#94 - Unprecedented

It has come to your host’s attention that some in the audience are upset with and/or annoyed by the rubber chicken. Maybe they don’t understand the importance of the rubber chicken in the history of American comedy, especially on the Vaudeville circuit. Many of those old Vaudeville theatres still exist, and Lewis will be performing at several of them in the coming months including the Paramount Theatre in Rutland VT, the Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, IN, and the Fox Theatre in Tucson, AZ. From coast to coast the spirit of Vaudeville lives on in these venues, where the appearance of a rubber chicken would not elicit a hint of controversy or surprise. But without the proper historical context, appearances by the rubber chicken in more modern forms of media have unleashed an unprecedented level of criticism. So, we want to hear from you the audience; should the rubber chicken stay or go? Let us know in the comments. As for the events of the week, the word unprecedented applies to many of them. Unprecedented implies an event that has never happened before, or could not have been expected to happen given the circumstances. It is something new, novel, surprising, or original. If the event could have been foreseen, it should not be described as unprecedented. So, let’s all back away from the feigned surprise at the Pete Davidson/Kim Kardashian breakup. What was unprecedented this week was the FBI serving a former president with a search warrant and searching his property for classified documents. Also unprecedented is a former president keeping top secret documents in his home. (To be clear, the latter is the cause of the former.) In other unprecedented news from the crime blotter, a man was arrested for using a finger-gun to rob paper napkins from a Waffle House. The only unsurprising thing about both of these alleged crimes is that they happened in Florida. The rants cover a range of topical topics including abortion, trans rights, the separation of church and state, home buying, and working at the VA. And to add to the unprecedented events of the week, we have a rant in support of winter. Want to see Lewis live? Tickets are available here: https://www.lewisblack.com/tickets Check out Lewis’ Grammy-nominated special, Thanks For Risking Your Life https://tlbrecords.lnk.to/LewisWE SUBMIT RANTS TO LEWIS https://www.lewisblack.com/live SUBSCRIBE TO THE RANTCAST https://www.lewisblacksrantcast.com FOLLOW LEWIS www.lewisblack.com www.youtube.com/officiallewisblack www.instagram.com/thelewisblack www.facebook.com/thelewisblack www.twitter.com/thelewisblack www.tiktok.com/@thelewisblack New episodes arrive every Wednesday. For advertising opportunities/contact email: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices