Chris Rock on Martin Lawrence and the Low Point of His Career

Judd Apatow interviewed Chris Rock as part of the Vanity Fair comedy issue that he guest edited, and while the whole thing is great, I love this bit about what he considers to be the low point in his career:

The low point happened about a year after I was off Saturday Night Live. I was a cocky bastard. Even though all evidence said I wasn’t a star, I thought I was. I drove a red Corvette and kept my shades on indoors, just a fucking asshole. Anyway, I had a gig in Chicago where I was the headliner. At every gig there would be some opening act that would try to make noise, but by the time I was offstage people had forgotten. One night in Chicago, as usual I was the headliner, and on this night my opening act was an up-and-coming comic named Martin Lawrence. Now, normally I never used to watch the opening acts, but I was in my dressing room and I heard a roar. I got up to see what was going on. I thought it was a fight or something. So I got up and went to the side of the stage. When I got there I realized it wasn’t a fight, it was people laughing so hard that the building was shaking. People were crying, standing, stomping their feet — screaming laughter. I was terrified. It was like watching somebody fucking your wife with a bigger dick.

Let’s be honest: if seeing Martin Lawrence kill while opening for you is the lowest point in your career, you’ve had a pretty great career.

Chris Rock on Martin Lawrence and the Low Point of His […]