LOS ANGELES — Dressed in white from head to toe with a Prince symbol dangling from a chain around his neck, there were signs that Chris Rock was ready to let his guard down enough to open up inside the Dolby Theatre on the first night of his four-night stand in L.A. to close out his Ego Death tour.
Nine months ago, it was the stage where he made Hollywood history — or where history was made for him in the form of Will Smith's slap heard round the world at the Oscars after Rock made a joke about the bald head of the actor's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
Now setting foot again on the same stage, Rock looked revived and unafraid as he paced in front of a simple all-white backdrop, telling jokes to a packed crowd. But one thing was hard to ignore, his larger-than-life shadow silhouette looming behind him that often looked more like a chalk outline as it followed him around the scene of the crime.
