The comedian who once called a special “Never Scared” doesn’t carry himself like someone afraid. Chris Rock still jokes freely and provocatively about such touchy subjects as abortion, race and, in one unfortunate case, Jada Pinkett Smith.
But, as he said Thursday in the first of four shows at the Chicago Theatre, “I gotta watch what I say!”
Cancellation is an ever-present threat for every comedian, no matter how revered. And that anxiety extends to the lobby, where patrons have to pass through a metal detector and put their phones in pouches in order to see the ostensibly fearless funnyman.
Over the years, there have been Chris Rock sets packing surprises — that the wacky guy from “Saturday Night Live” could be such a deep thinker or that a complexity could be distilled to such a perfect catchphrase or that the roaster of relationships could be so humble in assessing the collapse of his own.
This is not such a set. Called “Ego Death,” it’s a collection of effective Chris Rock product touching on his life, some hot-button issues and the state of the country. It’s not a revelation, and there’s never a stretch of prolonged, gut-busting hysterics like he’s achieved before. But it’s still a night spent in the company of an excellent teller of excellent jokes.
When this tour started, Rock had just taken the smack heard ’round the world, a slap from an offended (and later apologetic) Will Smith on the Oscars. At first, he avoided discussing the incident on stage, saying he needed to process it.
Now, he does — but in the context of one of his broader themes: victimhood. While some race to the E.R. for a paper cut, Rock said, he brushed off the pain and got back to work. “I took that s- - - like Pacquiao,” he bragged.
One of the biggest laughs of the night came when he referred to his vulnerable role in “New Jack City,” noting that, while Smith once portrayed the mighty Muhammad Ali, “I played Pookie!”
He could have fought back, he said, but he remembered his parents’ rule: “You don’t fight in front of white people.”
Pop culture is still on the mind of the man who tosses around mentions of celebs as varied as Vera Wang, the Tinder Swindler and Migos. Rock’s recent heroes include Lil Nas X (for being utterly himself) as well as Kris Jenner, a model in-law for welcoming all manner of broken Black people into her family (or so her TV show portrays it). Speaking of Caitlyn Jenner’s ex, when Rock talks about trans people, it’s with admiration, in contrast to his sometime collaborator Dave Chappelle.
On the political side, Rock’s gags about Donald Trump’s flaws and Joe Biden’s age say nothing new about the nation’s most joked-about men. More successful is a bit about Hillary Clinton blowing her presidential chances by ignoring instructions from God.
Later, the show takes a turn to the personal, following up on the divorce he recounted in his last Netflix special, “Tamborine.” Without mentioning current love interest Lake Bell, Rock does says he’s single and dating but treading carefully to avoid a #MeToo scandal. As an illustration of what he’s dealing with, he displays on a giant screen some texts from a female acquaintance with a very explicit proposition.
If Kevin Hart’s 2020 special “Zero F- - -s Given” didn’t give you enough insight about how a rich comedian can spoil his children, Rock offers some of his own confessions about lavishing luxuries on his offspring. An overlong anecdote about his daughter breaking school rules has some interesting thoughts about decisions regarding discipline. But Rock loses some relatability as he goes on and on about the perks of her private school, where a class trip means flying the teens to Portugal.
And when he gushes about his daughter landing in culinary school in Paris, all of the exulting comes off as smug but at least allows a callback to one of Rock’s classic punchlines: “I kept her off the pole!”
