Chicago-born Michael Ian Black will be recording a comedy album while performing stand-up at the Lakeshore Theater on July 13. Also performing that night will be fellow Stella comedy troupe member Michael Showalter. Black has written for McSweeney's, had a memorable turn in "Wet Hot American Summer," and is a frequent snarky commentator on VH1 shows, clips of which can be seen here.

You're coming out to Chicago to our Lakeshore Theater.

I am.

What are you going to be doing there? You are by yourself, we usually see you with other people, at least that's what we're used to on TV, and I've seen you in Stella.

Well, I'll be telling jokes primarily, into a microphone, and hope that people will find them funny. But I'll actually be performing, well, I won't be performing with, but my friend Michael Showalter, who I work with all the time, will also be performing on the bill that night. Stand-up is a fairly new career path for me, so I'm going to be recording my first album at those shows in Chicago, and I'm looking forward to it.

And you're a 'jokes' stand-up comedian?

Yeah, I guess so, I mean, I guess that's exactly what it is. Stand-up to me, the term, has sort of connotations that I don't necessarily think that my work describes, but yeah, I mean, it's stand-up comedy. I'm standing up, and I'm telling jokes, so.

Well, I ask because stand-up is such a broad term—all sorts of performers get lumped into that same category: people who just straight-up tell jokes vs people who tell funny stories, vs people who are just weird. Maria Bamford was onstage a few weeks ago, and she spends half her time onstage just making weird noises and it's delightful, but they're not jokes. So that's why I asked.

I'm sort of a combination of all those things. Probably not so much on the weird noises part. Unless I have some more Burger King onion rings, which I had yesterday, and I was making weird noises as a result of that.

Out of your mouth, or out of your butt?

It was not out of my mouth, I'm afraid.

Oh, that's too bad.

Yeah.

So you did some talk show stuff—you did a stint on the Late Late Show and people liked it. Did you like it? Do you want to do more of that?

It was a lot of fun. It was a great experience. And would I do more? Yeah, if the situation were right, I would do more, but it's hard to find that kind of situation that's right.

You said stand-up is a recent thing to you, you've dabbled in talk shows, you've done a lot of writing, you've done a lot of sketch—is there one of those that you consider your forte or your passion and you do the other things to pay the bills, or do you consider yourself a performer and they're all aspects of it?

It's all of a piece. It's kind of like whatever's interesting at the moment. So right now, stand-up is fun and interesting; I'm having a great time with it.

You're a great actor. Do you have an acting philosophy or do you come at it out of your sketch?

I wish I had more of a philosophy—I'm not that good at it. I think it's just mostly stand there and say the words and try not to get in your own way too much. I'm from the Jim Belushi school of acting. I don't really know what that is, I just threw out a random Chicago person.

Yes, we love our...

...your Belushi brothers.

Yeah, we love our Belushi brothers in Chicago. Why no dildos in the TV Stella?

Well, we had spent a lot of time really exploring the dildo milieu in our internet shorts. By the time we got to television, it felt like we had really really done about as much with dildos as you possibly could.

So it wasn't any pressure, you just were done with that.

We felt ourselves done. Yes.

One last question: my wife asks--why are you so awesome?

I don't think your wife knows me very well.

-Fuzzy Gerdes