Rules Of Enragement, the 2003 Lewis Black stand-up comedy CD opens with three tracks on Minnesota and the weather. This may not sound like much but this is, after all, as told and seen through Lewis Black’s dark-colored reality glasses.
Rules Of Enragement is a slow progression in the things that set off this great stand-up comedian, and there are many, and climaxes brilliantly in a caustic and dead on take on the Bush administration and the war in Iraq.
The next three tracks on Rules Of Enragement follow that slow but very funny progression into the dark recesses of Lewis Black’s mind. International Travel is about going to New Zealand and Australia while Ireland and Health is about Black’s home away from home, the great drinking country of Ireland and how it has found the perfect circle of life.
Lewis Black very neatly segues into how Americans are now all worried about their health and yet are the fattest and unhealthiest people on the planet. This track has a very funny bit about how nobody knows anymore if milk is good for you, the various kinds of non-dairy milk, and a really great routine on water and bottled water.
Of course, stand-up comic Lewis Black is at his best when he skewers the body politic. This is true again in the last six tracks of Rules Of Enragement. Greed is one of the best routines on the topic and not only skewers Martha Stewart, Enron, Adelphia, and the various financial scandals but bastes them and barbecues them.
This particular stand-up routine is bound to become a classic especially because of Black’s idea of what he would do with that kind of money: a personal ball washer. His solution to the fraud is amazingly simple and applicable.
His, once again original and dark, take on the War In Iraq and the Bush administration is that Bush is incompetent not because of what he does but because he cannot screw the people and democracy competently and lie convincingly.
In many ways, these last tracks on Rules of Enragement, although they are extremely funny, are quite sad because the humor comes from the overwhelming truth that is the basis of the jokes.
Rules of Enragement is a brilliant Lewis Black stand-up comedy CD featuring the comedian at the top of his game.
Lewis Black
Rules of Enragement
Stand-up comedy CD
Comedy Central 2003
65 minutes
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