If you’ve gotten not seen a Chris Spencer movie, then I feel sorry for you.
The person has been blessed with the gift of humor and is answerable for many years of classic and cult comedies galore, equivalent to “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice within the Hood” and “Postal.”
Chris just returned to the silver screen last week with the premiere of “Back on the Strip” – an outstanding comedy about aged Las Vegas male strippers coming out of retirement. He directed, wrote, produced and stars within the revealing flick.
Chris – plus a couple of surprise guests – placed on one other performance for the ages on this week’s “Renaissance Man” episode, starting with the director’s inspiration to make the film.
“So what happened was, I used to be in Vegas. While you get off the plane in Vegas you see that sign for ‘Thunder From Down Under,’ ” Chris said, referring to the hit male dancer show in Sin City.
“I’ve noticed, for the last 20 years, it’s the identical poster. They’ve gotta be old by now!”
Quickly, his mind began working and Chris consulted along with his brother-in-law, Adam Rodriguez – who was in “Magic Mike” – and his own wife to give you the concept. Soon enough, “Back on the Strip” was ready.
The laugh out loud premise lured in big names equivalent to J.B. Smoove and Kevin Hart – but one top actor was especially quick to sign onto the project: “Willie Mays” Hayes himself, the legendary Wesley Snipes.
“[The co-producer] calls and puts Wesley on the phone right there. ‘Yo, Chris Spencer is in front of me. He has a movie. It’s about these male strippers. They get back together after 25 years. What do you’re thinking that?’ ”
“He’s like, ‘I’ll do it.’ I’m going, ‘That’s it, that’s all it takes?’ ”
Luck like that’s something that’s touched Chris’ entire profession and he’s used it to hit home run after home run.
“Literally, I just pick up the phone and call these [the cast and crew members],” Chris recalled, saying that they often comply with become involved in his works “without reading the script.”
No person can attest to that greater than comedian Gary Owen, who also jumped at a likelihood to be within the movie – and to look on this week’s “Renaissance Man.”
“Chris is considered one of those guys that when he calls you, you don’t even should read the script,” he told me. “You simply trust that he’s going to make you look good and that the project’s going to be good.”
Also with a surprise cameo this week is solid member Faizon Love, who stole the show as Big Worm in “Friday” and later because the Gimbel’s manager in “Elf.”
For “Back on the Strip,” he needed to prepare for singing and a number of dancing on a distinct sort of North Pole. Love reinvented himself by taking over the role of a male stripper.
He attributes his casting to – and we will’t confirm this – the results of devout, classical dance training.
The hilarious Faizon also said he got the part because “Eddie Murphy can’t dance.”
Within the spirit of the brand new movie, he was courteous enough to interrupt down his top five favorite gentlemen’s clubs on the show this week.
Don’t worry NYC, a really special establishment in The Bronx makes the list.
There’s little question that the 4 of us had tons of guffaws on the show while talking in regards to the behind-the-scenes (and in-front-of-the-pole) moments that “Back on the Strip” has produced.
It’s these interactions that for Chris – who has reigned supreme in Hollywood – make all of it worthwhile.
“I even have all these [titles]: director, author, producer. But my No. 1, which I need the world to know, is that I’m a comedian,” Chris said. “You possibly can’t be in it for the cash. You actually should love this crap.”
Detroit native Jalen Rose is a member of the University of Michigan’s iconoclastic Fab Five, who shook up the school hoops world within the early ’90s. He played 13 seasons within the NBA before transitioning right into a media personality. Rose executive-produced “The Fab Five” for ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, is the creator of the best-selling book “Got To Give the People What They Want,” a fashion tastemaker and co-founded the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, a public charter school in his hometown.
