People ask Lewis Black what he will make fun of now that George W. Bush is out of office.

But Black, a comic who made a living delivering satirical rants directed at the former president, doesn’t worry, because he’s already found a solution.

‘People think that just because George Bush is gone, stupidity has left the country – not true,’ Black said, setting up his trademark cowering delivery. ‘Because incase you haven’t noticed, our president (Obama) picked a secretary of the treasury who hadn’t paid his f***ing taxes! It never ends!’

Black put his unique brand of political and off-beat humor on display, intertwining his opinions and outlandish life experiences Wednesday in front of a sold-out Goldstein Auditorium. Black performed as part of an event co-sponsored by Hillel, The Intra-Fraternity Council, Pan Hel, Woo Hoo Comedy and Penguins Without Pants.

As the event drew closer, the line to enter Goldstein stretched beyond the E.S. Bird Library while the 1,500 estimated spectators waited to scan their tickets roughly 45 minutes before the show was slated to start. For students like Ashlie Dauber, the wait didn’t matter – it was a chance to see a big name and her favorite comic on campus.

‘Lewis Black is my favorite comedian, and I never thought I was going to get the chance to see him,’ Dauber, a freshman broadcast journalism major, said. ‘But when I found out they were going to bring him here I got really, really excited.’

Dauber, like others who came out to see Black, was anxious to hear the boisterous tirades the comedian performs on Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show’ and now his own program, ‘Root of All Evil.’

Black didn’t waste any time giving the crowd what they wanted.

The comedian called out everyone from former President Bush, ‘who made it clear to all voters to choose, anyone, literally anyone, else but him in the next election,’ to congressmen, whom he called the ‘creepiest f***ers on earth.’

The raunchy comedian even tried out some new humor about the current head of state.

‘This is a president that’s full of hope,’ Black said. ‘This is a president whose nipples are bursting with hope – you can say that he is lactating hope.’

Black’s up-front humor was well appreciated by his SU audience. ‘I just liked how blunt he was about everything, I mean, he really doesn’t care who he offends,’ Kyle Seifert, a sophomore computer engineering major, said. ‘The politics definitely were the funniest part.’

But what made Wednesday a true Black show were the series of hilarious and sometimes grotesque narratives which had the comedian talking about everything from his disdain of television personality Dr. Phil to the perverted and off-color nature of his 90-something-year-old father.

‘I really liked how he was just real,’ Michelle Choug, a junior television, radio and film major, said. ‘He just tells his philosophies and tells them to you straight.’

Black talked at length about the abstract concepts of age, marijuana legalization and the failing economy, while keeping the audience engaged with his unpredictable comedic timing.

But, the comedian did slow down for just a little while to address an issue formerly unknown to most in the audience. Although his appearances on stage and television have made him appear timeless, Black revealed that he had recently turned 60.

Despite the fact that he said he plans to live forever if given the opportunity, Black told the audience to make sure they cherished their time as twenty-somethings because, as he often warned, ‘getting old sucks.’

The comedian isn’t sure how he would like to die if he has to, but he addressed it in the dark and sarcastic way that packed the auditorium in the first place.

‘I’m hoping it’s reincarnation,’ Black said. ‘But what if we all come back as ticks? That would blow.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on March 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm