| Our guide to spending your comedy dollar By Julie Seabaugh | ||
LEWIS BLACK | KEVIN JAMES | |
EARLY SUCCESS | Acting and playwright skills earned him stint as head of Colorado repertory company after graduating Yale, ran West Bank Café theater in NYC for eight years. | Scored a TV development deal at the 1996 Montreal Comedy Festival. |
COMEDIC STYLE | Acerbic exasperation over all things political. | Uber-clean, everyman take on phone numbers, jet skis, and Big Macs. |
ACTING PROWESS | Paul in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters, weekly sociopolitical rants on Comedy Central's The Daily Show. | Doug Heffernan on King of Queens, the undateable Albert in Hitch, the straight-to-video Grilled with Ray Romano. |
ACCOLADES | 2001 American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Stand-Up Comedian. | Nominated this month for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Emmy. |
TYPICAL BIT | "If you want to elect George Bush, that's the prick I'm going to yell about. If you elect John Kerry, I'm gonna yell about him My problem is with— huh huh—authority!" | "How big are muffins going to get?... 'Yeah, I'll have a coffee, and, oh my God, I'll have the beanbag chair with raisins!'" |
LEWIS BLACK Where: Hollywood Theatre at MGM Grand. When: July 27-August 2, 9 p.m. Price: $60. Info: 891-7777. KEVIN JAMES Where: Danny Gans Theatre at The Mirage. When: July 28 and 29, August 4 and 5, 10:30 p.m. Price: $75. Info: 800-963-9634. | ||