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Chris Rock: Live at the Comedy Connection, Boston, 7/29/03Jul 30 '03 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Rock put on a solid show, that while slow in spots, always made you think, even if it didn't always make you laugh.
The list of comedic performers I love is huge. From Penn and Teller to the late John Belushi, my tastes are wide and varied. However, there are two comics who I think the world of, two who make me laugh harder than anyone else. The first is George Carlin, perhaps the greatest comedic mind ever. The second is Chris Rock, formerly of Saturday Night Live, and the star of such movies as Head of State, Down to Earth and Bad Company. Rock has moved away from stand up in recent years, concentrating not only on movies, but on his now canceled late night show on HBO. That's changed this summer as he's doing dates in selected cities, testing out new material before hosting the MTV Video Music Awards in August. I was lucky enough to see one of only two shows Rock performed here in Boston last night (he canceled Monday's shows due to strep throat). The performance was very good, although it was very obvious that the material was a work in progress. Despite some flow problems with regards to timing and punchlines, Rock was vibrant, creative, and even ponderous over the course of his 70 minute set. He hit his usual topics such as racism, relationships and marriage. But he also moved into current events, starting off with Kobe Bryant ("he bought her a 4 million dollar ring...a million for every year he's gonna be in jail!"), and moving quickly onto rapper 50 Cent: "I saw an article about 50 Cent that said 'Luckiest Man Alive.' Shot nine times and he lived. Motherf*cker, if he's so lucky, he wouldn't have been shot 9 times in the first place." This of course led to the first real Rock racial tirade of the night, where he spouted off: "White man makes guns, no problem. Black rapper says 'guns,' congressional hearing." His focus on the situation with regards to terrorism and the war was blurred, as he went on more of a political rant. He did get some nice jabs in ("we took over the whole f*cking country in two weeks, you couldn't take over New Hampshire in two weeks!"), but it was this part of the set that felt the longest and the most overly drawn out. He smartly moved on to racism, where he made a bevy of extremely funny and poignant points ("A black C student: no better than a janitor. A white C student: could be president of the United States. Hell, a white C student IS president of the United States!") From there, he went on to talk about the difference between being rich and being wealthy ("Shaq is rich, the white guy who signs his checks is WEALTHY"), and then added in a nice imaginary conversation between said owner and Shaq: "here ya go Shaq, go buy yourself one of them bouncing cars or something." While the show did drag at times, it was certainly never boring, and if Rock wasn't hitting a punchline with full force, it was because he is still in the midst of fine tuning this material. Rock's opener, Mario Joyner, did an excellent half hour opening set that touched on family, relationships, and again, racism. His flow of set ups and punchlines was near flawless, and he really won the crowd over. For those looking to check out Rock, he'll be in Hoover, Alabama next week, and in West Palm Beach, Florida from Aug 14-17. His full tour schedule is up at www.chrisrockenterprises.com.  |
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