COMEDY Black humor heads to Broadway, HBO

The funnyman feels as though he has matured and mellowed.
By DOUGLAS J. ROWE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK -- Lewis Black is calm. Really.
After arriving at "The Daily Show" offices, he pours some coffee, quietly goes through his mail and, well, OK, grumbles a bit about being busy.
Soon, though, he's settled in the greenroom, looking relaxed and talking about his career.
It should never come as a surprise that a performer's persona is quite different from real life. But Black -- best known as the enraged comic commentator on Comedy Central's flagship show -- says what you see is what you really used to get.
The way he was
Even though he isn't quick to anger anymore, he says, "I used to be, which is part of the reason it took my career so long to roll around. Because I had no built-in editing thing. I would just snap."
In his family, "the more you yelled at somebody the more it meant you liked them."
So he never thought of high-decibel, mercurial communication as a bad thing. "If something really bothered me, I would yell."
Now he feels he's matured. "A little late," adds Black, 55. "But I've matured. I realize that just because I'm bored in a meeting with somebody who really has the power over my career, I don't really have to express that boredom ... or that I think they're stupid. Because I would do that."
Displaying more restraint with show-biz execs these days, Black has snagged one of the comedy world's brass rings: an HBO special.
In "Black on Broadway" at 8 tonight, he rails about such topics as confusing health guidelines, corporate corruption and, of course, politics.
Famous eruptions
Punctuating many of his jokes are the Vesuvian eruptions his fans like so much -- along with his trademark finger-jabbing with both hands that resembles stilettos attached to nunchakus coming at you.
"We have a two-party system: The Democratic Party, which is a party of NO ideas, and the Republican Party, which is a party of BAD ideas," he spews.
He zinged ex-President Clinton about as much President Bush, which once led the National Review Online to praise Black for "an intellectual honesty ... that elevates truth and common sense above ideology."
Black sounds pleased to avoid easy pigeonholing, and notes how he can wield an equal-opportunity skewer because he's read articles in the paper about congressional votes in which the Democrats have served as lemminglike enablers for the Republican president.
"They're the same group of idiots!" he says during an interview with The Associated Press.
"The Daily Show" anchor Jon Stewart says there's more to Black that just a fulminating fusillade.
"He's not just attitude. He writes jokes. He's crafted what he's done for years and years," Stewart told The Associated Press. Then, unable to resist a joke, he adds: "And, let's face facts, in a lot of the clubs there's a lot of drinking. Craftsmanship and alcohol. It's really a powerful combination."
Master's degree
When it's suggested that many people might be surprised to find out Black has a master's from Yale Drama School, Stewart says: "WHAT? He has a WHAT? From WHERE? ... Oh, I've got some apologizing to do."
Black was born in Silver Spring, Md. His mother was a substitute teacher and his father was a mechanical engineer who made sea mines, but retired when they became offensive weapons during the Vietnam War (then he started making stained glass).
After graduating from the University of North Carolina, Black went to Yale and concentrated on writing plays. He fondly remembers several salutary mentors there, but says some faculty members were abusive. "I got battered. But I didn't get so much battered as some of the other people."
And if that wasn't bad enough, he suffered through a yearlong bad marriage at the time -- bad enough to ensure that he's avoided walking down the aisle again.
He's written some 40 plays, one of which recently was produced in Los Angeles, and he hopes to touch up and stage another.