Comedian Lewis Black has announced a show at the Providence Performing Arts Center on Friday, February 3.
Tickets will go on sale on Friday, November 18 at 12P. Tickets are $29.50 – $59.50; all ticket prices include a $3 per ticket restoration charge. Tickets are available at the PPAC Box Office (220 Weybosset Street in downtown Providence), online at www.ppacri.org or by phone at (401) 421-ARTS (2787). PPAC Box Office Hours are Monday through Friday, 10A to 5P; Saturday, 10A to 2P and two hours prior to curtain times on performance days.
Black performs over 200 nights a year to sold-out audiences throughout Europe, New Zealand, Canada and The United States. He is one of the few performers to sell out multiple, renowned theatres, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York City Center and the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In August 2007, he was the first stand-up comedian to ever perform in concert at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles.
Black’s live performances provide a cathartic release of anger and disillusionment for his audience. Lewis yells so they don’t have to. A passionate performer who is more of an angry optimist than a mean-spirited curmudgeon. Lewis is the rare comic who can cause an audience to laugh themselves silly while making compelling points about the absurdity of our world.
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, he 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 continued 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.
Increased exposure from The Daily Show eventually generated a record deal with Stand Up! Records. His first CD, The White Album, was released in 2000 to much critical acclaim. Black followed with eight more, six under the Comedy Central Records label. He has been graced with 4 Grammy nominations and two wins for his work. The first nomination came in 2006 for Luther Burbank Performing Arts Center Blues, the second in 2009 forAnticipation. In 2007 he won the Grammy for Best Comedy Album for The Carnegie Hall Performance and in 2011 his second for Stark Raving Black.
In the midst of a rigorous touring schedule, regular TV appearances and movie roles, Black has written two best-selling books, Nothing’s Sacred(Simon and Schuster, 2005), Me of Little Faith (Riverhead Books, 2008) and I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas (Riverhead Books, 2010). All garnered critical praise as well commercial success and spent numerous weeks on the New York Times best seller list.
As a playwright he has penned over 40 plays, many of which have been produced around the country. The Deal, a dark comedy about business, was made into a short film in 1998 and picked up by the Sundance Channel. In 2005, Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre in Los Angeles produced One Slight Hitch, a play that was later seen in 2006 at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center’s Patel Conservatory.
