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Cover image credit: Promotional image via Prime Video

Bona Fide

Tracy Morgan

Comedy Central · 2014 · 60 min

A chaotic hometown hour from the peak of his television fame.

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Fresh off a seven-season run playing an untethered version of himself on 30 Rock, Tracy Morgan stepped onto a stage in his native Brooklyn to prove he was still a club comic. Bona Fide captures Morgan operating with the massive, chaotic energy that made him a sitcom fixture, channeling his specific brand of weirdness into an hour of straightforward stand-up. The set leans into his upbringing and unpredictable celebrity life, featuring a standout story about the time Prince kicked him out of a house party.

Filmed at the BAM Harvey Theater in early 2014, the hour functions as a document of his first national tour. Morgan touches on his attempts at doomsday prepping and the simple desire to be thin enough so people can understand what he is saying. It aired just months before the severe car accident that halted his career, making the special an accidental time capsule of Morgan at the peak of his mainstream television fame. The broadcast brought Comedy Central some of its highest stand-up ratings of the year, driven by an audience eager to see what Tracy Jordan looked like without a script.

The set list

5 bits

  1. Partying with Prince

    Recounting the time Prince threw him out of his house following an all-night party.

  2. Paula Deen and Occupy Wall Street

    Comparing social crises and racial tensions, noting he would not trust Paula Deen if she did not use racial slurs and quipping that while white people occupy Wall Street, Black people occupy all streets.

  3. Role-playing with his fiancée

    An extended, sexually explicit and absurd routine detailing bedroom role-playing.

  4. Family Thanksgiving and uncles

    Impersonating his grandmother acting out during Thanksgiving dinner and recounting visits with his uncles and brother.

  5. Apocalypse preparation

    Joking about how dark the world is and hoarding toilet paper for apocalyptic times.

How it plays

Tone
Crass, sexually explicit, irreverent, and absurd.
On stage
Dynamic, loud, and physically expressive; plays the fool while exhibiting self-awareness, pacing the stage and leaning into an uninhibited, raw persona.
Pace
High-energy and physical tempo, stalking the stage and yelling, occasionally running down his energy and taking a seat.
About
dark times in society, racial differences and racism, growing up in Brooklyn housing projects, eccentric family dynamics, sex and relationships

What the critics said

Mixed to moderately positive. Reviewers highlighted Morgan's dynamic stage presence and signature explosive delivery as the hour's primary asset, but critiqued the material for relying too heavily on crude sexual jokes, dated premises, and uneven writing.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, tv.apple.com, themoviedb.org, tvguide.com, pastemagazine.com, nytimes.com, flavorwire.com, thecomicscomic.com, en.wikipedia.org, esquire.com.

Backstory

Filmed in his hometown of Brooklyn; serves as his first stand-up special following the conclusion of '30 Rock' and marks a return to the stage following past controversies over offensive remarks.

Details

Released
Taped
2013, Harvey Theater, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, New York City
Runtime
60 min
Where
Comedy Central
Director
Ryan Polito
Topics
Before
Black and Blue (2010)
After
Staying Alive (2017)

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