Chris Rock at Manchester Apollo 8th January

Manchester audiences get the chance to see why Chris Rock has been voted the fifth best comic of all time.

Chris Rock  began his career in New York in the mid-eighties, performing stand-up routines in small-time venues. He was seen by Eddie Murphy who decided he was going to take the young comic under his wing. Rock was propelled into a world full of parties, girls, excess and success, with film roles and a regular place on Saturday Night Live alongside Adam Sandler and Chris Farley.

However, by 1994 Rock was in trouble. The film roles had dried up, he was rarely used on Saturday Night Live and his career was fading fast. So he decided to return to his comic roots and began to hone the material that would become his one-off HBO special, Bring The Pain.

When Bring The Pain aired in 1996, it was a sensation. The show was a searingly funny exploration of black identity issues which made Rock one of the most popular comics in America and earned him two Emmy awards.

Since then, Rock has continued performing award winning stand-up, as well as returning to the screen in films such as Dogma, Nurse Betty and Down To Earth. He has hosted the MTV Music Awards three times and the Oscars once and has become one of the most successful comics of all time.