Retiring from touring, the irascible ‘Daily Show’ veteran plays two final shows in Boston this weekend.
On our recent call, Lewis Black rants about the Yankees. (“The evil empire.”)
Rants to me about Boston weather. (“It sucks.”)
About a laundry list of current events and political issues.
But he raves about Filene’s Basement.
I ask what he’ll do in Boston this weekend — he’s here for two shows at the Wilbur Sept. 28 and 29.
“I just like wandering around the city. I think it’s pretty. I used to go to Filene’s Basement, that was one of the great joys of my life,” he says, then pausing, as if in reverie.
“Just hunting for bargains?” I ask.
“Yeah. When I was broke, I’d come up to Boston, work a show, then go see if there were any shirts on sale,” he deadpans.
At home, the real Black really isn’t a ranter, he tells me. (“Who would want to live with that? And I mean myself living with it.”)
But like Larry David, Black has cultivated a beloved grumpy public persona. Embittered complaints are his bread and butter, whether he’s shouting about politics on “The Daily Show,” screaming as the voice of Anger in Pixar’s “Inside Out” and “Inside Out 2,” or ranting about, well, anything, on his podcast, “RantCast.”