WDBJ7 Roanoke News and Weather NRV Lynchburg Danville | Comedian Michael Ian Black performs at Virginia Tech
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A familiar face to cable TV audiences paid a visit to our area this week.
Michael Ian Black stars in the Comedy Central series "Michael and Michael Have Issues," along with fellow comedian Michael Showalter.
We caught up with Black as he prepared to take the stage on Virginia Tech's campus.
Comedian Michael Ian Black may be a relative stranger to southwest Virginia but he's making the most of his brief trip.
He told News 7 that he had gone to the caverns, the wax museum, and the toy museum at Natural Bridge shortly after coming into town.
The sarcasm-loving comedian was on Virginia Tech's campus as part of "Laugh Riot 2009" earlier this week.
Black is comfortable with performing in front of college crowds. He says his comedy appeals to younger audiences mainly because they're the one ones who can are able to get out of the house/
Black is hitting the road in support of his comedy central show "Michael and Michael Have Issues."
The two longtime collaborators have been appearing together for close to 20 years, including their work on the cult MTV sketch show "The State" and movies like "Wet Hot American Summer". It allows for a blend of two different approaches to humor.
Black said, "we kind of wanted to play ourselves in some capacity, but we also did want to have the ability to do character and put on stupid costumes and do sketches. So the way the show evolved is sort of the desire to marry different desires into one television show."
The often combative nature of their on-stage relationship lays the groundwork for the show, which goes behind the scenes of the pair's fictitious sketch comedy show.
He said that there is a lot of familiarity on set and that "as a consequence, there's a lot of contempt."
So why continue working together?
Black answered, "I don't know if you know the band Oasis, The Gallager Boys, Noel and Liam, they're constantly at each other's throats and they work together all the time. That's like us. One of them has terrible eyebrows, one of us has terrible eyebrows. Not me, and when I say terrible eyebrows, what I mean is he's fat."
All joking aside, Black says things are looking good for "Michael and Michael Have Issues" getting picked up for a second season.
Comedy Central plans to start re-airing the first season later this month.
