Lewis Black – Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues

Lewis Black Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues
Comedy Central Records
2005
Parental Advisory (duh!)

Taped June 18, 2004 at the, you guessed it Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center, this is yet another solid Lewis Black comedy CD.

It contains the same kind of dark, edgy, adult oriented humor featured on previous CDs like Rules Of Enragement, The End of the Universe, and the eponymous The White Album. Here again, Black takes on some of society’s sacred cows (no, this is not a reference to Janet Jackson) and moments of temporary insanity and skewers them with his usual sharp and very funny wit.

Of course, the Bush administration, Michael Jackson, and Arnold Schwarzenegger also take hits though perhaps the best are the shots taken at the Ronald Reagan funeral marathon.

Although the media event and circus about the on-existent Janet Jackson breast is already a year old and a bit dated material wise, Black manages to do 8 tracks, basically half the CD, and roughly thirty minutes on everything breast related including the Super Bowl, nipple clamps, Justin Timberlake, and somehow manages to segue in and out of gay marriage and a few other things in the middle of all that.

This is definitely a seasoned stand-up comic at his very best writing and humour wise.

The last half of this Lewis Black CD is Black doing what he is also excellent at, societal and political humor. His take on the debate of one nation under god, Governor Schwarzenegger, and the whole voting fiasco rearing up its ugly head again (this was recorded in 2004) is in his usual cynical humanist calls them like he sees them approach.

The most satirical bit is the last and longest cut, Iraq, An Idiots Delight. The only unfortunate moment on this stand-up comedy CD is when he apologizes in advance for taking on the Bush administration.

Seriously, what kind of society have we arrived at when a great comic like Lewis Black has to pull his punch even before he delivers is for fear of another so-called liberal media attack by the right wing nuts? This does take something away from this comic’s credibility.

By the way, if you like Lewis Black, you will probably enjoy indie and much more adult comic Don Tjernagel

Track List:

Superbowl Redux
MTV
Halftime ‘04
What Sex . . . Are They?
Gay Marriage
Justin and Janet
America Loses Its Mind
Nipple Clamps
One Nation Under God
Michael Jackson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan
Voting (A Flashback)
Iraq, An Idiots Delight

 

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