Skokie café Will’s Place played host to actor and comedian Lewis Black on the afternoon of Oct. 9, during school hours. While in Skokie on a standup comedy tour, Black greeted a long line of customers who had come to see him.

Black is famous for his profanity-laden, comically angry rants. In addition to his standup, he has worked on the long-running comedy TV series The Daily Show, and played the role of Anger in Pixar’s animated Inside Out movie series.

Will’s Place, which had invited Black as a guest barista, was Dance Marathon’s beneficiary for the 2023–2024 school year. The café, which opened in July 2023, provides employment and vocational skills to young adults with disabilities; people in this group often struggle to find employment after they age out of federal disability accommodations at age 22. Will’s Place is named after Will Schlegal, son of founder Joan Hallagan.

North Star News reporters had the opportunity to speak to Lewis Black about his career in entertainment and his connections to Skokie.

What is your connection with Skokie? Well, I’ve performed in Skokie a lot over the past 20 some odd years out at the theater here. An old friend of mine from theater school, her whole family is involved in [Will’s Place]. She said, “You should come out to see it,” and I said, “Great!” That’s the reason I came out here.

What’s your favorite role you’ve ever played? Well, I should say Inside Out 2 (2024), but my favorite role was [in] Accepted (2006). You haven’t seen it, it’s really good. It’s about a college that [children created for] people who didn’t get accepted into other colleges. I played a dean (Uncle Ben) who’s kind of the last person you would hire to be the dean.

Did you have any regrets throughout your career? Oh yeah, you’d be nuts if you didn’t. But I’ve had a really good career, so I can regret all I want but people would be going, “Really? You’re gonna cry about that?” Everything has kind of worked out, but I dealt with some jacka**** I shouldn’t have. I was never good at business or show business and I’ve worked with some real a*******.

What is your advice to aspiring comics, actors, and writers? Just do it. Just do it, and do it again, and then do it again, and do it again. Get a group of people you like to work with. So, if you want to be a comic, get three or four people who like you and pick your spot to do an open mic night. Or, do a reading of a play. But work, and work. The shortest distance between two points is to keep doing it, that’s it. If you’re writing, wake up and write. If you’re doing stand-up, it doesn’t matter if [you’re] three people in the world, you’re still doing stand-up. It doesn’t matter if you’re five people in the world, you’re still reading a play. You can do all of that together as one thing.

What are you most excited for in the future? Not having to do a lot of stuff [laughs].