Julia Weber
Staff writer
Chautauqua, your rant is due.
Comedian Lewis Black — and special guests — will present an array of Chautauqua’s finest complaints about anything and everything during his 500th performance of “The Rant is Due” at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Ampitheater.
Black partnered with the Institution and Jamestown’s National Comedy Center to curate a week of lectures and evening entertainment focusing on the contemporary role of comedy.
“Lewis Black has been an amazing co-curator because he has been able to pick up the phone and call comedians that are incredibly relevant today,” said Deborah Sunya Moore, senior vice president and chief program officer at the Institution.
“Working with him and our partners at the National Comedy Center has ensured that this is a week that has many different voices in comedy,” she said.
Black has made many appearances at the Institution since he first took the Amp stage for a morning lecture in 2017. On Monday, Week Two’s “Comedy Now: A Week Curated with Lewis Black” opened with a roundtable discussion between Pete Docter, chief creative officer of Pixar and director of “Inside Out” and executive producer of “Inside Out 2,” Kelsey Mann, director of “Inside Out 2,” and Black, who is a voice actor in “Inside Out” and “Inside Out 2.”
Black will also introduce the screenings of “Inside Out” and “Inside Out 2” at 3:15 and 6 p.m., respectively, today at the Chautauqua Cinema. Additionally, there will be two readings of Black’s play The Deal at 4 and 7 p.m. Thursday in Bratton Theater.
Moore is looking forward to a fun-filled performance of Chautauqua’s rants and raves. She encouraged Chautauquans to submit their rants at therantisdue.com ahead of — or evening during — the show and said that attendees can expect to see not just Black on the Amp stage, but an array of special guests, including fellow comedians and Chautauqua community members, as well.
“This is your chance to write a rant of anything that annoys you. It can be something that makes you really angry, and it can be something that you find to be a daily annoyance, but we want to see what writers are out there and what it is here in Chautauqua, at home, or in the world that’s bothering you,” she said.
“Let’s make an evening of hysterical rants together,” she said.
