His new comedy album and Comedy Central special are called “I Am A Wonderful Man,” but Michael Ian Black admits that a lot of his comedy comes from his less-than-wonderful moments.
“[I] try to bring the best parts of myself to [the act], by acknowledging that [I’m] a horrible person, and saying to the audience ‘It’s OK, you are a horrible person too,’ ” says Black, known for MTV’s cult sketch show “The State,” VH1’s “I Love the ’80s” and, recently, for his Sierra Mist ads.
“Nobody would laugh if that [wasn’t] true,” he says. “I love those kind of reactions, where people are a little unsure of whether its OK to laugh or not.”
He laughs when told that “I Am a Wonderful Man” is a little like Denis Leary’s debut comedy album “No Cure For Cancer,” in that both are a little topical, and then a little wrong.
“Thank you,” he says. “Although it’s really more wrong that topical.”
Throughout his career, Black’s created a number of memorable characters, all variations of “the loser,” he says — Phil, the odd but endearing bowling alley manager on NBC’s “Ed,” “Johnny Blue Jeans,” the tight pants-wearing Eurotrash variety show sidekick on Comedy Central’s short-lived “Viva Variety” and even the overexcited spokespuppet dog for pets.com.
And then there’s his work on VH1’s “I Love the (Fill in the Decade).” Black’s segments, particularly, are funny because he seems to be taking the historical aspect of Furbees and Knight Rider so very seriously.
“You sit there and try to think of something funny to say,” he says. “But the nice thing is, videotape is cheap. Sometimes I just don’t know what to say, and a lot of the time, you don’t know that you have an opinion about something until you’re asked about it. For instance, take Strawberry Shortcake. I couldn’t tell you what my opinion of Strawberry Shortcake was necessarily, but I will develop one.”
More Top Picks Best Sensory Swings For Adults
Although Black’s branched out into acting, he says stand-up “remains pretty close to me. I’m a real sap at heart, but I’m not real sappy as a stand-up.”
But that doesn’t mean, he says, that it doesn’t get to him when audiences are mean, as it was with an uncharitable crowd at a show in post-Katrina New Orleans.
“When that happens,” he cracks, “you just run off stage crying. Your job as a stand-up is to make them laugh or to feel as bad about themselves as possible.”