One of my favorite comedians is Lewis Black, who spends much of the year criss-crossing the nation with his monologues…which come with a little bonus. Black has an opening act and then he comes out and does the kind of set you'd expect from a performer of his stature. And then, he does a little segment called The Rant is Due which is 15-30 minutes of him reading questions and comments from the audience and responding to them. This segment is webcast each night. You can watch it live if you know when to tune in on your computer or you can watch it later if you know where to find it on the web.
In the past, the place to find them live or archived was Black's website but just, like a day or two ago, his company began streaming them on YouTube, which means I can embed them here on my site. This is the show from last night when Mr. Black and his opener — currently, Jeff Stilson — were in Charlottesville, VA. That's Stilson you'll see introducing Lewis on this, the 415th of these Black has done. I've managed to catch at least half of them and even be in the audience for two or three.
This one runs 23 minutes and the video starts after about 40 seconds of dead air through which you can fast-forward. It's not his best and not his worst but even the weak ones are interesting to me at a time when so much comedy we see on TV is tightly scripted and edited. This is just Lewis Black working without a script and without a safety net…
