Lewis Black is back on the attack, in Charlotte on Saturday

Known as America’s angriest standup comedian, Lewis Black returns to Charlotte’s Ovens Auditorium on Saturday night to lead tirades about everything from Trump to Russia to sexual misconduct in Hollywood.

The 69-year-old comic – a 1970 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill who still keeps an apartment in his college town – spoke to The Observer from his home in New York Monday about his “Rant, White and Blue Tour” and several of the topics that make him see red.

Q. What are your thoughts on this recent string of sexual assault and harassment allegations out of Hollywood?

A. Anybody who works in that business knows it’s a huge outpatient clinic where nobody seems to get treated and with not enough doctors – much like rest of the country. Since I started, when I was going to get a theater degree, I’ve seen the levels of abuse that have occurred in this business. The worst of it is in terms of sexual abuse. It goes down the line to theater schools, where students are mentally abused. Maybe it’s changed somewhat.

Q. Why is this all just coming to light now?

A. In part, it’s a reaction to the levels of insanity that have gone on regarding women and women’s choices. It just piles up, this kind of male-dominated nonsense. It should’ve been cleared up by the early ’80s – once (there was a feeling that) women should be liberated and have these rights and should be paid the same. All of those things were on the agenda. None of it occurred except a bunch of discussion. There was so much on the backburner, the stove blew up. The president of the United States is talking about p---- grabbing. It’s a reaction to all of that.

Q. What’s your reaction to the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the election and Trump’s latest reponse?

A. Somebody has to take the phone away from him. There is no way in which he is helping. I’m thrilled he can talk to his people and keep that communication going, but that’s not governing. These (investigators) should be allowed to do their job. It doesn’t help when the president of the United States is saying Russians had nothing to do with it and the heads of intelligence are hacks. If that’s what you think, keep it to yourself. Boy, that Putin. Don’t tell me he is trustworthy when every piece of info from all the voices are telling you he’s not. In the end, it’s exhausting. I wouldn’t mind it being exhausting if we were accomplishing anything.

Q. How about the recent election? Have we learned anything from the last year?

A. For every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. It was an interesting experiment. We’ve tried everything else. Elect someone that’s not going to bother you who is an adult and knows what basic things are, who understands it’s important as president to be a role model and an adult. I got into standup so I could be a child. Now I’m dealing with a president who is a child. Now I’ve got to be the adult? I did a lot of hallucinogens when I was at Chapel Hill. None of it prepared me for this. This was not on my radar. I hallucinated and this never showed up.

Q. So what are you working on now?

A. I’m working on calming down.

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 1:38 PM with the headline "Lewis Black is back on the attack, in Charlotte on Saturday."