Chris Tucker: Why he left, and why he's back on stage
On the night of Aug. 13 Chris Tucker returned to the stage at the Wild 94.9 Comedy Jam in Mountain View, Calif. It has been four years since he starred alongside Jackie Chan in 2007鈥檚 "Rush Hour 3," and since then, he's stayed out of movies and, mostly, out of the public eye.
In an interview with the New York Times , saying that that the movie roles offered to him were disappointing. They were too similar to the one he played in the 鈥楻ush Hour鈥� series, he said, and just not 鈥済ood enough.鈥�
Chris Tucker isn鈥檛 the first comedian to take refuge from undesirable roles in stand-up comedy, where unavailable in television and film. Dave Chappelle, who joined Tucker at the Wild 94.9 Comedy Jam, left his Comedy Central cable TV 鈥楥happelle Show鈥� at the height of its popularity because, he said, he felt uncomfortable with subtle racial emasculation, among other pressures.
鈥淚 connect dots that maybe shouldn鈥檛 be connected. I don鈥檛 know,鈥� said Chappelle in a , 鈥渂ut certain dots, like when I see that they put every black man in a dress at some point in their career... I鈥檒l be connecting the dots like 鈥榃hy do all these brothers have to wear a dress?鈥� That鈥檚 happened to me.鈥�
And though Tucker was aware of the way incoming movie scripts rehashed a prototype he no longer found applicable to him, he had another gripe too: he wanted to break into more serious work. Citing Sidney Poitier as the actor he wishes to emulate, Tucker said his favorite films deal in the 鈥渟ocial, real stuff.鈥�
This, too, is a tough path for comedians. Bill Murray鈥檚 dramatic turn in 1984鈥檚 鈥楾he Razor鈥檚 Edge鈥�, for example, led to such a failure at the box office that .
Four years. Long enough, at A.V. Club, for Murray to return 鈥渙lder, wiser, and infinitely more willing to overlook colossal paydays in favor of taking smaller roles in quirky independent fare.鈥� Murray went on to win a Golden Globe Best Actor award for his performance in the (serious) 2003 film "Lost in Translation."
Chris Tucker is on a 20-city US comedy tour now. After that, who knows? Maybe four years of time away from Hollywood will have same effect on him.
