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.He enjoyed a wide range of comedians, including ChrisTucker, Dave Chappelle, Adam Sandler, Woody Allen, and EllenDeGeneres.By watching and listening to other comics, Rock 66CHRIS ROCKcould constantly modify and freshen his own performance, hisdelivery, and his style.Beginning in October 2003, Rock toured North Americafor five months, getting back in the swing of stand-up.Hetried out his act to see what worked and what still neededwork.He talked about being a father, health care, politics,gun control, women, relationships, abortion, gay marriage,and other issues.His tour received a favorable response heperformed to sold-out audiences in more than 65 cities acrossthe United States and Canada.NEVER SCAREDThe Black Ambition tour led up to Rock s latest HBO comedyspecial (his fourth), Never Scared, performed in Washington,D.C., at DAR Constitution Hall, in April 2004.It was hisfirst HBO special in more than four years.The network wasexcited to have him back.A few years earlier, Chris Albrecht,who was then president of original programming for HBO,told Time magazine, HBO has been known for breaking topcomedians, and Chris is the most important to come along ina long time.He s a guy who can get away with being honest ina way that few people can. Never Scared premiered on HBO on April 17, 2004.Thefirst visible difference between this comedy concert and hisprevious specials is Rock s growing maturity, which is appar-ent in his appearance: He wears a classy, neutral suit thatreflects his age and shows sophistication.Rock tells his audience right away that he s now a father.He goes on to talk about how a father s biggest responsibilityto his daughter is to keep her off the pole if your daughterbecomes a stripper, you have failed as a father.Although theconcert begins rather raunchily, Rock works up to the mate-rial he s known for: social commentaries about racism, rela-tionships, and politics.He discusses the differences between rich and wealthy : Shaq is rich, he said, referring to NBA 67Touring and the Oscarsall-star Shaquille O Neal. The guy who signs his checksis wealthy. Never Scared was nominated for two Emmys, and criticspraised Rock s return to stand-up.Some critics felt the showdid not quite live up to his previous comedy concerts, butmost agreed that it was full of laughs and provided 90 min-utes of fast-paced comedy without any pitfalls.The DVD alsoincluded a bonus feature of Rock s early work, Chris Rock: BigAss Jokes from 1993.HOST OF THE ACADEMY AWARDSIn October 2004, Chris Rock was named to host the 77thAnnual Academy Awards.Between the announcement and theactual show, there was plenty of buzz about how Rock woulddo as the host: He was known for using profanity wouldthere need to be a time delay in case he swore? Rock wasexpected to be outrageous but would he say something tooover-the-top? Rock had some radical thoughts would he betoo cutting edge during the show?Some people thought that his raw, honest humor would notlend itself to the Academy Awards.But the Academy hoped tomake the show more appealing to younger audiences.Acad-emy leaders defended their decision to hire Rock and sent himon a publicity tour to promote the show.On tour, Rock saidhe would not soften his material for the show, which furtherworried some people.Rock hired ten writers, including Ali LeRoi, Lance Crouther,and John Macks.(Macks worked with Billy Crystal when hewas the Oscars host.) With their help, Rock planned out thetopics he hoped to cover and worked on his material.Hewanted to keep the material geared toward what the audienceat home would have been most likely to see including mov-ies that were not necessarily nominated for Academy Awards.Not everyone liked Rock s Academy Awards performance atthe Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on February 27, 2005; many 68CHRIS ROCKAs the Academy Awards host, Chris Rock made a mock presentationabout the accountants who tally up the results of the Oscar balloting.Some critics said Rock was too mean-spirited in his stint as Oscarshost.Others found his performance funny.critics found him to be mean-spirited. Rock told the audi-ence that filmmakers should wait for better talent instead ofusing small-time actors:Clint Eastwood s a star, OK? Tobey Maguire s just aboy in tights.You want Tom Cruise and all you canget is Jude Law? Wait.You want Russell Crowe andall you can get is Colin Farrell? Wait.Alexander is notGladiator.You want Denzel [Washington] and all youcan get is me? Wait.Denzel s a fine actor.He wouldanever made Pootie Tang. 69Touring and the OscarsActor Sean Penn, along with others, thought Rock was dis-respectful to Jude Law.When Penn took the stage later in theevening, he stood up for Law.Rock later defended his remarksas being merely jokes.Rock also poked fun at President George W.Bush andaward shows in general.Every year the Academy Awards triesto find ways to keep the show from running too long.In 2005,some awards were handed out in the aisles to save the winnersthe time of walking up to the stage.This led to Rock s jokingthat next year some Oscars would be presented in the parkinglot, with winners taking advantage of a quickie drive-throughlane.The show, overall, was uneventful compared with theattention it received beforehand
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