Of course a lot of people have already seen this [added here Oct 11]:
But fewer people saw him on the Charlie Rose show Friday night.
Chris Rock is one of those people who makes me want to do what he does. I think I enjoy hearing Chris Rock talk about comedy as much as I enjoy watching him actually do comedy… no, that isn’t true. I enjoy hearing Chris Rock talk about comedy as much as I enjoy watching anyone else do comedy.
Chris Rock is a very ambitious guy who spends a lot of time thinking about what he likes and what his influences are (and ought to be). I don’t know if there’s anyone who is as great a student of the discipline — at least not anyone with such a high profile who clearly enjoys talking about it publicly.
(Previous Charlie Rose interviews are here, here, and a much older one here.)
After watching these clips I can’t help wondering if we’ve only seen hints of what Chris Rock is capable of — it’s like the proper vehicles for his talent don’t exist yet.
One indication is that he talked about starting a film company because he thinks nobody’s really making “black movies” — just “beige movies.” He talks about the importance of thinking globally (which he credits to Will Smith’s advice), and his recent tour associated with Kill the Messenger – Rock’s latest HBO production that cuts between performances in New York, London, and Johannesburg (a concept inspired by U2’s Rattle and Hum) — is another example of him trying to expand his potential.
He directs his own movies and thinks like a strategist in broad notions, yet he is foremost a stand-up comedian, closely connected to real lives, who still works out his material in smokey clubs and insists his influential political humour has more in common with the neighbourhood barber shop than with John Stewart or Bill Maher.
And the heroes he most admires are foremost models of versatility, longevity, and professionalism: Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, who are still doing great work later in life.
Chris Rock wants to be one of those guys a few decades from now. He’s talented, ambitious, and crazy enough to accomplish that — in his own way of course, whatever that might turn out to be. Keep watching Chris Rock.
