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THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ROCK  Chris Rock has been getting busy. The indefatigable funnyman -- who is arguably the strongest comedic voice of his generation -- spent the last 18 months winning two Emmy Awards for his HBO special, "Bring the Pain," landing on the bestseller list for his book, ROCK THIS, and executive-producing "The Hughleys," a sitcom for ABC. Now, Rock has just released BIGGER & BLACKER, the follow-up to his Grammy winning ROLL WITH THE NEW. The master of mirth recently held a press conference to promote the release of his new CD. Though most of the questions were a bit on the dry side, Rock still managed to kick out some rapid-fire thoughts on comedy, fame, and even the latest STAR WARS prequel. --Donald Gray On the title of his new album: "BIGGER AND BLACKER, I don't even know. It's almost like a porno title. We were gonna call it 'I've Got Issues,' but that sounds like some goddamn Richard Lewis special or something." On why he continues to do stand-up after his success in movies: "A lot of guys get into stand-up to get out of it. I got into stand-up to be a stand-up. I love what I do." On whether it's harder to be critical of fellow celebrities now that he's a celebrity too: "It's not harder really. You know, it's just weird. You get where you don't want to name names anymore, because you may want to have those people on your show." On the current state of comedy: "Comedy's kind of suffering just because we have 300 channels of television now, and no one gets a chance to develop. Every guy with two years of experience and 20 minutes of an act gets like some development deal, and what happens? Everything sucks. You get executives running shows, with little or no experience. It's crazy." On what crosses the line in comedy and what's fair game: "Everything's funny if you're fortunate enough to see the angle. I remember my dad died, and something funny happened: At his funeral there was a fight over who was gonna get to ride in the limo. It was hysterical. People screaming, 'How come he gets in the limo?' Someone had the nerve to ask, 'How much did you -- hey, you gonna have this car all day?' Everything's funny, man." On what has changed in his life because of fame: "I can't eat by myself. I used to eat by myself all the time, but now I can't cause some idiot's gonna sit next to me and start talking. I can't go to a Yankee game by myself. I can't do anything by myself anymore and that kind of sucks, cause I used to do a lot on my own." On the current state of the entertainment world: "Everything sucks, because schools suck. If people don't read well, they aren't going to write well. If they don't write well, they're gonna write bad music, bad jokes. Everything sucks - smart people make smarter shit." On THE PHANTOM MENACE: "Yeah, I saw it. It was pretty bad, but what can you expect? I thought [Jar Jar Binks] was gonna start picking space cotton." On why he continues to tackle controversial issues now that he has so much more to lose: "What's the motivation? To be the best. I can't be the best actor. I'm not the best writer. I can do this really well, though, and that's my motivation. I've never done anything well in my whole life. I suck at everything. So when I got on the comedy stage 15 years ago, starting out, it was more than just, 'Hey, I'm doing stand-up.' It was like, 'Wow, I'm good at something.' And I guess I don't ever want to lose that." |
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