‘These People Are Here’

Comedian Lewis Black is only on the second leg of the tour but after an eight-and-a-half-hour flight and a sharp descent into Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, he's feeling disoriented. "I couldn't be happier to be here," he opens his monologue in his iconic growl, "wherever the f**k we are." Then, looking out at about 1500 troops who have filled an oversized tent known as the "clamshell," he adds: "You are the only people I would perform for at 9 o'clock in the morning."

Black's war zone appearance with a bevy of other entertainers, including Kid Rock and Kellie Pickler, is part of a tradition that dates back to World War II, with Christmas-time shows by the likes of Bing Crosby and the Marx Brothers. At Bagram, troops lined up long before the performance began and the celebrities clearly enjoyed the interaction. It's Black's second war zone tour and Kid Rock's fourth. When Admiral Michael Mullen introduced Rock in Bagram, he said the Grammy-nominated musician "bled red, white and blue." But the juxtaposition of artistic irreverence and military discipline could also be jarring. After a lieutenant colonel briefed the entertainers on the deterioration in Afghanistan, Kathleen Madigan quipped on stage: "What the f**k are we supposed to do? We're comics."

The tour, sponsored by the United Services Organization, also takes Black and the others to Germany, Iraq and elsewhere. Before a show in Forward Operating Base Sharana, Black sat down with NEWSWEEK's Dan Ephron for an interview. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: You strike me as one of the more irreverent and anti-establishment comics around. I think I read that Lenny Bruce was your role model.
Lewis Black: Right.

So, how does a guy like you get involved in something so establishment as the United Service Organization?
Well they asked me. That was really it. I had tried to do it before on my own. We tried to get on base when we had been touring. These guys and these women, they're out here putting in their time. It's the least I can do. The other thing is that the military became a real presence in my audience starting back in 2000. So I really felt that if my fans can't get home, I really have to get to my fans. I'd get e-mails from people here and in Iraq saying, you know, 'I like your stuff.' So it really is a reciprocation.

How have the tours changed the way you view the military?
My view has completely changed. Their concept of service so buries any form of service I've seen other people do, unless you count Mother Theresa.

And you've been a critic of the Iraq war.
Oh sure.