KEY POINTS:
Chris Rock doesn't like a lot of things. He doesn't like Bush, he doesn't like McCain, he doesn't like white people using the N word. Hell, the man even admitted he doesn't like his own kids that much (because they are rich now, thanks to him, and he doesn't like rich kids).
But people certainly like Rock. Tickets to his Auckland show last night - his first ever New Zealand performance - sold out in just 30 minutes. As the man came on stage, dressed like the Riddler in a bright green suit and black shirt, he was greeted like a bona fide rock star.
Rock has been touring his No Apologies show for a while now, and some of the jokes come across a little dated. As he opened with a diatribe about Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan, it felt a bit like reading those six-month-old women's mags you find in a doctor's waiting room.
Other material had been updated like jokes about Hillary Clinton's failed presidential campaign and others were simply timeless. But not fit for publication.
Unlike other comedians who stick with a single theme, or tie their jokes to a story narrative, Rock relies on a more basic and arguably more difficult style of comedy, delivering a series of sharp, cutting one liners.
Whether discussing the use of steroids in sports, race relations or marriage, Rock's comedy follows the same formula: Make a statement, then make a joke to illustrate the statement. Repeat three to four times, increasing the outlandishness of the joke with every repeat, while raising your voice to sound more and more incredulous.
It's a tricky formula to pull off but one Rock has mastered. The more he repeats a statement, accompanied by his elastic facial expressions, the more laughter he gets.
As the 90-minute set wore on, Rock's politically incorrect humour moved from smutty to downright filthy - and the crowd lapped it up, jumping out of their seats to applaud the one-time Oscar host at the end of the night.
And for the record, yes, he did make the Commodores joke [Barack Obama's name sounds so black, he should be the bass player for the Commodores ... ] but we couldn't spot any sign of Auckland's resident Commodore Ron LaPread anywhere in the crowd.
Maybe next time.
