Growing Up Laughing_ My Story and the Story of Funny - Marlo Thomas [27]
Marlo: Beat-up humor. That’s a new one.
Chris: Yeah. My family never, never ran out of ass-kick metaphors.
Marlo: Tell me about your dad. You revealed a little bit about your relationship with him in your TV show, Everybody Hates Chris.
Chris: Yeah, same thing as my grandfather—he liked being funny. But my father was a straight guy. He didn’t chase women. He was his own guy. I don’t know how to explain my father. He was a teamster and the person they would always send somewhere to be the first black guy to work at that place. Because he could take it.
Marlo: Take what?
Chris: The abuse.
Marlo: Physical abuse?
Chris: Sometimes physical. Sometimes verbal. He was the first black driver at Rangel Brewery, the first one at the Daily News . . .
Marlo: A stand-up guy.
Chris: A real stand-up guy—and they knew he could take it. Long story short: At any factory job or wherever, somebody always sells coke. Somebody is always in charge of drugs. It’s their territory and nobody else is allowed to sell them. Well, my father’s friends were selling coke at the Daily News, and my father was the one guy who decided that he wasn’t going to do it. And these were all guys I grew up with—I called them “Uncle.” And they ended up going to jail. But not my dad—he was home.
Marlo: That takes a lot of nerve. Was he a big guy physically?
Chris: Yeah, he was pretty big. But everybody’s dad is big to them.
Marlo: What I mean is, he was the guy you knew could take care of himself in a fight.
Chris: Yeah, but to “take it” meant, if somebody hit you, you didn’t do anything back. That’s what they meant by “take it.” They wanted the guy who wasn’t going to get in a riot, or end up getting killed.
Marlo: He must have had a big influence on you.
Chris: Yeah, it rubs off. I can definitely “take” show business. My God, what the hell. If you can’t deal with “no,” if you can’t deal with abuse, you know you’re in the wrong business.
Marlo: And what was your mom like?
Chris: My mom is funny—she’s still funny. Well, not as funny now because she’s trying to get into heaven.
Marlo: You mean she used to be dirty funny?
Chris: Yeah, but not sexual dirty. My mother used to curse up a storm. But if you mention that to her now, she’s like, “What are you talking about? I never cursed.”
Marlo: That’s so funny. You know, something you do that I find really charming—and I haven’t seen any other comedian do this except Red Skelton: You’re often delighted with your own joke. Red would laugh after he said something funny, and you do that, too, sometimes.
Chris: But you know what? I’m laughing with the audience. I just like to see them laugh, especially those people who haven’t laughed in a while—and you can spot them because they’re laughing so hard. I like shocking a crowd. I like it when the wife hits the husband because he’s laughing that shame laugh. That I can’t believe he said that! laugh.
Marlo: All of the man-woman stuff you do is wonderful. Like when you say, “You ladies, you know your man better than he knows himself. You know what kind of man you have.” You can just see the women in the audience loving it.
Chris: Because it’s true! “You knew that if you didn’t sleep with him for a month, something was bound to happen. You knew this wasn’t the guy to go on strike with. But you did it anyway!”
Marlo: Just great. Your act is beautifully crafted. You know, when I was a kid, I was fascinated by watching how my father crafted his material. I always thought of him as a cross between an orchestra conductor and a bullfighter.
Chris: Yeah, well, you won’t get bloody, but you can get hurt up there.
Marlo: Do you map out everything ahead of time, or do you figure it out on your feet?
Chris: It evolves. The average HBO special that you watch, that guy has probably done that material in 30 concerts. For every special I’ve done, I must have done at least 120 shows.
Marlo: So you know what works.
Chris: I know what works,