Chris Rock: Never Scared

Chris once again delivers laughs, especially in the beginning when he talks about keeping daughters off the pole and the stripper myth ("I'm stripping to pay my tuition" "If that's true, then how come I never got a smart lapdance?!"), rap music, getting with murder (Shoot him in the head and put a demo tape in his pocket), and celebrity scandals. However, when he starts talking about politics (The war in Iraq, patriotism, favoring white people over black people) it turns more into a speech/sermon rather than a stand-up routine. He seemed more focus about getting applause from the crowd, rather than laughs like in Big Ass Jokes, Bring The Pain, and Bigger & Blacker. However, it's still funny and worth a watch.

After a four year absence from stand-up,Chris Rock still know how to make the audience laugh. He is very brilliant and is up-to-date with the social issues that's going on today. He is now a father,and I don't think anyone can say that he is truly happy about marriage because he describes a lot of stress-related situations towards the matrimony. But a lot of comics hide their pain through their jokes and he does in a way that the audience can relate. Chris admits he is 39 ("that's right New Jack City was a long time ago")and still enjoy how hip-hop has evolve through a different art. He has a youthful intelligent outlook on life and gain respect from people of all ages. This is not his best stand-up but Chris will sure leave you in tears. A 8.5 out of 10 as compared to Bigger and Blacker.

Now, I had only a vague idea Chris Rock existed as an artistic human being on this planet up to this comedy show. Actually, up to the point he was announced as the next host of the Oscars, but the two moments nearly coincide.

Whether Rock is better or worse than in his other shows, I can not judge, for I've, obviously, yet to have seen them. But I believe this here show is enough ground for me to state, that Rock is a damn good comedian. He's got what it takes to keep the audience in tears of laughter for minutes in a row, he's spontaneous, original, charismatic and, of course, hilarious.

In "Never Scared", Rock is being rather tough on a lot of rather nasty and scandalous individuals, from strippers, to Michael and Janet Jackson, to the American government, to Mr. Bush W. etc. Out of these, poking at Michael is most fun. There are other "issues" at hand in "Never Scared" too, some more brilliant than others, which I really enjoyed listening to. I did sometimes question the approaches to one or two of the themes, but it was still easy to swallow down the jokes without being overly concerned or insulted by the content.

I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Chris Rock in the future. Because he's still got one.

Chris Rock is a very smart comedian, but he forgets something about what made Bigger and Blacker and especially Bring the Pain funny- he then ONLY brought the jokes, not applause lines. A good deal of what comes out in his latest special, Never Scared, is funny, but a good lot of it doesn't strike up the rousing, even enormous laughs that came out of some of his classic bits (i.e. N****ers and Black People, Tossed Salad Man, the Columbine/Bill Clinton riff from 99). He's on fire in spurts, and that's what makes the 90 minutes worth watching, as he does have some great stuff here and there, such as when he attacks celebrities (The Jackson family, R. Kelly, wealth and rich in the black community "Rims- they spinnin' and spinnin' and spinnin'"), describes the bad parts about marriage, and so on. If only some bits wouldn't drag in so many parts to little laughs as opposed to bigger ones....this being said, after seeing it more times on HBO (it pops up a lot depending on the time you might be up at night), some of the lines work much funnier, especially the part about defending rap music and what it's like when one couple meets the "perfect" couple. A-

I've always been a fan of Chris Rock's humor, but this time he really pulls out all the stops in his no-holds-barred stand up comedy special which aired last spring on HBO. Gleefully making fun of rap music over the years, the Jacksons, Kobe Bryant, R. Kelly, Krispy Kremes, strippers "paying themselves for college and giving a smart lap dance while wearing clear heels," the dynamics of relationships between men and women, he also makes some very strong (but humorous) points when talking about how the government advertises approved medicines while maintaining a hypocritical attitude on drugs and weapons, and he drives the issue home as to the politics of wealth which draws a clear difference between Whites and Blacks (or non whites). Hilarious within an inch of its life, CHRIS ROCK'S NEVER SCARED is an excellent 90 minutes and maintains his own status as a strong comic presence.