Michael Ian Black is very famous

Irony is the stock-in-trade of actor/comedian Michael Ian Black, who bills himself as “Very Famous Celebrity” and attracts nicknames such as “The Marm of Smarm.” Black emerged in the mid-’90s as a member of the sketch comedy team “The State” with a well-honed skillset for playing sarcastic, hipper-than-thou douchebags. Performing at Georgia Tech’s Ferst Center on Thurs., Sept. 8, Black could be Bill Paxton’s city slicker cousin, only with the arch demeanor of Craig Kilborn or a young Chevy Chase.

But Black isn’t just another insincerely grinning face. In his stand-up he’ll undercut his faux-arrogance with moments of nonsense or self-awareness. On his new live album, Very Famous, he initially presents himself as a wiseass who enjoys pranking hapless bystanders. When Black describes ways to bedevil your seatmate on an airplane, the audience both laughs and sympathizes with his dupe.

At times he launches on absurdist tangents: What would be it like if, instead of semen, men produced Diet Dr. Pepper? Or a single pinecone? Black demonstrates an extreme-close-up form of observational humor, such as his breakdown of the annoying quality of lip smacking “banana noises.”