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Black Forecast for Weather Channel
Tue Nov 08,10:55 PM ET
Talk about your severe weather warning.
Daily Show resident ranter and self-proclaimed weatherman watcher Lewis Black is blowing in to the Weather Channel.
The comic has been tapped to enliven the meteorologically minded basic cable staple, taping multiple segments that will begin airing Wednesday night.
"I'm going to make my transition to weatherman soon," Black joked Tuesday via phone from his Manhattan apartment.
The comic, best known for his Thursday "Back in Black" diatribes on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, is the first of several celebrities the Atlanta-based Weather Channel hopes to recruit to shake up its typical servings of five-day forecasts and storm alerts.
"I had more material on weather than anyone else, I guess," says Black. He claims he was an avid watcher of the channel "back when I was traveling a lot [on the road as a standup comic], between airport security and the weather...I just wanted to be prepared for sitting in the airport."
So far, Black has taped "five or six" segments, each about two minutes long ("I'm the two-minute guy," cracks Black), including a riff on global warming taped Monday that may become a regular feature.
"They gave me free rein," he says.
Black, 57, will also get to play with the network's maps and interact with the network's on-air personalities, whom Black calls "terrific."
"We'll see if it works out," he says.
Black's career has been on a tornadic tear lately. Aside from his Weather Channel and Daily Show gigs, he will appear in two films next year: the political satire Man of the Year with Robin Williams and the high-school slacker comedy Accepted.
Black on Broadway, a DVD of his incendiary standup, was released in January, and he was featured in a cover story in the New York Times Magazine in March. Black also continues to hit the road, with stops next week in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento.
And to what does he attribute his increased exposure?
"I was rooting for the baby Jesus, and finally he started rooting for me."
