成功為何物

小編我是個粵語“棟篤笑”粉絲，每年春晚也愛看相聲，總覺得像這樣的語言藝術家簡直是另外一個物種……單憑一張嘴皮子就能將滿場觀眾逗得哄堂大笑，怎一個伶牙俐齒了得！美國黑人諧星克里斯·洛克（本名Christopher Julius “Chris” Rock III）也不例外。他上過電視，當過主持，寫過劇本，拍過電影，拿過艾美獎，多次入選當今最偉大的喜劇演員之列。然而，名成利就從未讓他忘記自己的老本行，他一直堅守著那份對單口相聲（stand-up）的熱愛——這不正應了那句話：不忘初心，方得始終。

Host： List your top five singers. Top five authors. No， wait， wait， top five comedians. Maybe Chris Rock would be on that list？ In his movie， Chris Rock plays that game. He wrote， starred in and directed Top Five.

You do such a good job of highlighting contradictions， particularly， like， within black culture of the things that kind of…we’re nodding and getting it but feeling a little 1）sheepish about it. Like…there were a lot of kind of moments like that.

Chris： You know what’s weird？ When I， when I see a 2）Woody Allen movie—and I see ’em all—there’s probably two scenes or two moments in each movie that I don’t get. But， you know， I， I actually like it in a weird way. It’s like， OK， this， this is really 3）authentic， what I’m watching here. This is authentic to who he is.

Host： This is a character who’s sort of forgotten where he comes from in terms of his own art， right？ Like， he’s become further and further divorced from doing standup itself. Do you…have you felt that way？

Chris： I mean， I guess all comedians…that happens. I mean， stand-up is the only career like that where once you get really big at it， people kind of encourage you not to do it. Some of our greatest stand-ups don’t do stand-up anymore. 4）Steve Martin’s one of the greatest stand-ups to ever live. The guy doesn’t do stand-up. So many guys don’t do it anymore.

Host： Do you feel like you make a， a special effort to stay with it？ Or does it just feel like...

Chris： I try to stay with it， and I try to just stay in contact with comedians， and just keep comedians in my life ’cause comedians are， are their own species. If you get away from ’em， especially as a comedian， I， I think it’s dangerous.

Host： You know， there’s a strain of political correctness， I think， that people have talked about…comedians have certainly talked about.

Chris： Hey， everything’s funny—in the right context and done by the right person—everything， unfortunately. You know， I’ve told Michael Jackson jokes. If you got really 5）technical， you could say those are jokes about 6）child molestation. You could， if you got technical. A lot of this is just selective outrage because， honestly， the audience are the ones that tell us that something shouldn’t be spoken. The audience lets us know. And I’ve never， in my almost 30 years of being a comedian， seen a comedian continue to tell a joke that the audience doesn’t respond to. I’ve never seen it.

Host： Chris Rock and I talked a lot more， but just there when he mentioned being in the business for 30 years， I couldn’t help but wonder： at this point， what does he consider success？

Chris： What is success？ Success is just hanging out with my kids. I mean， I always say if you have options， you’re rich. To me， success is the fact that“Hey， I just did a movie， and maybe I’ll do some stand-up， maybe I’ll write a book， or maybe I’ll do a play.” Like， I literally don’t know what I’m gonna do next. That’s successful. And just having time. I got， you know， this whole 7）upheaval in late-night， late-night and day-time. I got a few job offers， and they work all the time. Like， work all the time when you do one of these shows. And I always said， “You know， my dad worked every day. I didn’t get into show business to work every day.” So the fact that most days I get to， like， spend really good time with my kids—that’s what success is to me.

主持人：列出你最喜愛的五位歌手吧。最喜愛的五位作家呢？不，等等，最喜愛的五位喜劇演員——或許克里斯·洛克也會榜上有名？克里斯·洛克在他身兼編劇、主演以及導演三職的電影《業內前五》里也玩了這個游戲。

你非常善于突出各種矛盾，尤其是黑人文化領域里的事情，那種……我們心領神會地點頭稱是，但又會覺得怪不好意思的話題，比如……有許多這樣的例子。

克里斯：你知道嗎，古怪的是，當我……在看伍迪·艾倫的電影時（他的電影我都看過），每部電影里總會有大概兩幕或者兩個情景我看不明白。不過，你瞧，雖然這聽起來有點怪，但我其實很喜歡這一點。這會給我一種感覺……好吧，我在看的這玩意兒還挺真實的，相當符合他本人的風格。

主持人：你這部電影中的主人公忘記了自己的出身，忘記了他的本行，對不對？他與單口相聲分道揚鑣，漸行漸遠。你會……你也有過這樣的感受嗎？

克里斯：我的意思是，我覺得所有的喜劇演員……都會遇到這種情況。