Dear Lewis Black,
It hurts me to do this. I think you are hilarious. You are one of my favorite comedians and I have always watched your stand up shows, even reruns. You’re so angry, with the finger jabbing and the ranting. You’ve done bits on the ridiculousness of organized religion and government. You seem to hate everything and everyone. Nothing is sacred, everything is to be mocked. You were a hero to me. It was beautiful.
Now all of that is gone.
Today at work I was shelving the metaphysics books. It’s not my favorite section. There are 4 types of books on the general metaphysics shelves. They are all absurd.
- books on unleashing the power inside you to improve your relationships/work/life
- books on secret societies in America
- books on fictional beings (angels, vampires, werewolves, Sasquatch, fairies, aliens, etc.) and
- books on psychics and the afterlife
Your name was associated with the last one. I thought maybe the Lewis Black who wrote the intro wasn’t you. Maybe it was another Lewis Black, some crazy guy with an eighth grade education and a lisp. It’s got to be a common name, I flipped to the first page of the book. It was you. You wrote the introduction to a book written by a “psychic” in which he tells the story of how he found out he was “psychic” and some stories about his “psychic revelations”. How the hell am I supposed to take you seriously as a comedian now? You find religion disingenuous and have mocked the deeply held beliefs of millions of people:
“The Catholics have it right. I love what they do. That whole ‘the pope’s infallible’ this is tremendous. Let’s face facts: If you took someone with no religious leanings whatsoever and locked that person in a psych ward with nobody around and no stimuli, the Catholic religion is exactly what he’d come up with.
‘Listen to this. There’s this old guy in a dress, see? He wears all these great costumes and whatever he says, about anything from birth control to what to watch on television, that’s it, ‘cause pope knows best. He can’t lift his head up, but, fuck, he’s a genius.’ “
or:
“Who knew that the devil had a factory where he made millions of fossils, which his minions distributed throughout the earth, in order to confuse my tiny brain?”
And now I’m supposed to believe some guy can see the future because you say so? People who have died stick around earth to whisper in his ear and tell him what’s going to happen? Even if ghosts did exist, why would they have access to what’s going to happen in the future? How are the two related at all? It makes no sense.
This three page introduction undermines your entire on stage persona. You wrote about how a friend of yours knew this “psychic” first and the guy told her you would be famous some day. But (and here’s the kicker) she had never told the “psychic” about you! Well holy shit, sign me up.
If the intro was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, you failed. So, I have to think you are serious. Now every time I see you on stage pointing out the ludicrousness of our president or global warming or scientology, all I’ll be able to think is, “Yeah, but you believe is psychics.” And I hate that.
Sincerely,
Kelly
