Chris Rock of 'Merry Madagascar'

After Chris Rock was bestowed the title of funniest man in America (by Time magazine, after his HBO special Bring the Pain came out in 1996), his options were limitless and Rock now has the kind of status as a comedian that allows him to work on pretty much whatever he wants.

He produced this year’s documentary Good Hair, he’s got a book on the go and he’s just finished working on back-to-back film shoots.

But in the middle of all that is Merry Madagascar, the TV movie based on the big-screen films, in which he provides the voice of Marty the zebra for a third time. And if you’re keeping count, there will be a fourth time, since Rock is confident a Madagascar 3 is in the works.

Merry Madagascar begins when Santa (Carl Reiner) and his sleigh crash-land on the island off the coast of Africa, giving the St. Nick a case of amnesia.

That of course leaves Marty, Alex (Ben Stiller), Melman (David Schwimmer), Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) and the crazy penguins to save Christmas. It doesn’t hurt that the sleigh provides the animals a way of returning to their beloved NYC home.

But in a recent call with press, Rock wasn’t just talking Madagascar. The actor-comedian also dished on what he’s doing for the holidays, his upcoming book, the serious role he’d like to conquer, which five funny people he’d like to have at a dinner party, and the Hannah Montana money he’d like to get in on.

It seems like nowadays a lot more adult-content comedians are jumping into family projects. What for you is the appeal in doing a crossover like this?
Chris Rock: I’m obviously already in with DreamWorks and Jeffrey [Katzenberg, the company’s CEO] and all that. I just want to work with the people; they do really good stuff. It gets you some of that Hannah Montana money. So you get in with the kids and that definitely can’t hurt.

Do you find that doing voice work is just a fun thing and a productive thing to do?
CR: Well, yeah, you can do as much as you want. Sometimes on a movie, on a set, you've got other people you have to worry about. And sometimes they need to get to the next shot. But in voice work you can do it again, and it doesn’t take any time; it doesn’t cost them any more money for you to do 30 takes or seven takes.

With the films and even with the special, is there much room for you guys to ad-lib or do you pretty much just to stick to a script?
CR: Oh no, they hire you to ad-lib. Why would you hire me to not ad-lib, you know? Don Cheadle is a much better actor than me but I might be able to ad-lib a joke a little better. There’s a lot of ad-lib. But the script is really good, so you don’t have to do that much.

Do you think they’ll be more TV specials coming down the pike, since this was done pretty much for TV?
CR: All that is up to Jeffrey. I think they’ve announced we’re doing No. 3, so I think Mad 3 is the next in the Madagascar world.

What keeps you coming back to this particular franchise for the Madagascar series?
CR: Money. No, no, they’re good. You realize as you stay longer in this business, the only thing that keeps you working is doing good stuff. The box office is great, too, but if people don't like what you do, the moment the box office isn't good then they don’t want to work with you anymore. So I try to align myself with as many good things as possible even if I’m not starring. It always works out for the best when you do something good.

Does having kids of your own have anything to do with it?
Chris Rock: It’s weird. I started the first Madagascar – me and Ben [Stiller] – with no kids. We didn’t have kids when the movie started. And I don’t think we were even thinking about kids the couple times we were in the studio together. Cut to the movie comes out, we both have kids, cut to Madagascar 2, he’s got three and I’ve got two; it just turns out that way.

Has your love for animals flourished or anything like that? Do you find yourself more into animals at the zoo or anything? CR: It’s just weird by happenstance or coincidence I had never been to Africa before Madagascar and before doing the movie. And I’ve gone since. And now I go on safari almost every year. Now, are there any holiday specials that are traditions in your household or any you particularly want to show your kids? CR: I like the Grinch, that’s my favourite, and I like the Charlie Brown one, and the Mr. McGoo Christmas Carol. Is that just based on the comic aspects of it? CR: They’re all sweet and they’re just really good, especially that McGoo one. I haven’t seen that one a while.

The fur flies in 'Merry Madagascar'

Do you have a favourite Christmas memory?
CR: As I enter my 40s, they’re all kind of the same. A couple years ago my family was in Africa on safari for Christmas at a lodge, and my kids are really young and they were so scared Santa wasn’t going to show. Just the look on their faces when their toys were under a tree in Africa … it was kind of cool.

What made you decide to become a comedian in the first place?
CR: I don't know, it’s like, the calling. It’s like being a priest or something – you end up there one day. I love comedy, loved comedians. Some kids take apart radios and they grow up to be electricians; I would take apart jokes.

Who are some of your inspirations out there?
CR: Bill Cosby, Eddie Murphy, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, guys like that.

You've got a book coming out next year sometime. What’s it called and what’s it about?
CR: It’s going to be on negative thinking. Right now, the tentative title is The Secret Sucks. So whatever I get out of that. Still working though, still working.

How much have you gotten done with it so far?
CR: Not enough. I’ve been filming back-to-back movies this year; two movies and I’ve just been pushing Good Hair for the last couple of months or so.

A lot of comedians are coming out with books lately – Paul Mooney and Kathy Griffin and David Cross and Jeffrey Ross; Sarah Silverman has one coming out next year as well. What do you think is prompting all these comedians like yourself to write books?
CR: I guess some of them are selling. When we put our minds to it, we can be funny people. That Steve Harvey book I’m sure is triggering most of this; his book is so big.

Rock and Adam Sandler

If you could assemble a dinner party and only invite comedians to join you, ones that you really truly loved, who would they be and why? And they can be living or dead. CR: I love [Adam] Sandler, he’s great at dinner. He’s going to make you drink a little; he’s a great hang. Let’s see, I got to invite Richard Pryor; hopefully he'll show up, you never know. It’s weird, we don’t talk about jokes and stuff when you’re around comedians; you end talking about the Yankees or something. Ellen DeGeneres is always good to have around because she likes chicks, too, so you can literally talk about women like you would if a guy was around, and she has some interesting insights. Oh, Steve Martin just because I don't know him at all. I never ate with Vince Vaughn, and the guy cracks me up. He cracks me up.

When you hear people talk about influential comedians over the past 10, 15 years, your name often comes up. Are you the type of person who takes that to heart and thinks about it or are you too modest, you don't like thinking about stuff like that? You’re very highly thought of in terms of being ground-breaking; how do you take that compliment?
CR: I’ll take it, but I don’t try to give it that much thought. It’s not good for you, you know what I mean? It’s like, Derek Jeter can’t be thinking [he’s] an iconic Yankee when he’s up to bat. Put it this way — it’s great but I’m happy more for my parents than me. My parents, my brothers, sister, they can really enjoy stuff like that. Me, I have to work.

Does hearing stuff like that make you uncomfortable?
CR: A little bit. At the same time, I’ve been doing it a long time so it’s nice to have some mark there.

Generally speaking, do you think that comedy is in better shape now than when you started or worse shape?
CR: It’s in much better shape. When I started, there was no Comedy Central and all these great shows they do. Forget being a black comic, my God, it was superstar or bust, you know what I mean? It was just like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby; there was no way to be like, the black Paul Reiser. You had to be a superstar or you didn't work.

And now there are all sorts of levels of comedians that you didn't have before; it’s great. You've got gay comedians. It’s great, it’s amazing that you don't have to do what everybody else does to have a career.

You recently told Mo’nique that she scares you in the movie Precious. Have you ever thought about going back and doing another serious role? CR: I’d love to, [but] no one calls me up with one. But yeah, if somebody gave me an offer. I’ve been scouring, looking for a James Baldwin script because I think I could play Baldwin. I just been reading a lot of Baldwin and I punched him up on YouTube and I was just listening to him and looking at his face and everything. I could probably play James Baldwin. So if you see a James Baldwin script out there I wouldn't mind doing it. You've got this wonderful comedic timing and you do a lot of voiceover work. How do you inflect that comedic timing in voiceover?

James Baldwin is Rock's dream role

CR: That’s what directors are for. You've got to trust your director, like when you’re doing a normal movie, me personally, I'm always trying to make the crew laugh, I'm always trying to make camera guys and grips — especially grips because they've got pretty normal jobs, they get paid normal salaries, they don't have artsy-fartsy faces — and when you’re doing voiceover work I try to make the engineers laugh and the guy who goes and gets coffee, if he’s laughing you’re probably in a good spot.

When it comes to voiceover work, is there something about it that makes you jump out and say ‘I want to do this kind of project?’ Is it a character, is it the actual theme of the story?
CR: I’m always looking for a project that’s good enough that it doesn’t even need me. Like are they going to make a good movie even if I'm not involved in this? Yes. Then I really want to be involved. But if the project hinges on me, then I kind of don't want to be involved.

Jeffrey Katzenberg does quality, quality work. DreamWorks does quality, quality work so when I agreed to the first Madagascar, I had no idea who else was going to be in it but I trusted Jeffrey and we got a great cast.

Merry Madagascar airs Tuesday, Nov. 17, 8 p.m. ET/PT, NBC.

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