Standout Stand-Up Chris Rock’s Comedy Is Pointed, But He Won’t Agree He’s A Social Commentator

Chris Rock is an equal-opportunity comedian: He makes fun of everybody.

His humor, which he brandishes like a sharpened scalpel in the skilled hands of a surgeon, operates on many levels: from basic observations about everyday life to biting social commentary - and in front of all audiences, black and white alike.

He skewered the Republicans at their convention last year as special correspondent for Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect” program, which was on Comedy Central at the time. He did the same later to the Democrats, although the irony was not quite as evident as it was when he was the only black face in a room full of white Republicans. On the campaign trail, he complained on-camera from New Hampshire about not being able to find hair-care products.

But he is not just having his way with white folks; he is fearless in front of any crowd. His first joke on an HBO special taped in Washington, D.C. was about that city’s controversial but still-popular mayor, Marion Barry.

On that special, most of which has been recorded for posterity on Rock’s latest CD - “Roll With the New,” which was released earlier this month and includes musical bits and until-now-unheard comedy material - he questioned the appropriateness of Barry’s inclusion on the podium at the Million Man March.

“Even in our finest hour,” he told the predominantly black audience, “we’ve got a crackhead on stage.”

The reason he not only gets away with remarks like that but has parlayed that brand of courageous, incisive comedy into the hottest stand-up act in show business is because he’s funny. Very funny. And that, according to Rock, is the whole point.

“I don’t think of myself as courageous or as some kind of a social critic,” Rock said from the North Carolina stop on a national tour.

“It’s always about the joke. I’m just telling jokes. The day I start thinking of myself as more than a comedian is the day I stop being funny.

“I remember Lenny Bruce toward the end; it was very sad. He was all self-important, talking about himself. I don’t want to go in that direction.”

Rock, 31, isn’t the only person who has invoked the name of the late Bruce. Other people have compared Rock to Bruce in his prime, not to mention Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.

It was Murphy, in fact, who discovered Rock when the latter was 18 and performing at an open-mike night in a New York City comedy club. What Murphy probably didn’t realize at the time was that Rock may have been impressed with Murphy’s stature but not with his comedy.

Rock, a survivor of the tough Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, became a student of comedy at 7 when his father played a Bill Cosby album for him. Next came exposure to Bob Newhart’s comedy and Flip Wilson’s and Pryor’s and Murphy’s.

“Comedy was the only thing that held my attention when I was a kid,” he said. “It was also something I seemed to understand.

“Even though I was only 7, I knew that ‘Three’s Company’ was horrible and that they were trying to pass off ‘Happy Days’ as a comedy. I knew those shows weren’t funny. None of the sitcoms on television back then were funny. Normally kids laugh at everything, but I wasn’t laughing at anything.”

The reason Murphy’s album had more of an impact on Rock than the others was because Murphy was only a few years older than Rock.

“Frankly, I didn’t think his first comedy album was all that funny,” said Rock, who remains a close friend of Murphy’s and even once confessed to the superstar that he didn’t like the first album.

“It wasn’t a competition thing, but I just felt that if this guy who’s practically my age can put out comedy albums, so could I. I realized for the first time that a comedy career was not an unattainable thing.

“Before that album, I thought of all the great comedians as grown men, like my father, and I didn’t see how someone my age could ever get there. It seemed so unattainable. But I looked at Eddie and knew I could get there.”

Dropping out of high school at 17, Rock had drifted aimlessly for a year before taking a chance at that comedy club. Murphy was in the audience and offered him a small part in his next movie, “Beverly Hills Cop II.”

Rock later appeared in another Murphy movie, “Boomerang,” and had roles in “New Jack City” and “Panther” before writing, producing and starring in his own film, “CB4,” the 1993 spoof of the rap music industry.

By this time, Rock was already on the verge of becoming a major player in the comedy game. In 1989, he had won a coveted spot in the cast of “Saturday Night Live,” where he stayed for three years and created the memorable character Nat X.

Those were heady times for Rock, and he said he almost spun out of control.

“Those early days on ‘Saturday Night Live’ were insane,” he said. “I was the hottest guy around. I was the new black guy on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ I was earning more money than I’d ever earned in my life.

“My biggest payday up to that point was $300 for one show. Suddenly, I had $50,000 in my pocket, and I immediately spent it all on a new Corvette. I was stupid. I was insane.”

As important as those “SNL” times must have seemed to a young comic, they pale in comparison to what is happening in his life now.

In addition to the tour and new CD, Rock is writing an autobiography for Hyperion that is expected to be completed by the fall. He also can be seen regularly on commercials for a telephone company and is the voice of a true cultural phenomenon, Li’l Penny, the small doll that is friend to basketball star Penny Hardaway and lusts after supermodel Tyra Banks in a series of successful Nike commercials.

“I showed up at an audition with a lot of other guys one day, and they told me to use a funny voice,” Rock said. “I got the job, and now Li’l Penny is bigger than me. I’m playing the Amphitheater, and he’s playing the Forum.”

Rock, who has a girlfriend but backs off from any discussion of a possible marriage, said he learned good lessons from those “SNL” days and does not expect to make the same mistakes.

“People worry that I won’t be able to handle all this success, but they don’t realize that it wasn’t as overnight as they think,” he said.

“I’ve been in the business a long time, and I understand how things work. When I got ‘Saturday Night Live,’ I was a poor kid whose life changed dramatically. My life hasn’t changed at all recently except that I’m real busy. I live in the same house and haven’t bought anything.

“Don’t get me wrong. I do feel the heat, and I love it, but it’s all about the work. The work brings the heat. The work is always there. The heat can cool down and fade away.”