5 Questions With: Chris Rock

Emmy- and Grammy-winning comedian Chris Rock has been a busy man -- as well as reprising his role as Marty the zebra in last summer's 'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa' and just signing a deal to pen his second humor book, the actor's in the midst of his fourth season as narrator and exec producer of 'Everybody Hates Chris.'

On top of all that, this week marks the DVD release of his fifth HBO comedy special, 'Kill the Messenger' -- a seamless merging of three of the comedian's 2008 standup performances in Harlem, London and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Rock, one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2008, talked to AOL TV about 'Messenger' and about his upcoming book, his creative process and whether or not President Barack Obama will prove to be a source of comedic fodder for the next four years.


Emmy- and Grammy-winning comedian Chris Rock has been a busy man -- as well as reprising his role as Marty the zebra in last summer's 'Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa' and just signing a deal to pen his second humor book, the actor's in the midst of his fourth season as narrator and exec producer of 'Everybody Hates Chris.'

On top of all that, this week marks the DVD release of his fifth HBO comedy special, 'Kill the Messenger' -- a seamless merging of three of the comedian's 2008 standup performances in Harlem, London and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Rock, one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2008, talked to AOL TV about 'Messenger' and about his upcoming book, his creative process and whether or not President Barack Obama will prove to be a source of comedic fodder for the next four years.





1. You were performing in front of rock concert-size audiences, in different countries, for 'Kill the Messenger' ... were you concerned about whether the comedy would prove to be universal for audiences so large and diverse?
Yeah, I was kind of surprised that it did turn out to be, though that was kind of the point of it. When I thought about leaving the country, I didn't think it would be that big, to tell you the truth. I mean, I thought I'd be able to play little clubs around the world, like jazz clubs. It's weird ... there's not a lot of room for improvisation [with an audience that size], I'll tell you that. You're conscious of it -- 3,000 is a good size audience, but then you get in front of 20,000 people, and you're real conscious of how bad it could be if you lose this audience. You can lose the audience in a club and get them back, no problem. But you lose 20,000 people ... you're f***ed. Done. It's a wrap.

2. What's your process when you create new material? Do you carry a voice recorder around with you, or a notebook where you jot down jokes?
Yeah, there's a lot of jotting down notes. What I do a lot is call myself up and talk into my machine, my voicemail. And that way I know exactly how I said it. Sometimes when you read a joke you've written, you just don't know how you meant it, but when you hear it back, then it's like, "Oh, okay, that's what I was trying to do there."

3. You just signed a deal to write a follow-up to your bestselling book, 'Rock This!' How different is writing a book vs. writing a new standup routine?
Oh man, well, a standup routine you get to work out in front of a crowd. A book, it's a lot of parodying other things. The new one will probably be a parody of 20 other books. I've already started on the 'Last Lecture' part of it, the speech by the professor. And I'm gonna listen to Obama's [inauguration] speech, and I'll write my own version, my acceptance speech. So there'll be a lot of goofy things like that.



4. Speaking of our new president, where is the humor going to come from with him? There doesn't seem to be a lot to poke fun at.
I don't know, he's just one of those guys ... there's not a lot of material with him. He's like Will Smith or Brad Pitt. There's no Brad Pitt jokes. Like, "Oh yeah, he used to f*** Jennifer Aniston and now he f***s Angelina Jolie." Ha, ha, ha. That's not really funny. It's not like, "Ooo, I really got him!" But, you know, the first black president ... it's a lot of pressure. On the one hand, that's the job you want. The first black president. On the other hand, it'll be a lot easier to be the third black president.

5. 'Everybody Hates Chris' is in its fourth season ... do your daughters watch the show?
Oh yeah. They better watch it! We're not watching 'Little Bill' tonight, guys. We're watch 'Everybody Hates Chris.'