Surveying our ecletic arts scene, from the galleries to the stage.
(Courtesy Performing Arts Fort Worth)
Lewis Black
FORT WORTH -- It was not surprising that Lewis Black showed up at Bass Hall on Friday night in a bit of a snit.
After all, the acerbic, profane comedian has made ire an art form. He is a guru of grumpiness and a master of malice.
But what was surprising was what he was angry about.
Black is more outraged by smartphones than by politics -- although the two might be related.
The basic premise of the first hour of Black's rolling diatribe was that our political system is teetering on total collapse because we as a society have lost our focus. And the reason we are not seeing clearly is because of technology.
"You think you are holding the future in your hand," he railed, brandishing a phone like a rapier, "but you're really holding your attention span."
He charted our march toward the abyss on a path marked first by cable television ("a thousand channels and nothing to watch"), the personal computer and, finally, the smartphone.
And, without going into details, let's just say that Black won't be doing any commercials for AT&T anytime soon.
The material, which was heavy in rants against social networking and anything digital, worked well enough because of the comedian's carefully punctuated, finger-wiggling delivery. And it helped that a sell-out crowd of about 2,000 was more than willing to laugh with him.
But it was also a little disappointing that his barbs were not more immediately topical, especially since the current political scene is a free-fodder machine for stand-up-comedians. And while his rage against phones that don't work and websites nobody needs is a valid complaint about life in the 21st century, it is also already a bit tired and trite.
In the latter part of his set, however, Black did move more toward political commentary. And he was more egalitarian in his damnations than might be expected, placing equal blame on anyone who was a member of either of the two biggest political parties.
But no politico took more direct hits than Kim Kardashian, a poster child for our unfocused century.
After pointing out the absurdity of her celebrity (again, nothing new there), he noted that she had even launched her own brand of perfume.
"And if you bought that perfume," he deadpanned, "please kill yourself."
Warming up for Black was John Bowman. His slow, halting style, which was accented with occasional bursts of vitriol, was a good match for the headliner. But he also stumbled in places.
He intentionally alienated the audience by saying that Fort Worth was more boring than Oklahoma City, which was OK because he then worked it for humor. But he let slip a comment that could have been taken to have some racial connotations (although there was clearly no meanness in it) and seemed to surprise himself to the point of throwing off his rhythm.
