[close] George Carlin, Larry King and Jules Feiffer love Lewis Black. They love him because his insights and love/hate relationship with America are brilliantly expressed in his concerts and TV appearances worldwide. How can you not love a man who says, "Republicans are a party with bad ideas and Democrats are a party with no ideas." Will Rogers would have been proud.

Lewis is one of the most prolific and popular performers working today. He executes a brilliant trifecta as stand-up comedian, actor and author. Receiving critical acclaim, he performs over 200 nights a year to sold out audiences throughout Europe, New Zealand, Canada and The United States. He is one of few performers to sell out multiple, renowned theatres, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York City Center and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In August 2007, he was the first stand-up comedian to ever perform in concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.

Lewis’ live performances provide a cathartic release of anger and disillusionment for his audience. Lewis yells so they don’t have to. A passionate performer who is more pissed-off optimist than mean-spirited curmudgeon, he's perfected expressing what the rest of us cannot say in polite company. Lewis is the rare comic who can cause an audience to laugh themselves into incontinence while making compelling points about the absurdity of our world. It’s no wonder he’s been compared to Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, and Bill Hicks.

Lewis was born in Washington D.C. and raised in Silver Spring, MD. Colicky as a baby, it seems he was destined to be angry and easily irritated. His mother, a teacher, and his father, a mechanical engineer, instilled in both Lewis and his younger brother Ron the importance of education and the necessity to question authority; lessons which have influenced Lewis throughout his private and professional life. When Lewis was 12, his father took him to his first play and he quickly fell in love with the theatre. This ultimately led Lewis to pursue a career in drama. Degrees followed from the University of North Carolina and Yale Drama School, with a stint in Colorado owning a theatre with a group of friends in the interim. During his tenure at UNC, Lewis first ventured into stand-up, performing at Cat’s Cradle in Chapel Hill. Stand-up continued to be a steady presence as he pursued his career in theatre.

Lewis eventually settled in New York City and became the playwright-in-residence at the West Bank Café’s Downstairs Theatre Bar. Lewis oversaw the development of more than 1,000 plays, including works by West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, American Beauty writer Alan Ball as well as his own original works. In addition to overseeing the works on stage, Lewis emceed every show. As the West Bank grew, so did Lewis’ skill as a stand-up and eventually, the fulfillment of performing stand-up outweighed that of working in the theater. Having found his public voice, Lewis left the West Bank in the late 80’s to pursue stand-up full time.

In 1996, his friend Lizz Winstead tapped him to create a weekly segment for a show she was producing on Comedy Central called The Daily Show. The segment, a three minute rant about whatever was bothering him at the moment, evolved into Back in Black. It became one of the most popular and longest running segments on the show and also created a long and successful relationship with the network. Since then, Lewis has taped four specials for the Comedy Central Presents series, co-created Last Laugh with Lewis Black, presides over Lewis’ Black’s the Root of All Evil, and continues to perform Back in Black on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His popular appearances on Comedy Central helped to win him Best Male Stand-Up at the American Comedy Awards in 2001.

Increased exposure from The Daily Show eventually generated a record deal with Stand Up! Records. His first CD, The White Album, was released in 2000 to muc [close]