Lewis Black speaks at the National Press Club - April 14, 2014

good afternoon and welcome my name is Myron Belkin I'm an adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Media and public affairs of former international bureau chief for The Associated Press and the 107th president of the National Press Club the National Press Club is the world's leading professional organization for journalists committed to our professions future through our programming with events such as this well fostering of Free Press worldwide for more information about the National Press Club please visit our web site at www.wku.edu/oucampus you can follow the action on twitter using the hashtag npc lunch and after our guest speech concludes we'll have a question and answer period and we'll ask as many questions as time permits and i understand we've already received a number of very good ones now it's time to introduce our head table guests and as each of you to stand briefly as your name is announced from your right mic hempen AP broadcast supervising editor amy morris radio anchor w ND w Patt hosts reporter defense daily Nikki Schwab Washington whispers editor US News and World Report Barry Lynn a guest of a speaker who is executive director of the Americans United for separation of church and state Lennie Hughes also a guest of our speaker retired Washington Post editor and writer jerry's rimsky Washington bureau chief of Buffalo News and chairman of the NP speech speakers committee and a past president of the National Press Club skipping over our speaker for a moment Bob Cardin Cardin communications and a speaker's committee member who organized today's event thank you Bob Tory Clark a guest of the speaker and a former spokesperson for Donald Rumsfeld Lucas Misaki reporter Bankrate brat cook crow reporter E&E publishing fred Ambrose e news director WUSA TV it's one thing for a comedian to make you laugh it's quite another for that comedian to make you think make you mad make you question Authority our guest today does all of that Lewis blacks original humor fused with angry rents and phone ervis breakdowns portray an everyday man at odds at odds with the math society around him mr. black is probably best known for his appearances on Comedy Central's Daily Show his back in black commentaries are among the show's most popular segments mr. black Lampoon's popular culture family values politicians and religion few subjects are off limited less known is that mr. black is a prolific writer and diverse performer he has written more than 40 plays a few books released several comedy albums and produce and starred in numerous specials for HBO Comedy Central and others he has also acted in the law and order TV series and appeared in a number of films the son of an engineer and schoolteacher Lewis began writing plays at Springbrook high school in Silver Spring Maryland and at college he attended the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and maintains a residence there while at UNC he lived in a theatre commune he earned a master's in fine arts from the Yale School of Drama in 1977 mr. black is a progressive thinker who once described himself as a socialist he described as humor as quote beaten unto Titanic every single day and being the only person who knows what is going to happen many critics and observers think mr. black belongs in the same company as those people who influenced him George Carlin Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce one thing's for sure he's funnier than I am ladies and gentlemen please welcome Louis black to the National Press Club well if I knew that they were gonna be a these things that I could read off of and seriously nobody told me there was this that's how you I thought you were doing that by heart no cuz I would have written the speech and stuff but instead I just got notes to those watching c-span and public whatever you are out there I may use profanity so tough because I can't work and really speak without using it talking about some of the things I'll talk about if I make it through the whole thing it'll be exciting for both of us I I want to thank all who were up here on the dais with me just so I could say the word dais it is the only time you use that word and and I really would like to thank my friends who who were joining me today and will and I think are absolutely proof that if you look at Tory to Barry Lynn I have the entire political spectrum of Washington so when people say well you're he he was right to say that I'm I I do say that I'm a socialist and I am a socialist and and that is about that is about as powerless a position as you can be in in the United States and I really just wanted to start with that because the idea of calling anyone outside of maybe Bernie Sanders a socialist to call Obama a socialist is you have got to be out of your goddamn mind there are seven socialists left in the country and if you really want to see the leadership of the Socialist Party you can go to a cemetery and find them we have no effect as a matter of fact when I was a kid you actually read about them and I can't imagine that in many of the history books which have also kind of forgotten evolution is a real thing that socialism is really even discussed historically I kind of got this background from my parents who were here today and my father was was a mechanical engineer and my mother was a schoolteacher and they are really the ones who shaped the way that I look at things so if anything upsets you or they're here the I've been trying it's been tough because it to try to figure out how to I have 25 minutes to speak to actually speak to what I would speak to it would take you'd be sitting here actually for an hour and a half and then probably you'd leave and I would still keep talking because there really is a bunch of things I want to cover in that I was my parents are the last of the middle-class families in America I was raised middle-class absolutely middle-class when I hear a discussion on Congress about what were the the disappearing middle class and what needs to be done I don't think they have a clue I don't think they have any sense of history I don't think they have any idea of of how it works it worked really remarkably I don't look back at that time and go oh it was a golden age you know because it was TV wasn't in color until I was much older so it wasn't that great a time but it was but you have to realize that there was a sense in the community that I was in where everyone was middle-class that there was truly a sense that somehow everything would be okay things would be taken care of there was we went to but we had a thing back then no this would come as a shock here in Washington called taxes and listen to the lack of a laugh in this room listen to the lack of a laugh in this room taxes ha ha ha ha and your responses oh you can't even talk about it you won't even crack a smile it's extraordinary and what those taxes went to for word of things like when I finished school at the end of the at the end of the school year during the summer there was a 10 to a 12 week program down the street that I walked to that was a Recreation Center run by the Montgomery County in which I could go there at 8 and go there till 5 no one called the child care it was called get the little out of the house and as a result I spent a lot of time at that place my parents didn't have to worry it was extraordinary those don't exist they may exist in pockets around the country gone gone a community effort gone there was there was the the high school the junior high the elementary school we went down six times a year and not just me the hope that the whole school went down to watch the national symphony and that's where I learned that I had no interest in classical music but it was an effort it was arts in the school and now you have to fight to get arts in the school because nobody wants to pay for it nobody wants to pay for anything anymore I mean that's the way I look at it that nobody wants to pay to get the things that would allow really to be a great education for children and I had that education and they were middle-class it wasn't some wealthy neighborhood my parents were earning the basic kind of his salary and they had health insurance and my mother taught at my high school she was a substitute teacher there and I will tell you just as a side like the fact that my mother was a substitute teacher where I went to school and that I don't have asthma today is really extraordinary because that's the kind of thing that could really break the child but my mother was seriously funny which has made it easy for me to deal with the other students because students would come out after a class and talked about how my mother had told some jackass who was sitting in the back row what I did what an he was my mother once said night was one of the greatest things I've ever heard she's some kids who have I to have to learn this and my mother said the reason you have to learn this is because when in two years when I Drive up to the Sears on the corner to get my gas I don't want you to be standing there pumping it so I got my mother in probably part of what formed our my the way I look at things is my my parents we would sit around with my brother my parents myself and Walter Cronkite I literally thought until a few years ago that Walter Cronkite was a part of my family and then my mother would go in and out of the kitchen and when whatever was on the TV she would yell about just but just yeah well I can't believe they're doing that today and my father would just would sit there and when the Vietnam War occurred I think was a profound change in my life because now let me get this off but I while I remember it yeah if we're not if we're not gonna have an army that's drafted so that there is no kind of failsafe system within our system so the people who would might might respond to a war in another fashion because we are insulated from that army you it might well be considered that if you want to go to war there will be a tax and then maybe people will think about it that's just a thought apparently no interest here so so my my mother was immediately against the war in Vietnam my father was was a mechanical engineer who worked for was at the Navy department or the Defense Department of Defense Navy right the Navy Department he made sea mines sea mines are a defensive weapon for those who don't younger members of the audience it looks like a beach ball it's got spikes in it and floats around in the water and submarines hit him and you put it in your harbor to protect your harbor from an invading ship and he was listening to my mother yell on and on about this and the the one of the main reasons that we declared war was that that the the decision was made over to something called the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution okay which I I would have googled last night but I'm a very busy man and so so my father said he didn't know if the war was he said you know in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution was based on the Geneva Accords so that we were going to war over these Geneva cool and my father said that my mother was full of it because she didn't know if this was a legitimate war or not and that he was gonna sit down and read the Geneva Accords do you know anyone do you know anyone anywhere a distant relative send out emails today that you know that read the Geneva Accords you didn't did you really know of course the Geneva Accords and he sat down and read him and it he went to the library got him he sat here at it and he finished it and he announced that there was no legal basis for us to be in Vietnam there was no legal basis to go to war and and so he he took in anti-war stance as did my mother mainly over the legitimacy of it and and during the course of the next few years of that war we mind - Harbor and when we mind - Harbor we we put sea mines there so that my father who was essentially building a defensive weapons his weapons being used offensively and he decided at that point in time that in in in all good conscience he could not stay at his job and at the age of 55 he retired now that that's my agent and I'll have to go now apparently there's big things on my horizon so his retirement had a profound effect on me because it was I've never seen anybody and I've seen a few people in my life make a choice out of conscience I've read about people my friend my father did it and it was an extraordinary thing to do to to do it at a time in which I'm in my last year of school of college my brothers in his he's going is in his first year of college and he's gonna walk away and I'm gonna go and I'm going where's the cash gonna come from and he walked away and became an artist and went ahead and did what he wanted to do probably from the very beginning of his life which was to do art but no you don't come out of the depression and go hey I'm gonna paint unless it was a house so it would it really affected for me choices that I made during my life that you choose to do what it is that you want to do he was a much happier person after that and he started in stained glass and went on and then it was that was becoming too too much and he said he couldn't get as much done and he and he studied painting and at the age of 83 retired as a painting at which point he said I said why are you why are you quitting and he said because and this is the greatest thing I've ever heard any artists say and the most honest I've I've run out of ideas and and my mother was my mother would yell and scream about anything that she found appalling and apparently there was a lot and so between the two of them I was given a sense of the of of conscience and at least for myself in a sense of the most important lesson one of the most important lessons of my life do what it is that you want to do whenever I'm asked by kids were you know what's your best advice to a young person it's do what you want to do and everything will fall into place and you don't worry about money and you don't worry about money it's the last thing you worry about you worried about your satisfaction as a human being and my parents lived on a very frugal budget it was really irritating to me I had no really proper vacations as a child you wouldn't believe some of the places we ended up even they would arrive there and go holy God it looked better in the magazine and and as a result they they have survived and survived well I mean they're 96 and 95 and they and my father listen good out there those in sea spam my father has the same health insurance as the members of Congress do the same health insurance was given to my dad and as a result they've been able able to live nicely not over the top one of the things that someone had said that it was that I my age had said that I remember that I thought was really one of the great things about my youth I had no sense or did I care that I wasn't rich we live next to a rich neighborhood and the buildings were bigger and they had nicer lawns but I didn't care they not imagine that they had more than I did except except vacations I know they had better vacations and and so between them and just a piece this together in a quilt that the probably the the three things that had an effect in the way that I look at life that was outside of me was and the and the reason I think that I'm I ended up feeling that the Democrats and the Republicans really didn't work for me and that I did believe that and that I did feel that socialism was it was the way in which I felt about things part of the reason I believe in socialism is because if you are going to have a Christian philosophy if that is going to be the basis of the country that you live in and it is it a Christian philosophy and I know this because I'm a Jew that you might want socialism because what it is is enforced Christianity you put your money where your mouth is and shut up you know we're not going to wait on you to help the poor you're gonna help the poor like it or not tough ski ski so so three things had that effect besides my folks one was Edward armored owes her harvest of shame which if you're I would recommend any young member of the audience to watch it's one of the greatest documentaries I've ever watched and I watched people I had no concept of this I was twelve years old and I lived a really sheltered life in a really nice community and all of a sudden all of a sudden I'm looking at the people who were who really are the ones picking the food and gathering it and and getting into market and they're living in squalor and they're not getting paid for it and I'm going well there's something wrong with this picture that makes no sense and then I was born and raised at a time here's just another sidebar when you take a look at this city and they talk about downsizing the federal government because that's the most important thing that possibly has to happen is to make government smaller you're gonna make government smaller watch what happens to Washington DC watch it why do you think it's out there what do you think the motor is behind all those restaurants it's the government it's the federal government the federal government combined with all the lobbyists coming in and that's what do you think it's tourists are you out of your goddamn minds it's the federal government and when I was a kid and the federal government was smaller this was this didn't exist you had a Woodward & Lothrop who and you had a cup you at a small downtown area and behind the capital were the worst slums in the United States the worst and I know this because the Washington Post every two years when I was a kid would show a photo of the Capitol and it'd be big photo and behind it there would just be slum after slum after slum after his lung and that had a profound effect on me and then my mother would drive me I don't know if she did it consciously or she didn't want to leave me alone in the house because she knew I might burn it down she would drive me down we had a housekeeper who would come once a week and she would drive her home into the end of the slums of Washington you know and it did not compute for me why she had to live like that and we could live like this or why the people behind Congress or how congressmen could sit there and see that and watch that and nothing would change and so I believe in part that the Great Society came into being in part because of of Lyndon Johnson sitting there because anybody with half of wit of sense looking out that window would have to think maybe we should do something and you were looking at one of the last people that that that worked in an anti-poverty agency in Washington DC these are words I know that you out there in the airwaves I know try to comprehend this an anti-poverty agency the mind reels imagine that an agency of the federal government which was hopefully try to change poverty not by saying and this was the Appalachian Regional Commission due to some sort of mistake in my civil service application under the Nixon I got through and I got a job there and they and the in the they were going to raise up the Appalachian they've they wanted to they did some good things for Appalachia but the idea that that was basically proposed in terms of of raising the capital in Appalachia and to improve the living of the citizens there was was to built to build golf courses once again I expected a better laugh hey because it's true and I didn't make it up I mean golf courses they're gonna build 16 golf courses there and build the highways and make Appalachia a place that you would take a vacation we wouldn't my family wouldn't but others would go and I just was stunned by this and I and I would but I'd be but it was amazing to me that there was that attempt at least was made in some fashion or another as opposed to hoping and praying that that an entreprenuer shows up on the scene if I hear another thing about entrepreneurs and in the fact that what we really need are more entrepreneurs how do you think that happens how do you think an entrepreneur happens it's some schmuck generally who has some sort of a learning disorder who's totally focused on something that you would never obsess about they it simply it's hard to find them you don't have a school there's one in Chapel Hill and I know the guy who runs it and I've told him he's full of it of an entrepreneurship school well you can teach somebody who's got an idea what to do with the idea but to say that it all gonna be done from the private sector is psychotic and the fact that what truly irritates me about this town more than anything else is how simple it is it's that simple that you take you you look at what the private sector needs you look at what the government should do in terms of facilitating it and you've got two parties both who have a different ideology in terms of how to do it and if you come to a compromise between those two parties who actually have a solution and this is nonsense to watch the fact that jobs aren't being created you know wait look at this you've got them just the beltway alone was built by idiots and it continues to be just a piece of and you live with it you live with it there are ways to get things done these people actually have to sit down and do it and the fact that you live here your job should be you should quit your jobs and just go and stand around Congress and say you're not coming out until some gets done and I think that's is that twenty five minutes they were my mom you want to stand up yeah here my folks see that was actually she's a she did that on her own that was actually she's a trained gymnast how in your opinion is the First Amendment doing in our country well I'm doing pretty good with it do you get do you get more material from Republicans or Democrats their equal opportunity now I get a little bit more from their Republicans and then normal it usually depends on you know the the interesting thing when Bush left office that the constant thing was just well you know what are you gonna do now and I said just because Bush left office it doesn't mean that stupidity fled the country so I always look to both sides I mean I you know the Democrats the difference between them is there were the Republicans say really kind of stupid things from time to time and stupid I'm sorry it's funny it is when you hear something stupid you laugh Democrats are dumb okay and when you hear something dumb you just go why'd you say that are you disappointed with President Obama either as president or as a source for comic material I'm not as disappointed with President Obama because I never bought into hope that was maniacae know I'm at the age where you know I hope just doesn't work for me hope is a young man's game I thought I thought that I wasn't disappointed because I did not expect any one who took the presidency after the eight years that we had gone through and the war that we went through that the next president would going to be dealing with the country is as if and I certainly didn't know that the ship would hit the fan in terms of the economy but that that we but dealing with the American people would be like dealing with a stroke victim and so that any the best that an American president can hope for is to get the country to raise its right hand which leads me to the next question who would you like to see as president and why well I mean you know in terms of material nothing would give me a greater pleasure than a Ted Cruz Sarah Palin combo it would be a heinous time to live through but but I think I could sell out stadiums what advice would you give to Hillary Clinton regarding how she could win the presidency I think that I'm sure she'll be listening to this because if when it comes to when you're looking for a political adviser you really want to turn to me I think one thing would help was go hide for a while get out of the public view and then pop out again and there we go oh that's right she's gonna run she's putting yourself out there again it's she's gonna there just comes that thing the cycle of I did it he's over and over and over and over again and then by the time she's gonna run you go she just irritates the out of me and it's not because she's irritating it's just I've seen her too much can't we get somebody else where's deputy dawg so chris Christie wants to be President to what advice would you give him lose 80 pounds haha seriously or worse we're we're Spanx you just and and I like that kind of you know that kind of shoot from the hip style is is nice but you're gonna have to make some tracks because your shoot from the hip style had an effect on that on what happened in terms of the George Washington Bridge incident you know yet may be good for you but you got to be sure it's like I can't have the folks who work I've got a number of people who work for me they it's I'm Who I am as a purpose personality yakking and stuff it's I can't have the people working around me acting like me when CBS hired Steven Colbert last week to replace David Letterman Rush Limbaugh said quote CBS has just declared war on the heartland of America no longer is comedy going to be a covert assault on traditional American values now it's just wide out in the open unquote what is your take on what mr. Limbaugh said that's just that's the kind of sentence that stroke inducing I go through that paragraph and about halfway through my but there's like a slight twitch of the eye and I can feel a blood vessel beginning to pump too much what could he do he really is just a mean-spirited prick and and it really is its assault on America let me see that the comedy is going to be converted so here's here's how big an assault that's going to be on American values steven kolb called Kolbert Steven Cobert is has five I think five children happily married has this great family but what it was was still hanging him in the Catholic Church when people were fleeing on mass they can talk about you because no what does it like to work with John Stewart well really the question be that's a question you should ask John what it's like to work with me no he's great to work with he really is he's smart he's bright I've known him since we we were both breaking into the club's and and he took off really quickly and I've watched his career we've been friends in the sense of you know of office friends we don't we don't hang out but we we really respect what each other does and I considered a pleasure to work with and and he's brilliant which is really irritating what's your thoughts on Colbert replacing Letterman should Stewart have been considered I guess I'll find out when I oughta ask John he'll make well I don't even know if he was considered I don't know if John would have taken it I know that something John directed a movie recently I think any rights he's written a book I I think John is more looking around for things I think if the movie went well I think he may end up in that he may stay with this I don't but but Stevens kind of born to it and I think it's I think the choice of Steven Cobert is as I wrote to him I thought every so often they get it right and that's really one of the few times I went that's right is your father a better painter than george w bush my father is my father if you actually watch one of the things I neglected to mention I did two specials in one of them we took up or literally took a painting of his and turned it into a 3-dimensional set that I worked on and the last one the last one which is on May 2nd in which I use a lot more profanity for those of you panic over those words we actually use a full scale painting of his that we blew up he is a much better painter than George Bush he is a hard-edged abstractionist go home and look that one up I still don't even know what the it means but he's really he's good at it and they really are there's some really it took I mean this is how I know he's good I thought when he started bringing this stuff home I said my father has lost his mind because they're these squares and rectangles and all different colors who's your favorite artist I asked Mondrian do you know Mondrian is he made squares of colors it was like what kind of a painter is that it's just squares of colors he was brilliant nobody knew color better than him and and after really studying his paintings for about 25 years he's brilliant how do you respond to critics who say you've destroyed their will to live in our society who I'd like to meet them if I destroyed anybody's will to live in our society and then you really maybe life wasn't for you do you think we should charge people for health care by the pound oh boy that bad question well can say right now considering what our way yeah with what I weigh it would work out pretty well no I don't think we should do that not uh no I mean I no no not by the pound and I only said that because there was somebody said people in the audience at your Passover Seder at your Passover Seder are you the wise son the bad son or the son who was unable to inquire I'm the son who didn't make it home I'm if you know the Seder you know there's there's a they put out a cup of wine for Elijah and there's a seat for Elijah and he he never shows up I'm Elijah Elijah's meant to lead people to the Messiah so is that yeah I'm out looking he's not at the target Donald Donald Trump will be at this day as soon No May 27 May 27th if you want to compare what would you say to him I would say to Donald Trump Oh God well I did a thing on Donald Trump about three years ago on The Daily Show and then and it was kind of a I can't even seriously can't remember what it was but it wasn't nice but it wasn't mean it was funny and and I just I don't think you should well I will talk about that's what I'd say to you was next about having him here but but I I got a call from his his secretary calls and says Donald Trump wants to talk to you after I did this thing the next day and I was really busy my parents were coming to town or I would and then I was like so I got my assistant to call his assistant to say I'm a busy man and I'm thinking you know and then he called the next day he had the assistant Congo what are you me I'm like I'm atomic and I got too much to do to have a conversation with you you're an entrepreneur how could you have time so I would say you know don't call me again and I don't think is he coming here to be the gig is he gonna speak you know no I just I don't think we should he's had his time it's you just zip it once he got through when he kept with the birther thing it was like no people no you're just this is it's self advertising you're allowing self advertising I didn't bring my CDs here today should the Redskins changed their name yeah yeah I think they should I was born and raised I was sad applause was that everybody else still on the fence I don't know you think maybe when we get home we'll talk about it I think what's interesting is you you're born and raised here and I've been a Redskins fan and all my life and so it's not got any connotation to me at all it doesn t mean it it really means nothing to me it's just the name you know and I've seen it on the helmet and it doesn't it's just like been there for so long and it's but in terms of the reality of things you know it's everybody in the room knows if if it was the Washington jewy Jews people say well I think maybe we're gonna have to change that and the other thing is I don't really I don't like what Dan Snyder has done with the team on any level whatsoever and it is one of the most irritating years that I've watched in sports I mean watching the year after year after year oh let's get let's get let's pay a hundred million dollars for somebody who's just gonna lie down on the bench for three hours let's get Steven Spurrier are you kidding if I know Stephen Spurrier is not gonna be a good pro football coach what the hell do you have for brains it was one thing after another and I think and then Daniel Snyder said that he was going to keep the name and since that's what he wants I'm dead set against it should Anthony Weiner change his name no I used to do the joke I used to do about Anthony Weiner was as if you didn't have your own joke then you really need to see a doctor no he should he should but Anthony Weiner is one of the few people like I I think that you know somebody shames themself in public does something awful and then they go away for three or four years and then they come back and everybody kind of what did he do I don't remember but he looks a lot better now and he seems nicer and much more Christian than he was before and but you usually leave for that amount of time he didn't I believe that Anthony Weiner could leave forever and it would make no difference he could leave for ten years when he comes back and you see that no she just got up there he is again it's not his name he needs to yeah how did you rate Eric Holder's backstage impression of you Eric Holder did a really great impression of me and I'm thinking I'm actually thinking of having I'm having him do my next two performances just to see him play audience even notices what really makes you mad Oh kind of what I was talking about earlier I think stupidity really makes me mad what's the when when when when they said it's like like you see the words legitimate rape that like sends me around the bend I don't even come back for a day unlike a barking dog but literally how do you how do you even or that you know that thing you know when there's somebody says some like you know well if you know that you know when you're raped the the woman will reject the you just go wow oh boy when did they stop teaching science ya know that stuff really and and and what really makes me mad is that the the our educational system is 17th in the world and I think that's beyond that's in the course of my lifetime my generation say its credit took the greatest education system on earth and we got it to 17th and I think we can get it to the 25th by the time I drop dead did you always set out to be a comedian or a satirist no I set out to work in the American theater because I my my parents but would take me to see plays at the what was initially the Shubert theater where they would bring in shows so I got to see all of these really I saw it shows it before they going to New York and it it got me intrigued in it and then we went to New York and they take me to shows and then then then my father got tired of seeing mainstream stuff so he takes me at the age of 15 we go down to a thing called the Washington Theatre Club which was really the first initial outside of arena real step forward and they were doing stuff by UNESCO and Brendan Behan and Beckett and he's he's taken a fifteen year old down and but it was great great stuff and so I got hooked on it and I always thought and then I ended up I wrote plays that's where I thought I'd be I thought I'd be a playwright and then then I discovered that the fastest way that your play could be read is if you actually took your play and put it in a bottle and and then if you threw it in the Potomac River eventually someone would find it and I was pretty sure that once they got the play out of the bottle they'd read it what do you do for fun I call my parents and pretend I'm somebody else just to keep them on their toes my for fun I try to read a bit when I'm in New York I spend I try to spend as much time with my friends as I can because there and and if I get a chance to go to a show or watch somebody else work that's always like thrilling to me and I play golf which is not which is not I wouldn't call it fun but there's but but your brain doesn't think about anything but stupid things like I don't think about you know there's that what am I going to do what's that joke gonna be and how we gonna talk about that today it's really um I gotta remember when I swing I have to remember to breathe in through my ass aside from your mother and father who inspired you as a youth once again my friends we're all really in a ball kind of really interesting interesting people and they were at the time and they were all really really funny here's one for you here's this is my parents were really great I say this in my actors in my youth they didn't really do anything they didn't nothing you know it's not like they were hovered over me where are you going now they would just I'd come home and my mother say it's nice to see and now go away and go play with people she didn't like track down who I was playing with and stuff and and so as a result I was able to get unbeknownst to them and I don't know why they never looked at it but I think eventually you may have but my mother will say I'm lying afterwards but I think I got a thing called the realist the realist was written by someone named Paul Krassner and it was this like you know you like it like it was pornography it was in a brown emptying a brown kind of folder thing and and then I mean they wouldn't open it and I grabbed it and open it up and it was we had a huge effect on me because I was 14 15 I won't repeat what was in it I've written about it in my book it's one of the things he had though that I can't tell you there was I opened up the like the second issue I got and there was a mat of know I'm 15 or 16 and there's all of the Disney characters done by a D guy from Disney an artist and and they're all doing the most perverse things you can imagine so Mickey shooting up it's like it was lit and I looked in the first you go oh it was really changed for somebody who was born and raised on Davy Crockett died this put everything into perspective that really shook up my world but Martin Luther King the Marx Brothers you know the not so much I mean John Kennedy in the sense of you know you there's a kid and when you're like you know a kid he's great and he's like you can you actually want to hear what he has to say boy that was extraordinary there was just you know they're all of those people there was a sense of that you Fulbright Wayne Morris I got an endless list you know and as you said Carlin Bruce all of them Shelley Berman Bob Newhart there are others you can go to my website thank you for that was the penultimate question and thank you for the expansive answer we are almost out of time but before asking the last question we have a couple of housekeeping matters to take care of first of all I like to remind everybody that there are some upcoming events and we already mentioned but first on April 21st next Monday Deborah Hersman the outgoing chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board will give her farewell address at a National Press Club breakfast on April 23rd US Air Force chief of staff general mark Welsh will discuss the future of the Air Force also at breakfast and on May 27th as we revealed a few minutes ago Donald Trump president of the Trump Organization will speak at a luncheon just like our guest today next I'd like to present our guests with the traditional National Press Club mug oh I'm gonna sell it to my parents I'm going to arrange that we give a mug to your parents don't leave without it we're gonna arrange two bugs for your parent the last question let's presume that John Stewart is watching us here on c-span please explain to him why he too should speak at a National Press Club luncheon he won't do it John Lewis here and let me just tell you that you're really gonna want to do this the pay is unbelievable to think I worked here an hour and I'm getting 150,000 dollars had I had access to a really nice condo downtown it was right across from the Verizon Center free tickets to both the caps and the Wizards game and every meal was comped by the Press Club they give you a credit card just take it Lou so you're really gonna want to do it and no you should do it because you really you'll get a kick out of this you really will and if you do do it I need 10% thank you so much for coming today oh we got three minutes all right let's Ledger this gonna be really fast um no just I really appreciate this is kind of a privilege to speak here I didn't know who I'd be speaking to I still don't know who you are why you showed up but it's it really was I was I was honored to be here and and also I just wanted you to know that I'm I wanna the only other thing I want to mention is the fact that and I mean this I did three USO tours I think that that you we are there's a big bill coming from the military we we have a lot to pay for for that war in terms of the what the what those folks went through you're gonna have to pony up there's no ifs ands or buts about it that this attentions got to be paid to these people I've spent a lot of time with them they're unbelievable their sacrifice was absolutely extraordinary and if and if every American had 10% of the sacrifice of any of those in the military then we'd have no problems in this country today thanks thank you to all for coming today thank you for those of you watching on c-span for tuning in I'd also like to thank the National Press Club staff including its journalism Institute in broadcast Center for organizing today's event also if you'd like to get a copy of today's program and maybe there will be a lot of requests for copies of today's program or to get more information about the National Press Club please check out our website at

Channel: The National Press Club

Views: 374,073

Keywords: NPC, National Press Club, Lewis Black (Author), Back in Black, The Daily Show, Donald Trump

Id: CXANL8m6cfg

Length: 59min 32sec (3572 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 14 2014