Virtually in Tucson: Lewis Black lends hand to UA law school benefit from New York

Comedian Lewis Black spent 10 weeks last year isolated in his New York City apartment.

No friends, with the exception of phone calls.

No human interaction beyond the through-the-door greetings with the grocery delivery person.

“It wasn’t good. I kind of talked on the phone with friends. I’m really lucky because I have a terrace so I walked on my terrace,” said the 72-year-old comedian best known for his angry rants and biting social commentary. “It was like being in a (prison) yard, but a really nice yard. I walked a mile a day. I did some exercise. And every day I would just try to get some energy. The only thing that was disappointing … was I couldn’t read; my focus was shot. People were reading tons and I couldn’t. My brain was way too scattered.”

Even after being fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and seeing New York State ease up its COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, Black stays close to home.

But on Sunday, April 11, he will be in Tucson — virtually, at least — for a fundraiser to help he UA law school class of 2021 raise money for a gift that the graduates will present to the James E. Rogers College of Law.

The Zoom event is not a concert, Black was quick to clarify during a phone call last week from New York. It’s an opportunity for participants to ask Black questions about anything, from his views on politics and life to his role as Anger in the 2015 Academy Award-winning animated comedy “Inside Out.”

And in the process, there is a pretty good chance you will laugh yourself silly.

During our conversation with Black, he talked about politics, the 2020 presidential election and getting back on stage.

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“I’ll start looking at my stuff again in a couple of months. I’m not ready to start doing it until I’ve got dates,” said Black, whose last Tucson concert was his February 2019 show at Fox Tucson Theatre.

Black’s last standup show was on March 13, 2020, days after the coronavirus was declared a global pandemic and the day that President Donald Trump declared it a national emergency. The show was part of Black’s “It Gets Better Every Day” tour that he had launched in January 2020, but for this show in tiny New Buffalo, Michigan, Black renamed the show “Thanks for Risking Your Life.”

The show was filmed and later released as a special on Amazon Prime, something that Black called a bit of a fluke.

“We were lucky enough to have enough cameras going,” he said, adding that the original plan was to film a live show for a special later in the tour. But after that night in New Buffalo, Black’s tour came to an abrupt halt.

Some of the material from that show could land in his post-pandemic live shows, whenever that happens again, he said. He might also recycle material he used in late 2019 when he was addressing gun violence and social justice issues — topics that are still as relevant today as they were a year ago, he said.

“We are so stupid, as a country, so profoundly stupid that now, even this far down the road, stuff that I was doing a year and a half ago still holds,” said Black. “I just feel like I’m stunned. I didn’t think we were this dumb. We are dumber than we ever imagined.”

He also might add his final thoughts on the Trump administration including the lack of leadership on both sides of the aisle in the early days of the pandemic — “they couldn’t even get these people in a room,” he quipped.

But that’s all for another day, he said. Doing virtual conversations like the one he’s doing with the University of Arizona are great distractions.

“I’m finding that the more I do these kinds of things, it’s keeping me sane,” Black said. “And if I can help raise money for stuff, great.”