Friday, March 16, 2007

ONE RIB. I SURE AM HUNGRY: It's hard to believe -- but it's true -- that I've now been following Chris Rock's career for twenty years now, since his HBO debut on Uptown Comedy Express, a standup in 1987 with fellow standups Arsenio Hall, Barry Sobel, Marsha Warfield and Robert Townsend.

So it's about damn time that we finally may have a start-to-finish good movie with Chris Rock, and according to the WaPo and NYT, I Think I Love My Wife is that movie, though Carrie Rickey and others have doubts.

I don't know that a movie can ever capture Rock's talents, but unless HBO brings back his brilliant talk show, what's he supposed to do -- 200 standup dates in arenas every year? (Actually, since I'm in Las Vegas as I'm writing this, could he successfully set himself up as a permanent attraction at one of the hotels, as do artists as diverse as Celine Dion, Toni Braxton, Rita Rudner and Carrot Top? Also, and this is totally a side note, but the production of The Producers here features David Hasselhoff as Roger DeBris, which just fascinates me.)

Back to Rock: David Mills interviewed him back in 1989 and 1990, when his credits solely consisted of some HBO work and the scene in I'm Gonna Git You Sucka linked above. Part 1 and Part 2 are both fascinating early looks at Rock, pre-SNL.

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