Rock Of Ages
Chris Rock’s new HBO special was on tonight, and it was a little disappointing. Funny, sure, but not as much as Bring The Pain or especially Bigger and Blacker. And I had to wonder, with all the shit going on in this country today, with all the hype Rock gets, almost all of it deserved, why did it seem he had so little new to say?
Rock may answer that question in this MSNBC article.
“I try to make ‘em laugh, and I try to give them an insight into me and whatever I care about at that particular moment. But it’s not like, ‘You need to hear this!’ A message? That’s for other people. I’m not Public Enemy. I’m not Mort Sahl.
“I try to get a lot of relationship stuff in there,” he adds, “‘cause I think that’s what sells the seats. The politics (comedy) gets a lot of attention, but without the relationship stuff I’d be at Caroline’s playing to 320 people.”</b>
I guess I’d buy that if I thought his political comedy was wittier–again, I ain’t talking about funny, I’m talking wit. His material on the war seemed perfunctory, like he knew he had to address it before diving into his hot material about how–get this–married people tend to have less sex than single ones.
I’m not crying “sell out,” and I’m not saying “mellowed,” I’m just saying I was disappointed. Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce are dead, Pryor’s too sick to work, we need a comedian who matters.
