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Tamborine

Chris Rock

Netflix · 2018 · 64 min

Chris Rock steps back into the spotlight with a quiet confession.

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Chris Rock took the stage at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in November 2017 for what became his first recorded stand-up special in a decade. Directed by Bo Burnham, Tamborine shifts away from the roaring, arena-sized sermonizing of Rock’s previous specials toward a tighter, more intimate visual style. Burnham uses warm, hazy stage lighting and subtle, tight camera tracking to focus attention directly on a comic who, for the first time in his career, spends a significant portion of his set looking backward with regret rather than aiming outward with fury.

The performance splits itself between pointed social commentary and blunt personal confession. Rock spends his opening twenty minutes tackling police brutality, arguing that “bad apples” are acceptable for some jobs but completely intolerable when you are flying a plane or policing a neighborhood. He turns that same skepticism toward parenting and the modern “you can be anything” ethos, suggesting that teenagers instead learn practical trades.

The core of the set, however, is Rock’s accounting of his own failures. He details his divorce, his addiction to online pornography, and his infidelity with three different women. The special gets its name from his central metaphor for relationships: a marriage is a band, and sometimes you have to accept that you are not the lead singer. Sometimes, he says, you just have to play the tamborine with a smile. Critics praised the vulnerability of this material, noting that it offered a side of Rock’s stage persona that had previously been obscured by his swagger.

The set list

7 bits

  1. Police shootings and racial equality

    Argues that cops should occasionally shoot a white kid singing Cardi B just to make things look equal, imagining white mothers demanding justice for Chad.

  2. Bad apples in policing

    Dissects the 'bad apples' defense by arguing certain critical jobs like airline pilots cannot tolerate bad apples that crash into mountains.

  3. American justice system price-matching

    Points out racial disparities in criminal sentencing and suggests the justice system should operate like Walmart by offering to match lighter sentences.

  4. Donald Trump and George W. Bush

    Riffs on how eliminating school bullies left America unprepared for Trump, then proposes that George W. Bush was a Black revolutionary because his presidency paved the way for Barack Obama.

  5. Marriage and playing the tambourine

    Compares marriage to being in a band where you sometimes have to be content playing the tambourine rather than being the frontperson.

  6. Moving a couch and relationship advice

    Explains that relationships are easy when two people are working together like moving a couch, but impossible for one person alone.

  7. Religion like salt

    Compares religion to salt where too much ruins the meal, joking about God never choosing an opportune moment to appear.

How it plays

Tone
Vulnerable, self-deprecating, irreverent, sharp, and introspective.
On stage
Introspective, melancholic, and self-reflective veteran who bares his soul and paints himself as a hypocrite or fool while maintaining sharp wit and audience command.
Pace
Refined physical delivery with deliberate sentence rhythms, phrase repetition, and strategic pauses to draw multiple laughs without relying on frantic pacing.
About
police shootings and race relations, American justice system, infidelity and divorce, marriage and relationships, fatherhood and parenting, Donald Trump and American politics

What the critics said

Chris Rock reasserts his credentials as one of comedy's preeminent figures in Tamborine, an introspective standup act delivered with fresh sensitivity and trademark exuberance.

In the room: An intimate, smaller Brooklyn theater audience giving a standing ovation upon arrival, with the taping deliberately deemphasizing crowd reaction shots in favor of focused, shadowed stage presence.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: en.wikipedia.org, grammy.com, nytimes.com, vulture.com, theguardian.com, indiewire.com, themoviedb.org.

Backstory

Filmed in the wake of Rock's painful divorce from Malaak Compton, infidelity, and pornography addiction, set against the political backdrop of Donald Trump's presidency and ongoing national debates over race and police violence.

Details

Released
Taped
Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York City
Runtime
64 min
Where
Netflix
Director
Bo Burnham
Honors
Rotten Tomatoes 100% approval rating (average 7.5/10 based on 23 reviews)
Topics
Before
Kill the Messenger (2008)
After
Total Blackout: The Tamborine Extended Cut (2021)

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