If you haven’t heard by now, brothers and comedians Chris and Tony Rock have another brother who is about to jump into comedy full time and follow in his big brothers footsteps. While that is an amazing feat all by itself, no one has ever thought to record this type of journey ( the highs and lows of performing stand up), like when the Wayans family started out doing stand up over 20 years ago. Except this time there were some cameras who followed him for a brief amount of time; who, fresh out of high school, has some very big shoes to fill. According to many Jordan is coming up rather nicely and he even decided to have a camera crew follow his journey.Here is the press release about their brother Jordan Rock and his brand new film;
After spending a year playing the festival circuit, Reelblack’s original short behind the scenes documentary titled Ladies And Gentlemen, Jordan Rock makes its YouTube premiere on Tuesday June 5 at 12pm EDT.
Produced, directed and edited by Reelblack founder Michael Dennis, Ladies and Gentlemen, Jordan Rock is a glimpse into the world of the titular 21 year old up-and-coming stand-up comedian. Following in the footsteps of his older brothers Chris and Tony (and Cousin Sherrod) is the ultimate challenge. Can he find his voice and make a name for himself on the New York comedy scene?
The film, which was shot last year at NYC’s Comic Strip Live and Dangerfield’s (and Philly’s Helium Comedy Club), is a sequel of sorts to Dennis’ 1989 short “Who Is Chris Rock,” Which has collected over 120,000 views on YouTube since it was first posted in March of 2010 and quickly went viral. It was at comedian Judah Friedlander’s (who was cameraman on “Who Is Chris Rock”) suggestion that Dennis make a film about Jordan, who had just moved to NYC from South Carolina around the time that people began to discover the earlier film.
The 25 minute documentary, which features appearances by many veteran standups, including Dean Edwards, Judah Friedlander, Ardie Fuqua, Marc Maron and Aries Spears has screened successfully at many festivals beginning last spring including The Langston Hughes African-American Film Festival (Seattle), The Roxbury International Film Festival (Boston) and the Philadelphia Independent Film Festival. It premiered last Friday June1 on PhillyCAM TV and will be broadcast on consecutive Friday nights at 7:30pm throughout the month of June. It is available on DVD (paired with a remastered “Who Is Chris Rock”) exclusively through Reelblack.com and will stream exclusively on Reelblack’s YouTube channel beginning Tuesday June 5 at 12pm.
“Through our Youtube channel we’d been doing interviews with comedians for years including Paul Mooney, Patrice O’Neal and Keith Robinson,” explains Dennis. “This was a chance to do something longer form and capture a genuine talent at a very early stage of development. We’re not staking the claim that Jordan is or even intends to be ‘the next Chris Rock.’ What we want to say is that even if you have it in the genes to be a successful comic, there’s still a lot of hard work and dues paying required to become great. Hopefully the film will inspire others to pursue their dreams.”
Check out the trailer here;
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