Lewis Black is one of my three-or-so favorite comedians working these days. He has just gone back out on tour (the whole schedule is here) which is great news if you can get to see him but it's also great news if you can't.
When Mr. Black does a show, he performs for the live audience and then he does a special 15-25 minute mini-show which streams live on the web. It's called The Rant is Due and it's all improvised fresh every time he does it, mostly answering questions submitted by his fans. It's not easy to watch it live but each episode is posted for a while on this webpage for free viewing. They usually have the last three or four up there. As I'm writing this, they have up the one he did last night in Keene, New Hampshire and the one he did the night before in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Tonight, he's in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and the online show will commence 90-120 minutes after the show starts, which tonight is 7 PM East Coast Time…so figure 8:30-9 PM. Black travels with a fine opening act comedian, John Bowman, who also serves as announcer for The Rant is Due. If you miss it — and you probably will — it'll be online with the others a few hours after or maybe the next morning. And it'll be there for your viewing pleasure until it's displaced by future episodes.
If you're as much a fan of Lewis as I am (or even close), join his fan club. For twenty bucks, it gives you online access to hundreds of past installments of The Rant is Due, and if he comes close enough to you for you to go see him, members have access to great seats at lower prices. That alone can save way more than the cost of the fan club membership. At a time when some comics are in the clutches of managers who book them into buildings that are way too big for a stand-up act and who charge way more for seats and way more than that for the best seats, Lewis Black is a refreshing exception. And also a very funny, witty man.