by CHRIS BARRY

Yeah, you probably know him as the exasperated loudmouth from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, his weekly Back in Black segments consistently providing some of the sharpest commentary on what is already probably the sharpest show on television. But Lewis Black has been around forever. A veteran of the Manhattan comedy scene, those in the know have been championing his wit for something close to 20 years now - it's just taken the rest of the world a little longer to catch on. But catch on they have, and these days, at least among quirky college student types, Black, 55, is nothing short of a bona fide star. The Mirror caught up with the man last week in Williamstown, Massachusetts, a rockin' little town where he benevolently spends his summers working local theatre.

Mirror: Do you still write your own material for The Daily Show?

Lewis Black: Not anymore. I participate but most of it comes out of the guys because I'm on the road so much. But they're very good at it. They write me better than I write me now.

M: Which newspapers do you read? Are you what people like to call a "news junkie"?

LB: Not really. I read the New York Post because they make up their own news. I'll scan USA Today because it gives you a pretty good sense of what most Americans might know on any given issue. The New York Times I read for certain Iraq stuff - anything where I need more info. Time and Newsweek, I look through those. And then whatever I run into along the way.

M: I'd hazard a guess Lenny Bruce might be among your more profound influences

LB: Absolutely. Lenny Bruce and George Carlin and anybody who had an album in the '60s. I bought pretty much all of them, like Shelley Berman, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin. The other big one was Jonathan Winters. For me, that just recreated what comedy could be. He was unbelievable. I mean, when you're a kid and you hear that stuff, you can't even believe this guy's doing it.

M: Do you think much of that stuff still holds up?

LB: I watched Carlin's "Seven Words [That You Can Never Say on Television]" bit by accident the other night and it's still fucking unbelievable. You know who else had a big effect on me? Paul Krassner. The Realist was unbelievable. When you're a kid and you hear this stuff it breaks you out of your basic social beliefs.

TV as teacher

M: Do you think television has aided in the dumbing down of the culture? Or is it possible American society might not be quite as idiotic as it appears when presented through the medium of television?

LB: I honestly believe Comedy Central has had a profound effect on educating kids - especially in terms of comedy. Practically every comic in America is on it doing a bit and I think it exposes kids to a lot of different ideas. The gut of my audience came out of Comedy Central. Kids really get it. You go on to a college campus now and they get it.

M: And a decade ago they didn't?

LB: Absolutely.

M: Hey, I heard that both Leno and Letterman resisted booking you for years. Is this right?

LB: Yeah, Leno seriously believed I was too edgy.

M: Which may have been true, I guess.

LB: Maybe. But listen, I went in and actually did a bit about weather for them. I didn't yell or anything, it was just about weather. And they still said it was too edgy. A bit about the fuckin' weather, you know? That's when I just said okay and gave up. And with the Letterman show, they considered me a political comic when I wasn't really - I had a lot of other stuff - but they just dismissed me.

M: Do you still get labelled a political comic? Your stuff strikes me more as social commentary than political humour.

LB: Yeah, it's more about social stuff. If there's [political] stuff on the table, I'll do it. But if there's nothing on the table, I generally try to find something else to talk about.

M: Do you think Americans get a raw deal because of the popular perception that they're totally ignorant about the world outside their borders?

LB: I think we Americans bring an arrogance overseas with us that is really appalling. Nobody pronounces to the rest of the world "We're the greatest country on Earth" as much as we do. You don't go fucking screaming this shit to the world. You know, like, we're the people who are going to bring democracy to Iraq when only 45 per cent of us vote. You gotta be a monkey not to realize how fucking dumb that is.

Hail Trailer Park Boys

M: Do you think it's a particularly good age for comedy now - at least with respect to what's making it onto TV. That there's a certain freshness to much of it that maybe wasn't there a decade ago?

LB: Definitely. It's remarkable. Something I really like is this Canadian show Trailer Park Boys. That should be shown in America. It's phenomenal.

M: I think those guys are proof positive that you can do distinctively Canadian television that doesn't totally stink. That show is unabashedly Canadian, you know? Those accents, those guys…

LB: Yeah, but it translates. I originally saw it on BBC America, just one episode, and I went berserk. It was so fuckin' funny. And then I got a copy of all of the episodes from my tour manager who's a Canadian. I honestly hadn't laughed that hard at anything in a while. Killer. Stuff that we try to do on Comedy Central could really take a good long look at that.

Lewis Black hosts the World Stupidity Awards, Friday, July 23, at the Spectrum, $24.50

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