Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger - London, New York, Johannesburg

This is something new.

I really like the experiments he did with the editing. Yes, it seems insane at first but as it progresses it becomes genius. Especially about the choices he made about which crowd/city to show for certain jokes: this is on another tip. I could watch this special on so many levels.

Chris Rock is getting old as a man, i.e maybe less fun, but there is something much more cerebral to this comedy special. Something more about the art of comedy.

I hope it goes down in history as an invigorating, new and groundbreaking presentation of comedy. You really get to see what it means to be a comedian and how you really connect to your crowd through jokes.

Give this one a blast. Don't have high expectations. just kick back, pour yourself some coffee and you'll have a laugh.

I promise u.

In 2008, Chris Rock went on a massive world tour, playing large venues around the world. This HBO special edits together three of these shows (in Johannesburg, New York and London) into one special. In it he covers subjects ranging from the 2008 Presidential race, the rise in the price of petrol, the Bush administration, what groups can say about other groups, the world of work and other subjects.

Chris Rock is a bit of a mixed bag. At times he is very smart and very funny but at other times he sinks into crudity that seems content to draw laughter from swearing and being rude. I accept a bit of the latter if he delivers strongly on the former and I have found that his better shows have done this while his lesser ones have not. However I approach each show with an open mind because no doubt he is a talented stand-up who has a good stage presence. At the very start of Kill the Messenger though, the issue over his material will be secondary because you will be concentrating on (or rather distracted by) the editing together of the shows. I understand they were doing it to show how global it all was but at the start it is done rapidly, halfway through sentences and often repeating the same line three times – it is distracting and a bit annoying. Fortunately one gets used to it and it calms down a little as the show goes on.

And good job too because what it lets you do is enjoy a show that is one of the better I have seen from Rock. To my tastes he gets the mix just right as he swears and is crude but does it all on a strong foundation of truth, challenge and observation. This is some great material here as he challenges his audiences one minute and then figuratively sits with them while railing against the man. It is a great structure that allows him to do both things without ever losing his audience – which is not as hard to do as it sounds when you consider some of his material here. He comes close with some of it (attacking black women is never a smart thing to do) but ultimately he keeps everyone on board by virtue of the smart material and just how funny the majority of it is. He himself has great stage presence but, as you can see here, it is hard to shoot. He is constantly on the move and the camera tries to keep up with him when he paces instead of settling for a wider shot, the effect is one of slight sickness and at times I preferred just to listen. This is not the whole show though as close ups, audience reactions and wide shots are also used but again it was another weakness built into the film in the editing room.

Overall then what we have here is a show that is damaged slightly in the editing room but is ultimately kept engaging and strong by Chris Rock. His material is crude of course but it is built on strong observation and intelligent discourse, making it funny and clever enough to prevent it just being rude.

The editor of this special was so consumed with splicing footage and seamlessly meshing shows that he or she, in my opinion, got in the way of the act.

Chris Rock deserves a special focused on Chris Rock the way George Carlin's specials focused only on George Carlin.

This special had too much going on. The editing tangled feet with the punchlines. The outfit changes were jarring, as I found myself missing the jokes because I was too busy saying, "Now he's wearing a shiny jacket," or, "Now he's in Brooklyn." Not to mention the sound quality was noticeably different, especially when jokes were spliced together.

It was all just so unnecessary.

I would like to see Kill The Message from one stage, with one audience. But don't take my word for it. Watch it yourself.

Chris Rock has always been my favorite comedian since the 1990s. But "Kill the messenger" ran dry to me. The splicing of shots from his shows in Johannesburg,London,and New York nearly gave me a headache. His comedy routine from the past mainly focused on race relations,relationships,and the difference between rich and poor people. Though most of this show he discuss the up and coming election which his views were funny and somewhat realistic. But the race thing got old and tiring to me. I was like okay Chris you made your point about n***ers time and time again before. I thought the gas price joke was a bit much and crude the way he says "he masturbates before filling up his tank", to relieve his frustration of spending too much money on gas. The relationship and marriage joke/segment were almost similar to his last stand up in "Never Scared" but more raunchier. This stand up special focused mainly on the election and politics and I found some of the stuff he discussed on the topic were hilarious. But after that I didn't find the rest of it all that amusing. Basically it seems like he's paraphrasing what he said in his other specials. Its not what he says that is funny but the expressions he makes after saying it keeps me laughing. That's what makes him so funny,but if he doesn't focus on creating new and refreshing material Chris may lose a good portion of his audience.

Chris Rock stand-up at its best here. Anyone who wants to pursue a career in comedy or thinks they are a comedian needs to watch this to see how to work a crowd and how to tell a joke. There were some of his jokes that were very poignant and not meant to receive raucous laughter yet his voice and the way he tells them make you laugh.

The parts about the "n word" and "f word" rants were hilarious. And he is absolutely correct regarding the usage of both. If it's in a song, it's okay. If a person is acting bizarrely and you need to call them one, it's okay. It's the context, like Rock says.

This was just classic stand-up here.