Chris Rock to black out Vector in July

Comedian Chris Rock will perform at Auckland's Vector Arena as part of his worldwide Total Blackout tour.

He's hosted the Oscar's twice, been labelled "the funniest man in America" by Time magazine and has starred in one of the best-worst films of all time, the bizarro cult fave Pootie Tang.

And now he's on his way here.

In a Facebook live video released late last year Chris Rock announced he would be hitting the road.

Speaking to camera he said, "The Total Blackout tour is coming to your town in 2017," before unveiling a string of American dates.

Now, proving to be good to his word, Rock has just announced that he is indeed coming to town.

Yes comedy fans, Rock will perform his Total Blackout show at Auckland's Vector Arena on Saturday, July 1.

It's been almost a decade since the popular and award winning comedian, actor, writer and director last performed a full stand-up special. A fact he also addressed in his video.

"First time in nine years," he said, before admitting, "haven't done it in a while."

The comic is unlikely to be rusty, however, as he's been extremely busy in those intervening years.

He was behind the loosely autobiographical sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, he directed an award-winning comedy special for Amy Schumer, guest starred in his buddy Louis C.K's show Louis, shot a documentary Good Hair, and starred in a bunch of movies.

He's promised the show will be all new material, of which there will be no shortage of inspiration.

His last comedy special, 2008's Kill the Messenger, focused heavily on the politics of George W. Bush and the election victory of Barack Obama, so the current sorry state of American politics today will no doubt be a goldmine for Rock's cuttingly insightful, tell-it-like-it-is, comedy voice.

Tickets for the show go on sale 10am next Friday, March 31, via Ticketmaster.

Top 5 Inoffensive Chris Rock jokes

Chris Rock's material is devastatingly funny and politically on point. But, it's also highly inappropriate for younger readers. So here we present the Top Five Chris Rock jokes we could legally get away with printing ...

No.5: The government hates rap. That's why they don't arrest anybody who kills rappers! Only the good ones are dead, man! Only the good ones: Biggie dead, Tupac dead, Vanilla Ice still alive.

No.4: The only acting you ever see at the Oscars is when people act like they're not mad they lost. Nicole Kidman was smiling so wide, she should have won an Emmy at the Oscars for her great performance. I was like, "If you'd done that in the movie, you'd have won an Oscar, girl!"

No.3: We got so much food in America we're allergic to food. Allergic to food! Hungry people ain't allergic to shit. You think anyone in Rwanda's got a f***ing lactose intolerance?

No.2: George Bush has f***ed up so bad, he made it hard for a white man to run for president! People are like "give me a black man, a white woman, a giraffe, a zebra ... anything but another white man!"

No.1: A man is only as faithful as his options.