Pretty cool stuff to look back at the best comic working today and how he began his career. This was his "Born Suspect" era, before he got on Saturday Night Live in the late 80s.

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This first video is from an appearance "The Late Show" hosted by Arsenio Hall in 1987.Check out the end when he's talking about Carson and Arsenio is like "we gotta go to commercial."

http://wsf1027fm.blogspot...-rock.html

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From the 1987 Eddie Murphy produced HBO Special, "Uptown Comedy Express" where he's introduced as Eddie protegee. Just the trailer, some footage is below on "Who Is Chris Rock?"

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This video is from a video "Comedy's Dirty Dozens" from 1988.

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This video is from the Fox stand up series, "The Comic Strip" in 1989.

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A 1989 Documentary titled "Who Is Chris Rock?"

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These two interviews were down in early 1989 (first one posted) and mid 1990 (second one posted) and are both very good reads. The first one is very good, it talks about the first performance I posted and his Miles Davis jokes and how he was supposed to be on In Living Color until he seemed to do a date rape joke and Fox wasn't having that.

http://undercoverblackman...-pt-1.html

http://undercoverblackman...-pt-2.html

[img:$uid]http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xc/73997113.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA548957391D6476D0C795D22BDB154A79D519D8C4217247EA2BD[/img:$uid]

chric rock, rocks

my favorite comedian of all time.

He was real raw back then.

Eddie loved them Bus Boys. He featured them in his 1st stand up film, in 48 Hours and in this Uptown special.

Harlepolis said:

Eddie loved them Bus Boys. He featured them in his 1st stand up film, in 48 Hours and in this Uptown special.

IKR?

As for Chris? Legend.

Timmy84 said:

Harlepolis said:

Eddie loved them Bus Boys. He featured them in his 1st stand up film, in 48 Hours and in this Uptown special.

IKR?

As for Chris? Legend.

I wonder how different In Living Color would be (and SNL for that matter) if Chris was originally in the series like he stated?

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Timmy84 said:

IKR?

As for Chris? Legend.

I wonder how different In Living Color would be (and SNL for that matter) if Chris was originally in the series like he stated?

I wonder too. I think if Chris had started his stand-up career in 1980 (at 15), maybe he'd have a different impact on SNL and ILC... it shocks me he's been out as long as he has... the way he did his comedy in '96, you think he just "came on the scene"...lol

Timmy84 said:

LittleBLUECorvette said:

I wonder how different In Living Color would be (and SNL for that matter) if Chris was originally in the series like he stated?

I wonder too. I think if Chris had started his stand-up career in 1980 (at 15), maybe he'd have a different impact on SNL and ILC... it shocks me he's been out as long as he has... the way he did his comedy in '96, you think he just "came on the scene"...lol

I have comedy book and it says that Chris was almost a trivia question. I didn't get it back them, but with those articles I just found and posted, it explains a lot. Apparently, those date rape jokes and Miles Davis jokes were no-no's in the mid to late 80s. Had he not been Eddie Murphy's protegee and cool with Keenen and Arsenio, we might not have never heard from him again. He could have easily been blackballed for those comments cause he was a nobody at that time. That seemed to be the only reason he wasn't on ILC as he stated it was more of Fox's decision than Keenen not wanting him aboard.

And his comedy in 1996-present, was totally different from 1987-1995. Once his film CB4 flopped and In Living Color went off the air, he was at a crossroads.

Back in the day before SNL, comics said he used to come into some clubs with his notes trying jokes out, seeing what worked and what didn't. He said you gotta test the waters.

Once he got SNL, he was headline on comedy shows, but that sometimes didn't matter. When recording his Born Suspects CD in 1991, Angela Means, Jonathon Slocomb, Jamie Foxx and Joe Torry were also on the same bill. It was 1 o'clock by the time Chris came out, the others had killed and half the crowd had already left by time he hit the stage, but he did his thang and got through his set. Anglela Means said a lot of other comics would have been pissed, but not Chris.

Another time headline show, Martin Lawrence was his featured act and killed him, that's when he said he had to turn things around or he would leave showiness. He went and worked the clubs religiously during this period around 94-95 (he wasn't gettin work anyway.) And that club work paid off, he came out a new man and "Bring The Pain" was born in 1996 and he's never looked back.

LittleBLUECorvette said:

Timmy84 said:

I wonder too. I think if Chris had started his stand-up career in 1980 (at 15), maybe he'd have a different impact on SNL and ILC... it shocks me he's been out as long as he has... the way he did his comedy in '96, you think he just "came on the scene"...lol

I have comedy book and it says that Chris was almost a trivia question. I didn't get it back them, but with those articles I just found and posted, it explains a lot. Apparently, those date rape jokes and Miles Davis jokes were no-no's in the mid to late 80s. Had he not been Eddie Murphy's protegee and cool with Keenen and Arsenio, we might not have never heard from him again. He could have easily been blackballed for those comments cause he was a nobody at that time. That seemed to be the only reason he wasn't on ILC as he stated it was more of Fox's decision than Keenen not wanting him aboard.

And his comedy in 1996-present, was totally different from 1987-1995. Once his film CB4 flopped and In Living Color went off the air, he was at a crossroads.

Back in the day before SNL, comics said he used to come into some clubs with his notes trying jokes out, seeing what worked and what didn't. He said you gotta test the waters.

Once he got SNL, he was headline on comedy shows, but that sometimes didn't matter. When recording his Born Suspects CD in 1991, Angela Means, Jonathon Slocomb, Jamie Foxx and Joe Torry were also on the same bill. It was 1 o'clock by the time Chris came out, the others had killed and half the crowd had already left by time he hit the stage, but he did his thang and got through his set. Anglela Means said a lot of other comics would have been pissed, but not Chris.

Another time headline show, Martin Lawrence was his featured act and killed him, that's when he said he had to turn things around or he would leave showiness. He went and worked the clubs religiously during this period around 94-95 (he wasn't gettin work anyway.) And that club work paid off, he came out a new man and "Bring The Pain" was born in 1996 and he's never looked back.

Yeah I read about his struggles. It's fascinating when you look back...

RIP David Mills. What a class act, I used to follow his blog religiously.

I didn't know you could say "bitch" on An Evening at the Improv? Not sure what year this is, 1991 maybe?

"I learned how to do standup from Damon Wayans.
When I was in the clubs, he was like the only hip
black guy doing stand-up, and he was really nice to
me. He took me under his wing, he let me eat with
him, and I was just a kid. I learned more from Damon
Wayans just on how to be a comedian than any other
person out there."

"I worked with Keenen Wayans on
"I'm Gonna Git You Sucka". I had a
scene where I go, 'Gimme one rib'.

[Edited 9/29/12 22:23pm]