Chris Rock

[ahah]

I think it’s possible that another reason to choose Baltimore was that people would obsess over whether or not it was intentional generating more attention to the special.

[WestEndGirl]

Mar 7, 2023 21:01:12 GMT -4 peace47 said:

Mar 7, 2023 13:48:53 GMT -4 WestEndGirl said:

I saw Chris on his tour last year. At the time, he wasn’t yet talking about the slap in his set. I saw him in Baltimore.

So when they announced he was coming back to Baltimore to film this special (which seems to have a lot of the same material), I wondered why but I didn’t think it had to do with Jada. Do most people even know it is her hometown or associate it with her? I don’t know.. There is a column in the local paper lambasting him for choosing to film here as an attack on her.

I do strongly associate Jada with Baltimore due to her friendship with Tupac, which started there. That would be pretty psycho if Chris purposely chose to film in Baltimore based on her association with the city, but I don’t know that I have thoughts on the intentionality of it. I haven’t seen the special yet, but my ultra-conservative father, who hates most stand-up, most comedy in general and most media that has a lot of profanity, is perplexingly, like, Chris Rock’s #1 fan, and he watched the special and remarked to me that Chris seemed to exude a vibe that he didn’t really want to be there and seemed a bit dour and cranky, in contrast to how much joy he has shown in previous specials.

Funnily enough, I went to his tour show with my father, who is also a huge fan. We’ve never seen him live, even though he’s played locally before. I should caveat that my dad mainly likes his stand-up from his first two specials and the more PG content (like, “nobody ever appreciates dad. Nobody comes home and thanks dad for paying the bills: ‘sure is easy to read with all this light!’. All dad gets is the big piece of chicken at dinner.”)

My dad thought the April 2022 show was “ok” and Chris wasn’t as sharp as he used to be, since over the years he’s just more and more famous/rich and removed from his observations. At our show, he came out and there were people in the front row talking to him before he got started. We all had to lock up our phones. I vaguely remember that someone said something to him and he asked them their name and they said “Jada” (loud enough that we could hear) and he was like, ‘really!?’ in an exasperated voice. He also seemed cranky to me at our show.

[Ginger]

Out of curiosity, I looked up where Chris has filmed his previous specials:
-Big Ass Jokes (1994) - Atlanta
-Bring the Pain (1996) -Takoma Theater, DC
-Bigger & Blacker (1999) - Apollo Theater, Harlem
-Never Scared (2004) - DAR Constitution Hall, DC
-Kill the Messenger (2008) - Johanessburg, London, & Apollo Theater, Harlem
-Tamborine (2018) - Brooklyn
-Selective Outrage (2023) - Baltimore

Baltimore fits logically into that list. It's not a choice that begs for explanation or suggests some ulterior motive.

[americanchai]

I'm from Maryland and most of my family still lives in that area and I had no idea Jada was from Baltimore.

I watched Chris's special last night and thought it was a solid comedy show. I thought most of it was good. I can totally understand why he would still have pure rage while talking about the Will and Jada issue. I can't imagine the work that's gone into how he was going to talk about that but I really think his take was as deeply truthful as you could be about your feelings on the matter and he's 100% entitled to that.

On an unrelated note, I liked his story about letting his daughter get expelled for doing something dumb to teach her a life lesson and bring her down a peg.

[cremetangerine82]

I saw Chris Rock in Boston (The Wang Theatre) right before the 2008 presidential elections. It was funny, especially how the (then-potential) first African-American POTUS has the blackest name ever. It was so funny, I laughed so hard I started to wheeze. His set was fire and he killed. So, I've loved his work for his deft balance of gut-busting comedy and incisive to the bone social commentary.

Also, he was one of the few comedians who had a lack of homophobic jokes ("you're homophobic, you're gonna have a gay son!"). However, I have noticed his explicit misogyny, so this isn't just a "Chris has a grudge against Jada". I saw his divorce coming like two trains on the same track, and I not surprised it was because of his cheating.

He was apologetic to Wanda Sykes for ruining her historic Oscar hosting* (an apology he didn't have to make AT ALL), so that should count as a mark of good character.

*For the first time since 1927, three women hosting the Oscars. Amy Schumer shouldn't have been one of them.