Chris Rock - Bring The Pain

There was a time when it was considered too dangerous to teach a black man how to read. Fortunately, we've moved on somewhat since then but even now, a black man who is intelligent, well read and articulate can often be considered a challenging prospect even from within his own community and not just outside of it. Add humour to the mix though and that man is immediately seen as less of a threat. If he's wise he can use being seen as a funny man to have even more influence than a man who goes around straightfaced. A man with great comic timing and incisive wit can thus go on and spread his message with genius. That genius is the man known as Chris Rock.I love black stand up as a whole but this dude is in a class of his own. By the time this 1996 performance was taped as an HBO special, he had honed his skill to perfection and ensured he would be known as more than the guy who got to play the butt of all the jokes in movies like "Boomerang", "CB4" and "New Jack City". No subject is sacred and no one is safe. Rock lays into Marion Barry (the former Mayor of Washington DC who was involved in a drug scandal and still managed to get re-elected. The show was taped at the Takoma Theatre in D.C. so the response of the audience was particularly interesting), O.J. Simpson, Colin Powell, and also talks about race relations, education, the crack epidemic, family values, sex & relationships and what he sees as the (still controversial) difference between `ni**as' and black people. Rock is totally irreverent, unrelenting and foul mouthed, while at the same time managing to remain intelligent, practical and sensitive with a central underlying moral core to his message. He may offend you but he'll make you laugh yourself silly while he's doing it AND make you think after he's done. Overall though, you know he's talking the truth and if that isn't genius then I don't know what is.I first saw this on cable TV back in 2001 and nearly wet myself laughing. I got the DVD and watched it again a few months ago and even though I knew most of what was coming, I was still in hysterics. I can't wait to watch it again. The journalist, author and urban social commentator Nelson George interviews him for one of the extras, while the others are basically silly music videos starring Rock himself. I never saw any of these videos on MTV (they were probably too risqué anyway) and I don't recall any of the songs making it into the charts but they're still a hoot to see. All round great value for money. If you enjoy laughing and you haven't got this yet, you simply must.

I bought the DVD based on reviewers who swore it was the funniest standup ever. No. Not to me. Thankfully later on in his career he got funnier. But these jokes weren't the funniest ever.

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Used to be a Chris Rock fan but I guess the only things I like of Chris Rock now is his relationship discussion at the end of Never Scared and his movie I Think I Love My Wife which seems to be based off his Never Scared relationship comments. I know he says its based off some older movie called Chloe in the afternoon but the movie does match a lot of what Chris Rock says in Never Scared. So looking for more pearls of funny wisdom, I watched the Best of Chris Rock Show, Bring the Pain, and Kill the Messenger. The Chris Rock show and Bring the Pain just dragged on racism way too much. In the Chris Rock show…Chris Rock says that in the early twenties African Americans were in the Olympics and yet America had the nerve to abuse African Americans in the twenties too. It doesn’t make sense to me for Americans to mistreat certain people and then have them represent America to the world in the Olympics. Lets talk about racism. I think it exist but I think the people that racism hurts are the same people who keep it alive and give it power. For example certain group of people like to call each other a certain word jokingly but if people that were outside of that certain group used the same special word then it would be a problem and likely to cause a fight. Don’t believe me? Next time your around a group of women call one of them a B word and see what happens. Then there’s this other group of people that can call each other a certain word but if we are not part of their group then it would be big trouble for me and you. Don’t believe me? Next time you see a police officer walk up to him and call him a pig. Do you now see how its this exclusivity of certain words that can be only used by certain people jokingly that give the word power. White people don’t have that. White people don’t jokingly call each other cracker, which is why the word has no power. So if there is a fight against racism then people need to look in the mirror and not use it as a crutch and blame other people. Cartoon series Boondocks did a good episode about this asking what would MLK think if he was alive today. I also like the episode N moment too. Kill the messenger was just way too much politics and when you don’t know the people or keep up with that stuff then you miss the jokes

1 of the top 25 comedians of all time !

This specific special seems to have been taken down from every streaming site. Vudu, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon. Can’t find it for rental or sale. Grabbed the DVD because it’s one of the funniest shows ever recorded.

Brilliant, just brilliant. It's such a shame that Chris Rock videos/cassettes aren't widely available in the UK, especially considering that what Rock has to say isn't exactly culture-bound. Sure, some of the humour is US-specific and related to the racial and political issues of 1996, but what Rock taps into is the nasty underbelly of life that we ALL like to think doesn't exist.His passion, his anger (and maybe frustration) all pour out onto the screen and you really get the impression that the man is laying himself bare - the sort of exhaustive stage-performance that you only really expect to see once in every comedian's life... but for Rock, it's just another killer routine.I could predictably warn people about his choice of language and the way in which his vocabulary is peppered with 'obscenity' - but like the finest of comedians, Rock's material is so rich and it's delivery is so slick, that swearing merely compliments what he says, rather than overpowering it. And quite frankly, if you're buying a Chris Rock video, you probably know what you're buying.A true comedy classic.

Another DVD to add to my list of stand-up favourites. A must have for any Chris Rock fan. Hell, a must have for any comedy fan.

It's Chris Rock - whats not to love about it

Chris Rock's live performances are amazing and this DVD prooves it. As always chris rock makes u laugh so hard with his comedy over black and white, politics, famous and infamous people and normal people - no-one is safe lolHis facial expressions and his actions are awesome.His subjects are often true even though comically exaggerated.He screams, he jumps around and pokes fun at everything and everyone always with great laughter.This DVD is just as amazing as all the rest, AWESOME.

fast delivery, product as described

A+++!