This is where we go beyond the scenes. The Daily Show was like the regular situal you ever seen, like like a shark, right, and then it'd be that little fish attached to the shark. That's where we are. We're a little podcast that swims along with the Great White Daily Show mothership, and we just give you extra little nimbles on existing projects that we've done, past projects that we've done. Uh, this week, we're talking to someone that I consider comedy comedy holy grail respectfully, because I know he's about to make a noise when I say that before I introduce his ass. But see, shut up, Lewis, I'm trying to introduce you. When a story falls through the cracks, this man is there hiding in the curb like a little evil. Remember that what was that clown Pennywise. Yeah, he's there, like it clown monster, to gobble up those stories that fall through the cracks that we don't have time to get to in the regular parts of the show. I want to know if he's always sick of picking up these types of stories we're talking about Lewis Black. Back in Black, when I was a kid, there were certain things you learned in school. One plus one equals two and you get to watch TV the rest of the day if the president gets shot. But most importantly, facts were facts. That's why we called them facts. But these days, from Facebook to the White House, reality is optional. And here's the ultimate proof. We're also learning more about a bizarre conference in Denver. There are ads taking over the airwaves and billboards going off along the highways. The event is for people who don't believe the Earth is round. It turns out Colorado has a high concentration of the so called flat earthers. What a surprise, Colorado, where there's not enough oxygen and tons of weed. Of course they think the Earth is flat. I'm surprised they don't think the Earth is a lupa inside a snowbloat. We're gonna get to the bottom of this man, what makes him click, why these stories are important to him. We're going to go beyond back in Black. It is my pleasure to welcome the host of the longest running segment on The Daily Show, Lewis Black. Welcome to beyond the Scenes. I've been waiting so long for us to do a podcast. I thought, really, what was left? What frontier should we cross? Yeah, I could imagine you just like you. You're interesting in that you get to avoid a lot of the day today Rigga Moarow of The Daily Show, Like you don't have to figure out zoom mics and cameras and what link is for what live feed thing that we're doing, etcetera, etcetera. Like in that regard, you're kind of free lucky. I'd even said, yeah, no, I've I've always been kind of I was kind of independent of it for a long time. For for quite a long time, I didn't I don't have a you know, but they're sacrifices. I make roy, you know, no office. You know, I don't have to be there to show up the day of Um, they send me my thing. I look at it. We exchanged stuff back and forth, and uh so for that it's been good, you know. And but as of light, you know, over the past, you know, over the during the pandemic, I've had to deal with this zoom rama nonsense. And now you're the longest running contributor in the history of the Daily Show. You go back to the o G inaugural season, before there was an audience. Wait, the Daily Show didn't well, damn we didn't come full circle. Now, Yeah, there was no Well, I guess that makes sense because the old school local news, like there's no the Daily Show was for ate it to parody the local news, like I don't even think it was really parody and cable news yet until the War on terror started kicking up after nine eleven. Like that makes sense because the local news station definitely does not have an audience, though that would be absolutely odd if they did. But it was kind of a large hip. Was more than just the local news. It was kind of a in a way it was and in a way it was kind of the national news of the local news. It was the national news segment of the local news. So we would they would cover, they would go out and cover these stories. But I literally, um, there was no we did at UH. Channel thirteen is the studio we used. Um it was small and UH and I would sit at that this desk and I had I didn't write it out, I would do it. If I improve it, then I then they come up, Uh Liz and Hank, Liz Winstead, Hank Kalla, and they go keep that drop that do this, that'll be a nice touch. Oh here's something you could add let's do it again. Then I do it again. Great, let's do this and this and this, and then I think we got it. Usually three or four takes we'd have it. It's crazy. It was really fun. But did you know what this was going to be when you started doing it? Dug Like when you when they first came to you and Liz Winstead comes to you, one of the co creators of The Daily Show, The Great Liz Winstead. She goes, Louis, I love what you do. We want you to do it over here. Was it just fuck it? This is just another thing to do? Because also this is the early days of Comedy Central as well, Like Comedy Central as a network had only been on air. I think maybe four years. Maybe, Yeah, it was um, I didn't know. I knew it was it was an income, so I was I didn't have anything consistent. I'd only done a few stand up shows where you know, you come on and you do you six minutes, like stand Up Spotlight or whatever they you know, whatever they were, you know, Carolines. I've done a couple of those, so I wasn't sure, but I thought that the idea was right because it's an idea that I had pitched a hundred times and everybody always said, well, you know, and this was always the answer. You know, politics aren't funny. That was always the thing. And I was always like, isn't that unbelievable? That was what that was what I would hear, And I mean I didn't you know. I pitched it three or to three or four networks and it was like, you know, but let's do a show and we can you know. It started with that was the week that was, you know, which was more of just kind of like a review sketch thing, you know, this and the Smothers brothers had their kind of thing and um, but this but I always thought, boy, you could really do kind of a let's do a parody, and Liz got it. I'm here, I feel like we can update was the only and I was even remotely close to something that parodied the news. But even that with SNL, they weren't political. They would dabble if if it wasn't the eight guys, but that wasn't there like North Star, right, And so it was really Liz really amazingly got it up and on the air, and I got the gig because I was working clubs and had and Liz and and Hank knew me and I couldn't get an agent. I couldn't get people. You should really have an eight you know, how come you don't have an agent? And I co I don't know. You tell me what you know? I don't know. I don't know how you do this? I mean, and so they would, uh, but they knew that I had material that nobody heard. I had a pounds and pounds of material that nobody had ever heard. And they needed stuff. So, speaking of stuff that nobody's ever heard, we have a clip right now that I want to play. Uh. This is from your first ever appearance on the Daily Show. This is from season one, episode six of The Daily Show. Let's roll it. You know, I've been laying around this past week or so watching the Olympics, and I gotta tell you something. You know, how stupid are we as a culture to sit there, lie down for like eight to nine hours on a Saturday Sunday and watch perfect specimens of humanity do things that are absolutely astounding while I lay there, you know, just like eating, the the eating, the just eating. You know what happens after about two hours of that, I just feel like a big fat pig. I am tired of it. I'm tired of the Olympics. I'm tired of the interviews. There's no reason on earth for what are they asking these people. The swimmers, they're in the they've been in the pool eight twelve hours a day since they were four years old. The brains a chapter. And while we're on the subject, the chimneys, the brain casings that they've got the braincasing of a Doberman for crying out loud and you and they don't men straight. The women don't men straight, and that isn't right. Okay, now I've gotta shay that. At least now I understand how they get these kids to do it. Because if I was five years old and they told me, what, You're gonna be bleeding every month, and then they said, but there's an option, I'd be doing backflips for the rest of my life. Oh, what's what's so beautiful about that? For the people listening who can't see that yet, it's really sixty minute Andy Rooney in the setup in a way where you've got the little the half eaten sandwich on the desk, you've got your laptop open, and you're just critankerous and just want it. Andy Rooney, do you have a favorite ramp that you've done? Because the thing that I love about you and you were one of the people that I studied when I so when I got hired at the Daily Show, I put every past correspondent under a microscope, every correspondent that had pretty much ever set foot, even the ones that were only on for a season, Like I didn't know. Here's some Daily Show trivia. David Tell was a short lived contributor Daily Show. Um. But what I noticed about you is that you were one of the correspondents that, in my opinion, you're that in real life, like there was no there didn't seem to be a heightening of who you are, like like the average correspondent plays an extreme version of it. Like Stephen Colbert on The Daily Show, he was not the hence the fact that he can go and do the Late Show to Stephen Colbert and not be you know, that original Stephen Colbert that we knew from the Daily Show. He toned it down a little bit. But you you seem to be the same on and off camera. Do you have a favorite rant that you've done? Well? I mean I did there were a number of them that I really was were attached to. I mean, you know, it's like did so many. But the one that I thought that were, I went and it was not. I didn't have much to contribute to it. It was somebody wrote the one about Texas. Let's send Texas trying to steal jobs from ill NOOI in California are one thing. But you're gonna try to trash talk about New York. Not on my watch. It's time to fight fire with fire. This is New York, the city that never sleeps. People come here from all over the world for the freedom to live as they choose, for the variety of cultures, but most of all, for the fact that it's not Texas. You say, everything is bigger in Texas. We have a three hundred foot green beacon of liberty and you have at whatever the this thing is. It was blistering. I read it and I went, it was the first time I went, you ever said these words allowed because you never can, you never know. And I went, this is gonna go viral, And it did. And I love the Nazi turetts with um with what's his name, that schmuck Glenn Beck. Yes, in in his the Nazi two wretch thing Arizona. Sure is putting the a Z in Nazi, aren't they? Oh? I didn't think it was gonna be him, did you? Glenn Beck is offended. Glenn Beck thinks playing the Nazi card is going too far. Glenn Beck, this is a guy who uses more swatstick props and video of the Nuremberg rallies than the History Channel. For God's sake, he compared global warming to Nazi Germany. That was Hitler's plan, his enemy, the Jew, al Gore's enemy, the u N's enemy global Warming. I'm not accusing al Gore being a Nazi or anything like that. Yes you are. You just get it? Are you meth it? Like? How do you get this critankerous and that riled up about sometimes that stuff that makes sense and stuff it's sometimes it's like, Wow, that dude is really upset about the Olympics. I thought the Olympics was supposed to just make us happy, Like do you stop your toe? And then that's when you start writing, like what's your inspiration? How do you get in your zone to be annoyed and go middle finger to America? Well, because it was all the big discovery is you know, as a comedian, um, I think is just that finding that moment where you go, oh, that's why, that's where I'm funny, that's my that's I'm funny when I'm angry. That was it. It took a long time to find it, and you're always kind of back and off it. You kind of go, well, you know, I can't really be angry, And it was finding that that kind of that separation. If you're really angry, well then you're you know, Kevin McCarthy or any number of politicians. But but it's a comic. You've got to have be able to take that so that they know you're playing. You can cross the line, but you can't be out over that line. For a long time. After the break, I want to talk to you a little bit more about that, about what it means to be angry, because I do think that there's a lot of the idea of what comedy is now is to just be angry with the absence of a punch line. And that's something that I feel like we've talked about this before in the makeup chair from time to time, you know, in the before times when we could be in a close quartered makeup room. I just hold that thought because I have a question about that, and I want to ask you about your fans. I got questions about the type of fans you have. This is beyond the scenes. We'll be right back. Let's talk more about these times. Now. How have you changed? How was the character changed? Because I believe now politics in the state of this country has only become more and more outrageous, she said to the Washington Post. And I'm going to read because I don't want to get this quote wrong. Quote. I am a happy person, but an angry citizen. To get angry at the world around us is the most sane reaction you can have. End quote. When did you start becoming more angry at the world, Because it's one thing to be mad about the Olympics and and talk about a gymnast who won gold and congratulator, and then another thing to go through the war in Iraq and then the twenty years in Afghanistan. How is the character evolved? Like? How were you able to still find funny amidst real rage on things that people really should be upset about. Part of it was that my act one thing, my act always began um and and even like that that the show even has. You know, I'll do something like that Olympics thing, and there's other stuff that I've done, and that's kind of like where I'll start. But I'll be screaming about the weather for five minutes, which is like complete. I will scream about I equate partly, I equate everything. There's a reason to be enraged, you know, it's you know, bucket this. You've got a weather man out there, you know, Al Roker is standing in the midst of a storm, you know, really and telling people not to go out. But he's standing in the what are you getting me? So? And it's not that you know, and there's no reason for the rage to be the equivalent of my rage over over over Dick Cheney, but somehow being able to but it kind of all bled in for me, It all kind of moved through it. It allowed folks to know that, um, it's the same anger when you look at the way we are now as a society though, like why do you think America really is as angry as they are about things? Or is it just this counterculture reaction? Like when you look at let's just take right now, masks in schools, or that men men boom, mandatory vacts the nations, let's just start there. Are people really that upset or is it just no, I want to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. Do you think the rage that we have as a country is real or it's manufacture for the sake of argument. I think it's what gets somebody's noticed, so that there that's to me where it comes from. And and and the former leader whose name I will not mention um kind of set the tone for that. And then people went, wow, that's right. I could really just say, you know, this thing, I could really kind of launch so that I think in part, you know, it's I mean, you know, you when you when you look at you know, the what gets views is some psychotic you know, ranting on about nonsense and uh uh and and and so they get these views. They also they've not been in the public square for so long that they've forgotten how to act in the public square, so that they feel is if somehow when you're on Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat or who are boo boo or funk nut, whatever the your choices, that there you know that that's the same thing and it's not because you're not in an office with somebody that you've worked with for a year and a half who you completely disagreed with. But when he came down to YouTube figuring out how to get some project done, you didn't worry about the you know, whether it was you know, you didn't worry about any of the other stuff. You didn't worry about what the way they felt about the war in Iraq. All you cared about was getting the project done. We're not and all of that kind of working together has been kind of okay. So then when you look at rage comedy, which I don't know if that's a real genre, but comedic ranting where there is a structure argument and you present facts and punchlines within what you're stitching together versus and I'm talking about political satire as a whole, not just the Daily Show, all of our other contemporary that, every other show that does something in that universe of what we do. There's an element of anger, but you're using comedy to to you know, to make it palatable for someone to actually ingest the information. Is there a difference between that and just actual straight up rage rage where people just get on stage or just get on TV. And god, there's sometimes there's this line blur between punditry and political satire that I think sometimes is a little it's a little gray, and I think, if I'm gonna be honest, I think it waters it down for a lot of comedians because people will call that comedy and it's not. It's just someone saying agreeable ship. It's someone yelling agreeable ship or counterculture ship without any clear structure to it. Yeah. Now, I think that what the comedy allows, the difference between just rage and rage with joke is the joke allows someone to then step back. It gives them a chance to breathe and go, oh yeah, okay. They don't get caught up. You know that they know that they're being like, oh, step back for a second from it. One of the things that I stopped immediately trying to do that I said, I'm not doing this is I was not going to be on a show with pundents. Almost immediately when they would put me on a show and it'd be like me and maybe, um, you know, somebody from because somebody whoever, some elected official sub talking head from the cable network. Right like two or three others and I kind of I did it a couple of times, you know, where I kind of went, oh, I'll do this. I'm, you know, thinking they'll know I'm the funny one, because one would think they're smart and they're not, because they've got points to score. And all I want is I thought I was there to kind of go back and then let's move on, you know, I gotta you know, I'm you know, I'm making a fart, no noise, and then we can go ahead, and uh, but they never did. And so I did it a few times and then I said, no, if you want me, I come out as a comic by myself, and I'm a comedian. You talked to me as a comic, because I don't want to get caught up in that pundit role. I've been doing this fucking rant cask where I kind of sit at home and by myself, in what I call my my I consider it like being on a cable access show. And what you're seeing right now, this is it. And I've got this camera in this microphone and I go for thirty minutes and I've tried to write it and I don't, and I'll write sections of it and I'll have some funny stuff in it, but without an audience, who are the guardrails to my ranting? I find myself in that weird position of saying things that I normally I'm yelling about stuff, and I don't have the joke that I would have before because the audience isn't there to bounce off of, and that drives me nuts. But I do, in part feel like, um, this is I'm gonna say something because I've been thinking about this. And I don't know how you feel from time to time about what's going on, but from time to time I think, you know, these assholes who are doing what they're doing, they don't deserve to have what's coming out of their mouth, their actions or anything else. Um, they don't. They don't deserve. They don't deserve a joke, you know it, imnoble, that's innoblely. They don't deserve the stuff that they're doing. What they deserve us a spanking. These are adults because you only roast the ones you love. That's what Jeff rosto. Because it's one thing to yell about that group of morons that are in Congress, because people are always like, you know, you're a political comic. No, what I yelled about is what those fuckers due to the other people, And now the other people have been infected. So I've found it and it'll be interesting going back on the road, which I'm doing now to figure out. And you've done this, and I'd love to know what you've been thinking is is how you deal with those that group? Now that and these the folks would come to see you are watching these folks that are infected. There is definitely a different feel to a live show when I bring up certain topics that are already divisive in the world. But I'm at least given half a beat to see, let's see where he goes before I yell out something I was down in Texas, and we can talk about it off air because I don't because if I don't, if I don't explain the joke properly right now, what you did there, there's definitely a feel. So then to that point, if you're arguing all these points, why not just ran about squirrels on skis or STU pet videos? Which would you rather do? You do you like being in the ship like this and going off about a failed occupation of Afghanistan or would you rather talk about some stupid fight that happened at a McDonald's. No, I'd rather talk about the fail. I'd rather talk about stuff that that kind of matters, and then and then sprinkle it in with that really you know, some good stuff, the stuff that's goofy. I also like the really goofy stuff that I can get my my hands hunt. What are your feelings? Um? This the last question before the break for you, sir? How do you feel news satire has changed from till down? Like people always say they get their news from the more people get their news from the Daily Show then the other do you feel that responsibility? Did you feel that shift in the show? Like, how do you think the genre? How do you think the show has changed? And you know, coming up on thirty years, well, twenty five year anniversary this year, how do you think the show has changed in twenty five years? And just political satire as a whole. I think I think that, uh, the show has changed in the sense of what each host brought to it. I think that, um that's certainly part of it. Um Uh that the John brought his view and John John made it into a the show is and I basically realized that my I was kind of a freewheeler. Initially I could go, Okay, I'm gonna do this, this and this. John came in and it was gonna be within the Each show was going to be a show in and of itself, beginning, middle, and an end. So when I would come on, my stuff would be in concert with whatever he had put together. So if it was really sometimes it would be like and then I'd come on and go thata da and that and that, and sometimes it would be he'd go off in another direction and I can with a with a crusher um. So it was all it was all structured, and he was very hands on. And then you get to the Trevor and I feel that he brought a worldview to the show that we didn't really have before. That we had in in kind of just that sense that we have. You know that you and I and John we try to bring it to it, but you know, it's like, there's only two far we can go. Really has you know a sense of because he watched it, he watched him up from the outside. I think the thing that's dope about Trevor is that he's able to capture the americanization of foreign cultures and how much more interconnected foreign foreign affairs are to our domestic affairs. After the break, I gotta give you some flowers after the break, But I also want to ask you about what you're feeling now, like to that whole point of what you're going out. You know what, damn it, we're gonna talk about the topics. We're gonna talk about what we're talking about on stage. Damn it, I'm not are we can we can always cut it? No, that's a coward move. Are you telling me you're a fucking coward. No, I'm just throwing that out there so that the people who are watching will think, God, that's what they said. Imagine what they cut beyond the scenes. We'll be right back beyond the scenes. We are back. I'm talking with Louis Black, the owner proprietor, and are you the creator of the back in Black segment? Are you the soul? Because you know it's weird in the build and sometimes you can pitch something that's not your idea and kill it. And then sometimes like because you can either pitch the idea or sometimes the idea is pitched to you before. As long as it's a good idea. It's gonna get on. How did it Back in Black even come to be? Or was it just Leuis yell at camera for two minutes? Go yeah? So I um, it was rolling along and then they were started to give me some some stuff to edit. I'd find He said, Okay, I'm gonna go where as a Christmas party, I'm gonna go network a word did I hate? It's something that I hate to do. I've never done it to go schmooze. I was gonna try to talk to the folks about what I really was interested in doing. I can't remember if Liz was around. I cannot remember where we were in space and time at this point. But I went and talked to one of the guys and said, you know, what I'd really like to do is at the end of the week, what I want to do is like of a five minute recap of the news of like everything that happened, so that on that Thursday or whatever, well I would do uh it would be uh that would be Back in Black or whatever you wanted to call it. That I would then kind of go through news of the week. Because what I was noticing was at that point, we were throwing away pounds of great jokes. I mean, they would take jokes out of some of the stuff that I was doing, even if it had nothing to do with politics or anything else. I'd go, wow, this where I'd watch the way they would edit stuff that was coming through the pike. I go, okay, so you didn't do that. You just dropped three jokes that you can use again. These are the three jokes that I can deliver. And I thought that would be great, and that's kind of what I wanted to do. It was kind of because I was getting I'd always felt I wanted to do Weekend Update and that never happened. It was like that, which it seemed to be a good position. And then they came back with, well, what we're gonna do is back in Black. We're gonna take all of these videos we got there whacking they're crazy. We're gonna dump them on you, and you'll work with some writers and we'll put together these back in Black segments. And that isn't really what I wanted to do, but you know, look at you now, twenty five years later killing it. Yeah, they were right. It wasn't like it worked intense. It was like, I mean, the thing was was like having a commercial be get on that show for the especially the first couple of years. Yeah, it's it's definitely a very creatively collaborative space. The Daily Show. I didn't like, I'll be honest, I didn't like the mustache idea for me doing CP time At first. I like, they were like, well, we want to do a segment where we talk about, you know, a little known black history and it'll all live there so we don't have to because I was we were constantly pitching field pieces about what about this black thing? You didn't know? What about this black pain? We're like, well, let's just put all of that in this one thing. And I was like cool. And then they went and mustache and I was like, what the fun? Why do I have to have a mustache and tweet jacket and sweater and glasses. You will look old. These facts are only delivered by someone that is old. And I was like, oh, yeah, you're kind of right, all right, let's give it a shot. And it's like you said, it works out, you know, that's why that's a team. So what are you getting worked up about these days? Like what is Louis black? What's in your cutting room floor that doesn't make it on the show. What are the things of late that you go, oh, are really that? But fucking there's not enough time? Well, I mean it's been tough because I I literally have not been on the road working. So um, I will go out. I've done one show, roy one, you know, since March. Yeah one. I couldn't do it. I just didn't want. I didn't a I'm uh, there was no way to do it because I have an underlying condition. So it was like until they came up with the vaccine, the idea of I mean I could go to pods, but the idea of like, okay, you know, I was invited to work at Dave Chappelle's place, you know, and we like the Ohio farm showing. H yeah. But to me, here's my problem. I if I'm starting to work, I need to work. I need to know I'm gonna work the next day and then the next day because if I start working, I need to start working on my next special. Because what happened was since I did my last Sacion was the last show I did, So I need to start and I it doesn't help me to do one show. So I did the one show to get started, and then I thought I'm gonna And then I had some other things I was doing with the the rand Cast and some other things, and then I thought, in September, I'm gonna have I'm gonna work clubs for a month, right, Well, two of the clubs I ain't gonna go work. One was Huntsville, Alabama, and it's uh and I'm not putting it's thirty two percent vaccination right, and the and they haven't vaccinate the staff's not vaccinated. Well, my home state, it's up to thirty seven percent vaccination, right, how have you know? Oh that's thirty seven We're still at that last, but it's thirty seven percent, respectfully continued, and then it was and then I was supposed to go to Omaha. That's the same situation. It's even morrish because they came out with a map and these are all clubs I really wanted to play badly. I love tongues Field, who there was had actually done a kind of a short pilot that was really got stopped because of the pandemic about I wanted to do a travel show of places that I thought were fascinating. The history was fascinating and Huntsville's history is extraordinary. It's the fastest growing city in the state of Alabama. It has the most jobs, that has the most growth. NASA Space Force did Huntsville a lot of favors, and then industry, and then also that the Nazis who they brought there kind of uh ended up forcing integration. It's a remarkable store. I mean, it's just a so I kind of got fascinated with it and wanted to go back and enjoyed working there. And it's a really bright audience that went out the window. Omaha, map of the United States come out, all of the places, they're hotspots all the states. What's what's going on? Oh Ma, humbles and information it's just white. Well that was no how good. Yeah. So you're like a prize fighter that once you start getting into fight shape, you cannot take time off. And there has to be a constant regular sparring sessions from city to city to get you up that way. Because what I'm gonna start with, I know what I'm starting with. I'm starting with the way I dealt with the first the first year. But what I did when I did my show, the first show I did I went through the history of what happened when I walked into my apartment on March fifteenth, and then you know, and kind of like, you know, with jokes and stuff. You know that, I like, you know that sitting there raging at the fact that these people, what do you mean you how are these people experiencing a renaissance to the human spirit? That's bullshit? Are you kidding me? I feel like in a way, like your rants, you're like a ghost with unfinished business on Earth and you've just got to keep just knocking down sucking ship. They're like, I gotta take care of that. I gotta take care of that, Like like like if you ran out a ranch, you would just disappear, like you're just all right. My wordy would be like the end of Quantum Leak, where you fixed every life. If you get to go home, that I think will then take me as you well know, when you're working on something, that'll take me into my response to the way they're acting toward the vaccines. You know that. Then I'll find those jokes as I roll along, you know. Uh. And then I've already kind of worked on bit by bit because I don't I write on stage Roy, I'm psychotic, so I can't do that. I have to sit and like polish and figure out every little angle that I'm trying to But that's great put together like no, because it makes you too neurotic. It makes you down to the punctuation when you're performing, and it makes me too performative, where you're more connected and in the moment. If I can nail the polish and perform it as if it just lurt it out of my mouth, that's the perfect middle ground for me. But I'm on stage so busy. Oh no, I forgot to say that sentence before this sentence, so the next three sentences will not track logically, So I need to figure out a way to backtrack to the all while words are actively coming out of my mouth. That's what's happening in my head, where it seems like you are just going and another thing motherfucker's yeah, well that's kind of it. And then I have the thoughts. I think about the thoughts, this is what I'm gonna yell about, and then I start there and I did start to to write some stuff, you know, um, but it was all leading to stuff that it would be like I need the audience there to go, I go down in it up? What what do I say next? And then I can hear it when I have them there. One key that that I don't know if this will help you? And uh where all the young comics were listening today? But I don't know if this will help. But one thing you've got to realize they don't know. You're the only one knows. So if you screw it up, they don't know you screwed it up. So you can't You can't sit there and judge it. You know you can't be you know that you directing yourself while you're up there. When I found out you got cast in the Pixar movie Inside Out as Anger, I was like, oh, perfect, But then I also thought, well he could do a lot of voice work and a lot of animated work. Do you think you're Anger carries well over into the like do you want to do more animation? Or are you a guy like in real life? You know, your demeanor just doesn't lend itself to just parents coming up to you and just going hey, I love you. I love the way your cuss in that dream Works film. No, I've done a bit and I've been here's one for you. I've been Santa Claus the last fours its four times on SpongeBob. I was the voice of saying, I should have known you have stuck to free with this Sanny clause. Wells Hannah, you know the same where SpongeBob goes. I know, trouble follows. I was gonna say laughter follows. They just called, sure you didn't. I'd like to do more because I like it. Um and uh, I really enjoy it. The and and Pixar was great. I mean, it's just great. You know, it's the world's greatest gig. Well, I'm excited to see what you have planning for us when you get back out on the road. You've always been one of my favorite You've always been one of the comedians that I've studied because I felt like I've always had some sort of weird and entertainment Weekly one time described me as charismatic crankiness. And I think that that applies to you as well, sir. And when I tell you I love you, I mean it. Thank you so much for going beyond the scenes with me and giving us a window into your anger. I will leave you now to scribble down whatever it is you're pissed about right now on a napkin, so you can come do that at our studio. Thanks G. It's a I'm really please. We got time together, and I look forward to the time when we can actually sit down and spend a little time together. And I've been watching you do your do you know you're working away and uh And I do have to say this because the audience may not know this, but we are. We are intertwined forever because of Finding Your Roots. I get what to talk about that next time. Man, damn. We were in the same episode of Finding Your Roots and I discovered a lot who They edited one of the parts where I really cried that ship was heavy. Yeah, no, it was really remarkable. We should actually do a segment on that because it was really for both of us. And then I went, I get Mark, Marin is my secret person. You get John Lewis, what's wrong with that picture? Well, Marin is also charismatically cranky. It's so I mean, I like Mark, but come on, thank you Lewis, Thank you Roy. Take care. Are you enjoying yourself? Well, if you are, you can do podcast things like liking and subscribing and leaving nice notes. What you say, how comforting my voice is, Yes, comforting. Be sure to watch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah weeknights at eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes on Paramount Plus.

This is where we go beyond the scenes. The Daily Show was like the regular situal you ever seen, like like a shark, right, and then it'd be that little fish attached to the shark. That's where we are. We're a little podcast that swims along with the Great White Daily Show mothership, and we just give you extra little nimbles on existing projects that we've done, past projects that we've done. Uh, this week, we're talking to someone that I consider comedy comedy holy grail respectfully, because I know he's about to make a noise when I say that before I introduce his ass. But see, shut up, Lewis, I'm trying to introduce you. When a story falls through the cracks, this man is there hiding in the curb like a little evil. Remember that what was that clown Pennywise. Yeah, he's there, like it clown monster, to gobble up those stories that fall through the cracks that we don't have time to get to in the regular parts of the show. I want to know if he's always sick of picking up these types of stories we're talking about Lewis Black. Back in Black, when I was a kid, there were certain things you learned in school. One plus one equals two and you get to watch TV the rest of the day if the president gets shot. But most importantly, facts were facts. That's why we called them facts. But these days, from Facebook to the White House, reality is optional. And here's the ultimate proof. We're also learning more about a bizarre conference in Denver. There are ads taking over the airwaves and billboards going off along the highways. The event is for people who don't believe the Earth is round. It turns out Colorado has a high concentration of the so called flat earthers. What a surprise, Colorado, where there's not enough oxygen and tons of weed. Of course they think the Earth is flat. I'm surprised they don't think the Earth is a lupa inside a snowbloat. We're gonna get to the bottom of this man, what makes him click, why these stories are important to him. We're going to go beyond back in Black. It is my pleasure to welcome the host of the longest running segment on The Daily Show, Lewis Black. Welcome to beyond the Scenes. I've been waiting so long for us to do a podcast. I thought, really, what was left? What frontier should we cross? Yeah, I could imagine you just like you. You're interesting in that you get to avoid a lot of the day today Rigga Moarow of The Daily Show, Like you don't have to figure out zoom mics and cameras and what link is for what live feed thing that we're doing, etcetera, etcetera. Like in that regard, you're kind of free lucky. I'd even said, yeah, no, I've I've always been kind of I was kind of independent of it for a long time. For for quite a long time, I didn't I don't have a you know, but they're sacrifices. I make roy, you know, no office. You know, I don't have to be there to show up the day of Um, they send me my thing. I look at it. We exchanged stuff back and forth, and uh so for that it's been good, you know. And but as of light, you know, over the past, you know, over the during the pandemic, I've had to deal with this zoom rama nonsense. And now you're the longest running contributor in the history of the Daily Show. You go back to the o G inaugural season, before there was an audience. Wait, the Daily Show didn't well, damn we didn't come full circle. Now, Yeah, there was no Well, I guess that makes sense because the old school local news, like there's no the Daily Show was for ate it to parody the local news, like I don't even think it was really parody and cable news yet until the War on terror started kicking up after nine eleven. Like that makes sense because the local news station definitely does not have an audience, though that would be absolutely odd if they did. But it was kind of a large hip. Was more than just the local news. It was kind of a in a way it was and in a way it was kind of the national news of the local news. It was the national news segment of the local news. So we would they would cover, they would go out and cover these stories. But I literally, um, there was no we did at UH. Channel thirteen is the studio we used. Um it was small and UH and I would sit at that this desk and I had I didn't write it out, I would do it. If I improve it, then I then they come up, Uh Liz and Hank, Liz Winstead, Hank Kalla, and they go keep that drop that do this, that'll be a nice touch. Oh here's something you could add let's do it again. Then I do it again. Great, let's do this and this and this, and then I think we got it. Usually three or four takes we'd have it. It's crazy. It was really fun. But did you know what this was going to be when you started doing it? Dug Like when you when they first came to you and Liz Winstead comes to you, one of the co creators of The Daily Show, The Great Liz Winstead. She goes, Louis, I love what you do. We want you to do it over here. Was it just fuck it? This is just another thing to do? Because also this is the early days of Comedy Central as well, Like Comedy Central as a network had only been on air. I think maybe four years. Maybe, Yeah, it was um, I didn't know. I knew it was it was an income, so I was I didn't have anything consistent. I'd only done a few stand up shows where you know, you come on and you do you six minutes, like stand Up Spotlight or whatever they you know, whatever they were, you know, Carolines. I've done a couple of those, so I wasn't sure, but I thought that the idea was right because it's an idea that I had pitched a hundred times and everybody always said, well, you know, and this was always the answer. You know, politics aren't funny. That was always the thing. And I was always like, isn't that unbelievable? That was what that was what I would hear, And I mean I didn't you know. I pitched it three or to three or four networks and it was like, you know, but let's do a show and we can you know. It started with that was the week that was, you know, which was more of just kind of like a review sketch thing, you know, this and the Smothers brothers had their kind of thing and um, but this but I always thought, boy, you could really do kind of a let's do a parody, and Liz got it. I'm here, I feel like we can update was the only and I was even remotely close to something that parodied the news. But even that with SNL, they weren't political. They would dabble if if it wasn't the eight guys, but that wasn't there like North Star, right, And so it was really Liz really amazingly got it up and on the air, and I got the gig because I was working clubs and had and Liz and and Hank knew me and I couldn't get an agent. I couldn't get people. You should really have an eight you know, how come you don't have an agent? And I co I don't know. You tell me what you know? I don't know. I don't know how you do this? I mean, and so they would, uh, but they knew that I had material that nobody heard. I had a pounds and pounds of material that nobody had ever heard. And they needed stuff. So, speaking of stuff that nobody's ever heard, we have a clip right now that I want to play. Uh. This is from your first ever appearance on the Daily Show. This is from season one, episode six of The Daily Show. Let's roll it. You know, I've been laying around this past week or so watching the Olympics, and I gotta tell you something. You know, how stupid are we as a culture to sit there, lie down for like eight to nine hours on a Saturday Sunday and watch perfect specimens of humanity do things that are absolutely astounding while I lay there, you know, just like eating, the the eating, the just eating. You know what happens after about two hours of that, I just feel like a big fat pig. I am tired of it. I'm tired of the Olympics. I'm tired of the interviews. There's no reason on earth for what are they asking these people. The swimmers, they're in the they've been in the pool eight twelve hours a day since they were four years old. The brains a chapter. And while we're on the subject, the chimneys, the brain casings that they've got the braincasing of a Doberman for crying out loud and you and they don't men straight. The women don't men straight, and that isn't right. Okay, now I've gotta shay that. At least now I understand how they get these kids to do it. Because if I was five years old and they told me, what, You're gonna be bleeding every month, and then they said, but there's an option, I'd be doing backflips for the rest of my life. Oh, what's what's so beautiful about that? For the people listening who can't see that yet, it's really sixty minute Andy Rooney in the setup in a way where you've got the little the half eaten sandwich on the desk, you've got your laptop open, and you're just critankerous and just want it. Andy Rooney, do you have a favorite ramp that you've done? Because the thing that I love about you and you were one of the people that I studied when I so when I got hired at the Daily Show, I put every past correspondent under a microscope, every correspondent that had pretty much ever set foot, even the ones that were only on for a season, Like I didn't know. Here's some Daily Show trivia. David Tell was a short lived contributor Daily Show. Um. But what I noticed about you is that you were one of the correspondents that, in my opinion, you're that in real life, like there was no there didn't seem to be a heightening of who you are, like like the average correspondent plays an extreme version of it. Like Stephen Colbert on The Daily Show, he was not the hence the fact that he can go and do the Late Show to Stephen Colbert and not be you know, that original Stephen Colbert that we knew from the Daily Show. He toned it down a little bit. But you you seem to be the same on and off camera. Do you have a favorite rant that you've done? Well? I mean I did there were a number of them that I really was were attached to. I mean, you know, it's like did so many. But the one that I thought that were, I went and it was not. I didn't have much to contribute to it. It was somebody wrote the one about Texas. Let's send Texas trying to steal jobs from ill NOOI in California are one thing. But you're gonna try to trash talk about New York. Not on my watch. It's time to fight fire with fire. This is New York, the city that never sleeps. People come here from all over the world for the freedom to live as they choose, for the variety of cultures, but most of all, for the fact that it's not Texas. You say, everything is bigger in Texas. We have a three hundred foot green beacon of liberty and you have at whatever the this thing is. It was blistering. I read it and I went, it was the first time I went, you ever said these words allowed because you never can, you never know. And I went, this is gonna go viral, And it did. And I love the Nazi turetts with um with what's his name, that schmuck Glenn Beck. Yes, in in his the Nazi two wretch thing Arizona. Sure is putting the a Z in Nazi, aren't they? Oh? I didn't think it was gonna be him, did you? Glenn Beck is offended. Glenn Beck thinks playing the Nazi card is going too far. Glenn Beck, this is a guy who uses more swatstick props and video of the Nuremberg rallies than the History Channel. For God's sake, he compared global warming to Nazi Germany. That was Hitler's plan, his enemy, the Jew, al Gore's enemy, the u N's enemy global Warming. I'm not accusing al Gore being a Nazi or anything like that. Yes you are. You just get it? Are you meth it? Like? How do you get this critankerous and that riled up about sometimes that stuff that makes sense and stuff it's sometimes it's like, Wow, that dude is really upset about the Olympics. I thought the Olympics was supposed to just make us happy, Like do you stop your toe? And then that's when you start writing, like what's your inspiration? How do you get in your zone to be annoyed and go middle finger to America? Well, because it was all the big discovery is you know, as a comedian, um, I think is just that finding that moment where you go, oh, that's why, that's where I'm funny, that's my that's I'm funny when I'm angry. That was it. It took a long time to find it, and you're always kind of back and off it. You kind of go, well, you know, I can't really be angry, And it was finding that that kind of that separation. If you're really angry, well then you're you know, Kevin McCarthy or any number of politicians. But but it's a comic. You've got to have be able to take that so that they know you're playing. You can cross the line, but you can't be out over that line. For a long time. After the break, I want to talk to you a little bit more about that, about what it means to be angry, because I do think that there's a lot of the idea of what comedy is now is to just be angry with the absence of a punch line. And that's something that I feel like we've talked about this before in the makeup chair from time to time, you know, in the before times when we could be in a close quartered makeup room. I just hold that thought because I have a question about that, and I want to ask you about your fans. I got questions about the type of fans you have. This is beyond the scenes. We'll be right back. Let's talk more about these times. Now. How have you changed? How was the character changed? Because I believe now politics in the state of this country has only become more and more outrageous, she said to the Washington Post. And I'm going to read because I don't want to get this quote wrong. Quote. I am a happy person, but an angry citizen. To get angry at the world around us is the most sane reaction you can have. End quote. When did you start becoming more angry at the world, Because it's one thing to be mad about the Olympics and and talk about a gymnast who won gold and congratulator, and then another thing to go through the war in Iraq and then the twenty years in Afghanistan. How is the character evolved? Like? How were you able to still find funny amidst real rage on things that people really should be upset about. Part of it was that my act one thing, my act always began um and and even like that that the show even has. You know, I'll do something like that Olympics thing, and there's other stuff that I've done, and that's kind of like where I'll start. But I'll be screaming about the weather for five minutes, which is like complete. I will scream about I equate partly, I equate everything. There's a reason to be enraged, you know, it's you know, bucket this. You've got a weather man out there, you know, Al Roker is standing in the midst of a storm, you know, really and telling people not to go out. But he's standing in the what are you getting me? So? And it's not that you know, and there's no reason for the rage to be the equivalent of my rage over over over Dick Cheney, but somehow being able to but it kind of all bled in for me, It all kind of moved through it. It allowed folks to know that, um, it's the same anger when you look at the way we are now as a society though, like why do you think America really is as angry as they are about things? Or is it just this counterculture reaction? Like when you look at let's just take right now, masks in schools, or that men men boom, mandatory vacts the nations, let's just start there. Are people really that upset or is it just no, I want to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. Do you think the rage that we have as a country is real or it's manufacture for the sake of argument. I think it's what gets somebody's noticed, so that there that's to me where it comes from. And and and the former leader whose name I will not mention um kind of set the tone for that. And then people went, wow, that's right. I could really just say, you know, this thing, I could really kind of launch so that I think in part, you know, it's I mean, you know, you when you when you look at you know, the what gets views is some psychotic you know, ranting on about nonsense and uh uh and and and so they get these views. They also they've not been in the public square for so long that they've forgotten how to act in the public square, so that they feel is if somehow when you're on Twitter or Instagram or Snapchat or who are boo boo or funk nut, whatever the your choices, that there you know that that's the same thing and it's not because you're not in an office with somebody that you've worked with for a year and a half who you completely disagreed with. But when he came down to YouTube figuring out how to get some project done, you didn't worry about the you know, whether it was you know, you didn't worry about any of the other stuff. You didn't worry about what the way they felt about the war in Iraq. All you cared about was getting the project done. We're not and all of that kind of working together has been kind of okay. So then when you look at rage comedy, which I don't know if that's a real genre, but comedic ranting where there is a structure argument and you present facts and punchlines within what you're stitching together versus and I'm talking about political satire as a whole, not just the Daily Show, all of our other contemporary that, every other show that does something in that universe of what we do. There's an element of anger, but you're using comedy to to you know, to make it palatable for someone to actually ingest the information. Is there a difference between that and just actual straight up rage rage where people just get on stage or just get on TV. And god, there's sometimes there's this line blur between punditry and political satire that I think sometimes is a little it's a little gray, and I think, if I'm gonna be honest, I think it waters it down for a lot of comedians because people will call that comedy and it's not. It's just someone saying agreeable ship. It's someone yelling agreeable ship or counterculture ship without any clear structure to it. Yeah. Now, I think that what the comedy allows, the difference between just rage and rage with joke is the joke allows someone to then step back. It gives them a chance to breathe and go, oh yeah, okay. They don't get caught up. You know that they know that they're being like, oh, step back for a second from it. One of the things that I stopped immediately trying to do that I said, I'm not doing this is I was not going to be on a show with pundents. Almost immediately when they would put me on a show and it'd be like me and maybe, um, you know, somebody from because somebody whoever, some elected official sub talking head from the cable network. Right like two or three others and I kind of I did it a couple of times, you know, where I kind of went, oh, I'll do this. I'm, you know, thinking they'll know I'm the funny one, because one would think they're smart and they're not, because they've got points to score. And all I want is I thought I was there to kind of go back and then let's move on, you know, I gotta you know, I'm you know, I'm making a fart, no noise, and then we can go ahead, and uh, but they never did. And so I did it a few times and then I said, no, if you want me, I come out as a comic by myself, and I'm a comedian. You talked to me as a comic, because I don't want to get caught up in that pundit role. I've been doing this fucking rant cask where I kind of sit at home and by myself, in what I call my my I consider it like being on a cable access show. And what you're seeing right now, this is it. And I've got this camera in this microphone and I go for thirty minutes and I've tried to write it and I don't, and I'll write sections of it and I'll have some funny stuff in it, but without an audience, who are the guardrails to my ranting? I find myself in that weird position of saying things that I normally I'm yelling about stuff, and I don't have the joke that I would have before because the audience isn't there to bounce off of, and that drives me nuts. But I do, in part feel like, um, this is I'm gonna say something because I've been thinking about this. And I don't know how you feel from time to time about what's going on, but from time to time I think, you know, these assholes who are doing what they're doing, they don't deserve to have what's coming out of their mouth, their actions or anything else. Um, they don't. They don't deserve. They don't deserve a joke, you know it, imnoble, that's innoblely. They don't deserve the stuff that they're doing. What they deserve us a spanking. These are adults because you only roast the ones you love. That's what Jeff rosto. Because it's one thing to yell about that group of morons that are in Congress, because people are always like, you know, you're a political comic. No, what I yelled about is what those fuckers due to the other people, And now the other people have been infected. So I've found it and it'll be interesting going back on the road, which I'm doing now to figure out. And you've done this, and I'd love to know what you've been thinking is is how you deal with those that group? Now that and these the folks would come to see you are watching these folks that are infected. There is definitely a different feel to a live show when I bring up certain topics that are already divisive in the world. But I'm at least given half a beat to see, let's see where he goes before I yell out something I was down in Texas, and we can talk about it off air because I don't because if I don't, if I don't explain the joke properly right now, what you did there, there's definitely a feel. So then to that point, if you're arguing all these points, why not just ran about squirrels on skis or STU pet videos? Which would you rather do? You do you like being in the ship like this and going off about a failed occupation of Afghanistan or would you rather talk about some stupid fight that happened at a McDonald's. No, I'd rather talk about the fail. I'd rather talk about stuff that that kind of matters, and then and then sprinkle it in with that really you know, some good stuff, the stuff that's goofy. I also like the really goofy stuff that I can get my my hands hunt. What are your feelings? Um? This the last question before the break for you, sir? How do you feel news satire has changed from till down? Like people always say they get their news from the more people get their news from the Daily Show then the other do you feel that responsibility? Did you feel that shift in the show? Like, how do you think the genre? How do you think the show has changed? And you know, coming up on thirty years, well, twenty five year anniversary this year, how do you think the show has changed in twenty five years? And just political satire as a whole. I think I think that, uh, the show has changed in the sense of what each host brought to it. I think that, um that's certainly part of it. Um Uh that the John brought his view and John John made it into a the show is and I basically realized that my I was kind of a freewheeler. Initially I could go, Okay, I'm gonna do this, this and this. John came in and it was gonna be within the Each show was going to be a show in and of itself, beginning, middle, and an end. So when I would come on, my stuff would be in concert with whatever he had put together. So if it was really sometimes it would be like and then I'd come on and go thata da and that and that, and sometimes it would be he'd go off in another direction and I can with a with a crusher um. So it was all it was all structured, and he was very hands on. And then you get to the Trevor and I feel that he brought a worldview to the show that we didn't really have before. That we had in in kind of just that sense that we have. You know that you and I and John we try to bring it to it, but you know, it's like, there's only two far we can go. Really has you know a sense of because he watched it, he watched him up from the outside. I think the thing that's dope about Trevor is that he's able to capture the americanization of foreign cultures and how much more interconnected foreign foreign affairs are to our domestic affairs. After the break, I gotta give you some flowers after the break, But I also want to ask you about what you're feeling now, like to that whole point of what you're going out. You know what, damn it, we're gonna talk about the topics. We're gonna talk about what we're talking about on stage. Damn it, I'm not are we can we can always cut it? No, that's a coward move. Are you telling me you're a fucking coward. No, I'm just throwing that out there so that the people who are watching will think, God, that's what they said. Imagine what they cut beyond the scenes. We'll be right back beyond the scenes. We are back. I'm talking with Louis Black, the owner proprietor, and are you the creator of the back in Black segment? Are you the soul? Because you know it's weird in the build and sometimes you can pitch something that's not your idea and kill it. And then sometimes like because you can either pitch the idea or sometimes the idea is pitched to you before. As long as it's a good idea. It's gonna get on. How did it Back in Black even come to be? Or was it just Leuis yell at camera for two minutes? Go yeah? So I um, it was rolling along and then they were started to give me some some stuff to edit. I'd find He said, Okay, I'm gonna go where as a Christmas party, I'm gonna go network a word did I hate? It's something that I hate to do. I've never done it to go schmooze. I was gonna try to talk to the folks about what I really was interested in doing. I can't remember if Liz was around. I cannot remember where we were in space and time at this point. But I went and talked to one of the guys and said, you know, what I'd really like to do is at the end of the week, what I want to do is like of a five minute recap of the news of like everything that happened, so that on that Thursday or whatever, well I would do uh it would be uh that would be Back in Black or whatever you wanted to call it. That I would then kind of go through news of the week. Because what I was noticing was at that point, we were throwing away pounds of great jokes. I mean, they would take jokes out of some of the stuff that I was doing, even if it had nothing to do with politics or anything else. I'd go, wow, this where I'd watch the way they would edit stuff that was coming through the pike. I go, okay, so you didn't do that. You just dropped three jokes that you can use again. These are the three jokes that I can deliver. And I thought that would be great, and that's kind of what I wanted to do. It was kind of because I was getting I'd always felt I wanted to do Weekend Update and that never happened. It was like that, which it seemed to be a good position. And then they came back with, well, what we're gonna do is back in Black. We're gonna take all of these videos we got there whacking they're crazy. We're gonna dump them on you, and you'll work with some writers and we'll put together these back in Black segments. And that isn't really what I wanted to do, but you know, look at you now, twenty five years later killing it. Yeah, they were right. It wasn't like it worked intense. It was like, I mean, the thing was was like having a commercial be get on that show for the especially the first couple of years. Yeah, it's it's definitely a very creatively collaborative space. The Daily Show. I didn't like, I'll be honest, I didn't like the mustache idea for me doing CP time At first. I like, they were like, well, we want to do a segment where we talk about, you know, a little known black history and it'll all live there so we don't have to because I was we were constantly pitching field pieces about what about this black thing? You didn't know? What about this black pain? We're like, well, let's just put all of that in this one thing. And I was like cool. And then they went and mustache and I was like, what the fun? Why do I have to have a mustache and tweet jacket and sweater and glasses. You will look old. These facts are only delivered by someone that is old. And I was like, oh, yeah, you're kind of right, all right, let's give it a shot. And it's like you said, it works out, you know, that's why that's a team. So what are you getting worked up about these days? Like what is Louis black? What's in your cutting room floor that doesn't make it on the show. What are the things of late that you go, oh, are really that? But fucking there's not enough time? Well, I mean it's been tough because I I literally have not been on the road working. So um, I will go out. I've done one show, roy one, you know, since March. Yeah one. I couldn't do it. I just didn't want. I didn't a I'm uh, there was no way to do it because I have an underlying condition. So it was like until they came up with the vaccine, the idea of I mean I could go to pods, but the idea of like, okay, you know, I was invited to work at Dave Chappelle's place, you know, and we like the Ohio farm showing. H yeah. But to me, here's my problem. I if I'm starting to work, I need to work. I need to know I'm gonna work the next day and then the next day because if I start working, I need to start working on my next special. Because what happened was since I did my last Sacion was the last show I did, So I need to start and I it doesn't help me to do one show. So I did the one show to get started, and then I thought I'm gonna And then I had some other things I was doing with the the rand Cast and some other things, and then I thought, in September, I'm gonna have I'm gonna work clubs for a month, right, Well, two of the clubs I ain't gonna go work. One was Huntsville, Alabama, and it's uh and I'm not putting it's thirty two percent vaccination right, and the and they haven't vaccinate the staff's not vaccinated. Well, my home state, it's up to thirty seven percent vaccination, right, how have you know? Oh that's thirty seven We're still at that last, but it's thirty seven percent, respectfully continued, and then it was and then I was supposed to go to Omaha. That's the same situation. It's even morrish because they came out with a map and these are all clubs I really wanted to play badly. I love tongues Field, who there was had actually done a kind of a short pilot that was really got stopped because of the pandemic about I wanted to do a travel show of places that I thought were fascinating. The history was fascinating and Huntsville's history is extraordinary. It's the fastest growing city in the state of Alabama. It has the most jobs, that has the most growth. NASA Space Force did Huntsville a lot of favors, and then industry, and then also that the Nazis who they brought there kind of uh ended up forcing integration. It's a remarkable store. I mean, it's just a so I kind of got fascinated with it and wanted to go back and enjoyed working there. And it's a really bright audience that went out the window. Omaha, map of the United States come out, all of the places, they're hotspots all the states. What's what's going on? Oh Ma, humbles and information it's just white. Well that was no how good. Yeah. So you're like a prize fighter that once you start getting into fight shape, you cannot take time off. And there has to be a constant regular sparring sessions from city to city to get you up that way. Because what I'm gonna start with, I know what I'm starting with. I'm starting with the way I dealt with the first the first year. But what I did when I did my show, the first show I did I went through the history of what happened when I walked into my apartment on March fifteenth, and then you know, and kind of like, you know, with jokes and stuff. You know that, I like, you know that sitting there raging at the fact that these people, what do you mean you how are these people experiencing a renaissance to the human spirit? That's bullshit? Are you kidding me? I feel like in a way, like your rants, you're like a ghost with unfinished business on Earth and you've just got to keep just knocking down sucking ship. They're like, I gotta take care of that. I gotta take care of that, Like like like if you ran out a ranch, you would just disappear, like you're just all right. My wordy would be like the end of Quantum Leak, where you fixed every life. If you get to go home, that I think will then take me as you well know, when you're working on something, that'll take me into my response to the way they're acting toward the vaccines. You know that. Then I'll find those jokes as I roll along, you know. Uh. And then I've already kind of worked on bit by bit because I don't I write on stage Roy, I'm psychotic, so I can't do that. I have to sit and like polish and figure out every little angle that I'm trying to But that's great put together like no, because it makes you too neurotic. It makes you down to the punctuation when you're performing, and it makes me too performative, where you're more connected and in the moment. If I can nail the polish and perform it as if it just lurt it out of my mouth, that's the perfect middle ground for me. But I'm on stage so busy. Oh no, I forgot to say that sentence before this sentence, so the next three sentences will not track logically, So I need to figure out a way to backtrack to the all while words are actively coming out of my mouth. That's what's happening in my head, where it seems like you are just going and another thing motherfucker's yeah, well that's kind of it. And then I have the thoughts. I think about the thoughts, this is what I'm gonna yell about, and then I start there and I did start to to write some stuff, you know, um, but it was all leading to stuff that it would be like I need the audience there to go, I go down in it up? What what do I say next? And then I can hear it when I have them there. One key that that I don't know if this will help you? And uh where all the young comics were listening today? But I don't know if this will help. But one thing you've got to realize they don't know. You're the only one knows. So if you screw it up, they don't know you screwed it up. So you can't You can't sit there and judge it. You know you can't be you know that you directing yourself while you're up there. When I found out you got cast in the Pixar movie Inside Out as Anger, I was like, oh, perfect, But then I also thought, well he could do a lot of voice work and a lot of animated work. Do you think you're Anger carries well over into the like do you want to do more animation? Or are you a guy like in real life? You know, your demeanor just doesn't lend itself to just parents coming up to you and just going hey, I love you. I love the way your cuss in that dream Works film. No, I've done a bit and I've been here's one for you. I've been Santa Claus the last fours its four times on SpongeBob. I was the voice of saying, I should have known you have stuck to free with this Sanny clause. Wells Hannah, you know the same where SpongeBob goes. I know, trouble follows. I was gonna say laughter follows. They just called, sure you didn't. I'd like to do more because I like it. Um and uh, I really enjoy it. The and and Pixar was great. I mean, it's just great. You know, it's the world's greatest gig. Well, I'm excited to see what you have planning for us when you get back out on the road. You've always been one of my favorite You've always been one of the comedians that I've studied because I felt like I've always had some sort of weird and entertainment Weekly one time described me as charismatic crankiness. And I think that that applies to you as well, sir. And when I tell you I love you, I mean it. Thank you so much for going beyond the scenes with me and giving us a window into your anger. I will leave you now to scribble down whatever it is you're pissed about right now on a napkin, so you can come do that at our studio. Thanks G. It's a I'm really please. We got time together, and I look forward to the time when we can actually sit down and spend a little time together. And I've been watching you do your do you know you're working away and uh And I do have to say this because the audience may not know this, but we are. We are intertwined forever because of Finding Your Roots. I get what to talk about that next time. Man, damn. We were in the same episode of Finding Your Roots and I discovered a lot who They edited one of the parts where I really cried that ship was heavy. Yeah, no, it was really remarkable. We should actually do a segment on that because it was really for both of us. And then I went, I get Mark, Marin is my secret person. You get John Lewis, what's wrong with that picture? Well, Marin is also charismatically cranky. It's so I mean, I like Mark, but come on, thank you Lewis, Thank you Roy. Take care. Are you enjoying yourself? Well, if you are, you can do podcast things like liking and subscribing and leaving nice notes. What you say, how comforting my voice is, Yes, comforting. Be sure to watch The Daily Show with Trevor Noah weeknights at eleven tenth Central on Comedy Central, and stream full episodes on Paramount Plus.