A lot of things are worse than they were 20 years ago, but Chris Rock says comedy actually has improved.
"It's in much better shape now than when I started," said Rock, whose 2008 standup special Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger is airing tomorrow night across Canada on the Comedy Network. It aired late last year on HBO Canada.
"When I started, you know, there's no Comedy Central (U.S. version of the Comedy Network), with all these great shows they do," Rock said in a recent conference call. "And, you know, forget being a black comic, my God. It was superstar or bust, you know what I mean?"
Uh, not really. Please explain.
"It was just Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby," the 44-year-old Rock said. "There was nowhere to be, like, the black Paul Reiser.
"You had to be a superstar or you didn't work. Now there's all sorts of levels of comedians that you didn't have before. You've got gay comedians. It's great ... It's amazing now that you don't have to do what everybody else does to have a career."
Comedy may be in better shape now than it was in 1990, when Rock entered the wider consciousness by joining the cast of Saturday Night Live. But seriously, have you seen SNL this year? We know it has become a cliche to bitch about SNL, but seriously, is there any way we could convince Rock to go back?
Failing that, we'll have to go elsewhere to get our piece of the rock. Earlier this month, he provided one of the voices for the new animated holiday special Merry Madagascar, which aired on NBC.
"It kind of gets you with a younger (crowd)," said Rock, when asked about his willingness in recent years to do voice work for animated movies. "I mean, you get some of that Hannah Montana money. You get in with the kids and that definitely can't hurt."
Of course, Rock did have his own TV show for four years, namely, the underrated Everybody Hates Chris. The title was a parody of Everybody Loves Raymond and it featured a young actor (Tyler James Williams) playing a character based on a young Rock, with the real Rock providing narration.
The CW network formally cancelled Everybody Hates Chris earlier this year, and Rock said he doesn't have anything else in the hopper with regard to series TV.
"Nothing, I need a new one man," Rock said. "That was a good weekly cheque."
As far as Kill the Messenger is concerned, it's an amalgamation of the best bits in three of Rock's live performances, set in Johannesburg, South Africa; New York; and London.
Here's a small taste.
Rock to the crowd in Johannesburg, talking about the experience of going on safari in Africa with his family: "I was taking pictures of rhinos, I was taking pictures of zebras, and I felt great until I looked over at another Jeep and saw a bunch of white people taking pictures of me."
Everybody Hates Chris? The evidence over the past two decades does not back that up. Who do you think he is, the black Paul Reiser?
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