Lewis Black comes to the Michigan Theater on Saturday

Comedy Central

In the world of live stand-up comedy, one could say that the 2000s were “The Decade of Lewis Black” — because during that period, Black rose to prominence as the pre-eminent topically minded comic who’s still out there, on the road, doing stand-up, on a regular basis.

(Bill Maher and Jon Stewart belong to the same rarefied club of top-tier politically-minded comics. But Maher's three-months-on, three-months-off HBO show keeps him from getting out there and doing live stand-up as prolifically as Black does. And since Stewart's TV show is on four nights a week, his live-stand-up shows are few and far between.)

In fact, Black is out on the road about 200 nights a year, offering his signature, acerbic brand of comedy — which, in truth, can be more accurately described as hilariously biting social commentary. He regularly skewers politicians, and frequently riffs on social and cultural issues.

Lewis Black has an equally dim view of both of the major political parties, though he is decidedly left-of-center when it comes to his views on issues like gay marriage, the war in Iraq, health care, financial regulation, etc.

He brings his scathing observations — which sometimes ramp up into full-bore comic rants — to the Michigan Theater on Saturday for a sold-out show.

Black can also be counted on to hurl his criticisms at the Wall Street and corporate greedheads — like he did on his latest stand-up DVD, “Stark Raving Black,” which was released last June and was filmed at the Fillmore in Detroit in 2009. A CD version of "Stark Raving Black" won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album on Sunday, Black's second.

When I interviewed Black in 2004 for The Ann Arbor News, he said that his angry onstage comic persona is an exaggeration of his real personality — but that he is indeed genuinely angry about the targets of his comic lashings.

So onstage, when he takes off on some person or entity, it’s not just a catharsis for his audience — which is, after all, composed of Americans who are just as fed up as he is. It’s also a catharsis for him.

And it isn’t always in the form of a rant that requires him to raise his voice. In “Stark Raving Black,” one of the funniest bits was when he lowered his voice, and satirically adopted a loving, gentle voice as he mocked the inadequate regulation of corporations and financial institutions in the U.S. by saying that “there is nothing more wondrous than capitalism, which is a splendid, beautiful garden, and if it is left entirely unregulated, it will grow and grow, until all of us share in its beautiful fruit.”

And in a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, Black — who wrote a satirical book, “I’m Dreaming of a Black Christmas” that was published in November — flung some well-placed darts at Wall Street banks, the Tea Party and taxes, among other topics.

On the bonuses that the big Wall Street investment banks handed out to their execs both before and after the economy collapsed, Black remarked: “They should have raised their hands in Congress and just said ‘No, we bailed you out. No.’ You can’t give them all that money and say we have no vested interest.”

Commenting on the Tea Party’s endless complaints and misleading canards about “the evils of big government” under President Obama, Black said: “They walk around this country and say ‘we don’t want government to be a mom or pop.’ Well, yes you do. You idiots are paying more for cable TV than you do for clean water. When a country wants television more than they want clean water, they’ve lost their grip.”

Regarding the Right’s fixation on tax cuts — and, now that a Democrat is in the White House, its flip-flop on “deficit spending” — Black asserted: “How is it not patriotic to support your cops, your policemen, clean water and educate your children?” He then followed by quipping: “One thing I know about the rich, being rich, is that you can take money from me, and tomorrow, I’m still going to be rich.”

Black’s ascent from cult hero to mainstream stardom was a gradual one, beginning with his scathingly funny “Back in Black” rants on Comedy Central's “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.” In 2000, he parlayed that exposure to his first stand-up CD, “The White Album,” which he followed up with five more albums over the next decade. In 2007, he won his first Grammy for Best Comedy Album for “The Carnegie Hall Performance.” He’s also filmed two HBO stand-up specials — “Black on Broadway,” and “Red, White and Screwed,” which just may be his most raucously funny special to date.

“Stark Raving Black” was originally released in theaters as a feature film before being aired on Comedy Central and released on DVD last summer.

In the “Stark Raving Black” movie, Black acknowledged the economic suffering that Detroit-area residents have endured over the last several years. It opened with Black saying: “People have asked me, ‘Why are you shooting your special in Detroit, Lewis?’ And I said, ‘If anyone is as angry as I am, it’s the good people of Detroit.”

Black recently told AVClub.com that his success has been a double-edged sword. “I like spending time with my friends, because I don’t get to enough,” he said. “They keep me kind of sane. It takes you out of the bubble you live in most of the time when you’re doing this bull---- — doing stand-up….Which is great, don’t get me wrong, but my life is kind of via the tour bus that I lease and that I go across the country in, and that’s like a bubble. And when I go to the airport, a car picks me up.”

“So, it’s good to go back and realize ‘you weren’t always in that f------ bubble, you idiot.’ It’s good for humility, and they really keep me on my toes.”

Lewis Black on nuclear holocaust (contains profanity):

Kevin Ransom is a free-lance writer who covers music and comedy for AnnArbor.com He can be reached at KevinRansom10@aol.com.