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All right, we got our boy Chris Rock, who is Chris Rock, very good friend and um
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great guy, a great guy and one of the funniest guys out there in real life on phone calls on
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uh and on stage obviously. He did that special um where he finally
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talked about the Will Smith situation. I was and we helped live. We were live after after
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his I think it was the biggest whatever the highest numbers or something.
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Yeah, they did one that was the first live show. Yeah, live and it was global. But um that was amazing.
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We've talked to Chris about everything. We cover the gamut. We just laugh basically. The sound's a little itchy
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because it was one of the first ones we ever did, but it's still fine. He's he's always very interesting to
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talk to and he he he kind of opened up toward the end and talks about his this apartment that he got and it was sort of
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the one of the first times he's ever sort of bought something for himself or something like that. But we get into his
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childhood and all kinds of stuff. It's very very interesting and it's always funny with Chris Rock. Always lots of laughs. Here he is. Chris
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Rock. Rock said I could stay there. Hang on,
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Dana. I wet the bed and so I said I shouldn't stay at his house because I'd feel embarrassed. You still wet the bed. I was a bed
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wetter. There's no way to get out of a wet bed with any dignity.
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What happened, dear? But anyway, that's We'll get to the childhood stuff in a minute. But Chris, on your a day off for
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you, not a family day, but a Chris day. Like it's going to be totally off. No emails. You're going to have fun. Does
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that great Chris Day include having to go on a podcast?
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Because you know you're you're performing. I love the lady, but I really love Spain. I know.
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Yeah. So, you had to do it. Rock and I came in together. Yeah. Thank you, Rock. Um, you know,
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almost anything for Dana, but anything. No, but you guys were the junior varsity who who outdid the varsity. But we had a
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junior varsity team consisting of Farley, you Sandler,
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Schneider, and and David. I mean, it was an incredible junior varsity team that
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was being trained to take over when we left in a way, right? No, it was uh Yeah. And it's amazing that
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Yeah. Farley, like Kobe Bryant, came off the bench. People forget. Yeah. Oh, yeah. We do a whole show. We
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go, "Hey, how about this guy Farley? was just I don't even know why they hired us because normally they bring in the new
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people when the old people are you know you know not not doing great. You guys were in
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rare form. I mean that was you know that was the beginning of a 18 20 person cast. When I came in
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it was like basically four feature players or there were six total and that was the beginning and now there's like
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21. So it never went back to just five people being the cast right after that.
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No, I don't think Yeah, I went the other night and I I couldn't believe how long
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the the credit roll was like
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Jimmy Roers in the on SNL like I couldn't believe
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it's like how many people are in this cast? We started it was just so people know it
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I I came on the end four shows of the previous season. So Rob Schneider and I
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got hired to write for four episodes on those four. Dice Clay was the host. We had a couple
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good ones, you know, Alec Baldwin's first show and then when the summer
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came, we we got picked up and then that's when Rock and Barley
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came. Right, Rock? Were you a full cast or were you a feature player? Me and Yeah. Me and Farley got brought on together. We were the new guys that
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year. Yeah. So, we were also new together. Yeah. So, we got close offices and we uh
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Rock was who people don't know because he's tough on TV. So am I. I've come off like a hard ass athlete.
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But Rock was is a nice person. And I was sort of an out of my element from Arizona. And we gravitated just because
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we were kind of in over our heads like everyone is there. I guess when they Yeah. I mean, well, you know, they
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always had that thing. It was the standups and the improv guys. Yeah. Yeah. And the improv guys were more
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technically prepared for the show. But the standup guys, because we write our
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own material and we live and die by the crowd, we were more, I thought, mentally
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prepared for the show. Like because the show Yeah. The show it killed or it didn't kill. Yeah. Like
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we could, you know what I mean? Like the standups I thought were less into the
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politics of who likes who and who's close with Downey and who's close with
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Lauren. It's like improv guys because they're thinking they're they in a group
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think and stand like Sandler to come from writing on the show and
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this by force of nature make himself you know the biggest cast member
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only a standup could do some crazy [ __ ] like that. Yeah I think I got on I caught on to
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Sandler. We always thought he's funny, but Chris Dana, you we all know great comedians that never pop or never make
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it. And I'm like, I watch a guy go, "This guy's better than me and I probably make more." You know what I mean? They just they don't get
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discovered. And when you see Sandler, I think it was somewhere around Crazy Spoon Head where I'm like, "This [ __ ]
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guy does not run out of ideas. He does not stop and he just [ __ ] crushes. It's it's every week it was a new one.
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I'm like, god damn, this guy's got it." He would he would crawl around on all fours down the hallway. I'd be in my
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office and I'd hear a little knock and he would come in so gently and so quietly. But he wanted me to introduce
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Opera Man cuz he'd done it once and they didn't what you know. So that I from
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update somehow I introduced it and it was separate and he had a little stage and that was the beginning. But when I
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first saw Sandler, his likability and charm, let's just talk about him for a sec. He'll hate if he
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just sitting in a chair and leaning back. Hey, it was like, whoa. You know, and the the girls liked him. Let's face
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it. And then he's Adam Sandler. But I He's the original Pete Davidson. He was
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Yeah, Pete Davidson. Great comic, but I am fascinated by who he has sex with. I
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mean, that's a big part of my life following that thing. Rock, I have a question about when you did your first when your first
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Do you have like questions prepared? Did you guys actually Yeah, we care about you. My goal was for you not to be bored.
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Like, so you got on SNL and then bring the pain really blew up, right? Oh my god.
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You know what I mean? So, I have questions for you that I'm actually curious like as if we were hanging out.
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Yeah. But if you want us to ask about anything, let let us know. I'll answer anything you want.
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I'm curious about if rock felt if it was not fair, but I I did one weekend update
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in my first four shows and it scared the [ __ ] out of me. We all weren't really actors. We hadn't done much. So Rock's
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first show, they were so salivating over Rock to come in and do all these
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sketches they couldn't do that I remember I think they overloaded you with so many because there was a
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Confederate sketch especially. deaths. I long as I got SNL hadn't had a black
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cast member like nine years. Most people think I'm the black guy after Eddie. I'm
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actually the black guy after Damon Williams. And and Living Color was killing it at
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this point. And there was like a bunch of whatever SNL so white articles or
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whatever. And then I got hired. So yeah, there was like this immediate
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thing where like you're going to do some Eddie Murphy stuff, right? Like I I don't do any impressions.
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They brush off all the old lot of pressure, you know, the Eddie Murphy type stuff. Any impressions? I don't do any voices,
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you know what I mean? Like I do what I do. I mean, you know, but uh so yeah, I guess there was pressure.
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You have to do act and you have to look at Q cards. And you know, just being in one sketch, you're terrified all week or
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I was. And you have to inch your way in and you were like hosting that first time because I remember you were in a
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lot of sketches. They're pulling you every which way. You have a million costume changes. And the scariest one was I was a soldier in the Confederate
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soldier. I don't know what the sketch was. You were the first black general. Franken wrote it.
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Franken. And he was [ __ ] roughing. No one should have to work with Franken the first year on the show. Never.
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That's what I was getting at is he's so tough now. What are you doing? It's like, okay, you've been on two
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years now. You can work without breaking. God damn. He was intimidating. He's great. He's He's amazing guy, but
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you know, he's a little intimidating. He because he doesn't he's very blunt. That wasn't
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very funny. You know, you have to get used to that. He's the white Lasset Jr. from Officer
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Hill. Like, what you going to do? Mayonnaise? Was it that record?
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I remember that sketch. I was like gossip rock. But was it weird because if I
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didn't really think about it that way, but in living Keller is is doing great. You must feel like you're almost stuck
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on SNL because it's like [ __ ] I should be. I did. I I mean, I loved it and I loved
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you guys, but it was a weird, you know, I'm sure Jackie Robinson used to like go
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to Harlem after the [ __ ] games with with the Dodgers and [ __ ] It's like,
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right, shit's happening uptown. Why am I here with Pee-Wee Reese? But
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Peewee Reese, good reference. When you went on In Living Color, you finally went on there. Did you Were you
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uh Was it fun or was it not fun at that point? No, when I finally got there, the Waynees were gone, Kenan was gone. I was
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like, I didn't know that. I don't even know what the hell I was on. I was on, but it was weird. I got to work with Jim
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Carrey and Jamie Fox was there. Um, you know, all of that SNL and Living
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Color, it was just for me to make friends and to kind of learn about writing and writing on a deadline, all
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of that was just training. And, you know, I I was supposed to do standup.
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Thank God. Yeah. It it's a humbling boot camp that just reminds you that everyone got there
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because they were good and then you're immediately [ __ ] on and you're immed. It's like a wakeup call like oh [ __ ]
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I'm not the first guy to like maybe you know the show wasn't perfect
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for me but you know Julia Louise Drifus Stiller you know
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it's like a lot of people that kind of you know Jim Carrey I auditioned with Jim Carrey
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you know I mean and I thought well they got to pick Jim Carrey guy's insane but he killed on in Living Color
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I auditioned the night I auditioned night me and Sam were auditioned we're at at the Chicago Improv and uh Dana
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Ghoul was so good. Know him well. I left the audition. Yeah.
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Guy. Yeah. I I like I was like, "Okay, this is over. This guy
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smart, funny, smart, funny, like y whatever." Like this guy's so much
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better than me. I am out of my league. And I left. And later that night,
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Lauren, you know, whatever, found out what hotel I was in and told me to come downstairs and basically told me I had
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to show. I didn't even like that's how good Dana Ghoul was. Like, let me get the [ __ ] out of here because I'm wasting
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my time. I think with Lauren, it's it's it's um it's like almost a sports analogy or
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something. He's looking at people can play well together a little bit, you know. Well, I actually I asked him that in
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reference to Dana G. There's this no Dana's had a great career writing on the Simpsons [ __ ] great great specials
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the whole thing. Lauren said the thing I I Yeah. I said, "What did you see in us?" Because I was like, "What do you
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see in me and Sam?" Because we both were like, "What the [ __ ] are we doing here?" And he said, "Well, you guys had
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original thought." Yeah, that's a big thing is writing. They always look ready. I don't think
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that we both had like a joke somewhere that he hadn't heard before
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and I love that. That's why he hired us. What was what would be like at that
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time? Didn't Sandlers have the thing about who's guarding Will Chamberlain? Who's the Will Chamberlain thing is one of the
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greatest? Yeah. This for people for people comedy. That should be an NFT. Explain that.
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It should be an It was so original and so funny. But I
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want to know what your signature thing you might have had that or your goto
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your go your most surefire bit. You know I had a bit about going to an abortion
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rally to meet women that I knew were [ __ ] that was I remember that.
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That was pretty radical in 1989 90
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like whoa. Well, well, Rock came came with more hype than Sandler, I think. I
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think Rock when I got there, everyone was telling me and I also heard a lot of hype about Farley. And then we knew
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Sandler from the Valley. So, me, Schneider, and maybe Dennis, maybe Dana were helping saying Sandler's funny. He
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came soon after, but it it was weird. Like first, you know, you can tell if
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people had game and sometimes you can just tell around the office, you can tell it read through, but I I definitely
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was looking around that place going everyone's great. It's un I mean, when you go down to Jack
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school of comedy, talk about original thoughts. Every Jack Andy sketch, I'm read through going, "You're [ __ ] [ __ ] me. I should
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quit the business. I don't even know what I'm doing." He would hit he would the the weirdest ideas.
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Yeah. Hey, man. I remember Mike Myers, just [ __ ] that didn't get on. I still
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remember to this day. I'm like, what the [ __ ] I've mentioned to people asked me about, oh, the greatest cast whatever. And I
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mentioned specifically 90 to 93 because of every there were too many cylinders
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firing and you'd have a tunes the cat or Myers do sprockets, you do Nad X, David
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do this, F Sandler, you guys were coming up and getting a fan following. I think those three years is like sometimes I'd
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sit back and go, "Man, that show kicked ass." Because they got the overlap. They got you guys and we're coming up and it's
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crossing and then you guys all leave and then it's just us. But yeah, we had Phil, we had Jan, we had, you know, it's just like that was a wild
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wild time. Yeah, it was a insane. I learned I learned more there than I
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learned, you know, any other time in my life. And good people, you know. You know what's interesting? You told me
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about Nicki Minaj years and years ago. I didn't know who Nicki Minaj was. and you go, "I said something about her." And you go, "Actually, she's really funny.
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She's she's got a great personality." And that was the first of me going, "Oh, really?" I like that you look at it with
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those eyes because sometimes I look at I can't help it when I meet women or and
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not that you were dating them, but when you just meet women, that sort of easy funny thing that comes out of them is
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always really a great quality because they don't try to be like Robin Williams. They're just they're a funny personality. I love it. Well, you know,
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you're you're a handsome guy, David, so you think you have a chance. I don't think I have a chance.
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You're the good-looking guy. Whenever we go out, they like Rock better. Okay. They always go, "Why aren't you Chris
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Rock?" And I go, "I can't be. He's Don't you get more handsome than ever, Chris. Don't you get that?"
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Oh, thank you. It's not like you're like It's not like you're aging horribly. I'll just say
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that you're you're very doing well. He looks cooler when he gets old. Yeah. If I lean back and have the mic here,
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I'm in good shape. The neck is not happy with this age. But this is pretty good. I lo You lose volume in your face and
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you kind of your face recedes into your skull, so you need glasses. You need
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This is something Jerry Seinfeld will do eventually. But um can I do you want to
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should I ask you kind of off the kilter question? Question last night. Oh,
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cuz I'm name dropping it. Oh, who did you have dinner with? You guys last night? Me, Jerry Colin,
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just what the [ __ ] Uh, Paul McCartney. Good. Good. Jesus Christ. Guy Siri, Jimmy Fallon,
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Jr. Did they shut down the restaurant or what the [ __ ] And I'm sorry.
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Which Cheesecake Factory? So Paul McCartney goes, you know, I'd
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like something, you know, a little sudsy on the top. And Jerry goes, I don't want anything.
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Sorry. Go ahead. I didn't say that as a name drop. I just I was just feeding Dana.
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Dine. I do Jerry Seinfeld as a serial killer because I don't think Jerry has two
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gears and Fallon does this one gear. But sometimes Jerry goes when he did his president bit. Someone wanting to be
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president. I think I'm just the right guy for that thing. I think I could do president. He has that. So I do him as a
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serial killer. I'm just going to go in, cut your sple, and go down the living, do the thing. Anyway, sorry. I could do
00:17:49
Paul McCartney. Killed. Killed. Kills. Um, killed. So, what do you mean?
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The lady always kills. So, when you're in that situation with those people, you just look at the table
00:18:00
and kind of go, I belong, right? I mean, you're chill. I mean, you you're in that situ. We're in that situation right now. We're all
00:18:06
pretty accomplished, us three. Yeah. Um Yeah. Yeah. I mean, no. Hey, nobody
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looks at Paul McCartney and goes I should be here. How you doing? My equal. Nobody does
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that. But he's there's no way. Maybe Jerry, but uh yeah, you know,
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through lots of therapy. Yeah, I can kind of relax doing McCartney seems like he likes to hang
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out. PE funny people also get a pass. They they like little court gestures around. I've been invited to [ __ ] out of
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mostly curiosity factor. They just go spade go keep it keep things moving. I'm
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likeoop, you know what I mean? They like that that you're gonna say something funny. You're enough, David. You don't have to
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be a jester. You're enough. I just got the results back. I have to be. They told me. My therapist told me.
00:19:00
So, Chris, so I I went into therapy with Conan's therapist. I piggybacked on his
00:19:07
therapist at five. I was in it for five years. What What So you went through it
00:19:14
intensely, right? So what's the headline? What did What's the takeaway for you? You know, mine was is that I
00:19:21
have a hard time taking care of myself. I'm always trying to help other people. That'd be one of them. You know, I
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bought a guitar for my nephew, a really nice guitar, and then I had a hard time
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buying myself a guitar, and I have a lot of money. I said, "God, I'm sick." thought?
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Yeah, I mean, honestly, this apartment is probably the first real purchase I've
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made for myself in about I don't know, 28 years, right?
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Since I got that Corvette for at SNL like like lifechanging per
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purchase like And so what was that? Yeah, I know what you mean. Like Yeah. Always doing for other people.
00:20:03
Uh I don't know. I mean, what I've learned in therapy is like, you know,
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childhood trauma is like some real [ __ ] for real. And you got to until you deal with all
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your childhood [ __ ] not you just, you know, nothing's going to work out for you. You got to you got to start at the
00:20:20
beginning. It's like working on a script. Okay. Interesting. Page one. So, when I met you, you were a young
00:20:28
man, but I Were you ever kind of like snarky and spoiled in high school? By the time I
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met you, you seemed kind of like this guy, at least in maturity. You weren't
00:20:40
bitter. You weren't snarky. You were never in a group with comedians kind of uh [ __ ] on some other comedian. So,
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I noticed that attitude you had as a young man, but I guess the childhood
00:20:53
stuff for me, it was like I had a lot of anger and it it was in my standup. It was in my characters. And once in a
00:21:00
while I'd go off on any kind of authority figure that turned into my dad. But I I got, you know, I got past
00:21:07
that. But I How did your anger express itself then to you? I mean, here's the weird thing. It's
00:21:14
when I was um I mean my child I was bullied
00:21:19
ridiculously. Half of it the bullying because I was just a little guy and then I got busted to school. So I
00:21:26
got I was a little guy and I was black, right? It's hard. So it's like I'm getting
00:21:31
double bullied. I would if I was white I would have probably got bullied too, but it was just like ah
00:21:37
you're supposed to be tough probably. Yeah, it was pretty rough, right? And it was pretty like every day.
00:21:45
So I It's weird. I had a weird uh temper. I'm gonna It's going to be a weird thing. I was the oldest of seven
00:21:53
and and I was weird we weirdly smaller than my younger brothers.
00:22:00
So it was a weird thing where your brothers like, "Hey, so and so down the block bothered me and I'm I'm like I
00:22:06
gotta [ __ ] go protect you." Oh, Andre or Tony. Wow. And I'm [ __ ] smaller than them. As my
00:22:13
shrink puts it to me, you have been scared to be angry ever since. M. So I So the guy you saw
00:22:22
was bending over backwards to be nice cuz I was so scared of my anger.
00:22:28
Yeah, I see. I was frightened of what you know my my
00:22:33
shrink my good the good shrink. I got you know like the top top guy.
00:22:41
There's good ones and bad ones. They have definitely there's good ones and bad ones, you know. And he broke it down. It's like
00:22:47
because you're a nice guy and you're so scared of that thing coming out of you
00:22:52
again. Yeah. That you let the whole world walk all over.
00:22:57
Your friends walk over you, your family walks over you, your your your female
00:23:03
relationships. Like everybody just [ __ ] you over because it's somewhere in there
00:23:08
they know you there's a force field holding you back. Interesting. So confident in a weird
00:23:14
way. So I'm like the opposite of you in the sense that in the last year now I
00:23:20
can get angry, right? I'm not scared I'm not scared of letting people know how I feel about certain
00:23:25
things. My therapy was about that too though because I was always the nice guy holding stuff in and not really my
00:23:32
aggression, my competitiveness overrode the nice guy because people ask me who meet me now, well did you just allow
00:23:40
other cast members like oh no Lauren do their sketch? That kind of thing. There was a natural competition in me. But in
00:23:46
my personal relationships, I I hated confrontation because when confrontation happened at my house, bodies flew. My
00:23:53
dad was just really violent. So I even all my siblings are like that. We don't
00:23:58
like confrontation that goes in my house, too. It wasn't violent, per se, but it was loud as [ __ ]
00:24:04
Yeah. So, but those things stick with you. Just loud. Yeah. It just sticks with you. So now,
00:24:11
yeah, I can kind of I I can tell you I'm Hey, I didn't like what you said to me
00:24:16
or I didn't like what you without losing my head without hitting anybody. Well, that's that's a home run for
00:24:21
therapy. Let me ask you a question. So, this apartment, I can't see much of it. So, it was a mental leap for you to buy
00:24:28
this for yourself. It Yes. Because you're all you were frugal too
00:24:33
in a way, right? You're always you you wouldn't be the guy who would sp spend or the I always say your best manager or agent
00:24:39
is a low monthly nut. That is like right you you don't want to be doing the
00:24:45
the fifth lead on Yeah. If you can keep a low monthly nut, chances are your career will be over.
00:24:51
Make good choices. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to say Yeah. There's meetings you don't even have to
00:24:56
take. Yeah. When the cameo guy calls you up, you
00:25:02
don't [ __ ] return. called it [ __ ] you money in the 80s and I guess that's kind of what it is like or now it's just no
00:25:07
thank you. No thank you. Yeah. Yeah. No thank you. Yeah. When you said you were married and you
00:25:12
go I think it's mirac that are you scared she's going to take 50% and you go 50?
00:25:20
It's 80 now. You don't buy yourself much when you're married.
00:25:25
Did didn't we have that conversation at the 40th backstage? What did we have?
00:25:30
I thought it there's so much there. You told me about the divorce and you you said, "Well, it's half." And you know, I
00:25:35
just mentioned that other people I'd known in the business and they go, "Well, it's half of, you know, community
00:25:41
property." And then the alimony adds up to more like 60 70%. It's about 70. Yeah. Okay. 70%. Which is fair.
00:25:48
It is. Yeah. I'm kidding. That's insane. That's
00:25:53
I always say my my ex-wife has made more money off of comedy than uh Robert
00:25:59
Townsen.
00:26:05
She also said once, "I'm the only comedian that has to drive a cab at night." You change that to Uber. Updating my app.
00:26:18
What kind of choices are you making now as far as uh girlfriends and stuff or
00:26:23
dating or like how are you and this therapy is informing all of that? And I
00:26:28
think women generally do like when someone's straightforward, you know?
00:26:33
Yeah. I mean, I don't know how I'm just not as desperate as I've been in the
00:26:39
past. Okay. Just, you know, just, you know, I mean, like, I'm just not like that thing where it's like, oh my god, I
00:26:45
can't believe someone's paying attention to me. And then, you know, Right. Right. And then you're in this weird lopsided
00:26:51
thing where you both you both have one thing in common. You adore her.
00:26:58
Okay, here's a quote. I want you guys both to comment on this this quote. Just comment on it,
00:27:06
whether it's true or not. Men want to be admired
00:27:11
and women want to be loved by a man they admire.
00:27:17
It's pretty accurate, I guess. I guess. I mean, I don't Men want to be admired by who?
00:27:23
The woman in their life. My peers. Well, that's when I make Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like when I make the
00:27:29
special or whatever, the only people I care about is like you guys, right?
00:27:35
Other comedians I not even comedians, just comedians I think that are funny.
00:27:42
Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, that's the rest. I can And we know we we're in the tribe. We
00:27:48
know what like when we see you on stage. Well, I always love how you you have the
00:27:54
cord and the way you move and you're all dressed up and you look great and the crowd's going crazy and you're just
00:27:59
hammering it. I know what work went into that. I'm like, [ __ ] you know, and then
00:28:05
to throw it all away and just be connected to it. Like I I was really curious about this particular line you
00:28:11
had these anthems and one was a man's only as faithful as his options which it
00:28:16
seems like it was just hanging around but it became quotable with my friends. It's what not whether it's absolutely
00:28:23
true but it's just a very funny astute observation. Pretty true.
00:28:28
Um calm down came up with it. I think like one of my uncles said it to me. Well that's that's that's coming up.
00:28:35
Shoved it in a joke. Yeah. But that's coming up with it, you know, noticing it. And I think I use
00:28:40
that. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, that one follows me everywhere. Really? Oh, good.
00:28:46
Good and bad, you know. Oh, it's like everybody a little too close with for Yeah. It's like any girl you date, it's
00:28:53
like a man's only as faithful as his options, you know? Like he's they're like, "Sir, are you out of options?" You're like, "Well,
00:28:59
yeah. I mean, hey, yourself in a corner." I had Well, Will isn't that special. I
00:29:05
can't get away from it. No, I'm kidding. Rock, what are the three top things that
00:29:11
people on the street know you for?
00:29:17
They know me for I mean, they know me for It's weird. It's like especially because
00:29:22
of YouTube. Yeah. They don't even know whole specials. They just know jokes about this or that.
00:29:30
You know what I mean? Yeah. Like like specials end up becoming mixed together on some level. Sure. They don't
00:29:37
really just go that joke. You told this joke. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of Madagascar too.
00:29:44
I was on uh I I get a lot of Oprah Winfrey when after bring the pain. I
00:29:49
remember. So there's a certain amount. You'd be amazed at the housewives that or the you know that are into that know
00:29:57
what I do. But um I don't know. I mean it's not SNL anymore. It's more movies here or there.
00:30:05
I don't know. I'm like I'm like uh I don't know. It's like remember when we were kids and you just see um I don't
00:30:11
know. I'm trying to think. Certain people were just famous and you couldn't even figure out why. Yeah. You're like, "Why is Charo famous?"
00:30:17
You know what was hard for me to realize? When people you're like were recognizing me. I thought, "Oh, it
00:30:24
was so great until I heard one people, one person say, oh, I know that guy. He sucks." And I'm like, "Oh, it doesn't
00:30:30
mean they like me. It just means they know who I am. They just know you. I mean, I'll tell you this. They're grown-ups is funny.
00:30:36
Yeah, grown-ups is a big one. You're right. You're right. Really, any young person. My god, grown-ups.
00:30:43
We're keeping the lights on at TBS, I'll tell you, because it's on like Yeah. TBS heavy rotation.
00:30:48
Grown-ups literally all the time. One and two. One and two. You know what
00:30:54
question I got which you guys would might not like? Um, in my last interview, they go, "When were you the
00:31:01
most famous? And I thought, I know what he means. And
00:31:06
I said, the real answer is right now because everything's accumulation
00:31:11
and then they've seen there's fame and then there's heat. There's there's hot where the phone
00:31:17
ring. Exactly. So I could tell you when I was hot, but yeah, I'm more famous now than I've ever been.
00:31:23
But in around me and Chappelle always joke about it. I
00:31:29
always go, "Yeah, back when I was Drake." That's That's like Yeah. Drink Drink
00:31:35
them up. 2002 four. I was Drake, you know, whatever. From 96
00:31:41
to about 2000. It's like the third or fourth special in a row. It was like four specials in a row.
00:31:49
Very Drake like. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not There's no million-dollar nights now, but there were
00:31:55
those are you Well, Bill Burr, I don't know. What are these? What does he get? No, no, no, no. Bill Gar, please. Bill
00:32:01
Gar is Yeah. If you could do Madison Square Garden, you're doing arenas. You can, you know,
00:32:07
Sebastian does two Sebastian does two shows a night at. Yeah. Unreal. It's unreal.
00:32:14
Yeah. I love that. That guy really stood out for me. I mean, in the last five
00:32:20
years as just funnier. You especially you go watch him at the store, you can't not laugh.
00:32:27
Oh, I laugh. I I I was in the back of the store and just going, "Oh my god, who the [ __ ] is this guy?" I was and
00:32:32
then I come in the next time I saw his name, I go in and watch where the funny thing now to me is when people were
00:32:39
playing like Madison Square Garden. I think you've played it, Chris. There there's these big places you hear of like in Boston, TD Gardens, whatever
00:32:46
it's called. There's so many big ones, the forum. It used to be reserved for like Eddie Murphy maybe and maybe
00:32:52
someone else. And now when you hear people that aren't even household names to me
00:32:58
and you go, this guy's playing this, you go, whoa, this is a whole new world where through a podcast or through
00:33:04
YouTube or through their specials where is a little under the radar, but they have a crowd that comes out. It's
00:33:11
it's it's pretty unbelievable. It's great. I think the exposure and social media and everything else, they become friends
00:33:17
with you. So it's kind of like your friend nobody is playing Madison Square Garden, you know?
00:33:23
Yeah. And also I I think there's more I I know in Europe and around the world they always
00:33:31
respected standup as a high art, but in America it's the standups are
00:33:37
becoming a real art. Yeah. Because um in music music's become a a producers
00:33:44
medium. Yeah. So it's there's not a lot of singer songwriter. There's not a lot of no one gives a [ __ ] about liner notes
00:33:52
anymore. So the people that actually think are the comedians,
00:33:58
you know what I mean? Like so there's kind of a you write your own stuff, which is hard to do.
00:34:03
Yeah. It's like, you know, uh, hey, I love Rihanna. Tom Sigora is a better
00:34:09
artist, you know. writes all the [ __ ] He writes he writes
00:34:14
all of his stuff, you know. Rihanna's great. She's amazing. She's, you know, but you know,
00:34:21
in the in the tradition the nerdy tradition of coming up with your own stuff. Would you rather date Rihanna or Tom
00:34:28
Seagora? Be honest. I would rather date Rihanna. I would. Tom Seagora is a great example of someone that does I won't say numbers,
00:34:34
but he does a podcast. And then I ran into him and he goes, "We do these live ones." So he makes a shitload off his
00:34:41
regular podcast and he does a live one and it's crazy where I go, "You do not make that at threehour podcast." He's
00:34:48
like, "Yeah." I was like, and then he goes, "The next one we did it doubled." I was like, I don't know. Yeah. I He's His podcast
00:34:57
was great. And that's an example of that where I often thought when the web first came out, why couldn't I could I get a
00:35:03
million people to pay me a dollar a month and I'll just go apehit on YouTube. And that's starting to happen a
00:35:10
little bit where someone I don't I don't know Tom's numbers, but I would guess if he charges 10 bucks and he gets 50,000
00:35:17
people on his live YouTube little podcast, he's making a half million. Yeah. I mean, understand too, like I
00:35:25
don't want to get too technical. Humans need people to talk, right? So,
00:35:33
whatever 100 years ago, 50 years ago, thou philosophers used to be famous.
00:35:38
There's no more [ __ ] philosophers. Uh people used to be religious and and
00:35:45
went to a church every week. No one goes to church anymore. So, the only place people actually can
00:35:51
hear people say their thoughts is through standup. It's really hard. the last the last of
00:35:58
the speakers and you know I mean the last of the thinkers
00:36:05
some of these preachers by the way are similar they walk the stage they're talking they're rallying people they're
00:36:11
talking everyone's into it when I'm writing material I watch preachers just as much as I write watch
00:36:17
standups really interesting you come off a little bit like that you work the stage you're like a panther
00:36:24
well my grandfather was a preacher my great-grandpa All I have preachers in my in my family line.
00:36:29
Well, you see, they're performers. That what what works. It works for them. They're loud. They give it to them. People, they find a premise, they milk it.
00:36:36
Yeah. I would when my my two sons were doing standup and they had the the main
00:36:43
problem. So, I was around open micers a lot and the main thing was lack of clarity in the setup. So, I actually put
00:36:50
you on one of your specials. I said, "Look at this guy's language, this
00:36:56
clarity of really digging into the premise. Everyone knows where he is." And then he drops the hammer. So, you
00:37:03
know, that that makes sense to me. And obviously Sam Kenisonson was a preacher. You could really see that, you know. Yeah, you might.
00:37:09
One of the best. The hardest guy to follow. I followed him once. Hardest guy to follow ever. I auditioned
00:37:16
for Saturday Night Live and followed him as an unknown in 84 at the comedy store
00:37:21
with no MC in between. Sam levitates the room and now Dana Clarko
00:37:28
death. Death. I had no way out. There was nowhere to go, man.
00:37:37
So Chris, as far as just fun as standup, how much do you what size room and
00:37:43
what's the situation? Like for me in a small room where I've got a notepad and
00:37:48
I have some bits and I'm trying out new stuff that is the most pure fun um for
00:37:54
me as far as standup. I mean it's weird. I'm I start next week
00:38:00
or the week after. I go to I'm not going to say where because I don't know when this is airing but uh I'm playing a club
00:38:07
three years 10 nights in a row in the middle of America doing two shows a night.
00:38:12
Yeah. Yeah. Trying to get trying to get an act together so I can go on tour next year. Uh that is fun once you once you get
00:38:20
enough bits and that are working. I mean, isn't it the greatest feeling? A new bit that's
00:38:26
coming together time is early in a tour. You've been on
00:38:32
stage about 45 minutes. You're killing
00:38:38
and you know, and I just feel the audience is like, "Oh, you [ __ ] ain't heard [ __ ] yet.
00:38:44
You're loaded up. You're all you're happy. Oh, you guys think you just heard a great joke when you hear this?
00:38:50
Your closer is coming up." Yeah. Have you ever wrote a bit, Chris, where it came together so perfectly that you
00:38:58
thought, man, I don't know if I can write something that good again? I mean, or equal to it, you know?
00:39:03
I'll say this, this bit when my daughter Lola was born, the doctor hands me my
00:39:11
child and literally out of my mouth, I'm like, gotta keep her off the pole. It
00:39:16
just came out of my [ __ ] Say that again. gotta I was like I gotta keep her off the
00:39:22
pole. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Strip her. And it was like one of one of the best one of the best bits I ever came up
00:39:28
with. It's like should I just get women pregnant to come up with me?
00:39:34
Yeah. It's fun. It's like a song. I'm sure you ask uh any song, you know, people sometimes they're one hit
00:39:40
wonders, but there's one hit wonders where I go, "This is such a perfect song. Like everything about it is
00:39:45
working everything." And you go and you don't want to be that as a comedian. So
00:39:51
there's only a few things when you get older that still get me going. It's like there's a few tiny things in life and one is coming up with new ideas. Just or
00:39:58
saying something fast in real life, you're like I [ __ ] thank god my brain still works cuz that's fun. And when you
00:40:06
still like to do stand up or still like to write jokes, I'm happy because I know some people that are burned out on
00:40:12
showbiz or burned out on that and they just don't like it anymore, but they go through the motions or a comic that travels with the same hour for about 20
00:40:18
years, which they used to a lot, same act, same every year you'd see them. They come around your city and I'm like,
00:40:24
"Fuck, they didn't change anything." But it was okay. Now it's fun to to write
00:40:29
and see if you can scrape together another hour. That's good. But isn't that uh sometimes I wouldn't say I'm
00:40:35
embittered by it, but I'm like envious and I'll just say the Rolling Stones. I I'm just envious of people uh of but we
00:40:44
we have to create new material and rock stars can just do their top 15.
00:40:49
We don't even want them to. And I I really believe the Stones are better than they ever been because I think
00:40:55
really winding down on a song over decades where you just know it so well.
00:41:01
And Jagger never stops working. I mean, he, you know, and he can he's his voice is exactly where it needs to be at
00:41:07
almost 80. But with standup, you're like, I can't. Okay. Got to start [ __ ] a whole new hour. I mean, it's like, wow.
00:41:14
Yeah. It's it it's And it doesn't get any easier. I'm sitting here right now. I'm like, "Okay, I got I literally have
00:41:20
shows in next and two in le in less than two weeks. I have [ __ ] shows."
00:41:26
Well, there's two there's two things going on there. There's there's Chris Rock Unknown
00:41:31
surprising the audience. Now, the expectation is,
00:41:36
you know, when they when they introduce you to make sure they don't go over the top with it because I've I've been dropping mics, ladies and gentlemen, you
00:41:43
know, this guy's gonna bring it. You're going to really, you know, what's your what what do you want the MC to do for
00:41:48
you in the club? He's trying out stuff. What do you want him to say? I just just say my name. No credits.
00:41:55
Just don't hype it up or I mean, it's weird cuz it's like you can't get away from being Chris
00:42:01
Rock. You can't get away from being who you are. And by the way, you can't get away from being who you are to the guy intro
00:42:08
introducing you, right? You know what I mean? Yeah. because that guy's a comedian and he this is what he's
00:42:14
I met Joe I met Joe Koy once 10 years ago with love it or maybe it was 12 and
00:42:20
he started tearing up just meeting me he started wise were watering I go Joe
00:42:25
it's okay he's huge now but uh there there is that expectation and you try to remember the way they see you you know
00:42:33
the way you would see someone above the food chain when you were starting it's interesting
00:42:38
yeah I forget who used to say somebody said at their first Letterman, they sat down and it was like talking to a $5
00:42:45
bill. It was cuz you can't Yeah. You can't Letterman Letterman was so intimidating to me that
00:42:51
the last few years I I would just get on my heels. I I'd be in the wings and I'd
00:42:56
see him, the last thing I'd say when they'd introduce my name, "Don't give this show too much respect." Like,
00:43:03
pretend it's Bakersfield today just to get past the intimidation of David
00:43:08
Letterman. There was something about New York, that theater in him, and I didn't know he I was intimidated by Biff. Biff was
00:43:15
standing Biff, you know what I mean? And he was like looking out and he's like 30 seconds. I'm like, "Fuck Biff, I got to go out
00:43:22
there and he's so casual and I'm like, "All right, I got to get his love." Yeah. I remember being
00:43:27
Yeah. I couldn't believe Biff wasn't an actor. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because he was on the show.
00:43:33
He's the last thing he seen. He actually was actually And they make him work. He really wanted
00:43:39
affirmation from Biff and that. How you doing, Biff? Biff, are you all right?
00:43:44
Oh, cool. I'm like, Biff, back, you know, there was a time Biff was more famous than me. I was like, [ __ ] Where's your dressing
00:43:50
room, Biff?
00:43:57
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00:44:03
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00:44:15
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00:44:22
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00:44:29
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00:44:38
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