Lewis Black has always been one of my favourite “Daily Show” regulars. I love his delivery, jokes, and his silly anger. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a stand up bit from him, but I must say I wasn’t let down.
It starts out a bit slow, but by the end he is geared up and going strong.
I have to say I think this is right up there with Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill show.
Lewis Black has been my favorite comedian ever since I caught him on a standup show about 8 years ago. I can’t listen to his comedy album while driving because I really just laugh myself silly every time. A friend of my ex’s and I used to drive the ex craaaazy with Lewis Black quotes (really, they drop into everyday life so easily).
Tell me he did the “If it weren’t for my horse” bit.
I thought it was painfully unfunny. I don’t think spending an hour just yelling FUCK really loudly and acting all pissed off (about really stupid things, I might add) constitutes “comedy.” Boooo.
He lost the hubby and me with the slow beginning. His commentaries on the Daily Show are hit-or-miss, but we thought we’d give it a shot. About every third thing he said was actually amusing. Unfunny things delivered in an angry voice do not automatically become funny. We had other things on the ReplayTV to watch, so we bailed. Maybe we should have stuck with it.
I don’t have HBO, so I didn’t get a chance to watch it. However, I’m a fan of Lew’s, so I probably would’ve enjoyed it.
That said, I think The White Album and Rules of Enragement are far better than The End of the Universe.
WA and RoE are angry comedy at its best, I think. Nothing is gratuitous, and all the anger and swearing are perfectly appropriate for the character and situation. EotU, on the other hand, seems to be a lot of swearing and yelling for the sake of swearing and yelling.
“A lot of people don’t what to do when they go to Vegas- here’s what you do. Go to the casino in your hotel and get a hundred bucks in quarters. The you go up to your room and lock the door. You sit on the bed and you look at those quarters for a long time. Why? Cause you’re never gonna see 'em again. Then you go to the bathroom and you flush em all, one, by one, by one. And the nice thing about that is every so often the toilet will back up and you’ll feel like a winnner!”
Have to agree with Ooner and Podkayne. All the guy does is yell. I’ve never seen him make any original point or even tell any story in a clever manner. He just yells about stupid stuff. Mostly, I just stare blankly at the screen if I see him on The Daily Show.
A friend of mine thinks Black’s the king of comedy, but he also thinks Chris Farley is one of the funniest men to ever walk the earth. So there you go.
I thought his show was hilarious and thought-provoking. The bit about bottled water made me laugh and think “Wait a minute…” I like his take on the WMDs: “Why did the government stop lying to us?” I don’t know how Lewis Black does it but the way he said that we are snowflakes STILL has me giggling.