Atlantic City Weekly

Black returns to Borgata this weekend.

Better late than never applies to Lewis Black. The actor-comic is a perfect example of an entertainer, who has started to enjoy mainstream success approaching his golden years.

Black, 61, is making his mark as a clever, provocative comic at a time when most are considering retirement. “There’s no need to stop now,” Black says, “I’m just getting going.”

Fortunately for Black stand-up comics crack wise throughout their octogenarian years. “There’s no heavy lifting involved,” Black tells Atlantic City Weekly. “So why not keep going? There are a lot of comics considerably older than me that are still out there.”

Don Rickles, Bob Newhart and Jackie Mason are examples of comics well into their senior years that still go out and perform.

“All that matters is if you have something to say,” Black says. “I think I still have something to say.”

The cerebral Black, who will perform Friday and Saturday at the Borgata, remains a passionate, intense performer. Odds are that Black would have been a better-known commodity earlier in his career if he devoted more time to stand-up. Black started out in theater and wrote 40 plays.

But Black came of vogue during the right time: the Bill Clinton-George W. Bush eras.

“I was never hurting for material during their presidencies,” Black says. “Those guys were outrageous. The jokes wrote themselves.”

The Obama presidency makes it a bit more challenging for Black. “It’s just that the Bush administration was much easier fodder than what we have now,” Black says. “But anyone who is President is going to get hit. That comes with the job.”

Watch a video clip of Lewis Black's stand-up.

Black is a comic but he is also a social engineer, who has a point. “I love talking about things that matter,” Black says. “I just don’t want to go up there and talk about nothing. What I do has to be about something.”

That’s not surprising since Black comes from The Daily Show, which is filled with erudite humorists.

“I can’t thank The Daily Show enough for giving me a platform,” Black says. “It helped me a great deal. You don’t expect that kind of success unless you’re an egomaniac. I always enjoyed doing clubs most nights out of the week across the country, but The Daily Show lifted me out of that. I’m selling out theaters. I’m very lucky. A lot of great stand-ups never get their due.”

Some comics only pay their dues and fail to ever score fame. And then there are those reminiscent of Black, who found the limelight at middle age, such as Rodney Dangerfield and Redd Foxx.

“It’s great to connect with people later than not at all,” Black says. “I have a great career and I have my health.”

Which brings Black to the hot-button topic that is healthcare.

“You hope we can find a solution for this because it’s getting ridiculous,” Black says. “Health care is so bad here that people are flying out of America for surgery. Who would have ever thought that you would fly out of here to New Dehli for gallbladder surgery? We have to catch up with other countries. It’s incredible where America is right now. But it was worse under Bush. Now we’re trying to recover.”

Black can’t help but note what a daunting task Obama faces as Commander-in-Chief of a country trying to rebound from a difficult past few years. “It’s not an easy job,” Black says. “He has so much to worry about. Being President of this country is incredibly hard. Where does he even start when it comes to the problems in this country? How about America’s infrastructure? The infrastructure of this country sucks. Do you want to worry about being attacked by the bridge you drive over every day? The level of greed [in America] is ridiculous. At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if God said, ‘That’s it’ and opened up the skies and fireballed people. I would get it.”

Black also gets plenty of ideas, which he cultivates during each performance. “When something pops into my head, I get onstage and talk about it,” Black says. “I work it out from there. Then I think about it some more and talk about it some more until it starts to take shape and then I have something. The way I do things is that I never write anything down. I write things down onstage.”

Expect Black’s schedule to remain as busy as ever. “I’m very fortunate that way,” Black says. “I’m always working. I’m not someone who is waiting for a sit-com to happen. I’ve had a show on Comedy Central (the hilarious, but underheralded Root of All Evil), I’ve written books (Me of Little Faith) and then there is always stand-up. That’s something I enjoy as much now as I did when nobody was coming out to see me. That’s something I’ll always have when there is no television show for me or book deals. I’ll be able to go up onstage and, fortunately, I have an audience that wants to come out and see me. That’s all I need.”

Lewis Black
Where: The Borgata
When: Fri. & Sat., Feb. 5 & 6, 9pm
How Much: $75