Chris Rock entertains Bill Kay

I was fascinated by the loquacious but pin-sharp Chris Rock and his followers at the Gibson Amphitheater by the Universal Studios LA theme park this week. I enjoyed his 90-minute act, but people around me were howling, gurgling, giggling uncontrollably and they were doing so because Rock was pointing truths out to them that clearly hadn't previously occurred to them.
This is, I suppose, the true role of comedians. They are the modern court jesters. In a sense, that is a statement of the obvious, but Rock takes it to a particularly high and bitter level. He rarely pokes fun at himself, in the manner of a Frankie Howerd or a Tony Hancock. He is the smart guy in the bar making cracks at everyone else's expense, and we admire him for being so accurate even when his weapons are aimed at ourselves. But humble he isn't.
Like many black entertainers, much of Rock's routine is about blacks and being black, and it is a tacit condemnation of America's race relations that there are still so many racial issues that deserve and need airing, from Obama's chances to the observation that the only blacks living near Rock were, like him, high achievers such as Mary J Blige and Denzel Washington "but my neighbour is a dentist - not an award-winning, world-beating dentist but just any old dentist. To do well in this life whites have to walk while blacks have to FLY!!"
Many of Rock's truths were uncomfortable, which made the audience laugh the louder as the mirror was held up to their own illusions and hypocrisy. While he derides whites, his special venom is reserved for black women - their jealousies, their demands, their expectations.
Of course only a black man could point this out, just as Rock observed that only a black man could refer to him and his fellows as "nigger". "Sure, I can use the word 'nigger'," he said bitterly, "but white men can change interest rates. I know which I'd rather be able to do."
Much of what Rock had to say was repetitive, and I felt he relied too much on exaggeration to make his points. Obama didn't just sound black, he sounded like he was wearing a leopardskin and carrying a spear, griding a white man into the dirt. And so on.
But he did make one poignant observation about himself. His children were going to grow up to be rich kids, he said, but he had always hated rich kids. So there was a part of himself that hated his kids.
Mind you, the couple of thousand who attended Thursday's show left considerably less rich than when they arrived. The seats weren't too expensive, $45 to $75, but they all came with trumped-up add-ons such as convenience fees, no matter how they were bought, which added another $15 to the price. And of course Universal charged for parking even though it would be difficult not to take a car to the show. And that was without the overpriced food and soda pop, programmes and merchandise. Then they started the show 20 minutes late to give everyone a chance to spend, and added a completely unnecessary 20-minute interval between the warm-up act and Rock, to keep the concession stands busy all over again. So I hope Rock wasn't too surprised when he gazed out on the rows of empty seats in the theatre. Even in LA, people do notice when they are being royally ripped off, however good the main attraction.