Expect Chris Rock’s Tamborine to Be Awards Frontrunner for Comedy Specials
Finally, we have gotten a special from a comedy legend (that hasn’t done a comedy special in a very long time) that can live up to the hype.
Tamborine both satisfies the long-held, unsatisfied craving that you’ve probably had for a new hour of stand-up from Chris Rock and offers a more mature, vulnerable, introspective Rock. For instance, he not only hushes the crowd immediately to get to a joke about police brutality and racial inequality without any sort of greeting, but Rock opens up about his divorce and raising his kids in a way that you might have not imagined Chris Rock would ever do. In short, Rock doesn’t disappoint at a time when heroes of all kinds have been disappointing right and left.
Also, one should take note that Rock tapped Bo Burnham (who has directed two of his own specials and Jerrod Carmichael’s 8) to direct his latest special and the result looks subtly slick and very personal (i.e. this special has some of the most extreme close-ups ever used in a comedy special).
When the next awards season comes around, it’d be surprising to not see Rock’s new hour be heavily favorited wherever it can be nominated.
Chris Rock: Tamborine is now streaming on Netflix. So, go watch it (or watch it again) already.