Rock brothers don’t ride Chris’ coattails
LOS ANGELES — Comedy runs in the blood of the Rock family — or, as family matriarch Rose Rock once suggested, the breast milk.
Jordan, 26, and Tony, 42, have followed in the footsteps of older brother Chris, 52, the second-born of eight siblings.
The brothers represent a comedic version of the Corleone brothers, except if Fredo were the most talented.
When entertainment becomes a family business, the process of establishing one’s own identity — and, in doing so, escaping the shadow of the most famous sibling — can be grueling.
Sometimes the skin is shed: See Solange, a creative force and sister of Beyonce.
Sometimes viewers can’t get enough: See the three handsome Hemsworths. Sometimes the talent is all that matters: See Kate and Rooney Mara.
In other cases, however,
there’s no overcoming the top dog: Without looking, name all the Baldwin brothers besides Alec.
Professionally, Tony and Jordan Rock have kept a distance from Chris — with the gulf between them being both generational and circumstantial.
When Tony started his stand-up career, Chris was already a celebrity in New York. When Jordan started, Chris was a megastar.
Both younger brothers wanted to create lanes for themselves.
The Rock name represented both a gift and a burden, but neither felt compelled to lean on Chris or resent his success. Both said Chris never tried to impose a heavy hand on their careers — but, rather, gave them space to succeed or struggle on their own. (Chris Rock did not respond to multiple interview requests for this article.)
Chris, one of the greatest comedians of his time, is in the midst of his first stand-up tour in nine years. His specials have influenced generations of comics.
Tony is an established stand-up comic in his own right. In the fall, he hosted “All Def Comedy” on HBO, a remake of “Def Comedy Jam,” produced by Russell Simmons.
Tony, too, appeared in its 2006 iteration. He just taped a pilot for CBS called “Living Biblically” and is constantly on the road playing comedy clubs. Tony also recently hosted “The Game of Dating” for TV One.
He struggled initially to set himself apart from Chris. When he started performing, he was introduced as Chris’ younger brother, simultaneously raising expectations for him and pigeonholing him.
“Keep in mind, he’s arguably the best comic in the country,” Tony said of Chris. “It’s going to be a minute before they go, ‘Oh, he’s entirely Tony Rock.’ ”
Still, life is different now for Tony.
“Every time I go onstage, it’s a little less ‘Chris Rock’s brother,’ ” he said.
Jordan, meanwhile, remains a relative unknown. Softer spoken than his brothers, he has one major on-screen credit: a recurring role on the Netflix series “Love.”
After a recent day of shooting for season three of “Love,” Jordan and Tony discussed whether the show might mark Jordan’s big break.
“Everything is a big break,” Tony said to Jordan.
Jordan grew up in Georgetown, South Carolina, after Rose Rock moved there with the younger siblings, and then, at 18, headed by himself to the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York — where his older brothers grew up —to pursue comedy. He didn’t finish high school.
Tony let Jordan open for him at spots around New York, including at the Gotham Comedy Club, one of the city’s biggest venues. No matter how hard Jordan pushed, however, Tony initially resisted taking him on the road. Jordan was green. Tony offered pointers such as not holding the mic stand or leaning while performing.
“The road is a different animal,” Tony said. “I wanted to see him put the work in and take his lumps.”
Finally, two years ago, the weekend before Christmas, Tony allowed Jordan to travel with him to Virginia Beach.
“I murdered Virginia Beach,” Jordan said, “and then Tony took me on the road after that.”
The brothers all have stark personality differences. Tony and Jordan are expressive and gregarious, both with each other and strangers off the stage. Chris, according to brother Kenny, is the opposite.
“Chris has a different, high-caliber circle of people around him, and he’s very socially awkward,” said Kenny, 34, the sixth of the eight siblings. “When you’re around him outside of work, you’re not going to get many words out of him at all. He’s very introverted.”
Jordan said that he consults Chris about business matters more now, including a recent contract issue that he declined to discuss in detail. Chris’ advice, he said: “Get to work.”
Tony said he has never had a conversation with Chris about standup. They don’t collaborate on writing or give one another notes.
The three have not performed together, although Tony and Jordan have each individually appeared with Chris.
“It’s not like a sit-down, ‘Let me talk to you,’ type thing,” Tony said. “You see what it is. You see what I’m doing. You see me working. You see me trying jokes. You see me writing every day. I lead by example.”
Said Jordan: “I’ve never sought the advice.”