A week or two ago I noticed that Lewis Black was coming to the Hult Center so I found someone to go with me and bought tickets.
Last night I went to the show with Matt after a late meeting at work. We had dinner at the Jackalope Lounge first (just down the street) - yummy burgers....I definitely recommend :) After dinner we walked on over to the Hult Center and did some good people watching before heading in to take our seats.
Here's what I already knew about Lewis Black:
In 1996, his friend Lizz Winstead tapped him to create a weekly segment for a show she was producing on Comedy Central called The Daily Show. The segment, a three minute rant about whatever was bothering him at the moment, evolved into Back in Black. It became one of the most popular and longest running segments on the show and also created a long and successful relationship with the network. Since then, Lewis has taped four specials for the Comedy Central Presents series, co-created Last Laugh with Lewis Black, presided over Lewis Black’s The Root of All Evil, and continues to perform Back in Black on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His popular appearances on Comedy Central helped to win him Best Male Stand-Up at the American Comedy Awards in 2001.
And after poking around his website and bio today, this is something new that I learned about Mr. Black:
In addition to his professional pursuits, Lewis is dedicated to a number of charitable organizations. As a long time mentor with the 52nd Street Project, Lewis was roasted in Charred Black 2007 which drew the largest fundraising numbers in the Project’s history. He’s a member of their Advisory Board, is Co-Chair of their Capital Campaign and in 2000, the Ron Black Memorial Scholarship Fund was created in memory of his late brother. Lewis is also committed to raising funds for the Rusty Magee Clinic for Families and Health. He’s a strong supporter of both the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Autism Speaks and was recently honored by The Brady Center for his commitment to ending gun violence. At the Williamstown Theatre Festival, he established the William Foeller Fellowship, having taught and performed at the festival for more than a decade. Lewis also supports our military personnel and recently became involved with the USO. He toured several Middle East and European military bases with Robin Williams, Lance Armstrong, Kid Rock and Miss America Rachel Smith in December 2007 and hopes to return soon.
If you have a minute and haven't seen him at all, I would recommend watching this Back in Black Segment from a recent Daily Show episode: Trump 2012
The show was great - we had seats right on the floor, near the front and a bit off to the left. The opening act (John Bowman) was funny and he had done his homework about the city to make some "locally funny" jokes. Lewis Black was great (though a little bit loud at times for poor me who doesn't love loud noise so much!) Overall I have to say we enjoyed it very much and I'm glad that we went. There isn't a great comedy scene here in Eugene and it really seems like there could/should be....it's nice to get out and laugh....feels very healthy and fun :)

