In the Black

Life is good for Lewis Black. The perennially overwrought stand-up, who uses spittle as a punch line, has upped his profile over the past decade thanks to The Daily Show, which has periodically run his “Back in Black” segment even before Jon Stewart was host. (Remember Craig Kilborn? No? Someone needs to rent David Spade’s 2006 Benchwarmers.) But 2007 has been a particularly good year. In February, he received a "Best Comedy Album" Grammy award for The Carnegie Hall Performance, and he also voiced a main character in Bob Saget’s Farce of the Penguins, which inexplicably went straight to video despite being narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. ("It's the sort of thing a middle-schooler would've thought up in between making fart noises with his armpit," jealously announced eFilmCritic.com’s David Cornelius.) What does it all mean for Black? Well, on his current tour, he’s been discarding his lobster shells and ripped Risperdal packages in the prestigious cans of opera houses, theaters, performing arts centers, symphony halls, wineries, and casinos, with nary a comedy club in the bunch. Way to go, Black! And way to remember where you came from, too!

Find out if he can fill 2,743 seats as he presents Red, White, and Screwed at 8 p.m. at Davies Symphony Hall.