he closes it and he said, there's no legitimate reason in here that we should, this is a immoral war. This is nonsense. This is bullshit. And he, Then we mine Haiphong Harbor. So we take our sea mines and use them as an offensive weapon.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I remember, I can't remember if I was there when they, you know, at what point, but we were sitting around and he said, I'm going to be leaving my job. I can't do this.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, it really gave me the sense of... Commit to the things that you care about. All of this stuff, I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna go to Canada, I'm gonna do this. It was like in my own house was somebody who said, no, we're not doing this. I'm not doing it, I don't have to do it. And he goes and becomes, he works as an apprentice to a guy who does stained glass, so he does stained glass.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
for like three or four years. And then he would make these things for my friends. I'm going, you know, you're spending like four months building like the Victorian mirror. And you're charging him a hundred bucks? What the fuck's the matter with you? So I'm giving him the advice, I'll sell them. And he did that. And at the same time, he started to go to a...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
to the junior college where you could go for, you know, as a senior, you'd go there and he took free classes. And he took art classes for 20 years. And the great part of the story there was that he... They did an exhibition about three or four years after he'd been painting there. And they did an exhibition of the students and put them up in some sort of a museum that they had at the school.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And somebody broke in and took two paintings, my father's paintings. Stolen. They stole my father's paintings. I said, does that make you feel better? He goes, no. He said, finally, a criminal with taste.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I was writing, I was performing. It was everything.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
No, she was, it was in part, yeah, through me. You know, I mean, I got her out there. I would quote her. I would, you know, gave her her due.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
The state of the world, the newscast, the news itself, whatever was, you know, we sat there with, you know, it's that stupid joke. You know, I thought that Walter Cronkite was a part of the family. I mean, it was... Night after night.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It's worse now somehow than it was 70 years ago. Well, because I said people go, you know, people will heckle me from time to time. I go, you're acting. like I have any effect on anything, you idiots. I said, the bottom line is I broke into this business and was doing standup for the past 40 years and guess what? Nothing, not only has nothing changed, it's gotten worse.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It's gotten all of this input that I've had, that you think I've had this extraordinary effect and changed things in my direction. No, no, it's just gotten worse.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I kind of couldn't. My mother... My mother's effect on me was sarcasm. I mean, I really picked up, you know, and a sense of humor. She had a great sense of humor. At times, though, her sense of humor is so dark. She went across so many lines. But my father had a real good sense of the soft and the gentle. I learned from her how to use your words as a knife, and from my father,
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I learned that you don't stab someone with a knife. And that's really what, because my father's the one who said, and his effect on me was he said, he was reading Catch-22. I couldn't have been more than 14. And he was laughing. And you don't really normally see your father laugh. And I said, what is it? He goes, this book, it's really, it's very funny. I said, should I read it?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
He said, yeah, it'll tell you everything you need to know about working in the real world. And it was huge. It had a huge effect on me. All of a sudden, I kind of, I went, oh, this is why high school is like.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, I tried. And also, it's because the, I, I, uh, There's one thing about being angry, which I will at times flip out on stage and then have to tell the audience I think I've gone too far. But 95% of the time, I'm acting it. It's the only way you can do it. You have to act it. They have to have this sense of, that you're in part kidding. That you mean it, but you're kidding.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I was working my way up the ladder of theater. And theater, I started to notice more and more, was like an abusive orphanage.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Because I used to, it took me a long time to learn to yell on stage. I just thought this is, you can't yell at people. And I would be on stage, especially in the small club in New York City that we worked, where I was working. I would turn around when I was going to yell something. I'd turn my back to the audience and yell at the wall.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, it was... You know, for them, there was a real bond. I mean, those two really had that kind of real love thing. I mean, they were very much in love. I mean, it was, you know, and not, you know, not syrupy, not just a, you know, like, you know, my father comes home and says he's going to leave his job and my mother doesn't panic. whatever you want to do.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
uh where you would go in and you should be treated awfully and uh it was like uh you know i mean you'd send a play in and then you'd send the play and then they'd oh we didn't you you wouldn't hear for a year you poured your life into the fulfillment of writing in lonely spaces yeah you give it to the world and then there's no applause yeah it takes a year and as i used to say it
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
She, I think, I mean, as I grew older, I began to realize that she had been kind of, she would have preferred, I asked her, she's 60, we were having, I was 60, we were having lunch in Vegas, and I said, I never asked the question, I said, which of you wanted kids? And my mother goes, pointing at my father, he did. She said, because if it was up to me, I wouldn't have had children.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I was like, well, I'm glad you waited until I was 60.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And she never got over that, I don't think. I mean, I think that was her frustration.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah. And gave it up more so in some ways for the kids in the neighborhood because I've just- As we've grown older, friends of mine have said, you know, your mother saved my life. Your mother did things for me that were hugely important. Your mother, in a sense, was a surrogate mother. I mean, there were three or four good friends of mine who never... I knew that they...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
They really appreciated my mom. I didn't know her effect on them. She didn't have that with us. I mean, I think that in part it was kind of like, okay, I'll show you. I don't know where it came from, but it made me happy that, you know, I knew she had that instinct.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I mean, I think she wanted to be something in the doctor realm. I mean, or, you know, something within that. And could have done it, sounds like. And probably would have done it if not for the interference of you guys. Yeah, and was enraged that she had a...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
She had what would have been by the end of it, she graduated, she went, got into college at 15, you know, and so by the time she was 21, she had started to amass master's credits, which she then at some point announced to us as she was going through something where she was going, you know, son of a bitch, I had enough credits, this should have been, if I had these credits now, it would be a doctorate.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
First thing was, I thought... And I've heard of other people where I thought being in that household and your mother's yelling not only at this but at you about stuff. And the decibel level in the house was high. My father was very quiet. She's like yelling away. And so in one of the first relationships I had, I'm yelling.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I still even now, I'll be yelling at somebody and they go, God, you're yelling at me. No, I'm not yelling. You don't even know what yelling is. This is what, and I didn't, because I thought, I said, you know, what I always thought was because I was yelled at all the time, that yelling was love. That's so interesting.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
That you trust somebody enough that you can yell at them and they're going to – That's love and communication because that's what you had patterned for you in your home.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
about it, you'd be better off as a playwright, I'm talking to you playwrights out there now, that if you took the play, put it in a bottle, and threw the bottle into a large body of water, that someone would pick that bottle up faster and to pull the play out and read it. It would all occur quicker than it ever did in any theater that I've ever seen.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, and a path to happiness for me because it was something that – that gave me great satisfaction. And over time, I began to realize that because I couldn't...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It just – I was traveling so much and finally had a chance to really do – I had a creative place where I could – now I could write a book and now I could act in something and people were coming to me to do certain things and all of that. So all of a sudden this career that just exploded and that I could –
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
really enjoy it and realize that I would be hard-pressed to share that with someone, and especially hard-pressed to share it with a child, that it would be about, because I felt It was about me.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It didn't feel like warm love, but I didn't realize until I was kind of in one of the last specials I did where I'm kind of standing in front of the audience and I kind of went, you know, I... You've been my primary relationship. I come on stage. It's more than just the the the the laughter and all of that. I mean, people talk about that.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I mean, and when it's rolling, it is really quite something and really is an endorphin high.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And then at times, because I don't, I'm writing on stage, there have been times that I'm kind of doing, kind of figuring out something in my head and talking to them and then they respond and that gets me to another level and then they respond again. And then it's like this really weird kind of like, I don't know where I begin and they, where I end and they begin or where they end and I begin.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I'm going to have to cut a deal.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It seems like joy. And I was making up for time, because I'll tell you, if I hadn't left, And because of general circumstances, what was happening in the club and also that I was kind of moving into doing stand-up, that I was as happy in that club making literally what would be $500 a week as I've ever been with the success that I've had. It's just.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
No, but the reason I did it was down in that basement we had a remarkable community. So somebody, you'd work with somebody like, let's say, for example, like an Alan Paul who brought us, he shows up with this whole group of kind of a sketch comedy group is where he starts. And so you're watching his writing, but you're also, I get 12 other actors coming in with them.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And then they show up with stuff. And you start to watch all these people kind of expressing themselves. There was a real joy of being able to be the, guy with two of my close friends be the guy who says, you know, here's the space, use it. And then sit at the back and go, that's really good.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Wow. That's really... That's like, I need to think about that for a week. That's a really good question. And I hate to say that, because people say that all the fucking time now.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, you waited and waited and then you had to work with people, which was great. I mean, all of it was really what I wanted to do and really kept thinking I was going to do it. And I was doing it until I was 40 and that was the turning point. I'd gotten to AAA Ball, which is like a, you know, a repertory theater that's in the community that's really...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
So it wasn't just the fact that she irritated you and you snapped.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, there was – I mean it was a spectrum between my father who – my father was like Buddha. I mean we – some of my friends said it's like he must be watching a dirty movie all day. But not because he's been beaten down by an angry woman, right? No. No. He came to the table with it. And I think that kept her calm and kept her kind of focused. Good teammates.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
All you saw was actually good teammates. Yes. And in a boot, she was coming to my school teaching. She was a substitute teacher. So now she's wandering around and people are coming up and going, you won't believe what your mother said in the class today. So she's like getting rave reviews as a comic, the stuff that was coming out of her mouth.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
No, different. I feel them more as – I don't really – I never felt them – they were there for so long. It was almost really another land. You know, in my act, I now say, you know, it's the equivalent of, you know, to get a sense of what it's like to have a parent live that long and how come maybe I don't feel it. I shouldn't have been having an argument with my mother.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
well-known, so this one was in Houston, and it's the Alley Theater, and I've been there forever. And I thought, you know, I've made it. You know, I finally made it, and that's the step I wanted. If I could get there and have my plays done at those types of theaters, great.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
when i was 70 years old okay because i mean i would say remember the time time can we drop the act okay you know where i'm already he's a hundred years old she's a hundred years old and still treating you like a child exactly you why aren't you retiring what is the matter with you you keep working it's even toward the you know as as she was kind of drifting you know into the like
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
At 102, she's screaming at me about this. I'm going, what are you? I don't need to argue with you about this. And we had literally had an argument about when I should take Social Security. I'm going, this is not sane. There's nothing sane about me discussing when I take Social Security.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
What I'm saying is I'm not touring anymore, which means I'm not doing getting on the bus and roaming from village to Dell, as I like to call it. I'm not doing that anymore.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, partly that. And there's other stuff. When you asked part of the answer to that question about art, what attracts me, the art or my relationship to the audience? Part of what it is is that I feel like That relationship, I've reached the conclusion of that relationship with my audience. I mean, in terms of week after week after week.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And so that I have freed up time so that I can go back to just the art. Just sitting in a room and writing another book or writing a play. Where touring is, is that it used to be because I was kind of one of the few people doing it. back then, it was like George Carlin and that, you know, and then they asked me, do you want to tour theaters?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I was... Then I could maybe get some teaching work and all of this stuff, and so I go there to do this, and it was... Everything they kind of told me was a lie, and it was just this horrible experience, and I went... I've kind of aspired. Now I'm finally getting to where I wanted to get. And, uh, it was awful.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I went, yeah, this is like my whole life now, everything is coming together, I could be in a theater. So, you know, that was huge for me. And... I don't care how I get to the theater, I'll get to the theater however I get to the theater.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Right, it was really, so they gave me that opportunity to work in theaters, and I thought that was really... That really has always been a pleasure. But it's the mechanics of it. It's the going. It used to be we would pick, we're going to go to these three cities. But now we're finding that a lot of this past tour was as it would be. You'd go where we would go. Like that...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
running up and down was not gonna be bad, that's easy. But we find ourselves doing, we're going, start in Fort Lauderdale, go back up to.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
They are huge, it's much more problematic than it was. And then going into towns where, I did it because part of the reason that I loved doing it was I got to see America.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, that's the dream. It was. It certainly was a dream. And it really was huge. And it was why the bus and why I kept going. And I can go to Bismarck. I can go to Boise. Are you kidding me? I could go. I went through Canada three times.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah. I had those. I still have it. You know, I still, you know, I've had it. constantly, you know, when I, you know, Inside Out 2 became, that I did, became a blockbuster. I mean, it's like, I mean, come on. That is not, that was not even in the cards, okay? And that was like a complete and utter, this is crazy. You were the voice of anger. Yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, and have kids love my character. which really made me happy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, it's true. It's making that, it is. And that comes, I hope, from something I think is important with any comic that I like is humility. that there has to be a certain humility when you're up there. I mean, you're acting like you're in charge of everything, but you're also, you can't be, you've gotta be humble about it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And, uh, I was supposed to stay on and work with people that, uh, that worked with them on the play. And they said, I said, well, you know, you're going to put me up and I was broke. Okay. So now I'm like, we had to actually take money. My friend, it was a musical that we wrote and, um, and I had to
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
As I said, if I was like that all the time, I'd have been dead by the time I was 40. I mean, I'm not like that all the time. I'm... But it will start. I will pick up a paper. My comedy begins with anger. I'm funniest when I'm angry. That was the tip. That was when I figured it out. I went, oh. That's your muse. Yeah. Turning around and yelling at the wall didn't help.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
That people, I am funniest because I'm stumbling around looking for words. I'm like, I am, as kids would say, you know, you're like my father, only you're funny. I've got that ability to express that kind of.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, but I don't... That's really... I've literally... put on my sport coat and a nice shirt, and now I wear jeans and walk out on the stage. And that 50 feet from the time I make that cross, I've become...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And what's weird is, and this is the, what happens is, is once it's over, when they're applauding me, all of that drops, and it's like very, there's that strange moment of like, the fuck is, what's the big deal? You know, I didn't, I don't deserve this. He deserved it, but he's, he left now. He said goodnight. The show ended and now I've got to do the applause thing.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
But I really does, I just, it goes away.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
In order for us to get another actor, because we wanted a number of actors from New York, and they did not hire the amount of actors from New York that we requested. So I had to take money out of my salary. He did, too, in order to pay another actor.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
That's why it takes... The hardest thing is you get the person who you sit with. I mean, the guys you work with, they're guys who are extremely funny that you work with. People go, you know, you should really do comedy. And there's a big difference between the guy sitting here, and I've said it before,
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
a number of times when I teach a bit of like about standup is that 10 feet to getting on the stage. You're funny here, but can you do it 10 feet and you're on stage?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It's brutal. And that's what makes it difficult for many people to... to do that 10 foot walk. Cause it's just, by the time they get there, go with what, what the fuck they paid for you to make them laugh.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah. But finding that, uh, That costume, using that word, finding that persona is the roughest part, I think. There's some comics who are really... I have that instinctually. They just have it from the get-go. They may not understand yet why they're funny, but they are. It's part of their toolkit, and they've got it already. That's like 2% of the comics I've ever met. I did a lot of open mind.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I've been in lineups with comics and kind of gone, wow, this person is really going to be good if and when. Watching Jim Gaffigan.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
grow as a comic was was great because it was like uh i you know all of a sudden you know he'd been rolling along he was doing well and then he found that little voice that comments on what he's doing and i went and i and i i went wow he really that's a huge breakthrough because it's finding those things it's finding out how to go out uh out there with uh
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
maintaining the armor and not showing the armor and being and trusting a lot of the times what is the most personal to you is the thing that makes you the funniest. And so to say, oh, I'm going to show this. I'm going to show my anger. God, they're going to love this is crazy because it's it's what if they don't like it, then they don't like me.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Oh, yeah. I mean I had – I was making enough money that I was fine day to day, everything fine, moving along. But no health insurance, no nothing, ridiculous. It was like crazy. But I ran a space in New York City from 30 to – about 30 to 38, 40 that was – A theater that, you know, a ton of people worked at. Everybody worked at it. It was a small downstairs theater, which was like, had a bar in it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, it was the first time was, A comic that I named Dan Ballard worked out of Michigan and it came into the club I ran. When I first started Doing stand-up more regularly was on Saturday night, we'd have a free show, I'd host it. Hosting allowed that kind of freedom you have. What hosting allows is that there's no expectation you're going to be really funny.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
So I grew from that into being funny. And then he came up one night and he was just visiting. I hadn't seen him in a while. And he said, and he'd been performing. And he goes, when you go back on stage, I want you to yell everything. Just yell it. He said, you're angry. And you have reasons to be angry and you're on stage, you should be yelling about it. He said, I'm yelling all the time on stage.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Nothing that I say, everything I say is goofy. I shouldn't be up there yelling. You need to go up there and yell. Just go do it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I'd been doing it off and on since I was 21, but not committed. Do it, forget about it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, what happens there, to finish the, what happens when I go on stage in Yale is I went, Oh, wow. This is it. That obvious. I was like, what? And it was like, how did it take this long? But I see it in everybody else that I've watched and really whose work I've thought is terrific. You know, you watch them grow and I kind of went, wow, that's the door. And then everything was about modulating.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Everything was about how do I use this? How do I use what I've got here? How do I use this thing that is funny and that I know makes me funny? How do I do it? And then apparently for a while I had no idea. I'd come on stage full bore yelling and then get louder. I mean, I was crazy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
My friend Kathleen Madigan, who's one of my favorite comics on earth and we've been close for a long time, she and I met on the road and she said it was, you know, after years she said, you know, when I first was watching you on stage, all I thought was, He can't possibly make it. I don't know how he's doing it. They're not laughing for seven minutes. They are scared to death of you.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And she said, but I was afraid to tell you that because then after seven minutes, you finally broke them. And then they started laughing. And I didn't notice it at all, at all. I didn't know that people come up and go, how'd you learn that thing? I didn't even know that I did the fingers.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
What is that? In sane cultures, it's called schizophrenia.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, and then also that you're doing, you're going up there. I mean, 60% of what I do on any given night I've done before. I'm working on whatever my special is going to be. So it's like 50% or 60% is...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Right, and that's exactly it. And that 60%, what I found was that I was really able to put this... The one thing where your acting chops come in, and you see it with Seinfeld, but every comic does this, every great actor, that it's really literally, I'm doing, especially actors on Broadway, I mean, I'm doing this for the first time. You're the first people hearing this.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
That was kind of the way we supported it. Had it was in a restaurant. The guy is a very close friend of mine and he's become it over time. We went downstairs and just started doing shows. And then people like Aaron Sorkin showed up because there was nowhere to get anything done when we were there. This was the 80s into the 90s. Nowhere.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
It's gotta be sound, it can't sound rote. It can't sound like you've said this a thousand times. It has to sound completely fresh.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
But Bruce, Bruce was really big.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, and also the level of his work was... I mean, you can see how it really affected George and his work because George went down. I think George was there one of the nights that Lenny was busted and went with him to the police station. And Lenny kept going, what the fuck's the matter with you? You don't need to be here. But Lenny really did that.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
There's a thing called, if anybody really, if you like comedy, there's a thing called the Carnegie Hall album, which is a double album that he did. A Bible of sorts, a manuscript of scripture of sorts. It is for me. And I kind of kept pushing it away because I knew if I really...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
until i trusted whatever was and this is way early i'm like in my 20s my early 20s and i was doing stand-up just because it was i was fascinated by it i and i didn't really want it i wasn't going to do it for a living at all so i always kind of did it to to kind of see you know to get some writing out there and just to see how it worked i was just looking at the mechanics of it
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I thought, if I listen to Lenny Bruce, I'm just going to imitate him. So I waited to the point where I felt I'm figuring out, but I mean rudimentary. And I listened to the Carnegie Hall thing, and that's just mind-boggling. I read the books that he wrote and listened to the other albums. All the other albums are just clips of his work. This thing is...
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Oh, yeah. No, it's spectacular, you know, that he that he comes in there, that he shocked him from the beginning to the end. And he had a and something that I've always been attracted to. I don't write my act. So I basically work it out on stage. You vent it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, and then just to tell a story. Sometimes it's not angry. It's just you won't believe what just happened to me. All of my specials... I've always kind of done in the hopes that I was telling a story through it. Even if somebody didn't even under, if somebody didn't understand the through line, they, they, they essentially got it gut wise.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And so I've always been, but it's that writing on stage and having an audience that, and that's, I think in part that, that my relationship with the audience was so important because they're the ones who told me what was funny. They're the ones who kind of were guidance.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
So people, very talented people, Edie Falco, Aaron Sorkin, Alan Ball, who wrote True Blood, wrote that, a number of other successful pieces. We had all these people coming in. And doing really great work.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, and that he allowed people to, he gave me the opportunity to be seen, which I wasn't being seen.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, first off, ladies and gentlemen, and this is an important lesson that I must, the five-year plan is bullshit. Okay? Anybody says to you, what's your five-year plan? You take a shit on their desk.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Wasn't it? I mean, yes, but that's okay. It's not extreme. Can we not say that?
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
But it's nuts. So that's where I was. I had a five-year plan. before the pandemic hit. I was gonna do two more specials. I was gonna continue to tour and about four to five years from the time the pandemic hit, I would be done and that would be it and I would do a wrap up and I wanted to do the last. I thought I had two more specials in me and the pandemic blew me out of the water.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
The pandemic was brutal for me. Because of how alone the alone was? Yeah. The alone was... It was not only that. It was... I was 12 weeks alone and I learned that there's a reason that we put people in solitary confinement, because it drove me crazy.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Because your brain will only play with you for like, brain gets really excited for like a day and goes, this is gonna be great, we're gonna have so much fun. All the things we can do, this will be the best thing that ever happened. Two days later, my brain is completely fed up and it's gone through everything 60 times and now it comes after you.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
You blew this, you fucked up that, you completely screwed this up. Why didn't you have children? I've had this discussion with myself already, and I'm kind of going, I don't need to discuss this again.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I know. And it was the worst period I've ever experienced. I'd never experienced anxiety, never experienced depression. And now it was just fueling all the time. And where I really learned This was an amazing moment in terms of the last five years of comedy that I've done. I did a thing on stage where I talked about how I flipped out during the pandemic.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I started after we had a kind of an all clear signal, I went out and I started talking to the audience. So I thought as a placeholder, what I'll do is talk about how I reacted to the pandemic. I don't care what your choices were. These are my choices, which made some of the audience angry because you're not supposed to. It's like, this is me, you schmucks. Not you.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I'm not telling you to do this. So I'm out there on stage and I'm kind of going through it and I'm realizing they're really laughing at this stuff. I mean, obviously, everybody went through this in one way or another.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And then I get to this point that I thought, and the first night I did it, it was about how I destroyed, I went through, then you had this relationship, you destroyed that, and you fucked this up, and I do a litany of how I screwed up all the relationships in my life, and what a piece of shit I am, and I just bombard myself for a minute. I just take direct action, direct anger at myself,
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And I finish, and I think, in my brain I'm going, well, we're going to have to cut this. And the audience is screaming with laughter. And I thought, wow. Wow, I really thought it was just me. I mean, everybody gets this.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And they went nuts. And I thought, good God. And I realized then that- We're all going crazy. And this is something I continue to tell the audience. We haven't come out of it yet.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Oh thanks, it was really a pleasure.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Or he opened a spiritual door for you? He literally, as far as I'm concerned, this will sound, unless you've kind of gone through it, I'm minorly psychotic, but there were doors that were not opening. And I had agents. I had all of the things kind of in place that would say, you know, even as a playwright or as an actor, I'd started to do, you know, little bits and pieces in performance.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And my brother passed away and I was just kind of got my foot into comedy. I mean, I was starting to... I had left theater and was starting to become... I was committing myself to being a comedian. And my brother passed away then. And I... I found that like I couldn't all of a sudden like I got a one man show in New York City. That came along.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
These doors just started literally like bam, bam, bam, bam. And between whatever my attitude was, and I really believe it was him, he was pushing people around and going, come on, let him do it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
We were really close. And he had been really supportive of my career. Huge. I mean, I couldn't have survived without him.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, it changed the way I looked at things. That in part and... I wrote a book, it's me of little faith, in which I kind of went through all of the experiences that I'd had in terms of religion. So I've always kind of, in spirituality, I've always kind of had that kind of thing.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
That's the deal. I believe. I mean, I think, uh, I think because the cynic in me doesn't want to accept it.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah. Well, it's, it's, I, it seems syrupy, but it's also like, uh, uh, It can't be unfelt.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, because there's nothing, you know, we don't, there's no kind of, it's like the, we have a, I believe that the sense of humor is a muscle, okay? It's a muscle that we don't work on the way we work on all our other muscles, and it's a, No one really teaches humor in school.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
In the same way, in terms of whatever that, you know, there's religion, you read the prayers, you read this, you read that. There's no one really opening that door for you. There's no one kind of going, you know, this might happen. You know, you kind of hear about it and 60 or 70% of what comes out from people around is like, what? The dog spoke to you, no. And it sounded like no.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah. But that's what we're generally exposed to. And then when it actually – because I felt – I mean, I don't talk about this much. When my brother passed away, I was at home. I had just saw him. Left, went home. He had passed away. I went back on the subway. I wanted to be there. And the doctor had said, no, it's an hour he's passed or so. they had said to try to resuscitate him.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
So I'm sitting there trying to resuscitate my brother, and knowing it's, I'll do it, but this is.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And then the thought that stopped me was I went, if I wake him up, if I bring him back, he's gonna be so pissed. And that's really what I, and I felt him in the room. And that followed, that has, now this is, Almost 30 years ago he passed, so it's about 30. And I've kind of lost that sense with him, that feeling of him being there.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
In part, I think, because he kind of went, okay, we did it, I'm done.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Well, close to that, but 200, yeah.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, there was that. And then there was also the sense of like a blanket. Like he was... He kind of enveloped me in the sense that you talked about. I could feel him... Beside me. and that it gave me a sense of, and I had not had that sense before of, I mean, I've thought about the fact that, you know, is there someplace that we go? And that was the first thing.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
That's my feeling. I'm not going to argue it. I wouldn't argue it with you. I mean, I think if you feel it, you feel it. I mean, you and I are two people that no one would expect to feel.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I think in part, I mean, where I can trace it to is my mother passing away. And this is what I thought immediately is now that she's there, she's chasing him around.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
I don't know what the number is, but all the other numbers were kind of around the right place.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
Yeah, no, that was... really a completely it's not you know were you this were you that i was uh uh and especially uh in terms of the playwriting uh it was interesting my mother had my mother was uh if you're not going to be look i know you're not going to be a doctor here's what the next best thing this and this is uh before I'm going to grad school in terms of theater.
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
South Beach Sessions - Lewis Black
And my mother says, you're not going to do, you're not going to be a doctor. So the best thing, the next best thing is, you know, you should run, get into health insurance. That's where the big money's going to come. And I went, what? I'm not going to do that. Oh, yeah, no, do that. That'll be a really... And so that's where she was coming from. My father... Safer? Oh, yes, much safer.