Chris Rock Comedian Calmer

Chris Rock claims he is much calmer now he is older because he has realised he doesn't have the ability to change the things that fill him with rage.
Chris Rock has calmed down as he has got older.
Comic the 45 year old - who has daughters Lola, eight, and Zahra six year old with wife Malaak Compton Rock used to be known for his vitriolic rants about political issues, but he has now curbed his anger because he knows he can't change things.
He said: "What intelligent being still has the same amount of anger 20 years later on?
"I'm angry about there are still things, don't get me wrong. But you calm down. And you realise you can't change most of that's going on. You realise you're just a man."
Chris admits he is content with his life, but doesn't think his happiness will stop his stage routines from being funny.
He added: "I'm a pretty happy guy. And I don't think that hinders me. If I had to go on tour next month I think I could come up with a pretty funny act."

Chris Rock Americanizes 'Death at a Funeral'

CHRIS ROCK doesn't view the world in black and white, especially when it comes to comedy.
"I come from the same line as Richard (Pryor), Eddie (Murphy) and (Bill) Cosby," says the veteran funnyman. "But I'm also a descendant of George Carlin and Rodney Dangerfield. When I was a kid, I didn't think of Rodney Dangerfield as a funny white guy. We just saw him as a funny guy."
The same goes for his movies. Rock doesn't see his remake of the 2007 British comedy "Death at a Funeral" as a "black" comedy. It's simply a comedy. If there's any label to be put on it, it's an American comedy, he says.

"When you define it as a 'black comedy,' it somehow lessens it, makes it smaller," he says. "I think we've made an American family comedy, even though it's rated R. It's got a big, great cast, black and white. All the people that aren't in a Tyler Perry movie right now are in this movie."
The 45-year-old saw the original "Death at a Funeral," directed by Frank Oz ("Bowfinger"), at an art house theater. He recalls the audience was fairly small -- maybe 12 people -- but they appeared to enjoy the irreverent comedy.
"People were laughing their (behinds) off," recalls Rock, "and to me that said: This is a pop movie. I just thought the jokes would work in America."
The comedian and actor figures he was probably the "only black man in America" who saw the movie, which earned a paltry $8.5 million at the box office in the United States. Savvy to the current enthusiasm for ensemble comedies like "Pineapple Express," "The Hangover" and "Valentine's Day," Rock saw potential in the source material.
"A lot of things are collaborations," observes the former "Saturday Night Live" cast member. "They're not doing a lot of one-guy comedies right now. I thought the fact that ('Death at a Funeral') had a lot of funny parts was perfect for me. I didn't want to have to carry the whole movie."
Rock's instincts were on target. He quickly got Sony Pictures on board, and he recruited filmmaker-playwright Neil LaBute, with whom he had collaborated on the 2000 dark comedy "Nurse Betty," to helm the remake.
He called up his old friend Martin Lawrence, who had opened for him on a stand-up gig years ago, to join the cast. He credits Lawrence as "the only comedian to blow me off the stage." Also joining the ensemble were "30 Rock" and fellow "SNL" alum Tracy Morgan, Danny Glover, Luke Wilson, Loretta Devine, Keith David, Regina Hall, James Marsden, Zoe Saldana and Peter Dinklage, who reprises the role he played in the original.
Rock worked with the original movie's writer, Dean Craig, on adapting the script to give it an American voice and sense of humor.

Chris Rock to Translate a French Movie

Funnyman CHRIS ROCK is set to translate another French movie for international audiences - he's planning a big budget remake of hit comedy LA PREMIERE ETOILE.

The film, about a black working class family who leave their home to tackle snobbery on the ski slopes, was a big hit in France and became the 10th highest grossing film in the country of 2009.

And now Rock has bought the rights to the picture, with plans to write a new English-language screenplay and produce the remake, according to Variety.com.

It will be the second French remake for Rock, who previously directed and starred in 2007's I Think I Love My Wife with Kerry Washington, based on 1972 French film, Chloe in the Afternoon, by late moviemaker Eric Rohmer.

http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/rock-to-translate-french-movie_1128489

A 'Merry' time with Chris Rock: Comedian wants 'Hannah Montana'

Chris Rock, known for edgy comedy, says he got into DreamWorks' "Madagascar" franchise for the "Hannah Montana money."

"You know, you get in with the kids and that definitely can't hurt," Rock told reporters in a conference call.

Wednesday at 8, NBC will premiere "Merry Madagascar," a holiday cartoon based on the "Madagascar" films; it features favorites Alex (Ben Stiller), Marty (Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer) and Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith).

After Santa (Carl Reiner) crash-lands on the island, it's up to the Central Park Zoo-sters to help deliver presents and save Christmas. Though their initial motive may have been a sleigh ride back to New York City, somewhere along the way, the four rediscover the magic of giving.
Rock says even though his Marty voice is different from his normal voice, kids still recognize him every time he opens his mouth. "The looks on their faces, it's like, 'Wow, I can't believe its him!'" said Rock. "They get very excited. And my youngest daughter, Zahra, is a bragger. She's very quick to tell people her daddy is Marty the zebra."

The billion dollar black 'good hair' industry to the Chris Rock

Emmy winning comedian to a Chris Rock , devoted husband and loving father --but this funnyman it's time to get to know a new side. Meet Chris Rock, hair expert.
It's a detour he took after an innocent carpool ride left Rock with an idea he just couldn't shake.
"I was with my daughter one day, and we're in the car and she's with one of her friends in the back seat, a little white friend," he says. "She was just kind of raving about her friend's hair a little too much for my comfort [saying]: 'You've got great hair. Oh, your hair's so good.'"
Not wanting to make her comments a big deal, Rock says he tried to play his them off. "[I said]: "Oh, baby, your hair's beautiful. Come on,'" he says. "If I would have really reacted, then she would have a complex about her hair."
Still, Rock couldn't let it go. "It sparked something in me," he says.
Oprah.com: Oprah's hair throughout the years!
What Rock discovered is a $9 billion industry that affects the daily activities, wallets, self esteem -- and even the sex lives -- of black women. Because women spend so much time and money on their hair, Rock says men are forced to adopt a hands off policy.
If you've got a weave, your scalp's like a beat up highway--Chris Rock "You cannot touch a black woman's hair. You are conditioned not to even go there," he says. "When I was a dating guy, I dated women from different races. Anytime I was with an Asian or a Puerto Rican girl or a white girl, my hands would constantly be in their hair. Like my hands were thirsty."
One of the first lessons Rock learned on this journey was that women do their hair for one another. "They say it's for the men, but it's actually for the women. Because guys don't care," he says. "There's no point in the history of the world where men were not sleeping with the women in front of them. We take what we can get."
Actress Nia Long, who Rock interviews in the film, agrees. "There's always this sort of pressure within the black community like, if you have good hair, you're prettier or better than the brown skinned girl that wears the Afro or the dreads or the natural hairstyle," she says.
Oprah.com: Oprah's stylist reveals his hair secrets
Rock found the biggest moneymaker in the hair business to be weaves. Black women can spend six to eight hours getting their hair braided into tiny sections. Stylists then delicately attach tracks of hair -- which can be simple extensions or full wigs -- to the braids.
"If you've got a weave, your scalp's like a beat up highway," Rock jokes.
Women who wear weaves stop by the salon for regular washes, conditioning and tightening, but the real expense lies with the hair itself. Rock says he was shocked to learn that regular women spend thousands of dollars on weaves -- and even put them on layaway.
"Janet Jackson spends $5,000 to go to the Grammys on her hair. I didn't know Kiki was spending $5,000 to go to AT&T and answer the phone," he says. "That was disturbing."
Rock discovered the hottest hair on the market is found in India, where human hair is the number two export behind software. "This is some of the worst poverty in the world," he says. "I don't think [people] know they're walking around with $1,000 on their head."
While in India, Rock witnessed a tonsuring ceremony at the Venkateswara Temple. Every year, more than 10 million people cut their hair off as an offering to the Hindu gods. "In India, hair is considered a vanity, and removing hair is considered an act of self sacrifice," he says.
"These people have no idea where their hair is going or how much it's worth. The money made at this temple is second only to the Vatican. The hair collected here is auctioned off to exporters who distribute it around the planet."
Another staple of the industry is relaxers -- also called "creamy crack" by some. While women of other races use perms to add curl, black women use them to straighten their hair. "You name a black woman, any black woman," Rock says. "They've either had their hair relaxed, or they're having their hair relaxed right now."
The active ingredient in relaxer is a substance called sodium hydroxide. The chemical is so strong it can burn a woman's hair off -- which is why Rock is urging parents to stop the relaxing addiction now. "This kiddie perm has to stop, okay? They shouldn't have to worry about that till they're in their teens," he says. "Putting those chemicals in that child's hair is just not cool."
Rock says he tells his own daughters they're beautiful every moment he can --and has only one answer when it comes to questions of having good hair. "Whatever makes you happy is good hair," he says. "Do your hair for you, and you will be glad."

Documentary 'Good Hair' has roots in Birmingham to Comedian Chris Rock's

Comedian Chris Rock's newly released documentary, "Good Hair," has

some good connections in and around Birmingham.

Parts of the movie, which explores the lengths many African American women go through to change their hair, were filmed in Birmingham in 2007. Two Birmingham hair stylists are in the movie, and a Birmingham freelance film producer and a Miles College instructor worked as production assistants on the film.
"It actually puts us on the map," said independent film producer Jana Harris, who worked as a production assistant and showed Rock and his crew around the city during their weeklong visit. "People don't think of Birmingham as an ideal location (for filming.) But, I think having a movie of this magnitude shows other producers what they can do here."
Rock has said he got the idea for the movie, which was released nationally nine days ago, when one of his daughters asked him why she didn't have "good hair," referring to straight, long, flowing hair.
Determined to uncover why she would think that, Rock delved into African American hair culture with a documentary. He explored the multibillion dollar African American hair industry, and how African-American women have turned to relaxers to different their hair texture from overly curly to straight. Women also use weaves for convenience, to achieve different textures or to get a variety of looks.
While many African American women are content with the hair they were born with, there are still many, many others who seek to change it.
Rock interviewed everyday women and men in salons, barbershops and elsewhere in Birmingham, Atlanta, New York and Dallas. He also talked to several celebrities, including Nia Long, Maya Angelou and Raven Symone. Rock used humor to make people think.
"The movie deals with social issues in the black community such as economic empowerment and images of beauty," said Demetrius Newton Jr., a Miles College communications instructor who worked as a production assistant on the film. "Despite the fact that he presents it in a humorous manner, these are serious issues."
Part of Rock's research led him to Atlanta, where the Bronner Bros. hair company puts on an annual hair show competition. Birmingham stylist Tanya Crumel of Pedestals Salon was one of the four contestants.
Rock interviewed her and filmed her as she prepared for competition. Crumel's business partner, Kevin Kirk, is in the movie, too.
"I wasn't selected to be in the movie at first. They came there looking for Tanya," Kirk said. "They didn't actually know me. But, when they met me, and realized the history I had," he said they incorporated him into the story.
Kirk has won first place at three Bronner Bros.' hair shows, including in August when he took home $20,000 and a new Ford Taurus.
Since his third win and the movie's release, he's received requests to judge hair shows and teach classes; and a national magazine has asked him to review a hair product, he said.
Although Kirk and Crumel are happy about the movie's release, it comes at a time when they are in mourning. Crumel's 18 year old son and Huffman High School senior, Jeremy Crumel, was in a car accident on Oct. 25 and died two days later.
To give Crumel a break from everything, Kirk and others took her to see the film three days after Jeremy's death. who has appeared in a couple of episodes of Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" to consult with one of the personalities about her wig line, is also in the movie as a contestant.
Harris said that while Rock was in town, they visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and restaurant Niki's West. She added that Rock interviewed Birmingham resident James Armstrong, the man who often cut the Rev. Martin Luther King's hair, but that piece didn't make it into the final cut.
The movie won the Special Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. It is showing at Alabaster 14, Summit 16 and Trussville Stadium 16.

has women talking, Chris Rock’s ‘Hair’ documentary

For black women, hair has always been a don’t touch, don’t tell subject.
Comedian Chris Rock turned up the volume in his movie “Good Hair,” pondering why black women spend a fortune for straighter hair, dismissing their natural curl as inferior.
Fallout from the film has sparked a dialogue that brings the controversial subject the costs! the chemicals! out of the salon and onto Main Street.
“I found it a little disturbing,” said Tamara Buchanan, a Suffolk University graduate student.
Buchanan, who is working on a master’s in women’s health, went to look the film expecting Rock “to just make fun of our secret.”
“But I’m a little more educated for seeing it,” said the Roxbury resident, adding she was stunned to learn that the expensive weaves black women spend entire paychecks on are a product of a Hindu haircutting ritual in India.
Buchanan’s pal, Codie Anne Crew, agreed, “It makes you wonder.”
Larry Hamilton, a stylist at Patrice Vinci Salon on Newbury Street, who specializes in relaxers, said hair is a loaded topic for his clients. “It’s a self-esteem issue,” he said. “Coarser, curlier is bad.”
Hamilton, who charges $100 to $120 for chemical straightening, hadn’t seen “Good Hair.” Many of his clients wish they could wear their hair naturally, but get caught up trying to emulate celebrities, he said.
“In some places, if it’s natural, it’s not acceptable,” he said. “There are stigmas to it.”
Buchanan, who currently spent eight hours and $170 on synthetic twists at Helen’s Hair Connections in Roxbury, said the plastic extensions are easy to manage. Her pal, Crew, who had perms during high school, said her current style - natural - is more authentic than ones she’s had in the past.
“You grow into it and you grow into your own self,” she said.
Black hair’s only going to get more attention with the early December release of Disney’s first black-princess movie, “The Princess and the Frog,” and Lisa Price thinks that’s a good thing.

Price is the founder of Carol’s Daughter, a natural line of hair products, and earned Disney’s approval to market the official line of “The Princess and the Frog” shampoo, conditioner and detangler to stores such as Macy’s.
“It’s an honor,” said Price, who counts her 3 year old daughter among the impressionable audience that is hungry for a black princess role model.

Chris Rock's: Twist on a cultural craving

'Hair is a woman's glory," says a wise and worldly Maya Angelou in Chris Rock's greatfully funny, probing coif-doc, Good Hair.
A thoughtful examination of African American women - and African American men - and their feelings about follicles, Good Hair has the comedian and acerbic social commentator trekking from Atlanta to New York to India, asking the tough questions of singers, actresses, high schoolers, and kids, moms, dads, and businessfolk. And business it is: Black Americans spend $9 billion annually treating and straightening - or "relaxing" - their hair, and account for 80 percent of the country's hair-product sales, according to the film.
"You get up and comb your economic exploitation every morning," the Rev. Al Sharpton half-jokes, his trademark James Brown pomp slickly in place for Rock's camera. (And Sharpton explains how the soul singer came to literally shape Sharpton's hairstyle - on a trip to the Reagan White House.)
Good Hair is certainly no arid anthropological study. Rock's queries are loose and quippy, but his instincts are as sharp as an investigative journalist's. If the 1960s gave African Americans a new sense of heritage, a renewed pride that manifested itself in the natural 'do of the Afro, why do so many blacks so many decades later subject themselves to painful and costly chemical treatments to straighten their hair, to make it "lighter and brighter and better"? Implicitly, to make it whiter?
Good Hair, then, is about black identity and self image as much as it's about commerce and cosmetics. Eve, Melyssa Ford, the duo of Salt-N-Pepa, Nia Long, Vanessa Bell Calloway - a host of smart, beautiful African American women muse about their weaves, wigs, and extensions, and their essence.
Speaking of extensions, Rock sojourns to a Hindu temple in India where women shave their heads as a form of sacrifice to the gods, and canny entrepreneurs at the temple's back door scoop up the silky tresses and export them to America, where they're sold in beauty salons and hair supply shops for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars.
Rock also heads to the Bronner Bros. International Hair Show, an over-the-top annual trade event in Atlanta, where hair products are on display and a wild and crazy stylists' competition combines technique and artistry with a cheesy Vegas aesthetic.
Although its tone is generally genial and jovial, Good Hair touches on some tricky issues, at times complicitly. When Rock enters a Korean-owned hair-supply shop in California that caters to blacks, his condescending questions point to the friction between African Americans and Asians in ways that aren't altogether amusing.
But Good Hair is better than those few shaky moments; it's a documentary that has a lot on its mind as well as a lot on its, er, head.

American Wildly popular comic hits Capitol on Saturday night

When you ask some of the world's funniest human beings who is their favourite comedian, often the answer is Louis C.K.
C.K. (a replacement of his real last name Szekely) appears at the Capitol Theatre on Saturday night as part of his fall tour of Canada and Europe.
While C.K.'s recentl;y career doing stand up is the stuff dreams are made of, his beginnings sound like that of most comedians: he took advantage of an open-mic night at a bar, stunk the place up and quickly scurried back into the comedic hole out of which he crawled in the first place but only for a couple of weeks before trying it again. And again. And. . . .
Hey, that's how just about everyone in the business got started. Now, with 20 years of experience, C.K. has been nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding writing for a variety, music or comedy special for his second one-hour TV particular Louis C.K.: Chewed Up, alongside the likes of Chris Rock, Will Ferrell and Ricky Gervais.
He'll star in the film The Invention of Lying with Gervais and Jennifer Garner, which opens next month, and has scored a recurring role in the NBC series Parks & Recreation in the role of police officer Dave Sanderson.
At age 41, the Washington born comic, writer and director who also bagged an Emmy for his writing on the renown Chris Rock Gig, is at the pinnacle of his craft.
His own 2006 sitcom Lucky Louie remains a cult favourite, even if it got canned after one season, likely because it went too far with its nudity and language that was at times so rough, it might have made Ricky from The Trailer Park Boys blush.
Next year, C.K. stars in his own series on the American FX network called Louie. He'll executive produce it, write it and direct the series which is based on his own life as a stand up comic and single father of two living in New York City.
In April, C.K. taped his national theatre tour Louis C.K.: Hilarious, his third one-hour particular in as many years. His second one, Shameless, is out on CD and DVD and his first, Louis C.K.: Shameless, is racking up sales on DVD.
He's starred in two HBO One Night Stand particular, a Comedy Central Presents special and on HBO's 25th Anniversary Young Comedians special.
As a film maker, C.K.'s likely best known for his cult classic blaxploitation spoof Pootie Tang, which he wrote and directed.
His first feature film, Tomorrow Night, which he wrote, directed and produced, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1998 and his most successful short film Ice Cream screened at Sundance as part of the New Directors, New Films series at MOMA in 1994.
Last year C.K. was seen in Diminished Capacity with Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen and Alan Alda, as well as in Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins with Martin Lawrence, Mike Epps and Cedric the Entertainer. Often dirty and usually deranged, Just for Laughs presents Louis C.K. at the Capitol Theatre on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets are available for $35.50 at the Capitol box office, by calling 1-506-856-4379 or 1-800-567-1922 and online at http://www.capitol.nb.ca

“Whatever they had in their hair, that’s what I had in my hair”, Chris Rock

“I’m not saying anything about that I’m not saying anything about Kanye (West) and end up on some rap album somewhere,” said Chris Rock laughing during an on stage interview at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday afternoon. And with that, he launched into a mini-rap, “‘I got money, Chris Rock aint funny…’ There are just too many things that rhyme with ‘Rock,’” he snapped. The Kanye topic came up at a packed auditorium in Toronto which turned out to see the comedian who is here supporting his doc, “Good Hair” and an audience member asked him what he thought about rapper Kanye West’s behavior at the MTV Video Music Awards over the weekend.
But Rock didn’t demure over a range of topics spanning politics, Michael Moore, the Obamas and even the Jacksons (who get a bit of a verbal beating) during the hour-long conversation hosted by TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers as part of the festival’s Maverick series. But it was hair, or specifically, the culture and economics behind black women’s hair, that took center stage. The genesis of his doc, which is screening as a Special Presentation at the festival, began when Rock’s young daughter asked, “Daddy, how come I don’t have good hair?” And in a style reminiscent of a Michael Moore film, Rock mixes humor and investigative journalism to explore the topic, from hair salons to laboratories and even the international trade in Indian and Korean hair, which form a cornerstone of a vast industry in which individuals pay thousands of dollars to maintain a perfect coiffe.
“Before the Obamas, the Jacksons were the first black family in America,” said Rock. “Whatever they had in their hair, that’s what I had in my hair growing up.” Chris Rock said he believed it was in the ‘70s when blacks in America were “finally free,” and it was reflected in their hair. Afros bounced proudly as African Americans turned away from the heavy product and relaxers embodied by Nat King Cole and Sammy Davis Junior. Rock laughed, recalling how he was the first black kid in his school growing up. “It was, you know - shitty,” he said of his days at school.
But, turning back to the Jacksons, Chris Rock had no problem tearing in on late pop star Michael Jackson.
“Poor Michael - I wonder if they have hair care products in Heaven, er - or in Hell, or whatever…,” he said, then turning to Powers seated with him on stage, “You know, I think they make him do shows in Heaven, and then they send him back to Hell.”
Though he was a fan of the Jacksons growing up, he clearly has gained their ire now that he’s famous, and with lines like that, it’s probably not surprising. “I met Michael once. He just glared at me… And I’ve met Janet, and she just glared at me… Back when I was a kid, if anyone had told me that one day the Jacksons will want to kick my ass, I would’ve said, ‘You’re crazy!’”
Rock reserved compliments, however, for filmmaker Michael Moore who also was in Toronto promoting his new film “Capitalism: A Love Story.”
“I’ve always been a big fan of Michael Moore ever since I saw ‘Roger & Me’ 20 years ago,” said Rock. “I thought, this is funny and smart.” He said the style of filmmaking prompted him back then to consider “Good Hair,” but docs had not hit their stride yet, so he shelved the idea until his daughter brought up the topic years later and Moore and others’ success in documentary prompted him to reconsider.
“At the time [of the idea] Michael Moore was new, there was no ‘Borat’ and I was barely known, but now I have two daughters and I see their hair issues, so the idea came back. It’s a funny thing about hair. Li’l Kim and Michell Obama have nothing in common, but if you just say ‘hair,’ they’ll talk for two hours.” The comedian, who hosted the 77th Academy Awards in 2005, went on to say that he thinks this is his funniest movie to date even though it’s only PG-13 and mostly void of his typically sexually charged and expletive-laced stand up.
“This isn’t a topic about anything controversial it’s hair!”