Chris Tucker returned to the Fox Theatre Saturday night with a show that felt like de ja vu thanks to recycled material. But even with less than fresh jokes and dated bits, he still managed to please a nice-sized group of faithful fans with his recently reformed – somewhat family friendly funny.
The evening began with show host Terry Hodges. The funniest thing about his set was that he introduced himself before he kicked off a segment that was reminiscent of the days of black comedy that predated Def Comedy Jam. The vulgarity and downright raunchy talk was at a minimum as he clowned audience members for their choice of clothing in between remotely funny bits.
Comedian London Brown didn’t fare much better with “skinny guy” self-deprecating humor. His ace in the hole was his spot on impression ability, but in an effort to save the best for last he actually shot himself in the foot. Denzel Washington, Jay-Z and headliner Chris Tucker impersonations wowed fans, but by the time he introduced them the audience was too disengaged for Brown to redeem himself.
After a brief introduction by Hodges, Tucker took the stage and referred to his ill-fated stint as host of the BET Awards. Unfortunately he borrowed a few bits from the show – including his IRS woes and reckless spending.
The material seemed to go over much better with the audience than during the Awards – probably because most of them were hardcore Chris Tucker fans.
Though the jokes were largely second-hand, Tucker pulled it off thanks to the stage charisma that made him a household name in the first place.
Aside from labored segments about Michael Jackson and his childhood family dynamic, a truly mature Chris Tucker showed potential as a relatively clean (PG-13 for strong language) comedian.
He offered insight on his quest for love being hampered by stardom, begging family members and encouragement from the school principal – of all people – during his class clown days that obviously influenced his decision to pursue standup comedy.
It was a side of Tucker that most don’t get to see – unless they’ve seen him on stage before. In that case, they’ve seen it all.
Aside from the insight on what led him to the stage, audiences saw through the nature of some of his segments that Tucker is a musical entertainer at heart.
Frank Sinatra, Mary J. Blige, Anita Baker, Michael Jackson, Barry Gibb, Ron Isley were all infused into Tucker’s comedy by way of vocal tribute of some sort – and he emerged on stage dancing for his life to James Brown’s “The Big Payback.”
He sang and mimicked Michael Jackson for a good portion of his show, but the funniest element of “The Michael Jackson” segment was when he spoke of accidently serving security detail for Jackson as he fought off fans when the two made an impromptu trip to the mall.
“Hey, that security guard looks like Chris Tucker,” he said he heard one of the Michael Jackson fans say. “I am Chris Tucker…now bag back.”
Another of the low points of Chris Tucker’s live performance – aside from the old material – was an overall lack of structure. He bounced around – and back and forth – subject matter over the course of a set that went on for 20 minutes longer than it should have.
Saturday night proved that he still has the solid structure of a comedy star – but streamlined material and new content are essential as Tucker looks to re-establish himself as solid stand up performer.
