Bona Fide

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.