I just picked the black hat to wear because it was free and relatively clean.

Standing in line at the pharmacy in Fountain Hills, Az, home of Sheriff Joe and his posse, I didn’t expect anyone would notice.

“Is that a Lewis Black shirt,” a round-faced lady in her 60’s or 70’s asked.

I got the hat as part of a Lewis Black giveaway.

We will ignore the word salad error — confusing shirt and hat. Lewis Black fans are surprising old — not all of them can afford the prevagen that he is taking. (That’s funny if you have heard his routine about Jelly Fish).

More surprisingly, she spotted the hat while I was turned toward the pharmacist.   She had to spot it with just looking at the “L and B”…

Shocking, that someone in Fountain Hills would even know who Lewis Black is. This is the Republican stronghold of Sheriff Joe and Trump rallies.  Fountain Hills Blvd. is loaded with churches. Presbyterians, Catholics and two flavors of Lutherans.

You have to look hard to find the one and only temple. Not to put too fine a point on it, but many more Lewis Black fans light the menorah than take communion.

Finding the one other Lewis Black fan in Fountain Hills is like finding a good steak at the vegan colony.

“I’m a big fan,” she said.

Did I reach out to make her feel welcome?

Fuck No.

Did I connect on some human level to let her know that she was not alone in this conservative world?

Fuck No.

I did what the hat did.

I quietly flipped her off and smiled.

“Me too.” I said.

Updated – Lewis Black reads my rant

April 25, 2021

I was listening to Lewis Black’s “Rantcast” as I was driving to Fountain Hills. And holy shit, Lewis Black was reading this Fountain Hills story on his podcast, as I was passing the sign “Welcome to Fountain Hills.”

With the pandemic, Lewis Black hasn’t been able to tour and do his theater shows. Instead, he has been collecting rants from fans on his website, and reading them on the podcast. It’s a little different without the audience, but it’s still fucking cool that someone is reading this shit.

Here’s the audio file.

He said some other shit about me, but we are going to let that pass without comment. He read the rant back in December, but it has taken me this long to catch up on his podcast.