Chris Rock leads a troupe of comedians down the carpet at the premiere of Top Five

If the horseplay and high spirits at the Top Five world premiere Saturday at the Princess of Wales Theatre were any indication, the movie written, directed by, and starring Chris Rock was probably a riot to make. The film follows Rock’s character, Andre Allen, a comedian and movie star torn between helping his wife boost her reality TV show and chasing his own artistic ambitions. The idea, Rock said, came to him while he was watching his kids spend hours absorbed in shows like Dance Moms and The Kardashians—which was surprisingly sharp media criticism coming from the guy in Grown Ups 2. Rock says he cashed in on years of favours for the project, fetching cameos from Jerry Seinfeld, Adam Sandler, Whoopi Goldberg, Tracy Morgan and Kevin Hart.

On the carpet, Rosario Dawson couldn’t decide who turned in her favourite performance: “This one made me pee three times, that one made me pee four.” Saturday Night Live’s Jay Pharoah and The Daily Show’s Michael Che took the rug in tandem, while comedy lifers Cedric the Entertainer and J.B. Smoove filed through with SNL’s shiny new hire Leslie Jones in tow. Local comedy ambassador and Last Comic Standing judge Russell Peters showed up to take in the flick, and we finally thought we might get some sort of ruling: who was the funniest cast member? But the Hon. Peters wasn’t feeling especially judicial; he was just miffed he wasn’t a part of the production.