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CHRIS ROCK
Labor Day weekend brings the No Apologies Tour of Chris Rock to town, with a 2 night stopover in the Colosseum over in Caesars Palace. This means Cher has cleared out her costumes and sets so the man with the acid tongue can work the showroom on August 29 and 30th.
His tour has been a huge success both here in the States and abroad, particularly in England where every show has been sold out or nearly so. His many TV appearances and movie roles assure that the audience will be in for a treat this weekend as Chris takes no prisoners in his wild and often hilarious show.
Chris Rock was born February 7, 1966, in Andrews, South Carolina, to parents Julius (former truck driver) and Rose (teacher). Raised in the neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, New York, Chris always knew he was cut out to be
a comedian, and took his talent to the New York comedy club circuit after dropping out of high school.
Who better to discover a young aspiring comedian than Eddie Murphy, who caught
Rock's act at a club and was so impressed that he cast him in Murphy's 1987
Beverly Hills Cop II, in his film debut as a parking valet.
With the support of the late Sam Kinison as well as Murphy, Rock was cast in a
string of television shows and films, albeit in small parts. His early roles
include 1988's I'm Gonna Git You Sucka and an episode of Miami Vice, before
appearing in 1991's New Jack City, 1992's Boomerang (also an Eddie Murphy film),
and starring in 1993's CB4, a parody of the gangsta rap world.
In the early '90s, Rock received the coveted part of any comedian's career, as a
cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live. With three years of SNL
experience under his belt, Rock was cast in the comedies Sgt. Bilko, Beverly
Hills Ninja, as well as 1998's Doctor Dolittle (as a voice) and the 4th
installment of the Lethal Weapon series. In 1996, he was also a correspondent
and writer for "Indecision 1996," on the then Comedy Central show, Politically
Incorrect.
While Rock wasn't achieving great cinematic success, he was scoring big with his
own stand-up comedy shows. 1997's HBO special Bring the Pain -- which
practically revived Rock's career -- garnered the comedian two Emmys, one for
Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special and one for Outstanding writing.
1999's stand-up album and HBO special, Bigger & Blacker, was also lauded as an
abrasive "commentary" on family values and American politics and racial issues.
Rock picked up a Grammy for Best Spoken Comedy Album for Bigger & Blacker in
1999.
More critical and commercial praise came Rock's way, thanks to his
Emmy-nominated HBO comedy and variety show, The Chris Rock Show. The
trash-talking show debuted in 1997, and enjoyed a successful three-year run
marked with two CableACE awards, for Variety Special or Series and for
Entertainment Host. The show made a television star of Rock, and spawned
memorable characters such as Pootie Tang, which was developed into a feature
film of the same name in 2001.
Speaking of films, Rock's film career has taken an upwards turn since 1999, with
a larger role in the star-studded Dogma, and a role alongside Morgan Freeman and
Renee Zellweger in the critically-acclaimed Nurse Betty. But then Rock starred
in the disappointing Heaven Can Wait remake, Down to Earth, which Rock also
wrote and produced. Rock bombed again as a voice in the animated feature Osmosis
Jones, before appearing in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.
Rock once said in a Larry King Live interview that he seems to get the "black
guy lead roles" that guys like Will Smith turn down, but he is certainly coming
into his own with a starring role opposite Gene Hackman and Garcelle Beauvais in
the 2002 action/comedy, Bad Company.
The television host (Rock's hosting stint for the 2000 MTV Movie Awards was one
of the highest rated), producer (he is now executive producer of TV's The
Hughleys) and writer (in addition to screenplays, he wrote a book, Rock This)
can now add directing to his resume, with his film directorial debut for the
upcoming Head of State.
As for his family life, Chris Rock has been married to Malaak Compton-Rock since
November 1996.
The man Time has named the "funniest man in America" and one of America's best
entertainers, the caustic comedian is proving to be a force to be rockened with.
 The World According to Chris...
A white boy that makes C's in college can make it to the White House.
Black people dominate sports in the United States. 20% of the population and 90% of the final four.
Charlie Brown is the one person I identify with. C.B. is such a loser. He wasn't even the star of his own Halloween special.
Every town has the same two malls: the one white people go to and the one
white people used to go to.
Everyone has favorite criminals. Mine are pimps. We can all rob a bank; we
can all sell drugs. Being a pimp is a whole other thing.
Gay people got a right to be as miserable as everybody else.
Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost
5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollar, we wouldn't
have any innocent bystanders.
I don't get high, but sometimes I wish I did. That way, when I messed up
in life I would have an excuse. But right now there's no rehab for
stupidity.
I live in a neighborhood so bad that you can get shot while getting shot.
I'm in show business... I want to hang out with Janet Jackson, not Jesse
Jackson.
If a woman tells you she's twenty and looks sixteen, she's twelve. If she
tells you she's twenty-six and looks twenty-six, she's damn near forty.
Right now, my job is that I'm like an ambulance chaser. I've got to look
for movies with white guys falling out of them.
School shootings were invented by blacks... and stolen by the white man.
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