by Dane Youssef
This is one of the funniest and perhaps greatest stand-up bits ever made. And I have seen more than my fair share.
I had seen Rock mostly from bit comedic parts. Films like "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "Beverly Hills Ninja." Not to mention "Boomerang." But I was unaware to this man genius with a mike for the longest time (too long, in my opinion).
Rock is mostly known as "The angry, loud little black guy bitching how the white man is trying to personally keep him down." But he's so much more. He speaks with such insight and eloquence about humanity and the races and the sexes, I think of him as a superman or some prodigy.
His theories here: Women who want to raise kids without a man's help, respect and appreciation for Daddy, fat black women, people's obsession with the OJ trial and how white people bitch about their current financial status. But given the choice... they wouldn't trade places with a black man. Not even him.
"And I'm rich!" he exclaims.
Not even the poor white trash. Or the one-legged busboy busing the concert. "That's how GOOD it is to be white!"
Maybe he's right.
"When you're white, the sky's the limit! When you're black, the limit's the sky!"
He goes into other stuff. Where guys hide their porno. What women are truly thinking. Perhaps he's the only man who truly knows. He also has some great childhood stuff about being the only black kid at his school at how Robitussin was an all-purpose medicine at his house. Like people use to think leeches were.
This is a gem on film. The man created gold when he's given a microphone and a stage. I bought the tape a year later and a lot of Rock's others. I'm serious. It's so incredible, funny and true to life and painfully on target that at times we flinch when he aims directly at us. It's almost scary.
May Chris Rock be forever immortalized in the same status as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Eddie Murphy and Bill Hicks. Every generation (just once) every generation... a creature as divine as this is born into this pitiful mortal world... and changes it forever.
Now the black Def Jam comics who have made their own showcase vehicles, "The Original Kings of Comedy" and "The Queens of Comedy." They are very talented and amazing. Like I even need to say so. I'm preaching to the choir, aren't I? But even they're not in Chris Rock's league.
Rock is up there (as far as I'm concerned) with those who redefined comedy and now the modern comics incorporate it into their act, without even knowing where the hell it first came from. Who was the innovator. Who started it all.
Here is a man who deserves the success Seinfeld has had. Maybe if he had a revolutionary sit-com with his own brand of comedy. Who knows?
The sky's the limit for Rock.
I hope he makes another stand-up concert film. I liked his stand-up concert bits in "Head of State." Let's hope he does more.
This concert film is more than a gem, but a treasure. Look for any of his others. One of the best stand-up concert films ever made, if not actually THE best. Worthy of being put-up on par with "Richard Pryor Live On The Sunset Strip" and "Eddie Murphy Raw," this one richly deserves a 10 out of 10.
Enough said.
--For The Rock That Rocks... Hard, Dane Youssef
