If you’ve ever seen “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central, you know Lewis Black. He’s the really mad guy waving his hands around while making fun of everyone and everything.

He is, by turns, the most pissed-off man in America and one of America’s best stand-up comics. His ability to carve the most serious topic to its usually ridiculous core is hilarious, to say the least.

Currently Black is touring the country, doing the “college circuit,” and working in film, television and with various charities. Black brings his comedy styling to Madison’s Orpheum Theater this coming Monday.

“I love performing in college towns, and Madison is a great city,” Black said in a recent phone interview with The Badger Herald. The UNC-Chapel Hill and Yale alum went on to discuss and answer five key questions on the state of America today.

1. Badger Herald: What do you really think of Jon Stewart?

Lewis Black: I actually like him. He’s very nice, but he makes me sick.
He has my life, the great job, and a lovely wife. I get two minutes a week; he gets the whole show.

BH: So you envy him?

LB: I don’t have time for envy; my schedule is too grueling, and he’s a really nice guy.

2. BH: What do you think of Potter Mania?

LB: Fortunately, I don’t have any children, so I don’t think of it.

BH: Well, how do you feel about it from the outside looking in?

LB: It beats the hell out of that whole Davy Crockett thing. At least we’ll have kids into witchcraft instead of running around with guns. It’s shaping up to be a nationwide Black Sabbath cult.

3. BH: What do you think of President Bush and the bombings in Afghanistan?

LB: It’s interesting to watch a president learn on the job.

BH: Does he give you a lot of fodder?

LB: Yes, but people get so upset if I joke about it. You know, there are a lot of whiners out there. Right now it seems like Bush is our high-school class president at Homecoming, and the Taliban is the away team that we have to beat. We’re headed for bake sales and car washes.

4. BH: What do you think of Comedy Central as a whole?

LB: Comedy Central is a hole.

BH: Other than the network being a hole, is there anything you like about it?

LB: They put me on the air. It took a long time and a lot of work to get here, so I’m grateful.

5. BH: Who is you favorite ‘NSync member?

LB: (laughs) I don’t even know their names.

BH: Good answer.