The Chris Rock Total Blackout the Tour 2017

I got a chance to see Chris Rock.  He is one of my heroes of Comedy.  I am definitely a fan of his thoughtful intellectual humor.  I got tickets at the last minute.  Literally, about 60 minutes before the show.  Honestly I was about to give up.  It was 2 PM in the afternoon on Easter Sunday.  I had placed an ad on Craigslist earlier in the week but had gotten nothing except the Craigslist Runaround.  (Look I am trying to keep this PG and positive, but you know what I want to say…)   

I had just told Nikki that we would go out for Easter Dinner around 4 PM.  I decided to check my email one more time.  There was an email from a Gentleman I had corresponded with earlier that morning.  He was asking if I was still interested in the tickets.  I told him I was, but what he was asking was out of my budget.  He came back with an offer to sell me the tickets for $50 higher than my high number.  

How I decided to go

That was when I had to make a decision.  I needed to really think this through.  This was Chris Rock.  One of my heroes of Comedy.  Charlie Murphy had just passed away earlier in the week.  Prince died last year.  Donald Trump is the President and Korea has nuclear weapons.  That is when I thought would it be better to spend a little bit more than I planned, then a little less than I should?  

Yes, I could try to beat him down the $50 and get him to my price, but if I did that I was sure he would still be looking to sell the tickets to anyone who would pay more.  I did not want to take the chance of losing the tickets.  Therefore I decided to make the best deal that I could live with, instead of the worst deal I could get away with.  I agreed to the terms even though it was $50 more than I planned.  

Headed to the City

Nikki and I live a little over an hour outside of the city.  So we started getting ready to go.  We began to shower and picking out clothes.  I even had to iron, but we made it out the house in time to get to the city, eat dinner before the 7:30 PM Chris Rock Show and meet up with the Guy who has our tickets.  We decided to meet the Man with the tickets downtown.  We thought it would be a good ideal to eat downtown too.  The Show was at the Dr. Phillips Center in downtown Orlando.  That gave us lots of options of places to eat but nothing stood out.  

Wahlburgers Downtown Orlando, FL

We decided to drive down to the Dr. Phillips Center and park the car.  Then find someplace to eat.  We found parking for $10 not bad, glad we went early.  Then we started our walk.  The time was about 5:45 PM.  We passed a number of places but nothing caught our attention.  Then as we got about 2 blocks away we came upon a Wahlburgers.  Wahlburgers is the relatively new upscale Burger chain depicted in the Reality TV show on A&E.  The chain is owned by Mark and Donnie Wahlberger and run by their brother Paul.  

Purchasing our Tickets

Ticket for the Chris Rock Show

When we arrived I contacted the Seller and told him of our location and asked him to meet up there.  Nikki and I ordered or food and made sure the PayPal account was set up.  I was not going to give someone cash.  In case something went wrong.  Just about the time we finished our meal I received a text from the Seller letting me know he would be outside in about 5 min and he would have on a purple t shirt.  I waited a couple of minutes and then headed to the front of the restaurant.  I spotted the Seller outside and introduced myself.  We completed the transaction and I returned to the table where Nikki was waiting.

No Phones, Cameras or Recording devices inside the Show – Blackout  

The Seller of the tickets explained to me that we are not allowed to take in cell phones or any equipment that could take pictures or record the show.  We were told that at the venue they would take your phones and you would get them back after the show.  I decided that would be a nightmare for me to wait on a phone and I did not want to take the chance of the phone getting lost or stolen.  For this reason I took all of our phones back to the car and locked them in the trunk.

We then headed over to the Dr. Phillips Center.  It was about 6:40 PM but we had about a 5 min walk.  I wanted to get there as soon as possible to verify the tickets worked.  We arrived and got into the Show with no problem at all.  Next we went to our seats.  We were in the 4th row stage right (left of the stage if you are looking at it) in the first 2 seats from the isle.  We were approximately 20-30 feet from the stage.  These seats rocked!

Showtime

The show started around 7:45 PM and began with 2 Warm-up Comedians.  The first was Mario Joyner who was a pro.  He got things started and prepared you to have a fun evening.  His jokes were fresh, witty and made you think.  The second comic was Judah Friedlander is style was in interactive.  He started a conversation with the audience and encouraged audience participation.  He was clever, and used satire to make some political and general points about the world as we know it today.  The common theme between the 2 Comedians is that they both made us think.  Which was the perfect segue to Chris Rock.  We took a 20 min break before Chris took the stage.  That gave us time to get a drink, go to the bathroom or stretch your legs.  

Finder Amplifier

The Main Event

Chris Rock took the stage with a very simple backdrop.  It was a screen that had multiple fender amplifier lined up and stacked up.  Nothing fancy the amps gave off different colors.  Other than that all he had was a microphone and a mic stand.  Chris came out and did 80-90 min of classic Chris Rock stand up comedy.  He covered current events, President Donald Trump, preparing Black Children for life, His own divorce and dating today.  Chris Rock was funny from start to finish.  He did some cursing, but it was not the focal point of the joke.  It was in describing something to set up the joke.   Chris took your mind on a journey and pointed out all the things that was funny along the way.  

I got a chance to see Chris Rock.  He really is one of my heroes of Comedy.  I got the tickets at the last minute.  It was definitely one of the best decisions I’ve made and if I had to do it all over again.  I would make the same decision.    

Chris Rock Autograph

Total Blackout Tour Dates – http://www.chrisrock.com/tour

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Bill Collins

Bill Collins is a former Army Officer turned veteran traveler. I have traveled to 34 different Countries mainly concentrated in Central & Latin America and have spent the last 16 years exploring the Caribbean Islands.

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