Loading ...Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger review
Eddie Murphy in Norbit. Martin Lawrence in Big Momma’s House 2. It’s tough being an outspoken black comedian these days. Not that you’d guess from Chris Rock’s latest DVD, Kill the Messenger, which takes aim at a veritable smorgasbord of issues from race relations to the price of petrol to that guy off Grey’s Anatomy who said ‘faggot’. It’s a punchy, irreverent comedy set that cherry picks from the best of the comedian’s 2008 tour in Johannesburg, London and New York. While his peers might be keen to don a fat suit and star in idiotic kid flicks, Rock has consistently kept his head above the water and largely stuck to his comedic roots, a few ill-advised dalliances into the mainstream aside. Accordingly, he seems to enjoy a mythic status usually reserved for rock stars, the dramatic opening titles of his performance somewhat erroneously suggesting that this is the ‘Biggest Tour on the Planet’. It’s not, but it’s frequently hilarious.
Rock deliberately styles himself as a manic, wide-eyed soothsayer railing against contemporary hypocrisies in this eighty minute broadside that aims to be self-consciously ‘controversial’ but soon settles into a comfortable realm of light entertainment. In this vein, he mostly succeeds in skewering ostensibly serious topics in a manner by equal turns cheery and gutsy, though the results are mixed. His political material is immediately dated, filled as it is with references to John McCain’s age and his “nurse” Sarah Palin, as well as a long segment dedicated to the “blackness” of Obama’s name. As you might guess, race dominates his material, with Rock elucidating all its bizarre idiosyncrasies ranging from why black men apparently have a penchant for large white women, to the only socially acceptable situation where use of the ‘N word’ is justified (between 4:30 and 4:48am on Christmas Eve, in case you’re wondering). Though these ostensible racial differences form the backbone of Rock’s set, it easily rises above ‘black people do this… but white people do this…’ territory. Rock almost knowingly plays up to this image of himself as provocateur-in-chief, ending several controversial statements with an agitated grunt of “Yeah, I said it!”
Whilst some may find Chris Rock an offensive, brash vulgarian, it’s advisable to look beyond the taboo-busting and four letter words and simply enjoy a comedian at the summit of his craft. If anything, as the lithe performers bounds across giant stages on three different continents to thousands of adoring fans, the jokes almost seem too slick and the ‘spontaneous’ remarks too well rehearsed. Indeed, beneath the wild exterior Rock is reliant on fairly basic observational humour – the differences between rich and poor, male and female – but he repackages these old hat clichés in refreshing and consistently disarming ways.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t crack the fat suit out any time soon. Those with a delicate sensibility, though, should look elsewhere.
