Chris Rock is living every comedian’s dream. He created an
award-winning series on HBO, starred in several Hollywood films
with A-list actors and, in the process, transcended his medium to
become one of America’s foremost social commentators. When Rock
talks, people listen–a return to stand-up was inevitable.

From the moment he took the stage, a near-palpable sense of
excitement ran through the audience, and Rock seized the moment.
After a few St. Louis-related shots, Rock began his unique routine,
deftly combining stand-up and soliloquy.

Rock rattled off a detailed list of the current woes of the
world–rap music, Governor Arnold, R. Kelly’s home videos and Kobe
Bryant cheating on his gorgeous wife. He suggested that Bryant told
his wife, “I love you, boo; but you ain’t new.”

What truly distinguishes Rock’s act from endless imitators is
his uncanny ability to lull the audience into a false sense of
security, and then bombard them with a jaw-dropping punchline.
Rock’s best one-liner of the night came when he compared Michael
Jackson’s recent legal woes to the equivalent of “another dead
white girl showing up at O.J.’s house.”

At 38, Rock’s material has finally encompassed married life. A
recent family man, Rock said, “You can either be married and bored,
or single and lonely.” He mourned his lost independence and
understands that he is becoming his wife’s “pet.”

Jokes aside, the most engaging moments of the routine came when
Rock delved into more pressing issues troubling America. No topic
was taboo: Rock offered his opinion on abortion, legalizing drugs
and fearing “al Cracka” more than al Qaeda. He argued for gay
marriage, saying TV shows like Temptation Island and The Bachelor
have already demonstrated that Americans do not believe marriage is
sacred.

Given the highbrow setting of the Fox Theatre, one might assume
that Rock would bite his sharp tongue to avoid offending any
affluent suburbanites. But he didn’t. Having stoked the wrath of
his black audience earlier in the evening with the O.J. barb, Rock
proved himself an equal opportunity hell-raiser by launching into a
tirade on the merits of affirmative action.

The only thing more humorous than his observation that “a black
C student can’t get a bank loan to buy a house, but a white C
student lives in the White House” was the horrified reaction from
audience members expecting the mild-mannered Chris Rock who appears
on Oprah.

Richard Pryor may have started the modern trend of stand-up
comedy as the angry voice of urban America, and Eddie Murphy
certainly elevated this type of stand-up to bold new heights in the
’80s. But Chris Rock’s voice is the strongest yet in the cutthroat
world of Pryoresque humor.

Rock can discuss the graphic details of his sex life with
reckless abandon, then switch gears to an X-rated berating of pop
culture figures, to demonstrate that some of his best material is,
indeed, pig-pen filthy. However, when Rock decides to make
political statements, one inevitably starts questioning when the
comedy act ended and the sermon began. This is a good thing. Rock
knows he can make his audience laugh at the world, but he truly
wants to encourage them to think about it.