Chris Rock - Never Scared
Chris Rock: Never Scaredis the hot comic's fourth HBO special and proves as disciplined and trenchant as his previous cable concerts. Announcing he's a recent father, Rock proclaims his biggest job is keeping his daughter "off the pole," i.e., steering her away from the life of a stripper. Warming to the theme, Rock asks why so many strippers earn money to pay for expensive tuitions yet he's never received "a smart lap dance." Things turn topical as Rock argues that his government won't solve the murders of rappers. ("More people saw Tupac get shot than watched the last episode ofSeinfeld.") After taking broadsides at Michael Jackson ("Ed Bradley tried his best to make Michael look like a mammal!") and David Blaine ("Are we so desperate we fall for a trickless magician?"), Rock builds to a near-lecture (funny, though) on why white America won't let people of color acquire real wealth.--Tom Keogh