If I'm a little nervous about speaking with comedian Lewis Black, it's because I've seen the kind of white-hot indignation he's capable of in his Back In Black commentary on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
Since first guesting on the hit comedy series in 2004, his weekly wrap of life's absurdities has turned the 59-year-old Black into one of television's sharpest and most popular social satirists.
But those bits, he assures me, are nothing compared to the explosive intensity he brings with his live standup concert, Red White and Screwed, which comes to the NAC on Sunday.
"On The Daily Show my anger level reaches a six but in person, doing my standup, it goes to a 12," Black boasts over the phone from his home in Hell's Kitchen, just off 42nd Street. "It's much more ramped up because I don't have to go through anybody. I mean, I don't want to be screaming obscenities directly into Jon Stewart's ear. On my own, doing standup, I can be full bore."
Black describes Stewart as "the sharpest guy on television." Naturally, he recruited Black after seeing his groundbreaking live show Black On Broadway.
Of course it's because of his weekly segments on Stewart's Emmy-winning faux-news comedy that Black has become one of America's most irreverent social and political commentators.
But doing a couple of minutes each week isn't nearly enough for a new legion of Black fans who no doubt will be out in force for his live show.
"I don't buy into our conspiracy of stupidity. Take the so-called war in the Middle East," he says. "I knew there were no weapons of mass destruction and I'm a comedian. What astonished me was nobody asked if the government had any sort of a plan before they went into Iraq.
"First we're going to go in and they'll all be joyous to see us. We'll give them tons of stuff to make their lives better. Meanwhile, the vice-president is the former CEO of the company that gets all the contracts to make all the stuff we're going to give them and there was no bidding. You can't write this stuff.
"Things are so crazy in the States right now," he says. "I keep hoping that Canada will invade us."
Which might not be a bad idea as long as he can cross back into the Great White North. A fan of Canada, he hosts the annual Stupidity Awards at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal.
"One of the highlights of this trip is that I'll get to meet the Trailer Park Boys," he enthuses.
Originally, Black planned on teaching drama. He earned a master's degree at the Yale School of Drama in 1977 and later that year co-wrote the musical The Czar of Rock and Roll. But inspired by his comic heroes George Carlin, Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, he entered standup.
He now does about 250 concerts a year, has penned a satirical autobiography, Nothing's Sacred, is up for his own Comedy Central series, Red State Diaries, and appears in two feature films, Accepted and the Robin Williams' comedy Man of the Year.
"I hope success doesn't spoil my humour," Black says. "Like a lot of comedians, I'm basically emotionally stunted. I came out of college with my world view and it hasn't changed.
"All the things that irritated me before I started doing The Daily Show continue to irritate me. So if the country smartened up, I'd go back to doing 45-minute sets about crummy weather. But I don't think that the States is going to smarten up overnight. I'm not too worried about running out of material."
