Saturday Night Live With Chris Rock And Musical Guest Prince, Saturday November 1st, 2014, Reviewed
Prince Delivers On SNL
Chris Rock is so much better than the hacks writing for SNL in 2014 it isn’t even funny. A member of the troop from 1990 to 1993 and then fired for refusing to perform in skits he considered racist (“Playing a Ubangi tribesman or whatever… to where, not that I thought they were racist… but I was the only black face that was going to be seen for an hour and a half… it feels racist”), he went on to bigger and better things including a new movie which is why the prodigal son returned Saturday night.
Chris’s monologue was hysterical and brave, joking about the Boston marathon was funny and his riff on the world Trade center was beyond funny: “They should change the name from the Freedom Tower to the ‘Never Going in There’ Tower. Because I’m never going in there. There is no circumstance that will ever get me in that building. Are you kidding me?What are they thinking? Who’s the corporate sponsor, Target?”
Nothing else on the show was half as funny although a skit where ISIS members try to get funded by “Shark Tank” would’ve come awful close if they hadn’t pussied out too hard. Speaking of good skits, there was a very good one about the moment you realize the song you love was written by Taylor Swift -it’s funny because it’s true. Saturday’s episode was not great but it had good moments, as did the Sarah Silverman show a couple of weeks ago. Oddly enough given all the fresh blood, SNL has rebounded a little in 2014.
Prince on the other hand… well, Prince, with 3rdEyeGirl backing him all the way, played for eight minutes straight. The claim is that this is the first time SNL have ever given a musician an extended mini-set, though I remember McCartney doing the same thing a couple of years ago. Prince was really good, with a three lense sunglasses, an afro and metallic outfit, he opened the set behind the keyboards and trading vocals with Lianne La Havas before switching to guitars and effortlessly seguing into “Spectrumelectrum” and “Marz” before performing a blistering show stopping “Anotherlove” with howling Hendrix guitar and Prince tearing his voice into a searing falsetto. Supremely better than the recorded version, it was a swift reminded as to just how great the man is when he gets it right.
Absolutely excellent, I regret every mean thing I said about him. Watch it here.
Grade: B+
