Comedian uses stage as an outlet for venting

Lewis Black has never been exactly mild-mannered, but the comic known for his manic, finger-wagging stage persona seems more angry than usual of late.

It might have something to do with who occupies the White House.

“The level of ‘appalling’ continues to go beyond anything that I’ve imagined,” Black said of politics in the Donald Trump era.

During his decades as a stand-up comedian and correspondent on “The Daily Show,” Black has always spoken his mind. The 69-year-old will bring his “Joke’s on Us” tour to the Palace Theatre on Thursday, his first Columbus appearance since 2014.

Black had a lot to say about the world today in a recent interview with The Dispatch. A sampling:

You’ve been joking about social issues and politics in your comedy for years. Did you ever foresee the level of discord and animosity escalating to what the country is dealing with today?

I did a lot of hallucinogens as a kid, and I came up with all sorts of paranoid fantasies. This was not one of them.

It provokes anxiety in people — it does in me. I can only watch part of a news cycle.

You mentioned this pervasive anxiety that many people feel. But how important is it for you as a comedian to alleviate that anxiety for a while and make people laugh?

In part, I’m a human Xanax. At times I’m up there (onstage), and I do wonder: “What’s my job? If the satire is happening in real time in front of me, what’s my job?”

It seems people are still happy to see me just to have somebody yell and scream about it — to get it off their chest. The interesting thing about it is, the Trump voters, more than any other group, the most backlash comes from them. They’re enraged about my yelling about Trump, but they somehow missed all my jokes about (Barack) Obama.

I said the same thing about (Bill) Clinton; I said the