‘Chris Rock: Tamborine’ On Netflix: Humbler, But No Less Humorous

Last we saw Chris Rock on the big screen, he’d written and directed himself in the role of a recovering alcoholic and stand-up comedian trapped in a loveless relationship in 2014’s Top Five.

Last we saw Rock onscreen as his true comedic self, a decade ago in his fifth HBO stand-up special, Kill The Messenger, he’d filmed himself in three massive venues around the world to showcase his global dominance.

The truth now finds him somewhere in between. Rock’s first (of two) Netflix comedy special, Chris Rock: Tamborine, takes its misspelled title from a Prince song off of his album, “Around The World In A Day,” which plays over the closing credits. It also refers to a recurring joke of Rock’s during the second half of his new hour, about the varying roles people play in a loving relationship. “Sometimes you sing lead, and sometimes you’re on tambourine,” Rock tells us.

Directed by Bo Burnham, Rock doesn’t need to show off any longer.

Though he still filled theaters and arenas for his Total Blackout Tour throughout 2017, Rock filmed Tamborine —not Chris Rock: Tambourine— in the more intimate Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) auditorium. Shots from the back of the stage illustrate how close everyone is to the comedy legend. Dressed in a basic T-shirt and denim, he doesn’t have to maintain a frenetic pace back and forth across the stage to hold anyone’s attention. His stature, his body of work, and his absence from the stage have us hooked already.

His material comes at us as two distinct halves; the first, topical social commentary reminding us not only of our racial and economic inequalities, but also of our generational ones; the second, a more confessional reflection on his divorce, which he blames entirely on himself.

At 53, Rock not only reminds millennials and the generation of kids following them that they’re not as special as their parents would have them believe, but also blames President Trump on the idea that society had become ill-prepared to handle a real bully when he came along. He jokes, too, about how he has prepared his children for the brutal unfairness and racism that they’ll face as adults, wishing schools still taught those lessons and offered separate orientations for each minority group. Instead of inspiring teens to think idealistically, Rock would tell them: “You can be anything you good at, as long as they’re hiring. And even then, it helps to know somebody.”

As for Trump, he holds out hope that if we gave Barack Obama a chance only because “Bush was so bad,” then who knows how good we’ll have it if we survive this era.

Rock may joke about how all of the major religions have it wrong that God makes no mistakes, but make no mistake about it: No coincidences that he chose Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday to release this special.

He has never shied away from offering his opinions on why men cheat on their women, and here, he reveals how he tripped himself up through infidelities, an addiction to pornography, and not caring enough about his wife or her feelings. “I didn’t play the tambourine,” he confessed.

Though he finds some solace psychologically in court, looking around at the judge, lawyers and everyone else, realizing that despite dropping out of Boys’ High School in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood (two miles away from where he filmed Tamborine), everyone in the room wanted his money. “I made it!” Even so, Rock doesn’t wish a custody battle on anyone, and advises all couples to “love hard or get the fuck out” before having children, needing to get divorced and realizing you’re too old to hit on Rihanna.

Rock now recognizes the importance of learning life lessons and accepting cold hard truths about himself. “I brought this shit on myself,” he said.

That’s something some of his peers and those who look up to him in comedy would be wise to listen to and heed.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Chris Rock: Tamborine on Netflix