Black to the Future
Prime Video · 2016 · 49 min
Lewis Black shouts through the chaos of the 2016 election.
Lewis Black brought his trademark sputtering outrage to Broadway’s Marquis Theatre during the height of the 2016 presidential election cycle. For a comic whose entire career is built on yelling about the slow degradation of American sanity, the matchup between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump provided an overwhelming amount of fuel. He frames the cultural mood with a poll showing that a massive chunk of the electorate would prefer a giant meteor strike over either candidate, a sentiment that anchors his frantic search for any remaining logic in modern life.
Rather than offering partisan finger-pointing, Black aims his frustration at the sheer absurdity of the political theater, mocking Ben Carson’s bizarrely sleepy cadence and questioning how any comedian is supposed to compete with the surreal reality of a Trump-Palin alliance. He breaks up the political anger with winding anecdotes about a trip to Scandinavia, America’s failure to handle mental illness, and a bizarre news story involving a German woman wielding breast milk during a pharmacy robbery. The set ends with a live Q&A session, where he reads audience-submitted rants.
The set list
-
Lactating German pharmacy robber
Reads an account of a lactating German woman squirting milk at pharmacy clerks during a robbery, suggesting the tactic for presidential debate moderators.
-
Bare breasts on a Copenhagen bus ad
Relates following a bus in Denmark after noticing an advertisement featuring bare breasts, detouring into riffs on breast augmentation and eyeliner.
-
Defeated GOP primary candidates
Riffs on the crowded Republican primary field, mocking Ben Carson's quiet cadence and questioning why Rick Santorum was allowed to run.
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Election satire vs. reality and the final Trump/Clinton breakdown
Reflects on how reality has rendered satire moot, scrutinizes Trump bankrupting a casino, and questions Clinton's public appeal.
How it plays
- Tone
- Indignant, satirical, exasperated, and cynical.
- On stage
- Acerbic, sputtering mad, shouting broken sentences with trembling hands and pulsing veins, self-described as a pissed-off optimist rather than a mean-spirited curmudgeon.
- Pace
- Trademark loud shouting and high-intensity rants, though noted by reviewers as sporadically dispirited, weary, and less intensely angry than his peak Daily Show era.
- About
- 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, Republican primary candidates, Mental health and institutionalization, Bizarre news stories, Pet obsession
What the critics said
Reviews were mixed; critics found his trademark rants about strange news items hilarious, but felt the political commentary targeting the 2016 presidential candidates was stale, superficial, and dated even before election day.
Backstory
Performed and filmed during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, amid what Black described as the longest and most absurd election cycle of his lifetime.
Details
- Released
- Taped
- Marquis Theatre, New York
- Runtime
- 49 min
- Where
- Prime Video
- Director
- Justin Kreutzmann
- Topics
- Before
- Old Yeller: Live at the Borgata (2013)
- After
- Thanks for Risking Your Life (2020)
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Tragically, I Need You
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Thanks for Risking Your Life
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In God We Rust
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Stark Raving Black
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Red, White & Screwed
HBO Max
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