Lewis Black: Stark Raving Black

TV-MA 2009 | 80 mins | Comedy Stand-Up EPIX Originals

If you've only seen Lewis Black ranting breathlessly on The Daily Show, it's time to up your dosage. The Emmy-nominated comedian and  2011 Grammy Winner for Best Comedy Album spares no one in his assault on everything from the economy to the iPhone to Amy Grant. If it sounds a little dark, never fear - Black considers all that vitriol simply "pissed off optimism." Sort of like Bobby McFerrin, but angrier.

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    Top 10 Fun Facts


    1. Lewis Black is a fixture on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, with his recurring commentary segment "Back in Black." Because one man's AC/DC song is another man's spit-soaked diatribe.
    2. Egghead alert: Black graduated summa cum laude from his high school and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree at the Yale School of Drama. In the comedy world, he is considered Professor Emeritus of Rant-Related Oxygen Deprivation.
    3. Black appeared several times at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival as host of the World Stupidity Awards. Shockingly, your boss has never been nominated (unless your boss is David Hasselhoff).
    4. After lambasting the Weather Channel in his stand-up routine, Black dropped by the cable network in 2005 to offer his services as a celebrity weathercaster. The forecast? Partly cloudy with a chance of snark.
    5. Ever the wordsmith, Black has described his sense of humor as "being on the Titanic every single day and being the only person who knows what is going to happen." Dude! Spoiler alert!
    6. This is how you know you're a regular: Black has a beer named after him at The Top of the Hill Restaurant & Brewery in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. According to the menu, the Lewis Black Imperial Stout is "a high gravity, nitrogenated beer...with light espresso flavors and a strong finish." It's also "smooth and creamy" but we didn't want to make Lew blush.
    7. Even though he's Jewish, Black provided the voice of one of Santa's helpers in the animated holiday special The Happy Elf. Must be a Chrismukkah sort of thing.
    8. The holiday cheer doesn't stop there-Black entertained troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and several other countries as part of the USO's 2007 Holiday Tour. Also on the tour: Robin Williams, Lance Armstrong and Kid Rock. We hear that's where they got the idea for Wild Hogs.
    9. Who says comedy isn't dangerous? While onstage with Southern rock band Gov't Mule at the 2007 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Black was beaned in the head with a water bottle thrown by a heckler. Adding insult to injury: no one threw Scotch. Or ice.
    10. Black served as host and "judge" on his own Comedy Central series Lewis Black's The Root of All Evil. After two seasons of deliberation, it turns out the root of all evil is Cousin Oliver from The Brady Bunch. Who knew?